Goodbye Goodfellas?

[Ed Wetschler]

The storefront where Vincent "Vinny the Chin" Gigante, the pajama-clad boss of the Genovese family, reputedly held court, has been covered by thick, black plywood for decades. But this morning we saw workmen ripping out the plywood and getting ready to install windows. Yes, glass windows. Is this the death of a Greenwich Village landmark, or is it a good thing?

[Marilyn Henrion]

Mafia boutique on Sullivan Street?

wouldn't be surprised to see some savvy entrepreneur open a mafia cafe/boutique there, offering on the dinner menu a "sleep with the fishes…

[Sam Scribe]

I think I saw the mafia don in the late '80s, when some friends and I came down to New York for a weekend. We'd wanted to see Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village but were disappointed by what we found, so we started wandering the side streets.

On one of these quieter streets we passed three men, one of whom was a short, middle-aged, unshaven man who might have been forgettable except that he was wearing what looked like a satin bathrobe. Only later, when reading an article in the newspaper about Gigante's arrest, did it occur to me that this might have been the godfather himself. 

Living in Ventura County now, this all seems long ago and far away. New Yorkers: Does my conclusion that this unimpressive-looking man was the mob leader seem reasonable to you? 

[Marilyn Henrion]

that indeed was "the chin" gigante. I live a block away in the same building where his mother lived and saw him almost daily in that garb!