Rev. Louis Gigante, a former NYC councilmember and major power broker in the South Bronx — with brothers who were key mobsters in the infamous Genovese crime family — passed away on Wednesday at the age of 90. A spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York confirmed Gigante’s passing but did not specify a cause of death.
Born in Manhattan in 1932 to Italian immigrants, Gigante was an accomplished high school basketball player at Cardinal Hayes in the Bronx en route to a scholarship to Georgetown University. Thereafter, he attended seminary at St. Joseph’s Seminary and College and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1959.
