Background
He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and attended South Hills High School and the Carnegie Mellon Managerial School.
He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and attended South Hills High School and the Carnegie Mellon Managerial School.
Student, Carnegie Mellon U.
He was a Democratic chairman of Pittsburgh"s 19th Ward. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1988. Gigliotti was known as a popular and friendly politician who had the "gift of gab." During his tenure, Gigliotti was known as the House Democratic Caucus" "point man" for the proposed expansion of riverboat gambling.
Over a period of 3 years in the late 1990s, Gigliotti extorted thousands of dollars from government contractors, who had hoped to gain contracts from Alcosan, where Gigliotti sat on the board.
In 1998 and 1999, he took $17,100 in bribes in exchange for his influence over the awarding of a sludge recycling contract. Gigliotti then demanded 10 percent of the profits and then $2,000 a month from the contract.
He also extorted plane fare and tickets to Disney World from an Alcosan engineering firm. In 1999, he tried to sell confidential Alcosan bid information to several competing firms.
One of those firms included governmental informant Ernest Smalis, who recorded Gigliotti say, " the people." I hope your family carries you through this." Gigliotti died peacefully on Sunday August 7, 2011 in West Melbourne, Florida.
A close ally of former Pittsburgh Mayor Richard Caliguiri, Gigliotti was the Special Assistant to Director of the Pittsburgh Department of Public Works during the 1980s and served as a board member of the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, also known as Alcosan.
M. Joanne Gigliotti.