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Some people have a knack of knowing just what to do with their hands. Bonanno mobster Baldassare (Baldo) Amato, when he was bodyguard for Mafia boss Carmine Galante (right), knew enough to sit on them at an outdoor restaurant patio 20 years ago when three hitmen called on Galante as he smoked an after-dinner cigar.

Galante surely expected his Sicilian-born bodyguard to come to his aid with guns blazing. But Amato knew the wiser course of action. So  Galante died with his expensive stogie clenched in his teeth (below left), and Amato sat on his hands and maybe twiddled his thumbs a bit and moved up to become a player in the crime family.

Last week, Amato, now 47, was arrested and charged with heading the "Giannini Crew,"a violent bunch of mob wannabes that allegedly wreaked criminal havoc from New York City to the Catskills.

They were based at Caffe Giannini, a Ridgewood, Queens coffee shop that Amato owned for four years. He and 20 associates were hit with a slew of racketeering charges including four murders, drug dealing, arson, extortion, kidnapping and armed robberies, all of which occurred over the last 10 years.

The enduring mobster was charged with ordering the slaying of Sebastiano (Sammy) DiFalco -- owner of Restaurant Giannini, an eatery a few blocks from the Caffe Giannini where Amato was listed as assistant manager. DiFalco was found shot to death in the trunk of a stolen car in March, 1992.

Hauled into Brooklyn Federal Court for arraignment with more than a dozen codefendants -- three men are fugitives and several others had already been jailed on other charges -- Amato (left) was surly and angry, and cursed in Italian at assistant U.S. attorneys Jim Walden, Lauren Resnick and Jonathan Mothner.

A few minutes later, after he listened to prosecutor Walden list umpteen reasons why he was a danger to the community and should be held without bail,  Amato, who always knows what to do with his big hands, began clapping them loudly and continued for about 10 seconds, but it seemed like an eternity. His personal round of applause belied the contempt on his face as he was led off to await a detention hearing later this week.

Spero, who has bred and raced pigeons for half a century, allegedly used pigeon racing enthusiasts to relay messages to mobsters on a list of 99 persons he was ordered to avoid while on federal parole.

Federal prosecutor Jim Walden made the allegation last Friday during a detention hearing at which he argued that Spero was a danger to the community and should be held without bail as he awaits trial for murder and racketeering.

"The government's case is pure pigeon feed," said Spero's lawyer, Gerald Shargel, who argued that house arrest for his client -- backed up by $3.5 million in real estate -- would assure the safety of the community.

Spero was charged earlier this month with ordering the July 1993 execution of Bonanno associate Paul (Paulie Brass) Gulino after the drug dealer shoved Spero during an argument at his Bath Beach, Brooklyn social club.

Walden said Spero would travel to the Big Apple Car Service in Bath Beach each day, speak to old-timers, who would then walk to the social club carrying orders from the Bonanno consigliere. (The car service is owned by Spero's daughter and not alleged to be part of any criminal activity.)

"My client is 70 years of age," said Shargel. "He's raising pigeons on the roof of the Big Apple Car Service. We're not talking about . . . any kind of illegal activity. He was there to pursue his hobby."

Tipped by an investigator that one of Spero's "pigeon friends" -- Murray Kufeld -- was in court, Walden called him as a witness.

Kufeld said he had been in the social club but never carried any messages there for Spero, but admitted he knew several men Walden claimed were high-ranking Bonanno mobsters, including boss Joseph Massino (left) and underboss Salvatore Vitale, (right) but denied knowing they were mobsters. "Listen," he said, "I don't remember 'cause it's not my business to remember. I don't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.... There's nobody in there, just pigeon people."

At the end of the day, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Levy implied that the  pigeon testimony was for the birds by ignoring it. But he took seriously  assertions from several stool pigeons that Spero was a high ranked mobster and had participated in a discussion of criminal activities, and detained him as a danger to the community.

Conte, 74, was named as the Gambino family's link to the Queens-based Giannini crew that was charged with a laundry list of violent criminal activity covering the last 10 years.

A former supermarket magnate, Conte (right) was charged with racketeering,  loansharking, extortion, two kidnappings and three murder conspiracies, including a  yearlong one to kill mobster Louis DiBono on orders from the former Dapper Don, John Gotti. DiBono was killed in October, 1990.

"He (DiBono) didn't rob nothing," Gotti explained in a Dec. 12, 1989 tape recorded conversation with Frank (Frankie Loc) Locascio. "Know why he's dying? He's gonna die because he refused to come in when I called."

In 1994, Conte pleaded guilty to federal murder charges in the DiBono slaying and sentenced to seven years -- he's due out next year. The new  DiBono charge is part of a racketeering indictment, and while it may be legally permissible, smacks of double jeopardy and seems excessive, considering Conte's age and all the other charges he faces.