Barney Beats The Machine
Wants Out Of Jail

By Jerry Capeci

THE boss of the Genovese Crime family may be loony tunes but the acting boss can pass a lie detector test with flying colors.

While Vincent (Chin) Gigante was supposedly watching cartoons at the home of his 94-year old mom, his acting boss Liborio (Barney) Bellomo was taking - and passing - lie detector tests at a federal lockup in upstate New York.

Bellomo (right) took the tests about one issue - a 1991 gangland style slaying - in an effort to convince a federal judge that he had nothing to do with the only violent crime he is accused of in a massive racketeering indictment and should be freed on bail.

The murder victim, Ralph DeSimone, was found shot to death in the trunk of his car at a LaGuardia Airport parking lot in June, 1991. He was killed because Genovese mobsters suspected he was an informer, according to federal prosecutor Nelson Boxer.

But Bellomo was judged truthful in two separate lie detector exams when he denied knowing DeSimone or having anything to do with the planning or the commission of the murder, the polygraphists stated in court papers filed by Bellomo's attorney, Benjamin Brafman.

One, Richard O. Arther, is a noted polygraphist who has testified six times in New York State Supreme Court cases - half for the prosecution. The other is a former NYPD organized crime detective who has been a lie detector specialist for 20 years.

"I don't believe he particpated in any plot with any of the individuals who killed DeSimone," Nat Laurendi told The Daily News.

Sources say that former Luchese acting boss Alfonso (Little Al) D'Arco has told the feds that Bellomo, who Gigante designated as acting boss role in 1990 when Gigante was hit with racketeering charges, had authorized the DeSimone killing.

But usually reliable Gang Land underworld sources dispute that and say that the Genovese hierarchy had nothing to do with the hit. At the time, police reports listed DeSimone as a drug dealer associated with the Gambino family.

Bellomo's main thrust for bail are his lie detector results, but pressing family problems at home - his wife is under psychiatric care and his son has juvenile diabetes - and his inability to help solve them while in jail also mandate his release, says Bellomo.

Prosecutor Boxer was scheduled to respond last week, but sources said Boxer and Brafman were engaged in discussions aimed at an agreement that would include some kind of house arrest situation while Bellomo awaits trial.

Bellomo, who awaits trial with 17 others on charges including extortion, labor racketeering, bookmaking and the systematic ripoff of moneys generated by the Genovese family's control of the San Gennaro Festival, which ended yesterday.

Bellomo is very upset about the picture of him that graces today's Gang Land column. Along with 200 pages of legal briefs and exhibits that addressed his bail request, he complained about the "unauthorized release" of the FBI photo to the News, which appeared in a 1993 article about Bellomo by yours truly and reporter Tom Robbins. Bellomo charges that the photo - which looks like a mug shot taken after an arrest and makes him look like a bad guy - was in fact taken by the FBI after a grand jury subpoena involving a civil matter and should not have been leaked to The News, which has printed it many times. Normally we would not disclose how we got such a photo, but this time we'll confess. We got it from a document filed in a federal civil suit.

An FBI supervising agent suspected by other agents of leaking government secrets to a top mob informer will pack it in next month after 33 years.

The decision by Lindley DeVecchio to resign comes three weeks after the Justice Department decided not to prosecute him after a two-year investigation of his long and controversial relationship with mobster/informer Gregory Scarpa Sr.

DeVecchio's lawyer, Douglas Grover, said the decision was a "long overdue vindication'' for his client.

But a top federal prosecutor said the investigators had not "exonerated DeVecchio." They merely determined that "they do not believe they have proof [of a crime] beyond a reasonable doubt,'' said Brooklyn Assistant U.S. Attorney Valerie Caproni.

The inquiry began in 1994 after other agents began to suspect that DeVecchio was leaking FBI secrets to Scarpa during the bloody Colombo mob war.

Scarpa, who killed four mobsters during the 1991-92 war, was portrayed at three racketeering trials as an FBI operative with a license to kill by defense lawyers for 15 defendants who won acquittals in 1994 and 1995.

The investigation has triggered several hearings to determine if convicted Colombo mobsters, including acting boss Victor (Little Vic) Orena, should get new trials.

DeVecchio, who testified at Orena's trial, invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege and refused to testify at any hearing.

"If DeVecchio had a clean conscience, he would come in here and testify," Orena's lawyer, Gerald Shargel told Daily News reporter Helen Peterson.

Countered Grover: "Lin has done nothing wrong, but under the circumstances, I don't believe he should testify."

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