Mafia boss John Gotti and his lawyer Bruce Cutler, the mother of jailed Luchese mobster James (Froggy) Galione, and Luchese wannabe Carmine Galante have all expressed those views.

But the Luchese family's reaction to our Dec. 14, 1998 column is simply  mindboggling. We reported that then-acting boss Joseph (Little Joe) Defede, who rose from a bookie operating out of a hot dog wagon to his lofty mob perch by being a good handball partner for boss Vittorio (Vic) Amuso, (left) had pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and faced 57 to 71 months. We noted that even though DeFede had no prior record and could normally expect the low end of the guidelines he was "sweating"his

Four days later, the column was the focus of repeated phone calls between capo Joseph (Joey Flowers) Tangorra (right) and DeFede's lawyer Stanley Teitler, who also represented Tangorra. The calls ended with Tangorra ordering Teitler to a sitdown at a Brooklyn restaurant the next day.

"By some mistake," said Teitler, "somebody told Joe that I was quoted by Jerry Capeci and I never was. Capeci never quoted me. The exact truth is that the prosecutor and I signed an agreement for 57 to 71. And he (DeFede) was told that I was quoted as saying we were all worried about upward departure (a higher sentence) and stuff like that. I never said that to Capeci. And the piece he wrote does not say that. It just says that Teitler and the prosecutor signed the (agreement).

"Joe is pissed off with me. He doesn't want me talking to the press .... I have never been quoted by Capeci ever. When you read the article, the fact is that Capeci never quoted me. Because I will not talk to him.... And so Joe got wind that I had given him some stuff, which I swear I never did."

A couple of hours later, Tangorra called Teitler again: "Listen, tomorrow night come by the restaurant at five. This way we straighten everything out here."

When an apparently nervous Teitler asked to meet Tangorra privately

After Teitler denied any wrongdoing several more times, and asked again to meet before the sitdown, Tangorra ended the talk firmly: "Listen to me. Listen to me. Don't be late tomorrow. Be there at five. Don't be late."

The Lucheses must have cleared Teitler of whatever they thought he did wrong. He remained DeFede's lawyer -- he got five years -- and he also defended Tangorra after he was hit with federal racketeering and murder charges that sent him into deep depression and psychiatric counseling.

But the issue didn't die. Six weeks later, the Lucheses were still talking about it, in the Bronx and Manhattan. On Feb. 2, DeFede's successor as acting

In a confusing discussion in which they talkied about three things at once, the gangsters seemed to side with Teitler in his dispute with DeFede.

Truscello reported that he had met the son of another jailed mobster and told him: "If that guy bumps into Jerry, he will not even know him. He said, 'Jerry should have never used his name. You know what I mean.' I said, 'Listen, like this is all far fetched.'"

Far fetched? Yes. True? Yes, according to taped conversations obtained by the Manhattan District Attorney's office during a long running probe that nailed Crea, Truscello and Tangorra on labor racketeering charges.

Giovanelli, long suspected of telling John Gotti's crew about an FBI bug in 1982, was arrested yesterday and charged with warning New Jersey gangsters that an indictment was about to fall on them two years ago.

Giovanelli, 71, allegedly obtained the names of DeCavalcante mobsters about to be indicted from a stenographer with a company who worked for the Manhattan United States attorney's office in 1999.

Sources said the woman employee came under suspicion early last year after DeCavalcante mobster Anthony Capo began cooperating and told the F.B.I. that Giovanelli had tipped off Capo's acting boss that they were going to be indicted and that one of their members was an informer.

New Jersey mobsters, who have been overheard comparing themselves as models for the Garden State crew led by fictional mob boss Tony Soprano,

Former acting boss Vincent (Vinny Ocean) Palermo (left) also cooperated and he also fingered Giovanelli as the person who told them about their pending indictments, sources said.

On Dec. 2, 1999, soon after the feds suspected a leak in the DeCavalcante investigation, the FBI pushed up its timetable and arrested Capo, Palermo, and three dozen more mobsters and associates on racketeering and murder charges.

Giovanelli, who was never charged with any wrongdoing in the 1982 disclosure of a bug in the home of Gotti pal Angelo Ruggiero, was arrested four years later for the murder of a detective during a shootout at a Queens diner. After four trials in federal and state court, he was acquitted.

Yesterday, Giovanelli, whose tape recorded words of wisdom are featured regularly on The Smoking Gun, was released on $250,000 bail after his arraignment in Manhattan Federal Court. "There's no substance to the charges," his lawyer Vivian Shevitz told The Daily News. "He didn't obstruct justice. This is just further efforts to get this guy."