Joseph (Little Joe) Defede – acting boss for jailed-for-life chieftain Vittorio (Vic) Amuso in the mid-1990's – was whisked out of prison last month and relocated under the federal witness program, sources said.

A few days earlier, the sources said, the feds used information from Defede, 68, to wrap up a three year probe and nab a family soldier for a 1995 revenge slaying while he was a member of a murderous Bronx-based youth gang that functioned as a Luchese family farm team.

Defede's defection has current acting boss Louis (Louie Crossbay) Daidone, (right) and former acting boss Steven Crea – he preceded Daidone and followed Defede as Amuso's stand-in – shaking their heads and holding their breath.

In an effort to insure that their anxieties don't explode, FBI agents visited both

Defede, one source said, broke his vow of omerta for the same reason as the original mobster turncoat, Joe Valachi, 40 years ago: "He was afraid he was going to get whacked."

Defede had grown worried after emissaries for Daidone and Amuso (left) began to question his handling of the family's finances while he oversaw the lucrative Luchese Garment Center rackets for Amuso from 1993 to 1998, when Defede was indicted for labor racketeering.

During that period, Defede, (right) a close Amuso pal and handball partner who rose from low-level bookie to acting boss, ran a Mafia family that

according to court papers took in about $2.5 million in Garment Center payoffs alone.

Defede, (left) who has a bad ticker, was serving five years – 51 months with mandatory good time off – when he was released from a Lexington, Kentucky prison hospital on Feb. 5, about seven months early, according to prison officials.

"He was stressed out and angry when he turned," said one source. "Things were bad enough for him in prison. There was no way he wanted to go home to Howard Beach."

Before Defede began looking to his future and sensing friends becoming enemies, he had been quick to use his clout with them.

As we reported last year, he waged a war with Crea (right) over a table at Rao's Restaurant and terrorized his former lawyer over remarks he thought the lawyer made to Gang Land.

The first to fall during Defede's defection is Luchese mobster John (Fat Face) Petrucelli, 31, who was indicted five weeks ago for the June 20, 1995 murder of Paul Cicero, 17.

Petrucelli, then a member of the notorious Tanglewood Boys, killed Cicero

to enhance his standing in the gang, according to a murder-in-aid of racketeering indictment that carries a possible penalty of death.

Members committed murder and other crimes, "showcasing their willingness to commit murder and other acts of violence" as a way "to gain membership into the Luchese organized crime family," the indictment said.

At a detention hearing, assistant Manhattan U.S. attorney David Raskin said Petrucelli killed Cicero to avenge an earlier shooting of a Tanglewood Boy that night by Cicero's cousin.

"He stabbed Paul Cicero," said Raskin, "and as he stuck the knife into Cicero's abdomen, he said, 'Give this to your cousin.'"

Following the killing, which took place during Defede's reign, Petrucelli "graduated from the Tanglewood Boys enterprise and is currently a made member of the Luchese crime family," said Raskin.

And like many made guys these days, Petrucelli is behind bars looking at the possibility of spending the rest of his life in a federal prison.

Not Really For Idiots
Whether you're a Gang Land regular or an occasional visitor, you'll enjoy  "The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Mafia," a book I wrote for Alpha Books that was published in December. It's filled with real stuff about real wiseguys and insight about the ways that mobsters make their money. It's 343 pages of true stories of life and death, honor and betrayal. Get it at your local book store, or at Gang Land's favorite, Amazon.com, where the powers that be have knocked the price down to $13.26, so low I am concerned that the Godfather of online booksellers has forgotten about my end.