An up and coming Gambino capo with close ties to jailed boss Peter Gotti has rocked the already reeling crime family by deciding to cooperate with federal prosecutors in Manhattan, Gang Land has learned. 

Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo, a Staten Island gangster who was a top gun and partner of John A. (Junior) Gotti in alleged topless bar extortion scams in New York, Atlanta and Boca Raton, began talking to the feds more than a month ago, sources said.

“This is a devastating blow for them,” said one law enforcement source. “He’s been part of the inner circle for ten years and can hurt a lot of people.”

A regular at John Gotti’s Little Italy headquarters during the Dapper Don’s reign, DiLeonardo was caught in “walk-talks” with Peter Gotti (right) in May and June of 2000 and in meetings with other defendants in the waterfront racketeering case that is set for trial Jan. 6, according to court records.

DiLeonardo, who learned the gangster trade under Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano – the murderous underboss who turned on Gotti and helped send dozens of wiseguys to prison a decade ago – could be as valuable to today’s law enforcement community as Gravano was then.

But first, Mikey Scars – his nickname conjures up violent knife fights but stems from dog bites on his face and subsequent taunts by class mates when he was

eight – will have to overcome depression brought on by loved ones who have not supported his decision to defect, sources said.

“He’s a smart guy, and there’s a lot of things he can help with once he gets his head together,” said the law enforcement source, citing murders, and Gambino staples of extortion, loansharking, gambling and labor racketeering, particularly in the construction industry.

DiLeonardo is a former official of the powerful construction industry union, Teamsters Local 282, whose members deliver building materials to job sites. According to court records, he has had business dealings with Philip Castellano, a cement company executive, and son of Paul Castellano, the family boss executed in the 1985 takeover by Gotti & Co. 

He also was involved in a mob hit for Junior Gotti, according to an FBI report obtained by Gang Land.

Sources said DiLeonardo, 47, reached out to the feds under similar circumstances as Gravano – he was detained without bail and awaiting trial for murder and other racketeering charges that could put him away for life.

In June, DiLeonardo was indicted with three other mobsters – his brother-in-law Frank Fappiano, Gravano’s brother-in-law Edward Garafola, (left) and Louis (Big Lou) Vallario, a capo who took over Gravano’s crew – for the 1989 murder of a Staten Island businessman whose killing was ordered by John Gotti.

In September, after Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Conway Casey had 

ordered DiLeonardo, Garafola and Vallario (right) detained without bail, DiLeonardo, who had never spent any time in jail before, began “thinking about a way to get out,” said one source.

By mid-November, sources said, after DiLeonardo had agreed to cooperate, prosecutors John Hillebrecht and Michael McGovern and defense lawyers Craig Gillen and Eric Franze came up with a way to get DiLeonardo a two week furlough under very unusual circumstances.

According to court records, both sides asked Judge Casey to approve a “release on compassionate bail from Nov. 21 to Dec. 6” to allow DiLeonardo to visit his aging mother in a Staten Island hospital. Casey granted the motion, allowing him out on a personal recognizance bond of $1 million, provided that real property worth $750,000 was furnished to secure it within three business days.

In addition to visiting his ailing mom during his furlough from the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), DiLeonardo, who is divorced, was allowed to contact his girlfriend, with whom he has a young child, and his teenaged son, to ask if they would enter the federal Witness Protection Program with him, sources said.

Each declined, sending the gangster into a severely depressed emotional state and a suicide attempt by an overdose of prescription medication, sources said, declining to provide details. Mikey Scars is back at the MCC, segregated from codefendants, under psychiatric counseling and a suicide watch, sources say.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers declined to discuss the developments, which have been confirmed by sources on both sides of the law.

Gang Land’s usual holiday greetings are tinged with sadness this year by the untimely death last week of Hap Hairston, this column’s editor extraordinaire. Hap, who battled a myriad of health problems since 1996, died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack. He was 53. 

Hap, who edited Gang Land during its first incarnation at The Daily News, guided the column through its six plus years online and its five months at The New York Sun, year after year, week after week, one line at a time.

Hap was irreverent and irascible but when it came to his craft, there was no one better. Since his passing, he was remembered fondly and universally praised by editors, reporters and columnists who worked with him at Newsday and The Daily News.

His wife, Sheryl Zacharia, who was with him 18 years, probably said it best: “They either loved and respected him or hated and respected him.”

Whether dealing with a young reporter working her first major story or a grizzled veteran in the autumn of his career, Hap had the same attitude when it came to the work. With a friendly smile he would sit the reporter next to him, and with a touch of arrogance, would note that at that moment, on deadline, when it mattered most, “I’m your best friend.”

With Gang Land, Hap stopped saying that a long time ago. It was always understood.

Now that Thanksgiving Day has come and gone – we hope the turkey and trimmings were great and that a Happy Thanksgiving was had by all – here are  a couple of books that Gang Land readers might like to give as gifts during the holiday season. (Some habits die slow. For Gang Land, the holiday gift-giving season begins with Santa's arrival at Macy's in New York's Herald Square. It ends on Jan. 6.)

Since we have pushed our own all year, we'll resist the urge to recommend them again (although, of course, they would make great stocking stuffers) and mention a couple of others we enjoyed. You can get them at your local bookstore, or Gang Land's favorite, Amazon.com.

"The Wiseguy Cookbook," By Henry Hill and Priscilla Davis is an entertaining and informative read. It's everything you wanted to know about Hill's rituals and recipes for cooking that he learned from his mother, as well as the innovative culinary skills he picked up along the way, whether it was doing time or laying low in the Witness Protection Program.

His mom's Italian heritage couldn't get him made, but the mob couldn't keep him out of her kitchen. She taught him well, although every so often he found a better way. Like with cutlets, for example. This applies to veal, chicken, pork. Eggplant too. His mom dipped them in egg and then in flour and breadcrumbs before frying.

According to Henry, the opposite way, flour and breadcrumbs first, then egg, makes for more mellow cutlets. Also, with his mom's way, "some of the breadcrumbs always fall into the oil and burn, so you have to start over with a new batch of oil after a couple of rounds of frying."

Sprinkled among staples like Pasta e Lenticchie (lentils) and Pasta con Sarde (sardines) are plenty of anecdotes about wiseguys like Paul Vario and Jimmy The Gent Burke, cooking in the Army, and in prison. And for Gang Land readers living in the heartland, Hill tells how to improvise and use substitute ingredients. From his days in the witness program, Hill knows how difficult it is to find arugula, let alone people who know what it is, in places like Omaha, Nebraska and Butte, Montana.

"Brooklyn: A State of Mind," edited by Michael W. Robbins & designed by Wendy Palitz, is a must read for anyone who was born or raised in Brooklyn, or spent a few years there, or, like the rest of the world, wishes they had.

Published last year, the book is a collection of 125 original stories and a gazillion photos that bring to life people and places that have shaped the Borough of Churches over the last 100 years. Words and pictures of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Norman Mailer, Carmine Persico, Nathan's Famous, Jackie Gleason, Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Paramount, Abe Reles and the Half Moon Hotel, the Poet Laureate of Brooklyn. Interviews of Mel Brooks, Leonard Garment and Spike Lee. And much more.

Of special interest to mob buffs, and Gang Land, is a joint interview of Brooklyn Federal Court Judges I. Leo Glasser and John Gleeson about the 1992 trial of John Gotti. Glasser, the trial judge, and Gleeson, the lead prosecutor, were interviewed – the only out-of-court comments they have uttered – in 1999, a year before star witness Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano was arrested for drug dealing, charges for which he is doing 20 years.

While neither judge said anything outrageous, even in hindsight, Gang Land is sure each wishes they had declined to discuss the case. For example, Gleeson, who was less restrained in his remarks than Glasser, described Gravano as "the best witness of all time .... He looked evil. Then Sammy flipped and I spent a great deal of time with him. Literally hundreds of hours. I got to know him well. I laughed with him. He was smart, engaging and funny."

Glasser, asked to describe the kind of man Gravano was, never gave his view, noting only that jurors and investigators had "found him sincere when he said he was attempting to put the life of organized crime behind him."

Asked about criticism that his five year sentence was too lenient, Glasser acknowledged, " I took a beating for that." But he ducked the real issue, never explaining how he justified it in his mind. Instead, he blamed the media for not  publishing the sentencing memo he had "worked many hours preparing."

Glasser loosened up, however, when asked if there were "occasions for wit" in the Gotti trial. Often described as a grouch or curmudgeon, his response indicates he may also have loosened up at least once during the very tense trial.

"I suppose I had to use my wits one day when I received a note that some of the jurors, who'd been sequestered for weeks, were requesting conjugal visits. I called the only other federal judge I knew who had sequestered a jury. He said, 'What are you going to do, judge?' I said, 'I think I'll allow it.' He said, 'Good for you. I think that's what I would do.'"

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti

The complete saga of John Gotti, from his treacherous rise to his defiant downfall, is here – Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti – the book it took yours truly and Gene Mustain 17 years to do! Although we didn't know it at the time, we began working on "Mob Star" in 1985, when we began covering the Gotti story as news reporters.

The first edition came out in 1988, and we finished this new edition three days before Gotti died in June. We added a postscript, and Alpha Books has distributed it to the nation's bookstores.

With a 40,000-word update, the new edition contains the entire Gotti saga right up to his time in prison and his death from throat cancer.

The 378 page, full-size book uses eight additional chapters, a prologue and an epilogue to complete the story we began telling (better than any other reporters, we might add!) when we covered the Gotti-orchestrated, midtown Manhattan assassination of former Gambino boss Paul Castellano.

For the last and best words on Gotti, this is the book to have. It is specially priced at Amazon.com at $11.87, more than five bucks off the suggested retail price.

    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 $13.27, so low I am concerned that the Godfather of online booksellers has forgotten about my end.