From the time he got a ticket for running a red light three blocks from where a mobbed up contractor had been blown away on the night of Aug. 8, 1990, Thomas (Huck) Carbonaro (right) had a 13 year run of good luck.

It came to an end last month when the feds charged him with taking part in a different murder – the 1998 slaying of too-talkative mob associate Frank Hydell, a 31-year old nephew of Gambino capo Daniel Marino. Carbonaro and an associate are charged in that hit.

But Huck, a soldier in the Gambino family, knew exactly how lucky he was that hot summer night in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn when a police car flashed its red light at him 60 seconds after Edward Garofalo was shot to death in front of his house at around 10:30 PM that August night.

Carbonaro, who had passed a red light at the corner of 14^th Avenue and 86^th Street, pulled over across the street from Scarpaci’s Funeral Home and coolly rolled down his window and waited for the cop to get out of his police car.

Meanwhile, according to court records, a 1988 black Lincoln that had passed the same red light seconds earlier with two passengers inside who had just carried out the hit for John Gotti drove away without slowing down. Huck received a ticket for passing a red light, was questioned later, but was never charged in the hit.

The killing of Garofalo, a wealthy demolition contractor, is believed to be the last hit personally ordered by the once Dapper Don before he was indicted and jailed for racketeering and murder four months later.

The way Sammy Bull Gravano later told the story to the FBI, he and Carbonaro

were part of a seven-man crew that carried out the hit on Gotti’s orders.  The others were capo Louis Vallario, 61, soldiers Frank Fappiano, 40, and Edward Garafola, 65, (a cousin of murder victim Garofalo) and associates Joseph D’Angelo and Daniel Fama.

The day after the murder, organized crime cops snapped pictures of the hit team laughing and joking with Sammy Bull outside of Gravano’s Gravesend, Brooklyn, construction company. At left, Garafola, No. 1, is hidden by the large girth of Carbonaro, No. 2. Fappiano, No. 4, partially screens out Vallario, No. 5. Gravano is No. 7. A sixth alleged participant, Joseph D’Angelo, is No. 3. Fama, the last member of the hit team, missed the photo shoot.

Sammy Bull pleaded guilty to Garofalo’s murder along with 18 others, but because of a reluctance by him to testify against his former crew, and a two-year limit on his cooperation deal, no one else was ever charged with the killing.

“It wasn’t Huck’s first piece of work,” said one knowledgeable Gang Land source.

And it wasn’t Huck’s last, according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan who charged Carbonaro with the April 28, 1998 execution of Hydell, after wiseguys learned he had begun cooperating, according to court records.

Sources say Carbonaro, 55, also served as a wheelman in the Hydell murder, driving his unidentified executioners to and from Scarlett’s, a South Beach, Staten Island topless bar, where they waited outside to kill him.

If convicted, Carbonaro – and co-defendant John Matera, 32, a Colombo

associate who allegedly lured Hydell to the now-defunct strip club – could face the death penalty, said assistant U.S. attorneys Joon Kim, Michael McGovern, and John Hillebrecht. Carbonaro and Matera were added to a racketeering and murder indictment filed last year against several other Gambino wiseguys, including a few members of the Garofalo hit.

As Huck awaits trial – he was detained without bail – he can reminisce about his fine work behind the wheel of the “crash car” with Vallario, (left) Fappiano, and Garafola. (right) They are charged in the same indictment with taking part in a conspiracy to kill Frederick Weiss, a private sanitation executive also marked for death by Gotti, but who was actually killed by DeCavalcante mobsters on Sept. 11, 1989.

Fappiano is also charged with ordering two mob associates to administer a “public beating” of a Laborers Union official in a dispute over no-show jobs that got out of hand and ended in the official’s death on Jan. 26, 1997, Super Bowl Sunday.

Carbonaro’s nephew, Lettorio (Lenny) DeCarlo, 42, and another Gambino associate, John Ferrisi, 35, pummeled Frank Parasole, a working foreman for the Diamond Construction Company, at a Super Bowl party at the Duvo Social Club at 1305 72d Street in Bensonhurst, according to court records.

Before dozens of witnesses, as a coup de grace insult not intended to be fatal,

sources said, DeCarlo shot him in the buttocks, but the bullet severed an artery, ultimately causing Parasole’s death.

Sources said Hydell, who attended the Super Bowl party and witnessed the beating, called 911 when he realized Parasole, who was bleeding profusely, was seriously wounded and could die from the loss of blood but medics were unable to save him. Hydell did not give his name at the time, but cooperated with authorities later, sources say.

Fappiano is also charged with obstruction of justice for ordering associates to prevent potential witnesses from talking to cops about the circumstances of Parasole’s death. Indicted in Parasole’s death in 2000,  DeCarlo and Ferrisi pleaded guilty to federal assault charges and are scheduled for release in 2013.

Sources say the charges involving Hydell’s murder stem from information provided by Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo, (left) a capo, who after beginning to talk last fall, later changed his mind when relatives shunned him, has begun cooperating in earnest.

Additional charges and more defendants will be added to the existing indictment in the near future, sources say.

Hydell’s mother Betty also grieves for an older son, James, who was killed in mob violence in 1986 and whose remains have never been found. As for Carbonaro and Matera, she said softly, “I hope they spend the rest of their lives in prison.” 

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti – the book it took yours truly and Gene Mustain 17 years to do – tells the complete saga of John Gotti, from his treacherous rise to his defiant downfall. 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 2002. 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. 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.