Many mob lawyers, just like attorneys for celebrities and garden variety defendants who end up in the dock, often put fiery words to good use in heated courtroom exchanges. But there are limits to such incendiary tactics. 

Most especially, they are not supposed to burn evidence. This includes setting fire to a list of mobster suspects involved in a Gang Land rubout after two wiseguys have just used the list to discuss the murder and talk about the ramifications for them if some of the others on the list should cooperate.

And no lawyer should arrange for the two scheming suspects – both prohibited from seeing each other under supervised release restrictions following federal prison stays – to use the friendly confines of his office to get together in the first place.

Law enforcement sources tell Gang Land that longtime mob lawyer Larry Bronson (right) is under fire for allegedly doing all of the above last May 15 when Bonanno capo James (Big Lou) Tartaglione and soldier Louis (Louie Ha Ha) Attanasio converged on his downtown Manhattan law office.

Sources say federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are investigating Bronson for criminal contempt and obstruction of justice as part of a crackdown by the U.S. Attorney’s office on corrupt activities by mob lawyers. The office is also looking

closely at recent activities by two other attorneys in organized crime cases, according to the sources. 

At the time of the meeting in Bronson’s office, the sources allege, Tartaglione was four months into his role as a cooperating witness, and had been wired up for the meeting by FBI agents Joseph Bonavolanta and Gregory Massa. Big Lou had tape recorded his first conversation for his FBI handlers last April, a few months after Bonanno boss Joseph Massino (left) was nabbed on murder and racketeering charges that go to trial in April.

When Tartaglione arrived around 12:30, Louie Ha Ha was already there. The wiseguys talked with Bronson about a variety of topics of interest to them, including their respective prison stints, prison officials, the prosecutors in their respective cases and the then-pending case against Massino, sources said. The get together lasted about two hours. Each wiseguy left separately. 

The men discussed a number of turncoats that have the family ducking for cover – including the first Bonanno mobster to publicly break the mob vow of silence, former Bronson client Frank Coppa Sr. – and the government’s key Bonanno turncoat, Massino’s brother-in-law and former underboss Salvatore Vitale. 

It was a hushed conversation about Vitale and his participation with Tartaglione and Attanasio in the April 1984 slaying of capo Cesare Bonventre that ultimately led to Bronson putting a match to a list of five wiseguys who were involved in the slaying, sources said. Bronson allegedly burned the list after Louie Ha Ha (right) had

pointed to the names of brother Robert (Big Bobby) Attanasio (right)  and Peter (Peter Rabbit) Calabrese (left) and expressed concern about his own situation if they decided to cooperate and testify against him.

Bronson told Gang Land he did not know the men were under supervised release restrictions. He said the notion that he burned any evidence was “ridiculous. The only things burning in my office were the tape recorder in Louie Tartaglione’s crotch and my Cuban cigar.”

Bronson insisted the conversation by the three men stemmed from “legal business” and a “chance meeting.” The get-together, said Bronson, was “a direct result of concerns by (both men) of future charges that were expected from the government because of the future testimony of Sal Vitale. The only reason they met was that I got stuck in court, and was an hour and a half late for a meeting with a new client (Louie Ha Ha.)”

Before Bronson and Attanasio could conclude their legal business, however, his old client, Big Lou Tartaglione got there with his tape recorder running.

To add insult to incrimination, Big Lou has not only gotten Bronson in hot water with the feds. That day, Bronson said, the game plan called for Big Lou to visit noted lawyer Jay Goldberg, whose name did come up several times during the wiseguys’ meeting with Bronson, sources say.

But Tartaglione, probably on advice from his FBI handlers, “wouldn’t go see him,” said Bronson. “He sent me a nasty fax accusing me of trying to steal his client. I’m glad I saved it as evidence.”

Meanwhile, as Big Bobby Attanasio and Peter Rabbit Calabrese prepare to face murder and racketeering charges in the Bonventre slaying in the months ahead, Louie Ha Ha (left) – Bronson’s “new” client – suns himself at his Caribbean hideaway in St. Maarten.

Regarding Louie Ha Ha’s current whereabouts, Bronson was as noncommittal as federal prosecutors Greg Andres and Mitra Hormozi, who confirm they are viewing extradition procedures in an effort to secure the arrest of the fugitive, but declined to say where he is.

“I don’t know where he is,” said Bronson, “but I do know that he is preparing to fight extradition.”

At this point, Bronson surely wishes that Louie Ha Ha had been in St. Maarten, or anywhere but his office last May 15, when old client Big Lou Tartaglione popped in.

What could John Gotti's old crew possibly be up to out in mid-western farm country? The answer can be found in a fascinating piece by Tom Robbins this week that details how tech-savvy Gambino soldier Richard Martino (right) and his capo, Salvatore (Tore) Locascio, (left) managed to buy a government-subsidized local telephone company in, of all places, Peculiar, Missouri.

Money for the deal allegedly came from the hundreds of millions of dollars in profits spun off by the pair's telephone and internet porn businesses, described in an earlier Village Voice story by Robbins, "The Mob's Phone Sex Fortune."

Two weeks ago, Gang Land profiled a key player in their phone scam, Andrew (Andrew Campo) Campos, an acting Gambino capo who ran eight shell companies around the country that generated up to $600,000 a day from 1997 to 2001 in a “telephone cramming scheme” that grossed over $200 million.