Frank (Frankie Loc) LoCascio is a co-defendant at John Gotti's racketeering and murder trial, but he is certainly not Gotti's co-star.

Occasionally, LoCascio gets mentioned in the FBI's taped conversations between Gotti and former right-hand-man-in-crime Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano, and once in a while he even says a few words on the tapes.

Yesterday, for example, in one lengthy conversation that prosecutors say clearly demonstrates efforts by Gotti & Co. to obstruct justice, LoCascio was heard muttering words that a maitre d' or head waiter might say.

"Heat up them meatballs, Norman," said LoCascio, adding, seconds later, "What (do) they want?"

That discussion was one of five that took place two flights above the Ravenite Social Club in an apartment that was home to a widow of a former Gambino soldier. LoCascio was obviously hungry at the time.

In another long, drawn-out discussion among seven alleged co-conspirators that lasted a half-hour and took 42 pages to transcribe, LoCascio said fewer than 15 words, doling them out carefully, a few words at a time.

"You got a fireplace?" was one utterance. "Jerking us over" was another. "Customer" and "ex-cop" were two others, and for his grand finale, "Ain't doing nothing together?"

And in another conversation among five persons, just a little shorter than the previous one, LoCascio did not make a sound--not even a cough--as Gotti and Gravano quizzed convicted lawyer Michael Coiro about his corrupt source in the Nassau County district attorney's office.

LoCascio's lack of participation was so glaring--the excerpt played for the jury ran 37 pages--that prosecutor Laura Ward found it necessary to remind the jury that LoCascio was there during her questioning of the FBI's tape expert.

"Frankie's from the old school, he doesn't say much," said one law enforcement official, in the understatement of the trial.

When prosecutors played several hours of silent FBI videotapes of comings and goings around the Ravenite, LoCascio could usually be seen walking and talking with Gotti, Gravano and others, but not heard by the jury, of course.

LoCascio is accused of talking part in one of the five murders in the indictment, but during the tapes that have been played so far, LoCascio is a heavy listener who says little, if anything, to incriminate himself.

Even in one long conversation in which Gotti says he killed two mobsters for Gravano and was going to kill another who failed to "come in " to see him, LoCascio does little more than listen to Gotti rant and rave about Gravano's greed.

In the one murder in which Gravano testified that LoCascio played a supporting role, LoCascio never said a word as he drove up, opened the car trunk from the inside and drove away with the body of Robert (DeeBee) DiBernardo.

Under questioning from prosecutor John Gleeson, Gravano said LoCascio never volunteered any details about the disposal of the body, and Gravano never asked: "It was none of my business."

Under cross-examination by Anthony Cardinale, Gravano also said LoCascio never received any money from two gambling operations and one loansharking business allegedly controlled by Gotti.

LoCascio lives quietly in the Bronx, raises and trains horses on an upstate New York farm and has no major convictions.

According to the tapes, however, LoCascio was "made" back in the 1950's, when Carlo Gambino was boss, and under Gotti became a capo, acting underboss, and in 1990, the crime family's acting consigliere, or counselor.

Locascio often attends sidebar conferences called by Judge I. Leo Glasser, invariably returning to his seat with a big smile on his face and a thumbs-up gesture to his son and other supporters in the audience.

Yesterday, after one sidebar, before he gave his usual smiling thumbs-up to the audience, he whispered his report to Gotti, who took it all in, then turned to reporters, pointed to LoCascio, and said with a smile, "Counselor."