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"I told him just don't fucking call me no more," said Palermo, then proceeding to describe Massella as   everything from a degenerate gambler to a "fucking asshole" to a stupid, sick, retarded lowlife. Palermo erupted July 1, 1998, the day after Massella told an informer that Palermo had threatened to kill him, and three months before Massella allegedly carried out the threat.

Massella and Palermo were partners in a couple of extortion scams. But Massella owed his boss lots of money, was losing it faster than he could make it gambling and, worse, blowing the rest on younger women while depriving his wife and kids, Palermo complained.

"It's the same fucking story all the time," said Palermo. "He's with a young broad, he's feeding her all kinds of money and jewelry and champagne, and everything, uh, that's why she's with him. Figures, look, what a score."

Palermo said when Massella broke up with his comare, Palermo took a bag of jewelry from Massella who'd promised it to her: "I told (him.) 'You cocksucker. Why didn't you buy this for your daughter and your wife?' "

Palermo used the phone from June until November, 1998, making tons of phone calls. After all, his good buddy Ralph had told him it was all free --  from the cell phone itself to all the usual charges, including taxes. Ralph, as Gang Land readers learned a few weeks ago, was working undercover for the FBI for two years. And the phone that Palermo received, like others that Ralph provide, were really courtesy of the FBI.

"There are numerous taped conversations where Mr. Palermo is on this

That's when Palermo (left) learned that he'd been running his big mouth for law enforcement officials on a government-supplied telephone. This atrocious misplay most likely stemmed from Gang Land's eternal bane: Greed - the downfall of many a wiseguy.

"Sometimes wiseguys can be just as cheap as anybody else, so if they get a free phone, they use them," Barton said.

"Essentially," Barton explained to Manhattan Federal Magistrate Judge Frank Maas, "What the cooperator did was, he purported to have contacts where he could get free phone service and he volunteered the phones."

"Probably the last time that will work," dead-panned Maas.

Don't bet on it. In 1994, the FBI pulled the same scam and nabbed Salvatore (Sal The Geep) Candela and 37 other mob associates on a slew of drug and gun charges.

Palermo began to make himself scarce. For the first time in two years, Palermo failed to sleep at home (except of course when he was in Florida on business.) He was arrested on his way out of a friend's house along with phone pal/soldier/co-defendant  James Gallo (right) carrying a bag filled with clothes.

In his other hand, Palermo had a briefcase filled with  a "variety of papers and a body wire with a number of miniature cassette tapes," said Hillebrecht.

"Certainly an odd thing....for somebody in the seafood business to be carrying, but I assume you'll address that when we get to you," Judge Maas told Palermo's lawyer, Gregory O'Connell.

O'Connell ducked the question. Prosecutor Barton speculated that the "circumstantial evidence shows that if he knew there was somebody who was wearing a wire that he, in fact, wanted to get his own evidence in order to have what other associates and members were doing."

Perhaps.

Or maybe Palermo wanted to gather evidence to corroborate the FBI's tapes.

Or perhaps he wanted to obtain backup tapes in case there was  a snafu with the FBI's equipment.

Or he had forgotten what a wire looked like.

Or he thought it was a jump rope.

Or.....