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There isn't a wiseguy or wannabe mobster who doesn't believe he's got the brains, the brawn and/or the balls to survive in Gang Land. But these  qualities take a back seat to plain old dumb luck.

Frank Smith is alive today -- albeit in jail for a crime he didn't commit -- because 13 years ago he got home a few minutes late for his execution, according to court records, FBI reports and other Gang Land sources.

Smith's stroke of good fortune amazes him, but he's   also dumbfounded that the Colombo mob never got its act together and whacked him.

Smith's miraculous tale of survival began a few months after he and the Carini brothers -- Vincent and Enrico (Eddie) -- had allegedly killed George Aronwald, a retired civil lawyer working as a hearing officer for the Parking Violations Bureau.

The Carinis and Smith were very close, but ever since they gunned down Aronwald across the street from his Queens home, the wannabe Colombo mobsters had been inseparable, spending long hours with Smith at his modest house in Bensonhurst.

As Gang Land revealed two months ago, the trio allegedly killed Aronwald in March, 1987 on orders from Colombo capo Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace. With cops under pressure to crack the case –  their victim's son was former 

But before she could serve them, their beepers went off and they asked if they could borrow Frank's car, which was registered in her name. As they drove off, they told her to "tell Frankie to stay here until we get back. Tell him not to answer the phone; not to talk to nobody."

Minutes later, Smith got home. He waited a few hours, and when they didn't return, he went to sleep.

The next morning, Vincent was found shot to death in Frank's car; Enrico in a second car parked down the same Brooklyn street. Police arrived a few hours later at Smith's home and told his mother that they feared Frank was dead in her car.

After checking her son's room, she told them he was asleep in his room and "refused to cooperate any further," according to an FBI report.

A day or two later, Smith was visited by capos Vincent (Jimmy) Angellina, Victor (Little Vic) Orena and Cacace, the gangster who had ordered the hit, Smith would later tell Frank Gioia Jr., a Luchese

"They were trying to get a read on how I felt over my friends being killed," Smith explained to Gioia. "They asked me if I was looking for vengeance. I said no, there was no problem and they left," Smith said.

At the Carinis' wake, however, Smith was "visibly upset" and warned by Luchese capo George (Georgie Neck) Zappola that "people were watching and that type of behavior" could get him killed, Gioia said.

Zappola, (right) who knew Smith from the Bypass Gang -- a commercial burglary ring that used a master locksmith to bypass alarm systems -- asked Luchese leaders Vittorio Amuso and Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso   to intervene with the Colombos to spare Smith.

After two sitdowns between leaders of both families, the Colombos agreed to spare Smith but he still feared that Cacace was still going to have him killed.

"I always figured they would kill me," Smith told Gioia. "They killed Eddie and Vinny. I never figured Joe Waverly would let me live since I'm the only one left who could tie him to the killing."

Dumb luck can work many ways, however.

Sometimes it can get you convicted for a cocaine deal and sentenced to 15 years in prison for a crime you didn't commit, and save your life at the same time.

Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter, who worked for late Gambino mobster Roy DeMeo (left) before moving to the Lucheses in the mid-1980's, were found guilty of racketeering and 10 murders in 1989 and sentenced to life.

Testa, Senter and DeMeo were part of the Murder Machine, a vicious crew that cut up the bodies of their victims, packed them in cardboard boxes and disposed of them in commercial garbage bins. During our research for "Murder Machine," my co-author, Gene Mustain, and I documented 75 murder victims. The FBI suspects the crew in an additional 100 to 125 slayings.

Testa (right) and Senter (left) were poised on one end of a block as Smith waited on the other for intended victim, Luchese mobster Carmine Varriale, to leave a Bath Beach social club near Smith's home, according to an FBI interview of turncoat Luchese gangster Frank Gioia Jr.

When Varriale and associate Frank Santora "exited the club they came down the block towards Smith (and) Smith began shooting Variale and when he did Santora started towards him so he killed Santora as well," said Gioia, who said Smith and Zappola told him about the hit.

Smith was indicted on murder charges two months ago and is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court tomorrow. Attorney James DiPietro, who ripped authorities last month for keeping Smith in jail for a crime they know he didn't commit, declined to comment yesterday.

We did this in the last two paragraphs of our item about the many letters that Pitera has written to lawyers and reporters complaining that the government withheld important evidence from his defense team that would have changed the outcome of his trial.

We expunged the offending paragraphs on Sunday, Oct. 20, but for those who may have read them and can still recall them, they were incorrect in their tone and substance.

Mari fully supports his client's position. "Before and during his trial," said Mari, "I had no knowledge of the new evidence that Tommy has discovered about the federal government and the key witness against him, serial killer Frank Gangi. Had we known of all the information described by Mr. Pitera, I believe we would have won the case, hands down."