Camille Serpico married into the mob nearly 40 years ago. She buried two husbands, divorced two others and is looking to part company with her fifth – at least over a Brooklyn chop shop they ran with Genovese family wiseguys.

The savvy 58-year-old mob wife wants to cop a plea to charges she helped her latest, Ernest (Junior) Varacalli, 59, make big bucks by stealing and stripping late model cars and selling the parts.

She is willing to give up some cash and take five years probation in a plea bargain to cover money laundering and other charges in connection with Varacalli's auto parts business.

Brooklyn prosecutors Chris Blank, Eileen Ayvazian and Steven Kramer want $325,000, but Camille is balking at the amount, according to lawyer Richard Herman. "There is no deal yet; there is still discussion about that," he said.

Camille, who uses the surname of one of her former husbands, was married to Colombo associate Joseph Colucci when he was shot to death in 1970 by up-and-coming wiseguy Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano.

According to court papers, Camille, who married Varacalli five years ago, often deposited large amounts of cash for her husband, after making sure

Serpico, who allegedly cheated her second deceased husband's children out of their rightful inheritance when he died, will not testify against Varacalli at either of his two trials for running a chop shop that stole late model cars and sold their parts to body shops.

The first trial is next week in Manhattan Federal Court, when jurors will have the opportunity to see Camille as well as three allegedly stolen Mercedes Benz engines that Varacalli sold to undercover operatives.

Camille will be in court to give moral support to her husband. He will need it, and more, to win an acquittal. The feds have many tape recordings of Varacalli selling air bags, dashboards and other stolen car parts, some

made by auto crime cops and investigators for the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.

And if Varacalli does beat the case, he'll have to confront more tapes and chop shop charges, plus extortion and other charges in Brooklyn Supreme Court along with Genovese soldier Federico (Fritzi) Giovanelli, (right) the reputed boss of the operation.

Last year, on the same day Varacalli was overheard complaining about weekly $8000 payments he was giving "airbag thieves," he told Camille that Giovanelli had praised his chop shop operation: "Fritzi says to me the other day, 'Nobody could do what you do here.'"

The Mercedes Benz engines, including a huge V-12, the largest the German auto manufacturer produces, won't be lugged into the federal courthouse at Foley Square, but the jury will get a chance to view them, according to a pre-trial ruling by Judge John Martin.

It's unclear if they will be on a flatbed outside the courthouse or another nearby location, but Martin ordered prosecutors to produce them after Varacalli's lawyer John Jacobs objected to photographs of the engines being shown to the jury.

It's official. Lana Zancocchio won't be joining her husband (Bonanno soldier John [Porky] Zancocchio at right), her dad (Bonanno capo Anthony [TG] Graziano at left), her  sister, and her brother-in-law in federal prison.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have decided not to appeal a huge break Zancocchio got in May when she was sentenced to probation on a tax evasion charge that carries strict sentencing guidelines of 10 to 16 months.

Over objections from prosecutor Ruth Nordenbrook, Judge Jack Weinstein sentenced her four levels lower than normal – highly unusual in the era of strict federal guidelines – sending her home to care for her three kids after they told the judge they didn't want to live with their grandmother.

"I thought the sentence was fair," said Lana's lawyer Jeffrey Rabin. "The Government, in hindsight, realized it was fair. The decision not to appeal was a proper exercise of their discretion."

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti

Hot off the presses! It's here, the book it took yours truly and Gene Mustain 17 years to do! Although we didn't know it at the time, we began working on Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti 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. Alpha Books is now distributing it to the nation's bookstores.

With a 40,000-word update, the new edition contains the entire Gotti saga – from his treacherous rise to his defiant downfall and right on 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 $16.95 suggested list 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 that was published in December. 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.