The Bonanno crime  family – the most impenetrable of the fabled five families – was in an extreme state of panic yesterday as news spread that three jailed family members with close ties to boss Joseph Massino (left) have defected and are spilling their guts to the feds. 

The wiseguys – acting underboss Richard (Shellackhead) Cantarella, his son Paul, and capo Frank Coppa – have begun talking to the FBI, underworld and law enforcement sources told Gang Land yesterday.

The three gangsters are the first known Bonanno mobsters to break the Mafia vow of silence that has been desecrated scores of times by wiseguys from New York’s four other crime families since 1962, when Genovese soldier Joe Valachi paved the way.

The unholy Bonanno trio was hit with racketeering charges three months ago in a follow up to an indictment that snared the family’s consigliere last March. Among other things, Richard Cantarella, 59, was charged with a 1992 murder. Paul, 31, (right) was accused of a kidnapping/home invasion robbery. Coppa, 61, was named in three extortion counts.

During the investigation, Richard Cantarella was overheard boasting to an undercover operative that Massino, the only New York Mafia boss unfettered by indictment or prison today, had pushed for his induction into the Bonanno

family while Massino was serving six years for labor racketeering that ended in November 1992.

“The guy who did it was Joe, the guy you met,” the elder Cantarella said. “He was in jail and he sent the word (out.)”

News of the turncoats raced through the family’s beleaguered ranks yesterday. “Word is out that Shellackhead’s a rat, his kid’s a rat and his wife’s a rat too,” said one underworld source.

Coppa, (left) who began a three year stretch for securities fraud at a federal prison in Fort Dix last July, was the first to roll over, agreeing to cooperate in early November, sources said.

“I can’t say anything, but you’re on target,” said one law enforcement official.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors Greg Andres and Ruth Nordenbrook declined to comment about the status of Coppa and the Cantarellas. “The last time I heard from Coppa was on Nov. 13,” said his lawyer, Larry Bronson. “I haven’t heard anything about it,” said Paul Cantarella’s lawyer, Gerald Shargel. Richard Cantarella’s lawyer couldn’t be reached.

According to sources on both sides of the law, Coppa was moved into a special Bureau of Prisons witness unit in mid-November. A few weeks ago, Paul Cantarella (right) was transferred without explanation from the Metropolitan Detention

Center in Brooklyn to a segregated unit in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.

On Monday, the elder Cantarella was moved into a segregated unit at the Brooklyn federal lockup. That same day, his wife, Lauretta Castelli, a codefendant charged with money laundering who had been out on bail, as well as Paul’s family, disappeared from their Staten Island homes and haven’t been seen since.

“It sure as hell looks like an all-inclusive package deal,” said one defense lawyer in the case.

According to court papers, Richard Cantarella (left) took part in the 1992 murder of Robert Perrino, a New York Post delivery superintendent, in an effort to thwart a state probe into widespread racketeering and fraud at The Post stemming from the Bonanno family’s control of the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union.

“As the state investigation proceeded, Cantarella and others feared that Perrino might cooperate with law enforcement authorities, and consequently, he was murdered,” said U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf in October as she announced the indictment.

“At the time of the murder,” said Mauskopf, “Cantarella and other members of the Bonanno family held no-show jobs at the paper.”

In recent weeks, eight other Bonanno mobsters, including consigliere Anthony Graziano, whose sentence will fall between 108 and 135 months, and capo Frank Porco, whose sentencing guidelines range from 24 to 30 months, have copped plea deals in the case.

After a successful debut in Manhattan, former Luchese acting boss Joseph (Little Joe) Defede (left) is about to hit the big time in Brooklyn.

Primed by an appearance against a Luchese soldier, Defede will soon take the witness stand against Gambino boss Peter Gotti and six other wiseguys charged with extortion, labor racketeering and other crimes on the Brooklyn and Staten Island waterfront.

The feds hope Defede’s testimony at the Gotti trial will be the first of several successful appearances by the high-level turncoat against Mafia leaders he met while he ran the Luchese family from 1994 to 1998.

Defede’s next stint will be against Genovese boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante, his son Andrew, and six others charged with extortion and labor racketeering on the Manhattan and Miami waterfronts. Defede never met either Gigante but had several sessions with codefendant Liborio (Barney) Bellomo, the family’s acting boss in the mid 1990’s, according to FBI reports obtained by Gang Land.

It wouldn’t surprise Gang Land if Defede, who “met Massino several times” during the 1990s, according to an FBI report, has a reunion of sorts with the Bonanno boss in the not too distant future.

At the Gotti trial, Defede will testify that he met Gotti and other mob leaders six-

to-eight times to decide whom to recognize as leader of the war-torn Colombo family, according to court papers filed by prosecutors Andrew Genser, Katya Jestin and Rick Whelan.

During high level sitdowns, three Mafia leaders agreed to recognize jailed-for-life Carmine (Junior) Persico as official Colombo boss, while the Genovese family “stayed neutral,” said the FBI report.

His testimony, prosecutors say, will corroborate tape-recordings and other evidence that Gotti, 64, (right) headed the Gambino family and that he was the ultimate recipient of hundreds of thousands of dollars in extortion payoffs derived from the family’s control of the docks in Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Gotti’s brother Richard, 60, a capo, and Richard’s son, Richard G. Gotti, 35, a soldier, allegedly served as intermediaries in the scheme. They are among seven wiseguys on trial in Brooklyn Federal Court. Testimony begins following jury selection, which began Monday.

Former codefendant Frank (Red) Scollo, a corrupt Longshoremen’s Union official, and tough guy actor Steven Seagal, an alleged extortion victim, are expected to join Defede as prosecution witnesses at trial, which is expected to last three months.

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti – the book it took yours truly and Gene Mustain 17 years to do – tells the complete saga of John Gotti, from his treacherous rise to his defiant downfall. Although we didn't know it at the time, we began working on "Mob Star" 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 2002. We added a postscript, and Alpha Books has distributed it to the nation's bookstores.

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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 suggested retail 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. 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.