Lawbreakers and law enforcers agree that John Gotti was a lousy crime boss. With his strut and swagger, he taunted the feds and assured his eventual downfall. And he surrounded himself with wiseguys who were in way over their heads – with brother Peter, the current family boss, being Exhibit A. 

But on Jan 4, 1990, the Dapper Don picked a winner when he approved the induction of Bronx hoodlum Richard Martino, (left) an associate of then-underboss Frank Locascio. 

“I want guys that done more than killing,” said Gotti, voicing his approval of Martino to Locascio and successor underboss Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano in a conversation that was picked up by an FBI bug.

“I like the Richies…They’re young, twenty something, thirty something….They’re beautiful guys….Ten years from now, these young guys we straightened out. They’re gonna be really proud of them.” 

Since then Martino, a virtually unknown soldier, has allegedly put more money into the family’s coffers than any other wiseguy.

He hit the ground running, according to federal sources and a 1995

investigation by New York Daily News reporter Tom Robbins, earning millions for himself and the mob in the early to mid 1990s as a pioneer in the lucrative phone sex trade.

Now 43, Martino was charged Tuesday with heading an Internet-based porn scheme that bilked consumers in the U.S., Asia and Europe of $230 million from 1996 to 2000 by tricking them to submit credit or debit card information as a come-on for “free tours” of adult entertainment sites.

After the gullible surfers entered sites featuring content from Playgirl, Climax, High Society and Young Girls magazines – ostensibly as proof of age – Martino and codefendants Bruce Chew, 40, and Norman Chanes, 56, using five different companies, billed users $60 a month indefinitely.

While the indictment alleges that Martino and his codefendants stole $230 million, law enforcement sources say it is likely that their total plunder was in excess of a staggering $300 million.

Martino, who owns a $4 million summer (left)

hideaway in Southampton (right) and resides in Harrison in a home with an estimated value of over $3 million, was never one to forget where he came from, or the friends that made his climb possible.

For years, Salvatore (Tore) Locascio, who served for a time as a capo after taking over his father Frank’s crew when he was convicted with Gotti in 1992 and sentenced to life, was on the payroll of one Martino company or another, sources said.

One year, sources said, Locascio earned a cool $1 million, and in 1999 and 2000, after Tore and Junior Gotti were indicted on racketeering charges, Martino funneled $8 million to the younger Locascio to help fray the cost of his legal fees, fines and restitution.

Charged with money laundering and fraud, Martino, Chanes, of Manhattan, and Chew, of Lloyd Harbor, face 20 years in prison and fines up to $230 million, said assistant U.S. attorney Linda Lacewell. After posting a $3 million bond, Martino was released under strict house arrest restrictions to await trial.

He would do well to enjoy his recently constructed luxurious home. Since the feds don’t expect to locate the $230 million that Martino and his cronies allegedly stole, they are seeking to forfeit their homes and other properties worth an estimated $26.5 million.

A day before Martino took center stage in Brooklyn Federal Court, his Mafia boss was convicted of money laundering charges stemming from the family’s control of the Brooklyn and Staten Island waterfront.

Peter Gotti – a former garbage man who rose to the top of the crime family, as his brother Gene noted, because “there was nobody else to put there” – was convicted along with his brother Richard V., his nephew Richard G. Gotti, and four others.

Gotti, who spurned his lawyers and rejected pleas of his codefendants to take plea bargains, led them all to a virtual total defeat that may have stunned spectators and some columnists but was expected by the wiseguys and their lawyers from day one.

As a result, all seven defendants – Gotti faced 51 months under terms of the plea deal before trial and now faces about six years, according to a quick and dirty Gang Land estimate of the complicated sentencing guidelines – face longer stretches behind bars.

And while the Gottis, the others and their lawyers publicly express confidence in reversing the convictions on appeal, several observers who witnessed the hour-long reading of the verdict, noticed unmistakable glares from his codefendants focused toward Peter.

The most ominous, sources said, emanated from Anthony (Sonny) Ciccone, (right) the 68-year-old capo who had wanted to take nine years but now faces about 16 years.

“If looks could kill, Peter would have keeled over right there,” said one source.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Colombo soldier Dominick (Donnie Shacks) Montemarano pulled out all the stops this week in a losing effort to avoid going to jail for beating up his girlfriend when she arrived home too late for her own good.

The courtroom was packed with relatives and friends, including film producer Steve Bing and the girlfriend Montemarano battered 17 months ago, but Superior Court Judge Arthur Jean ignored the show of support and focused on the events of October 3, 2001.

“When you strip a woman of her clothes, throw her out of the house and kick her in front of her children, that is cruel and vicious,” said Jean, who gave the aging and ailing gangster the maximum, four years. Montemarano, 64, could be out in two, but he also faces federal parole violations. 

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.

With a 40,000-word update, the new edition contains the entire Gotti saga right 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 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.