Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes (right) and retired FBI supervisor R. Lindley DeVecchio are adversaries today – enemies is probably a better word – but 15 years ago they were law enforcement allies who appeared to share the same cavalier mindset about an early 1990s phenomenon: mobsters killing mobsters. 

During the bloody 1991-1993 Colombo family feud, both men voiced a rather bizarre approval for the growing gangster body count as two rival factions of the crime family waged a bloody battle in the city’s streets.

Hynes’s comments came during a now-forgotten but once widely-viewed television show. DeVecchio’s were made privately to a fellow FBI agent, according to sworn affidavits. But coming from top law enforcement professionals, both are pretty astonishing.

“I have no problem letting these folks blow each other away. I think it’s good for us ultimately,” Hynes said during an interview aired by “Street Stories,” a short-lived CBS newsmagazine show that was anchored by the late Ed Bradley. The segment, on November 12, 1992, was about Gregory Scarpa Sr., a feared gunman who killed three family rivals during the war, waged primarily on the streets of Brooklyn. 

Under questioning by CBS newsman Harold Dow, Hynes credited his decision to issue grand jury subpoenas to 41 Colombo capos, soldiers and associates with

essentially stopping the war, “because,” the DA cracked, “when they’re under subpoena they can’t shoot; they all hide. I guess they watch too many class C movies.”

The backdrop for the show were efforts by the city’s entire law enforcement community at the height of the Colombo war to quell the shooting by rebels aligned with capo Victor (Little Vic) Orena (left) and loyalists of boss Carmine (Junior) Persico (right) that would ultimately leave 12 dead and many others wounded.

“The problem is,” Hynes continued as he conjured up a Jimmy Breslin-like image of a gang that couldn’t shoot straight, “most of them don’t get annual firing practice. So, when they start shooting each other, they begin to miss, and they end up killing innocent people.”

Like Hynes, DeVecchio was also apparently untroubled by the mob killings. Six months before the Hynes interview, on May 22, 1992, DeVecchio allegedly expressed outright joy when he learned that Lorenzo (Larry) Lampasi – one of three Orena allies that Scarpa is said to have killed during the conflict – had been shot to death in front of his Brooklyn home, according to court papers in the case.

When DeVecchio heard the news, he excitedly slapped his hands on his desk and exclaimed, “We’re gonna win this thing,” to the bearer of the good news, FBI agent Christopher Favo, according to court papers. DeVecchio’s remark

surprised Favo, who told his superior that they were FBI agents and “were not on either side of the Colombo war,” according to a brief summary of Favo’s grand jury testimony that appears in the prosecution’s court papers.

Today, those remarks are part of the case Hynes’s office has filed against DeVecchio, who is charged with four murders he allegedly helped Scarpa (left) commit from 1984 to 1992, during a period when the mob capo was doubling as a top-echelon informer for the agent.

Reached by Gang Land, Hynes insisted that the only similarity between his and DeVecchio’s remarks were that they were both made in 1992.

“The clear purport of my remark was that I didn’t want them killing civilians,” the veteran DA said. “My point was to do something to stop the shooting. DeVecchio’s statement is one that shows a consciousness of guilt by a defendant, which he is. No one has accused me of committing four murders.”

“DeVecchio’s comment,” added Hynes, “is in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy. There’s a classic rule of evidence that says you can use someone’s

prior statements to establish what’s called a consciousness of guilt as proof of the underlying charges.”

Said Mark Bederow, an attorney for DeVecchio: (right) “I think its ridiculous for the District Attorney to go on television and condone gangsters killing gangsters in 1992, and then 14 years later, cite as compelling evidence the allegation that in 1992, Lin said, ‘We’re gonna win this thing,’ upon learning that Larry Lampasi had been murdered. It’s truly astounding for a prosecutor to say he has no problem with folks blowing each other away during a mob shooting war. The suggestion that Lin’s alleged statement - in that context and in that time - is consciousness of his guilt in Lampasi’s murder is laughable.”

DeVecchio is charged with feeding information to Scarpa that aided him kill Lampasi, and three others, including a Brooklyn woman in 1984. A pre-trial hearing in his case is scheduled to begin in August.

Meanwhile, a pre-trial hearing for John Sinagra, a DeVecchio codefendant charged in the 1990 murder of a potential witness against Scarpa’s son, ended Tuesday with Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach expressing dismay and disgust with actions of Hynes’s prosecutors and investigators as well as police regarding Sinagra’s prosecution.

Reichbach reserved a final decision, but indicated he was seriously considering a defense motion to toss the charges because authorities improperly ignored allegations that clearly implicated Sinagra (left) in the murder for more than 10 years before finally investigating them. 

He’s called “The Lion,” but acting Genovese family boss Danny Leo, (right) surrendered like a lamb yesterday when members of the FBI’s Genovese squad cornered him at his secluded $2 million home in historic Rockleigh N.J. on the Palisades and hit him with federal loansharking and extortion charges.

The process was just a little more complicated than most early-morning arrests, however. Before the team of agents and NYPD detectives could cuff The Lion, they had to locate him. His less than cooperative wife would only tell them that their prey wasn’t home.

Faced with the dilemma of where to look for Leo at 6AM, they simply waited for The Lion to come back to his lair. Their patience was rewarded about 40 minutes later when, clad in sweatpants, he returned from an early morning workout, and learned he would have to take a shower later.

Leo, whose ascension from humble beginnings as a member of the violent East Harlem-based Purple Gang in the 1970s to Genovese boss was first reported by Gang Land last year, is charged with loansharking and extortion of the owner of a car service, as well as a shakedown of two brothers who have operated a mob-connected bookmaking business for decades.

Law enforcement sources say that Leo, who maintained a very low profile while climbing the ranks of the family, was named as acting boss less than a year after the death of legendary Mafia boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante.

During a four year period that ended last November 30, The Lion made three $50,000 high-interest loans to the livery car businessman and

threatened him with violence when he had trouble making his payments, according to a four count indictment that was unsealed yesterday.

Leo, 65, also used an underling to extort yearly protection payments from the bookmaking brothers during the same period, increasing the payoff from $10,000 to $25,000 last year, according to court papers that named soldier Charles (Fat Charlie) Salzano as The Lion’s enforcer in both shakedowns. (Fat Charlie follows his leader in the photo at right.)

Salzano, a burly 370-pound wiseguy, was described last year by assistant U.S. attorney Eric Snyder as Leo’s “right-hand man” who was tape-recorded threatening to cripple the taxi company owner and put him in a wheelchair.

In another conversation, said Snyder, Fat Charlie had threatened to kill the businessman, invoking The Lion’s name while issuing the following threat: “I’m gonna shoot you by Danny. Cause I told you, you never seen him and you never seen me.”

At Leo’s arraignment yesterday, Snyder said that The Lion, as boss of the “largest and most violent crime family that exists” has the power to “order acts of violence” and had done so in the past; Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered him held without bail.

Still unshowered, but now clad in fresh, casual attire, Leo The Lion was escorted to the federal lockup in Manhattan to await his next court appearance in two weeks.