Gaetano (Guy) Fatato was a busy man. In fact, he led three lives. 

As the proprietor of the Rare Olive Lounge, on Jericho Turnpike in Huntington, L.I., he ran a trendy, upscale nightclub, catering to what its web site calls an over-25 clientele, a crowd that favors “sophisticated attire,” enjoys live jazz and blues after dinner, and likes to get down with more upbeat sounds spun by DJs on into the wee hours. 

At the same time, the wannabe wiseguy with ties to three crime families was an ex-con who trafficked in stolen bonds and crystal meth and found it necessary to put the joint in his wife’s name in order to obtain a liquor license from the state of New York. 

And Fatato had yet another occupation, this one even more demanding than the other two: He doubled as an undercover operative in a two-year-long sting operation against dozens of Long Island mobsters. During that time, he did all of the above, and more, under the watchful, even approving, eyes of the FBI. 

In one more twist to the story, Fatato and the feds insist he picked up the tab for the lavishly furnished, multi-room nightclub out of his own pocket. Even though the club served as a spectacular setting for the FBI’s mob honeytrap – and wiseguys were known to frequent the place – the feds didn’t pay for it. 

The enterprising mob associate had run topless joints and other clubs in the past, and he opened the club in February 2005. This was several months before he

began cooperating with the FBI, and, sources say, he was allowed to operate it for more than two years, ostensibly as part of his cover. 

Along the way, Guy created a user-friendly website with lots of pictures featuring upwardly mobile professionals having a good time, and he managed to wangle a few positive online reviews of the place, including one by AOL’s Local City Guide. 

During that time, according to New York State Liquor Authority records, Fatato, 38, had a 50% partner whom law enforcement officials say is a close associate of Aniello (Neil) Migliore, (left) an aging Long Island Luchese wiseguy who is on a panel of capos who are currently running the crime family. 

But Fatato, sources say, was the creative genius and guiding light behind the Rare Olive, with its dark-stained hardwood floors, velvet-covered barstools and lots of mirrors. The place featured happy hours, martini specials and free drinks for women until last month, when Fatato closed the place. This apparently was not the result of any direct order from the FBI, but because Fatico simply found it much safer to remain away from the action, far away. 

Fatato, who began tape-recording conversations for the FBI in late 2005, has so far led to the jailing of two Colombo wiseguys and two associates, including 90-year-old capo John (Sonny) Franzese. (right) The turncoat’s efforts, sources say, are expected to land many more behind bars in the coming months.

Records show he brought a wealth of experience to his jobs. Fataco’s rap sheet includes a federal

drug conviction in Newark – he was nabbed along with several Luchese mobsters – and one in Manhattan Federal Court for cashing more than $100,000 in stolen Treasury bonds in a scheme with his father.  

He served about three years for those cases – both in the mid 1990s. One defense lawyer, citing the relatively light sentence Fatato got in the Newark drug case, in which he also sold guns and stolen furs, suspects Guy might have cooperated back then. Gang Land could find no evidence that he did. 

There’s no doubt, however, that Fatato began cooperating after he was nabbed for selling five ounces of crystal meth to an informer for $9000 in November of 2003, even though the FBI and Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office declined to discuss the matter. 

The wiseguys he fingered and tape-recorded know it. Court records confirm it. So do law enforcement sources and long time acquaintances of the brawny six-foot-two 220-pound bruiser who was scooped up off the streets last month when the FBI decided to blow his cover. 

That occurred September 8, when Colombo capo Michael Uvino and two cohorts were nabbed for the terror-filled assault of two less-than-brilliant gamblers who orchestrated the armed robbery of an Uvino-run card game at a Lindenhurst social club (right) four days earlier, on September 4. 

A day later, Fatato learned of the robbery, informed the FBI, and tape recorded Uvino and associates Brian Dono and Philip Costanza as they allegedly pistol-

whipped two card players, placed guns in their mouths and threatened to pull the triggers if they didn’t give up the names of the stickup men. 

The FBI conducted an intensive follow-up investigation, sources said, and determined that the card players, as well as the suspected armed robbers, were in danger of further reprisals. On Friday, September 7, federal prosecutors obtained an arrest warrant. 

The next day, teams of agents arrested the trio as other agents escorted Fatato, his wife, and their kids, away from the home in Dix Hills where they had lived for the past four years and began the process of relocating them into the federal Witness Protection Program. 

That same night, ironically, after weeks of planning, an overflow crowd arrived for the scheduled grand re-opening of the Rare Olive which had been closed for refurbishing for several weeks. Fatato never got a chance to see it, or reap the benefits. 

Not everyone was disappointed by his absence. A neighborhood acquaintance described Guy as “a common thug” who was “always trying to sell hot Rolexes, furs and jewelry.” This source told Gang Land

that Fatato’s inability to attend the opening was fitting, stating with a chuckle: “It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.” 

As for the two-fisted Colombo mobsters, prosecutors played Fatato’s tapes of the suspects threatening the card players in court. The recordings reveal the gamblers screaming in pain and begging for their lives: “I’ll do anything you want,” said one. “Please don’t kill me,” cried the other. A judge ordered the trio held without bail to await trial, now set for January. 

Yesterday, Judge Jack Weinstein (right) scheduled a bail hearing next week for Uvino after his attorney, Michael Washor, charged that his client has severe heart and other ailments that his jailers at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn are not treating adequately, a position that prosecutors Paige Petersen and Elizabeth Geddes disagreed with. 

Reached after the proceeding, Washor told Gang Land that he is preparing to file papers seeking Uvino's release on bail. On a tape recording the feds turned over to him yesterday, he said, his client is heard resisting suggestions by Fatato to exact revenge on the stickup men, and the tape shows that despite his earlier utterances, Uvino was not a danger to the community and should be released. 

“On the tape,” said Washor, “Fatato is pushing to do harm to these guys, Mike is saying let’s give them a pass. Michael tells him: ‘Do you want to kill people for $10,000. You want to kill people for $20,000. Do you want to do 20 years for two or three thousand each. We ought to grab them and give them a pass, talk to them like gentlemen. Tell them we don’t want them to come back.” 

Former Colombo consigliere Carmine Sessa, who told the FBI 13 years ago that he believed that capo Gregory Scarpa had an FBI source who helped him out of legal jams and fed him secret information, is set to take the stand today at the murder trial of former FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio.

Like all prior witnesses – including murderous Scarpa associate Larry Mazza, (left) who testified earlier this week – Sessa is not expected to link the ex-agent to any of the four murders he is charged with aiding Scarpa commit from 1984 to 1992. 

Mazza testified for a couple of days. At one point, he broke down when he spoke of his father. (Defense lawyers pointed out that he did the same thing in prior trials a decade ago.) He also told the court that at one point he had brief discussions with Gang Land about his desire to write a book about his life. To our knowledge, Sessa has never had his eyes on a book deal. 

But Mazza wasn't the only one who thought Greg Scarpa's life would make a great book. In the interest of full disclosure, before the trial began, lawyers for DeVecchio subpoenaed all notes and records of interviews that Gang Land had with Scarpa’s longtime lover Linda Schiro back in 1997 for a possible book about their life that never came to fruition. 

With attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma handling the legal work, Gang land invoked New York’s shield law – which protects reporters  – and declined to give them up. Judge Gustin Reichbach quashed the subpoena, but said the defense could call Gang Land to the stand if Schiro (with Scarpa at right, courtesy Polaris Images)denies that the interviews took place. 

Schiro, 61, the linchpin of the prosecution’s case, is expected to testify next week. 

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 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 $11.02, more than five bucks off the suggested retail price.

The best of Gang Land is available in a book store near you. Or you can pick up a copy of "JERRY CAPECI'S Gang Land: Fifteen Years Of Covering The Mafia" at a special low price from the Godfather of online booksellers, Amazon.com.

The 330-page oversized book includes an index and eight pages of photographs. It is sure to contain a few of your favorite columns, as well as some you may have missed during Gang Land's lengthy run that began in 1989 in The New York Daily News and continues today online and in The New York Sun.

The book's 125 columns chronicle the New York Mafia landscape from John Gotti's heyday in 1989 as the swashbuckling Dapper Don to the remarkable day in 2003 when Gotti's longtime rival Vincent (Chin) Gigante gave up his Daffy Don routine and confessed to having put on a crazy act for three decades.

Amazon.com has it in stock for $12.32  – 35% off the $18.95 list price.