The son also rises -- and falls.

John A. (Junior) Gotti is taking a lot of heat from the law -- and from some Gang Land mob buddies over a few very innocent-looking lists seized by mob busters.

Dubbed the "Holy Grail" by state Attorney General Dennis Vacco, the lists of mobsters in three rival families were on seven sheets of paper that were confiscated in a raid at a building owned by a close pal of young Gotti, Mike McLaughlin.

Like his meteoric rise to acting crime boss of the Gambino family, Junior's current  problems with the feds -- and now the Genoveses, Bonannos and Luccheses -- are not because of his own actions or decisions, but those made by his father, the onetime Dapper Don and official boss of the Gambino crime family.

Last week, as revealed by Greg Smith and me in the Daily News, the lists,  found in a jewelry box during a raid last year, contain the names of 45 men whom the Bonannos, Genoveses and Luccheses had proposed to replace 45 mobsters who died between 1983 and 1991. The mob limits its numbers by only replacing members who have died. To weed out informers, drug users, and other undesirables, they circulate the names of wannabes to determine whether there are any reasons not to induct them. It's sort of like the blackball system used by fraternities.

"There's no reason to keep these lists," said Bruce Mouw, (right) recently retired head of the FBI's Gambino squad. "The other families will be irate. Once the proposed members pass muster, the lists are supposed to be destroyed, for obvious reasons. It is supposed to be a secret society."

Most lists were typed with names of the dead mobsters and their replacements preceded by a "Mr. & Mrs." in a lame effort to disguise them

as wedding guests. When's the last time you ever heard of a bride and groom filling several tables with dead people.

In the handwritten Lucchese family list above, no efforts are made to disguise what the side-by-side lists are about. The "new" wiseguys at the left were proposed to replace "old" mobsters who died in the years noted next to their names. As in the typed lists, many of the names are misspelled.  

The lists were all received by the Gambino family during the heyday of John J. Gotti (left), the still official boss who now calls the federal penitentiary in Marion, Ill. home. It's likely that some men were proposed even before Junior was inducted into the mob, while he was still bouncing to the beat of his Walkman as he walked along Mulberry Street to and from the Ravenite Social Club -- his father's Little Italy base of operations. Almost all of them "were made" before Junior was elevated to capo in the summer of 1990 -- six months before his father was nabbed on racketeering and murder charges.The decision to keep the lists of rival mobsters had to be made by the father, not the son, meaning the son could wind up paying for the sins of his father.

Junior's got no choice, but to take the good with the bad. His wife and kids have at least three homes worth about $2 million at their disposal, but he's spending his days and nights at the Westchester County jail, a reputed danger to society, at least until tomorrow, when his bail status will be reviewed by White Plains Federal Judge Barrington Parker.

Take the Sept. 17, 1996 discussion he had with reputed mobster Craig DePalma for example. The conversation took place soon after Gotti heard that DePalma's father Greg had been caught on a bug.

Junior: How's Papa Bear?
Craig: All right.
Junior: I just figured out what we can do for your father.
Craig: What?
Junior: I think if we all chip in and we raise some money, we get him his own radio station...Grow his hair one side longer than the other. Like he's going to flip it over like a madman. Yelling up and down, be shouting and screaming, "I want to send a shout out to Brooklyn."

After DePalma laughed, and promised he would tell his father, Junior pressed his point.

Junior: Make sure you tell him I said that.
Craig: Tonight I'll tell him.
Junior: Tell him John said, "We'll all chip in and for Christmas we're buying you a radio station."

Prosecutors say Gotti meant to threaten the elder DePalma with those words. But Gotti's lawyer, Gerald Shargel, said the men are friends and Gotti was not threatening anyone in that or any other conversation.

With little fanfare and even less imagination, a Manhattan realtor has begun the job of selling the Little Italy building that for decades housed the Ravenite Social Club  -- the Manhattan headquarters of the Gambino crime family.

The 19th century building that contained the best known mob hangout in U.S. history was featured as a 16-apartment building with a vacant store that was "ideal for bar/restaurant." Asking price: $1 million.

Last week, the realtor held an hourlong open house at the club, which still has a light blue loveseat, a brown end table, and some folding chairs in the two small rooms where John Gotti and his mentor, the late Aniello (Neil) Dellacroce, (right) once held court.

The pictures of Gotti and Dellacroce are gone, but the place still has a wet bar -- where Gene Gotti once toiled -- and a small unisex bathroom with a toilet and a small sink.

"It's a little small for a bar restaurant, maybe a small cafe or espresso house," said Juliet Papa, (behind Gotti in the photo at left) a WINS radio reporter who covered all Gotti's trials and co-authored The Mafia Handbook, a light hearted look at the mob. "It was like going back into Mafia history, where the deals were made, the plots were hatched and where the bugs were planted."  

"Forget about it," Gotti seems to tell Dellacroce at right in this 1979 photo in front of the Ravenite.

At left, Gene Gotti tends bar in 1979.

Pictures of John Gotti and Neil Dellacroce overlook   the table where both men held court inside the Ravenite Social Club in days passed.

ASK ANDY

This week, Andy -- seen at right reading one of his all time favorite Mafia books, Mob Star -- revisits a much-debated topic about Lucky Luciano and his reputed involvement in the U.S. effort in World War II in his reply to Gang Land reader/viewer Hanna Glaas.

So much has been written about the role of Lucky Luciano in the American war effort that it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. Twenty years ago I ridiculed suggestions that he played any role in this area and I have subsequently been proven wrong. At this time, what appears to be correct is that he was involved in
smoothing the way for naval intelligence to infiltrate agents into the New York harbor areas in order to gather intelligence and prevent sabotage. During the first year after the U.S. entered the war, German submarines were having a field day sinking allied shipping off the east coast of America. There were suspicions that the subs were being resupplied by sympathetic American fishermen. In addition, a luxury liner was being converted into a troop ship at a New York dock and it caught fire and sank. Subsequent investigations appeared to prove that the disaster began with a simple
construction accident but at the time sabotage was suspected. This climate of fear lead Naval Intelligence to explore any means possible to ensure the safety of the vital transportation link to England. One of the more risky operations involved consulting Cosa Nostra leaders who controlled the docks.

In the beginning, Naval Intelligence used Joseph "Socks" Lanza who ruled the Fulton Fish Market with an iron hand. He was under legal pressures at the time and was willing to earn points by easing agents onto the docks and fishing boats. However, he was not able to do the same at other pier areas and suggested the authorities consult Luciano, who had been in prison since a 1930's conviction. A Luciano lawyer was contacted. He recommended Meyer Lansky, (left) a long time friend of the jailed Cosa Nostra power, as the go between. Ultimately, a series of meetings were held and Luciano made introductions and generally paved the way for Naval Intelligence to be welcomed on the other docks of New York.

We now know this part of his activities are true since a secret investigation of the whole Luciano/War effort question was made public in 1977. The  Herland Report was commissioned in 1954 by New York Governor  Thomas Dewey, the same man who convicted Luciano (right) in the 1930's, and the one who approved his pardon and deportation to Italy in 1946. Since the public did not know of Luciano's war effort, vicious rumors were floated as to why he was being let out of jail early. Payoffs to Dewey were suggested and it was to counteract these attacks that Dewey initiated the secret report in 1954. Luciano, then living in Italy, was naturally very concerned that this report be kept secret since he had been helping the Allies fight against Italy. The Navy was also anxious to keep it's alliance with the mob a secret.

All this secrecy naturally lead to rumor and misinformation. Luciano's role
was blown up to the extent it was claimed he personally accompanied allied landings on Sicily, flying his flag in order to ease the way for the soldiers. Other claims had planes dropping messages from Luciano urging cooperation with the allies. Still others had Luciano sending secret cables  Sicilian Mafia leaders, telling them of the coming invasion and urging their cooperation. These and similar claims are nonsense. There was simply no possibility that allied planners were going to trust their invasion plans to a Cosa Nostra hoodlum. There was no way that they were going to let him tell other gangsters in Sicily that an invasion was coming. What does appear to be true is that Luciano was consulted about who to contact in Sicily who would be receptive to aiding enemies of the hated Italian leader Mussolini. The 1954 investigation suggests that this "consultation" may have been helpful around the Sicilian town of Licata. There is also the possibility that Luciano gave names of Italian Americans who might have pictures of the different Sicilian areas which would aid invasion planners. This is a tactic that was used in many other allied invasions. However, it seems certain that
those who supplied the pictures were never told what the reason was for the request.

Luciano's cooperation was instrumental in winning him a recommendation of executive clemency from the Parole Board and Governor Dewey signed the order in January of 1946. Luciano was to be deported immediately to Italy and his departure resulted in many greatly exaggerated stories. To this day it has been claimed that Luciano hosted a lavish party on board the Laura Keene that was to carry him back to Italy. Anxious reporters were supposedly kept at bay by threatening dock workers who only let in the
cream of the American underworld. In fact, the Immigration people refused to let reporters aboard the boat, trying to keep the whole matter as low key as possible. Contemporary news reports portray an entirely different picture from the wild sendoff that has become legend. The only gangster recognizable to the reporters was Frank Costello, (left) who was acting boss of Luciano's Family. There are no accounts of Meyer Lansky, Ben Siegel, Albert Anastasia, Joe Bonanno, Tommy Lucchese, Steve Magaddino and other notorious gangsters. Neither was there any mention of the powerful judges and politicians who supposedly were there. This deportation was big news and any suggestion that all the reporters had been bought off to ignore the presence of the well known gangsters and politicians simply indicates a lack of understanding of the competitiveness in the media business. It was a quiet party. There was lobster and spaghetti, which, as the decades passed, became an incredibly luxurious meal brought aboard in bulging hampers. There is also no mention of the "gorgeous girls" that Joe Adonis was supposed to have provided for Luciano's pleasure during the trip. On Sunday, Feb. 10, 1946, the Laura Keene sailed, taking one of America's most influential gangsters , into a frustrating life of exile, but from his standpoint, at least he was free. He died in 1962.