THREE years ago, reputed Gambino capo Michael “Mikey Scars” DiLeonardo had it all.
Money poured into his pockets from sources legitimate and otherwise. He lived in a stately, stone-faced waterfront mansion on Staten Island overlooking Raritan Bay where he seemed to live happily with his wife, his first and longtime love, and his teenage son and heir, Michael.
Scars was seen as a rising underworld star – a mobster with no criminal record who had broken bread with Gambino boss John Gotti and was close friends with many of the late don’s most-trusted lieutenants.
His was the kind of life Mafiosi dream about, with designer suits, stone-encrusted pinkie rings and a beautiful young mistress on his arm.
Today, DiLeonardo, 47, is living every mobster’s nightmare.
He is in isolation at a downtown federal jail facing life behind bars if convicted of murder and racketeering as a crew of canaries prepares to testify against him. Compounding his plight, the underworld cash flow has abruptly stopped and his wife took his $2 million home in a divorce.
But it gets worse.
DiLeonardo has been labeled a rat by everyone he knows – including his own son – after he told the feds he’s ready to spill all he knows about the mob in a desperate bid to save his own skin.
As his world fell apart, DiLeonardo swallowed a handful of prescription pills, but lived.
In recent weeks, realizing what he has got himself in to, DiLeonardo has tried to back out of the cooperation he offered federal investigators. And that probably burned the only lifeline he had.
As he sits in his lonely cell, DiLeonardo knows it will be impossible to convince his Mafia associates that he hasn’t already sung about their days together – and it’s probably too late to find another way to ingratiate the feds.
“He’s got nowhere to turn,” a law-enforcement source said. “Who will embrace him now?”
DiLeonardo’s rise and fall reads like a gangland novel.
Raised on 17th Avenue in Bensonhurst, he lived in a typical working-class home, where, sometime before the age of 3, he was bit in the face by a dog. The attack left a semicircular scar on his cheek that drew taunts from fellow students at PS 163 and gave him his moniker.
As a teen in the ’70s, DiLeonardo was part of a street gang that gathered on 15th Avenue and frequented a Gambino social club, sources said.
Scars was fascinated by tales of Mafia life and by the 1980s, he had ingratiated himself with Gambino bigs like Salvatore “Sammy Bull” Gravano and Gotti’s son, “Junior.”
His professional career also was soaring as an influential official with the then-mob-tainted Teamsters Local 282 – a powerful construction union.
Despite the high-profile company he kept, Scars evaded lawmen even though the feds were aware of his connections and actively looked for ways to take him down, sources say.
In 1989, the feds suspected Scars conspired with his brother-in-law, Frank “Frankie Fap” Fappiano, and two other Gambinos to kill Staten Island real-estate developer Fred Weiss on behalf of John Gotti. By the 1990s, they believed he was extorting money from the Scores topless club.
There was never enough evidence though to close the case, and no charges were filed against Scars.
MEANWHILE, DiLeonardo created an oasis on Staten Island that befit his new standing in La Cosa Nostra. He built a home at the end of a cul-de-sac that boasted mahogany doors, security cameras, cobblestone walks, wrought-iron gates and two stone pillars topped by gargoyles.
Out back, a ceramic-tiled terrace opened onto Raritan Bay and an in-ground pool was flanked by a copper-roofed cabana complete with kitchen, living room and showers.
He even won over neighbors by installing storm drains under the street that emptied into the bay – ending years of flooding.
“He’s a great guy,” said one neighbor, who asked not to be named. “A real gentleman.”
In May 2001, the feds took their first real shot at DiLeonardo during the sensational Gold Club trial in Atlanta. Scars was charged with extorting $100,000 from the Manhattan-based Scores. He was portrayed as the link between Gold Club owner Steve Kaplan and the Gambinos.
During the 18-week trial, a nattily dressed Scars charmed the judge, jury and the media with a good-natured smile.
In October 2001, a jury acquitted DiLeonardo of all charges and Scars seemed on his way toward Mafia stardom.
“He handled the Gold Club case like a statesman,” said his lawyer, Eric Franz, after the acquittal. “He didn’t even break a sweat.”
Yet Scars’ smile masked a stormy personal life that in a freefall. His wife discovered he had gotten his mistress pregnant and demanded a divorce.
As his home life began to unravel, persistent New York feds began to sense an opportunity to close the noose on the elusive Scars as his status in the Gambino family appeared to rise and Gotti withered away in prison from cancer.
When Gotti died in June, Scars was photographed at the wake by the feds. Four days after the burial, the lawmen pounced and indicted DiLeonardo for Weiss’ murder.
A judge denied bail, and for the first time, DiLeonardo was behind bars.
As Scars stewed in jail for five months, he learned that the lucrative booty his crew regularly “kicked up” to him was being channeled elsewhere. Visits from associates became less frequent.
DiLeonardo was starting to sweat.
“While he’s facing this case, he’s stripped on the street,” a source close to DiLeonardo said. “People weren’t doing right by him. Why would you want to protect people who don’t care about you?”
WHEN Scars learned that witnesses lined up to testify against him included mob heavies such as Dominic “Fat Dom” Borghese and DeCavalcante crime boss Vincent “Vinny Ocean” Palermo, he weighed his options.
He turned to Atlanta-based lawyer Craig Gillen, a former federal prosecutor he had met during the Gold Club trial. With Gillen by his side, Scars began talking with the feds about cooperating, sources said.
When the New York-based Franz learned of the backroom dealing, he immediately asked to be removed from the case.
What happened next was exceptional.
In a rare show of combined compassion, the feds, the court and the defense all agreed to let DiLeonardo out of jail for two weeks so Scars could visit his sick mother.
Sources say that DiLeonardo used the time to also meet with his son. He revealed he was thinking of cooperating with the authorities against the Gambinos and asked Michael Jr. to join him in the federal witness protection program.
A source close to the family said Michael Jr. exploded. “He told his father, ‘If you do this, I’ll never talk to you again,” the source said. “After that, the son went around telling everybody his father was a rat.”
The betrayal by his own blood is believed to have prompted DiLeonardo to attempt suicide.