A mob captain with a venomous mouth and a long string of convictions – a hood who once even got away with smacking the late John Gotti, who was his pal – was indicted, arrested, and jailed last week on federal charges that could put him away for life, Gang Land has learned.

Michael “Mickey Boy” Paradiso, 66, who has spent two decades behind bars during a 45-year crime spree, may ultimately be best remembered as the man who unwittingly drove the rival Luchese family into a murderous and now notorious partnership with two corrupt NYPD detectives.

It was Mickey Boy’s mouth that got him nailed in an FBI probe: The Gambino capo was tape-recorded boasting of his thirst for violence and murder to get what he wants.

“If I use my hands, I might kill somebody. Because I’ll kill him. I’ll stab him. I’ll cut his f– throat,” Paradiso was heard saying on an FBI bug three months ago about an unidentified antagonist. “When I get mad, I’m just a different person. I don’t rationalize, and I don’t like to get like that. I really don’t and … rip his head off.”

Despite that tough talk, Paradiso so far has no homicides on his lengthy rap sheet. He has convictions for crimes ranging from hijacking to heroin trafficking in four of the city’s five state courts and in federal courts in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Newark, N.J. By his own count, however, Mickey Boy has 10 murders on his mob resume.

In a 1986 discussion with his brother Philip, who was wearing a wire for authorities then investigating several Brooklyn slayings, Mickey Boy blurted out that he had killed a low-level hood named Frank Morici eight years earlier because Morici had informed on Philip. “This morning,” Mickey Boy told his brother,”they showed me a piece of paper. There’s 10 names there. I killed every one of them, starting with Frank Morici for you.”

Paradiso was indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn – along with two underlings – for loansharking. However, he will soon be tagged with extortion, drug dealing, gambling, and other racketeering crimes, according to court papers filed in federal courts in Brooklyn and Central Islip.

One co-defendant, George Milo, 50, was released on bond, and a longtime Paradiso associate, Frank “Frankie Fox” Romano, 47, should be able to post suitable surety to win his release. No matter what, however, the feds will seek to detain Mickey Boy as a danger to the community.

A third Paradiso crew member named in the court papers, reputed soldier Angelo “Junior” Ruggiero, 34, is the son of the late Gambino capo Angelo Ruggiero, a cohort of both Gotti and Paradiso. Junior Ruggiero is not named in the Brooklyn indictment, but he was indicted on drug charges earlier this month by a federal grand jury in Central Islip. He is expected to be added to the Brooklyn case in a follow-up indictment, according to court papers filed by a Central Islip federal prosecutor, Burton Ryan.

“The term ‘legitimate tough guy’ is overused today, but it applies to Mickey, especially if you add the word ‘crazy’ to the description,” a law enforcement source said.

“He’s the only guy I know who could punch Gotti in the face and not pay the piper,” another law enforcer said, adding that the incident occurred during the 1970s, many years before Gotti’s rise to the top.

However, according to court records, Gotti marked Mickey Boy for death in November 1986 after learning that he had sent three cohorts to kill Luchese underboss Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso as part of a long-running feud between Casso and the elder Ruggiero, who died of cancer in 1989.

At the time, Mickey Boy had just finished an eight-year stretch for hijacking, and was free on $500,000 bail as he awaited trial for dealing heroin from federal prison. He managed to evade Gotti’s wrath when FBI agents alerted a federal judge about the Dapper Don’s murder contract and the judge immediately revoked Paradiso’s bail.

That didn’t stop the bloodshed. Casso launched a mob-cop alliance by enlisting Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa to abduct Paradiso’s underling James Hydell. The abduction resulted in Hydell’s grisly torture killing by Casso, the first of 11 murders that the rogue detectives facilitated or carried out for Casso during the next six years. The victims included three Gambino gangsters and a young telephone installer with the same name as a Paradiso crew member involved in the attempted murder of Casso.

Paradiso remained off the streets when he was convicted of dealing drugs while incarcerated. He was paroled in 1998, and after a parole violation rap the following year was again released on parole in 2000.

Prison didn’t exactly have a calming effect. In a particularly venomous pre-Christmas outburst last December, Mickey Boy railed to a cohort that he wanted to whack his daughter and his son-in-law because they had shown him so little “respect,” according to court papers filed by a Brooklyn federal prosecutor, Joey Lipton.

“I told her,” Paradiso said, “I did 19 years with niggers, and I had better Christmases, Thanksgiving, and any holiday in there than I had here, because every time I’m here your husband got a f– attitude that one day I’m going to shoot him in his f– head and you going to make me crazy and I’ll end up shooting you too.”

In numerous other Yule-time rants, Mickey Boy voiced similar plans against more traditional targets who had crossed the angry wiseguy, including loanshark customers and low-level associates who owed him money, Mr. Lipton alleged.

Paradiso promised to sever the head of one “little old man” who ducked his obligations, and to tell him: “I respect you, you’re old, everything, but don’t give me what you did.”

Mickey Boy insisted that, unlike other less-committed mobsters, he’s not afraid to carry out his threats, even if it means a prison term: “I’ll shoot the guy in the head. I don’t know who else is going to do that. In other words, they won’t pull that tough guy s– when the time comes. Me, I’ll do what I say. I don’t give a f– if I go to jail for that stupid player.”

Citing five months of taped conversations in which Paradiso “repeatedly discusses resorting to violence, including assault and murder,” Mr. Lipton has asked that Mickey Boy be detained without bail to await trial.

“Mr. Paradiso’s mouth has always been a cause for concern, but that’s just the way he speaks,” said James DiPietro, who won an acquittal for Paradiso in a 1989 murder trial at which jurors heard a tape-recording of his client boasting that he had killed Morici and nine others.

“If you believe the rantings of Mr. Paradiso,” Mr. DiPietro said, “there would be no one left standing in the five boroughs. Actions speak louder than words, however, and in the end, as a jury determined 17 years ago, all the tapes show is a man blowing off steam.”

This column and other news of organized crime will appear later today at www.ganglandnews.com.