He stands about 5 foot 5, has thinning white hair, and could easily pass for your next-door neighbor’s grandfather. Uh, make that greatgrandfather. Albert “Chinky” Facchiano will be 97 next month, right around the time he becomes the oldest wiseguy ever to plead guilty to wiseguy-type crimes.

A quintessential old-school gangster, Facchiano is a Genovese soldier with a rap sheet that began in 1930, when he was arrested for rape in New York — a charge that was later dismissed. Since then, Chinky has had several convictions and served about 11 years in prison, mostly for a federal racketeering conviction in the late 1970s. His last prison stay ended in 1989.

Old habits die hard: Facchiano was indicted a year ago in New York on obstruction of justice charges along with many other Genovese mobsters, including one-time acting boss Liborio “Barney” Bellomo. Last July, the elderly mobster was hit again with racketeering charges, this time in Fort Lauderdale, for allegedly supervising a family loansharking and bookmaking operation in the Sunshine State.

Now, Gang Land has learned, the gangster geezer has agreed to cop a plea, one that will enable him to settle both cases. If fate and the judge allow, Chinky will serve his time for the crimes not in prison, but under house arrest.

Staying home might be a good idea for him, even at his advanced age. According to FBI documents obtained by Gang Land, the nonagenarian wiseguy would be ready and willing to kill for the mob to his dying day.

“Chinky offered to do ‘work (murder)’ if they needed someone killed,” according to a report by FBI agent Michael Campi. The offer, Mr. Campi alleged, was made during a meeting with several Genovese mobsters and associates in Fort Lauderdale six years ago.

On February 27, 2001, Facchiano — then a 90-year-old youngster — was dining with mobsters including Salvatore “Sammy Meatballs” Aparo and Joseph Zito, and, when the subject came up, reminiscing about now-deceased family leaders, namely Vincent “Chin” Gigante, Philip “Benny Squint” Lombardo, and Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno.

After Chinky volunteered for heavy duty, Zito, who is 26 years younger than Chinky, disagreed with the proposal.

“Zito told Chinky they are supposed to be retired at their age and the younger guys should handle the murders,” Mr. Campi wrote. The wizened wiseguy wasn’t buying. “Chinky responded, ‘You’re never retired,’ and reiterated and insisted that he would commit murders for the family today,” the agent reported.

It’s doubtful the family called on Chinky, but one dining companion, capo Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno, the boss of the family’s New England faction, was whacked two years later, perhaps over some remarks that Big Al made at the meeting.

At the session, Big Al was outspoken in his praise for then-family associate Michael “Cookie” D’Urso, who wore a wire for the FBI for three years and led to the indictment and conviction of nearly 50 wiseguys and associates in the last few years. At one point, Mr. Campi wrote, Bruno told D’Urso and the others that he wanted “to have him released” from his New York ties and become a “made man” in Bruno’s crew.

During 2000 and 2001, Aparo, Zito, and other wiseguys and associates in tape-recorded conversations with D’Urso discussed Chinky’s status as an “active” wiseguy despite his advancing years, according to summaries of other meetings.

On March 20, 1990, 10 days after Chinky’s 90th birthday, longtime family associate Thomas Cafaro described Facchiano as a “very active” mobster, noting that longevity ran in the Facchiano family — that Chinky had a brother who was 102, Mr. Campi and agent Thomas Krall wrote.

A few days earlier, the agents wrote, Cafaro described Chinky as an abusive old codger who “thinks he should have been boss” of the family. In reality, Cafaro insisted, “Chinky couldn’t shine Fat Tony or Benny Squint’s shoes.”

Facchiano may not have been boss material, but even into his 90s he exuded a fierce and treacherous tone, according to a witness to a chance encounter that Chinky had with a wheelchair-bound horseplayer at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla., that same year.

The confrontation occurred during the hustle-bustle between races when a wheelchair carrying a big man rolled around a bend into a bathroom as Facchiano was exiting and the “guy comes face to face” with the diminutive Chinky, almost hitting him.

“I was behind the guy in the wheelchair,” the witness, a law enforcement official, said. “I could see Chinky’s face, and he gave the guy in the wheelchair a ‘Watch where the f—- you’re going’ look. It was scary. The guy in the wheelchair was visibly shaken and stammered, ‘Sorry, excuse me’ and breathed a sigh of relief as he walked away.

“If the guy had made the wrong remark, he would have been cracked. He knew it. He felt it; I felt it: That this little old guy was a genuine wiseguy,” the witness recalled.

According to Fort Lauderdale federal prosecutor Jeffrey Kaplan, Facchiano’s guilty plea will most likely take place before Judge James Cohn within the next two weeks.

Neither Mr. Kaplan nor Assistant U.S. Attorney Miriam Rocah of Manhattan would discuss specifics of the plea deal, but according to Facchiano’s Florida lawyer, Brian McComb, his nonagenarian client, who faces about two years according to sentencing guidelines, stands a good chance of spending no time in prison.

Mr. McComb told Gang Land that prosecutors in New York and Florida, as well as Justice Department officials in Washington, have agreed not to oppose a motion for a downward departure from the guidelines number or to oppose a request for a house arrest sentence.

“He’s almost 97 years old, and not in the best of health. Those are important factors,” Mr. McComb said, noting that the sentencing judge will have the final say about Chinky’s fate.

***

A bone of contention that surfaces during almost every investigation of the Genovese and Luchese crime families involves disputes over a table at Rao’s, the legendary East Harlem eatery where wiseguys rub elbows with politicians, ex-cops, and other notables.

As a public service, Gang Land is pleased to report that it is no longer necessary to endure mob sitdowns, chest thumping, and angry words to enjoy the camaraderie and the foodstuffs featured at the 110-year-old restaurant.

Justhop a plane and visit a spanking-new Rao’s, a 250-seat version of the tiny 10-table place on Pleasant Avenue. Located at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the new Rao’s boasts a 25-foot-high domed ceiling with a jukebox and year-round Christmas decorations to make you feel at home.

Owners Frank Pellegrino and Ron Straci are not shy about proclaiming their wiseguy connections or notoriety. An ad in an airline magazine put it this way: “Until now, only made men and movie stars got a table at Rao’s.” In Las Vegas, “wiseguys of every persuasion” can drop in and feel the “authenticity of Rao’s Southern Italian fare and intimate New York neighborhood.”

This column and other news of organized crime will be available today at ganglandnews.com.