THE SIXTH FAMILY

Pete the Greek Diapoulos was best buddy and right-hand pistolero for Crazy Joey Gallo of Brooklyn's President Street Mafiosi. This is a chronicle of Joey's parole after a nine-year stretch at Sing--where he'd boned up on Camus, Sartre, and Hemingway. Hardly out of the slam five minutes, Joey resumed control of his mob, dubbing it a sixth family answerable to no one. His enemy: Joe Colombo, who had muscled in on the Brooklyn rackets after being given the nod by Godfather Carlo Gambino. During his last brief year Joey was dictating his memoirs to Marts Orbach of Viking Press and became a darling of the chichi. He also divorced his wife and married his mistress at his editor's posh pad. Pete the Greek felt out of place at these gatherings, but he was packing the heat for Joey who couldn't carry a gun and violate parole--and Colombo had declared open season on Joey. There Colombo Was assassinated in Columbus Circle, and the assassin assassinated. Last came Joey's fateful birthday party and a 4:00 a.m. visit to Umberto's Clam House in Manhattan's Little Italy when Pete looked up to fred a hit squad blasting himself and Joey. Honoring the code of silence, the Greek took a year behind bars but would not name the shooters. Disillusioned with the mob (which did not support his family while he was away), he has since moved to Greece. Entertaining, but it's omerta about where all the bodies are buried.