A storied 30-year-old mob murder case that was supposed to be clinched through the use of modern DNA testing is now in jeopardy of becoming just one more whodunit.

Sophisticated FBI testing that was expected to put an accused mob hit man, Genovese capo Michael “Mikey Cigars” Coppola, at the scene of the Easter Sunday slaying of mob rival John “Johnny Cokes” Lardiere on April 10, 1977, has come up empty — or, as the test results would have it, way too full.

According to the DNA tests, Mikey Cigars, who was arrested in March after 11 years on the run, could have shot Johnny Cokes to death that day. But, then, so could many thousands of other white Americans — or white foreigners, for that matter — who were in New Jersey at the time.

Those are the findings of a comparison of the DNA in saliva taken from Coppola after his arrest to almost 30-year-old hair samples found near the murder scene at the Red Bull Inn on Route 22 in Bridgewater, N.J. The tests showed that Coppola, along with at least 10% of the white population of the area at the time, could have left the hairs at the scene, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the results New Jersey prosecutors filed with a Somerset County Superior Court judge, Paul Armstrong, last month.

This leaves the slaying back where it started, as one of the great tales in mob folklore. According to this version, Coppola allegedly first drew a silencer-equipped. 22 handgun on Lardiere. When the gun jammed, Johnny Cokes is said to have cracked, “What’re you gonna do now, tough guy?” Then, Mikey Cigars’s alleged response was to reach down and grab a .38 caliber revolver from an ankle holster and blow his victim away.

Whoever got the best of Johnny Cokes that day left behind the murder weapon, the ankle holster, and a hat with a few stray hairs inside. This evidence gathered dust until 1996, when a turncoat Luchese mobster, Thomas Ricciardi, fingered Coppola in the murder, according to court papers filed in Somerset County.

Ricciardi reported that it was Mikey Cigars himself who recounted the slaying after another mobster deadpanned the “What’re you gonna do now, tough guy?” line. The occasion was a 1984 gathering of New Jersey-based Genovese and Luchese mobsters who were holding a homecoming of sorts to celebrate Coppola’s return from prison, according to court papers filed by the New Jersey prosecutors. Happy to be back among friends, Mikey Cigars allegedly gave a blow-by-blow account of the day he gunned down Johnny Cokes. Ricciardi said the story was met with gales of admiring wiseguy laughter, according to the court papers, which noted that Coppola ended his tale by describing Johnny Cokes as a “tough guy” who “died like a man.”

Coppola’s lawyer, who told the Newark Star-Ledger that the DNA test results weaken the prosecution’s case, declined to discuss the results or their impact on his client with Gang Land. A spokesman for the New Jersey attorney general, Anne Milgram, declined to say whether the investigation was continuing, or if her office planned to dismiss the charges.

Meanwhile, as Mikey Cigars ponders whether the 11 years he spent running from the law to avoid what turned out to be a nonconclusive DNA analysis was worth it, his lawyers are discussing a possible plea deal with federal prosecutors in Brooklyn on the obstruction of justice charges facing him, his wife, their son, and a mob associate over Coppola’s flight.

Coppola, 61, his wife, Linda, 64, their son, Louis “J.R.” Rizzo, 41, and a crime family associate, Philip “Horse” Albanese, 63, are all involved in plea negotiations in the federal case, according to records filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.

PROSECUTORS PLAY THE GEEZER CARD TO FORCE EMERITUS ILA CHIEF TO TALK

It didn’t take federal prosecutors long to come up with a way around a recent ruling that put off pretrial depositions of defendants in the civil racketeering lawsuit against the International Longshoremen’s Association — at least concerning the ILA’s cagy 82-year-old president emeritus, John Bowers.

In court papers, the feds call him an old geezer with a limited life span — euphemistically, of course — and argue that his departure would jeopardize their case. They urged a Brooklyn U.S. District Court magistrate judge, Viktor Pohorelsky, to allow them to question — and videotape — Mr. Bowers under oath now rather than risk losing his testimony forever should he “become unavailable.” “The regrettable actuarial realities of life dictate that, as a male in his 80s, Mr. Bowers cannot be expected to remain available for deposition in perpetuity,” assistant U.S. attorneys Richard Hayes, Kathleen Nandan, and Zachary Cunha wrote.

In an obvious effort not to appear crass, or worse, the prosecutors cited two prior instances where Mr. Bowers’s attorney, John Wing, had cited his client’s advanced years in seeking special considerations from the court.

They noted that last month, at a proceeding that ended with a U.S. District Court judge in Brooklyn, I. Leo Glasser, postponing depositions except in special cases involving “age, health, failing memory, or any other sufficiently compelling circumstance,” Mr. Wing even exaggerated his client’s age by two years, calling Mr. Bowers “an 84-year-old man.”

In a retort to the new filing, Mr. Wing argued that his client’s situation is markedly different from that of George Barone, an 83-year-old mob turncoat whose deposition was videotaped last year because he suffered from a myriad of ailments, an issue the government has not cited in the case of Mr. Bowers, Mr. Wing said.

PERSICO RETRIAL MOVES TO LONG ISLAND

In a fitting yet coincidental change that mirrors recent mob doings, the upcoming murder and racketeering retrial of the acting Colombo boss, Alphonse Persico, has been transferred to the federal courthouse in Central Islip, L.I., from Brooklyn. The courthouse is two miles from a family social club in Hauppauge that is the reputed base of operations for Colombo capo Michael Uvino. Two weeks ago, Uvino and associates Philip Costanza and Brian Dono were arrested for allegedly beating two gamblers and threatening them with death after a mob card game was robbed by two cohorts of the gamblers.

The change of venue for the retrial, which was opposed by Persico and his co-defendant, capo John “Jackie” DeRoss, stems from the assignment of the case to a U. S. District Court judge, Joanna Seybert, whose chambers and courtroom are in the Central Islip courthouse.

The retrial — at which Persico, 53, and DeRoss, 70, are charged with the 1999 slaying of underboss William “Wild Bill” Cutolo — begins next month.

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