For 'Ralphie Head,' there's still time for Louie

Rest easy, Louis Prima fans. Yesterday's conviction of mob associate Ralph "Ralphie Head" Abbruzzi - this time in connection with the "Operation Delco Nostra" gambling probe - doesn't mean that his next South Philly gig has been canceled.

Abbruzzi, 59, once described by federal prosecutors as "drawn to organized crime and gangsters like a moth to flame," lamented in court that he'd be unable to perform with his Prima tribute band this month if he's under house arrest.

"I'll come to your house," Delaware County Judge Frank Hazel joked. "Where do you live?"

Abbruzzi asked if Hazel could make an exception for his March 27 performance at La Stanza, a restaurant at 20th Street and Oregon Avenue. He does a fantastic version of "Just a Gigolo," according to his attorney.

"I have people coming from all over to see me," he told Hazel. "Maybe you'll come to my show?"

Hazel, a Prima fan, agreed to let Abbruzzi out of house arrest so that he can sing from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the restaurant.

"Maybe come have dinner and watch me do a couple numbers," Abbruzzi told the judge, at which point he was probably beginning to push his luck.

Defense attorney Brian McMonagle said that Abbruzzi, who in 2001 was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for his role in a mob-linked stolen-goods ring, "really is good" - at belting out Prima tunes. "I've seen him at weddings," he said.

Abbruzzi pleaded guilty yesterday to criminal use of a telephone, a third-degree felony. He sold Nicholas "Nicky the Hat" Cimino eight winning lottery tickets in 2005 so that Cimino could conceal his bookmaking income, according to a grand-jury presentment.

Cimino, 49, who headed a gambling and loan-sharking ring based in Delaware County, pleaded guilty last month to racketeering, money laundering, bookmaking and other charges, and was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in prison.

Yesterday, state prosecutors notched four more guilty pleas in Media, besides Abbruzzi's. The following defendants pleaded guilty: Joseph Pizza, 59, of Flourtown, and Gregory "King" Triantafillou, 39, of Norristown (racketeering); Victor Novelli Jr., 29, of Clifton Heights (gambling); and attorney Gregory Quigley, 38, of Philadelphia (conspiracy to commit perjury). *