Believe Natale, ex-girlfriend says

"HE DON'T LIE."

That's what Ruthann Seccio, the former ex-girlfriend of Ralph Natale, says of the tell-all memoir that the married mobster is trying to get published.

"What he's telling you is the truth," she said.

But Seccio, 42, whom Natale, 76, met in 1994 while she was sunning by the pool with his daughter, has mixed feelings about his book.

"He ratted on everybody and he left me holding the bag," Seccio said last night. "There was a hit on me. I had a whole family of gangsters trying to put poison in my drinks and wanting to shoot me."

Seccio, now engaged to another man, wouldn't mind seeing a few bucks for her troubles.

"He put my life in jeopardy. If he does write a book, he better send me some royalties!" she said.

Seccio has been looking over her shoulder in South Philly for the past 12 years, since Natale flipped to get a lighter sentence. She refused to go in the witness-protection program.

"Twelve years? How about $12 million in royalties?" Seccio laughed.

- William Bender