A 30-YEAR-OLD MURDER TRIPS UP 'SOPRANOS' ACTOR

[Brian Damage]

Back when disco was king and life seemed like a party for all the beautiful people, the underside of the high life was still taking its toll in some very low-down places.

For party girl, celebrity-chaser and starlet Christa Helm, the ride ended abruptly when she was murdered late one night in a posh area of LA. It happened in front of her agent's house.

And somehow Paulie Walnuts knows somethin about it - but he ain't tawkin. Honest.

Tomorrow night's "48 Hours Mystery: The Last Take" goes on the hunt for her killer with cold case detectives who, along with Christa's daughter, who was a 9-year-old kid back then, try to unravel this decades-old mystery.

At the time of her murder, Helm was a gorgeous "B" movie starlet who hung around with the likes of Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Frankie Crocker. When she died, she left behind a semi-sordid past, plenty of suspects, and several "persons of interest" who, if they are still alive, may know more than they are saying.

One of those "persons" is "Sopranos" star Tony "Paulie Walnuts" Sirico, who knew Helm and was apparently dispatched by someone the day after her murder to "look after" her roommate.

According to the show, he may also have taken away some of Christa's belongings - including incriminating sex tapes, diaries (which are still missing), furs and other personal belongings.

So the question remains, did Sirico, who had been convicted in 1971 for packing a loaded gun and using a baseball bat to persuade nightclub owners to fork over cash, cooperate with the cold case cops?

Are you kidding me? Paulie Walnuts talk with the heat?

We're told that he told detectives recently that he "didn't know she was killed" and "hardly knew her."

Were those missing tapes and diaries going to be used to blackmail some of Helm's famous lovers, including the Shah of Iran and several of the hottest celebs of the day?

Or were they taken to protect her rep?

The case - even after all these years - is a labyrinth that twists down hundreds of paths. Even Helm's own sister, also a celebrity-wannabe back then, says Christa was courting trouble with her fits of rage and wild, wild ways.

Reporter Maureen Maher does a good job on a cold, cold case filled with stars of many different stripes - from the still-famous to the very dead.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04252008...fth_107936.htm