Halo, Goodbye

FIRST SUPERMAN DIES AND NOW THIS. CURTIS Sliwa, founder and leader of the crime-fighting, beret-wearing volunteer group known as the Guardian Angels, says six of the group's early exploits were just publicity stunts. The hoaxes, which Sliwa says ended in 1980, ranged from a kidnapping Sliwa blamed on cops to a story about a wallet returned to an elderly mugging victim. The Angels have long been controversial, and some press reports allege Sliwa has yet to own up to all such misdeeds. Still, Sliwa says his honor is intact: "My reputation in New York was almost mythically heroic, and this is just a hard reality check." Hard indeed. He says his Angel wife Lisa launched a spinning, kung-fu kick at his face when he told her about his fabrications.