John Favara

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John Favara (1929-July 28, 1980) was the backyard neighbor of Gambino crime family godfather John Gotti in Howard Beach, New York. On March 18, 1980, 12-year-old Frank Gotti, son of John Gotti, darted into the street on his minibike where he was struck by Favara's car and killed.

Police found Favara was not to blame in the accident and no charges were ever filed. In the months after the accident, the word Murderer was spraypainted onto Favara's car and Victoria Gotti, Frank's mother, attacked Favara with a metal baseball bat, sending him to the hospital. Favara decided not to press charges and planned to move out of Howard Beach.

According to the FBI, On July 28, 1980, before Favara and his family were able to move, he was shoved into a van by several men near his work. The men involved were believed to be Gene Gotti, John Carneglia, Charles Carneglia, Richard "Redbird" Gomes, Iggy Alogna, Wilfred Johnson and Anthony "Tony Roach" Rampino. There were several witnesses to the abduction, and accounts ranged from him being beaten with a baseball bat, shot with a silenced .22 caliber pistol, or both. One of the men followed the van in Favara's car, going to a chop shop owned by Carneglia. Accounts also differ on what happened to Favara's body. Informants led the FBI to excavate a mafia graveyard in 2004. Another account says that while alive he was dismembered with a chainsaw and stuffed into a barrel filled with concrete and dumped in the ocean or buried on the chop shop lot somewhere [1]. Favara's wife and two sons moved out of Howard Beach, having John declared legally dead in 1983^[1]^[2]^[3]. In November 2004, authorities excavated a parking lot in New York City believed to be a mob graveyard, and the suspected site of Favara's body. While two bodies were found, Favara's was not.

When questioned by two detectives, John Gotti said: I'm not sorry the guy's missing. I wouldn't be sorry if the guy turned up dead. Vicky Gotti when questioned said: I don't know what happened to him, but I'm not disappointed he's missing. He killed my boy.