Jan 9, 2009 4:09 am US/Eastern
Gotti Mystery: What Happened To Son's Killer?
A Neighbor Accidentally Struck And Killed Reputed Mobster's 12-Year-Old Son; John Favara Missing 28 Years
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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John Gotti, Sr., convicted mob boss, shown Jan. 20, 1990.
AP
John Gotti's neighbor vanished after he accidentally ran over and killed the mobster's 12-year-old son. Now, the feds say an informant is adding a disturbing twist to the case.
Even before Gotti came to power, folks knew you did not want to cross him or his crew. There was brother Gene Gotti and Tony "Roach" Rampino, nicknamed "The Skull" by the media who covered the Gottis regularly because of his death-like, hollowed-out appearance, and, the Carneglia brothers, John, and Charles.
For years, law enforcement has known that Gotti's tough-as-nails crew caused the "disappearance" of a neighbor, who back in 1980 accidentally killed Gotti's 12-year-old boy, Frank, as the neighbor was pulling out of a driveway. Now, in papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, there was a new twist to the story: an informant said they put the neighbor in a barrel of acid to dispose of his remains.
Retired NYPD Det. Joe Coffey was one of the first investigators to target John Gotti, his crew and what happened to the neighbor, John Favara, whom Coffey accidentally calls "Favaro."
"We knew all about it...dismembered...dumped the barrel in Jamaica Bay," Coffey said.
Only recently has Frank Gotti's mother, Victoria, John Gotti's wife, brought herself to talk to anyone outside the family about this tragedy. Some have whispered that she put the neighbor in the hospital with a metal baseball bat. Victoria Gotti certainly would not comment on that, but in an e-mail to CBS 2 HD on Thursday about the "acid" story, she wrote:
"It's a 'worn out tale' and would have been the first thing [Sammy 'The Bull'] Gravano offered up if it were true. As in the Castellano (thing), there are 15 different hit men and just as many wild stories. [It's] like Pinocchio's nose: it keeps growing."
Even Coffey says the acid part of this from the latest informant could be a stretch.
"Informants tell you what they think you want to hear," Coffey said.
When the incident first happened, the neighbor went to the parish priest, and suggested he go to the Gottis to apologize. The priest reportedly said, now may not be a good time. Later, Gotti's friends said, "The guy didn't even apologize."
He disappeared ... soon after.
More details will emerge when Gotti soldier Charles Carneglia's trial begins on Jan. 20.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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