Court Papers Might Solve (Gotti) Mafia Mystery..............
Gruesome End for Mob Target?
Richard Drew, AP
5 photos
Newly filed court papers may answer one of the biggest mysteries in the storied career of late Gambino crime boss John Gotti. Prosecutors claim that a man who accidentally ran over Gotti's young son nearly three decades ago was dumped into a vat of acid by a Gambino hit man. Above, Gotti is shown in 1990.
The answer may be found in Brooklyn court papers filed this week by federal prosecutors.
They say John Favara was shot to death on orders of the outraged Gambino crime family boss — and his body was dissolved in a vat of acid.
The documents, filed Tuesday, are related to an upcoming racketeering trial of Gambino soldier Charles Carneglia.
According to the New York Daily News, Carneglia told a Gambino family associate -- who is also a government witness -- that he got rid of the body by tossing it in a barrel of acid.
The newspaper identified the cooperating witness as aspiring mobster Kevin McMahon, but the person is not named in court papers.
Favara, blinded by the sun as he was driving home from work on March 18, 1980, accidentally struck young Frankie Gotti while the boy was riding McMahon's minibike in Howard Beach, N.Y. Ironically, Carneglia was the one who protected McMahon from retaliation by Gotti for loaning his son the bike, the Daily News said.
After Frankie's death, Favara ignored warnings to leave the area, despite finding the word "murderer" scrawled on his car and Gotti's wife, Victoria, attacking him with a bat.
The following July, prosecutors cay Favara was kidnapped outside his workplace in Long Island. They claim his abductors forced him into a van, shot him in the legs and killed him. His body was then submerged into a 55-gallon drum, according to the court papers.
Police identified his killers as Gambino members John Carneglia, Charles' brother, Gene Gotti, Wilfred Johnson, Anthony Rampino and Richard Gomes.
Carneglia allegedly asked the witness for help in moving vats of acid from his basement, and "alluded to the fact that the barrels had been used in connection with disposing of a number of bodies," Assistant US Attorney Roger Burlingame wrote in the court papers, according to the New York Post.
Authorities suspect the barrel was thrown into the ocean, the Daily News said.