In March 1980, John Favara struck and killed the 12-year-old son of infamous New York mobster John Gotti with his car. Four months after Frank Gotti's death, Favara mysteriously disappeared.
On July 28, 1980, a man named John Favara disappeared after leaving his job at a factory in Long Island, New York. He was declared legally dead three years later. To this day, his body has never been found — but to many, it’s clear what happened to him.
Four months before he went missing, John Favara accidentally ran over his 12-year-old neighbor, Frank Gotti, with his car. Unfortunately for Favara, Frank Gotti just so happened to be the son of infamous mob boss John Gotti — and Gotti wasn’t the type to let Favara’s actions go unpunished.
Public DomainJohn Favara was allegedly killed on his neighbor John Gotti’s orders.
In the weeks that followed, Favara received numerous death threats. Fearing for the safety of his family, he put his house up for sale and began making preparations to move. But just days before he was scheduled to close the sale, Favara was apprehended by three men near his workplace and thrown into the back of a van.
Witness accounts vary, with some saying the men beat Favara with a baseball bat, and others claiming they shot him with a silenced pistol. But one thing is clear: After that day, no one ever saw John Favara again.
John Favara Accidentally Kills Frank Gotti, The Second Son Of John Gotti
John Favara led a seemingly ordinary life. The 51-year-old lived with his wife, Janet, and two adopted children in Howard Beach, Queens. And while he was back-door neighbors with Gambino crime family mobster John Gotti, Favara wasn’t involved in organized crime himself. He worked at the Castro Convertibles factory in New Hyde Park, Long Island.
Initially, Favara seemed to get along well enough with the Gotti family. According to the New York Daily News, Favara’s son, Scott, often had sleepovers with John Gotti Jr. growing up.
Gallery BooksFrank Gotti, who died in a tragic accident at the age of 12.
That all changed on March 18, 1980. That day, Favara finished up a shift at Castro Convertibles and headed home as the sun began to set.
Back in Howard Beach, Frank Gotti was riding a minibike he’d borrowed from a neighbor. The 12-year-old drove the bike out into the street just as Favara was driving down it, the sun glaring in his eyes and a nearby construction dumpster creating a blindspot, hiding Frank from his view.
The Gottis would later claim that Favara had been drunk when he struck Frank with his car. According to John Gotti’s daughter, Victoria, in her memoir This Family of Mine, Favara was initially unaware that he had hit Frank and kept speeding along, dragging the child 200 feet before neighbors banged on his windows and shouted at him to stop his car.
When Favara finally saw the boy’s mangled body, he allegedly exclaimed, “What the f—k was he doing in the street?”
Favara Begins To Fear For His Life
Two days after Frank Gotti’s death, local police received a mysterious call from a woman who told them that John Favara would be “eliminated.” When police tried to warn Favara, he initially shrugged it off.
But Favara would receive several more death threats in the months that followed. Letters arrived at his door. Threatening phone calls from people who refused to identify themselves flooded in. Someone put a photo of Frank Gotti in his mailbox, and on May 22, Favara exited his home to find the word “MURDERER” spray-painted on his car.
Dith Pran/New York Times Co./Getty ImagesThe Gotti home in Howard Beach, Queens.
Favara quickly realized the threats were no joke. When John Gotti’s wife, also named Victoria, attacked Favara with a baseball bat outside his house on May 28, it became apparent that he and his family needed to get out of Howard Beach.
The Favaras put their house up for sale, and just over a month later, they were in the process of selling it to a buyer. The deal was expected to close on July 31.
Six days before the closing date, the Gottis left for a family vacation in Florida, presumably to grieve the death of their son and to get away from the scene of his death for a while. But this trip also happened to give John Gotti a convenient alibi when, on July 28, a group of unnamed men confronted John Favara near Castro Convertibles and forced him into a van.
It was the last anyone ever saw of Favara.
What Happened To John Favara? Inside The Chilling Theories
The Gotti family returned from their trip on Aug. 4, 1980 and were immediately questioned about John Favara’s abduction. Gotti’s wife, Victoria, told investigators, “I don’t know what happened to him, but I’m not sorry if something did. He never sent me a card. He never apologized. He never even got his car fixed.”
Her husband echoed this sentiment, saying, “He killed my kid” with a shrug.
Favara was officially declared dead in 1983, with few clues as to what could have happened to his body. A potential lead surfaced in 2004, when federal agents learned the location of a mob “dumping ground” in Ozone Park, Queens. But Favara’s remains weren’t there.
John Gotti himself had died two years prior to that search, having spent the last decade of his life in prison after being convicted on murder and racketeering charges due to testimony by his underboss Sammy “The Bull” Gravano.
ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoAfter John Gotti died, he was buried next to Frank.
Then, in 2009, court documents filed ahead of the murder trial of Gambino family mobster Charles Carneglia seemed to provide some answers. According to a witness statement, Carneglia had shot Favara on John Gotti’s orders, then dissolved Favara’s body in a vat of acid to eliminate any possibility of finding his remains. However, this claim was never proven.
For his part, Favara’s son Scott remembered his father fondly, once saying, “He was a great man, more than anyone would ever know.”
But while no member of the Gotti family would ever admit to killing John Favara, Frank Gotti’s sister Victoria suggested that it was Favara’s apparent remorselessness that got him killed.
“It’s human nature to want revenge against someone that hurts those you love,” she wrote. “I only wish Favara had shown some remorse — some respect. I believe he would be alive today if he had.”
After reading about the disappearance of John Favara, read about Paul Castellano, the “boss of all bosses” who John Gotti usurped. Then, read about Frank DeCicco, the mobster who conspired with John Gotti and paid the ultimate price.
