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Gotti Mystery Solved? John Favara's Fate Allegedly Revealed in Case against Charles Carneglia

In 1980 John Favara, backyard neighbor of then Gambino crime family captain John Gotti, disappeared after tragically running over Gotti's son Frank. Since then a mystery has shrouded Favara's fate. The AP reports that in court documents filed in a racketeering case against alleged mob hitman Charles Carneglia, the government alleges that Favara was killed on Gotti's order and that Carneglia disposed of his body in a vat of acid.

As reported by UPI, John Favara struck Frank Gotti with his car in March of 1980 when the boy darted on bike into traffic. Favara disappeared five months later. The government's case against Carneglia cites testimony from a confidential witness who once was a friend of Carneglia and a Gambino family associate. According to this witness, Carneglia later told him that he had disposed of Favara's body by his specialty acid barrel technique.

According to this witness, he himself lent the bike to the 12 year old Frank Gotti, brother of John "Junior," Peter, Angela and Victoria Gotti (who starred in "Growing Up Gotti"). Allegedly, the witness who has come forth against Carneglia was protected by Carneglia from meeting a fate similar to Mr. Favara for having lent the bike to little Frank.

With perpetrators of  gory crimes punished through racketeering laws, and John Gotti himself having gone down on racketeering indictments, we might need a refresher as to what "racketeering" means. Under federal law, racketeering means any act or threat involving any of a host of crimes including murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matter, and dealing in a controlled  substance or listed chemical, amongst others.

Typically, such individual crimes are the jurisdiction of state laws. Greatly assisting federal prosecution of organized crime, The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Practices Act (RICO) prohibits anyone engaged in racketeering from profiting through interstate commerce. While the interstate commerce element seems bland in comparison to the gory details of crimes such as murder and kidnapping, it is key because this is what allows federal authorities jurisdiction to prosecute alleged depraved mobsters such as Charles Carneglia and John Gotti.

• Racketeering/RICO (FindLaw)
• John Gotti's RICO Indictment (FindLaw)
• Criminal Defense FAQ (provided by Joyce & Bittner Attorneys at Law)
• AP: 'Junior' Gotti seeks bail in NY racketeering case

Full post as published by FindLaw's Common Law on January 09, 2009 (boomark / email).