Victoria Gotti's Fish Story

John Favara goes down in history as one of the most pathetic victims of the mob. He was the next door neighbor of John Gotti, the bestial boss of the Gambino crime family. Favara accidentally ran down the Gotti's young son Frankie in March 1980. Favara was abducted and brutally murdered.

Details of Favara's murder--apparently he was dismembered while still alive--have emerged in mob prosecutions over recent years, as described here.

So that's that, right? Just another disgusting murder of hundreds of murders carried out by the Gotti crew and other mob thugs over the years. But now, it seems, Favara's memory is being foully stained.

The New York Post yesterday published an excerpt of a new book by Gotti's daughter Victoria, and her account portrays Favara as a smirking, callous, drunk idiot:

My brother had borrowed another kid's minibike and was riding in a construction site near the side of the road. But that dreadful day, a drunken driver was speeding down the avenue and struck my brother.

The driver dragged him some 200 feet before angry neighbors stopped the car, pounced on his hood, and stopped him from crossing the avenue.

"Don't you even realize you have a kid under the wheels of your f- - -in' car?" one neighbor, Ted Friedman, recalled yelling out.

According to the neighbor, the driver, John Favara, then stopped the car. Another neighbor reached in and grabbed his keys, shutting the ignition off and pointed to my brother's near-lifeless body under the front wheels.

My brother's blood seemed to leave a trail down the entire block, leading up to the now-parked car.

Favara jumped from the car and started yelling, "What the f- - - was he doing in the street?"

To complete the picture, Favara is described as catching sight of Victoria's distraught mother and "he shot her a smug smile. Then he grinned."

Gee, I'd want to dismember a guy like that, wouldn't you? Except that this story seems like an absolute phony from top to bottom.

Compare the account of the accident provided by Ms. Gotti above to other accounts, such as Mob Star by authoritative mob writers Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci. There's no mention of Favara being drunk, or of having dragged the child for 200 feet. Favara was never prosecuted. In fact, as best as I can tell, only Victoria Gotti provides these gruesome "details," which are calculated to make Favara as muder-able as possible.

The "smug smile" bit is totally lacking in credibility. Favara knew that he had accidentally killed the son of a vicious killer and gang boss. Every single other account, such as this one in New York magazine, make it very plain that Favara was mortified and repentent, and had consulted the neighborhood priest, who warned him to stay away from the Gottis.

The New York magazine account adds that Favara was blinded by the sun when he struck the child, and that Favara's son Scott was close friends with Frankie Gotti.

Scott Favara has had to grow up without a father because his family had the misfortune of living in the same galaxy as a blood-stained murderer like John Gotti. He hasn't even a grave to visit, as noted in this 2004 article. Now he has to see the memory of his father besmirched so irresponsibly.

Where is his book contract? Where is his newspaper excerpt?

© 2009 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.