Driver who killed son of American Mafia Godfather 'was shot and then dissolved in barrel of acid'



American Godfather: John Gotti (pictured at his 1990 trial) is said to have ordered a hit on John Favara after he knocked down and killed the mobster's son

An intriguing mystery from the gangland career of John Gotti has apparently been solved almost 30 years on.



According to papers filed this week in Brooklyn federal court, John Favara - a neighbour of Gotti's who disappeared after accidentally running over and killing the mobster's 12-year-old son - was shot dead on the orders of the outraged Gambino crime family chief and his body was dissolved in a barrel of acid.



Authorities said a witness identified Charles Carneglia, a 62-year-old former hitman, as the perpetrator in the 1980 killing.



The court documents said Carneglia told an informant that acid was 'the best method to use to avoid detection'.



Those details, in a 44-page document by federal prosecutors for a racketeering trial, offered a new twist on the fate of Favara, a 51-year-old furniture warehouse worker who lived near the Gottis in the Howard Beach district of Queens.



He vanished without trace five months after the accident.



In the weeks before his disappearance, he was sent excrement in the post and received death threats, including an invitation to his own funeral.

Just two days after the death of Gotti's son, the local police station received a call from a woman who said: 'The driver of the car that killed Frank Gotti will be eliminated.'

Gotti, who rose through Mafia ranks to become head of the Gambino crime family, was convicted on 13 charges in 1992, which included racketeering, murder, conspiracy and tax fraud.

He died in prison in 2002, aged 61, after developing neck and head cancer.



Carneglia has pleaded not guilty at the trial, which continues.

