Since 1980, when John Favara disappeared shortly after killing his neighbor John Gotti's 12-year-old son Frank in a tragic car accident, everyone suspected that Gotti was responsible.

Everything following the Mar. 18, 1980 collision, in which Frank was killed while riding a borrowed mini-bike, and leading up to Favara's disappearance pointed to foul play.

Both Favara and police received anonymous telephone death threats. "Murderer" was spray painted on his car. Victoria Gotti attacked him with a metal baseball bat, forcing him to seek treatment at a local hospital.

Favara, 51, disappeared on July 28, 1980, but John and Victoria Gotti were conveniently 1500 miles away in Fort Lauderdale.

Two detectives, Gary Schriffen of Nassau, and John Hammond of Queens, visited the Bergin Hunt & Fish Club, Gotti's Ozone Park social club, to ask him about the disappearance of his backyard neighbor.

"I'm not sorry the guy's missing. I wouldn't be sorry if the guy turned up dead," said Gotti.

That same day, Victoria Gotti told the detectives much the same thing: "I don't know what happened to him, but I'm not disappointed he's missing. He killed my boy."

On Aug. 5, FBI informant Billy Battista reported that Favara's body would

"Gotti's wife has been completely distraught since the death of her son and Gotti promised her revenge..."

Gotti made good on his promise, according to documents and information from law enforcement sources. Eight members of Gotti's crew, using a van and two cars, according to the sources and documents, abducted Favara, stole his car and killed him. They disposed of his body and crushed his car in Brooklyn so evidence would never be found.

Of the eight, two -- Angelo Ruggiero (left) and Wilfred (Willie Boy) Johnson -- are dead. Four -- Gambino mobsters Gene Gotti (right) and John Carneglia, and associates Anthony (Tony Roach) Rampino and Richard (Redbird) Gomes, are serving long prison stretches for other crimes. Gotti and Carneglia are in federal prison for drug convictions. Gotti and Carneglia are due out in 2018. Rampino is jailed in New York for drugs and scheduled for release in 2012. Gomes, convicted in Rhode Island for attempted murder, is due out in 2007. Long time Gotti pals Iggy Alogna and Carneglia's brother Charles, also took part, according to the sources.

Five years after Favara's murder, Ruggiero, Rampino and John Carneglia

As with Castellano, Carneglia (left) fired the shots that killed Favara, sources said.

Carneglia had waited in a blue van with Alogna and Gomes for Favara to leave his job at a Castro Convertible warehouse in New  Hyde Park, L.I. and go to his car in the parking lot of the Capitol Diner next door, sources said.

Ruggiero and Gene Gotti were in a "crash car" across the street. Johnson and Rampino (right) were also parked nearby.

Favara, who planned to sell his Howard Beach home in two days, spotted the men and ran. Carneglia, using a .22 caliber handgun with a silencer, dropped him with two shots, sources said.

"No. No. Please, my wife," Favara gasped as he tried to get up. Gomes, a Providence hood who had hooked up with Gotti in the late 1970's, hit him in the head with a two-by-four and threw Favara into the van. Alogna gunned it, and they sped cleanly away, according to the sources.

Using Favara's keys, one crew member drove his car from the scene with the two crash cars close behind, sources said.

After driving to an East New York, Brooklyn junk yard that John Carneglia

Charles Carneglia, (right) who had been waiting at the junk yard for the hit team, sources said, disposed of the body in the Atlantic Ocean off Brooklyn. Brother John crushed his car at the junk yard.

It was a ruthless, well-planned hit, in some sense a precursor to Castellano's execution.

Joseph Corozzo, who represents John Gotti -- and Charles Carneglia in a pending extortion case -- called the probe "a waste of time and money." Noting that alleged killer Johnson (left) was a former top echelon FBI informer, Corozzo ripped the feds for choosing their informant information to suit their theory of the moment. Whatever evidence the feds possessed, he argued, had came from an informant "whose testimony is not worth the paper on which it is printed."

Favara's widow Janet, who had her husband declared dead in 1983, has  moved and could not be reached for comment.

A few months after Favara disappeared, on Oct. 18, 1980, Victoria Gotti placed two In Memoriam notices in the New York Daily News -- one from Frank's brothers and sisters, one from his mom and dad -- in which they wished him a "Happy Birthday in Heaven."

For 20 years, on Frank's birthday and on the anniversary of his death, she has publicly expressed her family's love for her dead son.

In 10 days, she is due to place another In Memoriam. This year, however, Favara's relatives have a better idea of what happened to their loved one, and that his last concerns were for his wife. 

You Did What? To My Car!

Luchese capo Salvatore Avellino was not too happy that his son-in-law Michael Malena joined him behind bars last week a few days before they were to plead guilty to racketeering in the Long Island garbage industry.

Malena was busted for drunken driving Thursday after he passed a red light and crashed into two school buses in Bohemia. The buses were empty, except for the drivers, who were not seriously injured. The blue Mercedes he was driving -- his father-in-law's -- was totaled.

Malena reeked of alcohol and admitted having a few martinis too many for lunch when he was finally extricated from the car, federal prosecutor Steve King said the next day, convincing Judge Denis Hurley to revoke his bail.

Avellino, son Michael, his son-in-law and three others are set to plead guilty Monday to charges they used racketeer tactics to control the garbage business on Long Island for 15 years. Sentences should range from two to seven years.