[1] Due to Gotti's failure to wait for his friend's tutorial and entering the street at a blind spot, his death was ruled an accident and criminal charges were never filed against Favara.
One account said that while Favara was alive, he was dismembered with a chainsaw, stuffed into a barrel filled with concrete and dumped in the ocean, or buried somewhere on the lot of a chop shop.
[6][7] In November 2004, informants led the FBI to excavate a parking lot in The Hole, suspected to be a mob graveyard and the site of Favara's body.
In the film, Gotti, portrayed by Armand Assante, is shown pointedly admonishing underboss Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, played by William Forsythe, that his son's death was an accident and to "leave it alone".
The incident bears similarities to the opening episode of Showtime's Your Honor, in which a New Orleans mafia boss's son was hit by a car on a motorbike, which leads the father to take revenge.