Latest news with #JimmyHoffa
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Jimmy Hoffa's family still hopes his body will be found 50 years after the mafia-linked union boss disappeared without trace
Jimmy Hoffa's son still believes that his father's remains will someday be found. 'Sure, it's a long shot. But you hope against hope that maybe they'll come across something, anything that would bring us closure after all these years,' James Hoffa Jr., 84, told Daily Mail. 'You want to know what happened to your father.' It was 50 years ago on Wednesday – July 30, 1975 – that the charismatic, yet controversial labor leader vanished from a suburban Detroit parking lot. He was never seen again, at least publicly. His corpse has never been found despite countless searches. And nobody has ever been charged for his disappearance. What happened to the once-powerful union boss became one of the late 20th century's most enduring mysteries – a whodunnit above which question marks linger to this day as law enforcement agencies and news outlets still receive tips about the location of his remains. As recently as July 2022, for example, a deathbed statement of a man who in the late summer of 1975 worked at a landfill near the Pulaski Skyway in New Jersey prompted the FBI to dig for a steel drum the man said contained the labor leader's body parts. The pursuit came up empty. Hoffa's disappearance and the mafia figures popularly suspected of causing it rattled the labor world, captured the imaginations of conspiracy theorists, became a punchline for comedians and captivated the nation from the mid to late 1970s. A half-century later, it also still haunts his family. 'Thank you for remembering that sad time for us. But it hurts to talk about it,' his daughter, Barbara Crancer, 87, a retired judge in St. Louis, told Daily Mail. She referred questions to her brother in Michigan. 'It's still so emotional, so painful for us all,' said Hoffa Jr., who was a young union lawyer at the time of the disappearance and went on, like his dad, to lead the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1988 to 2022. The elder James Riddle Hoffa was born in Indiana in 1913 and moved to Detroit, where he dropped out of school at the age of 14 to support his mother and three siblings after their father died in 1920. His activism stemmed from his fury as a teenager about the low wages and poor labor conditions at the grocery company where he worked. He was 19 when he took a job as an organizer with his Teamsters local in Detroit. Partly because of his efforts over the next several decades, the union representing American and Canadian truck drivers, warehouse workers and laborers in a variety of other freight-industry jobs grew from about 75,000 members in the early 1930s to about 1.5 million in the 1950s. At that peak during the post-WWII economic boom, companies were rushing to deliver products to customers. Hoffa – whose presidency of the union lasted from 1957 to 1971 – built the union's power largely on what he called 'quickie strikes' that held up freight deliveries. Companies feared him, his strong-arm tactics, and the sway he seemed to have among workers. Union brass credit him to this day with the job security and living standards of its members. But Hoffa had many corruption scandals that also gave the Teamsters – and the labor movement in general – a black eye. He was arrested in 1957 on allegations of trying to bribe an aide serving a US Senate committee investigating union practices. Although cleared on those charges, he faced more arrests after US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy vowed to root out organized crime, especially from the labor movement. Hoffa went to prison after convictions first for jury tampering, then for fraud by misusing the Teamsters' pension funds. He tried leading the union from inside a federal prison but ultimately resigned as president as part of an agreement with President Richard Nixon, who commuted his sentence in 1971 on the condition that he not directly or indirectly manage any union for at least nine years. Hoffa nevertheless tried to regain his presidency of the Teamsters in the mid-1970s despite pushback from the mafia, which by then had infiltrated the union. On the day of his disappearance, he was scheduled for a 2pm meeting at the Machus Red Fox, an upscale eatery in the northern Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Township, with Anthony Giacalone, a purported kingpin in a Detroit-based mafia. The FBI believes that Giacalone set up the appointment in hopes of brokering a reconciliation between Hoffa and Anthony Provenzano, a labor racketeer connected to the notorious Genovese crime family. Hoffa had met and been close with Provenzano in prison before the two had a bitter falling out. Hoffa noted Giacolone's initials and the time and location of the appointment on his office calendar: 'TG-2pm-Red Fox.' But the meeting never took place. Hoffa called his wife, Josephine, from a nearby pay phone at about 2.30pm that afternoon to say the two mobsters had stood him up and that he would be home by 4pm. His family contacted the police when he hadn't returned by the next morning. A witness told detectives that Hoffa – whose years of union leadership had made him recognizable throughout metro Detroit – had left with some other people at about 2.50pm in the back of a maroon vehicle believed to be a Mercury Marquis Brougham, rather than in his own, which was still parked in the restaurant's lot. Authorities ultimately took possession of that other car, which turned out to belong to Giacalone's son, Joseph, but was believed to be driven that day by Charles O'Brien, a union organizer who had been a close friend and protégé of Hoffa. A police crime dog picked up Hoffa's scent. Detectives also recovered a strand of hair in the back seat that DNA testing in 2001 confirmed matched a sample from Hoffa's hairbrush. Both Giacalone and Provenzano, who are long dead, had alibis for the afternoon of Hoffa's disappearance and denied having made the appointment at the Red Fox. Local police, state police and the FBI received thousands of tips about Hoffa's fate, responding to some by digging up fields, a horse farm, driveways and landfills searching for signs of his remains. The recovery efforts seemed so common in metro Detroit that locals would joke, 'They're looking for Jimmy,' at the mere sight of a track hoe. Authorities declared Hoffa legally dead in 1982. That same year, one of his associates told a Senate committee that Hoffa had been killed on Provenzano's orders, and that Provenzano's minions ground him up 'in little pieces,' which they 'shipped to Florida and tossed in a swamp.' Donald 'Tony the Greek' Frankos, a purported mafia hitman, claimed to have been part of a group that dismembered Hoffa's corps e and buried it in cement at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. Another theory surmised that Hoffa was killed near the restaurant where he was abducted and his body parts run through a shredding machine at a mob-owned garbage disposal company north of downtown Detroit. That plant burned down in an arson fire half a year later. A mob lawyer claimed that Hoffa's remains were buried at the former Savannah Inn and Golf Country Club in Georgia. Another theory asserted that he was buried in the concrete foundation of General Motors' seven-tower, 73-story Renaissance Center in Detroit. Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran claimed to have taken part in killing Hoffa in Detroit, although prosecutors didn't buy his story and never prosecuted him. Sheeran's account was made famous by Martin Scorsese's 2019 Netflix film The Irishman, in which he was played by Robert De Niro. Some theories speculated that Hoffa never disappeared at all but rather faked his own death and ran off to be with a mistress, or to avoid financial problems, or to escape threats from mafia families tied to the Teamsters. Hoffa was declared legally dead in 1982. The theory prosecutors put forward during a 1975 grand jury was the mob had been raiding the Teamsters' pension fund and put a hit on Hoffa to stop him from going to police Other theories surmised that the then leadership of the Teamsters ordered a hit on Hoffa to silence him. The theory prosecutors put forward during a 1975 grand jury investigation was that the mob had been raiding the Teamsters' pension fund and put a hit on Hoffa to prevent him from disclosing it to authorities. But prosecutors lacked conclusive evidence to charge anyone, causing hopes of ever solving Hoffa's disappearance to fade in the 1980s and 1990s. Although the case is inactive in Eastern Michigan's US Attorney's office, it is not officially closed. Most of the named suspects – a list of mafia members or union operators with mob ties – have since died, and with them the long litany of late-night comedians' jokes about their gangster nicknames. Meanwhile, the old-school and clubby Machus Red Fox restaurant closed in 1996 and reopened a year later as Andiamo, meaning 'Let's go' in Italian. Despite much urging, the new owner, restaurateur Joe Vicari chose against renaming the place after Hoffa, deeming that 'would be in bad taste.' At one point in the ensuing decades, the restaurant did name a dish for the union boss – Aragosta alla Hoffa, a lobster tail in garlic butter sauce served with broccoli rabe and mushroom risotto. The lore of Hoffa's disappearance lives on vintage matchbooks, swizzle sticks and ashtrays from the restaurant selling for high-dollar on Ebay, and in dozens of books, songs and movies about the mystery, as well as a video game. Hoffa Jr. said he must have driven by the restaurant 'a thousand times' since his father's disappearance, but 'never had the stomach to go in.'
Digital Trends
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
10 best Netflix original movies to watch this summer
For a decade now, Netflix has been making original movies of varying kinds and qualities. Frankly, most of them have been pretty bad. At some point, though, Netflix decided that it wanted to try to win Oscars, which meant that it had to, at least sometimes, make good movies. Not every movie on this list was an Oscar contender, but Netflix has built an impressive library with many original gems. These are 10 of the best Netflix original movies to watch this summer. To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018) Is this the most serious movie on this list? Absolutely not, but Netflix deserves credit for producing a teen rom-com that is something more than just slop. To All the Boys I've Loved Before is, in most ways, an utterly predictable romantic comedy. Recommended Videos It follows a love–obsessed Korean American teen who pretends to date the most popular boy in school, only to find herself falling for him. What's shocking about this movie is how stylish it is, how funny it is, and how utterly winning its two central performances are. It's basically guaranteed to leave you smiling. You can watch To All the Boys I've Loved Before on Netflix. The Irishman (2019) Martin Scorsese's late-period masterpiece, The Irishman, is a gangster movie that reminds us of the horrors of that lifestyle. The story centers on an Irish American who gets involved with the mob and becomes a close associate of Jimmy Hoffa. As he becomes one of the mafia's principal enforcers, he begins taking out every person he once had a relationship with. The lasting images of this movie are of a man utterly alone, recounting the life he lived to people who no longer care who he was or what he did. You can watch The Irishman on Netflix. Da 5 Bloods (2020) One of the best Spike Lee movies of the past decade, Da 5 Bloods tells the story of a group of Black Vietnam veterans who reunite in the present day to get the treasure that they buried in the jungle decades ago. As they move toward the treasure, their disagreements about politics and the world come to the surface, as does all the trauma they experienced during the war. Da 5 Bloods is one part action movie and one part meditation on how Black men have been abused by this country. Plus, it features a career-defining lead performance from Delroy Lindo. You can watch Da 5 Bloods on Netflix. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) This sequel, Knives Out, had a lot to live up to after Netflix gave Rian Johnson hundreds of millions of dollars to make it. Thankfully, Glass Onion didn't disappoint, even as it followed a very different murder mystery that is just as intriguing. The film follows brilliant sleuth Benoit Blanc as he is invited to attend a reunion of old friends after one of them has become fabulously wealthy and used that wealth to elevate the others. When the bodies start to pile up, Blanc must figure out exactly what's going on and who might be responsible. It's just as funny and inventive as the first film and looks even more expensive. You can watch Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery on Netflix. The Lost Daughter (2021) Olivia Colman is one of the great actresses of the past decade, and The Lost Daughter features one of her best performances. The film tells the story of a college professor who becomes obsessed with a young woman and her daughter while vacationing in Greece. As we learn more about her difficulties raising her own children, we come to appreciate exactly why this character is motivated in the way that she is. The Lost Daughter is, above all else, a movie about the joys and perils of parenthood, and one that provocatively asks us to examine whether having kids is really worth it after all. You can watch The Lost Daughter on Netflix. Marriage Story (2019) A heartbreaking movie about the loss of love, Marriage Story tells the story of a divorce between two people who love each other but no longer want to be married. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson deliver heartrending performances, but what makes Marriage Story so special is how real it all feels. In a movie where the two people at the center agree to the divorce, things get contentious nonetheless as lawyers get involved, and their son becomes a casualty of their desire to defeat one another. You can watch Marriage Story on Netflix. Mudbound (2017) A harrowing story of life in the South in the early 20th century, Mudbound is told from two dueling perspectives. The film follows two veterans of World War II, one Black and one white, as they return to Mississippi after the war and deal with the poverty and racism that awaits them there. Because of its multiple perspectives, Mudbound highlights the widespread suffering experienced by many, particularly emphasizing how Black individuals often faced the harshest consequences. It's not an easy movie to watch, but if you can sit through it, it's deeply rewarding. You can watch Mudbound on Netflix. The Power of the Dog (2021) One of the best thrillers Netflix has ever produced, The Power of the Dog tells the story of a rancher living in the 1920s who lives with his brother. When his brother chooses to marry a widow and brings her and her son into their home, he disrupts the carefully structured lives they have maintained. As the young boy gets closer to the reclusive, curmudgeonly rancher who has been antagonizing his mother, he comes to realize that there are things about himself that he's hiding from the world. Surprising, unsettling, and moving, The Power of the Dog is not what you might expect. It's even better. You can watch The Power of the Dog on Netflix. Okja (2017) Anyone who has seen Parasite is likely aware that Bong Joon-ho is not a subtle filmmaker, and Okja is definitely not a subtle film. The movie follows a young girl and her genetically engineered superpig, Okja, after they are separated by a corporation that wants to capture creatures like the pig and create exceptionally tasty meat. As this young girl tries to rescue her closest friend, she meets animal rights activists, butty doctors, and other superpigs that need her help. It's a movie about the evils of the meat industry, and it's certainly not subtle. But man, does Okja rule. You can watch Okja on Netflix. Private Life (2018) A heartbreaking movie about two people who are trying to navigate the world of infertility and adoption, Private Life is small, quiet, and heartbreaking. Anchored by two incredible performances from Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn, this movie is really about two people who are trying to make their marriage work, even as they deal with what often seem like impossible circumstances of trying to have a child. In particular, Hahn is incredible as a woman who worries that she's missed her chance and wants to change the circumstances of her life. You can watch Private Life on Netflix.
Fox News
3 days ago
- Fox News
Jimmy Hoffa's son: who killed my dad, why, and what it did to my family
Jimmy Hoffa was murdered on July 30,1975 in a conspiracy that included a pair of Detroit Mafia brothers and the then-president of the Teamsters Union, Frank Fitzsimmons, according to the labor leader's son, James P. Hoffa. "They had it set up to murder him, and they did," Hoffa said.. "They actually got together to kill him because they couldn't stop him any other way. He was an unstoppable force," Hoffa said about his legendary father, who was preparing to run for the presidency of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters against Fitzsimmons in 1976. "Fitzsimmons was afraid that Hoffa was coming back and he says, 'I want this job. I want to keep this job.' And the mob didn't want him back, and I think they got together. They'd say, 'How do we make sure he doesn't come back?' because they were afraid. They knew if he did come back, he would win the election and he would take back the union. They knew that, and the only way to stop him was to kill him." The stunning revelations from the younger Hoffa, a former Teamsters president himself, are aired in an exclusive Fox Nation interview. Hoffa opened up about his father's disappearance for the last two episodes of the streaming series "Riddle, The Search for James R. Hoffa." "It was just devastating to my family, to my sister," Hoffa said. "My father was everything, and my mother died five years later of a broken heart. She never got over it." "We don't have closure because we don't have a grave. And it's amazing what that means to people," he continued. "We are left with the love of him, but what else do you have? We have a hole in our heart." "My father is gone, and he was a great man, and that's the great loss to my family and to the union." Hoffa told Fox Nation that Fitzsimmons, who died of lung cancer in 1981 at the age of 73, was a member of the conspiracy that was hatched by the Detroit mob crime family to get rid of his father. He said the assassination plan was carried out by Mafia capos Anthony Giacalone, known as "Tony Jack," and his capo brother Vito Giacalone, known as "Billy Jack." "He was pushing very hard against powerful people in the union and obviously in the mob," he said. "They realized the only way to stop him was to kill him." Fox Nation has also learned about a new claim from a Detroit mobster who told the FBI he witnessed Hoffa's murder and named Vito "Billy Jack" Giacalone as the killer. The informant said he would refuse to testify and would deny he admitted it if ever confronted, according to the claim. Another new accusation comes from former Detroit mobster Nove Tocco, who said that "Tony Jack" Giacalone told him that Hoffa was killed by another mobster, Anthony Palazzolo, known as "Tony Pal," according to Detroit mob reporter Scott Burnstein, who runs the website "Gangster Report." The FBI would not confirm the claims. Palazzolo's family refused to comment to Fox Nation and Vito "Billy Jack" Giaclone's son, 74- year old Jackie Giacalone, who has been publicly listed as the reputed current head of the Detroit mob, previously told Fox Nation that he has no idea what happened to Hoffa. James P. Hoffa said he would not be surprised if Vito "Billy Jack" Giacalone was the hitman who murdered his father. He said he is unfamiliar with Palazzolo. Hoffa was last seen in the parking lot of the Bloomfield Hills, Mich., restaurant, the Machus Red Fox, at about 2:30 pm on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 30, 1975. He thought that he was on his way to a meeting arranged by Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone, to make peace with Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano, a powerful Teamsters local president in New Jersey and capo in the New York-based Genovese crime family. "Tony Pro" had for years been a bitter union enemy and Hoffa needed his support against Fitzsimmons in the upcoming Teamsters election. Six witnesses saw Hoffa as he waited to be picked up in the 92-degree heat. He was then seen climbing into a maroon Mercury sedan and vanished. In 2001, the FBI announced that DNA from a strand of hair found on the right rear seat of that car matched Hoffa. Hoffa's son believes that Vito "Billy Jack" Giacalone picked up his father in the car and told his Dad that his brother Anthony and "Tony Pro" Provenzano were waiting for him elsewhere for the meeting. Observers think Anthony "Tony Pal" Palazzolo, was also in the car and, along with Vito "Billy Jack" Giacalone, served as the Mafia's hit team. They drove Hoffa to a secure location where he would have felt comfortable and safe for the sit-down, and then killed him. Hoffa, in the months before he vanished, had started speaking out against the growing Mafia influence in the union and attacked Fitzsimmons as a tool of organized crime. He blamed Fitzsimmons for turning over the billion-dollar Teamsters Central States Pension Fund, that helped in part to build Las Vegas, to various mob crime families. Hoffa, in his railing against Fitzsimmons and the Mafia, accused Fitzsimmons of "selling out to mobsters" and buying a mansion at California's Las Costa Country Club with union money. He also vowed to get rid of the Teamsters' Mafia loans and kick the mob out of the union. "Ever since Fitzsimmons took over the underworld holds the balance of power in the Teamsters," Hoffa declared. "Well, mobsters be damned!" "The mob didn't want him back. Fitzsimmons didn't want him back. They had it good under Fitzsimmons. They were getting pension fund loans. They were doing everything else, and my father knew about it. He wanted to straighten the union out," said Hoffa's son James. But he knew his father was playing with his life. An FBI report said that James "stated that he always feared for the life of his father. However, this fear was at its greatest in July expressed a fear for his father's life. Hoffa stated that his father told him there was nothing to fear." Hoffa said his warnings to his father went unheeded. "I told him, 'I think you are in danger,' and he never acknowledged that. He's just one of those persons that wanted to bull on. That's the way he was. That was his nature," he said. "I was worried about him. He was pushing very hard on some powerful people in the union and obviously some people in the mob." Jimmy Hoffa gave his last interview to Detroit investigative reporter Jerry Stanecki, a few weeks before he vanished: Hoffa: "What the hell people doing to try and kill me for? " Stanecki: "To get you out of the way." Hoffa: "That's nonsense. Out of the way for what?" Stanecki: "You don't think somebody is going to try to have you killed?" Hoffa: "Hell no.... hell no." When Stanecki asked Hoffa if Fitzsimmons "would go so far to eliminate you," Hoffa replied that Fitzsimmons "hasn't got the guts." But Hoffa's son said that's exactly what Fitzsimmons did. "Fitzsimmons was the worst man in the world," he says. There were multiple meetings over a six-month period before Hoffa disappeared where he sat down with the Giacalone brothers as they tried to convince Hoffa to settle his differences with Provenzano. Hoffa's son said the purpose of the meetings was just a pretense to get Hoffa alone to murder him. "These guys are gangsters. They looked like gangsters and they acted like gangsters," he says. Hoffa said he told his father, 'Those people are bad, don't have anything to do with them.' He added, 'They were just conning my Dad." James and his father met with the Giacalone brothers in James's downtown Detroit law office on May 15, 1975. James said they pressured his Dad to meet with "Tony Pro." The Giacalones again sat down with Hoffa at his lake house on Lake Orion on July 12. The final meeting occurred on Sunday July 27, three days before Hoffa vanished. At that meeting, Hoffa and "Tony Jack" were sitting at a picnic table on the side of the lake house when James arrived and approached them. "I walked up and my Dad said, 'Get lost, go away,' we're talking," James recalled. He did not like what he saw and did not want his father to deal with the likes of the Giacalones. "It was too perilous trying to come back with the elements that he was dealing with, and I said, 'It's not worth it to try and come back, Dad, you've got it all. You've got your pension, you've got a beautiful family. You've got grandkids. Raise the grandkids, enjoy your life. You've worked hard all your life.' And he said, 'No, I'm coming back'." Three days later, at 1:15 in the afternoon of July 30, Hoffa kissed his wife Josephine goodbye at the kitchen door, drove down his driveway, made a right to head to the highway to the Machus Red Fox restaurant to meet up with "Tony Jack." He never came back. Hoffa's son puts the blame directly on the feared capo, "Tony Jack," Anthony Giacalone. "Giacalone had him killed. He didn't kill him, but he was part of the plot." In 1978, three years after Hoffa vanished, corroboration that "Tony Jack" was behind the disappearance came in a court filing about then-Teamsters president Jackie Presser. He had long been an FBI informant and Presser told the bureau that "Tony Jack" needed $250,000 and he put the squeeze on Fitzsimmons to get it. "Presser stated that Giacalone had advised Fitzsimmons that he had Hoffa killed, and that since he had taken care of Fitzsimmons' arch rival, it was proper for Fitzsimmons to pay him." James Hoffa said he called Giacalone a few days after his father disappeared to find out if he knew anything. He said "Tony Jack" told him that he never had a meeting with his father, and when Hoffa asked what happened to his dad, "Tony Jack" replied, "Maybe he's on vacation." "What an answer," says James. "A smart-ass answer from Tony Giacalone. I thought exactly what I thought, that he had something to do with his disappearance." Through the years, there have been various claims about where Hoffa was killed. One possibility was a local catering hall called the Raleigh House, which the FBI investigated and found no evidence tying it to the disappearance. Another location seems more likely, a mansion on a secluded knoll in Bloomfield Hills. The home was owned at the time by Detroit mob solider Carlo Licata, who was found shot to death on his bed in the house on July 30, six years to the day from when Hoffa had vanished. "I believe his death was a retaliation for what he knew about Jimmy Hoffa's murder," said Licata's cousin, Anne Licata-Solaas. "He was going to expose it." Licata-Solaas has written a book about her family, "The Scent of Lemons," that lays out the scenario that Carlo was murdered to keep him quiet about what happened to Hoffa. Authorities ruled Licata's death a "suicide," and determined that Licata died instantly from a bullet to his heart. But Licata-Solaas doesn't buy it. The gun was found seven feet from Licata's body, resting neatly on his dresser chest of drawers. Fox Nation asked renowned Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Baden to review Licata's autopsy and police report. He doesn't think Licata killed himself either. "The forensic evidence is that this is a homicide, not a suicide," said Baden. "Someone else did this." Baden cites, among other reasons, that the gun was held a few inches away from Licata's body, there was no gunpowder residue on his hands which would have been left by a .357 magnum, and Licata would not have been able to die and then stand up to place the gun on the far side of the room and then lie down again. Investigators say Licata's house was the logical place to kill Jimmy Hoffa. It had a secluded garage that was hidden from the street, so the car with Hoffa could have pulled in without being noticed. "It makes sense from the standpoint that it was probably the closest place they could take him and still have him believe that, okay, nothing bad was going to happen," former FBI agent Mike Cerone told Fox Nation. Carlo Licata's sons declined to comment. Over the years there have been claims that Hoffa was buried in the New Jersey Meadowlands, in various fields and under driveways in Michigan, under the massive Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit and under a baseball field in Wisconsin. The FBI last dug in 2022 under the Pulaski Skyway in Jersey City, N.J., at the site of an old mob-connected waste site, known as Moscato's dump. It was claimed that Hoffa was buried there in a barrel. The search came up empty. "The answer is incredibly simple. Jimmy Hoffa never left Detroit," said Burnstein. "This was something that probably happened in a 30 to 60-minute window on the afternoon of July 30, 1975. It happened in probably a 15-mile radius of where he was murdered." "I believe Jimmy Hoffa was part of the ozone layer within 90 minutes of disappearing," said Vince Wade, a veteran Detroit television reporter who broke the story of Hoffa's disappearance in 1975. "I believe the body was totally destroyed." The preponderance of the evidence points to the waste facility, Central Sanitation Services in Hamtramck, Mich., a short drive over the Detroit city line, as the place where Hoffa's body was taken. "It was run by the Mob, so they could control who was around and who wasn't around. If you don't have a body, you don't have evidence. And if you don't have evidence, you don't have a case," said Wade. "It had those huge compactors which would crush tons of cardboard into miniscule pieces of cardboard, said Keith Corbett, the former head of the Justice Department Organized Crime Strike Force in Detroit. "That would have been the perfect place." David Tubman, who has researched the case extensively and written the book "Jimmy Hoffa Is Missing, -The Gap," said a witness who worked at Central Sanitation in July, 1975, including the day Hoffa vanished, told him that Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone visited the facility shortly before Hoffa went missing. "'Tony Jack" came in and was walking around calmly, casually, studying the equipment and walking around it for 45 minutes to an hour," said Tubman. He believes the mob capo was there to inspect where Hoffa's body was going to go. And on the evening of July 30, the day Hoffa disappeared, Burnstein said that mobster Anthony "Tony Pal" Palazzolo was also seen at the facility. "'Tony Pal' showed up at Central Sanitation in the hours after Hoffa had vanished and basically cleared the place out," he said. In addition, Tubman says the employee who operated the massive bundler machine that could have crushed Hoffa's remains was replaced that a mobster. "That process would have definitely destroyed any trace of a human body," he said. "It was planned, it was programmed, there was a process from the beginning to the end, and when I mean the end, I mean the destruction of the body," said Richard Convertino, a former federal prosecutor in Detroit, who prosecuted Anthony "Tony Pal" Palazzolo in another case. "Tony Pal" was caught on tape years later by an undercover agent boasting that he ran Hoffa's body through a massive sausage auger in a Detroit meat processing company. "He said, 'That's where I put Jimmy," said Convertino. After "Tony Pal" put Hoffa's body through the auger, the remains were taken to Central Sanitation for disposal, said Burnstein. The FBI said there was probable cause that Central Sanitation was where Hoffa's body was destroyed. Central Sanitation has long been out of business. Seven months after Hoffa disappeared, a fire destroyed the building. It was caused by arson. The Hoffa case is still active in the Detroit office of the FBI and has a special agent assigned to it. "The Bureau does take it seriously. It's still an active investigation," said Christopher J. Hess, an assistant special agent in charge of the office. "We continue to follow leads, seek information from the public and make every effort to further the investigation. "It's always my hope that any case that we investigate gets solved and justice is served," Hess told Fox Nation. "Certainly in this case, we recognize the historical significance of the case, but more importantly there is a family member and family who still mourns the loss of their family member, in this case Mr. Hoffa, so we hope for information that leads us to the evidence that we need to solve this case." "I hope it is solved in my lifetime," he said. Even though Hoffa vanished half a century ago, his work continues through the James R. Hoffa Memorial Scholarship Fund, which distributes about $1.4 million a year in scholarship money to the daughters and sons of Teamsters members for their education. "It's basically a tribute to what his ideals were and the fact that it helps kids," said James Hoffa. "It's part of his legacy... it keeps his memory alive." He hopes that his father will not be remembered for what happened to him, but for what he accomplished at the bargaining table and on the picket line over the decades for American workers. Hoffa secured the employee benefits that so many take for granted today, such as higher wages, overtime, increased pensions and health care coverage, he said. "That's the memory we want of people, not how he disappeared. You know, one of the things people say sometimes is, it's not how you died, but now you lived. And you know what? Jimmy Hoffa can look back on that and say, he lived right." "We miss him." Although no one has been convicted of the Hoffa killing, the Hoffa family wants the truth out, and they say that points to the Detroit Mafia and the Giacalone brothers working with then-Teamsters president Fitzsimmons as those who were responsible. Watch all eight episodes of "Riddle, The Search for James R. Hoffa," streaming on Fox Nation. The final episodes with James P. Hoffa debut on July 30.
New York Post
4 days ago
- New York Post
Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance remains among America's most infamous, unsolved mysteries — but there's a new theory
It's been 50 years — and countless conspiracy theories — since Jimmy Hoffa first disappeared, and his case remains one of the most infamous and vexing unsolved mysteries in U.S. history. The ex-Teamsters boss left his cottage home in suburban Lake Orion, Mich., near Detroit on July 30, 1975 for a 2 p.m. meeting at the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in nearby Bloomfield Hills. He was reportedly gathering with a group of gangsters, including Anthony 'Tony Pro' Provenzano, a New Jersey-based capo for the Genovese crime family, and Detroit mob boss Anthony 'Tony Jack' Giacalone. Hoffa was trying to regain control of the union after stepping down as its leader four years earlier — and the mob wanted no part of that since it meant they'd lose access to the the Teamster's lucrative pension fund. Advertisement At around 2:15 p.m., Hoffa, 62, called his wife, Josephine, from the restaurant's parking lot to tell her no one showed up. It was the last time anyone ever heard from him. 9 It's been 50 years since Jimmy Hoffa was last seen alive, but his disappearance remains one of the most infamous, unsolved mysteries in American history. Bettmann Archive He was officially declared dead seven years later, but the whereabouts of his remains have baffled the FBI ever since. Advertisement Over the past five decades, the agency has assigned hundreds of agents to the case who've debunked conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory – while costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, estimated Hoffa historian and author Scott Burnstein. 9 Police in 2012 block a driveway in Roseville, Mich., so authorities could drill into a cement driveway and search for Hoffa — only to come up empty. AP 9 FBI agents in 2006 sifting through a mound of dirt on the site of a demolished barn in Milford Township, Mich., while searching for Hoffa's remains. ASSOCIATED PRESS The case also spawned more than 20 books, multiple movies and documentaries – and a cottage industry of investigative journalists, amateur sleuths and former wise guys claiming to know what really happened. Advertisement Just this week a new theory emerged — that Hoffa's corpse was literally turned into mincemeat, The Post can reveal. Burnstein — who believes the hit on Hoffa was carried out by Detroit's Tocco–Zerilli crime family — said the case's mythology took on a life of its own because remains were never found. 'This was something they thought was a perfect crime – and in a lot of ways it was the perfect crime,' he told The Post, referring to the crime syndicate also known as 'Detroit Partnership.' 'I just don't think they anticipated people would still be talking about it 50 years later, and this is a mob family that thrives in the shadows. They like being stealth. 9 Hoffa left his cottage home in suburban Lake Orion, Mich., near Detroit on July 30, 1975 for a 2 p.m. meeting at the Machus Red Fox Restaurant (shown) in nearby Bloomfield Hills. He called his wife, Josephine, from the restaurant's parking lot at 2:15 p.m. to tell her no one showed up. It was the last time anyone ever heard from him. Bettmann Archive Advertisement 'They're not a New York-type family or Chicago-type family or Philadelphia-type family that really covets the press.' On Wednesday, Burnstein teamed up with former federal prosecutor Richard Convertino and ex-mob soldier Nove Tocco at an event at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich., to reveal the latest theory to surface about what happened to Hoffa. They claimed Hoffa was whacked by late Detroit mobster Anthony 'Tony Pal' Palazzolo — and the body ground up in a sausage grinder at the former Detroit Sausage Company Palazzolo used for his operations. 9 Anthony 'Tony Pro' Provenzano, a New Jersey-based capo for the Genovese crime family, was one of the reputed mobsters Hoffa was supposed to meet with the day he went missing. ASSOCIATED PRESS The remaining pieces were then dumped in an incinerator of a mob-owned waste disposal business in nearby Hamtramck, Mich., that was destroyed in an arson fire eight months later, the trio claimed. The site is now part of a local jail complex. Other popular theories about Hoffa's demise include: He was whacked on Provenzano's orders, and his body was chopped into little pieces, taken to South Florida and thrown into the Everglades. The FBI never found evidence to support the claim. Hoffa was buried during construction of the old Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. — which is now part of MetLife Stadium's parking lot. The FBI dismissed the claim that Hoffa was buried under what would become Section 107 of the old stadium — made by mob hitman-turned-informant Donald 'Tony the Greek' Frankos during a 1989 Playboy magazine interview. The agency didn't even bother to check it out when the stadium was demolished in 2010. Hoffa's pal Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran claimed on his deathbed in 2003 that he lured Hoffa to a house in Detroit and shot him twice in the back of the head on mobsters' orders. Key parts of the tale spurred the 2019 hit flick 'The Irishman.' Local police ripped up floorboards at the same house in 2004, and the FBI later determined that blood found on them wasn't Hoffa's. He was buried at a horse farm in Milford Township, Mich. In 2006, the FBI searched the site, once owned by a Teamster official, after a 75-year-old inmate claimed he remembered seeing men using a backhoe to dig a hole there a day after Hoffa disappeared. The FBI brought cadaver dogs and fully demolished the barn – but found zilch. The failed search cost the agency $265,000, including $160,000 to replace the razed barn. Hoffa was abducted by federal marshals and agents and dropped out of an airplane into one of the Great Lakes surrounding Michigan, according to former Hoffa associate Joseph Franco who wrote a book about it. Authorities found Franco's book and claims to be fiction, not fact. He was buried beneath a swimming pool in Hampton Township, Mich. The 2003 tip came from convicted murderer Richard Powell, who told cops Hoffa was buried beneath his former property. Police demolished the pool to dig beneath it, but found no trace of Hoffa. Hoffa's driver Marvin Elkind claimed in the 2011 book 'The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob' that Hoffa's killers buried him beneath the 73-story Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit, which is General Motors' headquarters. The claim was rejected by authorities. A group of cold case crime investigators claimed in 2023 they believed Hoffa was buried on the site of the Brewers' old ballpark, Milwaukee County Stadium in Wisconsin. 9 Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran claimed on his deathbed in 2003 that he lured Hoffa to a house in Detroit and shot him twice in the back of the head on mobsters' orders. Key parts of the tale spurred the 2019 hit flick 'The Irishman.' ASSOCIATED PRESS Advertisement Dan Moldea, a 75-year-old journalist and author of 'The Hoffa Wars' who has written extensively about the case since the ex-Teamster boss went missing, spurred one of the most recent searches for Hoffa in 2021 by providing the feds information he secured from multiple mob sources. Moldea told the FBI he believed Hoffa was buried in a steel drum in an alcove under the Pulaski Skyway, near the site of a former Jersey City landfill. Before the FBI began its search, Moldea and Fox News contracted teams of investigators to use ground-penetrating radar to check for anomalies under the site, such as steel drums. Both tests flagged possible evidence, he said. 9 Investigative journalist Dan Moldea told the FBI his sources said Hoffa was buried in a steel drum in an alcove under the Pulaski Skyway, near the site of a former Jersey City landfill. The FBI conducted a search but Moldea believes they dug in the wrong location. AP Advertisement The scans were then provided to the FBI's Detroit Field Office, but Moldea said that office never shared the information with the FBI's Newark Field Office — and he believes this led to the feds digging in the wrong spot a mere 10 yards away and coming up empty. 'We spoon-fed them this information, so it was tragic the way the whole thing worked out,' Moldea told The Post. He wants to re-examine the suspected burial site, which is now owned by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, but said he's been blocked because the agency claims the area is currently an active work zone for overhead construction on the highway. Burnstein said he has great respect for Moldea's work but believes the murder and body disposal was done locally — not out of state. Advertisement 9 One of the most infamous theories about Hoffa's remains is that they were buried during the construction of the former Giants Stadium under what would become Section 107 by in the field's western end zone. AP 'I think people are making this way more complex than it actually was,' Bernstein said. 'This was a job done by the Detroit mob, and it was probably done within a half hour or 45 minutes.' Besides Hoffa's bid to reclaim the Teamsters' presidency — a title he held from 1959 to 1971 — Burnstein said his sources told him there's another reason mobsters wanted Hoffa dead: He was a 'confidential informant working for the FBI.' 'The rumors were starting to spread on the street in the spring of 75,' he said. Advertisement The FBI said the case remains active but declined to answer questions. 'As the 50th anniversary of Mr. Hoffa's disappearance approaches, the FBI Detroit Field Office remains steadfast in its commitment to pursuing all credible leads,' said Cheyvoryea Gibson, the office's Special Agent in Charge. 'We continue to encourage anyone with information to submit a tip at or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.' 9 Hoffa poses shortly before his appearance on the TV program 'Face the Nation,' on July 26, 1959, in Washington DC. ASSOCIATED PRESS James P. Hoffa, son of the late Teamsters boss, told the Detroit News he doesn't buy that his father's remains were taken out of state, and he denied that his father planned to testify for the feds. He's proud of the 'legacy' his father left behind, but regrets the disappearance became comedy fodder for late-night television and that his mother died in 1980 with a 'broken heart.' 'My father went to a meeting he shouldn't have gone to, and he was murdered,' said the younger Hoffa, 84, who served as Teamsters president from 1998-2022. 'I know there are a lot of theories out there, but we've stopped trying to figure out who did what to whom. 'This is a tragedy our family has had to live with, and we're still hoping to have closure someday.'
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EXCLUSIVE: James P. Hoffa on his father's disappearance and legacy
Fox News' Eric Shawn digs deep into the 50-year-old mystery surrounding the vanishing and presumed murder of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, and discusses the case an Hoffa's legacy with his son, James P. Hoffa.
