The case for Jimmy Hoffa, buried under a New Jersey bridge

Fast_E

Great stuff -- here is something from today's JJ.
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Digging in Mich. for Hoffa

Friday, May 19, 2006

MILFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - In one of the most intensive searches for Jimmy Hoffa in decades, the FBI summoned archaeologists and anthropologists and brought in heavy equipment to scour a horse farm yesterday for the body of the former Teamsters boss who vanished in 1975.

They are apparently not looking in Kearny, where the notorious mob hitman known as the "Ice Man" claimed he disposed of him.

Daniel Roberts, agent in charge of the Detroit FBI field office, would not disclose what led agents to the farm, but said: "This is probably a fairly credible lead. You can gather that from the number of people out here."

No trace of Hoffa has ever been found, and no one has ever been charged in the case. But investigators have long suspected that he was killed by the mob to keep him from reclaiming the Teamsters presidency after he got out of prison for corruption.

The farm, just outside Detroit, used to be owned by a Teamsters official. And mob figures used to meet at a barn there before Hoffa's disappearance, authorities said.

Investigators began scouring the area Wednesday, and the search continued yesterday and included the use of heavy construction equipment. Roberts said it would probably involve the removal of a barn.

Hoffa was last seen on a night he was scheduled to have dinner at a restaurant about 20 miles from the farm. He was supposed to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit Mafia captain.

A law enforcement official in Washington said the latest search was based on information developed several years ago and verified more recently.

Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski, a Hudson County native, provided details of that and other grisly murders for a book, "The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer," written by Philip Carlo and scheduled for release in July.

Kuklinski also recounted his early years in Jersey City, where he claims he killed stray dogs and cats and watched his father kill his younger brother.

I wouldn't believe a lot of what Kuklinski said. The most likely local connection to Hoffa's death is Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano who ran Teamsters local 560 in Union City. The building is on Paterson Plank and Summit in the transfer station area around 8th st. My father belonged to that local, it is still there. Tony Pro was also a Genovese capo. I remember seeing "vote Tony Pro" spray painted on overpasses and walls along the highways when I was a kid. Provenzano wouldn't have pulled the trigger but is generally thought to have been very involved in the murder. There was also a rumor that Hoffa was buried in Muscotto's dump under the Skyway in a 55 gal. drum. "Brother" Muscotto owned a restaurant on Newark Ave. by five corners.

If you want to read a really interesting book about the death of Jimmy Hoffa, check out Charles Brandt's "I Heard You Paint Houses" It is about the following guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sheeran

From Jimmy Hoffa's wikipedia page:
Frank Sheeran
In 2003, the FBI searched the backyard of a home in Munger Township, Michigan formerly frequented by Frank Sheeran, World War II veteran, Mafia hitman, truck driver, Teamsters official and close friend of Hoffa. Nothing significant was found.

In 2004, Charles Brandt, a former prosecutor and Chief Deputy Attorney General of Delaware, published the book I Heard You Paint Houses ("painting houses" is a euphemism for murder, alluding to the splatter of blood on walls) in which he recounts a series of confessions by Sheeran regarding Hoffa's murder. Brandt claimed that Sheeran had begun contacting him because he wished to assuage feelings of guilt. Over the course of several years, he spoke numerous times by phone to Brandt (which Brandt recorded) during which he acknowledged his role as Hoffa's killer, acting on orders from the Mafia. He claimed to have used his friendship with Hoffa to lure him to a bogus meeting in Bloomfield Hills and drive him to a house in northwestern Detroit, where he shot him twice before fleeing and leaving Hoffa's body behind. An updated version of Brandt's book claims that Hoffa's body was taken to a nearby funeral home and cremated within an hour of Sheeran's departure.

The news of digging in MI for Hoffa got me reading, it seems there is a Jersey City connection. I wonder if the new information is related to the high profile Jersey Mob trial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kuklinski