This just breaking:


CNN) -- "FBI agents and local police were searching a Michigan horse farm Wednesday for the remains of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa after receiving a tip about his disappearance, the agency said."


Don't know if this story will go anywhere, but wouldn't that be something???? Maybe not the crime of the century, but Hoffa's disappearance has been a big mystery for many years.

TIS

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/17/hoffa.search/index.html

Yeah I saw this. Would be pretty exciting if they found him.

I always thought Hoffa's "disposal" was much like that of Ralphie from the Sopranos. I think way back one of the methods of disposal discussed was a meat grinder. I'd be surprised though, after this many years??? Wow!!!

TIS

I had just recently realized how old he was when he dissappeared and what year it all took place. I was under the impression he was killed at the height of his power or at least at the beginning of his downslide, and when he was still a fairly young man, sometime in the 60's. Little did I know he had already been to prison and removed from his position, he was in his 60's, and it was the 70's.

Can't wait to see if they find him.

I didn't even know they were still looking for Hoffa

This has been in the local news big time. I doubt they're find anything, but that'd really be something if they did.

If Hoffa is found, that would be 2 of the 20th century's most intriguing mysterys solved in as many years. The other being the Deep Throat revelation.

Is Geraldo Rivera going to do a show while they dig for Hoffa, akin to Geraldo's disastrous "Al Capone's vaults?" :p

I wouldn't be surprised

There are almost as many theories about Hoffa's disappearance as there are about the JFK assassination.

I thought he was in the Meadowlands

I was shopping in an Italian market in Clifton, NJ once and they were selling this huge 8 lb. tub of ground beef. When she spotted it, she yelled out, "I found Jimmy Hoffa!"

I'm pretty sure her theory is as good as any other.

Ha ha!! I did hear that NY/NJ was a suspected area of his whereabouts. Maybe he's spread out between the East and the Midwest. :p

I did hear on tv today that the FBI said this lead was the best lead they had in ten years. However, they have to tear down a huge barn (or house), in order to look under it.

TIS

Has anybody seen that movie about him called Hoffa? Jack Nicholson played him and Danny Devito was in it.

I heard this on the radio, I thought they had given up. I once heard that he was buried in the middle of soldier field.

I saw bits & pieces of 'Hoffa'. (The movie that is, not the guy...)

One of the few times when Nicholson was out of his league. I just felt he was reciting the lines and the makeup was a little too overdone.

Interesting how the real Hoffa's son followed in the footsteps and was elected head of the Teamsters.

I think my father was in the Teamsters back when I was a kid. I remember he wore a 'CAT' cap (he called it his cat hat) and I had not a clue what that meant. I also remember his union once went on strike, and I had no idea at the time what that meant, either. I just remember seeing the signs he had to carry in the trunk of our car.

Ahhhhh, memories....!!!

Apple

That horse farm in Michigan where they're searching, is that the property once owned by Anthony Giacalone from the Detroit mob? Also, what evidence led them to the farm after all these years? Did somebody talk?

If the body still exists, it would make sense that it's in Michigan somewhere. I can't believe they'd whack the guy then transport the body to New Jersey for disposal.

I think Frank Sheeren ("I heard you paint houses") alleges that a friendly undertaker had the body cremated, or possibly arranged for "bunk beds" during an anonymous burial. That's more plausible.

Last piece of solid evidence that they had was a truck driver who saw Hoffa that day at the restaurant in a car later identified as belonging to Giacalone's son, a police dog that purportedly recognized Hoffa's scent in that same car, and a DNA match to Hoffa for a hair later found in that car when compared to a sample of hair taken from his own brush.

tony b.

I live a few miles from Detroit. I always heard rumors of him being buried near the great lakes or in one of our MANY lakes. That would be really interesting for him to turn up so close to me. Interesting indeed.

The Doc

Apple, do you remember roughly what year that was when your dad was on strike? Are you sure it was the Teamsters? CAT would have been Caterpillar which has its headquarters in Peoria, Illinois and would have been the target of two strikes by the UAW, one in the early '80's and another in the early '90's. Was your dad working for Caterpillar at the time? Or was he in the United Auto Workers union at another company?

During the UAW strike in the early '90's which also affected their facility in Decatur, Illinois, there were also simultaneous strikes at Firestone and a lockout at A.E. Staley in Decatur. You couldn't walk a picket line without crossing another picket line in Decatur.

Next to a John Deere or DeKalb baseball cap, that CAT hat would be the most popular hat in Downstate Illinois.

tony b.

Operator, operator put me through to Decatur.

I wonder where the "tip" came from?
After all these years....

Here's an excerpt from today\'s Detroit Free Press.

Quote:

A tip from a 75-year-old federal inmate gave FBI agents what they're calling their latest and best chance yet to crack the 30-year-old mystery of what happened to former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.

The tip that Hoffa was buried on the farm came from Donovan Wells, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison two years ago in a marijuana smuggling scheme involving his Brownstown Township trucking company.

Wells, who also was known as Don Wells, is a former associate of McMaster, who was a top Detroit Teamsters official until a reputed falling-out with Hoffa in the late 1960s.

The article is very revealing, but skeptics don't believe the mob would have killed Hoffa then buried the body on an associate's farm which would be represent the worst possible scenario if the body were ever actually found.

But stranger things have happened, and dumber decisions have been made by the mob.

tony b.

Here's an even better article from the Detroit News that adds a little historical flavor to the Detroit Teamsters from the 1960's and 1970's. Very entertaining and well written.

tony b.

At this point it's hard to believe any of these claims as so many different ones have been made by different people over the years.


Here is an interesting thread, for anyone interested in Hoffa, that was posted a couple of years ago:

http://www.gangsterbb.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=000821


Don Cardi

I don't have time to review what's been posted today (I'm going back to work ). However I'm watching tv right now and the informant is a 75 year old inmate who talked to the FBI. They claim he passed a polygraph test and knew details about the crime that only the FBI knew, and that's why they are taking this lead a little more seriouusly.

TIS

lol

Where Hoffa is? I personally don't think they will ever find him, it's been long ago, and bodies only last so long in the best conditions. If they do find him it will uncover a huge mystery and would be a miracle. I think they have already looked for him several times before with no results but I don't know too much about him. I doubt they will find him on the farm, but if they do, will they try to bring charges against someone?

NYTimes is reporting that so far they haven't found a trace of Hoffa. But a local restaurant is selling muffins with a hand crawling out of the top. :rolleyes:

Sheeran suggested that Hoffa was burned in either a "friendly" funeral home or an industrial oven... and while I initially dismissed that account with scorn, I since grew not only to accept, but to consider it the most plausible claim and explanation of Hoffa's death...

If the cremation was indeed the case, then I suppose there could be something left of the body in the end, but it would probably end up in a river somewhere. Interestingly, according to Sheeran, the man who took care of Hoffa's body was still alive in 2003. Perhaps he could say something... )

I heard that on the radio today. They are giving them to the feds that are looking for Hoffa.

I also heard that Hoffa was buried in the endzone in Giants Stadium. I always thought TO or Chad Johnson could have used that info one of their special end-zone celebrations. :rolleyes:

Given Hoffa's position, I can see why his final whereabouts might be of interest to us here on the BB, but why are the Feds still so interested? Does it really matter where he is buried/sprinkled/spread? Are they gonna gather DNA evidence from his carcass and use it to arrest the murderer's children? Aren't there other crimes that they could be spending their time and resources solving. Here in North Dakota, there is a 3 year old girl who was abducted about a week ago. Surely, finding her would be more important than discovering where some geriatric was dumped 30 years ago.