The FBI combed a former landfill in Jersey City for Jimmy Hoffa’s remains acting on a deathbed confession from a worker who said that he buried the Teamster boss in a steel drum in the landfill in the shadow of the Pulaski Skyway.
Hoffa disappeared July 30, 1975, while attempting to return to power after serving as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America (Teamsters or IBT) from 1957 until 1971.
Hoffa became involved with organized crime from the early years of his Teamsters work, a connection that continued until his disappearance in 1975.
He was convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery, conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud in 1964 in two separate trials.
He was imprisoned in 1967 and sentenced to 13 years.
In mid-1971, he resigned as president of the union as part of a commutation agreement with President Richard Nixon and was released later that year, but Hoffa was barred from union activities until 1980.
Nixon and Hoffa shared a deep mutual hatred for President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, who was involved in numerous organized crime investigations as US Attorney General and a lawyer working for congressional committees.
As a result of Hoffa’s resignation, he was awarded a $1.75 million lump sum termination benefit by the Teamsters Retirement and Family Protection Plan.
Hoping to regain support and to return to IBT leadership, he unsuccessfully tried to overturn the order shortly before he disappeared.
He is believed to have been murdered by the Mafia and was declared legally dead in 1982.
In a deathbed statement, a landfill worker claimed to bury the Teamster leader’s body in a steel drum 15 feet below the surface in a Jersey City landfill.
F.B.I. agents armed with a search warrant arrived in Jersey City at a plot of dirt and gravel the size of a Little League diamond below the Pulaski Skyway on Oct. 25 and 26 to conduct a “site survey,” according to the Detroit field office, which has led the investigation into Hoffa’s case.
The steel drum is said to be buried about 15 feet below ground, in the shadow of countless millions of drivers who have passed it by.
“F.B.I. personnel from the Newark and Detroit field offices completed the survey and that data is currently being analyzed,” said Special Agent Mara R. Schneider, in a statement that did not mention Hoffa by name and did not elaborate on a timeline for any potential excavation.
Hoffa’s legacy continues to stir debate.
In New Jersey, a popular urban legend had Hoffa’s remains buried under the old Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.
The 2019 film “The Irishman” raised yet another version of what may have happened, portraying Hoffa’s character shot and killed by his friend, Frank Sheeran, and his body incinerated.
That theory, advanced by Sheeran in a book before his death, has long been discounted by Hoffa scholars as unlikely.
“Because the affidavit in support of the search warrant was sealed by the court, we are unable to provide any additional information,” Schneider said.
Dan Moldea, a journalist who has written extensively about the Hoffa mystery, said he was contacted by the FBI in September 2020 after interviewing the son of a key figure.
“I’ve been assured that the body hasn’t been dug up yet,” Moldea told The Associated Press, referring to the FBI visit in October.
Hoffa’s disappearance has been unsolved for more than 45 years. He was last seen on July 30, 1975, when he was to meet with reputed Detroit mob enforcer Anthony “Tony Jack” Giacalone and alleged New Jersey mob figure Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano at a restaurant in suburban Detroit.
The latest effort appears to be tied to interviews given by a man named Frank Cappola, who was a teenager in the 1970s. He said he worked at the old PJP Landfill in Jersey City with his father, Paul Cappola.
Cappola said his dying father in 2008 explained how Hoffa’s body was delivered to the landfill in 1975, placed in a steel drum and buried with other barrels, bricks and dirt, according to Moldea.
Paul Cappola, worried that police might be watching that day, dug a hole on New Jersey state property, about 100 yards from the landfill, and dumped the unmarked barrel there, Moldea said Friday.
“Then he put 15 to 30 steel drums on top of it, which were filled with toxic adhesives, and bulldozed the area flat,” Moldea said.