The idea that ex-union boss Jimmy Hoffa is buried under what was once Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands has been one of New Jersey’s enduring themes ever since he disappeared in 1975 while the stadium was under construction.
But now it appears that the mystery surrounding Hoffa’s disappearance may be solved hundreds of miles west:
The Detroit Free Press is reporting that police will take soil samples under a driveway in Roseville, Mich. on Friday after radar showed “an anomaly” there.
We have to wait and see what happens, but I’ve always thought that the simplest answer to Hoffa’s fate lie in Michigan, which is where he disappeared in the first place.
There was even a Mythbusters TV episode that threw cold water on the Meadowlands idea.
But police are cautioning not to make assumptions that this is the end, either:
Police say the timeline doesn’t quite add up.
For his family’s sake, ending the mystery would be a good thing. The uncertainty has been no joking matter for them. No one thinks that Hoffa, who would turn 100 in February, is still alive.
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Police checking out Hoffa tip in Detroit suburb
By COREY WILLIAMS, Associated Press – 14 hours ago
DETROIT (AP) — Investigators will take soil samples from the ground beneath a suburban Detroit driveway after a man told police he believes he witnessed the burial of missing Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa about 35 years ago, police said Wednesday.
Roseville Police Chief James Berlin said his department received a tip from a man who said he saw a body buried approximately 35 years ago and "thinks it may have been Jimmy he saw interred."
"We are not claiming it's Jimmy Hoffa, the timeline doesn't add up," Berlin said. "We're investigating a body that may be at the location."
Hoffa was last seen on July 30, 1975, outside a suburban Detroit restaurant where he was supposed to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit Mafia captain. His body has not been found despite a number of searches over the years.
Innumerable theories about the demise of the union boss have surfaced over time. Among them: He was entombed in concrete at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, ground up and thrown in a Florida swamp or obliterated in a mob-owned fat-rendering plant. The search has continued under a backyard pool north of Detroit in 2003, under the floor of a Detroit home in 2004 and at a horse farm northwest of Detroit in 2006.
After Roseville police received the most recent tip, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality used ground penetrating radar on a 12-foot-by-12-foot patch beneath the driveway, said agency spokesman Brad Wurfel.
It found "that the earth had been disturbed at some point in time," Berlin said.
The environmental quality department on Friday will take soil samples that will be sent to a forensic anthropologist at Michigan State University to "have it tested for human decomposition," Berlin said.
Results are not expected until next week.
The FBI had no immediate comment on the new effort in Roseville. Andrew Arena, who recently retired as head of the FBI in Michigan, told Detroit TV station WDIV that all leads must be followed, but he would be surprised if Hoffa is buried there.
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Just as an aside, I used to travel with my Dad on the wine truck. He worked for a company that disturbed Gallo Wines in the Detroit and surrounding area. I'd go as a "helper" and usually got paid about 8-9 dollars an hour in those days (DAMNED good money for a kid, huh? LOL)
It was a UNION thing.
Anyway, the day prior to Hoffa's disappearance we made a delivery to the restaurant where Hoffa disappeared from, the "Red Fox". It was a weird thing because it was on the news within a day or so of his disappearance and I remember Dad saying, "Hey we were there a couple of days ago, remember?"
I did remember and it was one of those things in your life that you say "Wow... missed it by THAT much!" lol
In 1975 they were still pouring huge quantities of concrete into giant holes for piles for the Detroit Renaissance Center.... in fact, it is my solid belief that Hoffa is buried in the bottom of one of those holes in that place.
There's no WAY he was buried in some other city like in NJ. That's nonsense. Why take him so far away from Detroit when they would easily drop him in a hole already dug out and being filled with concrete?
The site of the Rencen between Jefferson Ave. and the river is cleared in the early stages of construction in 1974.
By January of 1975 the foundation was beginning to take shape.
7,000 construction workers were working on the project.
Between 325,000 and 400,000 cubic yards of concrete would be poured, enough to form a solid concrete block the width and length of a football field to a height of 22 stories.
1,100 caissons would be dug about 100 feet down.
Forty thousand tons of structural steel would lift the first phase of the structure.
Two million square feet of glass would encase the five buildings.
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COREY WILLIAMS, Associated Press | Friday, September 28, 2012 | Updated: Friday, September 28, 2012 10:49am
FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2012, file photo, people photograph a driveway in Roseville, Mich. that a tipster said could be the final resting place of missing Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa. Authorities plan to take soil samples from under the driveway. Hoffa’s mysterious disappearance, assumed death and myriad searches for his body have been the stuff of urban legends for more than three decades.
ROSEVILLE, Mich. (AP) — Authorities drilled through concrete and removed wet soil samples in a modest Detroit-area neighborhood Friday in the latest effort to find the remains of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared in 1975.
There was no immediate sign of human remains, but test results could be ready by Monday, Roseville Police Chief James Berlin said.
"We're not sure if anything is down there. That's what this is all about," Berlin said.
They drilled the concrete floor of a shed attached to a driveway where a recent radar test revealed a shift in the soil. The latest investigation was launched after a man told police that he saw a body being buried under the driveway 35 years ago and "thinks it may have been Jimmy."
Could this search be the one that solves the mystery? Don't get excited: Authorities have already said they don't think the timeline adds up and that it's unlikely Hoffa's body is there. He was last seen July 30, 1975, outside a restaurant in Oakland County, more than 30 miles to the west.
The homeowner, Patricia Szpunar, 72, has lived there since 1988. She said her son uses the 12-by-12 shed to store two workbenches and his motorcycle.
Police detectives appeared two weeks ago and said they may need to search her yard for a dead body.
"I laughed at them," Szpunar said Friday as the work began. "I looked at them and said, 'What? Do you think Jimmy Hoffa is buried in my backyard?' ... They just looked at me, and asked why I said Jimmy Hoffa."
Recently retired Detroit FBI chief Andrew Arena is among the doubters.
"You've got to check it out, but this doesn't sound right," he told The Associated Press. "The working theories that have developed over the years, this really doesn't fit any of those."
Berlin said he's not claiming Hoffa is under the slab, but they are "investigating a body that may be at the location." He said the home may have been owned in the 1970s by a gambler with ties to organized crime.
Feisty and iron-willed in contract talks, Hoffa was an acquaintance of mobsters and adversary to federal officials. He spent time in prison for jury tampering. The day he disappeared, Hoffa was supposed to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit mafia captain.
He was declared legally dead in 1982. Previous tips led police to excavate soil in 2006 at a horse farm more than 100 miles north of Detroit, rip up floorboards at a Detroit home in 2004 and search beneath a backyard pool north of the city in 2003.
There were even rumors that Hoffa's remains were ground up and tossed into a Florida swamp, entombed beneath Giants Stadium in New Jersey or obliterated in a mob-owned fat-rendering plant.
Roseville is one of several inner-ring communities that grew quickly as unionized auto factory workers left the city in search of nicer homes and bigger yards.
News of the latest search has brought attention to the mostly working- and middle-class suburb from the curious and naysayers. Slow-moving vehicles have clogged the residential street as camera-wielding neighbors snapped photos for keepsakes.
"I believe it's him. My sister said it is, and she's a psychic," said Mike Smith after ambling up to the home Thursday and shying a bit from the yellow police tape stretched across the driveway.
One local theory that has endured is that Hoffa is beneath the foundation of a downtown Detroit hockey stadium, said 57-year-old Cindi Frank. The daughter of a unionized driver and salesman for a Detroit bakery, Frank remembers conversations about the mobster.
"It was a family thing. Every time we'd go somewhere we'd say, 'Hey, I wonder if Jimmy Hoffa is buried there?' " she said.
Some think the least likely spot for him to turn up might just be the place he does.
"Maybe the most inconspicuous spot might be the place to stash a body or something," said 52-year-old Andrew Kacir, who lives across the street.
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Jimmy Hoffa
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The site of the Rencen between Jefferson Ave. and the river is cleared in the early stages of construction in 1974.
By January of 1975 the foundation was beginning to take shape.
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