FBI searches Mich. Farm for Hoffa

**Brian Baldwin** · May 19th, 2006, 00:10

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...PLATE=home.htm

May 18, 6:11 PM
Michigan Farm Subject of Hoffa Search

By TOM KRISHER
Associated Press Writer

MILFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- 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 Thursday for the body of the former Teamsters boss who vanished in 1975.

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 combing the area Wednesday, and the search continued Thursday and included the use of heavy construction equipment. Roberts said it would probably involve the removal of a barn.

Authorities also led cadaver dogs across the property, and the FBI called in anthropologists and archaeologists from Michigan State University.

Roberts said he expects the search to go on for at least a couple of weeks.

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, both now dead.

Dan Brannon, a neighbor of the farm where the F-B-I has been searching for Jimmy Hoffa, says he never suspected all the police activity was a search for Hoffa

Over the years, Hoffa's disappearance spawned endless theories - that he was entombed in concrete at Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands; that he was ground up and thrown to the fishes in a Florida swamp; that he was obliterated in a mob-owned fat-rendering plant that has since burned down.

In 2003, authorities searched beneath a backyard pool a few hours north of Detroit but turned up nothing. The following year, they pulled up the floorboards on a Detroit home and found bloodstains, but the blood was not Hoffa's.

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

Among other things, there was a high level of suspicious activity on the farm the day Hoffa vanished, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A backhoe appeared that day near the barn organized crime members had used for meetings, and that location was never used again, the official said.

At the time of Hoffa's disappearance, the property was owned by Rolland McMaster, a longtime Teamsters official. It is now under different ownership and is called Hidden Dreams Farm.

McMaster's lawyer, Mayer Morganroth, said he doubted the FBI would find anything. "That farm was looked at with a fine-toothed comb in the '70s, when Hoffa was missing," Morganroth said. "There's nothing there."

McMaster was convicted in 1963 of accepting payoffs from a trucking company and, according to a 1976 Detroit Free Press account, served five months in prison.

Reporters were not allowed onto the property, which is surrounded by a white wooden fence just off a dirt road. Images from news helicopters showed about a dozen people, some with shovels, standing by an area of newly turned dirt about 10 feet by 15 feet.

Morganroth said McMaster was in Indiana on union business at the time of Hoffa's disappearance. He said that to his knowledge, McMaster was never a suspect. Morganroth said FBI officials visited McMaster, 93, this week at his home in Fenton, where one of several horse-breeding farms he owns is situated.

"They were just asking about the farm itself - did he ever get any inkling?" he said.

In 1967, Hoffa was sentenced to 13 years in prison for jury tampering and fraud, but he refused to give up the Teamsters presidency. After he quit the job in 1971, President Nixon pardoned him.

**American Patriot** · May 19th, 2006, 14:19

They won't find his body.

When Hoffa disappeared from the Grey Fox inn outside of Detroit, they were building the Renassance Center in downtown Detroit. I was at the very same restraunt the day prior to Hoffa's disappearance. My dad was a truck driver, delivering wine. We made a stop there to let off a bunch of cases of wine.

The next day (perhaps two days later) he vanished. That place was his last known location.

Well... I brought up the Renassance Center for a reason. They were droppingin pilons, which were huge and deep... and were made with massive amounts of cement. A body at the bottom of one of those pilons with tons and tons of cement laid upon top WILL NEVER BE FOUND except by archealogist who dig that region up in a few thousand years... and then they won't know who the poor soul was buried in the bottom of the pit.

I think he is there, and there to stay

**Malsua** · May 30th, 2006, 22:32

They found nothing...

They wrapped up the search today.

**Brian Baldwin** · May 31st, 2006, 07:14

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1640974/posts

An exhaustive two-week search of a Michigan horse farm for the body of influential union boss Jimmy Hoffa has ended without result, the FBI says.
Agents tore down a barn and dug up several sites on Hidden Dreams Farm 32km (20 miles) from the restaurant where he was last seen in 1975.
They had acted on a tip-off from a convict who lived there at the time.
The former leader of the powerful Teamsters union apparently disappeared after meeting a mafia boss.
Rumours have persisted that Hoffa was murdered by the mafia to prevent him regaining control of the union.
Investigators believe Hoffa, who led the Teamsters from 1957 to 1967, may have been the victim of an underground feud.
The FBI used cadaver dogs, archaeologists and heavy construction equipment at the farm after a search warrant was served.
It said the tip-off was the strongest lead it had ever received in the case.
Comeback bid
It was given by Donovan Wells, 75, who is serving a 10-year drug-trafficking sentence.
File picture of Jimmy Hoffa in 1974 There are many rumours surrounding Hoffa's disappearance
Seeking to shorten his prison term, Wells told his lawyers he had seen men burying what appeared to be a body with a backhoe on the farm the day after Hoffa vanished.
Hoffa is reported to have fallen out with several organised crime figures after he was convicted of jury tampering and fraud in the 1960s.
After his release from prison in 1971, and shortly before his disappearance, Hoffa had been trying to regain control of the Teamsters.
On the day he disappeared, he was supposed to be meeting Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone, described by the FBI as a Mafia "capo", and another man, Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano. Both have since died.
Hoffa was last seen in the car park of the restaurant. One notable rumour is that Hoffa's remains were buried in the foundations of the Giants football stadium near New York.

And Rick was correct. I knew they'd find nothing as soon as Rick said so. His reasoning made perfect sense. So much so you have to wonder why they never thought to search there to begin with.