The Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa

A powerful union activist disappears from a Detroit suburb. 45 years later, it remains one of the most notorious missing person cases of all time. The mystery of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance features more twists and turns than a Hollywood movie, but the question remains: where is he? Thank you to our experts who contributed to this episode: Gregory Stejskal, Rebeca Salminen-Witt, James Buccellato, Scott Burnstein, Gary Jenkins, Marvin Elkind, and Phillip Moscato Jr. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow History’s Greatest Mysteries to never miss an episode! History’s Greatest Mysteries is a History Channel Original Podcast, brought to you by Rewind Studios. 🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to other Rewind Studios Originals, Hidden History and Government That Doesn’t Suck, wherever you get your podcasts! Follow us on Social Instagram: @RewindStudios https://www.instagram.com/rewindstudiosTikTok: @RewindStudios https://www.tiktok.com/@rewindstudiosSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  And now a History Channel original podcast presented by Rewind.

• 0:12Speaker 00

  Today, one of the most notorious missing person cases of all time. A powerful union activist vanishes without a trace. Forty-five years later, the search for him continues.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  He's really well-known across the country. Where is his body?

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  Now we uncover the top theories surrounding his shocking disappearance.

• 0:35Speaker 02

  Law enforcement suspects that guys used the incinerator to dispose of bodies.

• 0:41Speaker 01

  Is it possible the CIA took out all three to keep things quiet?

• 0:47Speaker 00

  Can new evidence and the investigations behind it finally bring us closer to the truth? I am the only person alive today that knows where the remains of Jimmy Hoffa

• 0:56Speaker 03

  is. Our investigative team is excited, that's for sure. They got high hopes they're gonna find him.

• 1:03Speaker 00

  Where is Jimmy Hoffa?

• 1:09Speaker 00

  Welcome to History's Greatest Mysteries, a History Channel original podcast presented by Rewind Studios. Each episode, we take a deep dive into some of the greatest unanswered questions from history, backed by some of the foremost experts on the subject. Today, the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.

• 1:33Speaker 04

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• 2:05Speaker 00

  Detroit, Michigan, 1975, the center of both the US auto industry and of organized labor. It's also the last known location of renowned former Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa.

• 2:19Speaker 02

  Jimmy Hoffa is a legend within the labor movement.

• 2:24Speaker 01

  He is a true champion of workers' rights. He's known all over the country.

• 2:29Speaker 00

  Hoffa's been involved with labor unions since running his first strike as a teenager.

• 2:34Speaker 01

  By the age of 14, he had to go to work to help support his family, loading and unloading strawberries, working under these terrible conditions. And he finally kind of has enough, and he organizes his fellow workers. They decide they're gonna stop loading and unloading these strawberries and just let them sit out there and bake in the hot sun. Management's washing their strawberries, kind of molder on the dock. They cave. I think this is where Hoffa really sees the power of the people, the power of organizing. He was successful in his very first time out at 14 years old, and people noticed.

• 3:15Speaker 00

  By 1957, he's risen to president of the Teamsters, but his climb comes with challenges.

• 3:22Speaker 01

  A rival union appears in Detroit, competing for the same workers as the Teamsters, and they gain so much ground that eventually Hoffa turns to the mafia for help.

• 3:32Speaker 00

  Specifically, New York's powerful Genovese crime family.

• 3:37Speaker 02

  By forming this alliance with the mafia, the Teamsters, they win their battle. But it comes at a price. The mafia guys that he forms an alliance with, they're expecting access to the Teamsters' pension fund in return.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  The Teamsters' pension fund is like a blank check for the mafia, their own personal bank. Hoffa has a 14-year run with the Teamsters, working hand-in-hand with the mafia the whole time, but that deal is eventually his undoing. Hoffa is indicted for a number of charges related to mob involvement with the Teamsters. Hoffa goes to prison, and he's out of the union, but the mob remains.

• 4:18Speaker 00

  In December 1971, President Nixon commutes Hoffa's sentence with one stipulation: he can't manage any labor organization until 1980.

• 4:29Speaker 01

  By 1973, Hoffa's already plotting to regain the presidency of the Teamsters.

• 4:35Speaker 00

  There's just one stumbling block. While in prison, Hoffa has run afoul of the Genovese family, and on July 30, 1975, he waits in the parking lot of the Maccus Red Fox Restaurant, hoping to make amends.

• 4:50Speaker 01

  He's there for a meeting with associates of the Genovese crime family. He wants to talk to them about returning to run the Teamsters' union. The mafia has control of the Teamsters these days, and they really don't want Jimmy Hoffa back in charge, but they agree to the meeting. Problem is, they're late.

• 5:10Speaker 00

  Witnesses see Hoffa pacing and making calls on a nearby payphone. After nearly an hour of waiting, a red sedan pulls up. Hoffa gets in and is never heard from again. At 7:00 AM the next day, Hoffa's wife calls her children to say their father never came home, and by 7:20 AM, Hoffa's assistant finds his car unlocked in the restaurant parking lot.

• 5:35Speaker 02

  As soon as Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing, the FBI gets involved. They're going to investigate the case.

• 5:42Speaker 00

  Agents start at Hoffa's office.

• 5:44Speaker 01

  His office appointment book says TG, 2:00 PM, Red Fox. Red Fox obviously refers to the Maccus Red Fox Restaurant. TG refers to Tony Giacalone, known as Tony Jack.

• 6:03Speaker 02

  Tony Giacalone is a high-ranking member of the Detroit mafia, and in many ways, Giacalone is Hoffa's liaison to the underworld. In order for Hoffa to once again become president of the Teamsters, he has to work things out with guys like Tony Giacalone. So they set up a sit-down, try to work things out.

• 6:23Speaker 00

  But when the FBI questions eyewitnesses, they learn that Giacalone never showed up. So who's in the car that picks up Jimmy Hoffa?

• 6:32Speaker 02

  Not long before 3 o'clock, there are eyewitnesses who see a maroon car, either a Lincoln or Mercury, pull up. It's unclear exactly who was in the car. According to the eyewitnesses, he gets in of his own accord, so there's no struggle. Doesn't seem like it was a kidnapping or an abduction. This is the last time that anyone sees Jimmy Hoffa, at least publicly.

• 6:56Speaker 01

  They know who he was supposed to be meeting with, and so they start questioning and wiretapping known mafia associates.

• 7:03Speaker 00

  Starting with Tony Giacalone.

• 7:06Speaker 01

  Investigators have no idea where Tony Jack is, but they start digging, and they realize they do know where he was two days prior. They find out he was meeting with two very suspicious people who might provide a clue as to Hoffa's whereabouts.

• 7:21Speaker 00

  Their names, Raffaelli Quasino and Peter Vitale.

• 7:25Speaker 02

  Federal law enforcement are keeping guys like Quasino and Vitale under surveillance. They're high-ranking members of the Detroit mafia. They're involved in labor racketeering, drug trafficking, gambling, loan sharking, the usual crimes associated with members of the mafia.

• 7:43Speaker 00

  They also have another business that raises eyebrows.

• 7:47Speaker 05

  They own a commercial incinerator in their business, Central Sanitation.

• 7:53Speaker 02

  Law enforcement suspects that guys like Vitale and Quasino use the incinerator to dispose of bodies.

• 8:01Speaker 00

  Central Sanitation in Hamtramck, Michigan, is just 20 miles from the Maccus Red Fox Restaurant. It's close enough to give the FBI a theory, which is today's theory number one: Hoffa was incinerated in Detroit.

• 8:16Speaker 02

  So the fact that they meet with Tony Giacalone in the days leading up to the disappearance is very significant and has led some theorists to speculate that they were talking about preparing the incinerator to dispose of Jimmy Hoffa specifically.

• 8:32Speaker 00

  But why would the mafia order such a brutal hit? Could Hoffa's disappearance be tied to a beef that started years earlier in prison?

• 8:41Speaker 01

  While he's in there, he publicly fights with a crime boss from the Genovese crime family named Anthony Provenzano. Tony Pro, they call him. Like many mobsters, Tony Pro's family is collecting a union pension. But when Tony goes to prison, his benefits are cut off. Meanwhile, Jimmy Hoffa's family is still getting his pension benefits.

• 9:07Speaker 02

  Tony Provenzano confronts Jimmy Hoffa, says, "Why should you be entitled to these benefits and not my family?" Jimmy Hoffa snaps back, "It's because of people like you that I'm in here in the first place."

• 9:21Speaker 01

  The Genovese crime family control the Teamsters, and they don't like Jimmy Hoffa. And they really don't want Hoffa back in charge. They want him gone.

• 9:32Speaker 02

  So the FBI believes he was killed, and then his body

• 9:35Speaker 06

  transported to Central Sanitation and incinerated.

• 9:39Speaker 00

  The FBI hurries to prove their case, but unfortunately, the Genovese crime family seems to be one step ahead.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  Within a few months of Hoffa's disappearance, Central Sanitation catches fire in an arson. A few months after that, the whole place is torn down. So, any hope of recovering evidence disappears. And that's as far as the incinerator theory can get.

• 10:05Speaker 00

  But that doesn't stop speculation about other possibilities.

• 10:09Speaker 01

  People still want to know, where did he end up? Where did they put him?

• 10:15Speaker 00

  Many experts believe Jimmy Hoffa is killed by members of the mafia on July 30, 1975. The big questions are, who did it? And where is his body? Then in 1989, a former mob associate says he knows the answer.

• 10:31Speaker 03

  A hitman named Donald Franco's comes out with a pretty explosive story in Playboy magazine.

• 10:39Speaker 00

  Franco's confirms the FBI's belief that Hoffa was murdered in a fight with the Genovese family over control of the Teamsters. And he also claims to know who pulled the trigger.

• 10:49Speaker 03

  According to Franco's, Jimmy Hoffa was murdered by a gang known as the Westies, on the orders of Fat Tony Salerno.

• 10:58Speaker 00

  According to the FBI, the Westies and their founder, Jimmy Coonan, are responsible for as many as 100 murders from 1968 to 1986.

• 11:08Speaker 01

  They're one of the main hit squads on the mob's payroll. They're involved in racketeering, and they helped the mob control a lot of the major construction projects in New York at the time, like Madison Square Garden and Javits Center.

• 11:25Speaker 03

  Franco claims he's in tight with the Westies. As a matter of fact, they wanted him to be the trigger man on Hoffa. But he's in prison at the time, and he can't do it.

• 11:35Speaker 01

  But he says Jimmy Coonan himself told him how it all went down.

• 11:39Speaker 00

  Wind back to that red car.

• 11:41Speaker 03

  As we know, a little before 3:00, Hoffa's picked up by a red Mercury Marquis at the Moccas Red Fox. He thinks he's going to go meet with Tony Jack, but when he's driven to the meeting spot, it's Jimmy Coonan and the Westies that are waiting. So the Westies put two bullets in Hoffa's head. But rather than dump the body right away, Franco's claims that they had another plan.

• 12:03Speaker 01

  They don't just want to burn the body or hide him away.

• 12:09Speaker 00

  Franco says the Westies store Hoffa's remains for five months until they can decide what to do.

• 12:15Speaker 03

  They don't want to attract undue attention, so it's not like they can string him up or just leave his body laying in the street. But they do want to let other criminals know, even if you're famous like Jimmy Hoffa, we can always get you. And in December of 1975, they finally think they had the perfect place.

• 12:33Speaker 00

  Which is theory number two? He's buried in Giants Stadium. At the time, a new Giants Stadium is under construction in East Rutherford, New Jersey, an area known as the Meadowlands.

• 12:45Speaker 01

  The Meadowlands were already a notorious dumping ground for mob victims. In fact, while they were constructing Giants Stadium, the construction crew kept running into a lot of dumped bodies. Each time they found a body, they'd call the prosecutor's office and say, hey, we found another one. But then construction would have to stop, they'd have to wait for an investigation, and it was slowing the whole thing down. So after the fifth body, they just stopped calling. And that's why timing is perfect for the mob. Not only have they stopped looking for bodies, but a big concrete pour is scheduled. And guess who's in charge of the concrete trucks? The Genovese family.

• 13:29Speaker 00

  Franco says that Hoffa's body is brought to New Jersey in an oil drum just before the concrete arrives for the stadium's west end zone.

• 13:38Speaker 01

  Franco's even claimed to know exactly where they were going to put Hoffa. In the end zone, section 107 in the corner, right where they were scheduled to pour 30 tons of concrete. Franco's describes it like a sick joke amongst the mob. Whenever a touchdown is scored, they toast and say, hey, Jimmy, that one's for you. While it wasn't common knowledge amongst the public, at least until this interview came out, it was well-known throughout the criminal underworld where Jimmy Hoffa was. They put him in the ground, and he's right there on TV every Sunday. And that's why you don't mess with the mob.

• 14:22Speaker 00

  But when Giants Stadium is demolished in August 2010, the FBI doesn't bother to conduct a dig.

• 14:30Speaker 01

  Demolition crews only went down about four feet, and word has it that Hoffa's way deeper than that. I guess the FBI didn't put enough trust in Donald Franco's to excavate down that low.

• 14:43Speaker 00

  Some suggest the theory simply doesn't add up.

• 14:46Speaker 06

  I don't understand why you would risk putting a body in a vehicle and transporting it cross-country, especially a body with the notoriety of Jimmy Hoffa. It just doesn't make sense.

• 15:01Speaker 00

  Which leads to a very different idea on what happened to Hoffa from someone who knew him well.

• 15:06Speaker 06

  There's no doubt in my mind I know where Mr. Hoffa's body is, and it's not in New Jersey.

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• 16:19Speaker 00

  Marvin Elkin was Hoffa's driver during his first term as Teamsters President.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  The guy spent years with Hoffa, literally sitting two feet in front of him. He may be closer to Hoffa than any other person left alive today, so if he says he's got a theory on where he ended up, I'd listen to him.

• 16:39Speaker 00

  Elkin first meets Hoffa in the late 1950s.

• 16:42Speaker 06

  I worked at the Coca-Ghana nightclub in New York. I was a busboy. The mafia guys, Frankie Carbo, Blinky Palermo, Tony Salerno, and Tony Provinzano, they used to come in a lot. I stole bottles of booze from the bar, and I brought it to them, and they were very big tippers. I liked them a lot. They were nice guys.

• 17:08Speaker 00

  One day, a Genovese family bigwig offers him a new opportunity.

• 17:12Speaker 06

  I was busy working, and Fat Tony called me, and he said, Friday's your last day here. I says, why? I'm trying so hard to do a good job. He says, as of Monday, you've got a new job, you're going to be the driver for Jimmy Hoffa. Now, I didn't know Mr. Hoffa, but I knew his reputation. And when they said that, I got scared. Mr. Hoffa was very tight with the mafia, and the go-between was Fat Tony Salerno. First time I met Mr. Hoffa, I opened up the door, and I said, good morning, Mr. Hoffa. She says, are you Marvin? I goes, yes, sir.

• 17:56Speaker 06

  She says, very good start. Excellent, remember, it's Mr. Hoffa, or sir. Scared the hell out of me.

• 18:04Speaker 00

  Hoffa conducts much of his business from the car, and Elkin hears everything.

• 18:09Speaker 01

  The guy is low on the food chain. He's kind of an errand boy. But he's sitting there in the front seat, right in front of Jimmy Hoffa, day in and day out. You can only just imagine the kind of things that he heard.

• 18:23Speaker 00

  When Elkin starts working, Hoffa has two rules.

• 18:26Speaker 06

  One rule, I never want you to be late. I don't want to be kept waiting. The car new rule is, what you hear in this car stays in this car. If anything that you hear in this car gets out, you won't be around the next morning. Do you understand me, Marvin? I says, yes, I do, sir. She says, very good.

• 18:52Speaker 00

  Today, Elkin is ready to break one of those rules.

• 18:55Speaker 06

  There's no doubt in my mind I know where Mr. Hoffa's body is.

• 19:00Speaker 00

  After Hoffa's picked up by the red car, what happens next?

• 19:05Speaker 01

  According to Elkin, he's shot to death at a nearby house, stuffed into the trunk of a car, and they've already decided exactly where to put him.

• 19:14Speaker 06

  Mr. Hoffa is buried in the concrete of the Renaissance. Renaissance Center, places in downtown Detroit, right across the road from the Omni Hotel.

• 19:24Speaker 00

  So that's theory number three. He's buried under cement in Detroit. The Renaissance Center is mid-construction at the time Hoffa disappears.

• 19:33Speaker 06

  Under the cover of night, in the trunk of a car, they drove Mr. Hoffa to the Renaissance. They put him in the planks and poured the concrete on top of him.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  The next day, practically every Union carpenter in Detroit is there just building right on top of him, completely oblivious. I mean, what a place to put Union hero Jimmy Hoffa. The mob really does have a sick sense of humor sometimes.

• 20:01Speaker 00

  And according to Elkin, it's that same sense of humor that gives away the mob's secret.

• 20:06Speaker 06

  In seventy-five, we had a big convention in Detroit, and the convention took place at the Renaissance. Tony Pro, the Mazan was there.

• 20:17Speaker 00

  Tony Pro, the Genovese boss who had a prison feud with Hoffa.

• 20:22Speaker 01

  He's walking past the construction site, where they're pouring concrete footings every day.

• 20:27Speaker 06

  Tony Pro turned to everybody and said, "Guys, say good morning to Mr. Jimmy Hoffa." We looked at the fresh concrete, and we all knew exactly what he meant. All the top brass were laughing. That was all the proof I needed.

• 20:45Speaker 00

  Elkin says this all could have been avoided if Hoffa had just listened to him. Marvin's kept in touch with the Genovese family, and he's heard that Hoffa's a target.

• 20:55Speaker 01

  Marvin wants to have a sit-down with Hoffa. He wants to warn him that certain people aren't happy. He knows they're going to take him out.

• 21:03Speaker 00

  Shortly before he goes missing, Hoffa meets with Elkin.

• 21:08Speaker 06

  Mr. Hoffa didn't realize that he was not the number-one man anymore. I says, "Mr. Hoffa, they don't want you to be president." There was no question if he ran, he would get elected. The mafia had to do something about it, and that's why they had him killed. I told Mr. Hoffa what the word was. Mr. Hoffa says to me, "Marvin, my people will never harm me."

• 21:38Speaker 06

  Mr. Hoffa went missing, and immediately the concrete was poured. Nobody has ever seen him again.

• 21:46Speaker 01

  Hoffa thought he was untouchable, that he had an army of thousands of blue-collar workers behind him. But when the mob wants you out of the way, not even an army can protect you from a few capos with guns.

• 22:00Speaker 00

  In 2016, another witness steps forward to back up Elkin's story.

• 22:07Speaker 01

  Former Corrections Officer Michael Yarborough claims to have actually witnessed Hoffa's burial at the Renaissance Center. Yarborough says that at 3:20 PM, half an hour or so after Hoffa is picked up at the Moccas Red Fox Restaurant, he's walking past the construction site, and he hears a struggle. He looks, and he sees a cement truck, a 1975 maroon Mercury Marquis, and two guys pushing Jimmy Hoffa into a huge hole where a pillar's going to be built. Apparently, a third guy sees Yarborough snooping and runs up and says, "Hey, you better keep moving, or you're going to be next." So he runs out of there, and he hides until they're gone.

• 22:49Speaker 00

  But once again, without a body, the Renaissance theory remains impossible to prove.

• 22:55Speaker 01

  It's a major supporting pillar of one of the most iconic and recognizable buildings in Michigan. They're never going to dig that thing up.

• 23:04Speaker 00

  On December 9, 1982, after a seven-year investigation, Jimmy Hoffa is declared legally dead by a Michigan judge. But when the FBI publicly releases a report called the "Hofix Memo", detailing the leads they followed in the case, one line jumps out. "No evidence has been developed to date which would prove that James R. Hoffa is either dead or alive." After years of theories on his death, is it possible that Hoffa is still alive?

• 23:35Speaker 02

  Six months into the investigation, the FBI produces this really important document known as the "Hofix Memo."

• 23:43Speaker 01

  It's a veritable who's-who of mafia names. It reads like a Hollywood script with every mobster you've ever heard of involved. Tony Pro, Tony Jack, Fat Tony, The Irishman, every mobster you've ever heard of. They're listed in the Hofix Memo.

• 24:02Speaker 00

  And while the memo is full of names, it's lacking in evidence.

• 24:07Speaker 02

  Eventually, the investigation leads to a grand jury. They identify ninety-five people that they want to testify before the jury, but almost everyone takes the fifth.

• 24:18Speaker 03

  This memo lists so many people and so many theories. And in the end, after each story, it says, "We can't corroborate any of this." Maybe it's this, but we can't prove it. Maybe it's that, we can't prove it. It just goes around and around in circles. It's like a smokescreen.

• 24:33Speaker 00

  But why would the FBI try to hide the truth about Hoffa's disappearance?

• 24:38Speaker 01

  Why? Because he's actually a government informant.

• 24:42Speaker 00

  Around the time of his death, many speculate Jimmy Hoffa's cooperating with the feds.

• 24:48Speaker 01

  Once again, it comes down to the Teamsters, the former source of all of Hoffa's power. He wants that power back, but Nixon's banned him from Union leadership as part of the deal that gets him out of prison. The government has taken Hoffa's ability to lead, and if he wants it back, he's going to have to make a deal with the government. Luckily, he's got a lot of bargaining power.

• 25:13Speaker 00

  Over the years, Hoffa has had a front-row seat to the inner workings of the mafia.

• 25:18Speaker 02

  Jimmy Hoffa knows where the bodies are buried. He knows they're involved in Vegas, that they're skimming money. He knows that they have these sweetheart pension deals and no-show jobs. He would be an invaluable asset and informant to the federal government.

• 25:40Speaker 01

  Clearly, he's in a very dangerous position, caught between the mob and the US government.

• 25:48Speaker 00

  And on July 30, 1975, some theorists believe Hoffa isn't killed. He's rescued. Giving us theory number four, Hoffa went into witness protection.

• 26:01Speaker 01

  Let's go back to the Moccas Red Fox.

• 26:04Speaker 02

  We know that Hoffa's mafia associates stand him up. They're not showing up to the meeting. He's upset.

• 26:11Speaker 01

  But the fact that they're late just might have saved his life.

• 26:14Speaker 02

  What if the car that shows up is not full of wise guys and mobsters, but it's actually the Justice Department?

• 26:21Speaker 01

  They've heard that there's a hit-out on Jimmy, and they swoop in to intercept him before the mobsters can get there.

• 26:28Speaker 00

  If the FBI is trying to hide Jimmy Hoffa, the question is, where?

• 26:34Speaker 02

  One theory suggests that actually Hoffa lives out his final days in Mexico or somewhere on the beach and lives happily ever after. I have a very difficult time accepting that theory.

• 26:48Speaker 01

  To me, the witness protection theory is laughable for a lot of reasons. But the main one is, how the hell do you hide Jimmy Hoffa? I mean, look at him.

• 26:57Speaker 02

  He's one of the most recognizable public figures, political leaders. But also, Jimmy Hoffa loved the spotlight. Does he strike you as someone who would accept a deal with the federal government to spend the rest of his life in hiding? He wanted to be on the front lines. Plus, people would recognize him. Just doesn't hold up.

• 27:16Speaker 00

  Which leads to an entirely different theory involving another top-secret government agency.

• 27:23Speaker 01

  This theory starts the same as the last. He gets picked up by the feds because he intends to cooperate with the government, hopefully to get permission to lead the Teamsters again. And as it turns out, in 1975, right when Hoffa is looking to regain presidency of the Union, there's a brand-new Senate investigation ramping up, and it gives him the perfect opportunity.

• 27:47Speaker 00

  And the perfect leverage.

• 27:49Speaker 01

  The Senate is investigating the CIA. And Hoffa knows about one of the dirtiest deals the CIA ever did. It's called Operation Mongoose.

• 28:01Speaker 00

  Was Hoffa planning to testify against the CIA to get back in control of the Teamsters? And if so, could that have gotten him killed? That's theory number five. He was disappeared by the CIA.

• 28:15Speaker 06

  Operation Mongoose was a collaboration between the CIA and the Italian mafia in America. It was an assassination plot to eliminate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The mafia had casinos. They had their money in banks in Cuba. And when Castro took power, he kicked them all out, arrested some of them, stole all their money.

• 28:38Speaker 02

  The mafia wants Castro out of the way so they can go back in and start up their businesses again in the vice rackets.

• 28:45Speaker 06

  The way the CIA looked at it was, "Our enemy's enemy is our friend."

• 28:53Speaker 01

  A federal agent reaches out to mobster Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, another well-known mob personality out of Chicago. These guys agreed to do the hit. As we know, it was never completed, but the request was made, and the CIA will do anything to keep that a secret.

• 29:11Speaker 00

  And some think that includes getting rid of Jimmy Hoffa.

• 29:15Speaker 01

  Hoffa and Sam Giancana have been doing business together in the back of Hoffa's car for years. He's heard all the stories. The question is, is he so desperate to run the Teamsters again that he would tell these stories to the Senate Investigation Committee?

• 29:29Speaker 00

  According to this theory's supporters, Hoffa and his mafia associates are all planning to talk.

• 29:36Speaker 06

  Giancana, Roselli, and Hoffa were all subpoenaed to provide testimony in front of this Senate hearing.

• 29:43Speaker 00

  But none of them make it to Washington.

• 29:46Speaker 06

  Sam Giancana was murdered in May. Hoffa was supposed to testify in August of seventy-five. He was murdered on July 30, 1975. And then Johnny Roselli was supposed to testify in August of 1976, and his body was found floating in Biscayne Bay in a 50-gallon drum.

• 30:05Speaker 01

  Is it possible the CIA took out all three to keep things quiet?

• 30:10Speaker 00

  While we may never know the answer, one thing is clear. Any hope of finding Hoffa alive is now gone.

• 30:19Speaker 00

  Jimmy Hoffa would be 108 years old today. So if we find any remnants of him, it's going to be his bones. You're not going to roll into a A Burger King in Kalamazoo, Michigan and find him having a Whopper with Elvis and Jim Morrison. That's not gonna happen. But one man thinks he knows exactly where Hoffa's body is, and it's not where anyone expects.

• 30:50Speaker 00

  Within days of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance, multiple underworld tipsters claim to know his whereabouts, including Trenton State Penitentiary inmate Ralph Picardo.

• 31:02Speaker 03

  This incredible story starts August 4th, 1975. That was only five days after Hoffa's disappearance.

• 31:09Speaker 01

  Picardo's doing 20 years for manslaughter when his accountant showed up with the Andretta brothers, Stephen and Thomas. These guys worked for the Genovese family crime boss Tony Pro, who everyone agrees had problems with Jimmy Hoffa.

• 31:23Speaker 03

  Stephen Andretta tells Picardo what happened to Hoffa a few days before. He said he knew the whole thing. A few months later, Picardo decided he'd turn state's evidence.

• 31:34Speaker 01

  Now, Picardo might be just looking for a lighter sentence, but he reveals the whole story as told by Andretta.

• 31:41Speaker 00

  It begins once again in the parking lot of the Macus Red Fox on July 30th.

• 31:46Speaker 03

  Picardo tells the FBI a familiar story in the beginning. He said Hoffa was picked up in the restaurant parking lot.

• 31:54Speaker 01

  In the car are Sally Bugs, Thomas Andretta, and Vito Giaccholoni. That's Tony's little brother.

• 32:02Speaker 03

  Hoffa thought he was gonna be meeting with Tony Jack, so he wouldn't be too concerned about these extra people in the car. And they take him to this so-called meeting spot. There Sally Bugs shoots him twice in the head.

• 32:14Speaker 01

  Picardo says that Genovese crime boss Tony Pro ordered the hit and directed the Andretta brothers to carry it out all the way from back in Jersey City.

• 32:24Speaker 00

  And according to Picaro, Tony Pro wants Hoffa's body nearby as a reminder.

• 32:30Speaker 03

  To understand what happens next, you gotta understand the mob mentality. You'd think in most cases, you have a body, you want to get rid of it as quick and as fast as possible. But sometimes, these guys want to make a statement. Tony Pro hates Hoffa. He would have mounted his head on the wall of his den if he could have. Wise guys don't let this kind of thing go.

• 32:51Speaker 00

  Tony Pro also has an easy means of transportation and an ideal place to hide a body.

• 32:58Speaker 01

  The Genovese family controls a trucking company called Gateway Transportation. According to Picardo's story, Hoffa's body is stuffed into a 55-gallon oil drum and put onto a Gateway Transportation truck. Off he goes 600 miles to Jersey City. In Jersey City, when Tony Pro has a body he wants to get rid of, he's got a favorite spot.

• 33:23Speaker 00

  Leading to theory number six, Hoffa was buried at a dump in New Jersey. At the time of Hoffa's disappearance, Genovese soldiers Phil "Brother" Moscato and Paul Coppola own a 53-acre waste dump under the Pulaski Skyway.

• 33:40Speaker 03

  Moscato, Coppola, and Andretta brothers have been involved in burying bodies at this dump for many years. The FBI's been investigating these people and bodies in this dump for the past three years before Hoffa even disappeared.

• 33:54Speaker 01

  So when the FBI hears this from Ralph Picardo, they pay attention.

• 33:59Speaker 03

  Picardo would have no way of knowing that this dump was already under investigation, but the details, they all line up.

• 34:06Speaker 00

  The FBI asked Picardo for the location of the burial site within the dump.

• 34:11Speaker 03

  Whether or not Picardo knows, he won't reveal the location. The odds against finding a body in this place are huge. It'd be like finding a needle in the haystack.

• 34:20Speaker 00

  Unfortunately, without a more specific place to look, their search comes up empty.

• 34:26Speaker 03

  On December 4th, 1975, the feds make a last-ditch effort. They put the Andretta brothers in front of a grand jury, but they plead the fifth.

• 34:35Speaker 00

  After just five months, the Jersey dump theory hits a roadblock for 41 years. But in 2016, a deathbed confession resurrects it.

• 34:47Speaker 03

  Phillip Moscato Jr., who's the son of the Moscato dump owner, comes forward and claims he knows exactly where to look.

• 34:54Speaker 00

  Moscato says his father, Philip Senior, made a deathbed confession.

• 34:59Speaker 05

  The day I met my father in the hospital, it was the day before he went home on hospice. He said, "Listen, some things I gotta tell you." And he proceeded to tell me the location where Jimmy Hoffa was buried. He was brought there in a drum, on a truck, and put in the ground. That's what I was told.

• 35:16Speaker 01

  It lines up with Ralph Picardo's story as well, that the mob kills Hoffa in Detroit, puts him in a drum, and trucks him down to Jersey City to bury him in Moscato's dump. To complete the job, Moscato dumps 12 more oil drums on top of Hoffa and fills the whole thing in.

• 35:34Speaker 00

  Moscato digs deeper into his father's story.

• 35:38Speaker 05

  I started trying to put the story together in my head, like, how could this be possible? And over my research over the years, putting this together, it all started to make sense to me.

• 35:49Speaker 03

  The full property of the dump doesn't even exist anymore. It's been divided and used for other things. But there's a patch of land right under Pulaski Skyway. It's kind of shaped like a baseball diamond. And that's where Philip tells us that his father buried Jimmy Hoffa.

• 36:03Speaker 00

  In 2020, a search firm conducts further investigation at the site.

• 36:09Speaker 05

  Investigators had just did a ground penetrating radar, I believe they call it.

• 36:15Speaker 03

  It's a method of sending radar pulses into the earth. It's a great way to see what's under the surface before you dig. Lo and behold, they find some metal. If you take the data from that session, you can make a 3D image of exactly what's down there. And the first thing you see, there's a large curved piece that looks just like an oil drum. And it's not just one, there are multiple barrels, and they're buried right on top of each other, starting about four feet down.

• 36:41Speaker 00

  Could this be the final resting place of Jimmy Hoffa? Moscato hopes to have an answer soon.

• 36:49Speaker 05

  My belief from what I was told from my dad is that I am the only person alive today that knows where the remains of Jimmy Hoffa is. We're getting close to revealing that. And I'm hoping in the near future, we do reveal that, and we can maybe give the Hoffa family some closure. The Hoffa family needs to bring home their dad, bring home their husband, their grandfather. Bring them home to the people that he belongs to, that he should have been through all these years with.

• 37:16Speaker 00

  If Philip is correct, the Jimmy Hoffa mystery may be closer than ever to being solved. The FBI has conducted a site survey at the Moscato dump and may soon begin a full-scale excavation. And there's a chance that it could finally put Jimmy Hoffa and all the many theories on his disappearance to rest. Thanks so much for listening to History's Greatest Mysteries, a History Channel original podcast presented by Rewind Studios. Join us next time for a deep dive into another mystery and all the theories behind it.