ORGANIZED CRIME FBI looks at New Jersy site for Hoffa's remains
The JERSEY CITY, N.J. — decades-long odyssey to find the remains of former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa apparently has turned to land next to a former New Jersey landfill that sits below an elevated highway.
T he F BI obtained a search warrant to “conduct a site survey underneath the Pulaski Skyway,” said Mara Schneider, a spokeswoman for the Detroit field office.
“On Oct. 25 and 26, FBI personnel from the Newark and Detroit field offices completed the survey and that data is currently being analyzed,” Schneider said in a written statement Friday.
She didn’t in d ic a te whether anything was removed.
“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.
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 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.
“I’ve pushed all my chips in on this thing. I believe that we’ve got it,” Moldea told the Associated Press. “Certainly the FBI is taking this seriously .... I’m hopeful they succeed.”
Hoffa was president of the 2.1 million-member Teamsters union from 1957-71, even keeping the title while in prison for trying to bribe jurors during a previous trial. He was released from prison in 1971 when President Richard Nixon shortened his sentence.
It has been speculated that Hoffa, who was 62, was killed by enemies because he was planning a Teamsters come- back. He was declared legally dead in 1982.