Where’s Jimmy? Feds searching for Hoffa’s remains

Mike Krumboltz

Say this for the FBI agents working the Jimmy Hoffa case: They're persistent.

More than 35 years after the infamous union leader disappeared near Bloomfield, Mich., federal authorities continue to search for his remains.

The latest excavation will take place in a field near Detroit, reports Fox News.

Hoffa, the controversial Teamsters leader who was both lauded and vilified, went missing in 1975. He was 62 at the time. His disappearance is one of the country's longest-standing mysteries.

Hoffa led the powerful Teamsters union from 1957 to 1971. He was sentenced to prison in 1964 for fraud and jury tampering. President Richard Nixon commuted Hoffa's sentence in 1971. As part of the deal, Hoffa agreed "not to engage in direct or indirect management of any labor organization" until 1980. Many believe Hoffa was killed by organized crime figures in order to stop him from taking back control of the Teamsters.

The FBI is acting on a tip from an aging criminal named Tony Zerilli. Earlier this year, Zerilli told WDIV/ClickOnDetroit.com that Hoffa was buried in the Detroit field, which he said he learned when released from prison in 1975, after Hoffa went missing.

From ClickOnDetroit.com:

Zerilli was second in command with the Detroit mafia. He says he was told by a mafia enforcer that Hoffa was abducted at a restaurant in Bloomfield Township and brought to the area on Buell Road in Oakland Township and buried.

The original plan, according to the aging mobster, was to bury him here temporarily and then take him up to northern Michigan and bury him at a hunting lodge in Rogers City.

Time will tell if Zerilli's information proves accurate. In years past, the FBI has acted on a slew of tips from alleged criminals who claimed to have the scoop on Hoffa's fate.

Some have said Hoffa was pushed from an airplane over the Great Lakes. Others believed Hoffa was buried in a horse farm. All those leads, including the long-standing rumor that Hoffa was buried under Giants Stadium in New Jersey, never led to any concrete evidence.