Congressman Urges Dig at Possible Jimmy Hoffa Burial Site

Posted on: March 10, 2021, 03:53h. 

Last updated on: March 10, 2021, 04:51h.

Larry Henry Read More

Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

A congressman is urging authorities to conduct a dig at a New Jersey site where some believe former labor leader Jimmy Hoffa could be buried. Before his disappearance in 1975, Hoffa helped secure Teamsters Union funds to construct Las Vegas casinos.

On a recent Fox News broadcast, US Rep. Lee Zeldin (R) said the time has come for authorities to move forward with a dig at a former Mafia dump site in Jersey City, N.J. Zeldin, who lives in Shirley, N.Y., represents eastern Long Island.

The potential burial location is at a former Genovese crime family dump beneath the Pulaski Skyway connecting Jersey City and Newark. Decades ago, federal authorities checked for Hoffa’s body near the site, but not at the place that has since been pinpointed. Another dig cannot be conducted without law enforcement approval. Zeldin said the FBI needs to get involved.

They need to find all the motivation inside of them to get down to this site and to check this one specific location, which is located near where they looked a little over 45 years ago, but they didn’t actually check this site,” Zeldin said.

Earlier this year, Fox News anchor Eric Shawn reported that ground-penetrating radar identified “large buried pieces of curved metal” where Hoffa might have been buried in a 55-gallon steel drum.

The site was identified by Frank Cappola, who said his father, Paul Cappola Sr., buried the former Teamsters president at that location.

Shawn and investigative reporter Dan E. Moldea interviewed Cappola on-camera for the fourth episode of Riddle: The Search for James R. Hoffa. The series appears on the Fox Nation subscription website. Moldea, author of the 1978 nonfiction book The Hoffa Wars, is considered the nation’s top expert on the former Teamsters leader. 

‘Legacy Lives On’

Hoffa, then 62, disappeared July 30, 1975, from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in suburban Detroit. He was scheduled to meet with Mafia leaders to resolve differences. 

Speculation about who killed him and where he was buried has existed for decades. Some have asserted his body was cremated in Detroit. Others believe his body was transported from Detroit to the New Jersey dump site for burial. Seven years after he disappeared, a judge declared him legally dead. No one has been held criminally responsible for the death.

Zelden also has filed a formal request with the Department of Justice to release all FBI files on the Hoffa case. 

“You still have members of the Hoffa family, members of the Teamsters, and the public interest in this information,” he said. “It is a message to let them know that Jimmy Hoffa has not been forgotten. His legacy lives on, and we will not rest until we get these answers.”

Hoffa in Las Vegas

As Las Vegas grew in the years before Hoffa’s death, he helped casino developers obtain Teamsters construction loans.

During this era, Mob infiltration into Las Vegas resulted in several underworld figures being imprisoned for skimming untaxed revenue from casinos. This period is depicted in the 1995 Las Vegas Mafia movie Casino.