[dramatic music]
- Tonight, one of the most notorious
missing person cases of all time,
a powerful union activist vanishes without a trace.
45 years later, the search for him continues.
♪ ♪
- He's really well-known across the country.
Where is his body?
- Now, we uncover the top theories
surrounding his shocking disappearance.
- Law enforcement suspects
that guys use the incinerator
to dispose of bodies.
- Is it possible the CIA took out all three
to keep things quiet?
♪ ♪
- 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 is.
♪ ♪
- Our investigative team is excited, that's for sure.
They got high hopes they're gonna find him.
- Where is Jimmy Hoffa?
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
- Detroit, Michigan, 1975,
the center of both the U.S. auto industry
and of organized labor.
It's also the last known location
of renowned former Teamster president, Jimmy Hoffa.
- Jimmy Hoffa is a legend
within the labor movement.
- He is a true champion of workers' rights.
He's known all over the country.
- Hoffa's been involved with labor unions
since running his first strike as a teenager.
- 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 kinda 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 watching 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.
♪ ♪
- By 1957, he's risen to president of the Teamsters,
but his climb comes with challenges.
- 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.
- Specifically,
New York's powerful Genovese crime family.
- 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.
- 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.
♪ ♪
- In December 1971,
President Nixon commutes Hoffa's sentence
with one stipulation,
he can't manage any labor organization until 1980.
- By 1973,
Hoffa's already plotting
to regain the presidency of the Teamsters.
- 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 Machus Red Fox restaurant,
hoping to make amends.
- 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.
♪ ♪
- 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 a.m. the next day,
Hoffa's wife calls her children
to say their father never came home.
And by 7:20 a.m.,
Hoffa's assistant finds his car,
unlocked in the restaurant parking lot.
- As soon as Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing,
the FBI gets involved.
They're going to investigate the case.
- Agents start at Hoffa's office.
- His office appointment book says
"TG, 2:00 p.m., Red Fox."
"Red Fox" obviously refers to the Machus Red Fox restaurant.
"TG" refers to Tony Giacalone,
known as Tony Jack.
- 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.
♪ ♪
- But when the FBI questions eyewitnesses,
they learn that Giacalone never showed up.
So who's in the car that picks up Jimmy Hoffa?
- Not long before 3:00,
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 eye witnesses,
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.
- They know who he was supposed to be meeting with,
and so they start questioning and wiretapping
known Mafia associates.
♪ ♪
- Starting with Tony Giacalone.
- 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.
- Their names, Raffaele Quasarano
and Peter Vitale.
- Federal law enforcement
are keeping guys like Quasarano 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.
- They also have another business that raises eyebrows.
- They own a commercial incinerator
in their business Central Sanitation.
♪ ♪
- Law enforcement suspects
that guys like Vitale and Quasarano
use the incinerator to dispose of bodies.
♪ ♪
- Central Sanitation, in Hamtramck, Michigan,
is just 20 miles from the Machus Red Fox restaurant.
It's close enough to give the FBI a theory.
♪ ♪
- 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.
♪ ♪
- 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?
- 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.
- Tony Provenzano confronts Jimmy Hoffa,
says, "Why should you be entitled to these benefits
and not my family?"
Jimmy Hoffa snaps backs,
"It's because of people like you
that I'm in here in the first place."
- 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.
- So the FBI believes he was killed,
and then his body transported
to Central Sanitation
and incinerated.
- The FBI hurries to prove their case,
but unfortunately, the Genovese crime family
seems to be one step ahead.
- Within a few months of Hoffa's disappearance,
Central Sanitation catches fire in an arson.
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.
- But that doesn't stop speculation
about other possibilities.
- People still want to know
where did he end up, where did they put him?
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- 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.
♪ ♪
- A hitman named Donald Frankos
comes out with a pretty explosive story
in "Playboy Magazine."
- Frankos 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.
- According to Frankos, Jimmy Hoffa was murdered
by a gang known as the Westies
on the orders of "Fat Tony" Salerno.
♪ ♪
- According to the FBI,
the Westies and their founder, Jimmy Coonan, are responsible
for as many as 100 murders from 1968 to 1986.
- They're one of the main hit squads
on the mob's payroll.
They're involved in racketeering,
and they help the mob control
a lot of the major construction projects
in New York at the time,
like Madison Square Garden
and Javits Center.
- Frankos claims he's in tight with the Westies.
As a matter of fact, they wanted him
to be the triggerman on Hoffa.
But he's in prison at the time and he can't do it.
- But he says Jimmy Coonan himself
told him how it all went down.
- Wind back to that red car.
- As we know, a little before 3:00,
Hoffa is picked up by a red Mercury Marquis
at the Machus Red Fox.
He thinks he's gonna 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,
Frankos claims that they had another plan.
- They don't just want to burn the body or hide him away.
- Frankos says the Westies store Hoffa's remains
for five months
until they can decide what to do.
- 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.
♪ ♪
- At the time, a new Giants Stadium
is under construction
in East Rutherford, New Jersey,
an area known as the Meadowlands.
- 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.
♪ ♪
- Frankos 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.
- Frankos even claimed to know
exactly where they were gonna put Hoffa:
in the end zone, Section 107 in the corner,
right where they were scheduled
to pour 30 tons of concrete.
Frankos 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."
[crowd cheering]
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.
♪ ♪
- But when Giants Stadium is demolished in August 2010,
the FBI doesn't bother to conduct a dig.
- 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 Frankos
to excavate down that low.
♪ ♪
- Some suggest the theory simply doesn't add up.
- 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.
- Which leads to a very different idea
on what happened to Hoffa,
from someone who knew him well.
- There's no doubt in my mind
I know where Mr. Hoffa's body is,
and it's not in New Jersey.
- Marvin Elkind was Hoffa's driver
during his first term as Teamsters president.
- 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.
♪ ♪
- Elkind first meets Hoffa in the late 1950s.
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.
- One day, a Genovese family big wig
offers him a new opportunity.
I said, "Why? I'm trying so hard to do a good job."
He says, "As of Monday,
"you've got a new job.
You're gonna 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."
He said, "Are you Marvin?" I go, "Yes, sir."
He says, "Very good start. Excellent.
Remember, it's 'Mr. Hoffa' or 'Sir.'"
Scared the hell out of me.
♪ ♪
- Hoffa conducts much of his business from the car,
and Elkind hears everything.
- 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.
♪ ♪
- When Elkind starts working, Hoffa has two rules.
- Today, Elkind is ready to break one of those rules.
♪ ♪
- In the 47 years since his disappearance,
Jimmy Hoffa's whereabouts remain a mystery.
Until his former driver Marvin Elkind says he knows,
and that everyone has been looking in the wrong place.
- There's no doubt in my mind
I know where Mr. Hoffa's body is.
♪ ♪
- After Hoffa is picked up by the red car,
what happens next?
- According to Elkind,
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.
♪ ♪
- The Renaissance Center is mid-construction
at the time Hoffa disappears.
They put him in the planks
and poured the concrete on top of him.
♪ ♪
- 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.
♪ ♪
- And according to Elkind,
it's that same sense of humor
that gives away the mob's secret.
- Tony Pro, the Genovese boss
who had a prison feud with Hoffa.
- He's walking past the construction site,
where they're pouring concrete footings every day.
- Tony Pro turned to everybody and said,
"Guys, say good morning to Mr. Jimmy Hoffa."
All the top brass were laughing.
That was all the proof I needed.
- Elkind 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.
- Marvin wants to have a sit-down with Hoffa.
He wants to warn him that certain people aren't happy.
He knows they're gonna take him out.
- Shortly before he goes missing,
Hoffa meets with Elkind.
I told Mr. Hoffa what the word was.
Mr. Hoffa just told me,
"Marvin, my people will never harm me."
♪ ♪
Mr. Hoffa went missing,
and immediately, the concrete was poured.
Nobody has ever seen him again.
♪ ♪
- 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.
♪ ♪
- In 2016,
another witness steps forward
to back up Elkind's story.
- Former corrections officer Michael Yarbrough
claims to have actually witnessed
Hoffa's burial at the Renaissance Center.
Yarbrough says that at 3:20 p.m.,
half an hour or so after Hoffa is picked up
at the Machus 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 is gonna be built.
Apparently, a third guy
sees Yarbrough snooping and runs up and says,
"Hey, you better keep moving or you're gonna be next."
So he runs out of there
and he hides until they're gone.
♪ ♪
- But once again, without a body,
the Renaissance theory remains impossible to prove.
- It's a major supporting pillar
of one of the most iconic
and recognizable buildings in Michigan.
They're never gonna dig that thing up.
♪ ♪
- 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 "Hoffex 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?
♪ ♪
- Six months into the investigation,
the FBI produces this really important document
known as the Hoffex Memo.
- 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 Hoffex Memo.
- And while the memo is full of names,
it's lacking in evidence.
- Eventually, the investigation leads to a grand jury.
They identify 95 people that they want
to testify before the jury
but almost everyone takes the Fifth.
- 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.
- But why would the FBI try to hide the truth
about Hoffa's disappearance?
- Why?
Because he's actually a government informant.
- Around the time of his death,
many speculate Jimmy Hoffa's cooperating with the feds.
- 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 gonna have to make a deal with the government.
Luckily, he's got a lot of bargaining power.
- Over the years, Hoffa has had a front row seat
to the inner workings of the Mafia.
- 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.
- Clearly, he's in a very dangerous position,
caught between the mob and the U.S. government.
- And on July 30, 1975,
some theorists believe Hoffa isn't killed.
He's rescued.
♪ ♪
- Let's go back to the Machus Red Fox.
- We know that Hoffa's Mafia associates stand him up,
they're not showing up to the meeting.
He's upset.
- But the fact that they're late
just might have saved his life.
- What if the car that shows up
is not full of wise guys and mobsters
but it's actually the Justice Department?
- They've heard that there's a hit out on Jimmy,
and they swoop in to intercept him
before the mobsters can get there.
♪ ♪
- If the FBI is trying to hide Jimmy Hoffa,
the question is, where?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Which leads to an entirely different theory
involving another top secret government agency.
♪ ♪
- 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.
- And the perfect leverage.
- The Senate is investigating the CIA
and Hoffa knows about one of the dirtiest deals
the CIA ever did.
It's called Operation Mongoose.
- 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?
♪ ♪
- 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.
- The Mafia wants Castro out of the way
so they can go back in
and start up their businesses again in the vice rackets.
- The way the CIA looked at it was
our enemy's enemy is our friend.
[crowd cheering]
- A federal agent reaches out to mobster
Johnny Roselli
and Sam Giancana,
another well-known mob personality out of Chicago.
These guys agree 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.
- And some think that includes getting rid of Jimmy Hoffa.
- 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?
- According to this theory's supporters,
Hoffa and his Mafia associates are all planning to talk.
- Giancana, Roselli, and Hoffa were all subpoenaed
to provide testimony in front of this Senate hearing.
- But none of them make it to Washington.
- Sam Giancana was murdered in May.
Hoffa was supposed to testify in August of '75.
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.
- Is it possible the CIA took out all three
to keep things quiet?
♪ ♪
- While we may never know the answer,
one thing is clear,
any hope of finding Hoffa alive is now gone.
- Jimmy Hoffa would be 108 years old today.
So if we find any remnants of him,
it's gonna be his bones.
You're not gonna roll into a Burger King
in Kalamazoo, Michigan,
and find him having a Whopper with Elvis
and Jim Morrison.
That's-- That's not gonna happen.
- But one man thinks he knows
exactly where Hoffa's body is.
And it's not where anyone expects.
♪ ♪
- Within days of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance,
multiple underworld tipsters
claim to know his whereabouts,
including Trenton State Penitentiary inmate
Ralph Picardo.
♪ ♪
- This incredible story starts August 4th, 1975.
That was only five days after Hoffa's disappearance.
♪ ♪
- Picardo is 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.
- 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.
- Now Picardo might be
just looking for a lighter sentence,
but he reveals the whole story as told by Andretta.
♪ ♪
- It begins, once again, in the parking lot
of the Machus Red Fox on July 30th.
- Picardo tells the FBI
a familiar story in the beginning.
He said Hoffa was picked up in the restaurant parking lot.
- In the car are Sally Bugs, Thomas Andretta,
and Vito Giacalone,
that's Tony's little brother.
- 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.
- 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.
- And according to Picardo,
Tony Pro wants Hoffa's body nearby as a reminder.
♪ ♪
- To understand what happens next,
you got to understand the mob mentality.
You'd think, in most cases,
you have a body, you wanna get rid of it
as quick and as fast as possible.
But sometimes, these guys wanna 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.
- Tony Pro also has an easy means of transportation
and an ideal place to hide a body.
- 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.
♪ ♪
- At the time of Hoffa's disappearance,
Genovese soldiers Phil "Brother" Moscato
and Paul Cappola
own a 53-acre waste dump under the Pulaski Skyway.
- Moscato, Cappola, and the Andretta brothers
have been involved in burying bodies at this dump
for many years.
The FBI has been investigating these people
and bodies in this dump for the past three years
before Hoffa even disappeared.
- So when the FBI hears this from Ralph Picardo,
they pay attention.
- Picardo would have no way of knowing that
this dump was already under investigation.
But the details, they all line up.
- The FBI asks Picardo for the location
of the burial site within the dump.
- 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.
- Unfortunately, without a more specific place to look,
their search comes up empty.
- On December 4, 1975,
the feds make a last-ditch effort.
They put the Andretta brothers in front of a grand jury,
but they plead the Fifth.
- After just five months,
the Jersey dump theory hits a roadblock for 41 years.
But in 2016,
a deathbed confession resurrects it.
♪ ♪
- 47 years after he disappeared,
could Jimmy Hoffa's body finally be found
in a New Jersey dump?
- The place is mob-owned,
and they've got a jailhouse informant named Ralph Picardo,
who says that he's there.
But they search in 1975 and simply can't find a body.
It's tough. I mean, they faced incredible odds,
a 53-acre property
with not even a little clue about where to look.
- This place is a landfill and a toxic waste dump.
It was too dangerous to dig in many places.
Maybe that's why the mob likes to hide bodies in this dump.
♪ ♪
- The FBI abandons the search in 1976.
But 40 years later,
a shocking revelation brings the Moscato Dump
back to the attention of Hoffa theorists.
- Phillip Moscato Jr.,
who's the son of the Moscato Dump owner
comes forward and claims he knows exactly where to look.
- Moscato says his father, Phillip Sr.,
made a deathbed confession.
♪ ♪
- 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 got to tell you."
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And he proceeded to tell me
the location where Jimmy Hoffa's buried.
He was brought there in a drum on a truck
and put in the ground.
That's what I was told.
- Could an oil drum like this
contain the remains of Jimmy Hoffa?
- 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.
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- Moscato digs deeper into his father's story.
- I started trying to put the story together in my head.
Like, how could this be possible?
And over my research of the years, putting this together,
it all started to make sense to me.
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- 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 Phillip tells us
that his father buried Jimmy Hoffa.
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- In 2020,
a search firm conducts further investigations
at the site.
- Investigators had just did a ground-penetrating radar,
I believe they call it.
- 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 is 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.
- Could this be the final resting place of Jimmy Hoffa?
[somber music]
Moscato hopes to have an answer soon.
- 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 him home to the people that he belongs to,
that he should have been through all these years with.
♪ ♪
- If Phillip 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 is a chance that it could finally put Jimmy Hoffa
and all the many theories on his disappearance to rest.
I'm Laurence Fishburne.
Thank you for watching "History's Greatest Mysteries."
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