Update: Feds Call Off Oakland County Field Search for Jimmy Hoffa

[JamesG]

Attorney for Tipster Tony Zerilli Says Jimmy Hoffa’s Body is Under Cement Slab That was Part of Barn
6/17/13


Is Jimmy Hoffa's body going to be found underneath a cement slab in a large green Oakland County field? Tipster Anthony Zirilli certainly believes that to be the case.

Tony Zirilli is 85-years-old and was in jail at the time of Hoffa's disappearance in 1975.



Today, his attorney, David Chasnick, was emphatic.

"The body is in that field, no doubt about it," he said while pointing to the spot behind him where the FBI and local law enforcement crews were clearing grass and shoveling dirt.





The dig site is east of Adams Road and north of Buell Road in Oakland Township.

From above, the images from Chopper 7 showed crews concentrating on two cement slabs in the field.

"There used to be a barn in the field," Chasnick said Monday afternoon. Hoffa, he siad, was "buried under the barn, under a cement slab."





Chasnick also made sure to mention that his client recently published a manuscript with his revelations. That is available for purchase at HoffaFound.com.

The site says Zirilli's manuscript, "Will be followed by a full book depicting Mr. Zerilli’s true life story about what he knows about the Mafia."





The FBI has said that Zerilli was second in command of the local Detroit mob at one time. He was in prison at the time Hoffa disappeared, but experts say his mob ties give him some credibility.

“That would be enough to grant credibility, for the agents to at least start taking an initial look at this to try to vet out his information,” Dan Roberts, former Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit FBI told 7 Action News in January. “They’d be looking at things like the property in question, who owned it at the time?”





The 7 Action News Investigators also looked into who owned the property at the time Hoffa disappeared in 1975. We found that in 1972 suspected mob boss Jack Tocco and his family members bought 45 acres of land in the area.

The Toccos then moved their ownership into a family business and developed very large homes that sit on two to five acres each.

http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/...s-part-of-barn

[JamesG]

Hoffa Search Ends: Feds Call Off Dig for Former Teamsters Leader Jimmy Hoffa in Oakland Twp., Mich. Field
AP | by Corey Williams
06/19/2013


The excavation of a rural field in suburban Detroit has failed to turn up the remains of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa, the FBI announced Wednesday, adding another unsuccessful chapter to a nearly 40-year-old mystery.

Authorities stopped the dig after just a few hours on the third day.

"We did not uncover any evidence relevant to the investigation on James Hoffa," said Robert Foley, head of the FBI in Detroit.

"I am very confident of our result here after two-days-plus of diligent effort," he said. "As of this point, we'll be closing down the excavation operation."





Authorities have pursued multiple leads as to Hoffa's whereabouts since his disappearance in 1975. He was last seen outside an Oakland County restaurant where he was to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit Mafia captain.

The latest tip about Hoffa's remains came from reputed Mafia captain Tony Zerilli, who, through his lawyer, said Hoffa was buried beneath a concrete slab in a barn in Oakland Township, north of Detroit.

The barn is gone, but FBI agents on Monday starting poring over the field where it used to stand.





On Tuesday, authorities used a backhoe to dig and move dirt around in the section of land. Authorities also called in forensic anthropologists from Michigan State University and cadaver dogs from the Michigan State Police.

"Certainly, we're disappointed" in the results, Foley told reporters Wednesday.





He said about 40 agents were involved in an operation that covered about an acre. The FBI has not put a cost on the search, but Foley said it's more important to solve a case.

"With any investigation we consider cost-benefits analysis," he said. "The FBI and its partners are no corporations. We do not have a profit margin as a bottom line."









Hoffa's rise in the Teamsters, his 1964 conviction for jury tampering and his presumed murder are Detroit's link to a time when organized crime, public corruption and mob hits held the nation's attention.

Over the years, authorities have received various tips, leading the FBI to possible burial sites near and far.



In 2003, a backyard swimming pool was dug up 90 miles northwest of Detroit. Seven years ago, a tip from an ailing federal inmate led to a two-week search and excavation at a horse farm in the same region.

Last year, soil samples were taken from under the concrete floor of a backyard shed north of the city. And detectives even pulled up floorboards at a Detroit house in 2004.



No evidence of Hoffa was found.





Other theories have suggested he was entombed in concrete at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, ground up and thrown in a Florida swamp or obliterated in a mob-owned fat-rendering plant.

Zerilli, now 85, was in prison for organized crime when Hoffa disappeared. But he told New York TV station WNBC in January that he was informed about Hoffa's whereabouts after his release. His attorney, David Chasnick, said Zerilli is "intimately involved" with people who know where the body is buried.

Details are in a manuscript Zerilli is selling online.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3466132.html

[gilligan fanatic]

Why waste the time and money anymore, I don't think they will ever find anything on him.

[robyrob]

man, I could use a swimming pool - maybe Hoffa is buried somewhere in MY back yard !

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by robyrob

man, I could use a swimming pool - maybe Hoffa is buried somewhere in MY back yard !

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by gilligan fanatic

Why waste the time and money anymore, I don't think they will ever find anything on him.

Same here. I don't think he's buried in Detroit or the Meadowlands in NY...I'm guessing he was thrown to the bottom of a deep body of water and he was tied to a heavy object so he wouldn't be able to float. I can't be the only one who thinks that.