A deathbed statement by a man who claimed to bury the Teamster boss’ body in a steel drum brought agents to the site for an inspection.
By Michael Wilson, New York Times
F.B.I. agents armed with a search warrant arrived in Jersey City at a plot of dirt and gravel the size of a Little League diamond below the Pulaski Skyway on Oct. 25 and 26 to conduct a “site survey,” according to the Detroit field office, which has led the investigation into Mr. Hoffa’s disappearance in 1975. The steel drum is said to be buried about 15 feet below ground, in the shadow of countless millions of drivers who have passed it by.
“F.B.I. personnel from the Newark and Detroit field offices completed the survey and that data is currently being analyzed,” Special Agent Mara R. Schneider, a spokeswoman, said on Thursday. The formal statement did not mention Mr. Hoffa by name and did not elaborate on a timeline for any potential excavation
The new investigation, to be sure, has a familiar ring, as it follows several failed searches for Mr. Hoffa’s body over the years. In Michigan, where Mr. Hoffa was last seen outside a restaurant, officers with backhoes have searched various locations, including a farm, a driveway and beneath a swimming pool.
In New Jersey, a popular urban legend had Mr. Hoffa’s remains buried under the old Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. The 2019 film “The Irishman” raised yet another version of what may have happened, portraying Mr. Hoffa’s character shot and killed by his friend, Frank Sheeran, and his body incinerated. That theory, advanced by Mr. Sheeran in a book before his death, has long been discounted by Hoffa scholars as unlikely.
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