The nearly half-century search for the remains of union boss Jimmy Hoffa has led the FBI to a former New Jersey landfill.
As the traffic roared above them on the Pulaski Skyway, a team of FBI forensic investigators from Detroit and Newark collected evidence on Oct. 25 and 26 from a plot of land in Jersey City and are now analyzing it, the FBI confirmed Friday.
“Last month, the FBI obtained a search warrant to conduct a site survey underneath the Pulaski Skyway,” Special Agent Mara Schneider of the FBI’s Detroit field office said. “That data is currently being analyzed. Because the affidavit in support of the search warrant was sealed by the court, we are unable to provide any additional information.”
Schneider also didn’t explicitly name Hoffa in her statement. But NBC News has confirmed that the FBI is, in fact, looking for the body of the former Teamsters president who vanished in 1975 in Michigan and has long been rumored to be buried in New Jersey.
Several searches have been launched over the years for the remains of Hoffa, who was 62 when he disappeared, and all have ended in failure.
The latest, which was first reported by The New York Times, was launched after the FBI reportedly got a tip from the son of a mafia associate.
Hoffa built the Teamsters into a powerful union with a million members in the 1950s.
But he’s become even more famous for the mystery of his disappearance and fodder for urban legends like one that claims he was buried in the end zone at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The stadium was under construction at the time he went missing.
Hoffa has also been a popular character in film and television over the years. Most recently, Al Pacino portrayed him in 2019’s “The Irishman,” and Jack Nicholson was the lead in the 1992 movie “Hoffa.” Robert Blake also played him in the TV mini-series “Blood Feud” in 1993.