The Last Hoffa Dig

A deathbed confession note and independent sources in 3 states led the Case Breakers (CBs) to this suspected burial spot of labor leader Jimmy Hoffa. A geophysicist with ground-penetrating radar made 3 rolling passes over the remote location, which vanishes at 5 feet (because GPR can’t penetrate the clay layer). Nevertheless, our energized earth scientist, versed in words like “anomaly” and “disturbance,” described it in terms a mobster might utter: The location appears to have been hurriedly “excavated and backfilled.”  

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To those wearing a badge, nothing is worse than learning a partner you trusted is dirty. Now imagine if he was your favorite uncle, the father you never had, and your inspiration for putting on a uniform. Then you learn this retired sergeant’s whole career was a lie, decades after his death – through a phone call from the CBs.

Michelle, a 30-year retired deputy, received that gut-punch. Old documents, photographs, and witnesses have convinced the volunteer investigators that her role-model relative had secretly helped a notorious mafia leader case, kidnap, murder and bury Hoffa.

Michelle first got wind of this hornet’s nest in 1996, months before the uncle’s death, when she drove down the familiar forest road to his remote trailer near Canada’s border. The uncle first revealed a playing card covered in scribbled handwriting. Michelle spotted the word “Hoffa” at the top, the crime boss’ name, a rendezvous date, and a precise burial spot. After returning the ace of spades to its hiding place, the ailing ex-sergeant gave her fateful final words: “If something happens to me, you’ll know what to do.”

When her beloved uncle died, Michelle inherited his small estate. She had earlier briefed her longtime beau-cop, Jim (both at left), and after consoling, he reminded her of her badge: “Don’t forget to look for that card.” But while reabsorbing its details, Michelle became fearful for her own family and relatives in multiple states. It was her call, and Jim agreed they would keep the card’s existence between them.

Jim later became one of the CBs’ 40 volunteers, led by a dozen former FBI and U.S. Marshals. With the blessing of team organizer Thomas J. Colbert, Jim reached out to his old flame in 2020 and convinced her that all of the gangsters she was worried about were long gone. While Michelle admitted the revelations about her dead uncle’s double life had scrambled her emotions, she wholeheartedly agreed to help finish the Hoffa puzzle.

After the telltale ace was forwarded to team members, they quickly tracked down elderly witnesses around the country who could recall some of the same details. Colbert now believes CSI forensics and DNA from Hoffa’s relatives will reveal his body was first hidden in those border forests in 1975. Then two decades later, for a reason only known to dead men, his remains were moved hundreds of miles away to a particular spot at “a very busy mall.” Are the labor leader’s remains still there, after all these years? Or did the mob move them again? Only a dig will tell.

With the help of a historian, satellite imagery-analysis photos and a geophysicist’s GPR, the CBs believe they have found the card’s exact burial site.

TJC FYI (2023): PRODUCERS & PUBLISHERS: Thanks for considering this bonified update. If you have serious interest or questions about the team’s copyrighted true story and book (TBA), please email our Beverly Hills-based manager, Michael London, at LonBiz@aol.com.