Hoffa Still Gone Without a Trace
July 30, 2000 — -- First of all, if you believe Jimmy Hoffa is buried under the end zone of Giants Stadium, you’re probably wrong.
“He ain’t here,” insists John Samerjan, vice president of public affairs for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which runs the stadium.
“We have never been contacted, in the history of the authority, by any law-enforcement agency or investigative authority about the possibility of this being true,” Samerjan says.
Maybe not. But since Hoffa vanished 25 years ago today from a parking lot in suburban Detroit, scores of folk legends, rumors and legitimate leads have led to few public conclusions on the disappearance of one of American history’s most prominent labor leaders.
Accounts of varying reliability place Hoffa’s murdered body at the bottom of Michigan lakes or rivers. Others say he was dumped in Florida, or encased in concrete in a Los Angeles nightclub. Still others say his remains were incinerated. Nearly all say the mob was involved.
Although Hoffa disappeared in 1975 and was declared legally dead in 1982, the FBI’s official investigation remains open, and it continues to appeal to the public for help.
“The objective is to attempt to locate Jimmy Hoffa, and then engage in an investigation based upon the facts once he’s located, “ says Hank Glaspie, a special agent in the FBI’s Detroit field office.
Past FBI statements and leaked reports on early stages of the investigation indicate the agency believes the mob was behind Hoffa’s disappearance, perhaps because it was concerned about his efforts to reclaim leadership of the Teamsters.
Lately, agents on the case “don’t have anything new to provide that would warrant a statement,” Glaspie says.
The Teamsters and the Hoffa family will not comment on the 25th anniversary of James R. Hoffa’s disappearance, according to a Teamsters spokesman. Hoffa’s son, James P. Hoffa, currently holds his father’s old position as head of the union.