It's the organized-crime version of "Where's Waldo?" -- Where's Jimmy Hoffa?
Friday,
Michigan police will follow yet-another tip and examine a suburban
Detroit driveway to see if it solves the mystery regarding the 1975
disappearance of the legendary Teamsters union boss, the Detroit Free Press reports.
"We received information from an individual who saw something," Roseville Police Chief James Berlin told the Free Press, which is published by Gannett, USA TODAY's parent. "The information seemed credible, so we decided to follow up on it."
Last
Friday, Berlin said, ground-scanning radar detected "an anomaly" under
the driveway. Soil samples will be taken Friday and sent to a forensic
anthropologist at Michigan State University.
The 62-year-old Hoffa
vanished from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox in nearby
Bloomfield Township on July 30, 1975, and he was declared legally dead
in 1982. He reportedly told associates he went to the restaurant to
reconcile with two Mafia leaders, including one who was a Teamsters
official in New Jersey.
The FBI believes that Hoffa was killed after getting into a car driven
by his protege, Charles O'Brien, and that his body was shredded or
incinerated.
The FBI believes that Hoffa was killed after getting into a car
driven by his protege, Charles O'Brien, and that his body was shredded
or incinerated.
Authorities have checked out hundreds of tips
about Hoffa's possible whereabouts. In what was called "the Big Dig,"
police searched a farm in Milford, Mich., in 2006, and in 2009 dug up a Detroit lumber yard. Other sites have included a backyard swimming pool and other homes. Last year,
a Canadian author claimed Hoffa was buried in the foundation of the
Renaissance Center, the high-rise headquarters of General Motors in
Detroit.
A popular urban myth puts Hoffa's remains under the
former New York Giants' football stadium Known as "The Meadowlands" in
East Rutherford, N.J., or in a slaughterhouse rendering plant.
His daughter sees another wild-goose chase.
"I don't put much credence into it," Barbara Crancer, a retired St. Louis administrative judge, told the Free Press.
"I don't think the case will ever be solved. Too many people are dead
and gone. I believe there are people out there who know what happened,
but they're not talking."
"After so many false turns, I'll be
surprised if anything comes of it," she added."But as his daughter, I
would like to have a body to bury."
Hoffa
was convicted in 1964 of jury tampering, attempted bribery and fraud
and began a 13-year prison sentence in 1967. Four years later he was
pardoned by President Nixon and barred from union activities until 1980.
The Freep has a timeline of Hoffa's disappearance.
USA Today