The mystery of Jimmy Hoffa’s final resting place was opened yet again Monday, when the FBI began digging up a field near Detroit in the hopes of finding the former Teamsters president, who was last seen on July 30, 1975.
His disappearance is the stuff of urban legend and evergreen fascination. Claims of Hoffa’s whereabouts have taken FBI investigators and amateur sleuths on wild goose chases for nearly 40 years.
Here are some of the places investigators have looked for Hoffa’s body:
Waterford Township, Mich.: Roughly two months after he vanished, in September 1975, investigators spent three days digging in a 29-acre area on a farm in Waterford Township. State police and members of the organized crime division of the state attorney general’s office broke out their spades after a Mafia informant’s tip.
From a New York Times account:
“The information does not provide street names. The instructions, for example, say to proceed left from the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, where Mr. Hoffa was last seen, go nine and a quarter miles and then proceed again for another six and a half miles. … Sources disclosed that the Mafia members were upset with the inability of the investigators to follow what they consider to be clear instructions.”
