Posted on 05/26/2006 11:27:48 AM PDT by 300magnum
MILFORD TOWNSHIP, Michigan (Reuters) - FBI teams on Thursday sifted by hand through dirt from a chest-deep hole in the ground in an intense search for the body of labor leader Jimmy Hoffa three decades after his disappearance.
Wearing Evidence Response Team T-shirts and hard hats, FBI agents directed a work crew that used heavy equipment to rip up the concrete floor of a horse farm barn demolished a day earlier.
Investigators then worked by hand to sort through soil under the foundation of the barn and could be seen photographing and videotaping potential evidence around a hole marked off with yellow crime scene tape.
Orange work cones marked what had been the perimeter of the barn on the Hidden Dreams Farm near Detroit.
The investigation was triggered by a tip from Donovan Wells, 75, a federal prisoner serving time for marijuana trafficking who lived on the farm at the time of Hoffa's disappearance.
A former lawyer said Wells offered the information to the FBI 30 years ago. Now, he has offered it again in hopes of securing a reduced sentence.
The farm was previously owned by Hoffa associate Rolland McMaster. It is about 20 miles 32 km from where the legendary Teamsters union boss disappeared on July 30, 1975.
No trace of Hoffa has ever been found, and no one has been charged in the case.
Wells, who has reportedly passed a polygraph test, told his lawyers that he saw men burying what appeared to be a body with a backhoe on the farm a day after Hoffa vanished.
Hoffa was last seen outside a Detroit-area restaurant where he was to meet New Jersey Teamsters' boss Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano, a member of the Genovese crime family, and a local Mafia captain, Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone. He had called his wife to say no one else had shown up for the meeting.
He disappeared just as he was to embark on a campaign to get reelected to his post as president of the Teamsters sparked a nationwide investigation.
Hoffa was declared dead in 1982, and numerous books about his life have pinned his disappearance on mobsters who murdered him because they did not want him interfering with their close ties to the union.
Perhaps they wanted to keep him close to the pulse of the union.
Hmmmm . . . doesn't sound very encouraging.
When we lived in the Detroit area we ate at the restaurant where he was last seen. I think at that time it was the "Red Fox" or something? It has changed a few times since he was there I know. And it may be gone by now. Can you remember the place Abathar?
I remember once on Monday Night Football the guest in the booth, Rudy Guiliani, was asked if it was true that Hoffa was buired under one of the goalposts at the Meadowlands. Rudy said he thought there was a "little bit of Jimmy everywhere" - heh
It will be rebuilt at taxpayer expense using union labor and with all building materials delivered by teamsters local 702.
Tony's gonna get mad.............
Kinda like Frenchmen and white flags.
Of course, if they do find Hoffa here they can probably make some money on tourists. Perhaps they have been promised a bigger and better barn once all this is done.
No thread hijacking? Then I guess you don't want me to mention, The Da Vinci Code, The Methodists, The Masons, The WOD, American Idol, Catholic Priests and their altar boys, ANWR, etc..................?
Sounds the guy wanted to tear down his barn and replace it with a swimming pool and rather than hire illegals to do the job he found an even cheaper labor source! ;-)
Could it be because they were?
Oh no, he's dead. After 30 years. Who woulda thought...
Next thing you know we'll hear they've called in a crack archeology team from Egypt to help out.
Yes, it was the Red Fox or Fox Run (I'm getting old...) on Telegraph rd, and I have eaten there with my parents. It had such notoriety that business was great, I still remember my grandfather and father laughing about how much it increased their business for years afterword.
That's the place. It was remodeled not long before we moved. No more dark wood etc. They changed to a bright floral design. Kind of removed the "image" I thought.
Crack archaeology teams from egypt are often from Ann Arbor...
Macchus Red Fox Restaurant is where Jimmy disappeared on July 30, 1975. Yes, it was on Telegraph. It's now called Andiamo. 6676 Telegraph Road Bloomfield Hills.
The Feds will rebuild/repair everything--at taxpayers expense. Even if they find something, it will prove nothing.
The good old days of 'Chucky' O'Brien, Tony 'Jack' Giacolone, and Antonio 'Pro' Provenzano.
My mother-in-law was on the Federal Grand Jury investigating the case back then. Two U.S. Marshalls would come to her house the evening before with a notice to appear for duty. This went on for around a year.
My father-in-law always had me answer the door. If I recall his comments correctly--"F%*# them, they'll never find anything".
Maybe the guy was right.
See #38.
An old farmer's son went to prison for bank robbery. The money was never found.
One day the farmer wrote a letter to his son in prison saying, "Son, I am afraid I am going to lose the farm without you to help plow the fields. I don't know what to do. - Your loving father."
A couple of days later the farmer received a letter back from his son saying, "Dad, whatever you do, don't plow the south field because that is where I buried all of my money!"
That same day, a large group of FBI agents showed up at the farm. They spent the entire day digging up the field, but found nothing. After several hours of digging, they finally left.
A few days later, the farmer received another letter from his son. "Dad under my circumstances, that was the best I could do for you. Let me know when you are ready to plow the north field. - Your loving son."
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