Friday September 7 12:26 PM ET
New Clue in Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa - Report
DETROIT (Reuters) - A strand of hair provides new clues to the disappearance of former Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa, placing him in the car of a longtime friend on the day he vanished 26 years ago, according to a newspaper report on Friday.
Using DNA evidence, FBI scientists have matched a hair found in a borrowed car driven by Charles ``Chuckie'' O'Brien on July 30, 1975, with a hair taken from Hoffa's hairbrush, sources familiar with the investigation told The Detroit News.
O'Brien, whom Hoffa considered an adopted son, has always maintained that the powerful union leader was never in the car, and has denied any role in his disappearance, one of the great unsolved cases in American history. O'Brien now works out of an office in Memphis, Tennessee.
The 62-year-old former Teamsters president disappeared after going to the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township outside Detroit to meet two mobsters for lunch. Both of the men, reputed mob enforcer Anthony Giacolone, and New Jersey mobster and union boss Anthony Provenzano, failed to show up for the meeting, according to investigators.
Disgusted that he had been stood up, Hoffa called a friend and agreed to stop by. He was never seen again, and his body was never found.
More than 50 witnesses appeared before a federal grand jury empanelled six weeks after the disappearance, but prosecutors never pressed charges against anybody.
The FBI and federal prosecutors did not return phone calls from Reuters about the investigation.
But FBI Special Agent John Bell told The Detroit News that the DNA tests have been conducted on all evidence, and the agency has interviewed O'Brien again. Federal agents have met regularly over the last 11 months to discuss the case, which remains open, Bell said.
O'Brien, taken in by Hoffa when he was six years old after his father died, was immediately suspected of being involved in the disappearance.
O'Brien told investigators in 1975 that on the day Hoffa vanished, he borrowed a car belonging to Giacolone's son to run some errands. He stopped at Teamsters' headquarters in Detroit, where he picked up a 40-pound box of fresh salmon, which he delivered to the home of a union official.
He told investigators that the box dripped blood all over the back seat of the car, a 1975 Mercury Marquis Brougham, so he had it washed and the interior cleaned. However, workers at the car wash and an athletic club O'Brien said he later visited could not recognize his picture when questioned by agents.
Hoffa's daughter, Barbara Ann Crancer, now a judge in St. Louis, told the newspaper that she was aware of the DNA tests.
``He (O'Brien) was driving the car the day my father disappeared in the vicinity of the Red Fox. If my dad's hair was in the car, he was there,'' she told the newspaper. ``I still don't think anyone will ever be prosecuted in my father's disappearance,'' she added.
Hoffa's son, James P. Hoffa, now president of the Teamsters, declined to comment on the DNA evidence.
Federal prosecutors said they hoped to decide whether to press charges no later than December 2003, according a federal court affidavit filed on June 12. But the new evidence is no guarantee that charges will be filed, they said.
``This is a 26-year-old case,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Corbett told The Detroit News. ``There are a lot of hurdles to get over in bringing a case after this long.''
Seriously....there are some things here we have to keep in mind. First of all, we need to know if this was old concrete. If it was, we can rule out Chandra Levy. However, this is also another scenario: Chandra was murdered and buried here. They poured concrete. End of story, right? WRONG. The concrete cracks, the homeowner has a fit, and they start over again. This is how they've discovered a body there.
Just two possibilities out of a hundred. ;-)
Haven't you heard Jimmy Hoffa was found?
When they removed Tammy Faye Bakers Make-up!!!