Could new evidence solve once and for all the mystery of Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance?
A leading Hoffa expert, author Dan Moldea, says yes.
Moldea said a former New Jersey landfill known as “Brother Moscato’s Dump” may hold the grave of the former Teamsters boss, who disappeared from a Bloomfield Township, Mich., restaurant on July 30, 1975.
Moldea has been covering Hoffa since before he disappeared and wrote the book “The Hoffa Wars” in 1978, based on dozens of interviews with key figures in the case. He said a new lead brings together the correct cast of characters, the right timeline of events and information from other interviews he has done in his decades of researching the case.
“I’ve never seen a lead this good for Hoffa’s body,” Moldea said. “I’ve been on six of these (digs) myself, and I’ve come away from all of them disappointed. But nothing was even in the same universe as this.”
Detroit FBI officials told the Detroit Free Press on Thursday that they haven’t yet heard of Moldea’s new evidence. So, are they willing to search the dump if the tip pans out?
"I've never seen a lead this good for Hoffa's body. I've been on six of these (digs) myself, and I've come away from all of them disappointed. But nothing was even in the same universe as this." — author Dan Moldea, a leading Hoffa expert
“Absolutely — if we had credible evidence that leads to a location,” said FBI spokeswoman Mara Schneider. “The case has been going on for so long, and there’s so much interest in finding Mr. Hoffa. We would very much like to be able to solve this.”
Moldea’s latest information comes from Frank Cappola, whose father, Paul Cappola, was a partner in the dump at the time Hoffa disappeared. The younger Cappola said as his father was dying in 2008, he recounted what happened so that Hoffa’s family could eventually recover his remains.
Credit: Uncredited
Credit: Uncredited
Earlier this year, the younger Cappola signed a sworn affidavit for Moldea, spelling out his father’s version of events. It tracks with previous theories that Hoffa was killed in metro Detroit, stuffed in a drum, loaded onto a truck and driven to New Jersey.
Among the new details were:
— Hoffa’s corpse was brought to the dump for disposal.
— Because it was awkwardly placed in the drum in which it was transported, the body was moved to a new one.
— The corpse wouldn’t fit into the new drum feetfirst, so it was shoved in headfirst.
— Cappola used a front-end loader to bury the barrel in a pre-dug hole at the dump.
— He covered it with 15 to 30 other drums containing chemical waste.
— Cappola buried a marker over the spot that should be easy to find.
The elder Cappola even showed his son, years later, the spot of the burial, according to the sworn affidavit. The younger Cappola has agreed to take a polygraph test and cooperate with law enforcement, Moldea said.
Moldea and Cappola recorded an interview with Eric Shawn of FOX News, which published Moldea’s account of his research in the case.
In 2007, Moldea said he interviewed Phil Moscato, Cappola’s partner in the dump.
Moscato also claimed then that Hoffa was buried there, though he didn’t say where and he hinted that the body may have been moved.
The dump, formally known as the PJP Landfill, covered about 87 acres on the east bank of the Hackensack River in Jersey City, New Jersey. On a map, it’s about 3½ miles northwest of the Statute of Liberty.
