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May 18, 2006 10:40 pm US/Central
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Chicago FBI Agents Help Search For Hoffa's Remains
CBS 2's Mike Parker also contributed to this report.
(CBS)
The search for Jimmy Hoffa has spanned 30 years and sparked a number of conspiracy theories.
Now, one of the most intense searches ever is taking place in Michigan, just northwest of Detroit.
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports that so far, only new questions have been unearthed.
Perhaps Jimmy Hoffa's mother knew his life would end in mystery. After all, his middle name was riddle.
Now, federal authorities believe the answer to his puzzling disappearance more than 30 years ago may lie here on a suburban Detroit horse farm.
"This is the best lead I've seen or come across in the Hoffa investigation," said FBI Special Agent Daniel Roberts.
FBI agents -- some on loan from the Chicago office -- forensics experts, geologists and archaeologists are digging up and searching an old horse farm. They hope to solve a mystery that is three decades old.
In 1975, Jimmy Hoffa, the one-time boss of the National Teamsters Union, had just been released from prison after he was pardoned by President Nixon after a jury tampering conviction. Hoffa said he planned to retake the union, and there were signals that we would no longer cooperate with the mob.
Investigators believe Hoffa was lured to a Michigan restaurant, then murdered by a hit squad.
Chicagoan Jim McGough has been studying and writing about union/gangland connections and the Hoffa murder for years.
"He was a wild cannon. He was making statements that were causing undue publicity, and because of that, he had to be eliminated," McGough said.
Authorities have begun digging, focusing on a red barn that may be torn down. The 86-acre farm was once owned by a Teamsters official.
"It was a meeting location for mob officials in the area, and after Hoffa's death they no longer met there," said McGough.
Hoffa vanished in June 1975 on his way to a meeting with two mobsters at a Bloomfield Township restaurant 20 miles from the farm. Soon after, neighbors reported an unusual sighting, a backhoe at the farm, and rumors have persisted ever since.
"Been here since 1985 and when we moved in a neighbor said, 'Did you know Hoffa was buried next door?' We laughed. Last we heard of it," said neighbor Deb Koskovich.
Now, a jailed informant has told the feds that Hoffa's buried near the barn. About 50 lawmen could spend up to two weeks trying to solve a riddle three decades old.
"I'll be surprised if they find Hoffa's body in that location, but if he wasn't cremated, he had to be buried somewhere and that's convenient," McGough said.
For the FBI, finding his remains has been like the quest for the Holy Grail.
"We plan to be out here for a couple of weeks at least," Roberts said.
It's generally believed that syndicate bosses killed the charismatic Hoffa because he wanted to regain control of the Teamsters, which the mob effectively ran.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)