Who killed Jimmy Hoffa? A reporter, a prosecutor, and an ex-mobster claim they know

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – It's a (nearly) 50-year-old mystery: Who killed Jimmy Hoffa and where is his body? A trio of people has come forward claiming to have the answer that they'll share, if you're willing to pay for it.

Investigative reporter Scott Burnstein, retired federal prosecutor Richard Convertino, and former mobster turned informant Nove Tocco say they are going to reveal their findings at a presentation on July 23 at Macomb Community College in Michigan.

Burnstein is a longtime Detroit journalist and crime historian, and Convertino prosecuted at least one notable case involving Detroit mobsters allegedly connected to Hoffa’s disappearance.

The event’s website says the trio will host an 80-minute presentation that will include “the actual name of the person who killed Jimmy Hoffa,” “never-before-seen photos from FBI investigative files” and a 40-minute Q&A session.

The Detroit News asked Burnstein why he hasn’t alerted the FBI with this new information. He told them that the agency “already knows.”

“They might not come out and say it, but the FBI has come to the same conclusion we have,” Burnstein told the News.

A spokesperson for the FBI told the outlet that the agency asks anyone with information about the case to submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.

Tickets cost $30 and are still available through the event’s website.

Hoffa’s disappearance

Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975, and almost instantly became one of the country’s most infamous missing persons cases, not only because of his personal history but also for his apparent connections with organized crime and the number of failed searches to find his remains.

The Indiana native spent most of his life as a union organizer based out of southeast Michigan. He quickly rose through the ranks within the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and was eventually selected as the union’s president in 1957.

Both Hoffa and the union allegedly had several ties to organized crime. Many experts are convinced that the Teamsters were able to thrive in part because of some “shady practices.” Hoffa had managed to avoid criminal charges until 1967, when he was convicted of jury tampering, fraud and conspiracy, and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Hoffa eventually had his sentence commuted by President Richard Nixon, and despite conditions placed on his release, he soon started working to regain his authority with the Teamsters. That work is what investigators believe led to his disappearance.

Investigators determined Hoffa leaned on his connections within several organized crime families to regain his footing in the union, including the Provenzano family in New Jersey and the Giacalone family in Detroit. Despite claiming to be threatened by the Provenzanos for continuing to push for power just months earlier, Hoffa agreed to meet with representatives from the two families at 2 p.m. on July 30 at Machu’s Red Fox in Bloomfield Township.

According to testimony, multiple witnesses recall seeing Hoffa pacing in the parking lot of the restaurant that afternoon. Hoffa called his wife from a payphone across the street at 2:30 p.m., saying he was still waiting for the meeting. His wife told investigators that when he called, he said, “I wonder where the hell Tony is” and “I’m waiting for him.”

Minutes later, one witness claimed he saw Hoffa willingly get into a maroon car with three other people. That witness would be one of the last people to see him alive.

By the next morning, after Hoffa had failed to return home, his family called the police. He was officially declared a missing person later that day, triggering a nationwide manhunt.

Several people affiliated with organized crime families have been implicated and questioned in Hoffa’s disappearance, but no one has ever been formally charged. There are dozens of theories of who caused Hoffa’s disappearance or where his remains may be, but most professional and amateur investigators come to the same conclusion: Hoffa was murdered.

The FBI still receives tips related to the case and has conducted several digs around southeast Michigan and in New Jersey trying to find his body.

Earlier this year, 93-year-old Chris Franzblau, who served as an attorney for the Teamsters during Hoffa's reign, told Nexstar's WPIX that a witness had recently told him that Hoffa's body had been dumped in New Jersey. The FBI had previously searched in the area mentioned by the witness; however, the man said Hoffa's body was buried in a different spot than where the agency had searched.