High ranking Detroit mobster says he knows location of Jimmy Hoffa's body
A man who federal agents say is a main character in
the infamous unsolved mystery about the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa is
breaking his silence after decades of refusing to answer questions.
The reputed gangster says the union
leader was buried in a field in suburban Detroit -- about 20 miles north
of the restaurant where he was last seen.
Eighty-five years old and barely able to walk, Tony Zerilli never thought this day would come.
“I’m dead broke. I got no money,” Zerilli told NBC 4 New York. “My quality of life is zero.”
It’s certainly not what you would
expect to hear from a man who the feds say was once a high-ranking
member of the Detroit La Cosa Nostra family.
“He actually had risen up at one
point to the underboss – or second in command,” Andy Arena, former head
of the FBI for New York and Detroit, said of Zerilli.
Former U.S. Attorney Keith Corbett,
who prosecuted organized crime in Detroit for 20 years, says Detroit's
mafia families share blood relations in addition to their sworn bonds
and that's one reason the mystery of what happened to Hoffa has gone
unsolved.
In July 1975, Hoffa told people he
was going to meet two men at a restaurant in suburban Detroit. One was a
suspected member of the Detroit mafia. The other was a Teamster boss
from New Jersey. Hoffa, who’d been investigated for dealings with the
mafia, was seen at the restaurant -- and then never again.
“Organized crime was involved in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa,” Corbett said.
“I think the interesting thing about
the Hoffa disappearance was that it was compartmentalized to only a few
people, " Arena said. "They kept that thing quiet."
Quiet until now. Zerilli says he wants to set the record straight about his life -- and what happened to Hoffa.
Zerilli denies ever being in the mafia or having anything to do with the disappearance of Hoffa.
"What happened to Hoffa had nothing to do with me in any way, shape or form,” Zerilli said.
Zerilli says he was crushed when
Hoffa vanished. It was news he received while behind bars after he was
convicted for being involved in illegal operations in Las Vegas casinos.
“They accused me while I was away,"
Zerilli said of his time in prison. "If that’s not an alibi I don’t know
what the hell an alibi is."
"If I wasn’t away I don’t think it
ever would’ve happened, that’s all I can tell you," said Zerilli. "I
would’ve done anything in the world to protect Jim Hoffa.”
Still, when Zerilli was released
from prison, the feds were all over him -- they demanded information
about Hoffa’s disappearance. That didn’t do much good back then and even
today Zerilli says he refuses to name names.
“I’m not a stool pigeon,” he said.
But the feds are convinced that Zerilli knows what happened.
“Clearly when he returned he
would’ve been a person, based on his position in the hierarchy, who
would have been able to learn the facts and circumstances surrounding
the disappearance of James Earl Hoffa,” said Corbett.
Zerilli says he’s been frustrated
over the decades to watch the FBI chase countless tips from publicity
hounds seeking attention by saying they know Hoffa’s burial spot --
rumors that have included locations around Detroit and the Meadowlands
in New Jersey.
“All this speculation about where he
is and he’s not," Zerilli said. "They say he was in a meat grinder.
It’s all baloney."
The truth, Zerilli says, is that
Hoffa never got very far from where he was last seen. He believes the
union leader's final resting place is about 20 miles north of the
restaurant where he was last scene, in a field in northern Oakland
County, Mich.
He was buried in a shallow grave and
the plan was to move the body at another time, but Hoffa's remains were
never moved from the first spot where they were buried, Zerilli said.
"Once he was buried here he was buried and they let it go,” Zerilli said.
When told about Zerilli’s
revelations, Corbett, a man who’d worked organized crime in Detroit for
two decades, was flabbergasted.
“The bureau had a short list of
people they wanted to talk to about that and I can’t think of anybody on
that list who was more highly placed then Anthony Zerilli,” said
Corbett. "This is certainly the most interesting and attractive lead
that has come up since I’ve been involved with this -- and I think the
bureau would react the same way.”
For his part, Zerilli wants closure for himself and Hoffa’s family.
“I’d like to just prove to everybody
that I’m not crazy," Zerilli said. "And it means a lot to me. What
happened, happened while I was in jail. And I feel very, very bad about
it and it should never have happened to Jim Hoffa. He didn’t deserve
what happened to him.
Zerilli also wants a payday. He's working on a book and has a web site, hoffafound.com.
He believes that he can make money if -- and when -- Hoffa’s body is
found in that field. He’s waiting on the FBI to make the next move.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/jimmy-hoffa-buried-where-body-grave-tony-zerilli-186549651.html
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