An 85-year old former mobster and convict named Anthony J. Zerilli told the FBI back in January that he was positive that the corpse of Jimmy Hoffa, the teamster boss who vanished on July 30, 1975, was buried in a field in Oakland County, Michigan. While Hoffa was declared dead in 1982, his legacy has lived on as one of the greatest crime and mafia mysteries in American history. Sure enough, at 11 a.m. this morning, a crew began digging in the area that Zerilli identified.
Of course, like any good tipster that randomly comes forward almost 40 years after a crime was committed, there’s a reason Zerilli is suddenly chatty – he’s selling a manuscript about the so-called “full Hoffa murder facts from start to finish”. But Zerilli and his attorney claim that this is only about “peace” and it has nothing to do with that manuscript that he’d like you buy on his website.
“Peace,” Chasnick cited as the reason Zerilli came forward. “Wanting to get it off his chest, and get peace for the family. His age — he’s 85 years old, he’s getting older. … I think the people who are written about in the manuscript are deceased.”
Chasnick said Zerilli, who lives in metro Detroit, came by the dig site today but was intimidated by the large amount of media gathered.
He said the claims are not part of a ploy to sell the Zerilli manuscript online.
“Obviously the FBI doesn’t consider it’s a ploy or they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of getting an affidavit and a warrant,” Chasnick said. (Via the Detroit Free Press)
That’s a good point. If there’s one thing that our government’s agencies do not do, it is spend money for no reason. Well, Mr. Zerilli, my popcorn is popped and I’ve dimmed the lights, so tell me a story about how this all went down.
“There was an old house with an old barn on the property,” Zerilli wrote, according to a copy handed out by a man at the site, near where FBI agents are digging today. “As soon as they pulled near the barn, Hoffa was dragged out of the car, and bound and gagged. A shallow hole was already dug in the barn floor. He put up a fight, but he was easily overpowered. …(One of the men) picked up a shovel and cracked Hoffa over the head with it. …They threw him into the hole, and buried him alive. He wasn’t shot, he wasn’t stabbed, nothing like that. A cement slab of some sort was placed on top of the dirt to make certain he was not going to be discovered. And that was it. End of story.”
And according to ABC News, Zerilli and his attorney believe that the FBI has confirmed that the cement slab in question is still in that field, so we could be very close to an announcement that puts an end to this incredible story.
In the meantime, if Zerilli ends up getting a movie out of this, we should probably get Carl Reiner in the studio ASAP.