A CRACK team of cold case investigators believe they’re onto a home run in their mission to unlock the mystery of mobster Jimmy Hoffa’s puzzling disappearance.
Hoffa, the ex-president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, vanished on July 30, 1975, after being stood up at a meeting on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan.
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The 62-year-old was last heard from calling his wife to inform her the lunch had been a bust and that he’d be home at 4pm in time for a steak dinner.
However, Hoffa never made it to his domestic dinner date and his car was later found abandoned in the parking lot of the restaurant he’d called from.
What happened to Hoffa next remains a total mystery almost five decades later.
He was pronounced legally dead in 1982 and it’s widely suspected he was whacked by the mob after his attempts to rejuvenate his political career rubbed some Mafiosos the wrong way.
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Countless theories, conspiracies, and false leads have emerged in the years since, but no one has been charged in connection to his death and Hoffa’s body has never been found.
In recent years, several excavations have taken place in the search for his remains without a positive result, including in Michigan and New Jersey.
But a team of expert sleuths called The Case Breakers are urging the FBI to conduct another search – this time at the site of an old baseball ground in Wisconsin.
Late last year, Case Breaker’s founder, Thomas Colbert, announced that his team was in the possession of a dying crooked police sergeant’s scribbled instructions which they believe point to Hoffa’s burial site.
The instructions – written on an ace of spades playing card – point to the third base of the since-demolished Milwaukee County Stadium in Wisconsin as Hoffa’s likely resting place.
That site is now located beneath a parking lot next to the current Milwaukee Brewers stadium, American Family Field.
Case Breakers member and former detective Jim Zimmerman told The U.S. Sun he’s 50/50 on whether Hoffa’s remains are still buried there but he is certain they were there at some stage.
Justifying his certainty is a series of positive tests conducted at the site by Case Breakers, including the deploying of ground penetrating radar and cadaver dogs.
According to Zimmerman, the ground radar showed one disturbed area of earth almost exactly where the Brewers’ old third base would’ve stood.
He shared the radar was only able to detect 5ft beneath the ground because an unexpected layer of clear was blocking the signal, which Zimmerman said was a sign a dig took place that was quickly excavated and backfilled.
The crack team of sleuths also brought a top cadaver dog expert to the site, Carren Corcoran, whose K-9, Moxy, reportedly gave several positive signals of remains nearby.
Further fueling Zimmerman’s suspicions he’s on the right track is a series of apparently odd communications he had with the stadium’s groundskeepers.
When originally reaching out to the groundsmen, inquiring about the history of the old Family Field site, Zimmerman claims the groundsmen were incredibly interested in speaking with the Case Breakers.
However, as soon as Hoffa’s name was mentioned, all communication ceased, he claimed.
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“When we were doing our background investigation after I brought the Ace of Spades card to light, this one groundskeeper was very eager to talk to his after we gave a nonchalant introduction, saying we wanted to hear about the ballpark and that we’re investigating the grounds,” Zimmerman said.
“The guy was really excited, and then when we let him in on the real reason for the investigation, that we thought Jimmy Hoffa may be buried there somewhere, the guy never returned another of our calls.
“Suddenly, he wouldn’t answer any of our messages or any of our communications.”
Zimmerman added, “I don’t know if they are today, but originally they were all Union Teamsters.
“And they’d know everything there is to know about the plans for where the park was going and what was going to be built and excavated.”
The U.S. Sun has reached out to representatives for the Brewers. This story will be updated if a response is received.
ACE MARKS THE SPOT
It was Zimmerman who first brought the existence of the cryptic Hoffa playing card to the attention of the Case Breakers attention.
He revealed earlier this year the card belonged to a relative of his ex-girlfriend named Harold Walthers who was a crooked cop believed to have been involved in Hoffa’s disappearance.
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Walthers died in 1997, but before his passing Zimmerman says the ailing police sergeant gave the card to his niece, telling her, “If something happens to me, you’ll know what to do.”
Walthers’ niece, Michelle, looked at the card and saw “J. Hoffa” written at the top, along with a reference to infamous Chicago gangster Joey Aiuppa, a rendezvous date of “9-16-95”, and a location of “3rd base Milwaukee Ball Park.”
According to Case Breakers, Walthers had been indicted for jewelry robbery, bribery, extortion, and other charges during his 20-year law enforcement career.
The group believes he became a trusted associate of mafia don Aiuppa, who once reportedly gifted him a home next to his estate some years before Hoffa’s disappearance.
But Walthers’ playing card would stay a secret for three decades.
Michelle, fearful for her life and the lives of her family, made Zimmerman promise to tell nobody about the card, which he agreed to do until Michelle felt comfortable enough to come forward.
“Michelle was very worried in the 90s that the people involved in this were still alive and maybe even active in the mob,” shared Zimmerman.
“Fast forward to 2018, and while Michelle and I are no longer together, I called her when I was working for The Case Breakers and said now might be a good opportunity to investigate that card.
“I told her anyone with ties to Hoffa is either very old or long dead […] she eventually agreed to share it with Case Breakers.”
A COMPELLING THEORY
The Case Breakers believe Hoffa’s remains were moved to Milwaukee County Stadium in 1995, having been stored in an unknown location for 20 years.
According to the group’s research, months before Hoffa vanished in 1975, Walthers suddenly abandoned his home on Aiuppa’s estate to move to Minocqua, Wisconsin.
Zimmerman said Walther bragged to his fishing friends he had “cased” Hoffa before his murder and knew where he was buried.
He later moved into a trailer in a remote lot in Northwood within two months of Hoffa’s disappearance.
The Case Breakers are exploring whether Walthers may have been hiding Hoffa’s’ body in the Northwood area before the alleged 1995 stadium reburial.
According to Zimmerman, Walthers’ Wisconsin fishing friends told him that each year a group of “well-dressed men in suits” would come up to Northwood and hand him a stuffed envelope.
Zimmerman believes Walthers may have been getting paid by the mob for his silence or potentially a service related to Hoffa.
Walthers/Hoffa Timeline: The Case Breakers
The following information was shared by The Case Breakers in an 18-page Jimmy Hoffa dossier sent to the FBI to make their case:
March 1963: Harold Walthers is let go by Chicago PD over a bribery scandal and joins Oakbrook PD
August 1964: Walthers and his partner are indicted by a grand jury for a jewelry robbery
1967: Walthers is introduced to Joey Aiuppa by his partner and moves into a home on the mobster’s property
1969: Walthers retires from Oakbrook PD and moves to Northwood Wisconsin
Spring 1975: Walthers is fired from his part-time job with the Prieda County Coroner
July 30, 1975: Jimmy Hoffa vanishes
September 1976: Walthers moves to a remote lot and trailer near Woodruff, in Northwood
September 9, 1995: Hoffa’s remains potentially moved to third base at Milwaukee County Stadium
February 22, 1996: Joey Aiuppa dies
Spring 1996: Walthers shows his niece Michelle an ace of spades card pertaining to Hoffa, telling her “If something happens to me, you’ll know what to do.”
April 4, 1997: Walthers dies
April 2020: Michelle agrees to share the card with The Case Breakers
June 2020: Ground scan performed at the old Milwaukee County Stadium grounds
October 2023: K-9 search conducted, resulting in four alerts to human remains
In search of conclusive answers, Zimmerman and other volunteers from The Case Breakers have visited the old Milwaukee County Stadium site a handful of times since 2020 to conduct various tests.
Today, there is a plaque on the outside American Family field that marks the location of home plate at County Stadium.
However, the Case Breakers say they created more accurate geotags using the old aerial photos collected and found the home base is 15ft from where it should be.
A 90ft line from the suspected old home plate location led investigators to a left-field pavilion, where third base would’ve been at County Stadium.
They deployed the ground radar there and claimed to have discovered one disturbed area almost exactly where the third base would’ve stood.
Additionally, Moxy the cadaver dog alerted to the scene of remaining in an area adjacent to the old base on a grassy patch.
If something happens to me, you’ll know what to do.
Harold Walthers
Recounting his conversation with the K-9 handler, Zimmerman said, “We never told her where the third base would be and never told her that we expected to find something beneath the third base, and while the dog was out there doing its thing, it alerted right where third base was, on four different occasions.
“So with that being said, that shows me that our ground-penetrating radar was right and there was or there is a dead body there.
“The dogs are not going to alert on anything other than a dead body.”
DEMANDING ANSWERS
At the time of Hoffa’s believed reburial (Sept. 16, 1995), the Brewers were on a road trip with nine games still to play in their season.
They returned home on the 22nd to begin a season-ending homestand.
While it seems unlikely that conspirators could’ve buried a body below third base during the season, Zimmerman believes the date listed on Walthers’ playing card was the date Walthers was “told where Hoffa was buried, not necessarily the date Hoffa was buried on.”
Greg Hoffman – a veteran journalist who authored a book about the history of County Stadium, Down in the Valley – was brought in by The Case Breakers to consult on the matter.
In a statement, Hoffman told The U.S. Sun, “During my years of research for that book, I never heard of any rumors about Hoffa or remains.
“Plus, the site was extensively excavated for taking down County Stadium, building [the nearby] Miller Park and Helfaer Park. [It’s] Difficult to believe any transplanted remains could survive.
“That does not mean I discount the work done by Tom and his research team. I know they used sophisticated detection tech and techniques that could detect such things.
“They struck me with their professionalism and thoroughness.
“Jimmy could indeed be there in some form or the other. But, I have no expertise to offer beyond my history of the stadium.”
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The Case Breakers submitted an 18-page report of their findings regarding Hoffa which was acknowledged by the FBI and the state governor’s office earlier this year, the group says.
(The FBI declined to comment on this story, citing the ongoing nature of the Hoffa probe.)
Zimmerman and his fellow Case Breakers are urging the FBI or state officials to dig up soil samples from the plot of land in question to test for signs of human decomposition.
They are hoping to drill a hole 20 feet down through the concrete beneath the pavilion.
Zimmerman said the investigation remains at the mercy of the FBI and without the bureau’s blessing, the probe can go forward no further.
So far, the bureau had appeared “skeptical” of their findings, Zimmerman said.
“I believe they weren’t very receptive in the beginning because there have been at least seven others of these tips and leads, like in New Jersey and Michigan, which have turned up nothing,” said Zimmerman.
“And I’ve always paid close attention to those searches, and every time it was a no, I would smile and it made me feel that Jimmy was still under third base in Milwaukee.
“So each time every other search failed, it gave me enough confidence until I finally brought this case to The Case Breakers.”
Zimmerman added, “It’s now in the hands of the FBI, and we’re going to assist them as much as they allow us because they’re their own entity. I worked on an FBI task force for four years and they’re not necessarily good at accepting help or taking advice.
“So we’re at their mercy with how they want to run with this.”
HOFFA WHACKED?
Jimmy Hoffa was a legendary labor leader who served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters between 1957 and 1971.
For years, he was suspected of colluding with the mob and in 1967 was charged and convicted of jury tampering, landing him a four-year prison term.
After his release from federal prison, Hoffa emerged determined to regain his old title as the Teamsters president but the Mafia opposed his reinstatement.
Hoffa reportedly saw Anthony Provenzano, the head of a teamsters association in Union City, New Jersey, and a capo in the Genovese crime family, as his ticket back to the top.
The mafia leader was unimpressed by Hoffa’s bid to return to power, and relations between the two men apparently soured.
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Provenzano was supposed to be meeting Hoffa at the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomington, Michigan, on July 30, 1975, to work out their differences.
An angry Hoffa called home to tell his wife Provenzano hadn’t shown but he’d be home at 4pm for a steak dinner.
He was never seen again and his green Pontiac Grand Ville was found idle in the Red Fox’s parking lot.
Hoffa’s disappearance was widely believed to be on Provenzano’s orders.
He was pronounced legally dead in 1982 and rumors and conspiracy about his death and place of burial have proliferated ever since.
Over the years, several excavations have taken place in the search for Hoffa’s body without a positive result, including five different locations in Michigan and two in New Jersey.
The two searches in the garden state are not related to the popular urban myth that Hoffa was buried during the construction of the old New York Giants stadium, which opened in 1976.
Zimmerman, meanwhile, said he is dying to crack to Hoffa case once and for all.
“I’ve overseen investigations, I’ve investigated homicides, and I would love to know what the outcome of all this is,” he said.
“I’ve got patience, obviously, but being that close to all this […] hopefully we can prove it one way or the other.”
