Photos: Jimmy Hoffa tip prompts police in Michigan to plan dig under driveway

Posted Sep 27, 2012

Hoffa, who served time in prison for conspiracy and jury tampering, disappeared from the parking lot of the former Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township — a posh suburban community north of Detroit — after having dinner with two figures with ties to organized crime. He was eventually declared dead in 1982, but his remains were never found, sparking one of the great American mysteries of the past four decades.

Theories about his demise ranged from claims that he was buried under Giants Stadium in New Jersey or under the Renaissance Center in Detroit, to assertions that his remains could be found at a northern Michigan horse farm or that he was cremated in a trash incinerator.

The decision by the police department to pursue the case was based on a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality test using ground scanning radar to check out a spot under the driveway. (AP)

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A 1974 photo of Teamsters Union President Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared in late July 1975. His car was found abandoned in a parking lot in Michigan. (AP photo)
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Michigan State police and local authorities watch as a backhoe digs, searching for the body of missing ex-Teamster President James. R. Hoffa Sept. 28,1975. Authorities intensified their search in a 29-acre field and wooded area that day, excavating about half a dozen locations before halting at noon. (AP Photo)
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Man walks over a rubble field in Jersey City, N.J., Dec. 5,1975. The field was one of the locations where authorities searched for the body of missing former Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. (AP Photo)
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FILE _ In an Oct. 21, 1962 file photo,Teamsters Union President James Hoffa shakes the hand of a cab driver, as he arrives at the airport in Nashville where he faces a charge of conspiring to violate the Taft-Hartley law by throwing the lucrative trucking business to a firm chartered in Tennessee. Associates of the late Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa plotted to ambush a group of FBI agents during his 1962 trial in Nashville, newly released transcripts of federal grand jury testimony indicate. (AP Photo, File)
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Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa, making a personal appearance at a hearing in 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals from his conviction in March of jury tampering in Tennessee, said at a press conference in Cincinnati, Dec. 14, 1964, that “Bobby Kennedy was not a good attorney general, probably will make a worse senator and I hate to think what he would be like as president. We’d probably have a fascist government.” Hoffa, also calling Kennedy a ‘spoiled brat’, said the flood of subpoenas has ceased since Kennedy left office. (AP Photo/Gene Smith)
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Attending rites for Viola Liuzzo in Detroit, Mich. on Mar. 30, 1965 are Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., second from left, Harold Gibbons of St. Louis, Mo., member of the executive board of the Teamsters Union, and James Hoffa, President of the Teamsters. Othes are not identified. Mrs. Liuzzo was slain in Alabama on Mar. 25 following a march from Selma to Montgomery. (AP Photo)
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Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa is working in his shirtsleeves as he confers with Milwaukee attorney David Previant during break in meeting of the union's constitution committee in San Francisco, Calif., August 2, 1957. Hoffa's name is reportedly linked to New York labor leaders under recent investigation for racketeering. (AP Photo)
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James R. Hoffa, right, Midwest boss of theTeamsters union, talks with Robert F. Kennedy, counsel for the Senate Rackets Investigating Committee in Washington, D.C., Aug. 21, 1957. Hoffa will take the witness stand for more questioning about his financial affairs. Man in rear is unidentified. (AP Photo)
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Robert Kennedy, left, counsel for the Senate Rackets Investigating Committee, attorney George S. Fitzgerald, center, and his client, Teamster Union Vice President James R. Hoffa, confer during a break in hearings in Washington, D.C., in Sept. 1957. (AP Photo)
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Jimmy Hoffa, Teamsters vice president and leading candidate to succed Dave Beck as the IBT's new president, waves to delegates at the opening of the Teamsters Union convention at Miami Beach, Fla., September 30, 1957. (AP Photo)
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Labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, walking at left in front, leads a parade of supporting delegates to the Teamsters Union Convention in Miami Beach, Fla., on October 3, 1957. Hoffa expects to be "elected on the first ballot " to the presidency of the IBT. (AP Photo)
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Teamsters President-elect James R. Hoffa, center, shakes hands with two assistants, Vice President Harold H. Gibbons, left, of St. Louis, Mo., and I.M. Dodds, right, Canadian Teamsters director from Windsor, Ontario, at a convention session in Miami, Fla., on Oct. 4, 1957. (AP Photo)
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Godfrey P. Schmidt, left, and Thomas J. Dodd, attorneys for a group of New York Teamsters Union members, pose at the federal courthouse on Oct. 21, 1957, before presenting arguments before District Judge F. Dickinson Letts. Letts is scheduled to decide whether to put court-named receivers in charge of the union and whether James Hoffa should be barred for a longer time from over the union's presidency. (AP Photo/Bill Allen)
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Teamsters Union President James R. Hoffa, left, and one of his top lieutenants, Vice President Harold Gibbons, listen to testimony as the Senate Rackets Investigations Committee continues its hearings on allegations of corruption and terrorism in the union's affairs in Washington, D.C., Aug. 27, 1958. (AP Photo)
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James R. Hoffa, president of The Teamster's Union, points to a paper held by Robert Kennedy, counsel of the Senate Rackets Committee, as he speaks to Kennedy in the hearing room, on September 17, 1958, in Washington. Walter J. Sheridan, a committee investigator looks over Hoffa's shoulder. The committee is continuing its investigation of Hoffa's affairs. (AP Photo)
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Jimmy Hoffa, president of the Temsters Union, poses shortly before his appearance on the TV program "Face the Nation," on July 26, 1959, in Washington. (AP Photo)
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Teamster President James Hoffa talks to Newsmen on Sept. 28, 1959 in Washington. Hoffa said he has no intention of brining ouster actions, demanded by court-appointed monitors, against three Teamster officials involved in Senate Rackets Committee charges. Involved are: Joey Glico of Chicago Harold Gross of Miami, and Anthony Provenzano of New Jersey. (AP Photo)
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James R. Hoffa and his wife Josephine pose in this Jan. 29, 1961 photo, location unknown. Nearly 28 years after ex-Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, law enforcement officials dug into the ground outside a home in Hampton Township, Mich., Wednesday, July 16, 2003, to search for evidence, a prosecutor said. Hoffa, father of current Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, disappeared from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Oakland County's Bloomfield Township in July 1975. (AP Photo)
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** FILE ** Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa is shown June 3, 1974 in Washington. The FBI on Wednesday May 17, 2006 searched property northwest of Detroit for clues to the disappearance of Hoffa, officials said. The Teamsters leader was last seen in July 1975 at a restaurant in Oakland County's Bloomfield Township. (AP Photo)
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A 1963 photo of Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano, former New Jersey Teamster boss, one of three men who is said to have had an appointment with Jimmy Hoffa, the day the Teamster president disappeared. (AP Photo)
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Teamsters Union President James R. Hoffa, left, and vice president Frank Fitzsimmons are shown at the union's convention in Miami Beach, Fla., July 6, 1966. Federal investigators said high-ranking U.S. Justice Department officials tried to derail the probe into Hoffa by refusing to bring President Richard Nixon and Fitzsimmons before a grand jury in Detroit, according to FBI documents obtained by the Detroit Free Press. (AP Photo)
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Teamsters Union President James R. Hoffa, left, raises the hand of Frank Fitzsimmons after the two were elected to offices at the Teamsters convention in Miami Beach, Fla., on July 7, 1966. Hoffa was re-elected to a 5-year term and Fitzsimmons was elected as general vice president. (AP Photo)
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Teamsters Union President James R. Hoffa, left, listens to Frank Fitzsimmons after the two were elected to offices at the Teamsters convention in Miami Beach, Fla., on July 7, 1966. Hoffa was re-elected to a 5-year term and Fitzsimmons was elected as general vice president. (AP Photo)
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President of the Teamsters' Union James Hoffa attends a meeting on trucking contracts at the Washington Hilton Hotel, in Washington, D.C., Jan. 18, 1967. (AP Photo)
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President of the Teamsters' Union James Hoffa attends the start of trucking contract talks at the Washington Hilton Hotel, in Washington, D.C., Jan. 18, 1967. (AP Photo)
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Teamsters Union President James R. Hoffa, center, shakes hands with one of the Federal marshals who brought him to the Federal penitentiary before being led away by the prison guard, right, at Lewisburg, Pa., March 7, 1967. Hoffa, facing an eight-year sentence for jury tampering, was brought here after surrendering in Washington. (AP Photo)
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Teamsters Union president James R. Hoffa leans on the window sill as he watches the scene outside his cell in Chattanooga, Tenn., Monday morning May 5, 1967. Hoffa was being held in the Hamilton County jail awaiting a hearing on his fourth motion for a new trial on jury-tampering charges. (AP Photo/Charles Kelly)
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Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa is pictured in Chatanooga, Tenn. on Aug. 21, 1969. (AP Photo)
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Teamsters Union leader James Hoffa is pictured in Chattanooga, Tenn. on August 21, 1969. (AP Photo)
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Former Teamster's President James Hoffa leaves the Lewisberg, Penn., penitentiary on Dec. 23, 1971 after having his sentence commuted by President Richard Nixon. (AP Photo)
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Teamsters Union President James R. Hoffa, left, stands with Anthony Provenzano, right, and fellow union members during Hoffa's visit to New Jersey. Photo is undated. (AP Photo)
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Bloomfield Police Chief Robert Snell fields questions from reporters Thursday, August 1, 1975 about the mysterious disapperances of former Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa's family reported him missing after the ex-union boss failed to come home Wednesday night. Police in this Detroit suburb say they have no clues as to Hoffa's whereabouts. -- (Bloomfield Hills, Mich. (AP Photo)
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Reputed Mafia Cheiftain Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone and his attorney, S. Alan Early, left, leave Detroit Federal Building Monday, Sept. 8, 1975. Giacalone refused to cooperate with a federal grand jury investigating the disappearance of ex-teamster president James Hoffa. His attorney, reiterated earlier statements that he would advise his client to take the fifth amendment. (AP Photo)
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Jimmy Hoffa's adopted son "Chuckie" O'Brien is shown in this Oct. 3, 1978 photo, during an appearance on NBC's Today Show. In a break in one of the nation's biggest unsolved cases, a hair from Jimmy Hoffa was found in a car that O'Brien was driving the day the former Teamsters boss vanished 26 years ago, The Detroit News reported Friday, Sept. 7, 2001. (AP Photo/David Pickoff)
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Law enforcement authorities look over the scene in Hampton Township, Mich., Wednesday, July 16, 2003 where they searched for evidence under a swimming pool in the connection of the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, the ex-Teamsters Union boss missing since 1975. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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Oakland County sheriff investigators search an area near a backyard pool in Hampton Township, Mich., Wednesday, July 16, 2003, searching for evidence in the disappearance of ex-Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, but came up dry after an eight-hour search. Nearly 28 years after Hoffa disappeared from the Detroit area, law enforcement officials combed the site where an informant said a briefcase was buried that contained a syringe and possible evidence that Hoffa might have been injected with drugs or poison. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
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Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, left, Bloomfield Township Police Chief Jeffrey Werner, center, and Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca meet the media after authorities stopped digging for evidence in a swimming pool in Hampton Township, Mich., Wednesday, July 16, 2003, where law enforcement authorities were searching for evidence in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, the ex-Teamsters Union boss missing since 1975. No evidence was found during the excavation. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
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Law enforcement officials oversee the excavation of a private swimming pool in Hampton Township, Mich., Wednesday, July 16, 2003, where law enforcement authorities were searching for evidence in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, the ex-Teamsters Union boss missing since 1975. Police found nothing after six hours. Police plan to keep searching with metal detectors, but their hopes aren't high. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
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Television crews set up camp outside the house in northwest Detroit, Friday, May 28, 2004 where investigators looking into the 1975 disappearance of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa ripped up floor boards where traces of blood were uncovered by the Fox News Channel. According to an upcoming book by Charles Brandt, a now-dead Pennsylvania Teamster official named Frank Sheeran claimed to have shot Hoffa inside the home in 1975. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
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Mary Ann Graber, 70, who has lived in the northwest Detroit neighborhood where Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa is believed to have been killed comments on the story on Friday, May 28, 2004. "You know, everyone says `It couldn't happen here.' Baloney! It can happen anywhere," said Graber, whose home is five doors down from the house under investigation. On Friday, investigators looking into the 1975 disappearance of Hoffa ripped up floor boards where traces of blood were uncovered by the Fox News Channel. According to an upcoming book by Charles Brandt, a now-dead Pennsylvania Teamster official named Frank Sheeran claimed to have shot Hoffa inside the home in 1975. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
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A forensic investigator looking into the 1975 disappearance of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa records information Friday, May 28, 2004, in a Detroit house where traces of blood were uncovered by the Fox News Channel. The tags on the floor are where indications of blood were found. According to an upcoming book by Charles Brandt, former Pennsylvania Teamster official Frank Sheeran said he shot Hoffa inside the home in 1975. Sheeran died last year in a nursing home. (AP Photo/Fox News Channel)
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FBI agents talk at a site in Milford Township, Mich., May 17, 2006, where they are looking for clues to the disppearance of Jimmy Hoffa. The Teamsters leader was last seen in July 1975 at a restaurant in Oakland County's Bloomfield Township. Special Agent Dawn Clenney, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit, said the bureau was executing a search warrant in Milford Township, located about 35 miles west of Detroit. Investigators are looking for "evidence of criminal activity that may have occurred under previous ownership" on the property, Clenney said. Asked if they were looking for Hoffa's remains, she said, "Could be," but declined to comment further. (AP Photo/John M. Galloway)
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The entrance to the horse ranch in Milford Township, Mich., where the FBI is searching for clues to the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa is seen Wednesday, May 17, 2006. The Teamsters leader was last seen in July 1975 at a restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Mich. Special Agent Dawn Clenney, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit, said the bureau was executing a search warrant. Investigators are looking for "evidence of criminal activity that may have occurred under previous ownership" on the property, Clenney said. Asked if they were looking for Hoffa's remains, she said, "Could be," but declined to comment further. (AP Photo/John M. Galloway)
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John and Deb Koskovich talk outside their home in Milford Township, Mich., Wednesday, May 17, 2006, about the FBI search at their neighbor's property, for clues in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. The Teamsters leader was last seen in July 1975 at a restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Mich. Special Agent Dawn Clenney, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit, said the bureau was executing a search warrant. Investigators are looking for "evidence of criminal activity that may have occurred under previous ownership" on the property, Clenney said. Asked if they were looking for Hoffa's remains, she said, "Could be," but declined to comment further. (AP Photo/John M. Galloway)
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Unidentified workers dig near a barn at a horse farm in Milford Township, Mich., where FBI agents investigating Jimmy Hoffa's 1975 disappearance were investigating for a second day Thursday, May 18, 2006. The Teamsters leader had vanished from a restaurant in Oakland County's Bloomfield Township, about 20 miles away. Asked if they were looking for Hoffa's remains, FBI Agent Dawn Clenney said, "Could be," and declined to comment further on the agents' presence. A law enforcement official in Washington said the search was based on information developed several years ago and verified more recently. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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Unidentified workers dig near a barn at a horse farm in Milford Township, Mich., where FBI agents investigating Jimmy Hoffa's 1975 disappearance were investigating for a second day Thursday, May 18, 2006. The Teamsters leader had vanished from a restaurant in Oakland County's Bloomfield Township, about 20 miles away. Asked if they were looking for Hoffa's remains, FBI Agent Dawn Clenney said, "Could be," and declined to comment further on the agents' presence. A law enforcement official in Washington said the search was based on information developed several years ago and verified more recently. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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Unidentified workers dig near a barn at a horse farm in Milford Township, Mich., where FBI agents investigating Jimmy Hoffa's 1975 disappearance were investigating for a second day Thursday, May 18, 2006. The Teamsters leader had vanished from a restaurant in Oakland County's Bloomfield Township, about 20 miles away. Asked if they were looking for Hoffa's remains, FBI Agent Dawn Clenney said, "Could be," and declined to comment further on the agents' presence. A law enforcement official in Washington said the search was based on information developed several years ago and verified more recently. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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Federal Bureau of Investigation evidence recovery team members and Michigan State University anthropologists and archaeologists search outside a horse farm in Milford Township, Mich., where federal agents are digging in search of the body of former Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa Thursday, May 18, 2006. In one of the most intensive searches for Hoffa in decades, the FBI summoned archaeologists and anthropologists and brought in heavy equipment to scour the farm Thursday for the body of Hoffa who vanished in 1975. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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Federal Bureau of Investigation evidence recovery team members and Michigan State University anthropologists and archaeologists search outside a horse farm in Milford Township, Mich., where federal agents are digging in the search for the body of former Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa Thursday, May 18, 2006. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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Daniel Roberts, special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI field office, addresses a news conference outside a horse farm in Milford Township, Mich., where federal agents are digging in the search for the body of former Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa Thursday, May 18, 2006. In one of the most intensive searches for Hoffa in decades, the FBI summoned archaeologists and anthropologists and brought in heavy equipment to scour the farm for the body of the former Teamsters boss who vanished in 1975. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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The driveway in Roseville, Mich., Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012 where police plan to take soil samples from under a driveway Friday after a tipster said it could be the final resting place of missing Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa. Roseville Police Chief James Berlin says a man claims to have seen a body buried there approximately 35 years ago. Berlin says the man believes it could be Hoffa. Hoffa disappeared in suburban Detroit in 1975, and his remains haven't been found. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)