Live feed from WDIV on search
Here we go again.
The feds were searching a property Monday in Oakland County for the missing body of ex-Teamster leader James R. Hoffa, Robert Snell of The Detroit News reports.
The property is located near Buell and Adams roads in Oakland Township, Snell reports. The search appears to be the result of ex-Detroit mob bossTony Zerilli coming forward on WDIV-TV (Channel 4) to say that Hoffa's body was buried there. Hoffa disappeared in 1975. The property once belonged to mobster boss Jack Tocco.
Simon Shaykhet, a spokesman for the Detroit FBI, declined comment Monday morning when contacted by Deadline Detroit.
The search is the latest over decades.
The past searches have included farm land and a house in Detroit and a driveway in Roseville. All proved to be a bit of an embarrassment to the FBi, which came up empty handed.
But Zerilli, who was in prison at the time of the Hoffa disappearance, claims he was told of what happened after he got out of prison.
Mob experts thought such information coming from such a high-ranking mobster was worth pursuing. Others were skeptical.
One thing that raised some questions about credibility was was when Zeriilli told WDIV that he was never in the mob.
Zerilli is the son of Joseph Zerilli, Detroit’s former top mobster.
Anthony Joseph Zerilli, who went by the nickname “Tony Z,” followed his dad’s career path, rising to top spot in the local Mafia before heading to prison in 1974 for his hidden interest in two Las Vegas casinos. When he resurfaced on the outside five years later, he had been dethroned and demoted to a "capo" (captain) role.
Now frail, moving about with a walker, and residing in a senior community on Van Dyke in Sterling Heights, the 85-year-old recently jumped into the limelight, having told a New York TV reporter that he knows what happened to Teamster President James Riddle Hoffa and where he’s buried.
“I’m dead broke,” he also told NBC 4 New York reporter Marc Santia, formerly of WDIV in Detroit, in an interview aired Sunday. “My quality of life is zero.” He’s also in failing health.
Zerilli told Santia that he had nothing to do with the 1975 disappearance.
