More than 44 years after former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa’s still-unsolved 1975 disappearance and presumed murder, the U.S. attorney in Detroit says “this is a case we still take very seriously” and hinted at new developments, the Detroit Free Press reported.
“It’s unresolved,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider was quoted as saying. “I have my own theories. There will be more to come on this.”
Schneider’s comments came in response to being asked what he thinks about the Martin Scorcese film “The Irishman” about the Hoffa mystery.
“I will talk about this,” Schneider said, “but not now. I have a lot of thoughts about it.”
Schneider, who has seen the movie, said Hoffa’s disappearance is “something that I’m very interested in.
“We’ve got our own files on this case. In fact, that’s our case. But, look, it’s been 44 years. This summer will be the 45th anniversary of the disappearance of Mr. Hoffa. Mr. Hoffa’s children are still with us, children, grandchildren, relatives … So this is a case we still take very seriously.”
Hoffa vanished after being seen outside a restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, and calling his wife Josephine from a pay phone near there, telling her mobsters he was supposed to have met for lunch had stood him up.
Hoffa was president of the Teamsters until resigning after he was convicted of federal charges in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and went to prison for conspiring to take illegal payments from a trucking company and jury tampering.
His sentence commuted by President Richard M. Nixon, Hoffa was trying to regain power, but that put him at odds with organized-crime figures who now backed his Teamsters successor, Frank Fitzsimmons.
Prosecutors presenting a case to a grand jury theorized the mob had Hoffa killed to keep him from talking about tapping the union’s pension fund and other ties to the Teamsters.