Jimmy Hoffa's Corpse Was 'Turned Into Mincemeat': New Theory Emerges in 50-year Unsolved Murder — as Detroit's Tocco–Zerilli Crime Family is Fingered in Legendary Cold Case
It’s been 50 years since Jimmy Hoffa was last seen alive.
July 26 2025, Published 12:45 p.m. ET
Fifty years after former Teamsters boss and iconic gangster Jimmy Hoffa vanished, a new theory has emerged in one of America’s most notorious unsolved mysteries, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance remains one of the most infamous, unsolved mysteries in American history.
Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975, after leaving his Lake Orion, Michigan, home for a meeting at the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Hills.
The 62-year-old labor leader had reportedly planned to meet with high-profile mob figures, including Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano of the Genovese crime family and Detroit mob boss Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone. Hoffa was attempting to reclaim control of the Teamsters union, a move that allegedly posed a threat to organized crime's access to the union's pension fund.
At 2:15 p.m. that day, Hoffa called his wife from the restaurant parking lot, saying no one had arrived. It was the last time anyone heard from him.
He was declared legally dead in 1982, but the location of his remains has remained a mystery, sparking decades of speculation, investigations, and pop culture intrigue.
Hoffa was last seen leaving his cottage home in Lake Orion, Mich., near Detroit on July 30, 1975.
The FBI has poured significant resources into the case over the years, with hundreds of agents assigned and tens of millions of taxpayer dollars spent, according to Hoffa historian and author Scott Burnstein.
Theories have ranged from burial under Giants Stadium to being entombed in cement — none of which has yielded conclusive evidence.
Now, a new theory, presented on Wednesday, July 23, at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, offers a grisly twist. Burnstein, former federal prosecutor Richard Convertino, and ex-mobster Nove Tocco allege that Hoffa was murdered and turned into "mincemeat" by Detroit's Tocco–Zerilli crime family.
The case has spawned more than 20 books, multiple movies and documentaries.
According to the trio, Hoffa's body was taken to the Detroit Sausage Company, where it was ground up in a sausage grinder. The remains were then allegedly incinerated at a mob-run waste disposal site in Hamtramck, which was later destroyed in a suspicious fire. That site is now part of a local jail complex.
Referencing the Tocco–Zerilli crime family, also known as the Detroit Partnership, Burnstein said: "This was something they thought was a perfect crime — and in a lot of ways it was.
"I just don't think they anticipated people would still be talking about it 50 years later."
Burnstein noted that the Detroit mob differed from its counterparts in New York or Chicago, preferring to operate in the shadows rather than seek media attention.
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Hoffa's corpse was allegedly turned into 'mincemeat'.
The Hoffa case has inspired over 20 books, numerous documentaries, and films, cementing his story in American folklore. Yet despite the enduring fascination, investigators have never recovered his remains nor secured criminal charges.
Whether this latest theory will hold up under scrutiny remains to be seen. But on the 50th anniversary of his disappearance, Hoffa remains missing — and the legend around him continues to grow.
