My untold relationship with the FBI in the Jimmy Hoffa murder case (Part 11)
Napco doubles down on the location of Hoffa's unmarked grave
Is this where Frank Cappola’s father buried Jimmy Hoffa?
Pictured on April 19, 2022—two years ago this past week—is the alcove under the Pulaski Skyway where Napco performed its second GPR examination. The first was conducted on November 16, 2021.
While looking for Jimmy Hoffa’s remains—consistent with the information memorialized in the October 7, 2019, affidavit that Frank Cappola executed at my request—Napco found steel barrels at the spot depicted by the elevated blue-and-while dot in these two pictures. Both tests—conducted by two different Napco GPR technicians five months apart—confirmed the discovery.
In his sworn declaration, Frank revealed that his father had buried the 55-gallon oil drum that contained Hoffa’s body. He then piled steel barrels, along with large rocks and chunks of concrete, on top of the oil drum to prevent detection.
The FBI missed this location during its court-authorized search in June 2022. As of this writing, there is no evidence that the FBI has returned to finish the job.
(Photos: Copyright © Kevin O’Keefe/Napco, 2022. All rights reserved.)
Introduction to Part 11
This is the eleventh in a series of columns about my relationship with the FBI during the murder investigation of Jimmy Hoffa who disappeared from a Detroit suburb on July 30, 1975.
Having specialized in investigations of the Teamsters and the Mafia since December 1974, I hit the ground running and began my research about this case the day after Hoffa vanished eight months later. My first book, The Hoffa Wars, was published in 1978.
Here are the installments of this series:
* November 26, 2023: “Working on the FBI’s ‘one-way street” (Part 1)
* December 10, 2023: “Frank Cappola enters the fray” (Part 2)
* January 14, 2024: “The FBI calls six months after Frank Cappola dies” (Part 3)
* January 21, 2024: “My team and our negotiations” (Part 4)
* February 25, 2024: “The first GPR test in November 2020” (Part 5)
* March 3, 2024: “My command performance before a star-studded crowd at the FBI field office in Newark” (Part 6)
* March 10, 2024: “The Mystery Mound” (Part 7)
* March 17, 2024: “The FBI executes a search warrant for the alcove” (Part 8)
* April 7, 2024: “Napco detects a third location in the alcove” (Part 9)
* April 14, 2024: “The FBI digs in the wrong place” (Part 10)
* April 21, 2024: “Napco doubles down on the location of Hoffa’s unmarked grave” (Part 11)
Part 11 is a brief summary of what has happened since July 30, 2022, the 47th anniversary of the murder.
The Mob Museum inquiry
In early August 2022, I had an exchange about the status of the search for Hoffa’s body with The Mob Museum in Las Vegas, which had published three of my stories about the Frank Cappola project:
Do you think the FBI might reopen the search at the PJP Landfill? Have they closed the case as far as the PJP Landfill is concerned in your view?
I was told during my official, on-the-record July 21 Zoom call with SA Mara Schneider—the public-affairs officer for the Detroit field office—that unless the FBI receives persuasive new evidence, the search for Jimmy Hoffa’s unmarked grave in the alcove under the Pulaski Skyway in Jersey City has been completed.
The FBI found no evidence that Hoffa was at the location. . . . Case closed.
I asked SA Schneider for a reexamination of one specific location where a GPR company loyal to my team conducted two tests on separate days at the site and detected significant anomalies underground.
When I asked her why the FBI did not dig at that location, she replied that the FBI’s own GPR analysis detected nothing at the site.
I replied that if the FBI had performed a GPR test at the site where our GPR team detected significant anomalies, then its results should have been the same. The fact that the results were not identical indicated to me that the FBI had executed its GPR test at the wrong location.
SA Schneider replied that she would pass along my concerns to the agent in charge. [SA Marc Silski]
What are your latest thoughts on the FBI’s announcement of not finding Hoffa’s body?
Although I praise the FBI for its overall work on this project, I am obviously very disappointed with the result, especially since the FBI appeared to miss a specific location pinpointed by the GPR company associated with my team.
If there is a legitimate explanation as to why the FBI dismissed our GPR company’s work, then my team and I would like to hear it. We are prepared to accept the FBI’s final verdict, but we want a resolution to this particular matter.
From everything I know, the FBI conducted its investigation with dedication and precision. And I find it sad that the FBI’s excellent work could end with an unfortunate and unnecessary misunderstanding.
Would you be able to share with us a digital copy of the ground-penetrating radar pictures by your private company showing the disturbances below the soil where the FBI did not search?
I have the digital underground scans, as well as the company’s password-protected report, and I would like to release them—along with the photographs of the specific surface locations in the alcove. However, the GPR company is the owner of this report and accompanying scans, which will be part of a package that its executives are preparing for submission to the FBI as part of its request for reconsideration.
I am hoping to arrange a meeting between the FBI and the GPR company at the site to determine what our GPR company found and whether the FBI missed it.
If the FBI did miss the location, then I would like them to scan that site and act accordingly based on the results.
Why do you think the FBI did not search in the exact spots where your company found the below-ground disturbances?
I cannot explain it. And I have not received a satisfactory response from the FBI to my legitimate verbal and written inquiries. . . .
If the FBI discovered a flaw in our GPR company’s work, then I don’t understand why the FBI doesn’t just tell us. [The FBI did notify us that “The Foxhole,” the site detected by the Fox News GPR examination in November 2020, was discredited.]
From the outset of this matter, my team and I have properly placed our complete faith and trust in the FBI. This is the first and only time that I have been critical of an action taken—or not taken—by the bureau during this particular investigation.
As I told the New York Times, “This is a stone left unturned.”
Are there legal avenues, ways you could request a court to permit a dig and search there?
There should not be any need for litigation in this matter. From the outset, I have considered the relationship between my team and the FBI as very friendly—even though we fully recognized that, with regard to providing information, it was always a one-way street . . . with us giving information to the FBI.
But just to be clear, my team and I are prepared to do whatever is necessary to bring about a credible evaluation of the work performed by our GPR team.
NOTE: The unnamed GPR company is R.S. Knapp Co/Napco, aka “Napco.” Jimmy and Kevin O’Keefe own Napco, which was never named in any of the dozens of published articles in the aftermath of the FBI’s court-authorized excavation of the alcove in June 2022.
The O’Keefe brothers were long-time friends of Frank Cappola and Bob Burke, a successful New Jersey businessman and our team's ears and eyes in Jersey City. Bob, Frank, and Jimmy had gone to school together.
Bob joined our team shortly after Frank died on March 16, 2020.
A request to FBI SA-1
“FBI SA-1” was my mid-level source at the FBI field office in Newark who had no power and rarely gave me any information but to whom I always remained loyal because he brought me into the action in September 2020.
Marc Silski of Detroit is the FBI special agent in charge of the overall Hoffa murder investigation. Everything goes through him.
I met both FBI SA-1 and SA Silski—among other DOJ and FBI officials from Detroit and Newark—at my command performance at the FBI field office in Newark on March 11, 2021, during which I presented my case.
After my lecture, we drove to the alcove where I gave this distinguished group the same tour that Frank Cappola had given me in September 2019.
On August 8, 2022, I sent FBI SA-1 the following request, saying in part:
I have not heard anything from SA Silski, and neither has Napco [Jimmy and Kevin O’Keefe’s GPR company]—which has called and written to Marc repeatedly. During this process, Napco, which absorbed all of its considerable expenses for this project, worked closely with Marc. . . .
I am asking you and your team in Newark to take a meeting with Napco in the alcove under the Pulaski Skyway to determine what Napco found and whether the FBI missed it. At this meeting:
* Napco can show you the exact spot where its two GPR technicians—during their separate tests—found underground anomalies on November 16, 2021, and April 19, 2022;
* the FBI can do its own GPR analysis of this precise location to confirm or deny Napco’s claims; and
* depending on the results of its GPR examination, the FBI will take any appropriate action.
Kevin O’Keefe, Napco’s top executive who is based nearby in Lyndhurst, is willing to meet you as early as Thursday or Friday of this week at 1:00 P.M—or at any other time that is convenient for you. . . .
Please help us resolve this final issue.
Bob, Kevin, and Napco meet Beaux
On August 10, I sent the proposal I submitted to FBI SA-1 to Kevin O’Keefe of Napco and Bob Burke. In my correspondence, I referred to FBI SA-1 as the “good guy”—without providing his real name. I copied the email to Beaux Carson, the captain of our team who did know FBI SA-1, along with a cover letter that said:
Below is the request I sent to our good guy in Newark on Monday.
He responded quickly, simply saying: “I am in receipt of your email and will pass it up the chain for FBI management consideration. Thank you.”
That probably means that we will be waiting for a long time for a response from the high command—if one ever comes.
Beaux has a good relationship with our good guy in Newark—the one who first contacted me in September 2020 and with whom we have been dealing ever since—and believes that he can arrange my proposed lower-level meeting between the FBI in Newark and Napco at the site with dueling GPR devices within a reasonable amount of time.
However, Beaux wants a package of information to send to our good guy in Newark, including 1) the 17-page report Kevin sent to me on Monday and 2) any independent reviews you have or will receive of your historic scans, as well as anything else you can think of to impress the good guys in Newark to reconsider.
If that doesn’t work, then we will get the permits from our contact at the NJ-DOT and go it alone. . . .
I totally believe in what Napco has done, and I believe that we are about to prompt one of the greatest plot twists ever.
Let’s get this done.
The Beaux-Bob peace ends
During the time that followed the August 10 correspondence, the tentative peace between Beaux Carson and Bob Burke—who had been feuding for months—collapsed. In turn, Beaux received the cooperation of his own hand-picked GPR company that offered to scan the entire alcove.
Consequently, Bob and Napco angrily left our team. Meantime, Beaux attempted but was inexplicably unable to obtain a permit from the New Jersey Department of Transportation to enter and GPR the alcove—despite his previously close working relationship with the DOT administrator.
Notably, I received information from a trusted source that federal agents in Detroit and Newark were upset with my criticism of the FBI, as well as my expressed loyalty to Napco, in the New York Times and the Associated Press—even though, once again, Napco’s name never appeared in any of the published articles in the aftermath of the FBI’s excavation.
Incredibly, the FBI expected our team and me to blindly accept their conclusion without any documentation and only a cursory explanation of what they had done at the site.
As of this writing, my last communication with FBI SA-1 was on August 8, 2022—although Beaux continued to call and pay his respects to him. During the interim, I have never attempted to contact SA Marc Silski in Detroit or any other active FBI official.
The attempted Substack/Mobology peace accord
On November 27, 2023, I sent a trusted friend the following message, lamenting the unfortunate breakup of our team.
Since July 2022, this entire Hoffa thing has spiraled into nothing more than a complete disaster.
Our best efforts to get the FBI to finish the job—and to correct their mistakes—have gone nowhere. And now, even though we have a new and enthusiastic GPR company willing to survey the entire alcove, the New Jersey DOT is giving us a hard time about getting the necessary permits.
Meantime, I have started a Substack [on June 12, 2023] and posted this yesterday: https://mobology.substack.com/p/my-untold-relationship-with-the-fbi
This appears to be my “use it or lose it” moment.
I called my new Substack platform, “Mobology” where I, among other subjects, detailed the history of the important work that my team had done on the Hoffa case.
Essentially, I was hoping that by chronicling our project, I would inspire our original crew to reunite and complete our work. I did not notify anyone on my team about this series or my intentions because I did not want to wind up writing this by committee.
Unexpectedly, Bob Burke, with whom I had not spoken in over a year, called in March 2024 after seeing one of my columns on Mobology. He followed my links and came across this series, which he read, liked, and appreciated.
During our very friendly conversation, I asked Bob whether Kevin O’Keefe and Napco are still confident of the findings of their two GPR examinations in November 2021 and April 2022. After Bob replied that they still stand by their work, he invited Kevin to join our conversation.
Saying that he has had no communication with the FBI, Kevin confirmed that he and his team at Napco are more confident than ever that they detected steel barrels in the alcove, depicted at the location in the pictures above—which he gave me permission to publish.
That is good enough for me to resurrect this controversy.
Jimmy Hoffa was buried in that alcove, and I believe that he is still there.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to our documentary production team for their outstanding work on the “Ahab-White Whale” project. They include our team captain, Beaux Carson of Carson Signature Films, Ari Mark of Ample Entertainment, Richard Lawrence of Rebel Entertainment, Bob Burke, the late Frank Cappola, Eric Dezenhall, Joy DiBiaso, Andrew Dunn, Doug Dupin, Eric Emerich, George Farris, Jeff Goldberg, Conrad Martin, Sean Nugent, Jon Oberg, Jimmy and Kevin O’Keefe of Napco, Gerry Pallay, Roger Simmons, Tom von Stein, and Sean Weppner.
Among others, friends, colleagues, and key supporters, including some who disagree: David Ashenfelter, Marty Bell, Scott Burnstein, the late Fabrizio Calvi, Jerry Capeci, Joe Conason, David Corn, the late Bob Davis, Mark Dawidziak, Susan Eisner, Paul Egan, Bill Fargo, Mark Feldstein, Ron Fino, Jack Goldsmith, Harry Gossett, Jim Grady, Tommy Hammett, Larry Henry, Debbie Jojola, the late Jon Kwitny, Tom Lange, Laurence Leamer, Allan Lengel, Nancy Lubin, Phil Manuel, Alice Martell, Ethelbert Miller, Karl Milligan, the late Phillip Moscato, Sr., Geno Munari, Rich Munsey, Jules Nasso, the late Nancy Nolte, Mark Olshaker, Tom O’Neill, the late Mark Perry, Andy Petepiece, Mike Pilgrim, Kristina Rebelo, Gus Russo, the late Carl Shoffler, Geoff Schumacher, Eric Shawn, Leo Sisti, Marc Smolonsky, Jodi Solomon, John Sopko, Jeff Stein, Joel Swerdlow, the late Don Wells, Danny Wexler, Dave Williams, John Wisely, and the late John Zeitts.
Our work continues.
I really hope this comes with you finding your white whale. And the case gets solved. You're definitely not giving up. Much respect to you sir.
Dan Moldea’s crusade to find Hoffa and bring forth the true facts of the FBI’s findings and evidence is like a snowball coming down a hill. This story is attracting more and more citizens who realize that the FBI has facts and information that are vital, yet being withheld. Honesty should be paramount over the silence of omission. Qui bono?
This story should be made into a major movie, which the FBI might not necessarily be pleased with, but as the saying goes, “The end justifies the means.”