My untold relationship with the FBI in the Jimmy Hoffa murder case (Part 8)
The FBI executes a search warrant for the alcove
Photo by DEM: “I then asked Isaac again where the concrete, rocks, and stones in the dumpster had originated. He said that they were from an area where federal agents were digging—with a small excavator.”
Introduction to Part 8
This is the eighth 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.
It features new materials, as well as updated excerpts from my memoir, Confessions of a Guerrilla Writer, along with my articles, essays, and reports. 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 previous installments and summaries 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)
“Probable cause”
Based primarily on the sworn declaration that Frank Cappola executed at my request on October 7, 2019, FBI special agents in Detroit and Newark—in coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey—detailed the reasons they believed Jimmy Hoffa was likely buried where Paul Cappola told his son that he had buried him—in an alcove under the Pulaski Skyway in Jersey City.
The FBI and federal prosecutors then placed their best evidence in an affidavit that was submitted to the U.S. District Court in Newark.
And based on the strength of the information detailed in the FBI’s sealed sworn statement, a federal judge determined that “probable cause” existed and, thus, granted the FBI a sealed search warrant for the location Frank showed me.
In other words, knowing what I knew and with the documentation I supplied, among other evidence, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark, the FBI, and the U.S. District Court for New Jersey concluded that “probable cause” existed that Jimmy Hoffa was in that alcove under the Skyway.
Our case was that strong.
On October 27, 2021, Beaux Carson, our team captain, spoke to one of his sources who told him that two days earlier, on October 25, federal agents and a civilian subcontractor had executed their search warrant and cleared nearly seventy dumpsters from the alcove under the Pulaski Skyway.
According to Beaux, the following day, October 26, the FBI did its first GPR examination of the site. Although it was unclear whether an excavation was performed, soil and underground core samples were reportedly taken and sent to the FBI laboratory for analysis.
Remarkably, the FBI had performed its tasks in complete secrecy. There were no leaks or news reports about the sealed search warrant or the search itself.
As closely as my team and I monitored this situation, we knew nothing about it. And it would not be reported publicly until mid-November.
After hearing Beaux’s report, I spoke with FBI SA-1—my designated mid-level FBI source who had no decision-making power but to whom, for better or worse, I was totally loyal. Because he came to me first in September 2020 to discuss Frank Cappola’s information, I never went around him or over his head to speak to a more influential DOJ or FBI official.
Although steaming from the news that the FBI search had happened without my participation, I kept my mouth shut but repeated that I deserved to be invited to The Grand Finale, adding that Mike Wilson—the veteran reporter from the New York Times—should also be invited. It was Mike’s aggressive and courageous reporting that had led to the discovery of “The Mystery Mound” four months earlier.
While still doing business with me on our one-way street, FBI SA-1 would only confirm that the FBI had executed its search warrant on October 25 and 26. He also confirmed that the site was contaminated with toxic soil, adding that they were waiting for the FBI lab to weigh in with its report on what was found.
Of course, we believed that the contamination was caused by as many as thirty steel barrels leaking hazardous waste that Paul Cappola buried on top of the oil drum that supposedly contained Jimmy Hoffa.
FBI SA-1 said that they would have the results “in a week or two.”
Notably, he did assure me that they had not yet dug up the grave, giving me hope that I could still be invited to the denouement.
In addition, I asked him whether the FBI had obtained any photographs that federal agents had taken of the location of PJP’s trailer/office during the FBI’s search of the area on December 11, 1975—a suggestion that I had made and repeated at our big meeting at the FBI’s Newark field office in March 2021. He replied that a search was made—but no pictures were found of the alcove under the bridge, only of the landfill.
My fourth trip to the site
On November 2, Mike Wilson of The Times called from the alcove and told me that all the dumpsters were gone. He sent Beaux and me two photographs of the scene.
Shocked by the news, we told Mike what little we knew about the FBI search on October 25 and 26.
On November 11, a resourceful and talented investigator, Sean Weppner, a new member of our team, picked me up at my home in Washington, and we drove to Jersey City to survey the alcove and to get a feel for what was happening on and under the ground. We were hoping to find a way to give our team an edge if and when anything authorized or unauthorized occurred.
Arriving in town late, I asked Sean to drive to the site. I wanted to get some idea of what we were dealing with the following day.
We arrived in darkness. If the alcove is creepy in the daylight, it is an absolute horror show at night.
When I got out of the car and walked into the alcove, I could see a row of dumpsters through the moonlight.
In the pitch dark, I stood on what I believed to be the grave of Jimmy Hoffa.
With his headlights on, Sean turned the car in front of the alcove, illuminating the site.
We both took pictures of the area while walking on the ground with deep tracks in every direction.
The dumpsters were in a single line, appearing as a blind from the access road. Everything else—past the line of dumpsters, including “The Foxhole,” the suspected location of Hoffa’s unmarked grave as determined by the November 2020 Fox News GPR—was wide open with no dumpsters obstructing the perimeter.
We stayed for about thirty minutes, and then we drove to the Hilton Garden Hotel in Secaucus.
When we returned to the site at about 1:00 on Friday afternoon, the heavy morning rain had stopped, and the sun was starting to appear brightly through the clouds. However, the configuration in the alcove had changed from the night before.
A dumpster that had been parked north and south was now turned at nearly a 45-degree angle to the west across the area detected by the Fox-GPR and “The Mystery Mound,” discovered by Mike Wilson of The Times in July 2021.
Also, one of the dumpsters—8 x 13 x 4.5 feet—was filled with large chunks of concrete, rocks, and stones. During my previous trips to PJP, I had never seen a dumpster filled with anything. They were always parked empty.
So, whatever happened had occurred in the pouring rain that morning.
Isaac Suarez enters the fray
Shortly after Sean and I returned to the site, Mike Wilson of The Times arrived. This was the first time we had met, face to face. His photographer, Bryon Anselin, followed about an hour later. He took scores of pictures.
While I was kneeling on the ground, picking up some debris and looking for evidence of what the FBI had done there, I noticed Sean on the access road talking to a young worker for the nearby Interstate Waste Systems, a New Jersey waste-management company. He was wearing a bright yellow vest with the Interstate logo.
Sean motioned for me to join them. When I did, Sean introduced me to Isaac Suarez. Sean added that Isaac had an interesting story to tell.
I pointed into the alcove and asked Isaac, “Why is that dumpster filled with rocks?”
Isaac replied, “Oh, that’s where the FBI was excavating.”
When I asked when this happened, he replied, “October 26.”
By this time, Mike Wilson had joined us. He asked Suarez how he remembered the exact date. Suarez replied, “Because I took a picture of them.”
Mike continued, “Do you have that picture?”
Isaac responded that the picture was on his mobile phone.
We were all blown away by this news. That photograph, taken by an impartial witness, was evidence that the FBI had possibly performed an excavation at the site.
Mike asked Isaac if he had taken any other pictures. He replied that he had not, although he later remembered that he had taken a second picture and shot a brief video.
He offered to send the three of us the pictures and the video.
I then asked Isaac again where the concrete, rocks, and stones in the dumpster had originated. He said that they were from an area where federal agents were digging—with a small excavator.
And then he showed me the new perimeter—about ten to fifteen yards west of “The Foxhole,” next to the loaded dumpster and just south of “The Notch,” an indentation on the back wall of the Hartz Mountain building.
According to the notes I took during our interview:
—October 25: Isaac saw the FBI removing the dumpsters from the site.
—On October 26, Isaac arrived at work at about 10:00 AM and saw a group of people working in the area. Other Interstate workers identified them as FBI agents. Isaac spoke to one of those federal agents who confirmed it.
—Isaac said that there were 30 people at the scene. He saw no one [wearing] PPE [Personal protective equipment] (Question: If there was suspected soil contamination, why no PPE?)
—Federal agents had many vehicles they brought to the site on a flatbed truck.
—He added that an outside company was there, too. (There is a logo on one of the vehicles in Isaac’s second picture.)
—Although he did not personally witness it, Isaac was told by someone working at the site that the FBI had scanned the ground. GPR???
—Although the scene is not in the photo, Isaac said that the FBI was using a small excavator to dig about ten to fifteen yards to the west of the November 2020 Fox-GPR site.
—He added that a dark-black “box truck,” capable of carrying what he believed was hazardous waste, was present. Isaac believes but is not sure that they put something in the truck.
—He saw no steel barrels, but he did see a very large pipe that they had put in the ground. (Could this have been what took the core samples?)
—The FBI and their team left at 5:00 that afternoon. As they were packing up, that’s when Isaac took his two photographs.
—I advised Isaac that he owned the copyright on his pictures and video and that we couldn’t publish them without his permission.
I examined the new possible location of Hoffa’s unmarked grave, which was clearly chewed up by the FBI’s machinery.
There was a small hole—about six to eight inches wide—that led about two or three feet at a 45-degree angle under the surface. Using my flashlight and sticking my arm in the hole as far as it would fit, I saw more rocks and stones—the same odd color and rugged texture as those in the dumpster.
Actually, I was hoping to find one or more steel barrels.
Because of all that was happening, I decided to stay another night and return to the alcove the following day with our own cameraman.
Sean, whom we celebrated for discovering Isaac Suarez, could not stay, so he drove back to Washington alone. Mike, whom we celebrated for discovering that Isaac had photographs and a video, went back to New York.
I checked in at the Marriott Bonvoy in Secaucus. Ari Mark of Ample Entertainment, whom our team had selected to do our documentary, covered my hotel expenses. I planned to take the train back to Washington on Saturday afternoon.
Returning with Bob Burke to the scene of Frank Cappola’s collapse
Early on Friday evening, I saw on my voicemail that Bob Burke had called. I had not seen or heard from him in weeks. Bob and Beaux were still at odds—and both were still insisting that I stay out of it. I returned Bob’s call, told him that I was in town, and invited him to dinner.
Bob and I went to Tokyo Hibachi, a seafood buffet, near my hotel. The last time I was there was on Friday, January 10, 2020, with Frank Cappola and his girlfriend, Joy. That was the night Frank collapsed at our table. He went to the hospital over the weekend where his doctors placed him in a drug-induced coma. Frank died two months later on March 16 without ever regaining full consciousness.
Bob—who had known Frank since they were kids—and I toasted Frank and Joy.
During our conversation, I did not tell Bob, whom I still considered a good friend, why I was in town, and he did not press me to disclose. Bob knew that I was freaked out over his long hiatus from our team.
When I returned to my hotel at or about 9:00 P.M., Beaux called and said that he had received information that a car had been parked at the entrance to the alcove for nearly two hours when a second car pulled up next to it. The drivers from each car walked together into the darkness of the new site that Isaac Suarez had shown us the day before.
We speculated that they were federal agents guarding the area.
An Interstate executive orders us to leave the alcove
The following morning, Andrew Dunn, the excellent Ample Entertainment cameraman who was with me for the Fox-GPR in November 2020, picked me up at my hotel. We returned to the alcove.
With his sophisticated equipment, Andrew, to whom I gave a report about what we had learned the previous day, filmed and documented the entire area.
As we were finishing our shoot, two men from Interstate Waste Services walked up to me.
The older of the two men growled at me, asking what I was doing there. Because Andrew was filming me from a distance after he had placed a wireless microphone on my jacket, I stood my ground, knowing that Andrew was memorializing the scene and the conversation.
When the man asked me again why I was there, I politely replied that I had a permit from the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
He asked to see and copy my permit, which I gave him. I also handed him an August 5 email from the DOT authorizing me to be there. He and the other man returned to the Interstate office, where they scanned and forwarded the documents to the company’s general counsel.
Even though the permit was good until the end of December, the attorney insisted that the email permission had expired. Consequently, because Andrew and I were using Interstate’s access road and a small parking area by the alcove, Interstate’s lawyer claimed that a potential liability problem existed for the company.
When I balked, the older man got in my face, demanding that Andrew and I leave immediately.
I turned and asked Andrew whether he had completed his filming. When he said he had, I replied, “Then, let’s go.” But I told the two men, “I’ll be back.”
Andrew and I drove down the access road and parked in the DOT lot across from Interstate’s headquarters. We then did a status interview, summarizing what had happened over the past two days.
On November 15, after I returned to Washington, I sent an email to FBI SA-1, saying:
I returned to PJP on Thursday night, walked and photographed the area on Friday afternoon, and came back with our cameraman to do some filming on Saturday morning. . .
After spending some time there, I am confused as to whether your work is done, and you will not be returning—or whether you are waiting for the completion of your analysis and will, hopefully, return for The Finale.
FBI SA-1 would only confirm that the FBI was still waiting for the results from the FBI lab.
On November 16, our production team received shocking evidence that persons unknown, using a sophisticated piece of machinery, had conducted a GPR examination in the alcove, focusing on the locations of “The Foxhole” and “The Mystery Mound,” as well as the new perimeter in front of “The Notch” on the back wall of the Hartz Mountain building.
Our team members were concerned about another unauthorized visit, but we speculated that these people were probably federal agents.
Whoever conducted the search knew exactly what they were doing, what to look for, and where to look.
The New York Times breaks its story
Two days later on the morning of November 18—after walking down memory lane during a phone call with a long-time friend and colleague—I published an homage on my blog and Facebook to my late mentor, Walter Sheridan, one of the top lieutenants to and a close friend of Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Walter headed AG Kennedy’s so-called, “Get Hoffa Squad.” In part, I wrote:
When I moved to Washington, D.C. 45 years ago, Walter invited me for dinner at his home in Bethesda. Before I left that night, Walter gave me his extra set of the hearing books, interim reports, and final reports of the Senate Rackets Committee for use during the research of my own book. In addition, he shared the private numbers of all of his colleagues who worked in the Kennedy Justice Department—with permission to call them and to use his name.
It was because of those guys, like Walter, that RFK became the greatest crimefighter in American history.
Last year at a reception in Washington, when I met Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, she nodded politely, shook my hand, and continued her conversation with a group of people.
When I whispered that my mentor was Walter Sheridan, she stopped in mid-sentence, turned, and gave me a big hug, saying that Walter was like a brother to her father.
Walter Sheridan. . . . a great investigator, a cherished mentor, and a wonderful family man. He will always be remembered and honored.
That same night, at about 7:00 P.M.—in an act of kismet in the aftermath of my tribute to Walter—Mike Wilson published his long-awaited article in the New York Times.
Setting the record straight with his accurate and vivid account, Mike wrote, in part:
In March 2020, Frank Cappola died after longtime respiratory problems. He left his father’s secret with Mr. Moldea, who wrote about the disclosure. The F.B.I. contacted him in 2020, he said. He visited the site with a crew from Fox Nation, a streaming arm of Fox News, and ground penetrating radar equipment in November 2020. The radar detected shapes that resembled barrels, he said.[1]
The site is adjacent to what is now Interstate Waste Services, a trash collection company that for years has stored empty metal containers under the Skyway. In late October, workers were abruptly ordered to clear them out, Isaac Suarez, 19, an employee, said last week. He saw the investigators arrive.
The Associated Press also released wire stories nationwide by reporters Roger Schneider and Ed White, both of whom interviewed me. As an addendum to their stories, the AP’s video division broadcasted a remarkable film of the alcove, mixed with clips of videographer Ted Shaffrey’s Zoom discussion with me.
On November 22, the New York Times published a second article about the FBI search on page A-2, featuring reporter James Barron’s interview with Mike Wilson. Accompanying the article was a photograph of me standing next to the newly suspected site of Hoffa’s unmarked grave, taken by Bryon Anselin. At one point, Mike explained:
[Paul Cappola, Sr.] never told anyone about the new location, until, on his deathbed in 2008, he told his son. So, in this version of events, for a span of 33 years or so, only one man knew where Hoffa was buried. And then he told one man, and died.
That’s how you keep a secret.
Which the son did, until his own health took a turn. He told the whole story to Dan Moldea, an expert on all things Hoffa, a few months before he died in March 2020. Frank took Moldea out there to show him. I think he felt the time was right and there would be no recrimination because all the players are dead.
Now, we had to wait for the lab results from the FBI’s search of October 26.
But, while doing so, we were in high confidence.
NEXT IN PART 9: “An innocent miscommunication”
ENDNOTE
[1] After their cursory initial print report about the FBI’s search warrant on November 18, 2021, shortly before the New York Times released the more complete story, Eric Shawn and Fox News cut me out of all its coverage. They shamelessly grabbed responsibility for Frank Cappola and his information while pretending that my 46-year investigation of the Hoffa case never existed.
It was a cold and calculated betrayal by Shawn and Fox, indicating that a lot of thought and planning went into it.
Actually, it was almost comical. Anyone who knew anything about the Hoffa case—and had read any of the many articles I had written since the fall of 2019—recognized that I was the driving force behind Frank’s story.
The simple facts were that—four days after Frank executed his sworn statement at my request following our thirty-plus hours of interviews—I introduced Frank to Eric as a courtesy and out of friendship. Eric then arranged a brief filmed interview with Frank—his one and only—with me on camera. I remained quiet while Eric asked his questions. At no time did Frank reveal the alleged specific location of Hoffa’s unmarked grave.
Eric and Fox News were only present for the GPR test because I invited them. They had no idea where the alcove was until I told them four months after Frank died.
And then, on the day of the GPR test in November 2020—for which Eric, grateful for my invitation, had Fox pick up the tab—a Fox producer cleared the parked steel dumpsters from the wrong alcove under the Pulaski Skyway, causing enormous problems for our project.
I have no doubts that Eric and Fox's intentions at that time were honorable, but, if they had intentionally tried to sabotage the search that day, they could not have done more damage than that caused by their producer’s horrible mistake.
And then, in the aftermath of the Fox-GPR test and the remarkable chance discovery of “The Foxhole,” Eric and Fox began to minimize and even ignore my role in the stories that Fox published and/or promoted after the GPR examination in November 2020.
It quickly became clear that Eric had no interest in making what he claimed was a documentary about my team’s documentary. Consequently, I recognized that my working relationship with Fox—for which I rejected a consulting agreement and never asked for or received any money—would end badly.
Seeing the writing on the wall after my complaints went nowhere, Eric and I parted company—although I publicly supported, praised, and assisted his effort to obtain full DOJ-FBI disclosure of the entire Hoffa case.
This set the stage for Eric and Fox to completely exclude me from their broadcast coverage after the revelation of the FBI’s search warrant a year later in November 2021.
My team and I watched Eric and his production crew as they spiked the football and danced in the end zone, taking full credit for my project while celebrating the apparent success of their GPR examination, aka “The Foxhole.” My team and I were not mentioned in anything aired on Fox News from November 19-21.
Significantly though, because of the print coverage, I was momentarily in demand by the talk shows and given invitations to appear . . . all of which I rejected.
Notably, one of those shows was hosted by Jim Acosta of CNN, who competed in the same time slot with the Saturday afternoon news program that Eric co-anchored on Fox. Even though Shawn had provably hijacked my work, I turned down the invitation from Acosta’s producers. I did not want to be part of what could only be viewed as a public act of disrespect for Eric—even though he had blatantly disrespected me.
Because my team and I were standing tall and looking good after the print coverage by the New York Times and the AP, I also thought it would be in bad taste to fight over credit for solving a then 46-year-old crime that had not yet been solved.
By the way, “The Foxhole,” which Eric and Fox so heavily touted, would later turn out to be much ado about nothing.
I am hooked on this work. Absolutely spine tingling. Dan wrote, "When I got out of the car and walked into the alcove, I could see a row of dumpsters through the moonlight.
In the pitch dark, I stood on what I believed to be the grave of Jimmy Hoffa."
Dan’s investigative work is unparalleled. He has unraveled and explained the complicated mystery that has been shrouded by our government.