Jimmy Hoffa Case: There’s ‘More to Come,’ US Attorney Says

jimmy hoffa matthew schneider

Getty US Attorney Matthew Schneider (l) and Jimmy Hoffa.

Matthew Schneider, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, told reporters that “there will be more to come on this,” referring to the disappearance of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.

Hoffa vanished in 1975, and most experts believe that elements within the Mafia are responsible for his death. Hoffa’s body has never been found. His disappearance is the subject of the new Netflix movie, The Irishman, and it was in that context that Schneider made his comments.

The Irishman, directed by Martin Scorsese, argues that the shooter was Frank Sheeran, a union boss from Delaware, Hoffa friend, and associate of Russell Bufalino, a powerful mobster from Pennsylvania. The theory has never been proven, although the real Sheeran did confess. There are those who don’t buy it; for decades, according to news articles dating to the 1970s, the commonly accepted theories have argued that the hit was ordered by Bufalino, perhaps with New York crime boss “Fat Tony” Salerno, perhaps to stop Hoffa from resuming control of the union and revealing the mob’s extortion or cutting the mob off from the Teamsters’ pension funds. Those theories hold that the actual triggerman was a mobster by the name of Sally Bugs Briguglio, with the involvement of Tony “Tony Pro” Provenzano and Tony Giancalone, Mafia figures from New Jersey and Detroit, respectively.

Hoffa’s body has never been found, almost all of the suspects are now dead, and no one has ever faced charges. However, if any resolution would come, it’s Schneider’s office that is best poised to deliver it because Hoffa vanished in Detroit, Michigan. He told people he thought he was meeting Provenzano and Giacalone at a restaurant, but they didn’t show. In November 2019, author Dan Moldea indicated that he believes Hoffa’s body is buried at a former New Jersey landfill known as “Brother Moscato’s Dump,” according to AJC, which added that Moldea was getting his information from Frank Cappola, whose father, Paul Cappola, used to be a partner in the dump and supposedly gave his son a death-bed confession about knowing where Hoffa was buried. Moldea stated that he also interviewed Phil Moscato, Cappola’s partner in the dump, whom he said also alleged that Hoffa was buried there, AJC reported. The dump is located in Jersey City.

Here’s what you need to know:


Schneider Is the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan & He’s Prosecuted Organized Crime Figures Before

11th August 1958: American labour leader Jimmy Hoffa (1913 – 1975), President of the Teamster’s Union, testifying at a hearing investigating labor rackets. Rumoured to have mafia connections, Hoffa disappeared in 1975 and no body has ever been found.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Schneider made the comments on Hoffa when reporters asked him about The Irishman. “It’s unresolved. I have my own theories,” he said, according to the Detroit Free Press. He added that the case is “something that I’m very interested in” and said he would talk about it, but “not now.”

“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 … there’s still victim family out there, so this is a case we still take very seriously,” Schneider told The Free Press.

Matthew Schneider is the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, according to his Justice Department biography. It says that, as the United States Attorney, Schneider “is the chief federal law enforcement official in the Eastern District of Michigan, which contains approximately 6.5 million people in 34 counties.”

The bio adds that the office “is widely recognized for significant prosecutions involving international terrorism, violent crime, public corruption, environmental crime, financial fraud, drug trafficking, civil rights and numerous other criminal and civil matters. As the United States Attorney, Mr. Schneider manages more than 245 employees, including approximately 120 Assistant U.S. Attorneys in Detroit, Flint and Bay City.”

Schneider has a long career in federal law enforcement. Previously, he was the Chief Deputy Attorney General for the State of Michigan. “In that position, he supervised the office’s 40,000 ongoing cases and managed a budget of over $100 million in taxpayer funds,” the bio says. “He had previously served as Chief Legal Counsel for the Michigan Office of Attorney General, where he was the lead counsel representing the Governor and the State of Michigan in the City of Detroit federal bankruptcy case.”

Jimmy Hoffa Republican

GettyHoffa (1913 – 1975), President of the Teamster’s Union, testifying at a hearing into labor rackets. Rumoured to have mafia connections, Hoffa disappeared in 1975 and no body has ever been found.

The bio continues: “Schneider previously served as the Michigan Supreme Court’s Chief of Staff and General Counsel. Schneider provided overall direction for the administration of Michigan’s Judicial Branch of government and served as chief legal counsel to the Chief Justice and the Justices. Schneider is a former Assistant United States Attorney in Detroit. He focused on prosecuting corrupt public officials and members of organized crime, as well as street gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs. He also handled an anti-terrorism caseload.”

It continues: “Prior to becoming a federal prosecutor, Schneider served as Senior Advisor and Assistant General Counsel in the White House Budget Office. He previously practiced international law with the Washington, D.C. firm of Wiley Rein LLP, where he represented American companies in suits against foreign governments for unfair business and trade actions. Schneider has been an adjunct law professor for several years and has spoken and written on numerous aspects of constitutional law and criminal procedure. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University’s James Madison College. He is originally from Frankenmuth, Michigan.”

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