In 1975, Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa vanished without a trace and became America’s most famous missing man.
The mystery has sparked a half century of theories involving swamps, stadium foundations, incinerators and claims of his body being dissolved in chemicals.
Hoffa’s remains have never been found despite countless searches and tips, and his family still holds onto hope of getting answers as we reach the 50th anniversary of his disappearance.
One veteran organized crime reporter says he finally knows what happened – and it’s even more gruesome than the mob legends made it out to be.
Hoffa, the powerful union leader who sparred with the Mafia, disappeared on July 30, 1975, after leaving for a supposed peace meeting at a Detroit-area restaurant.
Journalist Scott Burnstein claims a long-buried wiretap confession has revealed what he’s found to be the real story: Hoffa was murdered by Detroit mobster Anthony ‘Tony Pal’ Palazzolo – also known as The Butterfly and Tony Sausages – and fed into a sausage grinder.
The historian and organized-crime expert – who has written extensively about various forms of mob activity in Detroit, Chicago, New England and Philadelphia – published six books on the subject and produced three documentaries. He founded the Gangster Report web magazine in 2014, which quickly became a leading media outlet for American underworld news.
Now, Burnstein is shedding light on a 25-year-old finding.
This year marks 50 years since Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa vanished without a trace. Pictured: Hoffa leaving the Federal Courthouse after he was convicted and sentenced of jury-tampering
Pictured: Tony Palazzolo, the man who allegedly killed Jimmy Hoffa on July 30, 1975, leaving a grocery store in 1976, months after Hoffa vanished
According to Burnstein, the FBI knew of Tony Pal, but he wasn’t on their radar as a Hoffa suspect.
In 2010, former federal prosecutor Richard Convertino shared a piece of evidence he had acquired long ago with the journalist. Convertino was prosecuting Palazzolo in a money laundering case in the early ’90s and learned of the supposed confession recorded via wire tap.
In sharing what he learned from the prosecutor, Burnstein told the Daily Mail, ‘On a court‑authorized wire in 1993, Tony Pal told an undercover federal agent, “I killed Jimmy Hoffa. I put his body through a sausage grinder.”‘
Burnstein spent the next 10 years further investigating the tip.
‘I wanted to keep sourcing it,’ he said. ‘Lock it down real tight.’
Burnstein announced this revelation during a July panel he organized for the 50th anniversary of his disappearance called Hoffa Mystery Solved: 50 Years Later.
Convertino said the wiretap reached the FBI in ’93, but the lead went cold for decades.
According to Convertino, Palazzolo could be heard bragging about disposing of Hoffa’s body.
‘It was said in a way, and I hear it, it wasn’t light-hearted, it wasn’t fun and games,’ Convertino told the July 2025 panel.
‘It was a serious statement for a real purpose, and you take that into context like you would in the other statement.’
Former Mafia soldier Nove Tocco agreed with the theory and said, ‘Knowing Tony, that is exactly what he would do.’
Veteran organized crime reporter Scott Burnstein (pictured) said, ‘After half a century of myths, I’m finally able to tell the world who killed Jimmy Hoffa’
According to Burnstein, Palazzolo lured Hoffa to what he believed was a reconciliation meeting with Detroit Mafia street boss Anthony ‘Tony Jack’ Giacalone and New Jersey capo Anthony ‘Tony Pro’ Provenzano.
But the meeting was a trap.
Hoffa called his wife, Josephine, from a nearby pay phone at about 2:30pm that afternoon to say the two mobsters had stood him up and that he would be home by 4pm for dinner.
His family contacted the police when he hadn’t returned by the next morning.
‘By 2:45pm, Tony Pal had him in the car. By 3pm, he was dead,’ Burnstein said.
Palazzolo, who had ties to the Detroit Sausage Company, allegedly disposed of Hoffa’s body in pieces that were then incinerated at Central Sanitation, a mob‑owned trash company in Hamtrack.
Pictured: Union boss Hoffa giving a press conference revolving the members of the trucking industry
Pictured: Hoffa in Miami Beach, Florida, getting a boost from delegates after he won the election by a landslide in Octover 1957 as the newly-elected President of the International Teamsters Union
The Machus Red Fox Restaurant (pictured) in Bloomfield Township is the location Hoffa was last seen
Pictured: The site of Central Sanitation Services in Hamtramck, Michigan, where the former Teamsters union boss may have been disposed of before it burned down by an arson fire in February 1976
The FBI investigated several areas suspected as the locations of Hoffa’s remains based on a confidential informants tips
Pictured: Tony Palazzolo (right) – aka Tony Pal, Tony Sausages and The Butterly – walking down the street in 1993. Palazzolo was never publicly charged in Hoffa’s death
Pictured: Hoffa driving one of his trucks as he looks in the mirror and appears somber. The photo was taken in January 1975, approximately six months before he went missing
Seven months later, the building mysteriously burned to the ground.
‘On the FBI’s suspect chart, Tony Pal went from non‑existent to No. 1,’ Burnstein said, adding that the bureau now quietly considers him the killer.
Though, when reached for comment, the agency would not confirm.
Jordan Hall, public affairs officer at the FBI, told the Daily Mail that ‘Although this is a case that we have confirmed we are investigating, we do not comment on open investigations.
‘However, the FBI Detroit Field Office remains committed to pursuing all credible information and the FBI continues to encourage anyone with information to submit tips at tips.fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.’
Palazzolo rose to become a top mob consigliere before dying of cancer in 2019.
He was never publicly charged in Hoffa’s death, but has always been linked to the case.
For Burnstein, who is on the advisory council of The Mob Museum, a non-profit organization, whose mission is to advance the public’s understanding of organized crime and its impact on American society, explained that the disclosure is the culmination of 20 years of investigation.
He said, ‘After half a century of myths, I’m finally able to tell the world who killed Jimmy Hoffa.’
