Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/137993
6B Daily News – Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Hoffa mystery still fascinates after 4 decades OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The latest possible resting place of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa is an overgrown farm field where the normal calm of chirping crickets is being drowned out by a beeping backhoe, the chop of an overhead news helicopter and the bustle of reporters and onlookers. Over nearly four decades, authorities have pursued multiple leads into Hoffa's death that yielded nothing. Yet the mystery endures, fueled by a public fascination with mobsters and murder. ''It's one of those things you've always heard about,'' said Niki Grifka, who, at 37, was just an infant when Hoffa vanished. Over the past day and a half, Grifka and a few dozen other Oakland Township residents gathered a couple of hundred yards from where FBI agents wearing hard hats and carrying shovels sifted through about a halfacre of red dirt for the remains of a man who became as large in death as he was leading one of America's most powerful labor unions. Hoffa's rise in the Teamsters, his 1964 conviction for jury-tampering and his presumed murder are Detroit's link to a time when organized crime, public corruption and mob hits held the nation's attention. Hoffa was last seen July 30, 1975, outside an Oakland County restaurant where he was supposed to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit Mafia captain. His body has never been found and Hoffa. But over the years, authorities have received various tips, leading the FBI to sites near and far. In 2003, a backyard swimming pool was dug up 90 miles northwest of Detroit. Seven years ago, a tip from an ailing federal inmate led to a twoweek search and excavation at a horse farm in the same region. Last year, soil samples were taken from under a concrete slab garage floor north of the city. And detectives even pulled up floorboards from a Detroit house. No evidence of Hoffa was found. Other theories have suggested he was entombed in concrete at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, ground up and thrown in a Florida swamp or obliterated in a mob-owned fat-rendering plant. Detroit's long tradition of organized labor and auto manufacturing means the Hoffa saga still resonates with countless Michigan families. ''Everyone has a connection with Hoffa and the unions,'' said 47-year-old George Newtown, of Oakland County's Rochester. ''I was in high school when he got abducted, and my grandfather was in the union.'' To Newtown, it would be exciting if Hoffa's remains are finally found, but he doubts that ever will happen. ''I just think it's a tightly held secret,'' he said. ''I do want closure, first for Hoffa's family and, I think, in a way for Michigan.'' The latest tip about Hoffa's remains came from a reputed Mafia captain Tony Zerilli, who, through his lawyer, said Hoffa was buried beneath a concrete slab in a barn in the Oakland Township field. The barn is gone, but FBI agents pored over the field Tuesday for a second day. Forensic anthropologists from Michigan State University were bought in Tuesday to help. Michigan State Police dogs were led through the high grass and weeds in the hopes that their sensitive noses might sniff out a clue trampled over by time and boots. Zerilli, now 85, was in prison for organized crime when Hoffa disappeared. But he told New York TV station WNBC in January that he was informed about Hoffa's whereabouts after his release. His attorney, David Chasnick, said Zerilli is ''intimately involved'' with people who know where the body is buried. Zerilli's mob connections give his story more credibility than tips that spawned past searches, according to Keith Corbett, a former federal prosecutor. ''You have a witness who is in a position to know, who says he has specific information,'' Corbett said Monday. ''The Bureau has left no stone unturned. ''Anytime you look for somebody and don't find the body, it is embarrassing. The thing the public isn't aware of but police know is there are a lot of dead ends in an investigation.'' Harmony Kinkle expects the current search will lead to just that — another dead end. ''Things like this don't happen here,'' said Kinkle, a 28-year-old operations director for a nonprofit. Anything ''out-ofthe-ordinary brings unexpected excitement out here.'' G-8 seeks unity on Syrian peace talks, tax evasion ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (AP) — President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other G-8 leaders attempted to speak with one voice Tuesday on seeking a negotiated Syrian peace settlement — yet couldn't publicly agree on whether this means President Bashar Assad must go. Their declaration at the end of the two-day Group of Eight summit sought to narrow the diplomatic chasm between Assad's key backer, Russia, and Western leaders on starting peace talks in Geneva to end a two-year civil war that has claimed an estimat- ed 93,000 lives. G-8 leaders also published sweeping goals for tightening the tax rules on globe-trotting corporations that long have exploited loopholes to shift profits into foreign shelters that charge little tax or none. But that initiative, aimed at forcing the Googles and Apples of the world to pay higher taxes, contained only aspirations, not binding commitments. The declaration on Syria said the country needs a new coalition government with ''a top leadership that inspires public confidence,'' a definition that to British, French or Ameri- can eyes would rule out Assad. It made no reference to sending U.S., British or French weapons to rebels, an option being kept open by the three G-8 members. Russia refused to back any declaration that made Assad's ouster an explicit goal, arguing that it would be impossible to start peace talks with a predetermined outcome. Reflecting the profound divisions that remain, the British host, Prime Minister David Cameron, declared it was ''unthinkable that President Assad can play any part in the future government of his country. He has blood on his hands. He has used chemical weapons.'' Putin — speaking at the same time as Cameron at a different location in a gesture that some diplomats construed as rude — rejected Cameron's views as unproven. And referring to last month's butchery of an offduty British soldier in London by alleged ax- and knife-wielding Muslim extremists, Putin warned Cameron that the weapons sent to Syria might end up being used to kill people in Europe. ''There are many such criminals in the ranks of the (Syrian) opposition, such as those who committed the brutal murder in London. Do the Europeans want to provide such people with weapons? ... We are calling on all our partners to thoroughly think it over again before taking this very dangerous step,'' Putin said. Reflecting growing unease at the behavior of Muslim extremists in the ranks of Syria's splintered opposition forces, the G-8 declaration said participants in any peace talks must agree to expel al-Qaidalinked fighters from the country. The declaration condemned human rights abuses committed by government forces and rebels alike, and called on both sides to permit access by U.N.-led chemical weapons experts trying to investigate the contentious claims of chemical weapons use. In its only concrete commitment, the plan pledges a further $1.5 billion in aid for Syrians driven from their homes by the conflict: 4.2 million within Syria and 1.6 million more taking refuge in neighboring countries. The G-8 noted that the new funds would cover only part of the United Nations' 2013 appeal for $5.2 billion in Syria-directed aid. Rebels, who have suffered tactical reversals in recent weeks versus Assad's Russian-supplied army, expressed disappointment with the G-8 verdict. ''We expected more. We expected a more solid statement, a more decisive one,'' said Loay AlMikdad, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army, speaking by telephone from Turkey. AlMikdad said the Free Syrian Army hopes the statement's weakness would be counterbalanced by strong Western intervention on the ground to send weapons. This, he said, would help deter al-Qaidainfluenced movements from taking root in rebelheld areas. ''The international community, especially those who say they are friends of Syria, must be more decisive and firm,'' he said. But a White House official, speaking to reporters as Obama flew to Berlin, said the U.S. administration was pleased with the outcome and had been braced for less agreement. ''This in no way minimizes the difficulties ahead,'' said White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes. ''But given the various ways the G-8 could have gone, we believe that on the key issues of political transition, humanitarian support and chemical weapons investigation, it's very helpful to have this type of signal sent by these eight countries.'' Earlier, G-8 leaders announced new goals to combat tax avoidance by multinational companies. In a joint statement, they said tax authorities should share information ''to fight the scourge of tax evasion'' and make it harder for companies to ''shift their profits across borders to avoid taxes.'' Britain heralded the agreement as a good first step toward creating a new environment of corporate transparency. A key principle in the plan would require multinationals to declare how much tax they pay in each country. U.S. Senate hearings this year investigating the tax payment policies of Apple found that the smartphone and computer innovator also has developed some of the world's most innovative tax-avoidance policies. Apple admitted it used, legally, two companies registered in Ireland — but in one case managed from the U.S. state of Nevada — to manage much of the company's non-U.S. profits worldwide and paid taxes at a rate of less than 1 percent.