The search is on for Jimmy Hoffa again (probably commemorating the 30th anniversary of his disappearance one year late). There's a dig going on in a Milford Twp. MI farm (about 50 miles north of where I live) where witnesses have purported that his remains may lie. Agents say the dig should take about 2-3 weeks.
Hoffa is more well-known in death than he was alive. No fewer than ten possible places hold his remains. The latest one I read: stamped into some auto metal and shipped to Japan. Knowing the way auto bodies can corrode, it's probably been recycled once or twice since.
Why do they mount a new search 31 years later, when all the witnesses are dying off, and memories of the disappearance fade? It brings to life the JFK assassination case, which will never have a true conclusion.
In that case, being an assassination buff, I can see the story from both sides. I always wished that someone could be brought to justice for that murder. But many insiders were killed off during the 1960s; their information forever locked in the grave. Trying to pass a nugget of information through too many people results in fabricated accounts. A mock trial held 15 years ago acquited Lee Oswald of the crime, but who really believed it? And yet just look at ABC-TV's documentary aired two years ago as proof that there are many buffs like me out there, with evidence being refined and new viewpoints coming forth.
The fascination level is equal in Hoffa's case; any mystery is a good one. But what good would exhuming JFK's body be to further the case? How many more leads can we get? Likewise, why would we suddenly be drawn to the remains of Hoffa in one Michigan town 31 years after the fact?
Some murders just cannot be solved in spite of the evidence. And some cases are better off unsolved, like the two I've mentioned. They'll never find Hoffa and never track the killer. We'll never figure out JFK either. The fact these cases remain unsolved for all time has a beauty of mystery in it: that's what's drawn buffs like me to do the research and draw my own conclusions.
The only place we'll likely find him now is on the back of your milk carton for the missing.
