Hoffa Burial Myth Endures

APRIL 1--As the demolition of Giants Stadium continues, the FBI has noted that it has no intention of searching the New Jersey site for the remains of Jimmy Hoffa, the late Teamsters union boss.

The man responsible for the urban myth that Hoffa was clipped by the mob and buried beneath end zone Section 107 is Donald Frankos, who is pictured in the mug shot at left. Frankos, a convicted murderer, first publicly floated his Hoffa fantasy in a 1989 Playboy interview (and later in a tell-all book). Frankos also provided federal investigators with an account of his role in the Hoffa murder and burial, though his frequently fluctuating claims led agents to dismiss him as untrustworthy.

Like many wannabe informants, Frankos apparently was angling to shave some time from a 25-years-to-life prison sentence. Frankos, purportedly part of the hit team that killed Hoffa in Detroit in July 1975, has claimed that the union kingpin's body was cut up, placed in a 10-gallon drum, and trucked over 600 miles to the Meadowlands, where the football stadium was under construction (Hoffa's remains, Frankos said, were dumped in a ditch and covered with concrete).

Frankos's story is nearly as believable as some of the insane claims received by the FBI over the years, including one provided to agents by a Michigan woman who tangled with a bull and a guy who 'has ESP dreams.' (3 pages)