'Zerilli Says Hoffa Left In Shallow Grave'

DETROIT--Mob underboss Anthony Zerilli, 85, says he knows where Detroit’s most notorious missing person, Jimmy Hoffa, is buried.

Zerilli told WDIV in Detroit Hoffa’s killers buried him in a shallow grave and were going to move him to a hunting lodge in northern Michigan after they offed him 37 years ago. But Zerilli – who was in prison at the time on a racketeering charge – said they left him where he was.

Local mob expert and author Scott Burnstein thinks this is the biggest break in the Hoffa case since the union boss’ disappearance.

“I think this is the most credible person to ever come forward to talk about this story,” Bernstein said, adding Zerilli is the son of Detroit mafia founder Joe Zerilli and served as the Detroit mob underboss from 1979 to 2002.

Why would Zerilli tell this story now?

“It’s a combination of he’s looking for a payday and he’s upset with the leaders of the family for taking him out of the loop a couple of years ago,” said Burnstein, author of “Motor City Mafia” and the documentary “Detroit Mob Confidential”.

Zerilli hasn’t yet publicly said where the shallow grave is, but reports say the area he’s discussing is in northern Oakland County, about 20 miles away from Hoffa’s last sighting.

On July 30, 1975, Hoffa disappeared from the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills. Searches for Hoffa’s body have included digs at a football stadium, at a Milford farm, and under a Roseville driveway.

Burnstein made a video several years ago called “Gangland Detroit Mob” where he explained the Zerilli situation, saying boss “Black Jack” Tocco blamed Zerilli for the big bust in the 1970s that essentially shut down the Detroit mafia. Burnstein said Tocco “took Zerilli’s stripes” when he got out of jail, and “put him on the shelf.”

CBS Detroit January 14, 2013.