Jimmy Hoffa would have been 100 years old on Thursday.
His disappearance took place over 3 decades ago, but now The Defenders have learned the FBI has had three secret meetings in the past few weeks with a mobster they think may solve the case
Tony Zerilli is the best lead federal investigators have ever had in the Hoffa investigation.
The aging mobster tells The Defenders' Kevin Dietz that he has now met with the U.S Attorneys Office and the FBI on 3 separate occasions to explain how he knows where Hoffa is buried,
"I think they are trying to extract as much info as they could possibly get I don't think they need any more than they have got already for a search warrant."
"I've answered everything they have asked me I've answered, I haven't refused to answer one thing that they ask," said Zerilli.
It's practically unheard of for law enforcement to get a chance to pull information from the head of a crime family, Tony Zerilli led the Detroit mafia for a few years in the early 70's before going to prison.
When he got out, he was number two in command. Zerilli told the feds and Local 4 Defenders that Hoffa's body is a field along Buell Road in northern Oakland County.
The land was once owned by Zerilli's cousin Jack Tocco who took over as the Detroit mob boss when Zerilli went to prison... that alone could be enough to get a search warrant to dig... but now Zerilli is giving up the name of the person who told him what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.
"I heard that initial plan that that was what they had talked about I heard that from Tony Gicaloni. They talked about putting him there in a shallow grave and taking him to Rogers City. Jack had a hunting lodge at Rogers City and they were going to bury him", said Zerilli.
Zerilli added, "The fact that they didn't do it makes sense to me to do something like that and then to have that additional exposure is craziness."
Keith Corbett is a formal federal prosecutor who convicted multiple local mob members on unrelated charges. He says if Tony Giaciloni gave Zerilli his information, they should be able to get a search warrant immediately.
Zerilli says the feds tell him they are following up on his information. He says he is ill, broke, and looking for the mystery to be solved now while he is still alive, even if that means a private dig by the property owner or asking the county sheriff or state police to do it.
"Anybody if you want to go dig, I would be happy tickled to death. I would just like to know if he was there."
Zerilli says he believes the feds have the technology to get it done now, "they have equipment and they can x-ray and they can see if there is a disturbance in the ground wherever a particular place they can actually x-ray and see if there was any disturbance in the ground and if that is true why haven't they done it."
Zerilli says the FBI may be willing to wait to solve one of the countries' biggest mysteries, but he isn't. "If he is there, I get everything if he is not there, I got nothing."
It is almost a certainty the FBI will dig, Dietz reported, "Half the office wants to go today, the other half wants to wait a few weeks for better weather. No one I saying digging would be a waste of time."