Hit man: Hoffa is in junked car

In new twist, 'Iceman' says he killed ex-Teamsters boss, stuffed him in car that was scrapped, shipped to Japan.

David Shepardson / The Detroit News

Former Teamsters President James R. Hoffa's body was burned, buried in New Jersey and later became "part of a car somewhere in Japan," a convicted mob hit man claims in a new book.

Richard Kuklinski -- nicknamed "the Ice Man" because he sometimes kept victims in a freezer -- told author Philip Carlo in gory detail about what he says was his role in the slaying of Hoffa.

He told Carlo that he killed the former Teamsters president in 1975, brought the body to New Jersey from Metro Detroit and burned it in a steel barrel.

Later, he claimed, Hoffa's body was put in a car that was compressed into a hunk of metal and sent to Japan to be used in other vehicles.

His confession, like others before it, was met with skepticism by Hoffa family members and law enforcement officials.

Kuklinski, 70, who boasted of killing more than 100 people, died in the prison wing of St. Francis Hospital in Trenton, N.J., last month.

"I asked him, 'Where do you think Hoffa is buried?' And he smiled and said, 'I think he's part of a fender in Japan,' " Carlo told The News on Monday.

Kuklinski is the latest in a long line of people -- especially dying imprisoned murderers -- to claim credit for killing Hoffa since his disappearance from the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township in July 30, 1975, without offering any evidence to back their claims.

People have claimed Hoffa was buried in northern Michigan, a tire-shredding facility in Hamtramck and even in an end zone at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

Kuklinski said he killed Hoffa with a hunting knife hidden in a holster around his sock by stabbing him in the back of the head, while he was driven by Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano -- a New Jersey Teamsters boss and mobster, Carlo said.

"He leaned forward, put his hand under Jimmy's chin and at the same time stuck the blade right in the back of his head," Carlo said. "I didn't do this to sensationalize it. He gave me a very graphic account of what he did and how he did it."

Provenzano died in prison in 1988 after being convicted of an unrelated murder and has long been suspected by the FBI of masterminding Hoffa's murder.

Kuklinski's confession is featured in a book written by Carlo to be published by St. Martin's Press in July, "The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer."The Detroit News obtained an advance copy Monday.

Carlo also said a now-retired New Jersey State Trooper, Patrick Kane, first suggested that Kuklinski may have killed Hoffa, which prompted him to question Kuklinski about it.

Kane said Monday that Kuklinski was a suspect because he had extensive contacts with Provenzano. "He was the worst of the worst. Diabolical," he said. Kuklinski claimed the killing came only 15 minutes after the pair and two others left the restaurant; they stopped and zipped Hoffa's body into a black bag and placed it in the trunk.

Kuklinski then said he drove alone to New Jersey, with a gun between his legs. He listened to country music on the drive -- a habit after many murders -- and drove to a junkyard where Hoffa's body was placed in a 55-gallon drum, filled with gasoline and burned. Later, he dug the body up after a mobster began cooperating with the FBI, because the mob was worried they might find the body.

The Kuklinski became famous after he appeared in the HBO documentary "The Ice Man Confesses: Secrets of a Mafia Hit Man." He was serving a life sentence for two murders.

This is at least the third convicted killer since 2003 to suggest they were responsible for Hoffa's death or knew where the body was buried.

This confession didn't impress a former FBI investigator.

As a young FBI agent, Joe Finneran lived in the Hoffa family's basement for a week after the 1975 disappearance.

"The trouble with the Hoffa case is so much of the information has leaked out over the years, so it isn't that hard to concoct a story," said Finneran, who retired from the Detroit FBI in 2003 as head of organized crime investigations.

Barbara Ann Crancer, Hoffa's daughter and an administrative law judge in St. Louis, wasn't moved by this confession. She said she'll read this book, or at least go to the bookstore and flip through the index. "I don't put any stock in it," she said.

In October 1975, the FBI summed up its view of the case in a memo, a view that it hasn't altered in 31 years: "All sources believe that Hoffa's disappearance is directly connected with his attempts to regain power within the Teamsters union, which would possibly have an effect on the (La Cosa Nostra) control and manipulation of the Teamster Pension Fund."

In September 2001, The Detroit News reported that the FBI had matched a hair from a car driven by a friend of Hoffa's, Charles "Chuckie" O'Brien, to Hoffa using DNA. O'Brien was questioned again by the FBI but denied any involvement.

.

You can reach David Shepardson at (202) 662 - 8735 or dshepardson@detnews.com.