Rumors of New Jersey mobster Stevie Andretta’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Long believed dead, Andretta, one of the suspects in the disappearance and murder of iconic labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa, was revealed to still be alive by the preeminent Hoffa case-expert Dan Moldea in recent weeks on a Fox News broadcast segment focusing on the historic unsolved mafia hit. That most likely leaves no more than four people left on earth who might have first-hand knowledge of what happened to Hoffa and could shed light – to varying degrees – on the most speculated-upon American murder mystery of all-time.
Stevie Andretta, 82, and his younger brother Tommy were members of a Genovese crime family crew run out of a New Jersey Teamsters hall by east coast mob power Anthony (Tony Pro) Provenzano, another prime suspect in the still-ongoing Hoffa murder probe. Authorities believe Tony Pro’s crew worked with a mob crew in Detroit to plan and carry out Hoffa’s execution.
Cancer took a suspected member of the Detroit contingent involved when Tocco-Zerilli crime family consigliere Anthony (Tony Pal) Palazzolo cashed in his chips January 4. The 81-year old Tommy Andretta died on January 25 of natural causes in Las Vegas. Provenzano died in prison on an unrelated homicide conviction in 1988.
The Andrettas and Tony Pro were brought down in a sweeping federal racketeering and union corruption indictment in the years after they skated in the Hoffa case. Stevie Andretta did 13 years in prison while his baby bro Tommy did 15. They came out of the can in the early 1990s and pretty much retired from the rackets, per sources.
For the past 45 years, Dan Moldea has been one of the world’s premier investigative journalists, contributing groundbreaking books on the Hoffa killing, the O.J. Simpson trial, the Robert Kennedy assassination, the confluence of politics, Hollywood and President Ronald Reagan, the Clinton political dynasty and the mob’s influence in professional football. His research on Hoffa is the most seminal in the entire expansive labyrinth of work chronicling the case.
Hoffa, the widely-popular and deeply mafia-connected Teamsters boss, went missing from a Bloomfield Township, Michigan restaurant parking lot on the afternoon of July 30, 1975. In the years leading up to his kidnapping and slaying, he had been squabbling with his one-time allies in the mob, including Provenzano and Detroit mafia street boss Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone, over his desire to take back the union presidency he relinquished while behind bars five years before.
Hoffa was on his way to have lunch with Giacalone and Provenzano when he went missing. Back then, the Andretta brothers were in Tony Pro’s crew and according to some prominent theories, were part of the hit team that clipped Hoffa, more specifically, the clean-up and disposal unit. The Briguglio brothers, another pair of Tony Pro lieutenants, are also believed to have possibly been present. Salvatore (Sally Bugs) Briguglio, one of Provenzano’s most trusted enforcers, was slain himself in 1978. Gabe Briguglio, 79, on the other hand is reportedly still around.
Stevie Andretta was reported dead of cancer in the 2004 New York Times Best-Selling book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charlie Brandt about Teamsters hit man Frank (The Irishman) Sheeran, who claimed to be the triggerman in Hoffa’s execution on his deathbed in 2003. Sheeran’s confession is viewed with extreme speculation by law enforcement and most case researchers. Nonetheless, Martin Scorsese is adapting the book into his next film, titled The Irishman and starring Robert DeNiro as Sheeran and Al Pacino as Hoffa.
Late last year, Moldea found Andretta and was able to debunk the report that he had died. Moldea is at the forefront of the movement trying to discredit Sheeran’s account. Besides Andretta and Gabe Briguglio, Hoffa’s surrogate son Chuckie O’Brien, 84, and Detroit mob elder statesman Antonino (Tony Cigars) Ruggirello, Jr., 85, could still possibly have critical knowledge regarding the Hoffa hit.
O’Brien wasn’t on speaking terms with Hoffa at the time he went missing and had possession of the car investigators are certain Hoffa was kidnapped in on the afternoon he disappeared. That vehicle (a maroon-colored Mercury Marquis) owned by Tony Giacalone’s son, Joey – a reputed modern-day Detroit mob capo) was seized by the FBI and remains the only piece of physical evidence obtained by investigators in the case to this very day. Hoffa’s DNA was traced to the Mercury Marquis’ backseat and trunk. O’Brien and Hoffa had fallen out over Hoffa’s refusal to support O’Brien’s bid for a high-ranking union post.
Tony Ruggirello was a reputed Detroit mafia hit man and crew boss in the 1970s. His Timberland Game Ranch near Ann Arbor, Michigan was looked at by the FBI as a possible burial spot for Hoffa when the case was still hot, but investigators were never able to secure a search warrant for the property. Ruggirello was partners with Tony Giacalone, the day to day chieftain in the Detroit mob from the late 1950s until his death of kidney failure in 2001 and the man the FBI think organized logistics in the Hoffa hit, in a pest extermination company.
Today, Ruggirello splits his time between Michigan and Florida. After getting eyed in the Hoffa probe, he was jailed for car bombing a rival in the policy lottery business in 1977.
Shunned by Hoffa’s family for their belief that he had something to do with Hoffa’s death, O’Brien moved to Tennessee in the days following Hoffa going missing. He currently resides in Florida.
Just prior to his passing, Genovese crime family member Ralph (Brother) Moscato confessed to Dan Moldea that he allowed the Provenzano crew to dispose of Hoffa’s body at his waste dump in Jersey City and that Provenzano was actually in Detroit in the hours leading up to his murder. Moscato died of natural causes in 2014.
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