Jimmy Hoffa buried in Milwaukee? Group's theory points to ballpark

MILWAUKEE - Could answers to one of the nation’s most famous unsolved murder mysteries be buried in Milwaukee?

Volunteer cold case investigators believe the body of former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa could have been buried where old Milwaukee County Stadium's third base was – currently paved over outside American Family Field.

"You kept seeing somebody would come out, ‘Well we know where Jimmy Hoffa is – he’s in New Jersey, he’s in this garbage dump,'" said Jim Zimmerman, an investigator with "The Case Breakers." "Then he’s not there. It’d make it more intriguing each time."

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Each off-base search for Hoffa only made Zimmerman more sure his current theory is in the right ballpark.

"It makes mine more believable," he said. "Everybody had a theory and idea."

Jimmy Hoffa

"You always want to solve the unsolvable," said the group's Jim Christy.

That now includes Hoffa's 1975 disappearance. The labor union leader was involved in organized crime, and he's considered murdered. His body has never been found. 

"The Case Breakers" wrote in a news release that they don't know where Hoffa was prior, but their theory is in 1995, his body was secretly buried under third base at the old ballpark before its demolition about five years later. That's near present-day Helfaer Field.

That idea all started with a playing card from the 1990s with the clues written out from an uncle of an ex-girlfriend of Zimmerman. "The Case Breakers" describe her uncle as a corrupt cop.

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"Her crooked uncle was, he was in bed with the bad guys let’s just say," said Zimmerman.

The Ace of Spades card says "J. Hoffa" then phonetically spells a known mobster "Joe Aiuppa" ending with "3rd base Milwaukee Ball Park 9-16-95."

"It was quite the surprise to say the least," Zimmerman said.

"Case Breakers" card in Jimmy Hoffa investigation

Zimmerman said his ex-girlfriend kept it under wraps out of fear of the mob: "I’m from Chicago area, and when I say people involved in this matter were still alive back then, and she was afraid, she had reason to be."

Zimmerman called "The Case Breakers" in 2020. That year, the team used ground penetrating radar in the area and got a hit – "disturbance in the soil" – right where they say third base was.

In October 2023, the investigators brought in a cadaver dog team and handler.

"We organized the search, had to work around the Brewers' playoff schedule," said Christy. "Think it’s a good 80%, 85% chance something happened there because cadaver dogs don’t make those kind of mistakes."

Helfaer Field (Nov. 1, 2023)

"We didn’t tell (the handler) the area where we suspected it to be, I’ll be darned if that dog not alert in that very area," Zimmerman said. "The first thing that went through my head: This is for real."

The volunteer investigators said they've done about all they can and are now talking with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, hoping to dig up concrete answers.

"We would love to be able to get closure for the Hoffa family," Zimmerman said.

"The Case Breakers" investigators said what happens next is in the hands of the FBI. FOX6 News reached out to the FBI and was told they cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.