"Mmm, Mobster."
Posted on 03/19/2004 11:20:36 AM PST by Born Conservative
New Details Emerge in Hoffa Case
BY EDWARD LEWIS TIMES-SHAMROCK NEWS WRITER 03/19/2004
Details of a written confession by a man who claims to have had a role in the 1975 murder of Jimmy Hoffa shed light on Northeastern Pennsylvania mob boss Russell Bufalino's underworld involvement.
The three-page confession by Frank Sheeran, 83, was allegedly written in November, about a month before he died in a Chester County nursing home. Highlights of the deathbed confession, which is not corroborated, were publicized earlier this week by the Philadelphia Daily News.
The bottom of each page of the confession bears Mr. Sheeran's signature, which was called a forgery by his daughter, Dolores Miller, of West Chester.
According to the alleged confession, Mr. Hoffa contacted Mr. Sheeran on July 27, 1975, to arrange a "sit down" with Mr. Bufalino to try to resolve a conflict between Mr. Hoffa and Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano, a New Jersey Teamster boss for Local 560 and a soldier in the Genovese crime family connected to Mr. Bufalino.
Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Provenzano were federal prison cellmates briefly in the 1960s, according to the 1986 President's Commission on Organized Crime.
Mr. Sheeran had been president of Teamsters Local 326 in Wilmington, Del., under Mr. Provenzano's control, and reported to Mr. Bufalino.
On July 28, 1975, Mr. Hoffa called Mr. Sheeran and informed him he was meeting with Mr. Provenzano on July 30. Mr. Hoffa wanted Mr. Sheeran at the meeting "to watch his back," according to Mr. Sheeran's confession.
DINNER MEETING
Mr. Sheeran allegedly wrote he had dinner with Mr. Bufalino on the evening of July 28, 1975, when Mr. Bufalino was called away to a telephone. When he returned to the table, Mr. Bufalino allegedly told Mr. Sheeran, "That call, the men east of here have made a deal with Kansas City and Chicago. There is no need for us to worry about a meeting with your friend on the 30th."
"I knew what this meant -- that Jimmy had made one threat too many and that there was nothing I could do to save him," Mr. Sheeran allegedly wrote.
Mr. Sheeran and Mr. Bufalino, along with their wives, traveled from Wilkes-Barre to Detroit on July 30, 1975, for the wedding of Mr. Bufalino's niece.
During the trip, they stopped at a restaurant leaving their wives behind while Mr. Sheeran and Mr. Bufalino drove to a tiny airstrip. Mr. Sheeran got onto a plane and was flown to a small airfield outside Pontiac, Mich., where a vehicle was waiting.
Mr. Sheeran drove to a residence where Salvatore "Sally Bugs" Briguglio, a business agent for Local 560, and brothers Steve and Tom Andretta were waiting.
"The deed had already been done," Mr. Sheeran allegedly wrote in his confession. "As I had been instructed to do, I drove his (Hoffa) body to Pete Vitale's waste treatment plant, where all evidence was incinerated."
MET WITH BUFALINO
Mr. Sheeran allegedly wrote that he then drove back to the small airfield where he flew back to meet up with Mr. Bufalino.
Mr. Sheeran, Mr. Bufalino and their wives returned home from the wedding on Aug. 2, 1975. Two days later, Mr. Sheeran allegedly wrote that he had dinner with Mr. Bufalino, Mr. Briguglio, Mr. Vitale and others at a restaurant in New York City.
After dinner, Mr. Vitale allegedly told Mr. Sheeran he could pay his respects to Mr. Hoffa in the soot surrounding his trash incinerator, according to Mr. Sheeran's alleged confession.
Mr. Vitale owned the Central States Waste Management Trash Incinerator in Hamtramck, Mich., several miles from Detroit. Mr. Hoffa was last seen outside the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, a suburb of Detroit, on the afternoon of July 30, 1975.
According to testimony to the President's Commission on Organized Crime, Mr. Hoffa was killed to prevent him from making another bid for Teamsters president. Mr. Bufalino died in 1994.
Seemed like that was all there was on the local 'Burgh news for the longest time in the 70s.
As for Russell Bufalino, he lived about 20 minutes from where I grew up. In fact, Northeast PA had a LOT of Mafiosi (plural for Mafioso?) living there; Philly is only 2 hours away, New York about 3-4 hours, and Boston 6 hours, so it was actually a convenient place for them to live; they still could do their "business" in the larger cities and be home in time for dinner.
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