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Where Is Hoffa's Body? Local Mob Expert Thinks It's Long Gone

DETROIT (WWJ) - Nearly four decades later, and the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa is still one of the most talked about mysteries in American history.

Every year, the FBI gets a tip or a lead about the location of the body of Teamsters Union President Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared from a Bloomfield Township restaurant 39 years ago:

"Maybe one of the reasons it keeps going is that it's a wild goose-chase, there's no body," said Scott Bernstein, author and journalist from Detroit.

He tells WWJ's Zahra Huber that the mafia killed Hoffa -- and he's pretty sure we'll never, ever find Hoffa's body.

"Without question he was taken within a five - ten minute drive of the Machus Red Fox (restaurant) in Bloomfield Township and killed at the location that the Mafia was content would never be discovered and I think his body, there's not a body to be found ... and I think that's the biggest fallacy in the entire murder mystery."

Bernstein calls the Hoffa's mystery -- the case that will never die.

"Because you have this thing that keeps popping up every year or every couple of years ... when there is a new lead - it just puts them back in the spotlight where they don't want to be. So in some ways .. they did themselves a disservice by being so good in getting rid of the body," said Bernstein.

"It's something that has ... imbedded itself in Americana. It is without question, one of the most talked about, infamous, unsolved murder, at least American history in the 20th century and the fact that he was never found ... add all those things together and it's the ultimate murder mystery."

He says if the body had been found, it wouldn't be as iconic.

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