THE ANDRETTA BROTHERS

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Thomas Andretta was born January 1, 1938. His brother Stephen's birth was reportedly in 1937 by one source. Stephan's family lived in Washington Township and Little Ferry, New Jersey. Both brothers were soldiers of the "Provenzano Group" of the La Cosa Nostra [LCN] Vito Genovese Crime Family, as well as officers of Local 560 International Brotherhood of Teamsters [IBT].

 

The interest we have with the Andretta Brothers is twofold. Number one: They are one of the sets of brothers and relatives involved in the Hoffa conspiracy to take part in an organized structure built on trust with close family members. The plan to take out Jimmy Hoffa was compartmentalized. Frank Sheeran told author Charles Brandt it was set up this way. The original plan was in stages or parts. Each person had a job to do, and they did it without knowing the whole plan in its entirety.  So, from this and other sources we learned that no one knew who or what anyone else was doing except the tasks connected to their own actions. No one but a few of the planners had possession of the total picture. It was the last step of this plan that was deliberately steeped in misdirection.  Most likely the people involved with the disposal of the body of Jimmy Hoffa are the only ones knowing those details. Findinghoffa.com has identified a new person of interest.  This living individual as far as our research goes has not been investigated by any law enforcement authority as of yet. We hope the federal and state agencies, we have contacted, will eventually look into the matter. Because this matter involves an open case, we have not revealed this person's identity. We believe Thomas Andretta and a few others passed off Hoffa’s remains to another group of men, and once having done that, they ran a preordained interference campaign to convince investigators the body was hidden elsewhere. If so, it seems this approach worked better than they had hoped.  Over 45 years later the New Jersey location idea continues to make an impact. 

 

We traced the origins of how the investigation of the Hoffa disappearance switched from Michigan to New Jersey and it certainly appears it was an orchestrated ruse to deceive anyone looking into the case.  Now, many people mistakenly equate Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance with New Jersey instead of Michigan. “Bustle”, a digital group claiming to be one of the fastest growing digital media companies with the largest female audience aged 18-34, began an article on Hoffa’s disappearance in 2015 with these words: “On July 30, 1975, notorious union leader Jimmy Hoffa arrived at a New Jersey restaurant for a scheduled meeting with two other union leaders.” (emphasis ours). The fact is, and will always be, Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from a restaurant near Detroit, Michigan! Steve and Tom Andretta played their part well and avoided the pitfalls set up by the authorities to provide clues as to where Hoffa’s body was taken and disposed of. We believe false information was deliberately supplied to investigators as a means to derail the efforts to locate his body.  It would have been much easier for the LCN to have let the body be found. Most of those listed as suspects where relentlessly pursued and prosecuted for other crimes. Some, like Anthony Provenzano, died in prison because of it.  The Andretta brothers paid a heavy price too.  But they had their marching orders and appear to have followed them to the last detail.

 

We believe this is one reason why details of the plan remain so difficult to trace from the beginning to the end.  It is the final component of the plan we are interested with. We want to know what happened him. We want to find where Jimmy Hoffa’s remains were hidden.  Knowing how the plan was constructed is an asset as we investigate this mystery. The Andretta's may have possessed some clues regarding the final steps taken in the plan. They have not provided any further details since Stephen Andretta cooperated with a Federal Grand Jury as a condition of his release from Milan Federal Prison in early 1976. To quote David Ashenfelter of the Detroit Free Press, [ two-time Pulitzer Prize winning reporter recognized as one of the foremost historians of the unsolved James R. Hoffa case]: “But as it always turns out in the Hoffa mystery, we don’t know much more than we knew when the FBI wrote the Hoffex Memo six months after Jimmy Hoffa vanished”. In the same article Ashenfelter expressed his concerns to bring the current generation up to date with the Hoffa narrative by stating: “...a younger generation up to date on one of the biggest mysteries of the 20th Century”.

 

So, now after all these years, all we really have are remnants of the same two original ideas provided early on in the investigation. These ideas are the primary consensus of most of the investigators who were involved with the summary of events contained in the Hoffex Memo and some of the details revealed thus far with the Detroit Grand Jury of December 1975.  Additional information came with the discovery of the misplaced "Hoffa Files" found in a building used as a field office for the FBI in Detroit.  Hoffa’s body was either incinerated at a Detroit mob associated business, or it was placed in a 55 gal. drum on a Gateway Transportation truck and driven to an unknown location for burial. The latter idea was often associated with an emphasis on a mob owned landfill in New Jersey.  By 1978, the books by Dan Moldea and Steven Brill seemed to perpetuate these two ideas and now the same ideas have been re framed by others. The newest versions are cloaked in slightly different views as to the basic “location” of Hoffa’s demise, but they are nothing more than another way to restate and repackage what we have already heard since the beginning of the Hoffa investigation more than 45 years ago.  Most of the other ideas connected to New Jersey or Michigan have been debunked.  Some of the older versions of what happened have been dusted off, dressed up, and recycled as new ideas. Knowing this, we have checked out the common denominators of the two dominant theories. We arrived at a conclusion that the common themes provide for a solid platform to build on.  We have looked at where the official record may indicate gaps or leads, were able to identify. We noticed a few things we made an effort to follow up on.  Much of what resulted from this approach, has provided us with some new information.  This process enabled us to discover another way of looking at the unsolved case of finding out what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.  We consider the Andretta brothers as prime suspects who may have been involved with the last steps of a master plan to take Hoffa out of the picture permanently.  

 

Alleged meetings coming from rumors and questionable sources seemed to have gotten more publicity than they deserved with this incinerator idea. An example of this tact is noted with a highly publicized but “unsubstantiated” restaurant meeting of IBT’s President Frank Fitzsimmons with Detroit LCN’s Vitale and Quasarano before the disappearance of Hoffa. It was followed later by the “questionable” reason of a meeting at the Palma Boys Social Club, involving the same two mobsters with a Genovese family front man “Fat Tony” Salerno, after Hoffa vanished a week later. For all we know this could be another attempt to misdirect the authorities.  These meetings certainly were not enough to deter the FBI from the direction they chose to go with this case months later when they completed the Hoffex Memo in January 1976. We do know Frank Fitzsimmons visited the Detroit area the weekend prior to Wednesday July 30th, 1975.  A car belonging to one of Vitale and Quasarano's businesses, the Market Vending Company, was used during that time frame. It could have been used by Fitzsimmons and later other players involved with the Hoffa case.  We surmise that Fitzsimmons may have been briefed at that time by the Detroit LCN concerning their plans attached to Jimmy Hoffa's impending future.  But nothing more definitive can be derived from the early Fitzsimmons visit to Detroit.

 

The Andretta’s were not connected to this early idea of incineration or cremation.  Instead, these brothers were associated with the original portrayal of the Gateway Transportation truck and 55 gal. drum idea. FBI informant Ralph Picardo later added to what Steve Andretta said to him. Picardo told the FBI some of the Hoffa suspects had formerly used Phillip Moscato’s dump in Hackensack, New Jersey as a place to hide bodies. It certainly appears this version of things would include Tom and Steve Andretta.  The New Jersey dump information was the result of an earlier search warrant filed almost three years before the Hoffa disappearance, to look for LCN loan shark Armand Faugno’s body.  Faugno was an associate of both Andretta brothers as well as the Briguglio brothers of New Jersey. This is actually how the possible burial site shifted from Michigan to New Jersey. After that, it morphed into all the other New Jersey versions we have heard about.  We believe this was one of many attempts at a planned misdirection campaign. 

 

We found problems with the New Jersey Moscato dump location too. But, we do not see much difficulty with the method of disposal by truck, drum, and secret burial.  We think the Gateway Transportation truck and 55 gal. drum did not cross state lines to travel 600 miles with Hoffa’s body. Instead, it probably traveled North of Detroit and stayed within the State of Michigan. And, consistent with this idea of using a Gateway Transportation truck, we do have an actual meeting witnessed by the U.S. Secret Service having taken place at the La Costa golf course near San Diego in October of 1975. While all the attention seemed to be upon the questionable East Coast LCN restaurant meeting with Fat Tony Salerno, it was the West Coast La Costa Frank Fitzsimmons Golf Tournament, that provides a valid clue to the details and the various people involved with the Hoffa disappearance. 

 

The event in Southern California included all four of the specific groups suspected to have had a hand in the Hoffa disappearance.  We know IBT, LCN, CEOs, and Political Personnel connected to Hoffa were there in teams of five participants each. Along with ex U.S. President Richard Nixon, we find IBT Pension Fund Trustee John Murphy the CEO/co-owner of Gateway Transportation trucking company, with Frank Fitzimmons and a couple of people involved with IBT and LCN on one of the teams. Murphy's company was the one named in the Hoffex Memo as the means to transfer Hoffa's body to his hidden burial site. Allen Dorfman, Rolland McMaster, and Tony Provenzano had participated in this tournament the year prior, and we know at least one of them was there at the October 9th, 1975 tournament.  Someone probably has a list of the participants and has not provided it to the public.  The location was identified as the Rancho La Costa Golf Resort.  It is situated North of San Diego, California and was built with revenue from the IBT Pension Fund. This event is not easy to ignore, and it did get some initial press coverage, but since then it seems to have faded from view. 

 

By the Summer of 1975 the presence of law enforcement in Detroit was heightened by all the erupting violence leading up to the time of Hoffa’s disappearance. The authorities expected something “big” may happen. They were covering the bases in the Detroit area beforehand. The planners of the Hoffa disappearance knew this.  They had to devise a means to avoid detection.  The “barrel and truck theme” is plausible only if the destination did not involve crossing state lines or having to travel through areas with a substantial risk. The plan would include a less noticeable means of transportation and a safe route not attracting the attention of a large presence of law enforcement. The body would be deposited in an obscure location that could have some meaning to those having orchestrated the plan. Highly public places would be avoided. The disposal site would not likely be in any spot that could be traced back to either the LCN or the IBT.  Stephen Andretta played a part introducing the information of the Gateway truck and 55 gal. drum to Ralph Picardo.  His actions steered the investigation away from Michigan and the suspected burial site.

 

That being said, Stephen and Thomas Andretta were reported to have been in charge of cleaning up the crime scene. If so, they may have been in one or the other of the two plausible murder sites suspected. (The Licata home or the Beaverland home). These boys were to make sure there was no evidence left behind. In 1975, no one counted on DNA forensics, so they may not have been as careful as if the same type of crime was committed even twenty years later. The blood evidence found in the Beaverland home is said to be undergoing further testing to determine if it belongs to Jimmy Hoffa. Other murder sites have been proposed since 1975.  The FBI early on was looking at a private home where Chuckie O'Brien had been living.  Later on, the Carlo Licata "house on the hill" surfaced as a popular location. Some reports identified the home of a close associate of the Giacalone family named Leonard Schultz.  There also have been reports that Hoffa was murdered in the car used to abduct him, by means of a garrote as well as other related versions.  All of it is speculation.  Others say the murder site was likely the Carlo Licata home, due its proximity to the events attached to the place before and after Jimmy Hoffa vanished.

 

We now arrive at the Second Reason the Andretta Brothers are of interest to us.  It appears they were successful, until 2019, to confuse most of the journalists and researchers as to which one of them was still living and which one was dead. Findinghoffa.com learned, through printed and broadcast media sources, of this ongoing confusion over both of their alleged deaths. We discovered Thomas Andretta’s actual death was when his obituary was printed in a Las Vegas publication on January 25, 2019.  We knew beforehand that Stephen Andretta was still living in New Jersey. But we can quote newspapers and network media saying otherwise, (Examples of this can be found as early as Charles Brandt’s report of it in 2003 or in the Detroit Free Press on Sept. 27, 2012. and even more recently, by KLAS TV Channel 8 in Las Vegas plus current internet websites.)  In 2018 we had established both brothers were still alive and where each one was living.  Later, after Thomas Andretta’s death, we observed Eric Shawn, Ed Barnes and Dan Moldea discussing the matter in brief on a Fox News program. They had noticed some of our own ideas about how sets of brothers were used in the Hoffa caper. They also indicated that there was some confusion of the status of Steve Andretta.  Three years before their discussion, we had discovered an earlier published obituary containing addresses and locations in relation to the Andretta family in New Jersey. The obituary published in 2015 stated “Stephen Andretta Sr. survives” the death of his son Stephen Jr.  Since 2015 we had known the true status of both Andretta brothers. We mention these things to demonstrate how easily the Andretta's could use false information to cover their whereabouts. They both were very good at spinning a "ruse to confuse" anyone attempting to contact them.

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Stephen Andretta may have possessed some knowledge as to what methods were used to move Hoffa’s body away from the murder site and possibly where it was headed.  Findinghoffa.com has obtained information concerning some of these ideas and, as previously stated, plans to share them on upcoming additions and podcasts.  It was Steve Andretta that also supplied an alibi for Anthony Provenzano’s whereabouts on July 30, 1975. (That alibi seems to have been called into question when an informant named Donovan Wells said he witnessed Tony Provenzano in Detroit the night before Hoffa vanished.).  But the details of the Hoffa scenario with FBI informant Ralph Picardo came by way of Stephen Andretta.  And much of what has been reported in the Hoffex Memo relies on the information from Picardo.  We believe Steve Andretta knew the details about the Gateway Transportation truck and 55 gal. drum but may or may not have known it’s final destination.  Picardo seemed to have focused on a familiar place the Andretta's and Briguglios's used in New Jersey. This idea could have been revealed as a means of misdirection to ensure that Hoffa’s body would not be found. The only body suspected to be in the PJP Moscato dump before that time would be the Andretta's former associate Armand Faugno.  If a body was ever dug up or moved out of there it would probably be his and not Hoffa's.  We believe that since the Andretta's and the rest of the Provenzano group suspected their former associate Ralph Picardo was ratting them out anyway, then they could have used him to provide some false information too.  They also had time enough, over the years, to make sure any trace of Faugno would be well hidden before another search could be made on this dump site.  Phillip Moscato’s dump is one example of a convenient location that Picardo was already familiar with, and the authorities already knew about, in other non-related disappearance cases.  (Check out our 1975 links to this subject on under "Press" releases on our website).

 

Tom and Steve Andretta eventually did some “time” for RICO infractions involved with the Seatrain Corp.  Steve Andretta is the only one incarcerated during the initial investigation phase of the Jimmy Hoffa disappearance.  Andretta was granted immunity by US Attorney Frederick Dana but only if he cooperated with the Grand Jury.  Organized Crime Strike Force prosecutor Robert Ozer made it clear to him that they expected compliance with the arrangement.  However, Andretta had other ideas and it led to his was incarceration.  Stephen Andretta was locked up for 63 days at Milan Federal Prison in Michigan after “a rather enraged judge”, Honorable Ralph M. Freeman sited him for contempt for refusing to testify during the Hoffa Grand Jury investigations on December 11th, 1975.  It was reported that Steve Andretta pleaded “the fifth” over one thousand times!  But it looks to us what really happened was he had caused a huge delay in the grand jury process. Andretta continually left the court room as many times to consult with his attorneys William Bufalino Sr. and William Bufalino Jr. He would not answer the first question asked of him which was "Where were you July 30th, 1975, on the day Mr. Hoffa disappeared?".  He finally agreed to testify on January 22nd, 1976. He was released from prison on February 12th, 1976.  Four years later, for his connection to the Seatrain Corp. improprieties, Stephen went to prison in Bastrop, Texas in 1980. He paroled in 1983 and ran a trucking firm in New Jersey which had also employed another Hoffa suspect, Gabriel Briguglio.

 

Thomas Andretta went to prison in 1979 for related extortion pay offs in Otisville, New York and we believe he paroled in 1989.  Thomas then began to live a more secluded life in Las Vegas, Nevada. An effort to make contact with him by former Fox New’s Ed Barnes resulted in Barnes leaving his questions and information under Andretta’s closing garage door. A not so happy Mrs. Andretta refused to give him anything, including the time of day. 

The rumors of their deaths were over when we first reported: 

Thomas Andretta died on January 25, 2019, in Nevada and

Stephen Andretta died on December 12, 2022, in New Jersey.

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Stay tuned for more of the latest Jimmy Hoffa News on our Finding Hoffa podcast episodes!

 

   

 

 

Produced by Steve Drummond Jan. 25, 2023

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