Former Mob Lawyer Says Jimmy Hoffa Buried at Georgia Golf Course

Posted on: May 8, 2021, 02:08h. 

Last updated on: May 8, 2021, 07:06h.

Larry Henry Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

A criminal defense lawyer says former labor leader Jimmy Hoffa is buried at a Georgia golf course once run by the Mob. Before he disappeared in 1975, Hoffa helped secure loans to build Las Vegas casinos.

Jimmy Hoffa
Former Teamsters Union President Jimmy Hoffa looks to the side during a speaking engagement. Hoffa disappeared from a Detroit-area restaurant in 1975. (Image: The Detroit News)

Reginald Haupt Jr., known as “Bubba,” told Fox News this week that after Hoffa vanished in Detroit, his remains were flown to a private landing strip in coastal Georgia. Hoffa was buried at the former Savannah Inn and Golf Country Club on Wilmington Island, Haupt said. The island is east of downtown Savannah.

The hotel was run by Haupt’s Mob client, Lou Rosanova. Known as “Lou the Tailor,” Rosanova was put there by Chicago Outfit bosses. The club was a popular vacation spot for Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana and other underworld figures, Haupt said.

“It made this the perfect place,” Haupt said of the golf course. “Bring him here where they can keep an eye on him.”

The lawyer told Fox News mobsters and Teamsters would urinate on the green where Hoffa is supposedly buried and laugh about it.

That is not ordinary golf etiquette,” he said.

Haupt, who served a prison sentence in a securities fraud case, is writing a book about Hoffa and the island, according to Fox News anchor Eric Shawn. The book is titled Mob Island. Haupt said he has spoken with the FBI about the possible burial site.

New Jersey Dump Pinpointed

A former International Brotherhood of Teamsters president, Hoffa went missing from the Machus Red Fox restaurant in suburban Detroit on July 30, 1975. The 62-year-old Hoffa was scheduled to meet with Mafia leaders to resolve differences. No one has been held criminally responsible in the disappearance.?

Over the years, several locations, including Giants Stadium in New Jersey, have been mentioned as potential Hoffa burial sites. No remains have been discovered.

Shawn and investigative journalist Dan E. Moldea, author of the 1978 book The Hoffa Wars, recently reported on a former Genovese crime family landfill in New Jersey, where Hoffa might have been buried in a 55-gallon drum. Moldea is considered the nation’s foremost Hoffa expert. Ground-penetrating radar located images that could be barrels at the site. An exploratory dig cannot occur there without law enforcement approval.

US Rep. Lee Zeldin (R) has called for authorities to conduct a dig at the New Jersey site. He also has filed a formal request for the government to release the full FBI case file on Hoffa. Zeldin is a candidate for governor in New York.

Scott M. Burnstein, a Detroit-based journalist and author, told Casino.org he doesn’t give much validity to the Georgia burial theory. However, since the FBI recently has been to the site, “You have to give it some level of merit,” he said. Burnstein said his research over the years indicates Hoffa’s body was disposed of in the Detroit area.

Las Vegas Casino Connection

When the Mob-connected Hoffa wielded power as a labor leader, he was instrumental in obtaining Teamsters Union funds to construct hotel-casinos in Las Vegas.

One example is a $10.5 million Teamsters loan he arranged to build Caesars Palace on the Strip, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Hoffa attended the opening in 1966.?

During this period and in later years, Mob overseers in Las Vegas skimmed untaxed gambling revenue from casinos, leading to numerous criminal convictions. This era is depicted in the 1995 Las Vegas Mafia movie Casino.