Warren — The disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa has captivated Americans for decades. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Hoffa’s last sighting, new potential evidence has been unveiled that could shake the general public’s notions of who killed Hoffa, what happened to his body, and who gave the order.
Most people accept the narrative Hoffa was “whacked” on orders from the “five families” of the American mafia, which controlled most of the organized crime in the nation and was headquartered on the East Coast.
Usually only mentioned in passing is the Detroit Partnership—the organized crime family controlling Michigan and parts of the Midwest, known inside the underworld as “The Combination” of the Zerilli and Tocco Families.
At the “Hoffa Mystery Solved: 50 Years Later” presentation at Macomb Community College last week, two men heavily connected to Detroit’s underworld of a bygone era—but from opposing sides—sought to illuminate the truth and bring a new, more plausible theory to the discourse.
Nove Jack Tocco, the grandson of the late Detroit boss Joseph Zerilli, nephew of Anthony Zerilli, and the cousin of the subsequent “Boardroom Boss” Jack Tocco, has come out from the shadows of witness protection and fingered the late Anthony “Tony Pal” Palazzolo as the likely murderer of Jimmy Hoffa.
Former federal prosecutor Rick Convertino spent years during the 1980s and ‘90s investigating Detroit’s organized crime underworld. The prosecuting assistant U.S. attorney who convicted Nove Tocco, Convertino ironically joined the former mobster on stage last week to confirm the very distinct likelihood Palazzolo was the guy who whacked Hoffa.
Tocco and Convertino—now close friends in their later years—agree the “order” and the “action” (which is to say the organized effort to “disappear” Hoffa) would have been entirely a Detroit Partnership operation from the top down. (No members of an East Coast family would have been able to hit Hoffa, as operating on another family’s turf is an unbreakable rule within La Cosa Nostra.)
How Palazzolo came to be of interest to the FBI is a story ripped from a Hollywood script.
Palazzolo, who died in 2019 at age 78, was also known as “The Butterfly.” A low-level soldier and driver for a lesser-known crime family in Detroit, he rose up the ranks of the Detroit Mafia, becoming a “capo” in the Tocco-Zerilli family, and ultimately served as the family’s “consigliere,” an adviser, for the last five years of his life.
Palazzolo—whom Convertino described as a remarkably clever, albeit paranoid, mobster who was difficult to surveil—was inadvertently captured on a wire in the early 1990s admitting to the murder of Hoffa during an international money-laundering scheme involving Canadian mafia figures in Windsor.
During a meet-and-greet at Palazzolo’s sausage business in Detroit’s Eastern Market, Palazzolo pointed to a meat auger and stated, “That’s where I put Hoffa.”
According to Convertino, he personally gleaned this admission from the wire and notified his superiors inside the FBI and Department of Justice; however, no further action was taken at that time for unspecified reasons.
The issue lay dormant until 2012, when high-level confidential informants allegedly fingered Palazzolo as the killer. During that timeframe, an elderly Anthony Zerilli debriefed the FBI and allegedly stated Palazzolo was Hoffa’s killer.
According to Nove Tocco, his uncle Tony was in federal prison for skimming casinos in Las Vegas and, although aware of certain plans, would have never given the order for such an action to be taken against Hoffa. In fact, Tocco stated his uncle considered Hoffa a friend and would’ve stopped a planned hit on Hoffa.
Tocco claims to have known Palazzolo most of his adult life. A serious but well-liked man by fellow family members, who’d lie by telling the truth, Tocco believes Palazzolo’s alleged admission was likely an honest statement designed to appear as puffery.
According to Scott Bernstein—a researcher and crime historian who presented at the event at Macomb Community College and spent over two decades studying the Hoffa investigation with confidential informants from the mafia and federal law enforcement—the consensus on both sides of the law is that Palazzolo was Hoffa’s hitter.
He was probably acting on orders from Anthony “Tony Jack” Giacalone and Giacomo “Jack” Tocco—both men at the top of the mafia food chain while Zerilli was in prison.
Bernstein believes Palazzolo was the driver of the maroon Lincoln Hoffa was last seen entering at the Red Fox restaurant on Telegraph Road in Bloomfield Township.
He also believes that Hoffa was murdered at an unknown suburban residence, and his body taken to the Detroit Sausage Factory in Eastern Market. From that location, Hoffa’s remains were possibly moved to Central Sanitation in Detroit. And from that location, quite possibly the Detroit River.
Did “Tony Pal” kill Jimmy Hoffa? Does it even matter anymore? After the presentation, I spoke with a 30-something Royal Oak resident who rather bluntly provided me with the word on the street.
“Who the f*** is Jimmy Hoffa?”
Jay Murray is a writer for Michigan Enjoyer and has been a Metro Detroit-based professional investigator for 22 years. Follow him on X @Stainless31.
