December 11 - The Search for Hoffa Comes to Key West!

On December the 9, 1961, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa was in Key West inspecting the once grand Casa Marina hotel. It was a hotel that the Teamsters had recently acquired. He later least the hotel to the US military, and it was used for military housing. Less than a year later, on November 26, 1962, when JFK was in Key West. His motorcade went by the Casa Marina so he could see where the military was housed. Not really sure the historical records don't reflect whether JFK knew that the military was actually leasing the property from his brother's arch nemesis. And while some believe Hoffa was involved in the murder of JFK, it was actually his own murder that provides the context for our story today.

Since Hoffa died, and his body has never been recovered, news continues to surface from time and again claiming to know the whereabouts of the body. Hoffa disappeared back in 1975, after publicly meeting with a couple of mob type goons in Detroit. It was at a local restaurant and then he was never seen again. Many stories have been told about where the body lies, but this particular account of one of those tales comes from Bob Beer.

"During the spring of 1976, I was working as a waiter at The Trade Winds Restaurant, near the Key West airport. One evening, a team from 60 Minutes came in for dinner and somewhat secretive shop talk. They were not the blown-hair powder-puffed-up TV news readers, but camera operators, researchers and assorted support personnel. Snatched pieces of table chat reveal they were in Key West to look for the body of Jimmy Hoffa. I'd heard that Hoffa had been in Key West before to look into purchasing the then shutter Casa Marina Resort as a nice home for retired truckers. And that's funny. The news of the Hoffa search was revealed during our regular after work, "cocktail and bull sessions" among some of the restaurants workers - from the top chef to the recently hired busboy. Sharing table talk of our customers became a form of entertainment for us. Afterwards, at the news of the Hoffa search, we all started paying closer attention. After about a week of such TV dinners and piecing together information gleaned from various waiters, busboys and bartenders. We learned that 60 Minutes had been approached by a man who claimed to know the location where the mob had dumped off his body far off the Key West Coast.

The informant reportedly a mob hitman, with intimate knowledge of Hoffa's disappearance had demanded $10,000 in cash, which was a right tidy sum back in 1976, and he demanded it up front before he would reveal to the TV crew where Hoffa's body probably had been digested into a tourist season's worth of Lobster Thermidor dinners. The man had quickly partied away way that 10 large with hookers, liquor and cocaine during a depraved-filled period in New Orleans and Vegas Baby! before he would even meet with the TV crew.

When the 60 Minutes crew had not come to The Trade Winds for working dinner several nights in a row, we anxiously awaited word on the adventure when the crew did return. They look dazed and even more cynical than most journalists. Table talk revealed the man in question had directed them near some far off dinky Island, arriving on rented cabin cruisers, along with the underwater cameraman. The informant had donned a wet suit, mask, flippers and oxygen tank and leaped into the surging Gulf of Mexico to earn his pay. As soon as the informant jumped into the ocean, the fabric of his tip began to unravel. 'We knew we had been screwed. We had to pull him from the water to keep him from drowning.' One now wise guy said with a mouthful of poached snapper. "He couldn't even swim!" Gloomy shots of expense account whiskey failed to offer the fact that the TV crew had been had!

It was later revealed that the informant was indeed a convicted murderer who escaped from the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary a few months earlier. He was serving life for murder....

On December the 9, 1961, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa was in Key West inspecting the once grand Casa Marina hotel. It was a hotel that the Teamsters had recently acquired. He later least the hotel to the US military, and it was used for military housing. Less than a year later, on November 26, 1962, when JFK was in Key West. His motorcade went by the Casa Marina so he could see where the military was housed. Not really sure the historical records don't reflect whether JFK knew that the military was actually leasing the property from his brother's arch nemesis. And while some believe Hoffa was involved in the murder of JFK, it was actually his own murder that provides the context for our story today.

Since Hoffa died, and his body has never been recovered, news continues to surface from time and again claiming to know the whereabouts of the body. Hoffa disappeared back in 1975, after publicly meeting with a couple of mob type goons in Detroit. It was at a local restaurant and then he was never seen again. Many stories have been told about where the body lies, but this particular account of one of those tales comes from Bob Beer.

"During the spring of 1976, I was working as a waiter at The Trade Winds Restaurant, near the Key West airport. One evening, a team from 60 Minutes came in for dinner and somewhat secretive shop talk. They were not the blown-hair powder-puffed-up TV news readers, but camera operators, researchers and assorted support personnel. Snatched pieces of table chat reveal they were in Key West to look for the body of Jimmy Hoffa. I'd heard that Hoffa had been in Key West before to look into purchasing the then shutter Casa Marina Resort as a nice home for retired truckers. And that's funny. The news of the Hoffa search was revealed during our regular after work, "cocktail and bull sessions" among some of the restaurants workers - from the top chef to the recently hired busboy. Sharing table talk of our customers became a form of entertainment for us. Afterwards, at the news of the Hoffa search, we all started paying closer attention. After about a week of such TV dinners and piecing together information gleaned from various waiters, busboys and bartenders. We learned that 60 Minutes had been approached by a man who claimed to know the location where the mob had dumped off his body far off the Key West Coast.

The informant reportedly a mob hitman, with intimate knowledge of Hoffa's disappearance had demanded $10,000 in cash, which was a right tidy sum back in 1976, and he demanded it up front before he would reveal to the TV crew where Hoffa's body probably had been digested into a tourist season's worth of Lobster Thermidor dinners. The man had quickly partied away way that 10 large with hookers, liquor and cocaine during a depraved-filled period in New Orleans and Vegas Baby! before he would even meet with the TV crew.

When the 60 Minutes crew had not come to The Trade Winds for working dinner several nights in a row, we anxiously awaited word on the adventure when the crew did return. They look dazed and even more cynical than most journalists. Table talk revealed the man in question had directed them near some far off dinky Island, arriving on rented cabin cruisers, along with the underwater cameraman. The informant had donned a wet suit, mask, flippers and oxygen tank and leaped into the surging Gulf of Mexico to earn his pay. As soon as the informant jumped into the ocean, the fabric of his tip began to unravel. 'We knew we had been screwed. We had to pull him from the water to keep him from drowning.' One now wise guy said with a mouthful of poached snapper. "He couldn't even swim!" Gloomy shots of expense account whiskey failed to offer the fact that the TV crew had been had!

It was later revealed that the informant was indeed a convicted murderer who escaped from the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary a few months earlier. He was serving life for murder. Realizing it was just a matter of time before he was recaptured, the wily con came up with that wild scheme and had played 60 Minutes like a well dressed, Carney works and naive barefoot Kansas farm boy in overalls. The TV news program swallowed the con's tale, hook, line, and sinker."

So it seems that even though it was a bust, it was today December 11, 1975, that CBS news was reported to be looking for the body of missing former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared mysteriously on July 29. The informant had told CBS that Hoffa's body was encased in concrete lying on the ocean floor in 12 feet of water, two and a half miles off of Key West. But alas, nothing was found.

And that's what happened or what didn't happen today in Key West history.

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