August 1, 2022 — The only two people still alive the FBI believes could have first-hand information on the kidnapping and killing of Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa are retired Genovese crime family soldiers Stevie Andretta and Gabe Briugulio. The 62-year old Hoffa disappeared 47 years ago this week from a Metro Detroit restaurant parking lot on July 30, 1975 en route to a mob sit down with Detroit mafia street boss Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone and New Jersey mob capo Anthony (Tony Pro) Provenzano to settle a union beef between Hoffa and Tony Pro.
Stevie Andretta is 85. Gabe Briguglio is 83. They were button men in the New Jersey faction of New York’s Genovese borgata. The iconic Hoffa murder mystery remains an open and active investigation by the FBI offices in Detroit and Newark.
The FBI suspects Andretta and Briguglio were potentially part of a “clean-up crew” tasked with getting rid of Hoffa’s body after he was murdered a short distance from where he was last seen in Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Investigators believe Tommy Andretta, Stevie’s younger brother, was also a member of the clean-up crew and that Briguglio’s slain brother, Salvatore (Sally Bugs) Briguglio, was part of the “hit team” that murdered the firebrand labor chief over his refusal to retire from Teamsters politics. Both the Andretta and Briguglio brothers belonged to Tony Pro’s New Jersey mob crew.
Tommy Andretta died of natural causes in 2019 living out in Las Vegas. He did 16 years in federal prison for racketeering before retiring out West.
Gabe Briguglio, sometimes called “Gabe Bugs” or “Sideburns,” was nailed for racketeering in the same case that brought down his brother Sally Bugs and the Andretta brothers. Stevie Andretta and Gabe Briguglio each did six-year prison bids and went to work for the same New Jersey trucking firm following their respective releases in 1983.
Salvatore Briguglio was gunned down in Manhattan’s Little Italy in March 1978 about to go on trial with Tony Pro for a cold-case murder from the 1960s tied to an upcoming Teamsters election in New Jersey. Informants have told the FBI the Hoffa hit team consisted of Sally Bugs and Detroit mob figures Vito (Billy Jack) Giacalone and Anthony (Tony Pal) Palazzolo.
Billy Giacalone was Tony Jack’s younger brother and a powerful mafia capo in the Tocco-Zerilli crime family in his own right. Palazzolo used his role in the Hoffa execution to gain status and position in the Detroit mob, rising to capo and eventually consigliere before he lost a battle with stomach cancer three years ago.
Tony Provenzano dropped dead of a massive heart attack behind bars in 1988 serving a life prison sentence for ordering the 1961 slaying of Anthony (Tony Three Fingers) Castellito. According to informants, Sally Bugs strangled Castellito to death. Like Hoffa, Castellito’s remains were never recovered.
Tony Giacalone died of kidney failure in 2001 under indictment in a racketeering case out of Detroit. Giacalone, Hoffa’s longtime contact in the mob, coordinated the details of the Hoffa kidnapping and murder conspiracy, per investigation files and informant debriefings. Billy Giacalone succumbed to dementia in 2012, holding the Detroit mob’s underboss title in his final years.
This article was originally posted here