His body was “ground up in little pieces, shipped to Florida and thrown into a swamp.” Theory: Hoffa was killed on the orders of alleged New Jersey mob figure Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano. “We were able to prove to our mind that what he was telling us couldn’t have happened because he either couldn’t have been there or he was in jail at the time.” “When that information came to our attention we batted it around, but we were all convinced in the end that this guy was not reliable,” FBI agent Jim Kossler said then. Outcome: The FBI found nothing to support the claim and didn’t bother to show up when the stadium was demolished in 2010. Who put it forth: Self-described hit man Donald “Tony the Greek” Frankos in a 1989 Playboy magazine interview. Theory: Probably the most infamous had Hoffa buried under Section 107 of Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. From serious to scurrilous, here are some of the best: Sure, it's a far cry from nudes and Nabokov, but Hef's betting the bunny never loses her appeal.DETROIT - The FBI’s confirmation last week that it was looking at a spot near a New Jersey landfill as the possible burial site of former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa is the latest development in a search that began when he disappeared in 1975.Ī number of theories have emerged about Hoffa since he was reported missing, though many of them have been tied to book releases. The brand has now shifted its energy toward licensing clubs, mansions and even bedsheets around the world-especially in growing markets in Asia. Debt of $115 million prompted Hefner's buyout of the company's stock. The proliferation of online pornography and upstart men's mags like Maxim and FHM severely weakened Playboy.
The company went public in 1971, and the magazine's circulation peaked in 1972 at more than 7 million.īut those glory days are long gone. Heading into the 1970s, an estimated one-fourth of college men bought Playboy. Hefner briefly toyed with more explicit pictorials but chose to stick with a more tasteful approach. Despite helping spearhead the 1960s sexual revolution, Playboy felt the heat from newer, racier publications like Penthouse and, later, Hustler. As its popularity grew, Playboy tried to maintain an air of sophistication, with fiction from authors like John Updike and Vladimir Nabokov bumping up against topless centerfolds. It sold 54,000 copies, and the magazine was an instant hit. The main hook: nude photos of Marilyn Monroe. He raised $8,000 (including $1,000 from his mother) to produce Playboy's first issue. Those roots took hold in 1953 in a Chicago apartment when Hefner set about starting his own magazine after being denied a $5 raise as an Esquire copywriter.
The purchase, he said, would allow the company to " to its roots" as a private entity. 10, the magazine became a more private part of Hugh Hefner's life as the publication's founder announced plans to buy the remaining Playboy Enterprises stock he did not already own in a $207 million deal. Has long been a part of the American man's private life.