What Now, Staten Island Ain’t Good Enough For You?

Jimmy Hoffa’s body dumped on the Staten Island side of the Narrows, near the bridge? A story probably too good to be true:

The author of a 2003 memoir, “Mafia Wife: My Story of Love, Murder, and Madness,” Lynda Milito recalled an argument she had with her husband, Gambino crime family “made man” Louie Milito, as they were driving over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1988. He blurted out that he had killed Hoffa in Detroit and dumped his body at the bridge.

Though the story has irresistible spark and style, there’s thin possibility that it’s true.

Hoffa was last seen on July 30, 1975, in a car in Detroit. While New Jersey mobsters are suspected of having a role in his disappearance, it seems unlikely they would drive a corpse some 622 miles back to New York to dump his body at the Verrazano — a relatively open and public spot.

An MTA Bridges and Tunnels spokeswoman said yesterday that she had never heard such a claim.

The bridge opened in 1964, 11 years before Hoffa disappeared, so any suggestion that he was buried in the towers’ foundation would be an anachronism. Meanwhile, the bridge’s tower piers, located well off-shore, have been continuously monitored by engineers.

The bridge’s anchorages — where the cables are secured to bedrock — also are unlikely hiding spots for a murder victim. The Staten Island anchorage comes down next to a baseball field in Fort Wadsworth, a military base, and is not a likely hiding spot. The Brooklyn anchorage is bounded by a public park and cut through with roads, providing little, if any, concealment for the nation’s most famous missing body.

“When could they have done it? It’s too busy,” said Jordan Paderon of Todt Hill.

. . .

[A]t Goodfella’s Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta in Dongan Hills last night, the overwhelming opinion was that Mrs. Milito was simply a wisegal trying to cash in on her 15 minutes of fame.

“She’s just trying to sell books,” said Russell Marshall, a former New Dorp resident. “Giants Stadium is a better possibility. That’s better timing, and it’s a lot easier to bury somebody in New Jersey than Brooklyn or Staten Island.”