The Disappearance Of Jimmy Hoffa

A powerful labor leader with mob ties. A kidnapping with few clues. A who done it that stumped Investigators for three decades. Jimmy Hoffa was one of the most influence and yet notorious figures in American history. If you tried to imagine someone today as well known as Jimmy Hoffa you would have Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump all rolled into one you would be getting close but Jimmy had much more power than that group combined. In his teens Hoffa joined a small Detroit Local in the Teamster's Union of truckers and warehousemen. Truckers had begun hauling more and more freight as America's highway system expanded. As a fearless organizer he helped engineer dozens of strikes to improve working conditions. James Riddle Hoffa organized his first Labor Union and went on strike at the age of 17. Violence was common in the working place Jimmy entered in the late 1920's. Police and strikebreakers battled fiercely with Union workers as the labor movement gained momentum.

In the 1950's and 1960's he helped assemble one of the most powerful labor unions in history called The Teamsters Union. At its peak the Teamsters Union represented more than two million members. Hoffa moved quickly up the Executive ladder. By the age of 33 he headed Local 299 in Detroit. He combined toughness with street smarts and great charisma and was considered one of America's working class heroes. In 1957, Hoffa ran for International President of the Teamsters. He gained support in Locals all over the country by brilliant politicking. When the delegates were polled, Hoffa won by a 3-1 margin. Pete Camarada is co-chairman for a Democratic Union. He says that when Hoffa spoke to the rank and file, he was always able to reach them and even though he was small stature, only 5'5", he was huge in charisma. In 1967, the master freight agreement gave Hoffa more power than any labor leader before him. Now truckers nationwide would be bound by the same contract.

To many business politicians, this was a frightening prospect. The reason for their fright was that Jimmy Hoffa could say to 400,000 Teamsters to park their trucks and they would park them. If Teamster truckers carried most of America's food, fuel, and clothing to the marketplace, is it possible that Jimmy Hoffa had too much power? Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Clark Mullenhoff says that Jimmy Hoffa had more uncontrolled power than any other person in the US, including the President, and was not accountable to anyone. He controlled employers and politicians through his gifts of Union funds and cash or of his use of anti labor charges against political figures. Hoffa never used his power to shut down the nations commerce. Publicly, he played the part of a labor Statesman. People who knew Hoffa privately said that he was a hot tempered and ruthless man. To the rank and file, Hoffa was a powerful boss who won good contracts.

Enemies, however said he made deals with employers outside Detroit allowing them to pay his Teamsters a substandard wage. Hoffa centralized the Unions power and took control of the Union's huge central pension fund. He lent millions to erect gambling Casinos. An estimated 170 million dollars went into Los Vegas. This is around the time that Hoffa's connections to organized crime became recognized. It had been going on since the 1940's. He was using them to enforce his dictates on Local Labor leaders and was also using them for his own advancement and his own power. But what was the truth? What was the relationship between Hoffa and men like Tony Provanzano? From 1967 to 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy tried to get to bottom of that question during the McClellan hearings to determine the Labor Union's involvement in organized crime. But Jimmy just talked his way around Kennedy, who, by the way he despised.

And it is fair to say there was no loved lost the other way around either. When John Kennedy was elected president in 1960, he appointed his younger Brother Bobby Attorney General. Bobby declared all out war on organized crime. Hoffa was indicted for extortion, wire tapping, Jury tampering, and pension fund embezzlement. Somehow he managed to avoid conviction. After seven of years of prosecution, Hoffa was finally convicted of Jury tampering through the testimony of a disgruntled Teamster. He was later convicted of embezzlement. He was sentenced to 15 years behind bars. In 1967, Hoffa surrendered to authorities to serve his term. As a convicted felon with no shortage of enemies and the fateful series of events that would lead to his disappearance had begun. Hoffa's knowledge of the underworld would become even a greater burden in prison.

During a press conference he once said "I don't have time to be vindictive at my age, I am 51 years old and I feel like I have a long life ahead of me and I will take care of my own problems". It was the beginning of the end for a man who was called the most powerful labor leader. Meanwhile Hoffa's trusted aide, Frank Fitzsimmons began his takeover of the Teamster's Union. Eligible for parole in two years, Hoffa resigned his position as President so that Fitzsimmons could run. It was a decision he would later regret. Once elected, Fitzsimmons solidified his position by making friends in the White House. He personally lobbied President Richard Nixon to pardon Jimmy. President Nixon pardoned Hoffa four years later, but unknowing to Hoffa, Nixon added the condition that the former labor leader promised not to try to seek reelection or be involved in Union affairs for at least 10 years.

Hoffa would say later that had he known about the restrictions, he would have refused to sign the pardon. But his troubles were far from over. Once released he began building his empire again. He retained his amazing popularity. Hoffa supporters thought that if Jimmy's lawyers could get the restrictions lifted by Nixon, Jimmy could overtake Fitzsimmons and regain his position as President of the labor Union. But Jimmy never got the chance. On July 30th, 1975 Jimmy Hoffa arrived at the Marchus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township Michigan. He was there to meet two Union officials, Tony Provanzano and Jack Jackolany, who had ties to organized crime. The purpose of that meeting was to iron out this whole issue of whether Jimmy was going to run for the presidency of the International Brotherhood Teamsters Union or not and if so how to go about it. After waiting a half an hour Jimmy called his wife when neither man appeared.

But somebody else did show up. Hoffa was last seen by an eye witness leaving the parking lot of the restaurant in the back seat of a dark red Mercury Marquis. Jimmy was sitting next to a man who appeared to be holding a shotgun. Police found Hoffa's car abandoned in the parking lot of the restaurant but the was no sign of Jimmy Hoffa nor were there any signs of a struggle. Most feel it is reasonable to assume that he knew whoever was in that car with him as he was too street smart to get into a car with someone he didn't know. Acting on a tip the authorities search local suburbs for a body. But industrial Detroit has numerous places that a body could be hid. Could somebody have snatched Jimmy in broad daylight? Hoffa's Foster son, Chucky O'Brian was questioned since there was blood found in O'Brian's car. But tests proved it was that of a fish. Tony Provanzano and Anthony Jackolany had airtight alibis for the time of the alleged kidnapping.

Both men denied arranging any meeting with Jimmy. Ironically in the summer of 1978, Provanzano went to prison for the murder of another Teamster official. Four of Provanzano's associates, Sal and Gabriel Bugulio, and Thomas and Steven Andretta were summoned to a grand Jury the Authorities convened to investigate Jimmy's disappearance. But is was to no avail as each refused to talk. In 1978, Sal was murdered gangland style on a New York street. Absolutely no one seemed to know where the Labor leader was. Police held a number of Press conferences asking for the public's help all to no avail. There were a number of theories. Perhaps the mob feared a man they thought could give away secrets. Maybe the Union Brass was afraid Jimmy was going to take back leadership of the teamsters. Some thought Hoffa was involved in other criminal ventures that somehow went awry. The issue that was framed when he disappeared was "Where is Jimmy Hoffa", not "Who killed Jimmy Hoffa".

It's been more than 30 years since Hoffa disappearance. Police have searched dozens of places for the missing labor leader, all without success. There are rumors that he might be buried under the 50 yard line in Giants Stadium, that he's in the footings of the Mackinaw Bridge, and that he's in the foundation of the Renaissance Center in Detroit. There are many different suggestions as to what might have happened to him but the fact is no one knows. In 2004, former Teamsters official Francis Shearen allegedly confessed on his deathbed to shooting Jimmy Hoffa in a Bloomfield Michigan home and transporting his body to a nearby incinerator. In fact within a minute and a half of that house there are two cremation ovens in Grand Lawn cemetery. The police were told that there would be no body that it would be cremated. However, DNA tests of stains found at the house did not match Hoffa's.

Most recently, in 2006 a barn at a Michigan horse farm was demolished as the FBI searched for Jimmy's remains. Still there was no Hoffa. Dr. Cyril Wecht, a famous forensic expert says not to expect a resolution to this case in the near future, the person or persons who killed Jimmy Hoffa years ago knew what they were doing and were pros". Jimmy Hoffa was declared legally dead in 1982. The most plausible theory to date is that Hoffa was killed by the mob and his body put into a 55 gallon drum and then put into an automobile trash compactor and melted down. His son, James P. Hoffa followed in Dad's footsteps as president of The International Brotherhood of Teamsters.