James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa (born February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975,
declared legally deadDeath in absentia is a legal declaration that a person is deceased in the absence of remains attributable to that person...
July 30, 1982) was an American
labor unionA trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
leader.
Hoffa was involved with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union as an
organizerA union organizer is a specific type of trade union member or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers....
from 1932 to 1975. He served as the union's General President from 1958 to 1971. He secured the first national agreement for teamsters' rates in 1964, and played a major role in the growth and development of the union, which eventually became the largest single union in the United States, with over 1.5 million members during his terms as its leader.
Hoffa, who had been convicted of
jury tamperingJury tampering is the crime of unduly attempting to influence the composition and/or decisions of a jury during the course of a trial.The means by which this crime could be perpetrated can include attempting to discredit potential jurors to ensure they will not be selected for duty. Once selected,...
, attempted
briberyBribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
, and
fraudIn criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
in 1964, was imprisoned in 1967, sentenced to 13 years, after exhausting the appeal process. It was not until mid-1971 that he officially resigned the Teamsters' presidency, an action that was part of a
pardonClemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
agreement with U.S. president
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, in order to facilitate his release later that year. Nixon blocked Hoffa from union activities until 1980; Hoffa was attempting to overturn this order and to regain support.
Hoffa was last seen in late July 1975, outside the Machus Red Fox, a suburban Detroit restaurant.
Early life
Hoffa was born in
Brazil, IndianaBrazil is a city in Clay County, Indiana, United States. The population was 7,912 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Clay County. It is part of the Terre Haute Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, on February 14, 1913. His paternal ancestors were partially "
Pennsylvania DutchPennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
" (
GermanGerman Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
). His father, a coal miner, died in 1920 when Hoffa was seven years old, and the family moved to Detroit in 1924, where Hoffa was raised and lived the rest of his life. Hoffa left school at age 14, and began full-time manual labor to help support his family.
Hoffa began union organizational work at the grassroots level through his employment as a teenager with a grocery chain, which paid substandard wages and offered poor working conditions with minimal job security. The workers were displeased with this situation and tried to organize a union to better their lot. Although Hoffa was young, his bravery and approachability in this role impressed fellow workers, and he rose to a leadership position. By 1932, after being dismissed from the grocery chain—in part because of his union activities—Hoffa joined and became involved with Local 299 of the Teamsters in Detroit.
He married Josephine Poszywak in 1936, and bought a modest home in Detroit. The couple had two children: a daughter,
Barbara AnnBarbara Ann Crancer , is a former St. Louis County Associate Circuit Court Judge and is the daughter of former Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa....
, and a son,
JamesJames Phillip Hoffa is an attorney and labor leader and the General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Hoffa was first elected during December 1998 and took office on March 19, 1999...
. The Hoffa family later had a summer property at
Lake Orion, MichiganLake Orion is a village in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,973 at the 2010 census. "Lake Orion" is often used to describe both the village and the much larger Orion Township, of which the village is a part....
, north of Detroit.
Growth of the Teamsters
The Teamsters union, founded in 1903, had only 75,000 members in 1933. As a result of Hoffa's work with other union leaders to consolidate local union trucker groups into regional sections and then into one gigantic national body—work that Hoffa ultimately completed over a period of two decades—membership grew to 170,000 members by 1936. Three years later, there were 420,000; and the number grew steadily during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and through the post-war boom to top a million members by 1951.
The Teamsters organized truck drivers and warehousemen, first throughout the Midwest, and then nationwide. Hoffa played a major role in the union's skillful use of "quickie strikes", secondary boycotts, and other means of leveraging union strength at one company, to then move to organize workers, and finally to win contract demands at other companies. This process, which took several years from the early 1930s, eventually brought the Teamsters to a position of being one of the most powerful unions in the United States.
Hoffa's rise to power
Hoffa worked to defend the Teamsters unions from raids by other unions, including the
CIOThe Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
, and extended the Teamsters' influence in the Midwestern states, from the late 1930s to the late 1940s. Although he never actually worked as a truck driver, he became president of Local 299 in December 1946. He then rose to lead the combined group of Detroit-area locals shortly afterwards, and advanced to become head of the Michigan Teamsters groups sometime later. During this time, Hoffa obtained a deferment from military service in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, by successfully making a case for his union leadership skills being of more value to the nation, by keeping freight running smoothly to assist the war effort.
By 1952, Hoffa rose to national vice-president of the Teamsters' IBT union, which was on its way to becoming the largest and most powerful single union in the United States. At the IBT convention in Los Angeles, he was selected by incoming president
Dave BeckDave Beck was an American labor leader, and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1952 to 1957...
, successor to
Daniel J. Tobin Daniel Joseph Tobin was an American labor leader and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1907 to 1952. From 1917 to 1928, he was secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Labor...
, who had been president since 1907. Hoffa quelled an internal revolt against Beck by securing Central States region support for Beck at the convention. In exchange, Beck made Hoffa a vice-president.
The IBT moved its headquarters from
IndianapolisIndianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
to Washington, DC, taking over a large office building in the US capital in 1955. IBT staff was also enlarged during this period, with many lawyers hired to assist with contract negotiations. Following his 1952 election as vice-president, Hoffa began spending more of his time away from Detroit; either in Washington or traveling around the US for his expanded responsibilities.
Teamsters Union Presidency
Hoffa took over the presidency of the Teamsters in 1957, at the convention in
Miami Beach, FloridaMiami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper...
. His predecessor,
Dave BeckDave Beck was an American labor leader, and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1952 to 1957...
, had appeared before the
John Little McClellanJohn Little McClellan was a Democratic Party politician from Arkansas. He represented Arkansas in the United States Senate from 1943 until 1977. He also earlier represented Arkansas in the United States House of Representatives.-Early life:McClellan was born in Sheridan, Grant County, Arkansas...
-led US Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor or Management Field in March 1957, and took the
Fifth AmendmentThe Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...
140 times in response to questions. Beck was under
indictmentAn indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
when the IBT convention took place, and was convicted on
fraudIn criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
charges later that year at a trial held in Seattle, and imprisoned.
Teamsters union expelled
The 1957
AFL-CIOThe American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
convention, held in
Atlantic City, New JerseyAtlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast...
, voted by a ratio of nearly 5-1 to expel the IBT from the larger union group. President
George MeanyWilliam George Meany led labor union federations in the United States. As an officer of the American Federation of Labor, he represented the AFL on the National War Labor Board during World War II....
gave an emotional speech, advocating removal of the IBT, and stating that he could only agree to further affiliation of the Teamsters if they would dismiss Hoffa as their president. Meany demanded a response from Hoffa, who replied through the press, "We'll see." At the time, IBT was bringing in over $750,000 annually to the AFL-CIO.
National Master Freight Agreement
Following his re-election as president in 1961, Hoffa worked to expand the union. In 1964, he succeeded in bringing virtually all over-the-road truck drivers in North America under a single national master-freight agreement, in what may have been his finest achievement in a lifetime of union activity. He then tried to bring the
airlineAn airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...
workers and other transport employees into the union, with limited success. During this period, he was facing immense personal strain as he was under investigation, on trial, launching appeals of convictions, or imprisoned for virtually all of the 1960s.
Prison sentence
In 1964, Hoffa was convicted in
Chattanooga, TennesseeChattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...
, of attempted
briberyBribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
of a grand juror and was sentenced to eight years. This case resulted from an earlier matter, the Test Fleet case, the trial for which had been held in
Nashville, TennesseeNashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. Hoffa was implicated by one of his close associates,
Edward Grady PartinEdward Grady Partin, Sr. , was a business agent of the Teamsters Union in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His testimony in 1964 helped to convict union president James Riddle Hoffa of jury tampering.-Early years:...
, a
LouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
teamster, who went to the
Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) with the information that led to Hoffa's conviction. Hoffa was also convicted of
fraudIn criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
later that same year for improper use of the Teamsters' pension fund, in a trial held in Chicago. He received a five-year sentence to run consecutively to his bribery sentence.
Attorney GeneralIn most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
Robert F. KennedyRobert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
, who had pursued Hoffa for years—since the
John Little McClellanJohn Little McClellan was a Democratic Party politician from Arkansas. He represented Arkansas in the United States Senate from 1943 until 1977. He also earlier represented Arkansas in the United States House of Representatives.-Early life:McClellan was born in Sheridan, Grant County, Arkansas...
-led U.S. Senate Labor industry hearings of 1957—stepped down as Attorney General in 1964, after the second Hoffa conviction, to run successfully for the New York seat in the November 1964
United States SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
election.
Hoffa spent the next three years unsuccessfully appealing his 1964 convictions. Appeals filed by his chief counsel, St. Louis defense attorney
Morris ShenkerMorris A. Shenker was an American lawyer best known for his connections to labor leader Jimmy Hoffa and Teamster funding of Las Vegas in the 1960s....
, reached the U.S. Supreme Court. He began serving his sentences in March 1967 at the
Lewisburg Federal PenitentiaryThe United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg is a male inmate high security federal penitentiary and satellite minimum security prison camp housing some 1,000 and 500 respectively, just outside Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The Lewisburg Penitentiary was opened in 1932...
in Pennsylvania. Just before he entered prison, Hoffa appointed
Frank FitzsimmonsFrank Edward Fitzsimmons , was an American labor leader. He was acting president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1967 to 1971, and president from 1971 to 1981.-Early life:...
as acting Teamsters president. Fitzsimmons was a Hoffa loyalist, fellow Detroit resident, and a longtime member (since the 1930s) of Teamsters Local 299 in Detroit, who owed his own high position in large part to Hoffa's influence. Despite this, Fitzsimmons distanced himself from Hoffa's influence and control after 1967, to Hoffa's displeasure. Fitzsimmons also decentralized power somewhat within the Teamsters' union administration structure. During the Hoffa era, Hoffa had kept most power in his own hands.
Post prison
On December 23, 1971, less than five years into his 13-year sentence, Hoffa was released from the
Lewisburg, PennsylvaniaLewisburg is a borough in Union County, Pennsylvania, United States, south by southeast of Williamsport and north of Harrisburg. In the past, it was the commercial center for a fertile grain and general farming region. The population was 5,620 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Union...
prison, when President
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
commuted his sentence to time served. Hoffa had served nearly 58 months, or just over one-third of his original sentence. Following his release from prison, Hoffa was awarded a Teamsters' pension of $1.7 million, delivered in a one-time lump sum payment. This type of pension settlement had not occurred before with the Teamsters.
The IBT endorsed Richard Nixon, the
Republican PartyThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
's candidate, in his presidential re-election bid in 1972; in prior elections, the IBT union had supported
Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
nominees. Suspicions were soon raised of a deal for Hoffa's release being connected with the IBT's support of Nixon in 1972. Following Nixon's resignation from the office of the presidency over the
Watergate scandalThe Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
in August, 1974, Nixon avoided public life for over a year; his first public event was a charity fundraising
golfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
tournament in California on October 9, 1975, at the La Costa Resort and Spa, which was heavily attended by Teamsters' leaders and associates, including IBT President Frank Fitzsimmons and
Allen DorfmanAllen Dorfman was an American attorney, and a leading official of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters . He was a close associate of longtime IBT President Jimmy Hoffa...
; Hoffa had disappeared ten weeks earlier.
While glad to regain his freedom, Hoffa was displeased with the condition imposed on his release by President Nixon that restricted Hoffa from participating in union activities until 1980. He accused the Nixon administration senior figures, including Attorney General
John N. MitchellJohn Newton Mitchell was the Attorney General of the United States from 1969 to 1972 under President Richard Nixon...
and White House Counsel Charles W. Colson, of depriving him of his rights by initiating this clause; though both Mitchell and Colson denied this. It was likely imposed upon Hoffa as the result of requests from senior Teamsters' leadership, although IBT President Frank Fitzsimmons also denied this.
Hoffa was planning to sue to invalidate the non-participation restriction, in order to reassert his power over the Teamsters; but he faced immense resistance to this course of action from many quarters, and had lost much of his earlier support, even in the Detroit area. As a result, he intended to begin his comeback at the local level, with Local 299 in Detroit, where he retained some influence.
In 1975, Hoffa was working on an
autobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
titled
Hoffa: The Real Story, which was published a few months after his disappearance. He had earlier published a 1970 book titled
The Trials of Jimmy Hoffa.
Disappearance
Hoffa disappeared at, or sometime after, 2:45 pm on July 30, 1975, from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in
Bloomfield TownshipBloomfield Charter Township, known officially as The Charter Township of Bloomfield, is a charter township of Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the township population was 41,070....
, a suburb of Detroit. According to what he had told others, he believed he was to meet there with two
MafiaThe Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
leaders—
Anthony GiacaloneAnthony Joseph Giacalone, known as Tony Giacalone and by the nickname Tony Jack was an American organized crime figure in Detroit, serving as a capo in the Detroit Partnership...
and
Anthony ProvenzanoAnthony Provenzano also known as Tony Pro was a Caporegime in the Genovese crime family of New York City...
. Provenzano was also a union leader with the Teamsters in New Jersey, and had earlier been quite close to Hoffa. Provenzano was a national vice-president with IBT from 1961, Hoffa's second term as Teamsters' president.
When Hoffa did not return home that evening, his wife reported him missing. Police found Hoffa's car at the restaurant but no sign of Hoffa himself or any indication of what happened to him. Extensive investigations into the disappearance began immediately, and continued over the next several years by several law enforcement groups, including the FBI. However, the investigations did not conclusively determine Hoffa's fate. For their part, Giacalone and Provenzano were found not to have been near the restaurant that afternoon, and each denied they had scheduled a meeting with Hoffa.
Hoffa was declared legally dead in 1982, on the seventh anniversary of his disappearance.
Recent events
Hoffa's son,
James P. HoffaJames Phillip Hoffa is an attorney and labor leader and the General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Hoffa was first elected during December 1998 and took office on March 19, 1999...
, is the Teamsters' current leader, serving since 1999 in that position. His daughter,
Barbara Ann CrancerBarbara Ann Crancer , is a former St. Louis County Associate Circuit Court Judge and is the daughter of former Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa....
, retired as an Associate Circuit Judge in St. Louis County, Missouri in March 2008, but in March 2009, Judge Crancer agreed to serve as an Assistant Attorney General to the Attorney General for the State of Missouri, Chris Koster, as Chief Counsel of the Division of Civil Disability and Workers Rights, and retired again in March 2011. [1]]].
The television show
MythBustersMythBusters is a science entertainment TV program created and produced by Beyond Television Productions for the Discovery Channel. The series is screened by numerous international broadcasters, including Discovery Channel Australia, Discovery Channel Latin America, Discovery Channel Canada, Quest...
featured an episode involving the possible burial of Hoffa at
Giants StadiumGiants Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The building itself was 230.5 m long, 180.5 m wide and 44 m high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 54 m high to...
in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Ground-penetrating radar revealed no disturbances beneath the playing field. Giants Stadium has since been demolished.
In 2001, the FBI matched DNA from Hoffa's hair -- taken from a brush -- with a strand of hair found in a 1975 Mercury Marquis Brougham driven by longtime friend Charles "Chuckie" O'Brien on July 30, 1975. Police and Hoffa's family had long believed O'Brien played a role in Hoffa's disappearance. O'Brien, however, had previously denied ever being involved in Hoffa's disappearance or that Hoffa had ever taken a ride in his 1975 Mercury Marquis Brougham.
On June 16, 2006, the
Detroit Free PressThe Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...
published in its entirety the so-called "Hoffex Memo", a 56-page report the FBI prepared for a January 1976 briefing on the case at FBI Headquarters in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Although not claiming to conclusively establish the specifics of his disappearance, the memo indicates that law enforcement's belief is that Hoffa was murdered at the behest of organized crime figures who deemed his efforts to regain power within the Teamsters to be a threat to their control of the union's pension fund. The FBI has called the report the definitive account of what agents believe happened to Hoffa.
Film and television
- Hoffa was portrayed by Robert Blake
Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
in the 1983 TV-film Blood FeudBlood Feud is a 1983 television miniseries surrounding around the conflict between Jimmy Hoffa and Robert F. Kennedy in a 11-year span from 1957 until Kennedy's assassination in 1968. The 210-minute film was directed by Mike Newell and written by Robert Boris...
, Trey WilsonDonald Yearnsley "Trey" Wilson III was an American character actor known for playing rural, authoritarian type characters, most notably in comedies such as Raising Arizona and Bull Durham.-Early life:...
in the 1985 television miniseries Robert Kennedy & His TimesRobert Kennedy & His Times is a 1985 American television miniseries directed by Marvin J. Chomsky. The miniseries was released in three parts and depicts the life of Robert F. Kennedy.-Cast:- Crew :-Awards and nominations:...
, and by Jack NicholsonJohn Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
in the 1992 film HoffaHoffa is a 1992 biographical film directed by Danny DeVito and written by David Mamet, based on the life of Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa. Jack Nicholson plays Hoffa, and Danny DeVito plays Hoffa's fictional longtime friend Robert "Bobby" Ciaro, an amalgamation of several Hoffa associates over...
. In the 1978 film F.I.S.T.F.I.S.T. is a 1978 movie directed by Norman Jewison and starring Sylvester Stallone. In this film, Stallone plays a Cleveland warehouse worker named Johnny Kovak who becomes involved in the labor union leadership of the fictional "Federation of Inter State Truckers", and finds that he must...
, Sylvester StalloneMichael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
portrays Johnny Kovak, a character based on Hoffa.
See also
- American Mafia
The American Mafia , is an Italian-American criminal society. Much like the Sicilian Mafia, the American Mafia has no formal name and is a secret criminal society. Its members usually refer to it as Cosa Nostra or by its English translation "our thing"...
- List of people who disappeared mysteriously
Added reading
- Moldea, Dan
Dan E. Moldea is a best-selling author and investigative journalist who has reported on organized crime and political corruption since 1974. He is the author of books about the rise and fall of Jimmy Hoffa, the contract killing of an Ohio businessman, the Mafia's penetration of Hollywood, and its...
. The Hoffa Wars: Teamsters, Rebels, Politicians and the Mob. New York & London: Paddington Press, 1978. ISBN 0-448-22684-7.
- Sloane, Arthur A. Hoffa, MIT Press, 1991.
Further reading
- Jimmy Hoffa's Hot, by John Bartlow Martin, 1959, Fawcett Publications, Greenwich, Conn.
- The Enemy Within: The McClellan Committee's Crusade Against Jimmy Hoffa and Corrupt Labor Unions, by Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
, 1960, Harper and Brothers, New York.
- The State of the Unions, by Paul Jacobs, 1963, Atheneum, New York.
- Tentacles of Power, by Clark Mollenhoff, 1965, World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York.
- Hoffa! Ten Angels Swearing, by Jim Clay, 1965, Beaverdam Books, Beaverdam, Va.
- Hoffa and the Teamsters: A Study of Union Power, by Ralph James and Estelle James, 1965, Van Nostrand, New York.
- The Trials of Jimmy Hoffa, by James R. Hoffa as told to Donald I. Rogers, 1970, Henry Regnery, Chicago.
- Kennedy Justice, by Victor Navasky
Victor Saul Navasky is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was editor of The Nation from 1978 until 1995, and its publisher and editorial director 1995 to 2005. In November 2005 he became the publisher emeritus...
, 1971, Atheneum, New York.
- The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hoffa, by Walter Sheridan, 1972, Saturday Review Press, New York.
- Hoffa: The Real Story, by James R. Hoffa as told to Oscar Fraley
Oscar Fraley was the co-author, with Eliot Ness, of the famous American memoir The Untouchables. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Fraley grew up across the Delaware River in Woodbury, New Jersey....
, 1975, Stein and Day, New York.
- The Strange Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, by Charles Ashman and Rebecca Sobel, 1976, Manor Books, New York.
- The Teamsters, by Steven Brill
Steven Brill is the founder of CourtTV and American Lawyer magazine. He also founded the failed Verified Identity Pass, Inc., the New York-based company that operated the Clear airport security fast-pass. The service abruptly shut down June 23, 2009, without any notice to the company's 260,000...
, 1978, Simon & Schuster, New York, ISBN 0-671-22771-8.
- Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello
Carlos "The Little Man" Marcello was a Sicilian-American mafioso who became the boss of the New Orleans crime family during the 1940s and held this position for the next 30 years.-Early life:...
and the Assassination of John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, by John H. Davis (author)John H. Davis is an American author who wrote several books on the Mafia.-Biography:Davis is a graduate of Princeton University. He also studied in Italy and served as a naval officer with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean...
, 1989, McGraw-Hill, New York.
- Hoffa, by Arthur A. Sloane, 1991, MIT Press, Boston, ISBN 0-262-19309-4.
- The Hoffa Wars: Teamsters, Rebels, Politicians and the Mob, second edition, by Dan Moldea
Dan E. Moldea is a best-selling author and investigative journalist who has reported on organized crime and political corruption since 1974. He is the author of books about the rise and fall of Jimmy Hoffa, the contract killing of an Ohio businessman, the Mafia's penetration of Hollywood, and its...
, 1993, SPI, New York.
- Mob Lawyer, by Frank Ragano
Frank Ragano was a self-styled "mob lawyer" from Florida, who made his name representing organized crime figures such as Santo Trafficante, Jr. and Carlos Marcello, and also served as lawyer for Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa...
and Selwyn Raab, 1994, Charles Scribner's Sons, ISBN 0-684-19568-2.
- Out of the Jungle: Jimmy Hoffa and the Remaking of the American Working Class, by Thaddeus Russell, 2001, Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
, New York, ISBN 0-375-41157-7
- Legacy of Secrecy, by Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann is an American radio host, author, former psychotherapist and entrepreneur, and progressive political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, airs in the United States and has 2.75 million listeners a week...
, trade paperback (updated) edition, 2009, Counterpoint, Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, ISBN 978-1-58243-535-0.
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