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Jimmy Hoffa

 
Jimmy Hoffa

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Jimmy Hoffa



 
 


James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa (February 14, 1913–disappeared July 30, 1975, exact date of death unknown
Missing person

A missing person is a person who has disappeared for no known reason.Missing persons' photographs may be posted on bulletin boards, postcards, and websites, along with a phone number to be contacted if a sighting has been made....
) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 labor leader and convicted criminal (pardon
Pardon

A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it. It is granted by a head of state, such as a monarch or president, or by a competent Roman Catholic Church authority....
ed). As the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Teamsters

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a trade union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar worker and white-collar worker workers in both the public sector and private sectors....
 from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, Hoffa wielded considerable influence. After he was convicted of attempted bribery
Bribery

Bribery, a form of pecuniary corruption, is an act implying money or gift given that alters the behaviour of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the Offer and acceptance, Gift, Offer and acceptance, or Solicitation of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or other pers...
 of a grand juror, he served nearly a decade in prison
Prison

A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or internment and usually deprived of a range of personal Freedom ....
. He is also well-known in popular culture
Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of Distinction memes, ideas, Perspective s and Attitude s that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture....
 for the mysterious circumstances surrounding his unexplained disappearance and presumed death.






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James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa (February 14, 1913–disappeared July 30, 1975, exact date of death unknown
Missing person

A missing person is a person who has disappeared for no known reason.Missing persons' photographs may be posted on bulletin boards, postcards, and websites, along with a phone number to be contacted if a sighting has been made....
) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 labor leader and convicted criminal (pardon
Pardon

A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it. It is granted by a head of state, such as a monarch or president, or by a competent Roman Catholic Church authority....
ed). As the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Teamsters

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a trade union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar worker and white-collar worker workers in both the public sector and private sectors....
 from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, Hoffa wielded considerable influence. After he was convicted of attempted bribery
Bribery

Bribery, a form of pecuniary corruption, is an act implying money or gift given that alters the behaviour of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the Offer and acceptance, Gift, Offer and acceptance, or Solicitation of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or other pers...
 of a grand juror, he served nearly a decade in prison
Prison

A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or internment and usually deprived of a range of personal Freedom ....
. He is also well-known in popular culture
Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of Distinction memes, ideas, Perspective s and Attitude s that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture....
 for the mysterious circumstances surrounding his unexplained disappearance and presumed death. His son James P. Hoffa
James P. Hoffa

James Phillip Hoffa is an United States Lawyer and trade union leader and the General President of the Teamsters. Hoffa was first elected in December 1998 and took office on March 19, 1999....
 is the current president of the Teamsters
Teamsters

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a trade union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar worker and white-collar worker workers in both the public sector and private sectors....
.

Biography


Early life

Hoffa was born in Brazil, Indiana
Brazil, Indiana

Brazil is a city in Clay County, Indiana, Indiana, United States. The population was 8,188 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Clay County, Indiana....
, on February 14, 1913. His paternal ancestors were "Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch

The Pennsylvania Dutch are the descendants of German people immigrants who came to Pennsylvania prior to 1800. According to Don Yoder, a Pennsylvania German expert and retired University of Pennsylvania professor, the word "Dutch" in this case owes its origin to an archaic meaning where it designated groups that are today considered Ger...
" and Irish-American. Hoffa's father, John Cleveland Hoffa, a coal driller, died of lung disease in 1920. His mother, Viola "Ola" Riddle, took in laundry to keep the family together and the children took after-school jobs. Hoffa later described his mother as a woman "who believed that Duty and Discipline were spelled with capital Ds."

In 1922, the Hoffas moved to Clinton, Indiana
Clinton, Indiana

Clinton is a city in Vermillion County, Indiana, Indiana, United States. The population was 5,126 at the 2000 census. The city is named after DeWitt Clinton, who served as governor of New York from 1817 to 1823....
, for two years, then to the working-class west side of Detroit. Hoffa worked as a delivery boy and dropped out of school in the ninth grade, just as the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression
Great Depression

File:International depression.pngThe Great Depression was a worldwide economic Recession starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries....
 brought massive layoffs and business failures.

A friend, Walter Murphy, advised Hoffa to get into the food business. "No matter what happens, people have to eat," the friend reportedly said. Hoffa lied about his age to get a job at the Kroger
Kroger

File:KrogerGulfton1.JPGThe Kroger Co. is an United States Retailing supermarket chain and parent company, founded by Bernard Henry Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio....
 Grocery and Baking Company, whose warehouses were near his home. He worked unloading produce from railroad cars for 32 cents an hour. The pay, two-thirds of it in scrip redeemable for food at Kroger's, was considered relatively good for the era, in light of growing unemployment and food lines. Warehouse workers were required to report at 4:30 p.m. for a 12-hour shift, but were paid only for time spent unloading produce. Hoffa later said that the foreman was "the kind of guy who causes unions." Called "The Little Bastard" by his employees, he abused his powers, threatening and firing workers without cause.

Hoffa and his coworkers, including Bobby Holmes (who would later rise in the Teamster hierarchy with Hoffa), bided their time. The reality that one third of American workers remained jobless may have contributed to caution in their organizing efforts. Finally, one night in the spring of 1931, after two workers were fired for going to a food cart for their midnight dinner, the men acted; Hoffa called for a work stoppage just as trucks loaded with Florida strawberries pulled into the warehouse. Faced with the need to get the perishable cargo into refrigerators quickly, Kroger management agreed to meet with the new leaders the following morning, as long as the workers resumed their duties.

After several days of negotiating, Hoffa and his aides had a union contract. It included a raise of 13 cents an hour, the guarantee of at least a half a day's pay per day, an insurance plan, and recognition of the union. The new leaders soon applied for and received a charter as Federal Local 19341 of the American Federation of Labor.

Hoffa was fired the following year after a fight with a plant foreman who goaded union leaders into throwing a crate of vegetables on the floor and spraying the boss with vegetable juices. Jimmy claimed in later years that he quit before he could be fired and walked away.

Hoffa next worked as a full-time union organizer
Union organizer

A 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....
 for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (the IBT). He took the Kroger
Kroger

File:KrogerGulfton1.JPGThe Kroger Co. is an United States Retailing supermarket chain and parent company, founded by Bernard Henry Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio....
 union with him into the IBT, where its membership was absorbed into Local
Local union

A local union, often shortened to local, known as a union branch in the United Kingdom, is a locally-based trade union organization which forms part of a larger, usually national, union....
 299. He and other IBT organizers fought with management in their organizing efforts in the Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Wayne County, Michigan. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwestern United States of the United States....
, area.

Hoffa used organized-crime
Organized crime

Organized crime or criminal organizations comprise groups or operations run by crimes, most commonly for the purpose of generating a money profit....
 connections to influence an association of small grocery stores. This led to his first criminal conviction, for which he paid a fine. After he rose to a leadership position in Local 299, Hoffa continued to work with organized crime in Detroit, using the threat of labor trouble to induce businesses to use a mobster-controlled clothier.

Union activities
The Teamsters organized truckers and firefighters first throughout the Midwest, and then nationwide. It skillfully used "quickie strikes," secondary boycott
Boycott

A boycott is a form of consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with someone or some other organization as an expression of protest, usually of politics reasons....
s, and other means of leveraging union strength at one company to organize workers and win contract demands at others.

Hoffa took over the presidency of the Teamsters in 1957, when his predecessor, Dave Beck
Dave Beck

Dave Beck was an United States trade union leader, and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1952 to 1957. He helped found the "Conference" system of organization in the Teamsters Trade union, and shot to national prominence in 1957 by repeatedly invoking his right against self-incrimination before a United States Sena...
, was convicted on bribery charges and imprisoned. Hoffa worked to expand the union, and, in 1964, succeeded in bringing virtually all over-the-road truck drivers in North America under a single national master-freight agreement. Hoffa then tried to bring the airlines and other transport employees into the union.

Both President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
 and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States ....
, put pressure on Hoffa through the president's brother Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also called RFK, was an United States politician. He was United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964 and a United States Senator from New York from 1965 until his Robert F....
 (then Attorney General
United States Attorney General

The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the government of the United States....
), in an attempt to investigate his activities and disrupt his ever-growing union. Having expelled the Teamsters in the 1950s, the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL-CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of Labor unions in the United States in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions , together representing more than 10 million workers....
 aided the Democrats in their investigations.

Hoffa's son, James P. Hoffa
James P. Hoffa

James Phillip Hoffa is an United States Lawyer and trade union leader and the General President of the Teamsters. Hoffa was first elected in December 1998 and took office on March 19, 1999....
, is the Teamsters' current leader. His daughter, Barbara Ann Crancer
Barbara Ann Crancer

Barbara Ann Crancer , St. Louis County Associate Circuit Court Judge and daughter of former Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa.Crancer was born in Detroit, Michigan to James Riddle Hoffa and Josephine Hoffa....
, currently serves as an associate circuit court judge in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri, located near the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Missouri River. St....
.

Conviction and disappearance

In 1964, Hoffa was convicted of attempted bribery of a grand juror and jailed for 15 years. On December 23, 1971, however, he was released when President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and the only president to resign the office....
 commuted his sentence to time served on the condition he not participate in union activities for 10 years. Hoffa was planning to sue to invalidate that restriction in order to reassert his power over the Teamsters when he disappeared at, or sometime after, 2:45 pm on July 30, 1975 from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox
Machus Red Fox

Machus Red Fox was a restaurant on Telegraph Road in Bloomfield Township, Michigan. It is perhaps most famous as the place where former Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975....
 Restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Oakland County, Michigan
Bloomfield Township, Oakland County, Michigan

Bloomfield Charter Township, known officially as The Charter Township of Bloomfield, is an affluent charter township of Oakland County, Michigan in the U.S....
, a suburb of Detroit. He had been due to meet two Mafia leaders, Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone from Detroit and Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano from Union City, New Jersey
Union City, New Jersey

Union City is a City in Hudson County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. According to the United States 2000 Census, the city had a total population of 67,088, living on a land area of 3.28 km? ....
 and New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
.

Investigations into his disappearance

DNA evidence examined in 2001 placed Hoffa in the car of long-time, Teamster associate Charles "Chuckie" O'Brien (who has been described as Hoffa's "foster son"), despite O'Brien's claims that Hoffa had never been in the car. Police interviews later that year failed to produce any indictments.

Frank Sheeran
In July 2003, convicted killer Richard Powell told authorities that a briefcase containing a syringe used to subdue Hoffa was buried at a house in Hampton Township, Michigan
Hampton Township, Michigan

Hampton Charter Township is a charter township of Bay County, Michigan in the U.S. state of Michigan. The township's population was 9,902 as of the United States Census, 2000 and is included in the Bay City, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area....
. The FBI searched the backyard of a home formerly frequented by Frank Sheeran
Frank Sheeran

Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran is a former labor union official who was accused of having links to organized crime and of being a hitman. He is one of several people believed to have been behind the killing of Jimmy Hoffa....
, Second World War veteran, Mafia hitman, truck driver, Teamsters official and close friend of Hoffa. Nothing significant was found.

In 2004, Charles Brandt
Charles Brandt

Charles Brandt, of Lewes, is a former chief deputy attorney general of Delaware and the author of I Heard You Paint Houses , a biography of Wilmington Teamsters official and mobster Frank Sheeran....
, a former prosecutor and Chief Deputy Attorney General of Delaware, published the book I Heard You Paint Houses. The title is based on a euphemistic exchange apparently used by hitmen and their would-be employers ("I heard you paint houses." "Yes, and I do my own carpentry, too.") House-painting alludes to the incidental-to-homicide emplacement of blood spatter on walls, and "doing my own carpentry," to the task of disposing of the body. Brandt recounted a series of confessions by Sheeran regarding Hoffa's murder, and claimed that Sheeran had begun contacting him because he wished to assuage feelings of guilt. Over the course of several years, he spoke many times by phone to Brandt (which Brandt recorded) during which he acknowledged his role as Hoffa's killer, acting on orders from the Mafia. He claimed to have used his friendship with Hoffa to lure him to a bogus meeting in Bloomfield Hills and drive him to a house in northwestern Detroit, where he shot him twice before fleeing and leaving Hoffa's body behind. An updated version of Brandt's book claims that Hoffa's body was cremated within an hour of Sheeran's departure.

In 2004, authorities in Detroit extracted floorboards from the northwest Detroit home where Sheeran said he had shot Hoffa. However, by February 2005, the Bloomfield Township Police said the FBI Crime Lab
Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory

The Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory generally enjoys the reputation as the premier Crime Lab in the United States. However, during the 1990s, its reputation and integrity came under withering criticism, primarily due to the revelations of Special Agent Dr....
 reported that, while there had been male, human blood on the floorboards, the blood did not match Hoffa's. It was later revealed that the DNA had been destroyed when the wrong kind of Luminol
Luminol

Luminol is a versatile chemical that exhibits chemiluminescence, with a striking blue glow, when mixed with an appropriate oxidizing agent. It is a white to slightly yellow crystalline solid that is soluble in water and most polar organic solvents....
 was used to find the blood remnants.

Events since February 14, 2006
On February 14, 2006, Lynda Milito, wife of Gambino crime family
Gambino crime family

The Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that controls organized crime activities based in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia ....
 member Louie Milito, claimed that her husband had told her, during an argument in 1988, that he had killed Hoffa and dumped his body near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge that connects the Political subdivisions of New York State#Borough of Staten Island and Brooklyn on Long Island in New York City at the Narrows, the reach connecting the relatively protected Upper New York Bay with the larger Lower New York Bay....
 in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
.

In April 2006, news reports surfaced that hitman Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski
Richard Kuklinski

Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski was a convicted murderer and notorious contract killer. He worked for several Italian-American crime families, and claimed to have murdered over 200 people over a career that lasted forty-three years; he killed his first victim at age fourteen....
 had confessed to author Philip Carlo
Philip Carlo

Philip Carlo is a journalist and best selling biographer of Richard Kuklinski, Anthony Casso, and Richard Ramirez....
 that he was part of a group of five men who had kidnapped and murdered Hoffa. The claim's credibility is questionable, as Kuklinski has become somewhat notorious for his repeatedly claiming to have killed people — including Roy DeMeo
Roy DeMeo

Roy Albert DeMeo was a ranking member of the Gambino crime family, formerly one of the largest and most feared crime families in New York.He is most infamous for heading a crew of car thieves, drug dealers and murderers suspected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of somewhere between 75-200 murders from the mid-1970s to the early 198...
 — and concrete evidence has proven he could not have killed Hoffa
Hoffa

Hoffa is a 1992 in film biographical film based on the life and mysterious death of Teamsters Labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa. Although it chronicles Hoffa's early years in Michigan to his leadership in New York City and Washington, D.C....
. The story forms part of the book The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer, which was released on July 1, 2006.

On May 17, 2006, acting on a tip, the FBI searched a farm in Milford Township, Michigan
Milford Township, Michigan

Milford Charter Township is a charter township of Oakland County, Michigan in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 15,271 at the United States Census, 2000....
 for Hoffa's remains. Nothing was found.

On June 16, 2006, the Detroit Free Press 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. The FBI has called the report the definitive account of what agents believe happened to Hoffa.

In November 2006 KLAS-TV
KLAS-TV

KLAS-TV is the CBS station serving the Las Vegas, Nevada, Nevada market. Its address is 3228 Channel 8 Drive. It is owned and operated by Landmark Communications....
 Channel 8 Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada, the seat of Clark County, Nevada, and an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and entertainment....
 interviewed author Charles Brandt
Charles Brandt

Charles Brandt, of Lewes, is a former chief deputy attorney general of Delaware and the author of I Heard You Paint Houses , a biography of Wilmington Teamsters official and mobster Frank Sheeran....
 about Hoffa's murder and disappearance. Brandt claims that Hoffa's body was taken from the murder scene and possibly driven two minutes away to the Grand Lawn Cemetery where he was cremated.

Further reading

  • The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hoffa is an account of Hoffa's trials in Tennessee. Author Walter Sheridan was a lawyer working for Robert Kennedy.
  • The Hoffa Wars by investigative reporter Dan Moldea
    Dan Moldea

    Dan E. Moldea is a best-selling author and investigative journalist who has reported on organized crime and political corruption since 1974....
    , which details Hoffa's rise to power.
  • Contract Killer by William Hoffman
    William Hoffman

    William Hoffman can refer to:* William Hoffman , American novelist* Bill Hoffman , American baseball player* Billy Hoffman , American hacker...
     and Lake Headley, which attempts to examine Hoffa's murder in great detail.
  • Hoffa! Ten Angels Swearing. An Authorized Biography by Jim Clay was published in 1965 and defends Hoffa's position in his own words.


Bibliography

  • Arthur A. Sloane, Hoffa, MIT Press, 1992.
  • Charles Brandt, I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran and the inside story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, and the last ride of Jimmy Hoffa, Steerforth Press, Hanover (NH, USA) 2004 (ISBN 1-58642-077-1).
  • Dan E. Moldea, The Hoffa Wars, Charter Books, New York: 1978 (ISBN 0-441-34010-5).


See also

  • List of people who have mysteriously disappeared
  • Teamsters Union
  • the Mafia in America
    Mafia

    The Mafia is a Sicily criminal society which is believed to have emerged in late 19th century Sicily. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct....
  • Hoffa
    Hoffa

    Hoffa is a 1992 in film biographical film based on the life and mysterious death of Teamsters Labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa. Although it chronicles Hoffa's early years in Michigan to his leadership in New York City and Washington, D.C....
     (1992 film loosely based on Hoffa's life)
  • James P. Hoffa
    James P. Hoffa

    James Phillip Hoffa is an United States Lawyer and trade union leader and the General President of the Teamsters. Hoffa was first elected in December 1998 and took office on March 19, 1999....