Jimmy Hoffa
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James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa (February 14, 1913 - July 30, 1975?) was a noted American labor leader with ties to the Mafia. As the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, Hoffa wielded considerable influence. He is also well-known in popular culture for the mysterious circumstances surrounding his still-unexplained disappearance and presumed death.
Biography
Early life
Hoffa was born in Brazil, Indiana, the son of a poor coal miner. His father died when he was young and Hoffa could not stay in school. Hoffa moved to Lake Orion, Michigan to work in a warehouse. He developed a reputation as a tough street fighter who always stood up for his fellow workers against management. Because of this, Hoffa was fired from his warehouse job and hired as an organizer for Local 299 or the IBT, a troubled local-misue of funds, rigged elections that had to be taken into receivership by the IBT. He and other IBT organizers battled management goons in their organizing efforts throughout Detroit. Hoffa additionally used organined crime connections to shake down an association of small grocery stores, leading to his first criminal conviction, for which he paid a fine.After he had risen to a leadership position in Local 299, Hoffa continued to work with OC in Detroit, using the threat of labor trouble to force business to use a mob controlled overalls supply firm (Friedman and Schwarz, 1989).He was a natural leader who was upset at the mistreatment of workers. In 1933, age twenty, he helped organize his first strike of "swampers", the workers who loaded and unloaded strawberries and other produce on and off delivery trucks.
Union activities
The Teamsters union organized truckers, first throughout the Midwest and then nationwide. It skillfully used quickie strikes, secondary boycotts and other means of leveraging union strength at one company to organize workers and win contract demands at others. The union also used less lawful means to bring some employers into line.Hoffa took over the presidency of the Teamsters in 1957, when his predecessor, Dave Beck, was convicted on bribery charges and imprisoned. Hoffa worked tirelessly to expand the union and in 1964 succeeded in bringing virtually all North American over-the-road truck drivers under a single national master freight agreement. Hoffa then pushed to try to bring the airlines and other transport employees into the union. This was of great concern to the United States government and business as a strike involving all transportation systems would be devastating for the national economy.
For all the benefits that Hoffa and some Teamsters delivered for over-the-road drivers, other Teamsters locals did little more than sign sweetheart deals that made union officers rich and left workers poor. In industries such as garment delivery, organized crime took over locals, and then used their power to strike, bringing the entire industry either under the Mafia's control or at least vulnerable to blackmail.
Hoffa had a working relationship with these racketeers, some of whom had played an important part in his election as General President of the Teamsters. Several Teamster chapter presidents were convicted for mob related crimes but often would continue serving as union leaders, such as Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano in New Jersey. Cleveland Corn-Sugar War survivor Moe Dalitz and Allen Dorfman bankrolled many mob casinos, hotels and other construction projects from the Teamsters pension fund.
Democratic President John F. Kennedy and his successor Lyndon B. Johnson both put pressure on Hoffa through John's brother Robert F. Kennedy, the Attorney General, attempting to investigate his activities and disrupt his ever-growing union. The Kennedys in particular were sure that Hoffa had pocketed a great deal of union money. Having expelled the Teamsters in the 1950s, the AFL-CIO also disliked Hoffa and aided the Democrats in their investigations.
Ultimately, Hoffa was not nearly as beholden to the Mob as to his successor and longtime crony Frank Fitzsimmons, who avoided imprisonment because of death due to cancer. While Hoffa was a brilliant tactician who knew how to play one employer off against another and who used the union's power to rationalize the industry by driving out weaker employers, "Fitz" was content to gather the other benefits of high office. The deregulation of the trucking industry pushed by Edward Kennedy and others during Fitzsimmons' tenure eventually destroyed much of what Hoffa had won for his members under the National Master Freight Agreement by making it much harder to maintain the high standards that Hoffa had achieved.
Hoffa's son, James P. Hoffa, is the Teamsters' current leader; his daughter, Barbara Ann Crancer, currently serves as an Associate Circuit Court Judge in St. Louis, Missouri.
Conviction and disappearance
In 1967, Hoffa was convicted of attempted bribery of a grand juror and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. In 1971, however, he was released when Republican President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence to time served on the condition he not participate in union activities for ten years. Hoffa was planning to sue to invalidate that restriction in order to reassert his power over the Teamsters when he disappeared at around 2:30pm on July 30, 1975 from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 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 and New York City.His fate is a mystery that continues to this day and there are many guesses as to what became of him. Among these are that Hoffa was killed and:
- Dumped from a boat into Lake St. Clair, Lake Huron, Lake Erie or Green Lake, Wisconsin;
- Buried:
- * in Michigan, either in the yard of his house in Bloomfield or another house in the Detroit area
- * under the New Jersey Turnpike;
- * beneath the turf (possibly in one of the end zones) at Giants Stadium in New Jersey; (since disproved by the hosts of Discovery Channel's MythBusters)
- * in an abandoned coal mine shaft near Pittston, Pennsylvania;
- * somewhere in Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island, New York City;
- * in an unmarked grave on the deserted West Sister Island in Lake Erie;
- * in the PJP Landfill in Jersey City underneath the Pulaski Skyway.
- put into a wood chipper with the remaining parts fed to hogs.
- mixed with concrete and used in construction;
- dissolved in an acid tank used to re chrome car bumpers;
- rendered into fat at a rendering plant;
- put into a local Detroit smelter and melted.
Investigations and claims
DNA evidence examined in 2001 placed Hoffa in the car of longtime Teamster associate Charles O'Brien, despite O'Brien's claims Hoffa had never been in his car. Police interviews later that year failed to produce any indictments.In July 2003, after the 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, another backyard was examined and excavated. Again, nothing was found [link] [link].
Frank Sheeran
In 2003, the FBI searched the backyard of a home in Munger Township, Michigan formerly frequented by Frank Sheeran, World War II veteran, Mafia hitman, truck driver, Teamsters official and close friend of Hoffa. Nothing significant was found.In 2004, Charles Brandt, a former prosecutor and Chief Deputy Attorney General of Delaware, published the book I Heard You Paint Houses ("painting houses" is a euphemism for murder, alluding to the splatter of blood on walls, and "doing my own carpentry" is a euphemism for the disposal of the body) in which he recounts a series of confessions by Sheeran regarding Hoffa's murder. Brandt claimed that Sheeran had begun contacting him because he wished to assuage feelings of guilt. Over the course of several years, he spoke numerous 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.
Events Since February 14, 2006
On February 14, 2006, Lynda Milito, wife of Gambino crime family 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 New York City's Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
In April 2006, news reports surfaced that hitman Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski had confessed to author Philip Carlo 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 repeatedly claiming to have killed people--including Roy DeMeo--that concrete evidence has proven he could not have killed. The story forms part of the book The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer, due for release in July 2006.
It has been claimed by members of Alpha Tau Omega that a fraternity secret is the location of Jimmy Hoffa.
On May 17, 2006, acting on a tip, the FBI began digging for Hoffa's remains outside of a barn on what is now the Hidden Dreams Farm ([satellite photo]) in Milford Township, Michigan where they surveyed the land and began to dig up parts of the 85-acre parcel, according to federal officials. Over 40 agents have sectioned off a piece of the property where they believe the bones of the Teamster leader might be. Federal agents would not release the name of the person or persons who gave them the tip, but they did say that the tip included information on a group of people that used to meet on the same piece of land 30 years ago. The FBI has made contact with Hoffa's daughter who resides in Saint Louis and works as a judge, but no other information has been released. [link] It is unknown if the FBI have found anything, although from helicopter images they appeared to be digging something out of the ground. The FBI has told the press the search may take several weeks. The investigation team includes forensic experts from the bureau's Washington laboratory and a team of scientists that includes anthropologists, archaeologists, engineers and architects who will accompany local police and cadaver dogs for the next two weeks.
On May 18, 2006, the Detroit Free Press reported that the Hoffa search was prompted by information supplied by Donovan Wells, 75, a prisoner at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, KY. The newspaper said Wells, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in January 2004 for using his Detroit-area trucking company and drivers to ship large quantities of marijuana from Texas to Detroit from 1998-2001, was trying to parlay his knowledge about Hoffa's disappearance to get out of prison early. On May 20, 2006, the Free Press, quoting anonymous sources, said that one of Wells' lawyers had threatened to go to the news media during the previous year unless the U.S. Attorney's Office acted on Wells' information and followed through on a pledge to seek his release from prison. The next day, the newspaper quoted Wells' lawyer from a 1976 criminal case, James Elsman of Birmingham, who said the FBI in 1976 had ignored Wells' offer to tell them where Hoffa was buried. The lawyer said the FBI blew him off again on May 18, after he learned that the FBI was digging in Milford Township and called the bureau to offer the information. Outraged, Elsman said he then offered the information to the Bloomfield Township Police Department. On May 22, an FBI agent and township police detective visited Elsman's office, but Elsman declined to offer much information, saying he first wanted them to provide him with a signed release from Wells. Elsman also offered to visit the horse farm to help agents pinpoint where to dig. The FBI didn't immediately take him up on his offer.
On May 24, 2006 the FBI removed a large barn on the farm to look under it for Hoffa.
On May 30, 2006 the FBI ended the search for Hoffa's body without any remains found at the Hidden Dreams Farm in Milford Township, Michigan.
Hoffa in popular culture
Films
- The 1978 movie F.I.S.T., starring Sylvester Stallone as warehouse worker Johnny Kovak rising through the ranks of the fictional Teamster-like "Federation of Interstate Truckers", is loosely based on Hoffa's life.
- In the 1991 movie, Nothing But Trouble, a small town's two police officers and reeve surreptitiously capture and execute out-of-towners for misdemeanors. During an escape attempt, the protagonists discover a room with hundreds of drivers licenses posted on the walls, Jimmy Hoffa's among them.
- In 1992, the semi-factual motion picture Hoffa was released, starring Jack Nicholson in the title role and Danny DeVito (also the film's director) as Hoffa's fictional right-hand man.
- In the 2003 movie, Bruce Almighty, a police dog uncovers the body of Jimmy Hoffa along with his Birth certificate and Dental records, buried near a police training area in Buffalo, NY.
- The 1991 movie Point Break has a one-liner in which a grizzled veteran asks his too-eager partner, while processing a car as a crime scene, "Are you through, Mr Wizard? Let me know if you find Jimmy Hoffa under the seat while you're at it!"
- In the movie The Nutty Professor from 1996, Reggie (comedian) says that he knows were they hided Jimmy Hoffa (In the professor butt.)
Television
- The 1983 TV mini-series Blood Feud dramatized the conflict between Hoffa (portrayed by Robert Blake) and Robert F. Kennedy (portrayed by Cotter Smith).
- During a witch hunt for a White House leak in the The West Wing episode Bad Moon Rising, Donna Moss leads C.J. Cregg to believe she is the source of the leak until she admits, jokingly, that "I'm a madwoman, CJ; and it doesn't stop with the leak... Call the authorities. Send them to my parents' house in Madison... They'll find the Lindbergh baby in the basement... Also some post-its reminding me where I put Jimmy Hoffa... I framed Roger Rabbit!".
- Other films and TV series such as The Simpsons and Nothing But Trouble have used Hoffa's notorious disappearance (or the discovery of his body) to humorous effect. Children's sitcom The Adventures of Pete & Pete included a scene where Little Pete tunneled beneath his lawn and discovered Hoffa's wallet stuffed with money (which he quickly appropriated). A doctor operating on Tony Soprano in Episode 4 of Season 6 of The Sopranos feigned shock during the surgery, saying, "Oh my God... I just found Jimmy Hoffa."
- The TV series MythBusters featured an episode where ground penetrating radar was used to search for Jimmy Hoffa's body at the Giants stadium.
- In the film "Ghost" there is a scene where Patrick Swayze makes a comment to one of the other characters: "They are gonna bury you right next to Jimmy Hoffa!"
Music
- Lord Infamous of Three 6 Mafia in the song Jealous Azz Bitch raps, "I'll be damned. It's Scarecrow and Gotti, Montana, and Hoffa. We choppin' off one on these f-cking ass bitches because they ain't got shit else to offer."
- The hip-hop group Oddjobs mention Hoffa, rapping in Time Flies on their album Drums that "I even threw Jimmy Hoffa in the Minnehaha creek for sayin' Oddjobs was weak."
- In his verse during the Notorious B.I.G.'s song Last Day, Jadakiss raps "...Lox and Poppa, turning niggaz into Jim Hoffa...".
- In the song Buzz, Royce da 5'9" raps: "Silent, you're better all finding Hoffa. I've lost my mind. Sick man brought my nine".
- The Hip-Hop Artist Jay-Z mentions Hoffa on His album "The Black Album" on the song "Allure" where he says: " I'm like a Russian mobster, drinking distilled Vodka; until i'm under the field with Hoffa; it's real"
- Aimee Mann has a song Jimmy Hoffa Jokes
- In Lords of the Underground's song "Chief Rocka" there is a line stating "If you got beef then you can live with Jimmy Hoffa".
Books
- Walter Sheridan's book The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hoffa is noted as an account of Hoffa's trials in Tennessee. It is usually considered to be biased, however, as Sheridan was a lawyer working for Robert Kennedy.
- Two other books are The Hoffa Wars by investigative reporter Dan Moldea, which details Hoffa's rise to power (see below); and Contract Killer by William Hoffman and Lake Headley, which attempts to examine Hoffa's murder in great detail.
- Jimmy Hoffa is also a supporting character in the James Ellroy novel American Tabloid, where it is suggested that Jimmy enjoyed boating trips wherein he and friends would chum the waters and beat sharks to death with baseball bats. He also appears as a character in Ellroy's follow-up novel The Cold Six Thousand.
Other
- In the computer game, World of Warcraft, a character fishing in the sewers of the Undercity has a chance of picking up an "Old Teamster's Skull", with the description of "Looks like someone didn't like this guy.", making reference to Jimmy Hoffa.
- Hoffa is something of a recurring gag in the comic strip Piranha Club by Bud Grace. In one storyline, the lead character, Ernie, finds the frozen corpse of Jimmy Hoffa when he is stranded in Tibet. In another, an Amazon tribe kidnaps Sid's pet piranha, and replaces him with Jimmy Hoffa's shrunken head. Ernie and Arnold also finds Jimmy Hoffa frozen inside a glacier while scaling Mount Bayonne.
- In the game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a dead character is laying out of a bridge pillar, an alusion to Jimmy Hoffa´s death.
- In another video game,Destroy All Humans!, a rather humourous mention of Hoffa can be heard if a player scans a Union worker's mind.
- Also, in the Microsoft game Close Combat III:Eastern Front, the player can right click on the terrain to recieve relative information. In one of the Stalingrad "Red October" factory maps, there are many gasoline drums, one of which is listed as containing "Hoffa's Body".
Bibliography
- 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 1586420771).
- Dan E. Moldea, The Hoffa Wars, Charter Books, New York: 1978 (ISBN 0-441-34010-5).
External links
- [Jimmy Hoffa Biography]Where is Jimmy Hoffa's body?
- [Jimmy Hoffa biography] on The Free Information Society website.
- [Satellite view] of the Hidden Dreams Farm.
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