* On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the life and legendary disappearance of union leader, Teamster (and mobster?) Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa was born to a poor family in 1913; his father was a coal miner and died when Jimmy was a child, forcing his mom to move to Detroit and work to support the family. Hoffa left school at a young age to start working on loading docks for the Kroger grocery chain, and soon thereafter he organized his first labor strike. Within year, the young man was climbing the union ladder in Detroit.

Eventually, Jimmy Hoffa became the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and he helped secure the National Master Freight Agreement. This agreement covered over a million truckers and teamsters and was the largest union deal in U.S. history. However, while Hoffa rose to power, he was watched by the FBI and the Kennedy White House due to alleged connections with the mob.

The government’s watchful eye caught him committing several crimes which they could never get to stick, but they eventually busted Hoffa for trying to tamper with a jury. He was sentenced to thirteen years in prison, but after only a few years, President Nixon commuted his sentence and let him go free. However, one stipulation was that he couldn’t be involved with the union for several years. This didn’t sit well with Hoffa, who many people say had grown too comfortable with power and too greedy.

Eventually, on July 30, 1975, Jimmy Hoffa went to an alleged meeting with a mob enforcer named Anthony Giacalone and an associate of the Genovese crime family (and Teamster leader in New Jersey) Anthony Provenzano. Allegedly, nobody showed for the meeting, and Hoffa phoned his wife to tell her he’d be home soon. However, he was never heard from again.

So what happened to Hoffa? Some say he was driven away in a burgundy Mercury Marquis with three other men, including Charles O’Brien (Hoffa’s “adopted” son). What was the Hoffex Memo? What did mob hitman Frank Sheeran say happened to Hoffa, and did this line up with mob leader Tony Zerilli’s account? Listen, laugh, learn.

Interesting Article about a meeting with his so-called killers: https://the-line-up.com/what-really-happened-to-jimmy-hoffa/