Today is the anniversary of a yet unsolved modern mystery. Forty-six years ago today (July 30, 1975) former Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa was last seen outside a restaurant near Detroit, Michigan.
James Riddle Hoffa was an American union leader that served as the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) from 1958 until 1971. He played a major role in the growth and development of the union, which eventually became the largest, by membership, in the United States with over 2.3 million members at its peak during his terms as the union leader.
He became involved with organized crime during the early years of his Teamsters work, and this connection continued until his disappearance. He was convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery and fraud in 1964, in two separate trials. He was imprisoned in 1967 and sentenced to thirteen years. In mid-1971, he resigned as president of the union as part of a pardon agreement with President Richard Nixon — he was released later that year.
Hoffa disappeared sometime after 2:45 p.m. on July 30, 1975 from the parking lot of the Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township, a suburb of Detroit. He had told others he was going there to meet with two Mafia leaders — Anthony Giacalone and Anthony Provenzano. Provenzano was a Teamster leader in New Jersey and had earlier been close to Hoffa.
Hoffa’s wife reported him missing that evening. Police found his car, a Pontiac Grande Ville, at the restaurant, unlocked, but there was no indication of what happened to him. The case continues to be the subject of rumor and speculation, and there is no shortage of theories…
One of the theories is that after he was murdered, pieces of his dismembered, frozen body were buried in the cement foundation of Giants Stadium, located in East Rutherford, NJ. The stadium was under construction at the time and bags of his body parts were mixed in with the cement that would become section 107 in the stadium. Even though this was a popular theory, when Giants Stadium was torn down in 2010, they didn’t even bother to check whether the body was there or not.
A mafia hitman, Frank “The Irishman” Sheehan claimed he killed Hoffa, who was his friend. Since there were hits out on Hoffa — he decided to do it himself. He said he took him to a house in Detroit, shot him twice in the back of the head and burned the body in a trash incinerator. When investigators visited the house, they found blood, but it was not Hoffa’s — nor did they find any other evidence supporting Sheehan’s story. Officials believe the story was entirely fabricated.
An associate of Hoffa, Joseph Franco, claims federal agents abducted Hoffa and threw him out of an airplane. According to Charlie Allen, Hoffa’s former bodyguard, and mob hit man, after Hoffa was murdered, his body was ground up and the remains put in a steel drum, which was then shipped to the Everglades and dumped — to be consumed by alligators. Marvin Elkind, a mafia chauffeur claims the remains were buried beneath the Renaissance Center in Detroit.
An Oakland County judge declared Hoffa officially dead on December 8, 1982, seven years after his disappearance.
So if you love a mystery, this one will probably be around for a long time — pick a theory, or make up your own….
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