How did union boss Hoffa meet his end?
Jimmy Hoffa vanished more than 40 years ago. And since then there have been as many theories about the controversial labour unionist’s disappearance and whereabouts as those of Lord Lucan.
Many of them involve the Mob, as Hoffa told colleagues that he was going to meet two Mafia members on the day he disappeared.
Hoffa became a hugely controversial figure after becoming involved in union activism at an early age.
He consolidated local Teamsters – truck driverunions – into a national body, becoming president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and making them one of the most powerful unions in America.
But the trucking unions of the era were heavily controlled by organised crime and Hoffa had to make accommodations and arrangements with mobsters.
When Robert F Kennedy became Attorney-general under his brother, President John F Kennedy, he built a so-called “Get Hoffa” squad of investigators.
In 1964, Hoffa was convicted of attempted bribery and of fraud relating to the Teamsters’ pension fund on the grounds that he arranged loans to the mob.
He finally went to jail in 1967 but was released four years later when President Nixon commuted his 13-year sentence.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters endorsed Nixon for re-election and rumours surfaced of a secret $1 million payment to Nixon, and that there had been another payment during his 1960 campaign.
Hoffa was attempting a union comeback and writing his memoirs when he disappeared from the parking lot of the Red Fox restaurant in Detroit.
The 62-year-old had told colleagues he was going to meet two mobsters, Anthony Giacalone and Anthony Provenzano – later found not to have been near the Red Fox – and a truck driver later claimed to have seen Hoffa in the back of a car that almost hit his truck as it left the lot.
Hoffa was never seen again and, despite extensive investigation, was declared dead in 1982.
Rumours persisted he was buried under Giants Stadium in New Jersey but no remains were discovered when the stadium was demolished in 2010.
Frank Sheehan, a professional killer, claimed to have murdered Hoffa but blood found in the Detroit house he said was the scene of the killing wasn’t Hoffa’s.
Another hitman, Richard “Iceman” Kuklinski, said Hoffa’s body had been cremated in an oil drum.
He claimed the drum was dug up and placed in the boot of a car which was then crushed and shipped as scrap metal to Japan.
None of these leads has panned out and the case remains open.