Jimmy Hoffa

Jimmy Hoffa was a very powerful leader and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehouseman, and Helpers of America, whose mysterious disappearance, suspected of being Mafia connected, on July 30, 1975 has never been solved. Hoffa was a major figure in the Supermob, the go-betweens of the upper world and the mafia world. As the Teamster president, Jimmy had two very important voters: his members and the gangsters that helped him move up the ladder to union success. Hoffa served his gangster associates by writing them into Teamster union power and Teamster union pension-fund cash. In his Supermob role, Hoffa did more to expand the affluence of the gangs and knit them into the fabric of American life than any gangster since Al Capone. When Hoffa lost his role as Teamster president, he also lost his role as the Supermob's biggest and most powerful figure. Of no further use to the mob, Hoffa lived on borrowed time from the moment he left the Pennsylvania prison, where he was sentenced after being convicted of fraud, bribery, and conspiracy. Instead of being a channel for the upper world, Jimmy had become nothing but trouble. He had enough information to destroy every member of the Mafia, and the Mafia knew this.1

1 The date was July 30, 1975, and it was the day Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the face of the earth. By Thursday morning, July 31, the word had spread throughout Detroit that Jimmy had not been home the night before. This was very unusual because Josephine, Jimmy's wife, had a heart problem and Hoffa would never leave her alone. By the time the Thursday evening news was over, the rest of the public also knew that Jimmy was no where to be found. Immediate speculations of a gangland killing quickly began to form. And then, like a complex animated puzzle the details of all of Jimmy's last known activities started to fit