The Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa

[JonathanVonErich]

On July 30, 1975, former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa stood outside the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, impatiently scanning the parking lot. The man who had made the Teamsters the most formidable labor union in the country was already angry. It was quarter after two in the afternoon, and the men he was supposed to be meeting for lunch hadn't arrived yet. Hoffa was a stickler for punctuality, and it was his understanding that they were to meet at 2:00.

Wearing a dark blue short-sleeve shirt, blue pants, white socks, and black Gucci loafers, Hoffa walked to a nearby pay phone outside a hardware store and called his wife to tell her that he'd apparently been stood up. Josephine Hoffa had felt that her husband seemed uncharacteristically nervous when he had left the house an hour earlier. Before going to the restaurant, Hoffa had stopped at the offices of a limousine service in Pontiac that was owned by a good friend. An employee there also noticed that Hoffa seemed nervous

Jimmy Hoffa was supposed to be meeting Detroit mobster Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone and New Jersey labor leader Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano, who also happened to be a made member of the Genovese crime family. The reason for this meeting, Hoffa believed, was to discuss his intention to run for the presidency of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and regain the powerful position he had lost after his 1964 convictions for jury tampering, conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud. But the Mafia, who had worked hand in hand with Hoffa in the past, wasn't so sure they wanted him back in power. President Richard Nixon had granted Hoffa clemency in 1971, just before Christmas, but things had changed significantly in the nearly five years Hoffa had spent behind bars. The mob found Hoffa's handpicked successor, Frank Fitzsimmons, more pliable than Hoffa, and Fitzsimmons was well liked by President Nixon. The gangsters liked things the way they were. They wanted Hoffa to stay retired.

Not long after Hoffa had called home on the pay phone outside the hardware store, a maroon 1975 Mercury Marquis Brougham pulled out of the restaurant parking lot and nearly hit a truck. The truck driver, who was making deliveries in the area, pulled up next to the car and immediately recognized Jimmy Hoffa sitting in the backseat behind the car's driver. The truck driver also noticed a long object covered with a gray blanket on the seat between Hoffa and another passenger. The truck driver thought it was a shotgun or a rifle. He didn't get a good look at anyone else in the car.

The next day Hoffa's green 1974 Pontiac Grand Ville was found unlocked in the restaurant parking lot. Police opened the trunk but found nothing unusual. Using the truck driver's description of the car Hoffa was last seen in, investigators were able to trace the maroon Mercury to its owner, Joe Giacalone, the son of mobster Anthony Giacalone. Joe Giacalone claimed that he had lent the car to a friend that day, a teamster named Charles "Chuckie" O'Brien, who was very close to the Hoffa family and had actually lived with the Hoffas at one time. The car was located, and O'Brien's fingerprints were found on a 7UP bottle and a piece of paper recovered from the car. Investigators felt that Jimmy Hoffa would have felt comfortable enough with O'Brien, whom he considered a foster son, to get into the Mercury.

FBI agents checked on the whereabouts of the two men Hoffa was supposed to be meeting that day. "Tony Jack" Giacalone swore he was at the gym where he worked out every day, and witnesses placed him at the Southfield Athletic Club at the time of Hoffa's disappearance. "Tony Pro" Provenzano was in New Jersey playing cards with friends. Both Tonys said they knew nothing about a scheduled meeting with Hoffa

Chuckie O'Brien claimed that he hadn't seen Hoffa on July 30 and gave a detailed account of his whereabouts. He told investigators that he had delivered a 40-pound frozen salmon to the home of a Teamster International vice president and helped the man's wife cut the fish into steaks. During the time that Jimmy Hoffa had been waiting at the restaurant, O'Brien said he was at the Southfield Athletic Club with Anthony Giacalone. O'Brien claimed he then took the Mercury to a car wash because fish blood had leaked onto the backseat. No one at the athletic club or the car wash could corroborate his story.

Specially trained German shepherds were flown in from Philadelphia eight days after Hoffa's disappearance. The dogs were given a pair of the labor leader's Bermuda shorts and a pair of his moccasins. They picked up Hoffa's scent in the backseat and trunk of Joe Giacalone's maroon Mercury. Twenty-six years later in March of 2001, a DNA match was made between a hair found in the back of the car and a hair taken from Hoffa's hairbrush.

Over a quarter of a century has passed since the mysterious disappearance of James Riddle Hoffa, and the case remains unsolved. But this mystery is not a who-done-it. The likely suspects are all known, and their motives are well documented. The question is: Where? What exactly did they do to Jimmy Hoffa, and where did they dispose of his body?

[Grandpa Greenman]

Well, out in front of Hoffa's house on Lake Orion in Lake Orion Michigan there is a very deep hole my folks used to fish in. My Dad used to wonder how deep it was, we were never able to figure it out. My Dad even added extra rope on the anchor to see if he could find the bottom. It used to be a good spot for fish.

[little_dreamer]

His associates were professionals at murder. They KNOW how to make a body disappear.

Choose your friends carefully.

[JonathanVonErich]

very interesting DarkWind...no investigation is possible i think....

[eclectic 1]

His associates were professionals at murder. They KNOW how to make a body disappear.

Choose your friends carefully.

I know of one mob hitter who never bothered with guns. He feds his targets booze laced with carbon tet, and then tossed the bodies into a pit full of tasmanian devils...which even eat the bones. If a body had been recovered, before the tassies finished it, the autopsy would have shown the victim died of cirrohsis of the liver...which could have been due to habitual alcohol abuse, but was due to the undetected C.tet. Perhaps he got Hoffa. His soon to be released biography may say.

[Odds]

Richard "ice man" Kuklinski, who admits to killing anywhere up to 200 people as his time as a serial killer and then mob hit man for the genovese crime family (claims killing 65 men by the time he was 24, his first when he was 14)claims to have been a part of the hit team sent to kill Jimmy Hoffa. He claims thye killed him, put him in the boot of a car, and had the car crushed and sent as scrap metal.. To which he had done many times before on other hits without problems.

[puridalan]

I did not read the full article so I apolgize. I get images when I go to certain pages or hear certain names. Anywho, what's strange is I believe that James Hoffa was in prison before he died. I believe that for some reason he was in prison before they killed him, only later did they take him out of a cell, where I believe is body was NOT in some type of water as in a lake. I believe that his body was laid outside, in fact the image I got was rathe humerous considering I find it to be a sloppy job. Perhaps, these people got lucky, it was not winter when I believed this to happen because the grass was somewhat green. The body is in a ditch with two sides up like a sewer system sort of. To me this happened waayyy outside of new york more towards the west side near illinios.

[JonathanVonErich]

......what ??

[Hans Dolbrook]

next year when they tear down giants stadium,i wonder if they will search the field for hoffa's remains?

i have read in several books he is thought to be buried there.

[CurlyQLink]

Mythbusters looked for his body in Giants stadium. Story goes that there is a "hump" by the 35 yard line and that he was buried there. They turned up nothing. BUSTED!

[puridalan]

Apparently, Jimmy's body is in California. San Fran. Under the sidewalk six ft deep, infront of a grocery store. So, anyone in that area, bring a nice little drill while you go buy yourself a fresh rotisery chicken..yummm

[thefinalfrontier]

I have lived in Michigan most of my life and the last I had ever heard they were tearing up a foundation to a building in Barryton Mich, But nothing came of it,

[puridalan]

Nope, it's in CA, San Franisco

[JonathanVonErich]

Puridalan, you are great but i have one thing to say to you: SHOW ME THE BODY !!

[puridalan]

Jonathan

It really isn't that hard to do if someone really wants to find the body. It's in CA, San Fran infront of a grocery store. So, first off locate all the grocery stores within San Fran, then go to all the sidewalks around the premise. It's six feet under, it's not going to smell one its been there a while and secondly its covered over with concrete. The bones will be crushed, identification will not be that easy, however how many people are buried exactly in said place lol.

They tried the stadium, because they knew Hoffa wasn't buried there. Lesson is basically don't kill the wrong person. JFK...mafia...government..enough said.

When I get bored and get some more money, I'll be sure to go out there and drill myself...even if I do get arrested haha. Could be a nice vacation out to CA don't you think ^^

[Mario Lemieux]

Me saying Hoffa is under my bed is about as believable as you saying he's under a sidewalk

[puridalan]

I'd have to say mines more believable..as under your bed..-.- creeper

I mean only the boogyman is under beds didn't you get the memo!

Edited November 13, 2009 by puridalan

[JonathanVonErich]

but Puridalan...why are you so sure ??

[Golden Hawk]

and then tossed the bodies into a pit full of tasmanian devils...which even eat the bones

The same "good ol' boy" method was used in the US by Moonshiners. If an undercover "Fed" was found out, they would kill him and feed the remains to the hogs .

One of our neighbors was a wiz at moonshine and had the best tasting "pork" in the area. He would feed his "mash" leftovers to his hogs, then take the hogs to market for butchering. About everyone knew why his hogs were always the heaviest and had good pork for cooking, but nobody cared. Course he never killed a sheriff or a Fed, even though they knew where he was and what he was doing.

[Golden Hawk]

I'd have to say mines more believable..as under your bed..-.- creeper

I mean only the boogyman is under beds didn't you get the memo!

Got the memo kid, thanks for the heads up .

[KrystynaA]

I live down the street that Jimmy used to live down. Back in the 70s the FBI camped out in my bedroom to watch his house after his disappearance. His house was not on Lake Orion. It is called little square lake. I do believe he could be in the lake somewhere but I highly doubt if he was taken in Bloomfield Mi that whoever was in the car with him would drive him all the way back out here to lake Orion to dump his body right next to his house. I also do not believe his body is in CALI, why would they drive all the way across the country with his body in the car? Hmmm guess we will never know.

[JonathanVonErich]

Wow, one of my old threads is back from the deads.

Very interesting story Krystyna. Did the FBI gave you or your family something in return for camping in your bedroom ??

[Rlyeh]

Maybe the Hoffas eat their dead, bones and all.

[HMS Dreadnought]

Maybe the Hoffas eat their dead, bones and all.

Could a hyrax have been involved?

[Rlyeh]

Could a hyrax have been involved?

That or bigfoot.