Jimmy Hoffa
From Bwtm
James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa (February 14, 1913 - on or about July 30, 1975) was a noted American labor leader with ties to the Mafia. As the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, Hoffa wielded considerable influence. He is also well-known in popular culture for the mysterious circumstances surrounding his still-unexplained disappearance and presumed death.
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Update: Mr. Hoffa still deceased
October 20, 2006 Mr. Hoffa is still dead.
Hoffa was born in Brazil, Indiana, the son of a poor coal miner. His father died when he was young and Hoffa could not stay in school. Hoffa moved to Lake Orion, Michigan to work in a warehouse. He developed a reputation as a tough street fighter who always stood up for his fellow workers against management. Because of this, Hoffa was fired from his warehouse job and hired as an organizer for Local 298 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). He and other IBT organizers conflicted with management in their organizing efforts throughout Detroit. Hoffa additionally used organized crime connections to shake down an association of small grocery stores, leading to his first criminal conviction, for which he paid a fine. After he rose to a leadership position in Local 298, Hoffa continued to work with crime syndicates in Detroit, using the threat of labor trouble to induce business to use a mobster controlled clothier (Friedman and Schwarz, 1988).
He was a natural leader who was upset at the mistreatment of workers. In 1933, age twenty, he helped organize his first strike of "swampers", the workers who loaded and unloaded strawberries and other produce on and off delivery trunks.
Hoffa details withheld by FBI
The FBI on Friday released a heavily redacted version of the affidavit it recently used to get a warrant to search a farm for the remains of ex-Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa.
In the 40-page affidavit, the FBI completely blacked out 12 pages and partially blacked out 23 others.
The document was released partly in response to a motion filed by the Detroit Free Press. The newspaper argued in court filings there is no good reason to keep the affidavit's contents secret and the public has a right to know what it says.
The FBI spent an estimated $250,000 and nearly two weeks in May digging and searching and demolishing a barn at a farm in Milford Township once owned by Hoffa associate Rolland McMaster, who is now 92. They found nothing.
Free Press lawyer Herschel Fink described the release of the redacted document as "a meaningless gesture that changes nothing."
It's obvious the informant referred to in the affidavit is 75-year-old convict and former Hoffa associate Donovan Wells, whose identity has been widely reported in the Detroit media, Fink said, yet the FBI even redacted Wells' name in the material it released.
Update: Mr. Hoffa still deceased
FBI must justify sealing Hoffa search warrant, judge says
Jimmy Hoffa still dead
The FBI launched a search for the body of former Teamsters President James R. Hoffa Wednesday in an Oakland County farm field after agents from the organized crime squad in Detroit obtained a search warrant from a federal judge Tuesday.
An undisclosed FBI source offered information about Hoffa's whereabouts in recent weeks that was deemed credible and detailed enough to mount a search. FBI Special Agent Dawn Clenney confirmed the search began today with a team of agents and the Bloomfield Township police.
The search is "in connection with the ongoing investigation into James Riddle Hoffa's disappearance. for evidence of criminal activity that may have occurred under prior ownership," Clenney said, reading from a prepared statement. She said it was based on one of numerous leads the FBI has received and declined to say if the search would continue into the night.
The search could take several days.
