The Ominous Vanishing of Jimmy Hoffa

     James Riddle Hoffa, more well known Jimmy Hoffa, was the president of a labor union known as  International Brotherhood of the Teamsters from 1958-1971 and is considered to be one of the most controversial labour organizers of his time. 

   
      He was born on Valentine's Day in 1913 to a coal miner. Unfortunately, Hoffa's father passed away from lung cancer when he was just seven, teaching him a harsh lesson about the dangers of unsafe working conditions. By the age of 14, he left school and worked as a warehouseman, stock boy, and grocery store worker at Kroger grocery store in Detroit, where he first began organizing strikes. By the early 1930s, he began organizing workers' unions. He steadily rose to power, starting out as a business agent for Local 299 in Detroit. Soon, he became the chairman of the Central States Drivers Council, and within the next two years, he was the president of the Teamsters.
   
     He was popular amongst his peers, and his excellent administrative skills and bargaining abilities soon transformed the Teamsters into the most powerful union in America. However, along his way he had gotten involved with the mob and other organized crime bosses, gaining him scrutiny from lawmakers including Attorney General Robert Kennedy. By 1967, he was sent to jail on a 13-year sentence for fraud, conspiracy, attempted bribery and jury tampering.
   
     Fortunately for him, he received a presidential pardon from Richard Nixon himself in 1971, with the hope that he would refrain from being active in the union for the remainder of the decade. Hoffa, however, was eager to reclaim his position and had been looking for methods to do so until his disappearance on July 30, 1975. Apparently, he was supposed to have an appointment at a Detroit restaurant with former Mafia figures Anthony Provenzano and Anthony Giacalone. However, both claimed to have ever met up with Hoffa, and though he was legally declared "presumed dead" in 1982, his whereabouts are unknown to this day.
   
      Here are three theories:
1) Hoffa was killed by Salvatore Briguglio at Rolland McMaster's Farmhouse. Briguglio was the business agent for the Teamster and a close associate of Anthony Provenzano, one of the men Hoffa was supposed to meet on the day of his disappearance. McMaster was an enforcer for the Teamsters. This theory is supported by Dan Moldea, an author who had been writing about the Mafia wars, who interviewed Briguglio before his death.
2) Anthony Provanzano ordered a hit on Jimmy Hoffa after the two had a disagreement while in prison. The disagreement was so severe that the two notably despised each other. In the year before his disappearance, Hoffa claimed that Provenzano had threatened to kidnap Hoffa's loved ones or gut him if he became the president of the Teamsters.
3)The hitman and serial killer Richard Kuklinski, aka "The Iceman," had been paid off by the mob to kill Hoffa. After being interviewed by Philip Carlo, he gave a detailed account of how he had been ordered to kill Hoffa and described how he had carried out the crime. While some believe his claim, others completely dismiss his account as he has a reputation of being a liar.
   
     Though none of the theories completely agree, most can agree that the mob was involved to some degree. Which theory do you agree with most, or do you have your own to posit?

Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEc7ZuHyKWE&list=PLD8iUdp33PqS_mMUNEMCgQe4Pdcu_W7iL
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jimmy-Hoffa
https://www.biography.com/news/jimmy-hoffa-disappearance-where-buried