Who is jimmy hoffa sr

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, 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. Paroled from federal prison three years earlier, the former Teamster president had recently announced plans to try to wrestle back control of the union he had built with his bare knuckles from his protege -- now adversary -- Frank Fitzsimmons.

Anthony Giacalone, a reputed captain of organized crime in Detroit, was supposed to meet Hoffa that day. Chuckie was just an innocent bystander…all he knew was that he was taking us to pick up Jimmy Brandt, , p. There have been a plethora of theories surrounding his disappearance, but the most credible one is the third one. James Riddle Hoffa was born in , in the city of Brazil, Indiana. While was working as a warehouseman in , he organized a labor union, that eventually became a part of the Teamsters Union.

Almost half a century has passed since the mysterious disappearance of James Riddle Hoffa. In a time where unions were synonymous with the mob, James Hoffa reigned ruthlessly over the Teamsters Union.

A one-man anti-mob crusader, Kennedy and his team, Ronald L. He was charged at various points with bribery, fraud, and, most crucially, misuse of the pension fund, all while he tried to expand the Teamsters by bringing airline workers into the union.

According to Kennedy, Hoffa used the fund to make loans to organized crime figures across the country. More than political adversaries, the two men seemed to genuinely dislike each other. After his release from prison, Hoffa, still beloved by many in the Teamsters, attempted to take back his former position as head of the union. What does it do? Hoffa was president of the Teamsters union from to , the last four years while serving a prison sentence for fraud and jury tampering. Federal investigators believe he was killed by mob bosses because he wanted to recapture the union presidency he lost while in prison.

From there, Moldea says, Hoffa was taken to a location in Detroit, where he was murdered, placed in a gallon drum, loaded onto a Gateway Transportation truck, then driven to New Jersey. Moldea says Hoffa's body was disposed of in a former landfill called "Brother Moscato's Dump," a toxic waste site bordered by the Hackensack River.

The dumpsite was targeted for cleanup by the EPA during the late s and s. Most of the land is now a public park and a wildlife refuge, he said. Moscato allegedly worked under Anthony Provenzano of New Jersey, one of two mobsters Hoffa expected to meet on the day he disappeared.

Moldea said he stumbled on Moscato's name in while working on a case involving a crooked judge in Florida and remembered him from the Hoffa case. In addition, I obtained interviews and documents showing that McMaster and his goon squad were behind a series of unsolved acts of violence in Local Still, the high command at NBC News was not convinced.

So, after accepting and completing a short-term assignment in New York to help with the production of an NBC special on Hoffa, I returned to my career as a scuffling independent investigative journalist. On September 24, an FBI special agent interviewed me.

In his theory, Moldea sets forth sufficient factual info, which indicates he has good sources close to McMaster and knowledgeable of his union activities. Two more FBI special agents interviewed me again at my home in Akron for two days, October , Although I refused to give them the name of my principal source without his permission, the agents, who encouraged me to come back to Detroit to continue my independent investigation, wrote in another official report:.

Allegedly, McMaster would then extort money from trucking firms for a guarantee of labor peace. Moldea appears sincere, resourceful, cooperative, and is attempting to convince his primary source to cooperate with the FBI. During our first meeting, I explained my theory about McMaster to Hoffa, who immediately called the local FBI headquarters and asked an agent with whom he was on a first-name basis to come to his office to meet me.

As instructed by Hoffa, I repeated my information about McMaster. The agents, who said they were already familiar with my work, confirmed to Hoffa that my information was solid and that my investigation of McMaster was both important and trustworthy. Hoffa Jr. In addition, Hoffa helped to arrange a freelance assignment with the Detroit Free Press where I was tasked to focus on a single story: the McMaster goon squad and its shakedown of trucking companies around the country.

According to federal law enforcement officials, Picardo had a visitor a few days after Hoffa vanished: Stephen Andretta, who allegedly confessed to Picardo his own role and that of his brother, Thomas, in the Hoffa murder conspiracy — as well as those of two other brothers, Salvatore and Gabriel Briguglio. All four men were also closely associated with Provenzano. In short, Picardo alleged that Andretta told him that Hoffa had been a murdered in Detroit, b stuffed into a gallon oil drum, c loaded onto a Gateway Transportation truck, and then d shipped to New Jersey.

However, Picardo knew from his work with the Provenzano operation that Provenzano had personally put a contract on Hoffa in either late or early that was specifically given to Sal Briguglio. However, the size of the area and its toxic conditions, along with the wintery weather and lack of a known specific location, caused agents to abort their search.

On December 4, , the Andrettas and the Briguglios appeared before a federal grand jury in Detroit, investigating the Hoffa case.

All four, who had been identified in press reports the previous day, took the Fifth against self-incrimination. A fifth suspect was not previously identified by the news media: Rolland McMaster, whom, after several phone interviews, I met face-to-face for the first time at the federal courthouse as he waited his turn to appear before the grand jury. He told me later that same day that, like the Andrettas and Briguglios, he had taken the Fifth.

In early July , I began my next freelance assignment with Washington columnist Jack Anderson, addressing the two issues about Rolland McMaster that the Free Press refused to publish. Also, that same day, I had interviews with Tom Andretta over the phone and Gabe Briguglio in person, which were not recorded.

After the attempted sabotage of The Hoffa Wars was revealed by Mitgang and the Times , my book was supercharged. Playboy bought a long excerpt of the book. It also was a Book of the Month selection. I also alleged that, although Sal Briguglio was the actual killer, Frank Sheeran, a Teamsters thug from Philadelphia who was close to Hoffa, was part of the overall murder conspiracy.

Then, in , Phillip Moscato Sr. During my interview with Charles Crimaldi, a Chicago mobster-turned-federal-witness, he convinced me the Mafia would not have taken the risk of transporting Hoffa from Detroit to New Jersey, adding that his information was that Hoffa was disposed of in a car compactor in or near Detroit.

Remarkably, there were no serious threats of litigation against The Hoffa Wars — with one exception. On March 22, , attorney F. Emmett Fitzpatrick, who represented Frank Sheeran, sent me a letter, saying, in part:.

Sheeran has recently become familiar with the book authored by you entitled The Hoffa Wars. Sheeran wishes me to inform you that he emphatically denies the allegations about his involvement in Mr. Hoffa was seen is false, unfounded and has been specifically contradicted by evidence supplied by Mr.

Sheeran to the Federal Government. During their meeting, Sheeran falsely admitted to Shawn that he had personally killed Hoffa. At the time, Sheeran was working on a book project with Charles Brandt, a respected former Delaware prosecutor. Shawn asked me, among others, to sign a nondisclosure agreement, read the embargoed book, and then, upon its release, provide my comments on camera about its conclusions.

Living on the farm with the McMaster family back then were a business partner, Donovan Wells, and his wife, Monica. While in a federal prison, Wells provided evidence to federal agents that served, at least in part, as the necessary probable cause for obtaining their court-authorized search warrant for the property.

Importantly, Wells took and passed a polygraph test arranged by the FBI. According to an article in the New York Times :. Chilen, an assistant special agent, said at a news briefing at the farm entrance. I had first interviewed Wells in while he was still doing business with McMaster. Subsequent to the failed FBI excavation thirty years later, I interviewed Wells once again after his release from prison.

I also interviewed his wife. A great day tomorrow! Right, Mac? When Wells asked Barr what Provenzano was talking about, he replied that Provenzano planned to meet Hoffa the following day. After about twenty-to-thirty minutes, the same cars left the way they came. When she saw McMaster the following day, Monica told him what she had witnessed.

Also, during my visit with Wells, I suggested that we go to the farm, which was no longer owned by McMaster, who died in