Hoffa, Jimmy

orig. James Riddle Hoffa

(born Feb. 14, 1913, Brazil, Ind., U.S.—disappeared July 30, 1975, Bloomfield Hills, near Detroit, Mich.) U.S. labour leader. He moved with his family to Detroit in 1924, left school at 14, and began work as a stockboy and warehouseman. He became a labour organizer in the 1930s, rising in the Teamsters Union during the next two decades until he reached the office of president, which he held from 1957 to 1971. Known throughout the trucking industry as a tough bargainer, he played a key role in forging the first national freight-hauling agreement and helped make the Teamsters the largest labour union in the U.S. Long associated with underworld figures, he was sent to prison in 1967 for jury tampering, fraud, and conspiracy; his sentence was commuted by Pres. Richard Nixon in 1971. In 1975 he disappeared from a restaurant near Detroit; he is believed to have been murdered to prevent his retaking control of the union. His son, James Riddle Hoffa, Jr. (b. 1941), was elected president of the Teamsters in 1999.

Hoffa, (James Riddle) Jimmy (1913–?1975) labor leader; born in Brazil, Ind. He became an organizer for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) in 1934, rising rapidly through the union's ranks. He was elected IBT president in 1957 and gained notoriety for his aggressive tactics against all who opposed him, both inside and outside the labor movement. Target of a 1957 U.S. Senate investigation into union corruption, he was later convicted of jury tampering, fraud, and conspiracy, and sent to prison in 1967. His sentence was commuted in 1971, and he was rumored to be trying to regain power within the IBT when in 1975 he disappeared. Rumors as to how he died continued to surface but his body was never found.