Jimmy Hoffa was an enemy of Orthodox society teamster leader, Jimmy Hoffa
Threatened John Kennedy Robert Kennedy or Bo Hoffa was actually a full-fledged informant by the end
Havas association with organized crime just
Quadrupled the threat to this country that the Teamsters were protecting these drug traffickers
We have no information that the faculties alive
But we have known these that either more than 200 FBI agents are involved in this earth problem
It is one of the most famous and enduring American mysteries. What happened to Jimmy Hoffa?
Hoffa is seen getting into this car and the Parsee driving away never to be seen again
Hoffa vanished and with this disappearance really started the most fascinating
mystery in the criminal annals of America
So Jimmy Hoffa was born and raised in coal mining towns in southern Indiana in the 1910s and 1920s
hardscrabble towns filled with coal miners and
Bootleggers a lot of whites from the south and emigrated to southern Indiana by the 1920s it became a hub of the Ku Klux Klan
nationally and
where violence really determined a lot of conflicts in the towns he grew up in there were more saloons and there were churches and
His mother was a single mother who was forced to take in laundry from neighbors to support the family Hoffa lived on the edge
Throughout his childhood in early adulthood and I think that also defined his outlook on life and his career
So Jimmy Hoffa and his family arrived in Detroit in 1924 looking for better economic
Opportunity Detroit was is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country was also one of the most violent you had the Italians with several
Groups the river gang the East Side gang the West Side gang
the Jewish purple gang and
then you had other factions such as the lizard game which was a Polish gang out of Hamtramck a
Gangland economic boom that was taking place not just in Detroit, but around the country
That was in situation that Hoffa was coming up in as a young man
Then the Depression hit and it hit Detroit harder than almost anywhere half the city was out-of-work bread lines in the street
Thousands of people would show up for a single job opening Hoffa was lucky to get a job as a warehouse worker
unloading crates on a dock at Kroger's he lived in a world in which poverty and unemployment was the norm and in which
violence often determined the outcome of class struggle
In 1932 the very bottom year of the Great Depression the year of the national crime wave
John Dillinger Bonnie and Clyde
Jimmy Hoffa was about 19 years old and he did something pretty amazing. He organized his first strike. I
Think it's important to see Jimmy
Hoffa has always having been an entrepreneur and looking at labor the labor movement as an entrepreneur he saw
the potential for a strike not as a means to
Redo the economy or even redo the management of Kroger's but as it means simply to make higher wages
Workers striking refusing to work was leveraged for simply economic needs
Hoffa was seeing the American system exposed all around
Wall Street taking advantage of Main Street and the rise of gangsters and bandits
land speculators
banks gobbling up land
foreclosing on
Small farmers for many people men like John Dillinger now Capone became the heroes doing whatever it took to get ahead in life
That was what was important Jimmy Hoffa is growing up in the Midwest during the Great Depression
He's aware of the outlaw personality. He's part of the community. That is marginalized
These communities are responding to people like John Dillinger Pretty Boy Floyd
so by the time that Jimmy Hoffa
Becomes involved in labor politics. I mean, this is an important part of his character
I think the lesson that Jimmy Hoffa learned from the depression was to fight tooth and nail for everything you could get
Because big business and the government were not the friends of the working man his career
Thrived in large part in a very unregulated economy and political atmosphere in Detroit in the 1930s
He saw in fact that workers could
succeed more often than not in that sort of jungle environment
Rum runners and guys were moving liquor into the country. They needed trucks. The Teamsters were driving those drugs
You've got the the nexus right there of the mob
corruption
and and labourers and when prohibition ends that
Connections remain and it just grows out of that often owners business owners would hire thugs with baseball bats
and clubs and sometimes pistols to intimidate or beats union organizers and
Quite often those union organizers would fight back with violence as well. And so many of these battles were fought in the streets
management and ownership
Breaking promises and breaking legs. It is morally acceptable to
fight fire with fire
Yeah, I mean the mob was muscled and then the mob worked for whoever would hire them and in terms of the organized labor movement
There were times when corporate America whether it's the garment industry or whatever would hire mob
Muscle to intimidate the unions so it wasn't like the MA the mobsters were
embracing organized labor movement in America
the mobsters went wherever there was a payday and workers often found that they could win those conflicts in a particular Hoffa found that
Those conflicts could be settled through their willingness to fight in the streets for Union rank-and-file Jimmy
Hoffa is a Robin Hood and like Robin Hood he may have to resort to
Extra legal acts he may have to get his hands dirty
But in the end his workers and these marginalized communities are better off
Hoffa was most likely involved in car bombings
You had to keep scabs out of those workplaces
You had to keep replacement workers out or else you had no power as a union leader
the first real documented proof of hafez connection with the mob comes in about
1937 Hoffa was married by this time, but he had an ex-girlfriend who was sort of a gangster Moll
Sylvia Pagano aka Sylvia Paris at the time gone. Oh is dating?
Frankie three fingers Coppola a
Bootlegger from Los Angeles who who has a criminal record extending back to his youth in Sicily?
Pagano introduces Coppola to Hoffa and they become friends right away
Frank Coppola associated with Santo Peron
Detroit
Sicilian mobster who was known for providing
goons and muscle to either unions or to businesses again playing both sides of the fence in
various union battles in the 1930s
They come up with a plan the mob can provide muscle to back this union movement
That is struggling. The odds are against them the mob will offer access to
Muscle to defend the workers
counter-attack the Teamsters at this time
we're engaged in a brutal strike with the Kroger supermarket chain people being shot heads being busted and supposedly
Hoffa asked his new friend, Santo Peron
To hold his goons back and not help Kroger while the Teamsters tried to fight this struggle the old
adage about about Hoffa was that he wound up going to the mob because
he was trying to
Use the empty to go after stubborn employers who refused to be unionized
In fact, he used the mob to go after the CIO which was raiding the Teamsters turf in Detroit. I
Think Jimmy Hoffa used the Mafia and other organized crime the same way. He used everybody else
he was always the smartest guy in the room and I think to say that the mob controlled him or
Controlled the Teamsters is misleading
There's no evidence that he was ever beholden to them. There's no evidence that they ever dominated his unions
So I don't think someone like Jimmy Hoffa makes a decision that well. I'm going to become a racketeer rather. It's an organic response
Hoffa has an opportunity here to
secure some type of defense on
behalf of his workers by forming
various partnerships with
Members of the underworld Jimmy Hoffa recognized. This is the way to go
This is the way to rise to the top and you got to get in bed with these guys
And they're gonna benefit and I'm going to benefit not complicated at all
One of the most stunning claims about Hoffa and the Teamsters said they were integral to the development of the global
heroin trade
Teamster trucks and locals may have been used to help flood the United States with Sicilian heroin and aftermath of World War two
And it all centered around hafez. First friend in the mob Frank Coppola a number of congressional
committee reports
Documented the relationship between Coppola and Hoffa and the Teamsters now Coppola is a really interesting character
He's a bootlegger in Los Angeles
He is a human trafficker in Mexico. He's a labor racketeer in Detroit
He's running drugs out of Cuba. He's all over the place the United States Deportes Coppola in
1948
Communist Party is popular in Italy the labor unions are gaining strength in Italy and
The US State Department has a very real concern that Italy will fall into
Communist hands and back in Sicily. He's a political power broker
He has unique connections to Italian senators. His brother is a powerful member of the clergy in
Sicily
even before the Nazis surrendered the Cold War was beginning and the US government was making deals with criminals and
former fascists in Europe to help fight a dirty war against communism in
Italy this was known as Operation Gladio
mafia, boss of bosses Lucky Luciano was working with the US government and
So was Jimmy Hoffa's old friend, Frank Coppola?
Coppola and Luciano got together and created a drug network
from Montreal there were two routes one was straight south into New York or it was handled by a
Guy from the Bonanno crime family a guy named carmine Galante
and then
Across Canada over the Detroit River into Detroit
congressional committee reports identified preachy Ola and quasi rano as two of the most
Significant and important drug traffickers in North America and Jimmy Hoffa in order to give these guys a facade of legitimacy
He set up a dummy local for them Teamsters Local for them to operate out of and the evidence suggests
That for quite some time
New York mafiosi were buying their heroin from the Detroit suppliers
Did Hoffa know about the narcotics trafficking? I can't prove that I?
suspect that someone as smart as Hoffa
Would not want to know
About what was going on, but I've interviewed retired
federal agents from
FBN and
They contend that within their offices. It was well known that that the Teamsters were protecting these drug traffickers
In
1952 Dave Beck became the new president of the Teamsters and Jimmy Hoffa became vice president
This was the peak moment for the union movement in the United States the most members the strongest voice
of most power and
government leaders and business leaders
both wanted to curb that they wanted to curb the union movement and and it's crucial to understand that that period
Coincided with the rise in labor regulation, especially from the federal government
So in the 30s when Hoffa was coming up
He was faced with
Constant competition from other unions which forced him to be militant and accountable to his members that forced him to be a good union leader
by the
1950s it was all but impossible for unions to compete against one another
So now with no outside elements left to fight Jimmy Hoffa turns his attentions inward
he goes after his own president, Dave Beck and
Hoffa makes a deal with some really bad people
Including a New York racketeer named Johnny Deol Deol was infamous
He had been implicated in an acid attack and crusading journalist victory
So where acid was thrown in his face and he was blind and permanently?
The American labor movement go off track to a certain degree. I sure did but did corporate America go off track sure it did
It's it's just it's almost a human condition when you've got that much power that much status that much wealth
So meanwhile Hoffa has an unknown nemesis criss-crossing in the country
Trying to bring him down Bobby
Kennedy was working for John McClellan a senator running
Senate investigation into labor and you need corruption
The McClellan hearings was also a means through which to attack the union movement in terms of public relations
That the movement was full of goons and criminals
People like Jimmy Hoffa and that's really the purpose it served
Hoffa knew, he was next to be called in front of the Senate, but he had a plan he tried to plan a spy
Right inside Bobby Kennedy's office Hoffa trying to keep tabs on what the Senate committee was doing
Was introduced to a guy named John side cheese steep. Well cheese
He was an honest guy and he went to Bobby Kennedy's people and he said listen
Jimmy Hoffa has come to me and made me this offer
So Kennedy and cheese tea set off up
when he goes to pass the money off the cheese see the FBI is there to arrest him he
Gives the documents to Jimmy Hoffa Jimmy Hoffa gives him the money
and this is all memorialized on on film and
hafiz indicted charged with extortion
He was represented by Edward Bennett Williams. Who was the premier criminal defense attorney in America?
He arranged to have he being Williams
Arranged to have Joe Lewis sit in the front row and when the jury when the jury selection was going on
he shook hands with Joe Lewis and it's difficult again today to go back to realize what a
a symbol to the african-american community
Joe Lewis was in the 50s and the 60s and this was a carefully orchestrated
Event to give Jimmy Hoffa some credibility. It's a jury comes out
And sure enough Jimmy Hoffa is acquitted
August of 57 fresh off his victory at trial
Jimmy Hoffa is finally called in front of the McClellan committee on labor corruption and he and Bobby Kennedy go at it
the hatred between
Bobby Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa was of mythical proportions
Kennedy really had a paternalist image of the world. He was a wealthy
Boy who was raised with this idea of noblesse of leisure the idea that the wealthy are obligated to help their lessers
He had to remove the dictators who were oppressing the people of the third world
He had to remove the dictators from within the union's who were oppressing the working class like Jimmy Hoffa
I think Bobby Kennedy saw all this as a chance to get himself some national exposure
Probably at his father Joe Kennedy's suggestion
By creating a mythology of Hoffa being so dangerous to America a tactic
He learned at the feet of Joel McCarthy who was actually a family friend of the Kennedys. He made himself into a hero
protecting America from the bad men like Jimmy Hoffa
Bobby Kennedy thought that Jimmy Hoffa was an enemy of Orthodox society
He believed that that with with Hoffa having the ability to shut down this country with his
Control over the trucking union that he was a national security threat
and he believed that Havas association with organized crime just
quadrupled the threat to this country
Consequently, Jimmy Hoffa was a person who had to be stopped
He was also very Christian man with the idea that the holy should save and redeem and uplift
Those who have not been saved
He saw the whole world as a group of people
Inferior to himself who needed to be raised to his level
I
Don't think Hoffa ever viewed himself as a racketeer
in fact in in to the extent that he acknowledged his relationships with with the underworld he was actually
Unapologetic about it. Did you say that SOB?
I'll break his back fool you I'll hold to anyone
Did you make that statement after these people testified before the committee?
In fact what you're gonna break this two hopper to give his speech. I don't even know who I was talking about
Not on what you're talking about
As for Bobby his father Joe's money and influence were the only reason that Kennedy brothers
Were such rising stars on a political scene at such a young age
The federal government really had no business and intervening in that but Bobby Kennedy saw to it. Anyway, and in many ways he
And the Democratic leadership with the CIO leadership
Really put a web of constraints about around the labor movement that destroyed labor activism
Some of his close associates claimed he would write a check to
The Boston archdiocese say for a million dollars the archdiocese would take 900 thousand in cash
From the parishioners contributions and give it to Kennedy Kennedy then could write off his million-dollar donation
And he had 900 thousand in cash to pass around in grease palms to help his two sons get elected
so it must have been a real bitter pill for Jimmy Hoffa to swallow to sit in front of that Senate committee and be
browbeating by the likes of the son of Joe Kennedy
The hearings eventually ended and teamster president
Dave Beck got indicted and sent to prison and Jimmy Hoffa became Teamsters president
so now Jimmy Hoffa has the power and it's time to pay back the people who helped him get there and
One of the ways he could do that was with the Teamsters pension fund
Which was operated by a hastily thrown together
Insurance company called Union casualty which was run by a guy named Paul Dorfman
And his son Allen Dorfman huge amounts of the Las Vegas Strip were financed with loans from the central state
Pension fund which was under the control of Jimmy Hoffa the Tropicana the circus circus the elad
Caesars Palace the Hacienda
Stardust the Fremont all of them funded with Teamster pension money and all of them lapped up
So what gets lost in all of this talk about the Teamsters pensions and how it went to Las Vegas and other mafia
Endeavors, you know, it's that which is all true it
It is also true their pensions were
Tremendous they were much higher than they would have been had Hoffa not existed even during his corrupt phase
They were getting very wealthy pensions. They were getting wages that were far higher than truck drivers were making 20 years earlier
Nobody in this country
Respects what's weak you believe me?
Well because we are financially something
Because we do have an organization that is the crook that they handle any situation that comes in front of us
We're successful in getting from the applause that I remembers one and neophytes
Chicago Cleveland, Kansas City
They would whack the money up depending on
which model each had a piece of that particular casino the the number of varies from 12 million to 20 million a year from
Six casinos to ten casinos. However, many the Jewish Dorfman was a towering figure in organized crime and wasn't afraid of violence
I was got an anonymous call. I
to meet a source
Who's gonna give me information about Dorfman?
broad-daylight public place and even hesitate to go and I got jumped there and I got I got
Really? Cuz the worst beating I've ever taken a lot of them were prosecuted a lot of the guys who were involved in this were
Indicted in and went to jail but it was all about cooking the books
The story of Allen Dorfman in Las Vegas was dramatized in Martin Scorsese's movie Casino
And Dorfman himself was gunned down in Chicago in the early
1980s here in Chicago this afternoon
Allen Dorfman a man with reported ties to organized crime and to the Teamsters Union for the past 30 years
Was shot to death in what police are describing as a gangland-style execution?
Dorfman died here in a suburban Chicago parking lot from as many as seven 22 caliber gunshot wounds to the head
Dorfman was about to go to prison for his conviction last month and the Teamsters bribery conspiracy trial
From Islam whole in the while Sierra Maestra mountains Cuba's Fidel Castro emerged triumphant after two years of guerrilla warfare
Against the Batista regime in the late 50s. Jimmy Hoffa got himself mixed up in the deepest levels of America's secret politics
When Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba Dwight Eisenhower told the CIA to kill him
But of course this was easier said than done because the hit could never be linked back to the US government. So
unbelievably the CIA
Contacted the Mafia to help them kill Fidel Castro. My boss is like Santos Trafficante
Carlos Marcello and Meyer Lansky
Had lost tens of millions of dollars and Castro seized power and they were the ones that had the connections to the Cuban exile community
That could help the CIA
Get poison in or get an assassin in and take Castro out
The CIA's first contact with the mob may well have been through Jimmy Hoffa
During this time
Hoffa's right-hand, man
Rollin McMaster high ranking teamster official went down to florida set up a teamster office in miami
Which was full of cuban exiles was a hotbed of anti-castro activity and right inside the teamster office in Miami
Santo Trafficante
One of the most powerful mob bosses in the country had an office
A guy named Bob Mayhew came in was brought into the plots
By the head of covert operations for the Central Intelligence Agency
Robert Mayhew incidentally was close friends and business partners with Jimmy
Hoffa was old lawyer, Edward Bennett Williams and shared office space with them back in Washington DC. You know I interviewed
Mayhew just just a few blocks from here at the Georgetown yet here in Washington
He told me that his job was to
Get to Santo Trafficante who had been released from the Cuban prison after he had been in prison by Castro Neves los 60
in April of 59
But he didn't but make you didn't know traffic hottie, he knew that it was gonna take a boss to deal with another boss
But he didn't know Abbas
But he did know a guy named Johnny Roselli
And so Bob Mayhew worked with Johnny Roselli who brought in Johnny
Roselli was a Chicago gangster
And so he brings in CM Giancana who at the time was?
kind of the acting boss in Chicago
And it was Sam Giancana who brings in Santo Trafficante into the and to what becomes a CIA mafia plots to kill Castro
but we have evidence of the fact that
Jimmy Hoffa was the original liaison between the CIA and the Mafia in the Castro
Assassination plots during that period between December 1959 and August of 1960 when Bob Mayhew
Became involved in those plots. Well the CIA my plots to kill Castro obviously failed. They did have profound consequences
Which likely culminated in the murder of President Kennedy in Dallas in?
1963 the CIA's bungled maneuvering had created a dangerous nexus of players
Ranging from Hoffa and the Teamsters to Cuban dissidents my bosses
Infringed characters like Lee Harvey Oswald. So when Bobby Kennedy became Attorney General, he had a hit list of
organized crime figures and their associates he had targeted for prosecution and
Number-one on that hit list was Jimmy Hoffa dan moldea wrote the seminal book on Hoffa and the Teamsters
Right in the immediate aftermath of office disappearance and he's convinced that New Orleans my boss Carlos Marcello
Who had his own run-ins with Bobby Kennedy?
conspired with Hoffa and others to somehow manipulate Lee Harvey Oswald into killing JFK
And then had mafia associate Jack Ruby killed Oswald
Before he could spill the story shut. He's been shot
Oswald has been shot
That the murder John Kennedy is a straight mob hit Jimmy Hoffa
Carlos Marcello
Santo Trafficante arrange and execute the murder Marcello Hoffa and
Traficante did share the same lawyer a guy named Frank Logano who made the claim years later when he was trying to sell a book
That offer had him carry the contract to kill
JFK to Marcelo in Trafficante the mob guys
were absolutely
Horrified as to what was going on saying that they were gonna have to go back to Europe just to feed themselves that Bobby Kennedy
Was just destroying their businesses that they would die
themselves if they could get rid of Bobby Kennedy as Attorney General
I think the Kennedys were definitely playing both sides of the fence when it came to organized crime the FBI
actually recorded a wiretap between Chicago mobsters Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli that their
donation to JFK's
Campaign had been accepted but that Bobby Kennedy wouldn't let up on them and their friends
It was his fourth criminal trial in ten years, but this time Bobby Kennedy had a new trick up his sleeve
He had a mole inside office camp that was feeding him information
As the trial was going on the person who ended up being the key government witness
against
Jimmy Hoffa was a guy named
edy Grady partner from Baton Rouge Louisiana local 5 as a teamster official and Edie Parton had knowledge of
the fixing of the jury
In fact when he called the Justice Department and spoke with Walter Sheridan who was the head of Bobby Kennedy's get Hoffa squad
He said flat out
Office fixing to fix the jury the problem with all this was Edie Parton himself
Burton supplied Kennedy with the inside info to convict off on jury tampering. But Burton was a guy who'd been arrested
for everything from manslaughter to
Embezzling Union funds and he was actually out on bail
for those crimes when he miraculously saw the light and
decided to help get Hoffa and one of the reasons why II D partnered step forward was because Jimmy Hoffa
Had told him that he was planning to kill Bobby Kennedy when Walter Sheeran heard this information. They immediately put him on a polygraph
Not just about the jury tampering business
But about the the attempted the the plot to murder Bobby Kennedy
Ed Parton passed the polygraph tests on everything flying colors
September of 1962 another FBI informant was talking to a mafia guy named Carlos Marcello who probably
controlled Jimmy Hoffa
And Marcelo said were not killing Bobby Kennedy because everyone everywhere would know in two seconds
Who did it if Bobby Kennedy was found dead. We're gonna kill the president
The guy who controls Bobby Kennedy if you get rid of the president you'd get rid of Bobby Kennedy
And we've got a guy to do the job
Marcello's
partner alter-ego Santo Trafficante the mafia boss of Tampa, Florida
Was talking to another FBI
informant named Jose
Alma and he made it clear that it was Jimmy Hoffa who was making the arrangements for the
President's murder in the weeks leading up to Kennedy and Oswald's murders
Jack Ruby had
numerous phone calls
with people like
teamster
Enforcer Barney Baker who was suspected in many murders and had worked personally for Hoffa and Meyer Lansky
So was Jimmy Hoffa involved in a plot to kill JFK the
church committee, which was a Senate investigation looking into
U.s. Intelligence operations determined that Hoffa had the means motive and opportunity
to help kill John F Kennedy
But that doesn't mean he did
It was determined that Hoffa had tampered with a member of the jury and so he was rien de 'td on charges of jury tampering
For which he received an 8 year sentence
He was convicted on a second case in Chicago
Involving pension fraud where he received another five years. So he was given a 13 year prison sentence
With his raincoat covering handcuffs Hoffa arrives at federal prison and Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
He said his attorneys would continue his fight while he's in jail
parole is possible in 32 months at
$100,000. Annually, he's the nation's highest paid prisoner
So Jimmy Hoffa gets sent to Lewisburg federal prison
Things get even more complicated for Hoffa there because he's housed with Genovese II mob captain Tony Provenzano
who was also the president of a huge Teamster local in New Jersey at the time and the two of them actually got into a
fistfight with
Hoffa yelling
it's guys like you that got me in here in the first place at the time all this is going on in prison a
National mob war is brewing out in the real world
1964 65 66 was the banana Wars Joe bonanno's son Bill Bonanno
deciding to
Whack three of the heads of the five families
Joe banana wound up in Tucson, Arizona and
in Tucson, Arizona
He made a pact with two southern organized crime figures one was Carlos Marcello the mafia boss of New Orleans
And the other was Santo Trafficante of Tampa if the Bonanno marcello
Trafficante southern powers could control Hoffa they probably could control the single biggest prize
In the country the Teamster pension fund which was really the goose that was laying golden egg after golden egg
Ultimately the mafia Commission patched up the rift between the Mafia families and Jimmy Hoffa was left on the outside
Looking in but now with a new deadly enemy in the form of Anthony Tony Pro Provenzano
Murder upstairs or a man with 50 years alongside of you and when you're trying to sleep under those conditions
Unless you have a tremendous willpower. You're constantly with one eye open
Looking to see whether or not you'll survive the night for the next day
From the 1930s through the
1970s most unions were giving their money their campaign money to Democrats
Hoffa gave his money to whomever would help the Teamsters and himself and so sometimes it gave his money to Democrats sometimes to Republicans by
The early 1970s when he was in prison
Richard Nixon was president and it would became quite convenient for the Teamsters to give money to
Nixon and the Republicans and in exchange he received a pardon
Well, I appreciate the fact that he signed a commutation papers whatever it effect will have on the members
I can't say I haven't talked to any members. Do you regard? This is a strictly political move
No, I do not
I think there was a regular routine commutation based upon my time served based upon my sentence in the background other sentence
Too far away to make any prediction of what I will do politically and why would Nixon do that and if Hoffa was this terrible?
Organized labor figure slash gangster. Why is he entitled to a pardon those kind of things were all questions back then?
It's certainly undermine Nixon to a great degree
I mean that was one of the many things that when people started to talk about Nixon as a
President who?
Didn't play by the rules the Nixon as a president who ultimately became the the
Paranoid president that this was an example of that. This was mixing the dealmaker while Jimmy Hoffa was in prison from 67 to 71
America changed a lot when he got out
office time had really passed in a lot of ways high for one segment of the American population
epitomized
Organized labor working for the the blue-collar the common man giving him his rights giving him decent wages and working conditions
But for the people that were involved in the protests of the 1960s
They that want to change that were progressive that were liberal
Organized labor had become in a lot of ways part of the problem the sons and daughters of blue-collar
Workers who had going on to get an education kind of looked askance at all of that. They didn't appreciate
unions really were about what they saw were unions corrupting the system and I think hopper
epitomized that to them on the other hand
He epitomized the the champion for the common man for the earlier generation of workers teamster Vice President Frank Fitzsimmons
Was running the Teamsters show with Hoffa way in prison, and he was even more
Accommodating than Hoffa had been to organized crime
But Fitzsimmons just let everyone to do their thing
That's the way he liked it. And that's the way the vice-president's liked it. And that's the way the mob liked this union or I
And in the hands of organized crime this Union has nothing to hide on the general presidency of Frank Fitzsimmons
many of these guys
Had feathered their own personal nests pretty well
during the the Fitzsimmons tenure and the only thing that he was looking at at that point was trying to get back into a
Leadership position with the Union who didn't seem to want him around anymore
he really only had one thing on his mind which was
claiming back the Teamsters presidency
This was his baby his really his his joy in life was being the president of the Teamsters
Even though he had been involved with organized crime. He always figured it was a
50/50 relationship where he was getting things from them and returning forgiving things to them
not only personally but for the labor movement he thought that Frank Fitzsimmons had become a Lackey for the
For the members of organized crime, and he was very interested in getting back into the Teamsters Union
was gonna do whatever he could to get his power back and if that
involved
Agreeing to war or deciding to take some of the mob influence out of the Union
- was willing to do that to get the power back
Hoffa's desperation reached a point where my sources in the federal government. Tell me that he actually became an FBI
informant, this is a
Well-kept secret and the fact that it really hasn't been a public record
But that Hoffa was actually a full-fledged informant by the end. There was an actual quid pro quo between
Hoffa and his handlers in the federal government and the FBI that in exchange for Hoffa fiend
information about what he knew the FBI
the federal government was gonna help lift the restriction on
Hafez ability to run for the presidency of the Teamsters and that he would be allowed to run in
1976 the the word on the street was that
Hafez restriction was most likely to be lifted was really a problem for
the mob in the sense that they realized that Hoffa had enough support and
Enough momentum behind him that he could easily win that
1976 election from Machiavelli fortune favors the bold. He was going to make a bold move to try to come back
but I think there were just too many players involved too many people who didn't want him to come back and he and he couldn't
Control all the events and all the players as he could have maybe
20 years earlier when he was at the peak of his power in the Teamsters Union. So hafez relationship with the Mafia is quickly deteriorating
his really only
liferaft at this point are the Jack Aloni brothers Anthony Tony Jack Giacalone II and Vito Billy Jack Giacalone II the street bosses of the
Detroit mafia the men that are really the faces of organized crime in Detroit
They do all the dirty work through the junkyard dogs, and they have long been hafez contacts. The Detroit family goes way back
I mean, it's one of the original families
It's part of the part of the Commission part of the National Commission through my years of undercover work
I don't I don't believe that I was ever ever able to really
penetrate the mob the Detroit mafia if you will these people had
Charisma, some of them were very like likable people. I think they were they were friendly but
from a distance from afar they were not the kind of people that would take a shining to
strangers as part of their their culture their makeup
They don't deal with with strangers it
The mob knew the only way to get Hoffa out in the open was to lure him and that war was Tony Provenzano
Hoffa understood the only way that he was going to get the requisite number of
delegates to take back the Teamsters Union in the 76 election was to make peace with Tony Provenzano a man that he had actually put
into power in the Union was very good friends with until they had a
Rather bitter falling-out and prison and Hoffer knew he had to squash the beef
The Jacqueline is knew that
that
bringing Tony Provenzano to Detroit as a lure would be the way they get Hoff out in the open because Hoffa
Needed that support. I mean there was a saying in Detroit that
If you didn't know that person when he was sucking his mama's breasts
Stay away from him. Don't trust him. And and that's that's the way they acted. They grew up together
They socialized together. They married one another and they they died together
insulated protected group by
themselves it was a
appropriate
In hafez, mind that Giacalone ii would be acting as the go-between Tony Provenzano. 'he's
First cousin was Tony Giacalone. His wife were the Giacalone E brothers were actually going to his house
I believe on July 26th in July 27th. Trying to a
Get Hoffa to come out of hiding if you will
He was very cautious about who he was dealing with out in the public and they also wanted to ease his
Worries that he was endangered one fact, he was in danger
but the jackal owners were playing both sides of the fence at this point, and they
Arranged a meeting at the Makos red fox for two o'clock on July 30th
1975 Hoffa
was felt comfortable going to that meeting because he was told that both Tony Giacalone II and Lenny Schultz would be at that meeting a
brokering the deal
Hoffa was willing then to bury the hatchet with provenzano if Provenzano came to Detroit
The jackal oneis convinced Hoffa that Provenzano was coming to Detroit so they set that meeting for that afternoon
Hoffa lounge around the house for most of that after for most of that mounting he left around
12:30 stopped in Pontiac at a limo service. That was run by
A friend of his by the name of Louie lento people called him the Pope
He showed up there lento was not there. So Hoffa left him a message and took off the meeting himself and
arrived after machus red fox
1:45 two o'clock. He waited in the restaurant for around a half hour and realized that he had been stood up
was
Frazzled by this he was upset. He went across the across the parking lot to a
hardware store and made two phone calls
The first was to Louie lento at that limousine service to tell him that
He had been stood up and that he was leaving that he was upset about it. And then the second was to his wife
At this point Hoffa is seen walking through his car in the parking lot. It's around 2:45, and he is met by a
Mercury Marquis according to witnesses was occupied by three men
Two men in the front seat and one in the back
Hoffa is seen getting into this car and the car is seen driving away on a telegraph road. Never to be seen again
And with this disappearance really started
arguably the most fascinating
mystery in in the criminal annals of America the most
prominent labor leader in America
It just disappears and nobody saw anything even though his wife was concerned and was calling people
Nobody was overly concerned about an adult male not coming home at five six seven eight o'clock at night
I mean that's been known to happen
Under heavy guard here the late this afternoon the family broke his silence and asked for public assistance in the search for Jimmy Hoffa
I have asked anybody who might have information concerning my father's whereabouts. Please come forward
Agents in in the organized communities in every major city, but particularly, New York, New Jersey
Detroit Chicago Boston were all
Taking every effort they could establish any connection or any inter interaction between the cities
These are almost all face-to-face meetings and private settings
I remember the time period people were running around with shovels digging holes and fields all around Metro Detroit
there's a whole experience when I first got to Detroit is
this is just like the movies, you know, I had always wanted to be an FBI agent and
Now it was seemed like you were going from one major case to another
All of these whack job nutty people would call me son
I finally got to the point with people when they called me who told me where he was
I just said go get a shovel go dig a hole. If you find anything. Call me before you call the FBI
I think the feeling was
that you know that
We're gonna throw all our resources at this and our history is such that generally speaking, you know
We we get to the bottom of it according to spokesman for the organized crime strike force
There will be a major announcement concerning the Hoffa case by the end of this week. I
mean III believe these guys were were smarter than we sometimes give them credit for and I think that when they picked the people
That were gonna get rid of Jimmy Hoffa
They picked people who they were 100% sure would never reveal what they had done
You know, they knew where they were gonna get rid of the body before they whacked them
I mean, there's no doubt in my mind about that. So they weren't driving around looking for a place to go
They weren't gonna say, you know, let's put him in this temporary space and then we're gonna move them
They they clearly had plenty of time to do anything
They wanted with the remains of Jimmy Hoffa
Between the time they left the markets redfox and the time anybody fully started looking which was 10 11 12 o'clock the following
Day, I believe this thing was planned out with precision. They knew who was going to do it
They knew how they were gonna kill him and they knew where they were going to dispose of the body
the reputation of
Anthony Jacqueline II was that he was a brilliant man who could have run one of the big three that he was that smart
feared by the average person and well-known to the media
He had a very imposing personal presidency that point he was notorious for dressing in a very flashy style
He was a man of very few words
But was someone with just the nod of his head could
make things happen such as people disappearing the jaw colonias Joseph John colognian Vito Giacalone II were in yesterday, but
Speculation as to when you might be calling Anthony, generally
You don't have to continue to speculate. I wish I could help you. But you know that I can
I can only assume he did I advised him to do that. He was only in there short minute or two
And he came out
And I didn't ask him the question
I assumed he did you have no idea what kind of questions may have been put to it there
I doubt if the guide passed his name and address
Tony Giacalone II that day shows up at the Southfield Athletic Club spends the entire day at the Southfield Athletic Club
He was known by many people to be a very sort of surly taciturn kind of guy
But he must have asked 50 people at the Southfield Athletic Club said what times?
At the time you get the time never talked to anybody
They didn't need to talk to especially didn't talk to regular civilians on a regular basis. He was going around shaking everyone's hand
Asking people what time it was how their day was going to establish an alibi for himself
according to FBI surveillance records jack toko the acting boss of the detroit family at that time came from
Macomb County
To Oakland County to meet with jackal Oni. Jackal Oni and Tocco were not very close
They did not meet face to face very often. The fact that toko was coming to Oakland County coming to South o'clock that afternoon
Really told the FBI and investigators that something very important had just happened
Chuckie O'Brien was a
Surrogate son if you will to Jimmy Hoffa he was also
Very close to Tony Giacalone II his mother. Sylvia Pagano was a bit of a gun wall
One of those women that kind of got passed around the mob
She had affairs with several members of organized crime in Detroit
Two of them being Jimmy Hoffa and Tony Giacalone II
He had a falling out with Jimmy Hoffa and had really aligned with Tony Giacalone II
After my clients full cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation the Michigan State Police and the Bloomfield Township Police
Were a total of nearly eight hours of intensive interviewing on an entirely voluntary basis?
I am surprised and somewhat chagrined as a matter of fact that the government now feels compelled to make fir weary of mr. O'Brien
I'm friends
O'Brien was said to have been in possession of
jackal
only son Joey's car that afternoon the car that the end the FBI and investigators believe
Hoffa was kidnapped in why was he using a jackal? Oniy? A jackal only kids car on that particular day
That's always been an issue that fascinated the bureau and caused them to look in the Tarkio brain now
the issue that I have with that
specific
Allegation is the fact that Hoffa and O'Brien at that time had
Really really been on very very bad terms
And that Jimmy Hoffa would not feel comfortable getting in the car with Chuckie O'Brien
Despite that. There are a lot of people that believe
O'Brien was the one that took off from the red fox to the place that he was murdered
I don't think they would have felt comfortable with Chuckie O'Brien
Out there as a guy who could put a point of finger at them. What worst person. Could you put in charge of?
Your life and with giving critical information than Chuckie O'Brien
You know
I have some guys steal a car and give it the through three layers of removal and then you pick it up
These guys wouldn't had trouble getting a car, you know, the ha fax. My mama says that he was basically
Incompetent and a liar. Why didn't they kill O'Brien afterward? Why would they leave him alive?
Why would they leave any of these guys alive? I?
Don't believe that the organized crime
Members that set this hit up would use Chuckie O'Brien in any way shape or form
Other than very very menial tasks and frankly
Being the one to drive Hoffa to his murder destination is not a menial task
Tony Pro was a capital in the Genovese crime family and the Genovese crime family
I in my estimation was the most powerful the most well-run and the most organized of the five New York families. Tony Pro was
Controlled Teamsters Local 560 out of North Jersey today Provenzano acknowledged Hoffa was an old friend
But he said he hadn't seen him in years and could shed. No light on Hoffa's disappearance
supposed to meet with half of the pain just
Imagine did you manage to the Finnish testimony? Yes, we did. Yes. We did. Woody why so briefly it wasn't that brief
No, they asked questions that we gave answer all the time
I
Don't believe that we would serve any worthy purpose to discuss out here on the street
What transpired in the grand jury room they have a job to do them. They're doing their very best
in love
We knew there was an eyewitness
who had
Kind of but not quite
Identified Sabu Julio his problem was that he had read newspaper accounts?
And he was I think he was trying to sort of help the FBI along rather than simply being an untainted witness
But the problem was they didn't know if his information was coming from news reports or whether it was whether it was untainted
information they'd had witnessed Bhrigu leo was a old-school grizzled gangster that really looked the part and someone that
Really didn't flash a smile that much. It's a whi belief that burgoo leo and aunt Greta were
Sent by pro Misano to detroit to be his representatives on the Hoffa head
We knew that a guy named Ralph Picardo was telling the FBI
What they knew about Jimmy Hoffa's murder according to Ralph Picardo office stuffed into a 55-gallon drum
And shipped via Gateway transportation truck to an unknown destination
And this is what the FBI's initial understanding of the case was so you have Russell Bufalino. Who's the
acting head of the Genovese crime family
You have Tony Provenzano who's a capo in the Genovese crime family?
And then you have his guys salaburu or gay burglar Tommy and Rhetta. Stevia and Rhetta
Being the guys who were actually the mechanics in this operation
You know two people can keep a secret if one is dead
There isn't a want or a need for information then they don't know about it or want to know about it for that very purpose
does it make any sense that you would carry Jimmy Hoffa around in a
55-gallon barrel when you could just simply take him to central sanitation and dispose of the body
I think that that's where the feds eventually landed on that and he said just bottom line
Makes no sense at all. You don't kill somebody and then cart their body across country
Nobody in the other world's going to do that kind of stuff
Well the next day I pick up the phone I call
Salaburu Leola and ask for him at local 5/6 he gets on the phone. I see says
Yo, who's this? And I said, my name's damn Aldea and he says what do you need?
And I said, I I'm a journalist and I'd like to come and talk to you
He says what do you want to talk about? I said the offer disappearance
He goes what makes you think I have anything to say about that? I said because mr. Berger leo
you've neither been indicted or arrested and the entire world is saying that you killed Jimmy Hoffa and the
Government is putting this information out and I think the government might be violating your civil rights
Body being stuffed in a 55-gallon
Maker too expensive there at the hands of the CIA because
Now
You'd be better off
Asking the CIA agent. Let's get the FBI FBI to investigate
CIA and then
There you'd have the answer
This guy was a giant he was a big guy
Had a glass eye too
When I would be following you wherever you and the other eye was just staring straight into the distance. He was a scary guy
I mean master was a
larger-than-life character well physically and and story-wise he was a
Business agent for the Teamsters. He was involved in union activities organizing getting Union votes
Probably weighed 300 pounds over six six or six seven huge hands
Personally an intimidating guy and I think if you wanted to send a message to people to physically intimidate them
Rolland McMaster was a guy who if he showed up at your door probably generated that kind of reaction
I mean McMaster was working with Santo Trafficante down in Miami for sure
McMaster was part of the Cuban process McMaster knew a lot of stuff
A lot of people viewed McMaster as a knuckle-dragger. This guy was a this guy was a sharp guy. I
Tend to agree with him that wrong McMaster could have played a role
In the assassination. He was one of the most trusted
Non-italian Union non mob union members and someone that had a lot of knowledge of past
Union mob relationship Union mob wrongdoing because I was convinced that
role of McMaster and his
zombie Stooges who work for him were somehow involved in Jimmy Hoffa's murder and
Probably responsible for the disposal of Jimmy Hoffa's body. I believe that I got a call on that on
August 4th
1975 that's five days after Jimmy Hoffa's and I have not moved from that position since then
Everything I have seen and heard
Reinforces everything I believe there was a lot of violence going on in the Teamsters in the months leading up to hafez disappearance
dan, moldea believes that Roland was involved deeply involved and
Probably knew what happened to Hoffa
Half of people being under seeds where their houses were being bombed there both were being bombed. You had people being shot
people today don't realize bombings of
Businesses and
These kinds of things were much more common occurrence the real action is right in Detroit
This is where it's this is where it's all happening this local 299 violence is a big
Story and everybody is ignoring it. He was going after this story full-bore
He was willing to put himself in harm's way to get the book
there was one guy who was so upset about
McMaster that I was asking questions about Megan and this is a Hoffa guy
this was a guy I felt comfortable with the guy pulls a gun out and
Sticks it in my mouth
Yeah, sticks the fucking gun in my mouth less than two months before Hoffa disappeared
Little little Fitz Richard Fitzsimmons the son of Frank Fitzsimmons that current Teamsters president
Had his car blown out in the parking lot of Nemo's a popular
tavern right by the 250 local
There was a lot of people that believed that Hoffa set that bomb to try to kill Fitz and little Fitz
There are other people that believe that there were
Actual teamster goom's that set that bomb in that car to make it look like Hoffa was trying to kill the Fitzsimmons and in return
Would get Hoffa killed James for President Frank Fitzsimmons is now a principal figure in the investigation of the disappearance of James Hoffa
But federal agents on the Harper case are now taking a very close
Look at Fitzsimmons activities just before and just after Hoffa disappeared
It's impossible to believe that the guys who are behind all of this local 299 violence
which goes right up until 20 days before Hoffa disappears with the bombing at this dick Fitzsimmons car and
That these guys aren't involved in the denim wha-what, Jimmy Hoffa disappears on July 30th
You know, please on the other hand you look at it and you say to yourself
well the Mafia families in New York and Detroit they had a long list of
Very very established and well honed
Executioner's hitmen if you will and it makes you think well
Why would they bring in a guy like McMasters when they have so many?
You know guys that can do the job in their own backyard
it wouldn't they had trouble finding a house or a
Location to do whatever they wanted to do, and I don't think they were leaving on a piece of property
They owned or in the barn on Roland McMasters property unless I was trying to frame ruling McMaster
We broke the story yesterday how Frank Sheeran claims he shot Hoffa two times in the back of the head in this house
Sheeran was a Delaware Teamsters union president
Self-confessed mob hitman a close friend of Jimmy Hoffa and the subject of a new book
He says the mob ordered hoppers death to prevent him for running for the Teamsters presidency. Frank. Sheeran was a
high-ranking
Union official out of Pennsylvania and Delaware as well as a
High-ranking mob associate that was very close to Russell Bufalino. He was Bufalino his bodyguard and Driver
He was another man that would often act as a go-between or a liaison between the mob and Hoffa
They stopped at Port Clinton in Ohio near Toledo
Sharon gets out climbs in a small private plane and they fly to Detroit and they land at the Pontiac Airport
Sharon gets in a car that's waiting for him drives to this location
picks up a couple of guys goes goes up to the Marcus red fox to give Jimmy bring him back and
and Sharon kills him, but I had a pilot tell me you can't just fly a private plane to
Pontiac head for Metro Airport
you gotta it takes you got to get around the air traffic area and
He found his story to be a little improbable where you're gonna get somebody like Frank Sheeran who you know also claims to have been
Involved in the murder of Joey Gallo and also claims to have provided the guns that were used in the Kennedy assassination
Well, you know if those things are true this guy stayed under the radar for a very very long time and it's kind of hard
To believe they heard that Sharon is writing a book and they wanted to bring me on as a consultant
About Sharon, but then that one fell apart because they just caught him in so many lies
And then apparently Maria Shriver had done the interview
once again, you know, they're gonna bring me on this consultant and once again,
Sharon's lies just caused the whole thing to fall apart in
2001 he says you saw Berg Orioles the killer then 2003 when Dateline NBC calls me there's one
Different thing I said, what's that?
He says Sharon's now claiming that he is the killer and I'm going he's saying himself they did the job
And he said yeah
He says what's more valuable a book by a guy who was there or by a book by a guy who actually pulled the trigger?
I don't know what motivates a guy to make up the story that says he killed huff and before he died
She's well these guys don't think the way the rest of us do I mean Sharon was mostly concerned about the money
Because he was going to die and he was broke and he needed to leave some money to his family
Well, I never bought the Frank Sheeran story
I mean I well if you're the Mafia, all right
If you're organized crime and you're gonna kill a person like Jimmy Hoffa kidnap and kill him
Why would you bring in a guy who's not part of your organization?
Who's not subject to the rules and discipline who hasn't agreed to what you believed in
Why would you bring in somebody from the outside?
They certainly had more than enough people capable and and in the government's opinion more than enough people who've murdered people in the past
There's no need to go outside and find anybody else. I have a hard time believing
his story
Strictly based on the fact of where he claims the murder took place
He claims it took place off seven-mile in Detroit on a street named beaver land
which would be a good 20 25 minute drive from the Makos red fox and
It's a house that he can't source to anybody. He can't
You know claim whose house it was or why they took him there. There was a DNA
Analysis done of the blood stains found in the entrance of the house
They proved not to be Hoffa which was really disappointing to a lot of us because we really wanted to see this thing
done once and for all I personally have a difficult time believing that the mafia would set up the Hoffa hit in any place that
Wasn't a hundred percent controlled
He thought he was speaking to somebody who was a large-scale Italian drug importer from
from Europe who came through Canada and Tony palazzolo brought the RCMP officer to this sausage factory and
As the RCMP officer described it. It was like a
organized crime Hall of Fame and he walked in he saw pictures on the wall of
Lucky Luciano Al Capone, there were crossed shotguns as if they were crossed sabers
During the course of that conversation, which was used at the trial
Tony palette solo pointed to the auger which was enormous and he said
that's where Jimmy Hoffa is or was that's that's where we put him and that is
where I believe
Jimmy Hoffa went I think he was ground up churned up and
Put in sausage or
Otherwise tony Palazzolo is definitely known as someone that was looked at as a possible
participant in the hotha hit he is someone that is currently in the 2000s a
Detroit mob captain but but at the time the disappearance was a
Up-and-coming young buck in the mob that had made his name as a bodyguard and Driver
For peak body by tally the vitality czar another group of mobsters that had a lot of close ties with Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters
The fact that Tony palazzolo might have been involved in this is is frankly very easy to believe
How did they get Jimmy into a car when he was at the red fox
Supposedly meeting Tony Giacalone if he goes to CSUN who went to me
Who was there to pick him up and who was there to explain why?
He couldn't go with Tony Giacalone II Billy Jack alone is whereabouts on that day or certainly not Elia is well known as his brothers
You
If billions said hey look Jimmy Tony can't make it he's here or there, you know
Let's get in the car and I know Vito Giacalone. He's in this thing. Yeah, just Vito Jacqueline
He's right in the middle of this whole thing. I just can't figure out exactly where he is
The State Police had been found Billy Jack ellonija around that week that tough disappeared
They went out the morning that morning that Hoffa disappeared looking for him and it couldn't find him and nobody saw him all day
So that tells me that he was probably there as the Detroit representative
I believe after talking to
Numerous sources both in the FBI and on the street itself guys that are actually in the mob
I believe that Hoffa was taken less than two miles away
To the house of Carlo Licata Licata was a Detroit mob member a mob soldier
Who was the brother-in-law of Jack and Tony toko?
Lakatos house was a five-minute less than a 5-minute drive from the mockers Redd Foxx
Lakatos house was also a place that Hoffa had been to meet the jackal oneis on
Several occasions before it was a house that was used as a meeting point
Licata himself was a trusted member of the of the family related to the administration as well as the house was
Almost a perfect location in the sense that it was back on a hill removed from the road
We think that he probably went to look at his house
That wasn't too far and I think they got him in the house. I think Billy Jack alone. He was probably there
I think somebody like and redis Magoo Leo's something like that was there and he was killed and then he was
Taken and disposed of pretty quickly. We think that they disposed of the body by taking it to the Sanitation place where they had
They had contacts
I'm convinced that within a half hour to an hour of Hoffa breathing his last breath that he was incinerated
That the body ceases to exist
and the the ability to get rid of the body was
Incredible with the Detroit mob in the sense that they had three separate sanitation companies all owned by
mob members and
The the one that everyone looks at primarily central sanitation was owned by Jimmy Posner. Ah, no
Paul and Peter of Italian Karl, Akana
there are a number of people I think central sanitation the facility played a role in the disappearance of the body of
James Hoffa and clearly quasi roiland by Talley would have been people because of their equity interest in that company who would have
had to be involved in the decision and and remember shortly after the
the events took place
Central sanitation burned to the ground and what I believe really puts the theory over the edge
Is that on the 6-year anniversary of Hoffman's disappearance on July 30th?
1981 Carlo Licata himself ended up dead at that house of two
gunshot wounds to the chest
It was ruled a suicide
But there are a lot of people both on the street and in law enforcement that believed this was anything but a suicide
That this was a message and obviously mr. Lokai demand is
demise and in that what is generally considered to be a
pedestrian manner
anyone that would even consider giving information about
The Hoffa hit no matter how close they are to the leaders of the mob. They will be a
sacrifice
The report names Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante as the most likely organized crime bosses to have been involved it
Provides evidence some of it inconclusive that they and teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa threatened John Kennedy Robert Kennedy
or both
further it suggests
associations through which they could have influenced accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald or
Oswald's killer Jack Ruby teamster boss Hoffa threatened John Kennedy
Robert Kennedy
or both the committee documents still unexplained phone contacts between Hoffa aides Andrew within a month of the
Assassination and says Hoffa had the motive opportunity and means to plan the murder now prior to that there were two
witnesses who were also subpoenaed to appear before the church committee Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana and
both of whom were executed
prior to their testimony
So there was speculation that Jimmy Hoffa would have gone to that committee and would have testified at least in part truthfully
Certainly clear that those three murders were connected the CIA. Mafia plastico Castro really weren't
known until many years later when Johnny Roselli started talking and
then the church committee had their hearings and it was understood that Jimmy Hoffa was
cooperating with the church committee
I think that that was that was the culmination and the concern of
The people or person who ended Jimmy Hoffa's life that before that committee
Jimmy Hoffa was going to say something that nobody wanted him to say
By
1990 I became the chief of the organized crime and racketeering
Section and it was my unit that was charged with investigating the Hoffa disappearance
You would hear stories some guys who claimed they were
Asked to dispose of a car or bring a package here or bring a box here and and the bureau correctly
Assiduously pursued all of those but I never believed that
I I think that these guys knew that they had to keep this operation the members of their own
Organization keep the number of people involved in any substantive way as small as possible
every time a wiseguy was picked up or every time a
case was indicted if it was
traditional La Cosa Nostra
people would be asked about it and
They would inherently give the same answer which was nothing
I would say the one that we became most excited about and ultimately turned out not particularly beneficial
Was the DNA evidence on the hair saying and analysis was done Harrow or more than one hair was found in the car
In the passenger compartment of the car
That indicated that that Hoffa had been in that car. We had hair from his hair brushes and he said
categorically unequivocally that that dog had put off
office scent in the trunk of that of
joy, jackal
oh nice mercury that gives you the idea that he was transported to wherever he was killed in the
Passenger compartment and for whatever reason when he was transported somewhere else
He was in the trunk Hoffa had been in that car. But the question is was he in the car the day?
That he died or the day that he disappeared who knows in 2003 investigators dug under a swimming pool in northern
Michigan in 2004. They ripped up the floorboards of a Detroit house
Just where is Jimmy Hoffa and that question hasn't been answered since the Teamsters boss disappeared three decades ago
But this week the FBI showed up at a Michigan horse farm and started digging
And I jumped out of my seat and I did a quadruple fist pump
Hoping that it was the farm. I I wanted it to be and
Slowly but surely the information came out and it was well known masters farm, you know, they tore down the barn
They had to rebuild the barn public money
controversy, the Congress are not there raised hell and
the dig stopped but the FBI said their last statement to the New York Times was
we believe
That hafez body was is buried here and it has not been moved. Yeah, we may return to this place
You know
You're always gonna have some boss somewhere that wants to make his or her career on
the fact that they were the one who was in charge when they found Jimmy Hoffa
My name is Bob Foley. I'm with the FBI's Detroit division with me here
I've got Mike Bouchard Oakland County Sheriff and Jeff guarded with the Bloomfield Township Police Department
The FBI and our partners are here this morning
To execute a search warrant
Based on information that we have
Involving the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa there's really stories that
He heard the story from Tony Giacalone
Information claiming that the property Hoffa was put on was at the time was owned by Jack toko his cousin and the convicted
Mob Godfather of Detroit looking for money has had some financial
Reversals it's looking for money trying to write a book
Trying to get somebody to pay him some money who has a Twitter account who has a website and Facebook in
And a website that says Hoffa found calm
Writing a book who's supposedly going to disclose where Jimmy Hoffa is buried. It's the kind of behavior
That would make luck Lucky Luciano spin in his grave and that's what traditional organized crime has come to here at least here in Detroit
you know to me it is a giant wild goose chase the fact that there are people running around trying to find the body is
ludicrous
Solving that crime very improbable at best. I think it would be nice, but it's not essential
I think there's other more important things that bureaus involved in nowadays in solving Jimmy Hoffa's murder this
Does not happen in America?
This murder must be solved
I don't know any case in the history of the federal government Criminal Investigations that has been looked at
It's many different ways in this may be different time
There's no easy answer to any of this and I don't think we're ever going to know
Yeah, I think both the champions of Hoffa and his detractors are wrong his champ his champions think that he was this great wonderful
Crusading union leader who cared about the working class in his rank-and-file. I don't see any evidence for that
His detractors see him as this immoral Satan satanic figure who was willing to sell out his members for anything
Hoffa was simply a product of his times Hoffa was militant because he had to be
Hoffa was able to be militant because he could be
Hoffa was simply interested in advancing himself and his career in
Enlarging his power within the Union and the labor movement. He had no other motives
He was a product of his times and that explains why he was who he was
Jimmy Hoffa had outlived his usefulness and he knew too much. So it was just easier to kill him
He had played a very complex game for a long time and eventually he overplayed his hand and that was it
was he a true believer because I think early on he was a true believer in terms of
Workers rights
It becomes difficult for him to detach
from these
partnerships that he formed with
The underworld people are coming after him within his own
Labor movement, the feds are coming after him. I think that's a nice way of thinking about it as Shakespearean
Tragedy, how do you navigate through these?
complicated
Moral questions if it wasn't for Jimmy Hoffa and others like him to fight on behalf of workers
There wouldn't have been that huge middle class that girded the country during the so-called Golden Age of the 50s and 60s
He had to get his hands dirty to do it and he loved the power and the perks that came with it
But so do politicians like the Kennedys and so do the so-called captains of industry who he battled
He didn't go to an Ivy League college
He wasn't born with connections, but it became one of the most powerful men in the country
One of the most loved men and one of the most hated
They don't make men like Jimmy Hoffa anymore at least not in America
You
Well, I believe the Teamsters are never going to
Take anything away from their dedication to mr. Hoffa because he happens to be the person that they
Knew and respected for a great number of years. I think they're all going to be delighted over the fact that he's home
I've had the association of knowing mr
Hoffa since even the young man of seventeen and how the youth of eighteen and
I hope that the fact that IRA teams is not going to name me the right to be able to say hello to him
You
