July 30, 1975: The Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa

July 30, 1975: Jimmy Hoffa goes to a meeting. Nobody knows the result of this meeting, because nobody ever saw Hoffa again. Anybody who did see him after this meeting hasn't been talking.

James Riddle Hoffa was born on February 14, 1913 in Brazil, Indiana, outside Terre Haute. Controversial Bishop James Pike was born the exact same day, and he would also disappear, although he was found -- dead. New York Yankees broadcaster Mel Allen was born the same day. So was Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes.

Hoffa was 7 when his father died, and at 11, his mother moved him to Detroit, where he lived for the rest of his life. He dropped out of school to go to work at age 14. Because of the abuses his sustained on his job, he was drawn to union activity. By 1932, he was a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which then represented truck drivers and chauffeurs, although it now represents a diverse group of blue-collar and professional workers.

Hoffa proved to be an organizing genius: In his rise through the Teamsters, they grew from 75,000 members in 1933 to 420,000 in 1939, actually growing despite the manpower drain of World War II (for which Hoffa's leadership role within the union got him a draft deferment), and topping 1 million in 1951. By 1952, Hoffa was the union's national vice president, and was elected president in 1957.

By this point, the actions of the Teamsters had attracted some inconvenient attention. The U.S. Senate's Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor or Management Field, chaired by John McClellan of Arkansas (and thus remembered as "the McClellan Committee"), called Hoffa's predecessor, Dave Beck, to Capitol Hill to testify on organized crime's influence on the union. He invoked his right against self-incrimination under the 5th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States 140 times, and was subsequently indicted and convicted of embezzlement. (He served 2 1/ 2 years in prison, and died in 1993, at age 99.)

One of the members of the McClellan Committee was John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. The legal counsel for the Committee was Kennedy's brother, Robert F. Kennedy. Bobby had discovered several financial irregularities, including the misappropriation of $9.5 million in union funds.

The exchange between Robert Kennedy and Hoffa was so intense, it not only inspired Bobby's 1st book, titled The Enemy Within, it inspired a 1983 TV-movie, titled Blood Feud, starring Robert Blake as Hoffa and Cotter Smith as Bobby. I found the book once, and couldn't believe that the man who wrote it was the same man who ran for President in 1968 on a message of peace and brotherhood. This Robert Kennedy was incredibly belligerent, and he didn't seem to have a nice thing to say about anybody.

Hoffa was indicted for bribery over this. He was acquitted, but the controversy led the AFL-CIO to expel the Teamsters from its ranks. This didn't stop Hoffa: He managed to bring airline workers and transport workers (bus drivers and subway motormen) under the Teamsters' umbrella.

John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960, and appointed Bobby as his Attorney General. (A law has since been passed prohibiting nepotism by a President.) He wanted Hoffa bad, and failed in his 1st attempt, being acquitted of conspiracy in 1962. In May 1963, Bobby gotten Hoffa indicted for jury tampering. On November 22, 1963, before the case could go to trial, President Kennedy was assassinated. Hoffa hated Bobby so much that, when he was told, "Kennedy's been shot!" he asked, "Which Kennedy?"

Hoffa was convicted on March 6, 1964, and sentenced to 13 years. After 3 years of appealing, he went to prison on March 6, 1967. On December 23, 1971, President Richard Nixon -- perhaps to spite the Kennedys, and the memories of Jack and Bobby -- commuted Hoffa's sentence to time served, and he was free.

But there was a catch: As part of the deal, he was forbidden to "engage in the direct or indirect management of any labor organization." He couldn't stay away, and in 1973, he sued to invalidate the restriction, but lost his case.

He also found that he had lost support in the union, even in his native Detroit, where Anthony Provenzano, a caporegime in New York's Genovese crime family, had become the power behind the throne, along with the brothers Anthony and Vito Giacalone, major figures in the Detroit Mafia. By 1975, the back-and-forth between Hoffa and the mobsters was nasty enough that Hoffa's son, James P. Hoffa, said, "I was increasingly afraid that the mob would do something about it."

They did: They set up an alleged peace meeting with Hoffa, for July 30, at 2:00 PM, at Machus Red Fox restaurant in suburban Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Between 2:15 and 2:30, Hoffa's wife, Josephine, received a phone call from him, made from a payphone in front of Damman Hardware, behind the Red Fox, telling her that Tony Giacalone hadn't shown up, and that he'd been stood up. He said he'd be home at 4:00 to grill some steaks for dinner.

Two men later admitted that they saw Hoffa, shook his hand and talked to him, and walked away without harming him. Another witness said he saw Hoffa in the back of a maroon car, either a Lincoln or a Mercury, with 3 other people, around 2:45 or 2:50. He was never reported as having been seen again. He was 62 years old.

The FBI investigated, but found through their wiretaps that mobsters were unwilling to talk about Hoffa's disappearance. Theories about it abound, but pretty much all of them end with Hoffa being killed, rather than running off with money (or perhaps another woman) and living to a ripe old age.

One of the theories is that, after being murdered by mobsters, Hoffa was buried in an oil drum underneath the end zone at Giants Stadium, then under construction in the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. When the stadium was demolished, no oil drums were found. So, whatever happened to Hoffa, this wasn't it.

Spoiler alerts for films based on Hoffa. In 1978, Sylvester Stallone starred in F.I.S.T., in which he played Johnny Kovak, head of the Federation of Inter-State Truckers. At the end of the movie, he is shot by the Mob. Blood Feud, with Robert Blake, ends with the notation that Hoffa disappeared, but offers no explanation. In the 1992 film Hoffa, he is played by Jack Nicholson, and is shot in his car along with another man.

In the 2019 film The Irishman, the real-life hitman Frank Sheeran, played by Robert De Niro, claims that, as a friend of Hoffa's, he was the only man the Mob trusted to pull the trigger on Hoffa, played by Al Pacino. In this film, Hoffa is told that the meeting was moved to a house where Provenzano was waiting for them. When he got there, Sheeran shot him, and worked with other men to have Hoffa cremated, which would explain why no trace of his body has ever been found. If this story is true, then Sheeran never paid for his crime, avoiding prison until his death in 2003, age 83.

The building that housed Machus Red Fox, at 6676 Telegraph Road, a.k.a. U.S. Route 24, still stands, and is still a restaurant, named Andiamo. James P. Hoffa, whose wedding reception -- before his father's disappearance -- was held at the Red Fox, was elected to his father's old job of President of the Teamsters in 1998, and was continually re-elected until leaving office on March 21, 2022, at age 81.

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July 30, 1975 was a Wednesday. These games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The Detroit Tigers, whose home of Tiger Stadium was 21 miles southeast of the Red Fox, were not at home that day. They played the New York Yankees at Shea Stadium, where the Yankees were playing home games while the original Yankee Stadium was being renovated. Given that the MLB schedule was set before the end of the previous regular season, it was almost certainly just a coincidence that the team from Hoffa's hometown was playing in the city where the order to kill Hoffa was most likely given.

The Yankees won, 2-1, Rudy May allowing just 3 hits, while Mickey Lolich allowed 5, both men going the distance. Ironically, the Tigers' run was driven in by a former Yankee player and future Yankee coach, manager and general manager: Gene Michael, on a sacrifice fly in the 5th inning. But the Yankees took the lead in the 6th thanks to doubles by Bobby Bonds and Roy White, and a single by Thurman Munson.

* The New York Mets lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Lou Brock did not enter the game. For the Mets, Joe Torre went 2-for-5 with an RBI against his former team.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Hank Aaron and Robin Yount both went 1-for-4, but the Brewers' only home run was hit by Sixto Lezcano. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4. Fred Lynn got 3 hits, but the rest of the Red Sox combined hit only 3, including a home run by Dwight Evans.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Manager Frank Robinson, not yet retired as a player, did not put himself into the game against his former team. John Ellis and Charlie Spikes hit home runs for the Tribe. For the O's, Ken Singleton homered, but Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-1 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Willie Stargell went 2-for-5 with an RBI, and the Pirates got homers from Manny Sanguillen and Al Oliver, both off Steve Carlton. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3, Dick Allen went 1-for-4, and the Phils' only run came on a homer by Ollie Brown.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 2-for-4. Johnny Bench went 3-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Joe Morgan went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-4 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew, running out the string with the Royals, went 0-for-3 against his former team, although he did draw a walk. George Brett went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Rod Carew went 2-for-5.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Diego Padres, 8-4 at the Astrodome in Houston. Willie McCovey and Dave Winfield each went 1-for-4, and McCovey also had an RBI.

* The California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-4 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 1-0 at the Oakland Coliseum. Ken Holtzman came within 2 outs of a 5-hit shutout, but manager Alvin Dark brought in Rollie Fingers for 1 out and Paul Lindblad for the other, all to outpitch Ferguson Jenkins. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-3, and the only A's run came from an unlikely source, a home run by Bert Campaneris.