Jimmy Hoffa

Who was Jimmy Hoffa?

James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa was an American labor union leader who vanished in late July 1975, aged 62. He is widely believed to have been murdered.

Hoffa was a union activist from a young age, and was an important regional figure with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union by his mid-twenties. By 1952, Hoffa had risen to national vice-president of the IBT and served as the union's General President between 1958 and 1971. He secured the first national agreement for teamsters' rates in 1964, and played a major role in the growth and development of the union which eventually became the largest union in the United States with over 1.5 million members at its peak, during his terms as its leader. He was a civil rights supporter and expressed this in many statements.

Hoffa became involved with organized crime from the early years of his Teamsters work, and this connection continued until his disappearance in 1975. He was convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery, and fraud in 1964. He was imprisoned in 1967 and sentenced to 13 years, after exhausting the appeal process.