The Disappearance of Hoffa
2 days before Christmas in 1971, Richard Nixon made what I can only describe as a political move - he pardoned the incarcerated, and still very popular figure of the people, Jimmy Hoffa from jail, allowing him to spend this Christmas with his family for the first time since being jailed by Bobby Kennedy some years previously. Why did he choose to pardon Hoffa? Who knows, although rumors say that Nixon received rather large sums of illegal campaign donations from the teamsters union, this according to multiple sources. Hoffa was also already a well known supporter of Nixon and he had campaigned for him in the race for the 1961 Election, which John F. Kennedy, one of his "enemies", won.
On July 30, 1975 however, a few years after being pardoned, former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa stood alone outside a Restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Michigan wearing his dark blue short-sleeve shirt, blue pants, white socks, and black Gucci loafers. He was waiting for Detroit mobster Anthony “Tony Jack” Giacalone and New Jersey labor leader Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano, old friends one could say. But, they didn't arrive on time which noticeably angered Hoffa. Due to the late arrival the annoyed Hoffa walked over to a nearby payphone and called his wife, obviously not realizing at the time that this would be the last time they would ever speak.
According to many sources that I can find the meeting between them was to discuss Hoffa's potential candidacy for the Presidency of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the position he had previously held - of course though, as like I previously mentioned, Fitzsimmons was by far more popular, particularly with the mobsters of the time, like Giacalone and Provenzano perhaps.
It wasn't long after the phone call Hoffa had made to his wife that a car finally turned up for him though, and it seemingly picked him up although I can't find any reports of anyone seeing him get into the car itself, only reports of him inside the car once it was leaving the restaurant car park:
Not long after Hoffa had called home on the pay phone outside the hardware store, a maroon 1975 Mercury Marquis Brougham pulled out of the restaurant parking lot and nearly hit a truck. The truck driver, who was making deliveries in the area, pulled up next to the car and immediately recognized Jimmy Hoffa sitting in the backseat behind the car’s driver. The truck driver also noticed a long object covered with a gray blanket on the seat between Hoffa and another passenger. The truck driver thought it was a shotgun or a rifle. He didn’t get a good look at anyone else in the car..(Source)
The next day Hoffa’s green 1974 Pontiac Grand Ville was found unlocked in the restaurant parking lot. Police opened the trunk but found nothing unusual. Using the truck driver’s description of the car Hoffa was last seen in, investigators were able to trace the maroon Mercury to its owner, Joe Giacalone, the son of mobster Anthony Giacalone. Joe Giacalone claimed that he had lent the car to a friend that day, a teamster named Charles “Chuckie” O’Brien, who was very close to the Hoffa family and had actually lived with the Hoffas at one time. The car was located, and O’Brien’s fingerprints were found on a 7UP bottle and a piece of paper recovered from the car. Investigators felt that Jimmy Hoffa would have felt comfortable enough with O’Brien, whom he considered a foster son, to get into the Mercury.
Was he forced into the car? Did he go willingly? Was the truck driver telling the truth? Who knows. But this was seemingly the last ever sighting of Jimmy Hoffa. He mysteriously vanished, his body never being found. But what happened exactly?
Well, according to sources the FBI checked up on the exact whereabouts of the men Hoffa was supposed to meet that day, Anthony Giacalone and Anthony Provenzano, both of which being able to provide alibis. Giacalone for example was at a local gym where he spent at least some time every single day, and Provenzano was said to be in New Jersey. Both claimed that they had no idea they were supposed to have lunch with Hoffa at the time he disappeared.
Another character of suspicion was Charles 'Chuckie' O’Brien, someone who knew Hoffa very well, and who was, at the time of Hoffa's disappearance, is said to have been lending the car that Hoffa was last seen in - lending it from Joe Giacalone, the son of Mobster Anthony Giacalone who was supposed to meet Hoffa in the first place, but claiming otherwise. O'Brien being someone Hoffa knew well It's not out of the question to suggest he was meeting Hoffa that day, if this report is true of course.
Here's an interesting source discussing this issue:
Chuckie O’Brien claimed that he hadn’t seen Hoffa on July 30 and gave a detailed account of his whereabouts. He told investigators that he had delivered a 40-pound frozen salmon to the home of a Teamster International vice president and helped the man’s wife cut the fish into steaks. During the time that Jimmy Hoffa had been waiting at the restaurant, O’Brien said he was at the Southfield Athletic Club with Anthony Giacalone. O’Brien claimed he then took the Mercury to a car wash because fish blood had leaked onto the backseat. No one at the athletic club or the car wash could corroborate his story.(Source)
Specially trained German shepherds were flown in from Philadelphia eight days after Hoffa’s disappearance. The dogs were given a pair of the labor leader’s Bermuda shorts and a pair of his moccasins. They picked up Hoffa’s scent in the backseat and trunk of Joe Giacalone’s maroon Mercury. Twenty-six years later in March of 2001, a DNA match was made between a hair found in the back of the car and a hair taken from Hoffa’s hairbrush.
The next day Hoffa’s green 1974 Pontiac Grand Ville was found unlocked in the restaurant parking lot. Police opened the trunk but found nothing unusual. Using the truck driver’s description of the car Hoffa was last seen in, investigators were able to trace the maroon Mercury to its owner, Joe Giacalone, the son of mobster Anthony Giacalone. Joe Giacalone claimed that he had lent the car to a friend that day, a teamster named Charles “Chuckie” O’Brien, who was very close to the Hoffa family and had actually lived with the Hoffas at one time. The car was located, and O’Brien’s fingerprints were found on a 7UP bottle and a piece of paper recovered from the car. Investigators felt that Jimmy Hoffa would have felt comfortable enough with O’Brien, whom he considered a foster son, to get into the Mercury.
Was he forced into the car? Did he go willingly? Was the truck driver telling the truth? Who knows. But this was seemingly the last ever sighting of Jimmy Hoffa. He mysteriously vanished, his body never being found. But what happened exactly?
(Anthony Giacalone)
Well, according to sources the FBI checked up on the exact whereabouts of the men Hoffa was supposed to meet that day, Anthony Giacalone and Anthony Provenzano, both of which being able to provide alibis. Giacalone for example was at a local gym where he spent at least some time every single day, and Provenzano was said to be in New Jersey. Both claiming that they had no idea they were supposed to have lunch with Hoffa at the time he disappeared.
(Anthony Provenzano)
Another character of suspicion was Charles 'Chuckie' O’Brien, someone who knew Hoffa very well, and who was, at the time of Hoffa's disappearance, said to have been lending the car that Hoffa was last seen in - lending it from Joe Giacalone, the son of Mobster Anthony Giacalone who was supposed to meet Hoffa in the first place, but claiming otherwise. O'Brien being someone Hoffa knew well It's not out of the question to suggest he was meeting Hoffa that day, if this report is true of course.
Here's an interesting source discussing this issue:
Chuckie O’Brien claimed that he hadn’t seen Hoffa on July 30 and gave a detailed account of his whereabouts. He told investigators that he had delivered a 40-pound frozen salmon to the home of a Teamster International vice president and helped the man’s wife cut the fish into steaks. During the time that Jimmy Hoffa had been waiting at the restaurant, O’Brien said he was at the Southfield Athletic Club with Anthony Giacalone. O’Brien claimed he then took the Mercury to a car wash because fish blood had leaked onto the backseat. No one at the athletic club or the car wash could corroborate his story.(Source)
Specially trained German shepherds were flown in from Philadelphia eight days after Hoffa’s disappearance. The dogs were given a pair of the labor leader’s Bermuda shorts and a pair of his moccasins. They picked up Hoffa’s scent in the backseat and trunk of Joe Giacalone’s maroon Mercury. Twenty-six years later in March of 2001, a DNA match was made between a hair found in the back of the car and a hair taken from Hoffa’s hairbrush.
After some research, particularly on Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano for example, some interesting anomalies can be found, ones which can potentially, in my opinion, provide an answer for how Jimmy Hoffa really did die - you see when Hoffa was sent to prison for Illegal activities while President of the Teamsters a mobster he knew very well was also serving time.. this mobster was Provenzano himself. While in prison, again this according to the sources I can find, they bonded more and because quite good friends... although it didn't last long.
In prison Hoffa and Provenzano were initially close allies. Provenzano was a de facto power within Lewisburg, carrying his mob rank with him, and he provided Hoffa with protection. At one point, Provenzano was paralyzed with a painful stomach ailment, and it was Hoffa who raised hell on his behalf, convincing prison officials to get Provenzano the medical attention he required. But over time their relationship deteriorated. Provenzano wanted Hoffa’s help in securing a loan from the Teamsters for a restaurant he wanted to open, but Hoffa couldn’t deliver for him. Provenzano was upset over this, and later Hoffa was overheard telling Provenzano, “It’s because of people like you that I got into trouble in the first place.”(Source)
Their friendship together was all but over, both of them even coming to blows in an airport after being released from prison as claimed In the book 'Desperate Bargain: Why Jimmy Hoffa Had to Die authored by Lester Velie, "Hoffa and Provenzano went at it with their fists, and Hoffa broke a bottle over Provenzano’s head.” Provenzano angrily threatened Hoffa’s grandchildren, swearing “I’ll tear your heart out!"
Provenzano however, was one dangerous character and is said to have been responsible for numerous contract killings in his lifetime. All of which, perhaps coincidentally, occurring in a manner not dissimilar to the way in which Jimmy Hoffa himself disappeared and is said to have died. This potentially providing a glimmer of hope for finding an answer to who killed Jimmy Hoffa, or at the very least who may have been involved - Anthony Provenzano.
In 1963 a prosecution witness in Provenzano’s extortion trial was gunned down shortly before he was scheduled to give testimony. In 1972 a man involved in a counterfeiting operation with Provenzano simply disappeared. In a case uncannily similar to the Hoffa disappearance, Anthony Castellito, the secretary-treasurer of Provenzano’s Local 560, was lured to a location in upstate New York where he was met by a short, slight, and bespectacled loanshark named Salvatore “Sally Bugs” Briguglio who allegedly murdered Castellito and transported the body back to New Jersey. Castellito’s remains were never found. Conveniently Provenzano was in Florida at the time of Castellito’s disappearance. The setup was nearly identical to Hoffa’s disappearance. When Provenzano returned to the Garden State, he appointed Briguglio, who previously had no official connection to the Teamsters, to the victim’s former position as secretary-treasurer of Local 560.(Source)
In 1985 the FBI released a memo summarizing the Hoffa case and cited Salvatore Briguglio as a prime suspect along with Briguglio’s brother Gabriel, the brothers Stephen and Thomas Andretta, Chuckie O’Brien, “Tony Pro” Provenzano, “Tony Jack” Giacalone, and the mob boss of western Pennsylvania, Russell Bufalino.
So was this how Jimmy Hoffa really died? He was set up by Anthony Giacalone and Anthony Provenzano, both men who had a motive and both men were well known to be working in Organized crime. Giacalone then asked his son to lend the car to someone who knew Hoffa extremely well, and I believe would benefit from his death - the lending of the car from Joe Giacalone, the son of Anthony Giacalone, to Charles 'Chuckie' O’Brien who would then transport Hoffa to an unknown location where he would meet his fate? Well, It's very possible, IMO. But that's not all...
Ralph Picardo's Alleged Confession
Interestingly enough, Ralph 'Little Ralphie' Picardo, may provide some answers to the questions I still have about this case. He was an ex-driver for Anthony Provenzano, now turned informer and was serving in Trenton State Prison in New Jersey at the time where he decided to reveal what he knew about the case. And if true then he certainly knew a lot.
As reported in The Hoffa Wars by Dan E. Moldea, Picardo claimed that Hoffa had been invited to the Machus Red Fox restaurant by Detroit mobster Anthony Giacalone for a “sit-down” with Provenzano, so that the two men could iron out their differences. Chuckie O’Brien, whose alibi included spending time carving a large fish that day, picked up Hoffa at the restaurant and took him to a nearby house where O’Brien had been staying with friends. Teamster business agent Thomas Andretta, Salvatore Briguglio and his brother Gabriel were in the house, waiting to ambush Hoffa. A man named Frank Sheeran, who had been president of Local 326 in Delaware, was also in the house. Sheeran was a close associate of Pennsylvania mob boss Russell Bufalino and had driven Bufalino to Detroit that day. According to Picardo, the hit on Hoffa was ordered by Bufalino who gave the contract to Provenzano. Bufalino’s cousin William, president of the Teamsters’ jukebox local in Detroit, had had a serious falling out with Hoffa in 1967.(Source)
Picardo did not say whether Russell Bufalino was actually present for Hoffa’s execution, but it is curious that on a day when others involved in the conspiracy made sure that they were nowhere in the vicinity, Bufalino traveled from his base in Pittston, Pennsylvania, to be in the same city. Perhaps Bufalino wanted to make sure that the pesky Hoffa was taken care of once and for all. Or perhaps it was personal, and he wanted to witness the event himself. Bufalino’s exact whereabouts on July 30, 1975, are unknown, but there is little doubt that Hoffa was murdered that day in that house.
And looking at past cases involving Provenzano for example, we already know that bodies generally aren't found ever again. One of his victims, I believe, was even thrown into a wood chipper and then further disposed of. Others disappearing never to be found again.. like Hoffa.
Now, as I come to the end of this thread on what I would consider to be a fascinating topic, I do have to ask, in the hope of finding an answer to one of the most mysterious cases of disappearances of the last century, were the key players involved in the murder of Jimmy Hoffa none other than Anthony “Tony Jack” Giacalone, New Jersey labor leader Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano, Joe Giacalone, Charles “Chuckie” O’Brien, Salvatore “Sally Bugs” Briguglio, Gabriel Briguglio, Stephen Andretta and Thomas Andretta? - These being just the names we know and all of them have been discussed in this thread so far.
Well, I'll leave you to make up your own mind but if anyone else has ever taken the time to research this case I'd certainly love to hear a response, particularly from those with theories of their own. Like I said I find this to be a fascinating case and the theory I've discussed in this thread seems like, to me, the best at explaining what really happened to Jimmy Hoffa.
Thanks to those who also took the time to read this full thread, It's much appreciated and I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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21-11-2011 by Rising Against because: Found a mistake.
