Jimmy Hoffa

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US labour leader and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (lorry drivers’ union) from 1957. Jimmy Hoffa succeeded in 1964 in bringing all lorry drivers into the same union.

The possibility of his calling them all out on strike alarmed the government and industry. In addition, he was seeking to extend the Teamsters to airline, railway, and other transport workers.

He was jailed between 1967 and 1971 for attempted bribery of a federal court jury after he was charged with corruption.

He was pardoned and released by President Richard Nixon with the stipulation that he did not engage in union activities, but was evidently attempting to reassert influence when he disappeared in 1975.

Hoffa was summoned to a meeting with two mafia dons – Anthony Giacalone and Anthony Provenzano – on 30 July 1975.

The 62-year-old arrived at 2 pm and, after waiting for half an hour, called his wife and told her he would wait a few minutes more.

He was reported missing that evening, with police finding his car at the restaurant, unlocked with a pair of white gloves neatly folded on the backseat.

His disappearance became the subject of much speculation, with Giacalone and Provenzano denying scheduling a meeting with Hoffa and being found not to be near the restaurant that afternoon

Jimmy Hoffa was declared legally dead in 1982. Rumours abounded about the location of his body. Some claim it was buried under a Detroit swimming pool or beneath the (now demolished) Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

In the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, Mafia killer Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran revealed to Brandt that he had fired two shots into the back of his dear friend’s head. According to Sheeran, Hoffa was later cremated at a funeral home with mob connections.