disappeared_status disappeared_place children birth_place name disappeared_date birth_date spouse image article_title birth_name occupation
declared dead '' in absentia '' 1982 7 30 bloomfield states township , oakland county , michigan , united james p. hoffa barbara ann crancer brazil , indiana , united states jimmy hoffa 1975 7 30 1913 2 14 14 february 1913 josephine -- 1980 -rrb- hoffa , '' nee '' poszywak -lrb- 1936 james r. hoffa nywts.jpg jimmy hoffa
 james riddle hoffa labor union leader , author
jimmy hoffa

james riddle `` jimmy '' hoffa -lrb- born february 14 , 1913 -- disappeared july 30 , 1975 -rrb- was an american labor union leader and author who served as the president of the international brotherhood of teamsters -lrb- ibt -rrb- union from 1958 until 1971 .
he vanished in late july 1975 at age 62 .
hoffa was a union activist from a young age , and was an important regional figure with the international brotherhood of teamsters -lrb- ibt -rrb- 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 .
hoffa played a major role in the growth and development of the union which eventually became the largest -lrb- by membership -rrb- 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 , in two separate trials .
he was imprisoned in 1967 and sentenced to 13 years , after exhausting the appeal process .
in mid-1971 he resigned as president of the union , an action that was part of a pardon agreement with president richard nixon , to facilitate his release later that year .
nixon blocked hoffa from union activities until 1980 -lrb- which would have been the end of his prison term , had he served the full sentence -rrb- .
hoffa , hoping to regain support and to return to ibt leadership , unsuccessfully attempted to overturn this order .
hoffa vanished in late july 1975 , having last been seen outside the machus red fox , a suburban detroit restaurant .
his disappearance gave rise to many theories as to what happened to him .
he is widely believed to have been murdered .
he was declared legally dead in 1982 .
a collection of papers related to hoffa is cared for by the special collections research center of the george washington university .
the collection contains a variety of materials , including newspaper and magazine articles , trial transcripts , copies of congressional hearings , and publicity materials .
