Hoffa mystery endures 40 years later

These days Stan Hunterton is known as a longtime Las Vegas attorney. Whether the case is civil or criminal, Hunterton is a legal veteran comfortable around any courthouse.

Back in the late 1970s, he was an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Strike Force in Detroit and Las Vegas. He later served as deputy chief counsel to the President’s Commission on Organized Crime.

So it’s no wonder each year about this time he can’t help but think back about one of the great mob mysteries: the disappearance of Teamsters Union titan Jimmy Hoffa.

Hunterton sent a reminiscence that I think captures some of the mystery and the enduring Hoffa legend:

“Forty years ago this July 30, Jimmy Hoffa was assassinated. No one has ever been convicted, or even charged with the crime. That day, the best known labor leader in the world, a man who had been pardoned by President Richard Nixon and who was furiously working to regain his position as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, vanished as he was scheduled to meet with members of the mafia in a public place. When told earlier this fate awaited him, Hoffa is reported to have said, ‘They wouldn’t dare.’ His body was never found.

“Before there was a ‘crime of the century’ every couple of months, this was the crime of the century. The audacity and success of this murder makes it an intriguing ‘who done it.’ But why?

“Was it a pure Mafia hit prompted by repeated public claims by Hoffa that he ‘had records’ and would ‘name names’ when he regained control of the Union? Did it have a political element? Hoffa’s Presidential pardoned contained a prohibition against him seeking union office. Or, was it ‘personal,’ not ‘business,’ arising from Hoffa’s blood feud with New Jersey gangster and fellow Teamster Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano? Was it an inside job? After all, many lucrative jobs, contracts and loans would be impacted by Hoffa’s campaign, Or, was it something like ‘Murder on the Orient Express’? All of the above.

“There has been a confession to the shooting itself, albeit published posthumously in ‘I Heard You Paint Houses’ by Charles Brandt. The self-described trigger man and close friend of Hoffa, Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran, says he killed Hoffa but can’t lead us to the body and Sheeran probably never knew exactly ‘why’ Hoffa had to die beyond the general proposition that he was making the mob nervous, very nervous. So, even assuming Sheeran told the truth the case remains an enigma.

“Who was Jimmy Hoffa? His father was an Indiana coal miner who died when his son was 7 years old. His mother worked in a laundry. Hoffa quit school at 14. Was he a ‘hero to the working man from america’s heartland’ as some would have it?

Or, was it the truth, as asserted by Dan Moldea in ‘The Hoffa Wars,’ that Jimmy Hoffa’s most valuable contribution to the American labor movement came at the moment he stopped breathing?

“Or was it both?

“I was recently on a plane with a man returning home from a Teamsters convention in Las Vegas. He wore a shirt which said, ‘I AM A FRIEND OF JIMMY HOFFA’ and which had a picture of Hoffa emblazoned under the caption.

“Some public events live on, and on.”

ON THE BOULEVARD: Casino resorts don’t run by themselves, and Dick Oliver, who died recently, was among the best hotel engineers in the business. ... Metro has been working with a group of Fremont Street buskers in an attempt to improve the department’s crime-fighting effectiveness downtown. ... Following what she calls “an outpouring of support from the community,” Republican Assemblywoman Victoria Seaman has decided to run for the District 6 Senate seat currently held by former Gaming Control Board Chairman and fellow Republican Mark Lipparelli, who was appointed to the position.

Have an item for Bard of the Boulevard? Email comments and contributions to jsmith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.