Missing

Did you know his middle name was riddle?

The biggest riddle about Jimmy Hoffa is where he went. But the last time he was seen publicly was near a restaurant in Bloomfield, Michigan on July 30, 1975.

He was declared legally dead in 1982, the same year a band called "Missing Persons" sang "Destination Unknown."

Whether he wound up bullet riddled remains a mystery, as do where his remains remain... I won't say "rest in peace," because in life he wasn't the kind of character who seemed all that inclined to either rest, or peace.

The one time we met was on a Boston television program in 1974. The producers had asked me to sit in the audience and to ask a provocative question when called upon.

So I asked Jimmy Hoffa why the Teamsters had made such an aggressive effort to crowd out the fledgling United Farm Workers union (Remember the grape boycott?) in the vineyards of California. (Not very provocative, so far.)

Hoffa replied that the Teamsters as an establshed union could get the workers more money. Then he asked me, "What more could they want?" (Now!)

"How about a sense of self-determination and integrity in an atmosphere not controlled by a convicted fellon and free from the influence of organized crime?"

That's when the producers got their money shot: a red-faced Jimmy Hoffa rising from his chair to threaten my life... Live on TV.

I know it was a set-up, but looking back, I'm kind of proud.

Missing Persons - Destination Unknown video.