Official "This Day In History" thread

[tServo]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Although he was said to be working to regain control of the Teamsters Union at the time of his disappearance in 1975, he was legally not allowed to "engage in the direct or indirect management of any labor organization" until March 6, 1980. This was a condition of the 1971 commutation to time served of his prison sentences for jury tampering and wire and mail fraud by President Nixon. Hoffa had tried to get the restriction lifted, but was unsuccessful.

He was legally declared dead ("death in absentia" or presumed dead without direct evidence of death) on July 30, 1982 - 7 years after his disappearance.

When I lived in the Detroit area, the Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Township - the last place he was seen by anybody willing to talk about it - was still in operation. Somebody pointed it out to me as the place where Jimmy Hoffa had disappeared.

I lived in Michigan at that time and everybody used to joke that his body was dumped in one of the giant concrete posts that supported an I-475 overpass which was under construction. I-475 was jokingly dubbed the Jimmy Hoffa highway.

[Viliam Furik]

Originally Posted by tServo

I lived in Michigan at that time and everybody used to joke that his body was dumped in one of the giant concrete posts that supported an I-475 overpass which was under construction. I-475 was jokingly dubbed the Jimmy Hoffa highway.

How much would an embedded human body decrease the strength of a concrete post? And what would happen to such a body in the concrete, with basically no air going out or in? Is it possible the gases released after time could make a little boom?

[masser]

Originally Posted by Viliam Furik

Is it possible the gases released after time could make a little boom?

No.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by tServo

I lived in Michigan at that time and everybody used to joke that his body was dumped in one of the giant concrete posts that supported an I-475 overpass which was under construction. I-475 was jokingly dubbed the Jimmy Hoffa highway.

It would make more sense to place the body before the concrete was poured, when there were no witnesses around. There was a variation of this idea in an episode of Columbo (Blueprint for Murder, first aired 9 February 1972).

When I was a kid, three houses in a row across the alley were bought by a developer and demolished. The site sat undeveloped for years. "The empty lot" became a playground for all the kids in the neighborhood. One attraction was what had been the concrete stairs up to the front porch of one of the houses. The whole staircase was a single piece of concrete. If it had been a solid block, it would have been too heavy to move. But it had been turned on its side after the demolition, revealing that it was hollow. The hollow was big enough for a couple of kids to sit in. Thus was born "Fort Block." The underside of the casting was very rough and gravelly. And embedded in it was - not a body, but an empty beer can! Somebody had tossed it into the form before the pour.