DETROIT – When you hear the name Jimmy Hoffa, you probably think of the former Teamster boss’ iconic disappearance, but his story is much more than a murder mystery.
It’s about power, loyalty, betrayal, organized labor and organized crime. It’s a story about how far people will go to get what they want.
Once you start looking into Hoffa, you find yourself down a rabbit hole of dark tunnels. You look at the Teamsters Union and end up at Richard Nixon, Bobby Kennedy and the JFK assassination. All of these roads lead back to Hoffa’s obsession with power.
There was nothing he wouldn’t do to have it, and hold onto it, and once he lost everything, how far would he go to get it back?
Shattered: Hoffa - Episode 4: ‘The Comeback’
Season 4 of WDIV’s Shattered Podcast chronicles the rise and fall of the iconic labor leader, Jimmy Hoffa. In Episode 4, Jimmy Hoffa goes to prison -- and plots his comeback. Though, not everyone was rooting for him.
“When it was time for me to go they shackled and chained me like a wild animal: ten pounds of leg irons, belly band, handcuffs, and a chain running up from the leg irons to the handcuffs. There was a caravan to Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary that looked like a scene from Bonnie and Clyde. I don’t know where the hell they thought I was going to run to.” - Jimmy Hoffa
After being released from prison, Hoffa began his fight to regain his power. The Mob wasn’t on board.
Episodes 1-4 of Shattered: Hoffa are available now wherever you listen to podcasts. This season is hosted by Local 4′s Steve Garagiola.
Episode 5 will be released on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020 -- a look at the day Jimmy Hoffa disappeared.
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The first three seasons of “Shattered” have garnered nearly 3.5 million downloads with audiences from 170 countries. Season 1 investigates the 2010 disappearance of three brothers in Morenci, Michigan. Their father said he gave the brothers to an underground organization. Seven years later, the boys’ whereabouts is not known. Season 2 takes listeners through the life of Richard Wershe, Jr., aka “White Boy Rick,” the youngest ever FBI informant turned drug dealer. Season 3 investigates the heartbreaking and riveting story about Michigan’s Oakland County Child Killer case that is still unsolved 40 years later.