Hoffa brothers split over missing father

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33917, 9 August 1975, Page 15

Hoffa brothers split over missing father

CN.Z.P. A.-Reuter— CopyrtgM/ DETROIT, August 8. The son of the former Teamsters’ Union president, Jimmy Hoffa, missing for eight days, has challenged his “adopted” brother to take a lie-detector test about his version of the disappearance.

Mr Charles O’Brien, aged i4l. the protege and chief lieutenant, of Mr Hoffa, suddenly turned up yesterday after disappearing last Friday.

He spent three hours talking to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Detroit and then left for an undisclosed destination. The F. 8.1., Mr O’Brien’s attorney, and Mr James P. Hoffa, son of the controversial former transport

workers’ union leader, have all declined to disclose what Mr O’Brien has said since his return. But Mr Hoffa, jun., said Mr O’Brien had given him an account by telephone of what he had done and with whom since being out of contact with the family,' which has been maintaining a long vigil in the hope that! their father will turn up. Mr Hoffa, jun., said: “I’ve demanded that he take a polygraph (lie-detector) test. I think he has knowledge of what happened. His associations and activities over the last week are going to be checked out.” Mr Hoffa, jun.. added: “A horrible thing has happened. We want to get to the bottom of it.” The New York “Daily News,” in a dispatch from Detroit, yesterday quoted F. 8.1. sources as claiming that Mr Hoffa withdrew SUSI.2m from the pension fund shortly before he disappeared on July 30. The Hoffa family has) strenuously denied this. Fears have been expressed for Mr Hoffa's life, and the family and friends have offered a SUS2OO.OOO rewardfor information. His old union — the largest in the United States — has offered. $U525,000. Mr Hoffa, sen., aged 52, was gaoled for jury tampering and mail fraud in 1967 when he still headed the union. President Nixon pardoned him in 1971 provided he refrained from union politics. But he has been active in trying to get back into teamster leadership. An | F. 8.1. source said yesterday i that the bureau believed that he had been abducted and murdered. Nearly 200 agents and police are searching for him. Mr O’Brien has lived with the Hoffa family since he was aged three, though he is not formally adopted.