Jimmy Hoffa means of leveraging union strength at one company, to then move to organize workers, and finally to win contract demands at other companies. This process, which took several years starting in the early 1930s, eventually brought the Teamsters to a position of being one of the most powerful unions in the United States. Trucking unions in that era were heavily influenced by, and in many cases controlled by elements of, organized crime. For Hoffa to unify and expand trucking unions, he had to make accommodations and arrangements with many gangsters, beginning in the Detroit area. Organized crime influence on the
Portland Hoffa lived long enough to celebrate a silver wedding anniversary, allowing Hoffa an unusual second such anniversary in one lifetime. In 1965, she rounded up a large volume of her first husband's correspondence that was edited into and published as "Fred Allen's Letters". Rines died in 1986. Hoffa has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Twice widowed and childless, Hoffa died of natural causes in 1990, aged 85. Portland Hoffa Portland Hoffa (January 25, 1905, Portland, Oregon – December 25, 1990, Los Angeles, California) was an American comedian, actress, and dancer. As with most of her siblings, including sister