Hoffa Is Reported Missing

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DETROIT, July 31—James R. Hoffa, the former president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was reported missing by his family this morning after he failed to come home last night.

Mr. Hoffa, who has been seeking, to again become head of the 2.1 million‐member union, the nation's largest, was reported missing to the Bloomfield Township police.

They found Mr. Hoffa's 1979 Pontiac in the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Township this morning.

Detective Robert Bloom said that there was no evidence of struggle and that the police had no immediate clues to Mr. Hoffa's whereabouts.

The Oakland County Prosecutor, L. Brooks Patterson, said however, that the police suspected foul play since Mr. Hoffa “never stayed out this long without reporting in.”

Mr. Hoffa does not smoke or drink and has very close ties to his family.

John P. Miller, the general manager of the restaurant, said that he had not seen Mr. Hoffa there yesterday.

He said that he was at the door for most of the afternoon greeting customers.

Son Flies Home

James R. Hoffa, Jr., the former labor leader's son, said that his mother, Josephine, called him after Mr. Hoffa had not returned to their home in Lake Orion, Mich.

The younger Mr. Hoffa flew to Lake Orion this morning to be with his mother.

Leonard Boudin, Mr. Hoffa's attorney in his atempt to lift the restrictions on union activity that were attached to the commutation of his prison sentence, said he hoped that Mr. Hoffa “has not been kidnapped

“I hope he has not been injured.”

Mr. Hoffa's disappearance comes at a time when a series of incidents in the last several nionths, including car bombings and beatings, have left the local teamster organization here shaken and divided.

On July 10, a Lincoln Continental used by Richard Fitzsimmons, the vice president of teamster Local 299, was destroyed by a bomb outside a bar where he was having a drink. Mr. Fitzsimmons is the son of Frank E. Fitzsimmons, who succeeded Mr. Hoffa as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and who is seeking to prevent Mr. Hoffa from regaining office within the union.

Hoffa and Fitzsimmons factions have been vying with each other for control of local 299.

The elder Fitzsimmons had been a close associate of Mr. Hoffa, and was instrumental in persuading the Nixon Administration to commute Mr. Hoffa's 13‐year prison sentence for jury tampering and mail fraud in 1971.

As a provision of the commutation, however, Mr. Hoffa was prevented from seeking union office or engaging in any union activity for 10 years.

Mr. Hoffa has‐since charged and sought to prove in court, that after the Watergate disclosures, it was evident that Mr. Fitzsimmons had made a leaf with the Nixon Administration. In return for his release, Mr. Hoffa contended that Mr. Fitzsimmons had the Administration prevent Mr. Hoffa from attempting to regain the union presidency.

In, a move to stop Mr. Hoffa froth getting a foothold in Local 299, Richard Fitzsimmons ran for the presidency of the local and was opposed by the incumbent, David Johnson, who has remained loyal to Mr. Hoffa. The two factions agreed on a compromise, and Mr. Johnson was re‐elected president while the younger Mr. Fitzsimmons was elected vice president.

Mr. Johnson has said that he will hold the seat for Mr. Hoffa until Mr. Hoffa has exhausted all his legal efforts to change the terms of the commutation

Since 1970, Mr. Johnson has been the target of a number of incidents, including a beating by a Teamster organizer, the shooting out of his office windows with a shotgun, and the destruction of his 45‐foot cabin cruiser by an explosion in July, 1974.

Mr. Hoffa has nearly exhausted his legal remedies on the matter of his commutation. A Federal appeals court in Washington is expected to hand down a decision in the case soon.

The younger Mr. Hoffa filed an official missing person report with the Bloomfield Town ship police at 6 P.M. today. In it he said that his father had been expected to return home at 4 P.M. yesterday and was last seen wearing a dark blue shirt and blue pants:

Mr. Hoffa Jr. came out of his father's home briefly this evening and told a group of reporters that there, would be no press conferences and urged them to leave.

“We just don't have anything to say,” he said. “We're just waiting, hoping.”

Mr. Hoffa had served nearly five years of his 13‐year prison team. when he was released from a Federal penitentiary in February, 1972.

Lieut. Curt Grennier of the Bloomfield Township Police said Mr Hoffa had come to the restaurant at 2 P.M. for a meeting, but that the person he wee to meet did not show up. The lieutenant said that Mr. Hoffa called his wife and had not been seen since.

“That's the last we've seen or heard of hime,” he said adding, “You always have to consider foul play, considering Hoffa's background.

As president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, he was one of the country's most powerful and controversial labor leaders. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations expunged Mr. Hoffa and the teamsters union from its rolls after it linked Mr. Hoffa with what it called a “rogue's gallery.”

Before his conviction on conspiracy and fraud charges in 1967, Mr. Hoffa had been on trial in Federal court four times in five years. He was acquited twice, and one trial ended with a hung jury.

Ever since he took over the teamsters union in 1954 from Dave Beck, Mr. Hoffa had been the object of nearly constant investigation by the Federal Government.

The late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, as counsel to the Senate rackets committee and later as Attorney General, was a long‐time adversary. He called Mr. Hoffa's handling of the union a “conspiracy of evil.”