Anthony Provenzano

Anthony Provenzano (May 7, 1917 – December 12, 1988), also known as Tony Pro, was an American mobster who was a powerful caporegime in the Genovese crime family, New Jersey faction. Provenzano was known for his associations with Jimmy Hoffa due to Provenzano's job as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters president for Local 560 in Union City, New Jersey.

Early life Provenzano was born on May 7, 1917, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the fourth of six children to Sicilian immigrants Rosario and Josephine Provenzano. At age 15, he quit Public School 114 and went to work as a ten-dollar-a-week helper at the H.P. Welch Trucking Company. Three years later he became a driver.

Career Provenzano became employed by Teamsters Local 560 in Union City, New Jersey, as a business agent between 1948 and 1958, as the president between 1958 and May 1966, and as secretary-treasurer between November 24, 1975, and June 1978. In 1959, Provenzano cited the Fifth Amendment 44 times before a Senate racketeering committee, for which Robert F. Kennedy was counsel.

Hoffa planned to regain the leadership of the union, but was met with opposition from several members of the Mafia. In 1973 and 1974, Hoffa asked Provenzano for his support to regain his former position, but Provenzano refused and threatened Hoffa by reportedly saying he would pull out his guts and kidnap his grandchildren. At least two of Provenzano's union opponents had been murdered, and others who had spoken out against him had been assaulted.

On July 30, 1975, Hoffa was to meet Provenzano and Anthony Giacalone at 2:00 p.m. at the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township, a Detroit suburb; Hoffa was never seen again. Giacalone and Provenzano, who denied having scheduled a meeting with Hoffa, were found not to have been near the restaurant that afternoon. While one account cited by Time states that Provenzano was seen fraternizing with local union members in Hoboken, New Jersey, Ten weeks after Hoffa's disappearance, President Richard Nixon made his first public appearance since his resignation, during which he golfed with Frank Fitzsimmons, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and Provenzano. On December 4, 1975, a federal investigator in Detroit said in a court hearing, presided over by James Paul Churchill, that a witness had identified three New Jersey men who had participated "in the abduction and murder of James R. Hoffa." The three men, close associates of Provenzano, were Salvatore Briguglio, his brother Gabriel Briguglio, and Thomas Andretta.

On December 9, 1975, Provenzano was indicted in the Southern District of New York, along with Anthony Bentro and Lawrence Paladino, for conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute for a proposed $2.3 million pension-fund loan from the Utica Teamsters Benefit Fund for the renovation of the Woodstock Hotel; in July 1978, he was convicted of these charges and sentenced to four years in prison. while the conspiracy to commit murder count was dismissed, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Kingston, New York, exactly one week later.

In film and fiction In the film Hoffa (1992), Armand Assante's character Carl "Dally" D'Allesandro, was inspired by Provenzano. Provenzano is portrayed by English actor Stephen Graham in the film The Irishman (2019).