Was Jimmy Hoffa A Hero or A Criminal? Another organizer was Jimmy Hoffa, in his short 62 years in this world has caused a change that will live in the minds of many people forever. But there is one question that bothers many people, was Jimmy Hoffa a hero or a criminal? Hoffa was born James Riddle Hoffa, the second of the four children of John Cleveland Hoffa and Viola Riddle Hoffa. Hoffa was born on February 14, 1913 in Brazil, Indiana. When his father, a coal driller who suffered from an occupational respiratory disease, died in 1920, his mother, who was already taking in laundry, began doing additional work as a domestic a