“They Wouldn’t Dare”

The phrase “They wouldn’t dare” is Jimmy Hoffa’s defiant answer to a warning that his attempt to reclaim the union could cost him his life. In the account, the retort does not dispel the threat; it makes the gap between Hoffa’s resolve and the danger around him unmistakable.

The Warning Behind the Phrase

At a sit-down before Frank Sheeran’s testimonial dinner, Russell Bufalino challenged Hoffa’s reason for running, since he did not need the money. Hoffa answered that he would not let Fitz have the union. After the meeting, Russell drew Sheeran aside and told him, “Talk to your friend. Tell him what it is.” Sheeran explains that, in their way of speaking, the message was as good as a death threat.

Hoffa’s Refusal

At the Warwick Hotel, Sheeran warned Hoffa that if he continued trying to take back the union, he should keep people around him for protection. Hoffa said he would not take that route because they would go after his family. Sheeran urged him not to be alone on the street; Hoffa answered, “Nobody scares Hoffa. I’m going after Fitz, and I’m going to win this election.” When Sheeran made the warning explicit—Russell himself had told him to tell Hoffa what it meant—Hoffa growled, “They wouldn’t dare,” glaring at Sheeran.

Defiance and Foreboding

The phrase sounds like a rejection of the threat, but the surrounding scene gives it a more precarious force: Hoffa has been warned, understands that his family may be endangered, and still insists on pursuing the union. Sheeran recalls that Hoffa spent the rest of the night and the following breakfast talking in a distorted way; in retrospect, Sheeran allows that it may have been nervous talk, though he had never known Hoffa to show fear. The narrative links that unease to an item Russell had raised at the dinner-table meeting, without disclosing it here. Nine months after the testimonial night, Sheeran is back in his Philadelphia kitchen, telephoning Hoffa at his cottage in Lake Orion and hoping he will reconsider while there is still time. Against that later appeal, “They wouldn’t dare” reads not as proof that the danger is empty, but as the defiant position Hoffa maintains in the face of it.