Hoffa (MIT Press) [revised] 0262193094, 9780262193092

Citation preview

H

O F F

A ARTHUR A.

SLOAr

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2014

http://archive.org/details/hoffaOOsloa

Hoffa

Hoffa

Arthur A. Sloane

The

MIT

Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England

©

1991 Massachusetts Institute of

No

Technology

storage and retrieval)

book may be reproduced in any form by any means (including photocopying, recording, or information without permission in writing from the publisher.

This book was

Bembo by Achorn

All rights reserved.

part of this

electronic or mechanical

set in

Graphics, Inc. and was printed and bound in

the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sloane, Arthur A.

Hoffa p.

/

Arthur A. Sloane. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-262-19309-4 Hoffa, James R. (James Riddle), 1913-

1.

United States 3.

—

International

Officials

HD6509.H6S56 33 1 88 T 1 388324 .

.

2.

Trade-unions

— Biography.

Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen,

and Helpers of America.

[B]

and employees

I.

Title.

1991 '

092— dc20 90-26137

CIP

To

Louise,

best of wives

Contents

Preface

ix

1

The Early Years

1

2

The Biggest Small Man

35

in Detroit

3

At

Home

and Abroad

53

4

Like Confetti

at a

Country

72

Fair

5

We

Admire

the

Man Who Can

104

Deliver

6

Hoffa Can Take Care of Hoffa

130

7

The Lengthening Shadow of the Law and Stunning Triumph

a

166

8

Nobody

Talks Back to Hoffa

188

"Open End" Contract Administration

216

9

10 Preference for the Status

Quo

238

11

Personal Diplomacy, with Significant Interruptions

255

12

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the End of an Era

288

13

No. 33-298

NE

329

14

The Post-Prison Years

350

15

July 30, 1975, and

Its

Aftermath

373

16

Hoffa Evaluated

400

Notes

411

Index

423

Contents

viii

Preface

I

first

met James R. Hoffa

when

in 1962,

School student in search of the brashness of youth asked

I

was

a

Harvard Business

doctoral dissertation topic and with

a

him if I could follow him around the months I was basically a full-time

country. For the next several

Hoffa watcher, and the written product of

my

doctorate the following year.

It

was

this

entitled

experience got

Relations in the Over-the-Road Trucking Industry," but

have been called "Jimmy Hoffa

just as accurately

totally did the colorful

Years

after his

Work,"

so

head of the Teamsters dominate the labor

presumed 1975 murder, Hoffa's name continues

remembered and

could not,

if their lives

to fascinate.

depended on

dents of such major unions as the

that a labor relations professor

day

at least

It is it,

known

who

It

has been

can say that he

more of

Steel-

my experience,

too,

knew Hoffa

one entirely positive factor going for him

classroom. Three years ago, in even

who

to millions

identify the current presi-

Automobile Workers, the

workers, and indeed the Teamsters.

to this

at

could

it

of that pivotal sector.

relations

to be

me

"Union-Employer

has

in the

a testimonial, a re-

porter for the University of Delaware student newspaper informed

me

that

I

had been selected

as the subject

of

a feature

story strictly

on the strength of my long-ago trucking industry study:

"No

other

professor here has ever done anything as interesting," he told me.

This

last tribute to

too generous. But that

it

Hoffa's continuing hold was undoubtedly

provided

day on, the writing of

all

the motivation that

this full-scale

I

needed.

biography was,

I

From think,

inevitable.

In returning to the

Hoffa scene,

I

have interviewed, often

at

most of the key people

great length,

who I

are

leader's life

around. In particular, the considerable cooperation that

still

received

Teamster

in the

from the following should not go unrecognized: Murray

Chodak, Barbara Hoffa Crancer, Robert E. Crancer, Richard simmons, James

P. Hoffa,

Fitz-

Robert Holmes, Joseph Konowe, Rol-

land McMaster, Ralph Orr, Angeline Pall, Vincent Piersante,

I

have also drawn on the printed work of

project.

I

Sr.,

Wood.

Larry Steinberg, and Jack

many

others in this

have possibly read every word that appeared on Hoffa

between 1952 and 1975

in the

New

Newsweek, U.S. News

Journal, Time,

York Times, the Wall

&

Street

World Report, and Business

Week and have religiously scrutinized both the McClellan committee record

and the records of Hoffa's court

merous books, on

articles,

specific aspects

the note section at the

by Ralph and

and other documents

of the unionist's

life

that could shed light

were

end of this volume.

I

read:

all

are cited in

found the contributions

Estelle Dinerstein James, Steven Brill,

Jim Clay, Dan

Moldea, Lester Velie, and Walter Sheridan especially valuable. has

"Union-Employer Relations

in the

nu-

cases. In addition,

Nor

Over-the-Road Trucking

Industry" been ignored; portions of three of the sixteen chapters (chapters 8, 9, I

would

and

10) bear, in fact, a definite indebtedness to

also be remiss if

I

did not extend

my

it.

gratitude to

my

faculty colleagues at the University of Delaware, for their encour-

agement of and

interest in this project (and

most

especially to Wil-

liam V. Gehrlein, acting chairman of the Business Administration

Department, during the time that

I

took the sabbatical that brought

work to its fruition); my graduate assistant Gina Gempesaw, who aided immeasurably in bringing much of the source material together; and University staffers Nancy Sanderson and Myrt Werkheiser, who cheerfully and competently provided a

much of

this

variety of secretarial services. In addition, Rita script

M.

Amy

word of the manumake me look better,

Beasley typed every

and contributed many suggestions

to

made this a family affair by ably compiling the index. Members of The MIT Press staff also in various ways rendered considerable help. Most of all, appreciate the support that the other members of my family my wife, and her daughter,

C. Beasley,

I

—

Louise, and

my

daughters

Amy and Laura — gave to me throughout

the process.

Preface

x

Hoffa

The Early Years

1 More

than once, he said that no one would remember him ten years

But well beyond

after his death. is

this decade,

Jimmy

Hoffa's

undoubtedly more familiar to most Americans than that of any

present-day labor leader. Quite possibly

names of all but of any

a relative

many

his

it is

known

better

some

attorneys that "I

others, the

may have

man who once

faults,

wrong ain't one of them" has been proven wrong. To be sure, much of Hoffa's posthumous image in his

many

to

have been

by the sword and

1975, died

by

as

it

was

Union

(itself,

of such jibes light bulb?

many

as

a

kind of latter-day Al Capone

ultimately,

is~\

who

by presumed Mafia murder

in

His name conjures up widespread impressions of

it.

a dictator-president

sters

is,

but being

lifetime, both highly simplistic and quite negative. Hoffa

believed by lived

than the

handful of twentieth-century personalities

kind. In this matter, as in

one of

told

in

name

of a scandal ridden and overly powerful Teampopular conception, the deserved object

in this

"How many You

Ten.

got

a

Teamsters does

problem with

take to screw in a

it

that?").

He

is

viewed

quarters as the entirely worthy, and eventually twice-

convicted, recipient of Attorney General Robert

F.

Kennedy's pros-

ecutorial attention.

more favorable mold of a Jimmy Cag-

Others, however, to this day see Hoffa in light.

To some,

ney, operating

he was

on

a hero-villain in the

instinct

girl friend's face (as

whether pushing

Cagney did

a

a half grapefruit into his

in the classic

movie

Public

Enemy) or

rabbit-punching his enemies ("You dirty rats") and invariably in

The name Hoffa

the process exuding self-confidence and courage.

invokes visions, too, of a workaholic union president

amazingly accessible to constituents

("You got

his

both

hundreds of thousands of truck driver

problem. Call me. Just pick up the phone")

a

and hugely successful

who was

in

improving

incomes and working

their

conditions.

Also part of the image perhaps even

And

industry economics.

and father

who more

his family

with

than

what the

so

Hoffa

often,

is,

brilliant labor leader

with

as a

highly intelligent,

a total

grasp of trucking

an impression of

is

a

devoted husband

made up in the quality of his relationship demands of his union work denied the

terms of quantity of time spent.

latter in

Hoffa's middle

name was

Riddle, and

more than

a

few observ-

ers

have pointed out that he was

He

possessed a considerable temper and thought nothing of publicly

tongue-lashing

some of

in fact a

mass of contradictions.

But he was capable

his closest associates.

of enormous kindness, was consistently financially generous to fault,

and

as

Teamster president seemed

able to fire anyone.

He

of his best friends could say long

He was

But he was

after his death,

in fact, as

through the years. But

frequently

little

short of spellbinding

when Hoffa proudly had received you,

who

electrify

(a

some ex-

on Teamster audiences was close adviser once told

die,'

you'd get

a

"jimmy,

if

you

him

and had

a

book

read union contracts")

until his prison years, a

'Goddam

as well.

He was

voracious appetite for news. Yet he

apparently never read a

convinced him to embark on

said

standing ovation"), and he could

non-Teamster, and nonunion, audiences

intellectually curious

to

regularly

pointed out that in a just-concluded speech he

five standing ovations,

down and

lie

his effect

one

"one of the world's

an unpolished speaker

mangled the English language, although he improved tent

a

un-

prided himself on being an outstanding

character reader and evaluator of people.

worst" such assessors.

to be constitutionally

in

adulthood

("I

don't read books.

when

his

I

daughter

reading program in an effort to stave

off boredom.

He was

who

also, despite his celebrity status, a

very private person

did not like anyone outside of his immediate family, especially

He was capable of great affection, although He regularly expressed hostility toward the

women,

to touch him.

he used

it

Chapter

1

sparingly.

2

media and academia, but few leaders

at

any

level

have ever been

from both

unstinting of their time to interviewers

as

quarters. His

closest friends and advisers included both dedicated socialist intellec-

F.

He

and dedicated gangsters.

tuals

Kennedy's assassination,

"I

could say, after learning of John

hope the worms

hundred baskets of

yet he also sent one

late 1971, to the families of people

fruit,

who

eat his eyes out,"

costing $75 each in

had been

penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, with him.

in the federal

Whatever

else

might be said of him, he was interesting. Quite February

fittingly,

14,

of color. The

1913, in Brazil, Indiana

— contained

arrival

element

abdomen was

a

tumor,

of the Valentine's Day baby therefore came

definite surprise. girls all

own

consistently maintained during f Viola Riddle J

Hoffa's pregnancy that the swelling in her

and the

its

— on

sole general practitioner in that small central-western

town had

Indiana

James R. Hoffa's entrance into the world

The

born within

a

as a

— two boys and two — the future Teamster chief

third of four children

four-year span

named after his father's brother James and was given name as his middle name. But for the first few life he was apparently known simply as "The Tumor. "

executive was his

mother's family

days of his

j

Hoffa's father, John Cleveland Hoffa, was a coal driller of 1

He and

Pennsylvania Dutch lineage.

his

two

brothers constituted

the third generation of his family to live in the western part of

Indiana after their grandparents migrated there from Pennsylvania in the

mid-1 830s.

shoulders and a

He was

a

handsome

brawny frame, and

his

six-footer with powerful

son Jimmy could point with

pride years after his death to snapshots of the general family claims that he graceful."

work

1

was

him

that corroborated

a "striking

man, strong yet

Following completion of the ninth grade, he went to 1

for a coal prospector

who

needed an

assistant to help

him

operate his steam-powered drilling rig and with the latter traversed several western Indiana counties, itinerants searching for mines. In

the

summer of 1908,

as a

twenty-eight-year-old boarder

house near Jessup, Indiana, he met

farm-

a quiet, attractive eighteen-year-

old Irish-American neighbor, Viola "Ola" Riddle. the following spring.

at a

He

married her *

His chosen career took John away from his wife and, in short

The Early Years

3

order, his four

accounts

a

young

much of the

children

loving husband and

a

devoted

But he was by

time.

all

As Jimmy Hoffa

father.

could later say of his parent,

When

he was home [in Brazil]

it

was

he took a breather from work, he brother and I recall that he seemed

He

actually played with us

And

marbles.

like

cast to

Fourth ofJuly every day. aside entirely.

it

get a

lot

hide

.

.

.

and

sisters

V seek, and

Harmony,

Grandpa Hoffa' s blacksmith shop and

stop at

When

of enjoyment out of us

—played our games:

he'd take us fishing out near

My

kids.

and

tag,

in

Fish Creek. We'd

drop

in at the drugstore

for a phosphate drink. Whenever a circus or a carnival or a medicine show

came

He

town he'd be sure

to

had

was home.

big, hard, comfortable

hands that made you feel secure when you

and he had

a deep resonant voice that, though seldom

crossed the street,

commanded

raised,

take us if he

to

attention.

2

These happy memories were, unfortunately, based upon very

few his

years. In 1920,

when

the younger Hoffa

was seven years

— "a victim of the mines" because of "coal dust father died

soning]" according to

probably because of

a

official

old, [poi-j

Teamsters Union publicity but more

major stroke.

And

Viola,

who was

already

taking in laundry to supplement her husband's relatively meager

income, was

now

forced to take on additional

employment

to sup-

port her family and to serve as both mother and father as well.

Nothing

if

not strong-willed, the

new widow attempted

keep the family together in Brazil by cooking in

Main

Street,

a restaurant

to

on

doing housework for the wealthier townspeople, and

more washing. Her older daughter Jennetta helped ironing while her two sons did the delivering. Jimmy

accepting even

her with the

and

his one-year-older brother Billy also

in other

two

helped the family finances

ways: to augment the food supply

typically barefooted small-town

boys

at the

Hoffa

table, the

and pears,

stole apples

shot rabbits and trapped birds, and strung clam lines in the local river.

Opportunities remained limited and the pay modest in the drab

mining town, however, and Viola was

brood the

—

first to

finally forced to

Clinton, Indiana, in 1922, and

West Side of

Detroit,

where boom times

two

move

her

years later to

in the

automobile

industry were attracting thousands of immigrants from the rural

Midwest and South. After

Chapter

1

first

working

in a Detroit laundry, she

4

took

a

job

in

an automotive parts production line and eventually

became a polisher of radiator caps in the Fisher Body Fleetwood plant. As her son Jimmy saw her, she "worked damned hard and always looked tired

One of her "Oh,

she's

3

J

daughters-in-law was

mean!" And

of her, frequently,

later to say

granddaughter remembers her

a

as

being

"kind of sour," while one of her grandsons has described her as

woman who

"selfish old frontier

the country in a stagecoach."

Hoffa was

like,

there

looked

though she came across

But whatever the

no question

is

as

a

Viola Riddle

later

that she held her family together

in these critical years and that she ingrained in her children a respect

for hard

work. Unwilling

to risk spoiling her offspring

the rod, she used both the razor strop and castor oil as discipline for

all

failed to live

up

weapons of

of them, but particularly her two sons, when they to her Protestant ethic. All four children played

meaningful roles

come

by sparing

early

at

ages

in

generating

family's

the

— the eleven-year-old Jimmy by bagging groceries

in-

C. L.

at

Smith's grocery store every weekend and by cleaning basements,

loading and unloading trucks, and doing

of other odd jobs

a variety

after school.

Academically, the four Hoffa children were enrolled troit's

Hoffa to have been

a

low B student who

At Neinas, the future labor

and

track.

as a

boy who,

as

many

De-

his classmates

them

for being a "hillbilly."

with

According to the

his fists after

official

one time

was

also

won

remembered

social acceptance

having been scoffed

at

by

Teamsters Union publicity, Hoffa

"finished the ninth grade" and "never least at

excelled only in gymnastics

leader

others in that era, had

from

At

at

Neinas Intermediate School, whose records show James R.

in adulthood,

went back

to school again."

4

on the other hand, Hoffa claimed

just seven school grades, insisting that the other

two grades

existed

only in the mind of "some sharp public relations man, trying to

make me look educated." And fact that years later,

on

referred to his graduation

the mystery

at least

from

is

compounded by

one occasion, Hoffa

the ninth grade,

3

while on another

he stated that he completed his education in 1927, fourteen and was to enter ninth grade."

Under any

"when

I

was

6

circumstances, he dropped out of school at least

three years short of being a high school graduate and with

The Early Years

the

specifically

no more

5

a

education than the relatively modest amount that his coal

had achieved more than

father

could say of his decision in

money from to earn

Hoffa's

downtown day and

first

it" as

and weekend pursuits;

days

young

for a

•

posteducational

a

riches.

teenager, the pay

living at

mother

needed for

&

his entire

as

boy

at

the

Cedar's ten hours

weekly paycheck of

$12J

was skimpy, but he enjoyed Moreover, he

time (fishing, walking, and reading

at the

home,

ally beneficial financial

his

as a stock

liked his co-workers and supervisors.

newspapers and magazines were

And

a

hardly

nonetheless,

position,

For working

week, he received

had few material wants

dated).

now he wanted

income.

Detroit department store of Frank

six

work and

the

he had simply "had

later years,

his after-school

a full-time

overwhelmed him with

Even

As he

formal schooling was concerned: he had enjoyed making

far as

a

driller

thirty years earlier in Indiana.

major hobbies, and he rarely

his

he continued to do, effected

a

mutu-

arrangement for Viola and himself: he gave 7

paycheck, and she returned to

him what he

his personal expenses.

He was

often to refer to his

two

years at Frank

happy time. He gave serious thought while there of becoming

a clerk

and even, despite

joining ultimately the ranks of the Frank

&

Cedar's as a

to the possibilities

his limited education,

to

& Cedar's management —

goal that in fact might have been realized had he maintained the hard-working and bright teenager

)

it,

for

was well thought of by

his

superiors.

The

stock market crash of 1929 and the arrival of the Great

Depression, however, ended any chance that Hoffa would a

/

become

department store tycoon. Almost overnight, the pleasant working

environment of Frank

&

Cedar's deteriorated into one of significant

job insecurity. The good-natured employee bantering that had greatly appealed to Hoffa and that he had constantly participated in

was

now

replaced by seriousness. Layoffs took place, followed by

the imposition

of

far greater

work

loads for those retained and a

consequent mass plummeting of morale. The sixteen-year-old stockj

boy decided

to look elsewhere.

His search was particularly influenced by two considerations^

One was

the sheer logic of the advice given

him by an

Walter Murphy: "Get into the food business. pens, people have to eat."

Chapter

1

And

No

older friend,

matter what hap-

the other, not inconsistent with the

6

was the fact that Hoffa had a considerable number of contacts Kroger Grocery and Baking Company. He had worked at

first,

at

the

Kroger

stores

over, the a

on

More-

several occasions during his school days.

company's main

few blocks from

home on

his

and warehouses were located just

offices

the

West

and many friends

Side,

and neighbors were also Kroger employees.

One of

was Kroger warehouse worker James home, who had fallen in love with

these friends

Langley, a boarder

at

the Hoffa

would eventually marry

Hoffa's sister Jennetta and

her.

When Hoffa

expressed an interest in entering the food industry, Langley took

down

his future brother-in-law

and Green

Kroger warehouse

to the

eighteen years of age.

On

the strength of the contact, the

Hoffa's muscular appearance (although only five half inches, he els),

Fort

at

and told the night foreman there that Hoffa was

streets

weighed

a solid

feet, five

and

lie,

and one-

170 pounds and had arms like shov-

he was hired to unload railroad cars

full

of lettuce,

and

carrots,

strawberries for 32 cents an hour.

The hourly

rate,

even considering that two-thirds of

paid in scrip redeemable for food

was

it

Kroger's markets, was consider-

at

ably better than the 20 cents that he had been making at the depart-

ment

store.

But the job

also carried

with

Although the warehouse workers had the twelve-hour actually

few

shift,

as three

hours

much

as

of the time, they would merely to be called.

definite negatives.

worked

the boxcars, and sometimes

day (although

a

some

they were paid only for the time that they

worked unloading

be held over and given

it

to report in at 4:30 p.m. for

as sit

at

other times they could in fact

twenty hours of work). The

a forty-eight-hour

week, they typically had to be around for sixty hours

The shift

at the

kind of money.

very

»

other negative of consequence was the presence of night

foreman Al Hastings

— "the kind of guy," Hoffa was

interviewer three decades

Hoffa

rest

around, idle and unpaid, waiting

While they could earn over $15 for

least to receive this

as

recalled,

"was

later,

"who

causes unions."

called 'the Little Bastard'

by

all

7

the

to

tell

an

Hastings,

men. This

guy was a real sadist. He thoroughly enjoyed screaming out commands and then cursing a man and threatening to fire him if he didn't move quick enough. He was a little tin Jesus in the warehouse and the only time he smiled was when he had at that time,

was

The Early Years

there any appeal, any

fired

somebody. Nor,

form of job security." 8

7

In fact, the level

of job insecurity was enormous, given the

economic conditions of the period. Long hoping to be chosen to and the other foremen house, and the

fill

fired, regularly stretched

company was

whom

Hastings

around the ware-

from the need

thus invariably freed

worry about replacements. Rubbing

to

wounds was

of unemployed men,

lines

the positions of those

into

the workers'

the fact that relatives of the Kroger's

foremen were

routinely given priority

when

the

salt

work was

em-

assigned. Often,

ployees (who were frequently husbands and fathers) were simply fired,

summarily and without any other reason,

to create jobs for

these relatives.

Hoffa and

.

his friends

on the

shift

bided their time. As one of

— Bobby Holmes, who would with Hoffa through Detroit — would subsequently the Teamster hierarchy they these friends

rise

in

recall,

didn't at first specifically talk

of

much about unionism even

in the face

"enormous cruelness." Strikes were illegal in Michigan at huge pool of unemployed could be freely tapped

this

the time, and the

as strikebreakers to replace

event. tion

was

talked

permanently those out on

But they ultimately concluded the only logical course for

forming

them

now

to be

any

strike in

a labor

to follow.

up the benefits of unionism among

housemen. Five of them agreed the

that

organiza-

They

quietly

their 175 fellow

ware-

union leaders: in addition to

eighteen-year-old Hoffa and Holmes, one year Hoffa's

senior, these included Hoffa's equally youthful brother-in-law-tobe, Langley, another late teenager,

houn,

at thirty-six

in the spring

Frank Collins, and

the elder statesman of the group.

of 1931, shortly

after

Sam

And one

Cal-

night,

two men were discharged

for

following their longstanding practice of going to a nearby food cart for their

midnight meal, they acted.

Just as a truck filled with highly perishable Florida strawberries

pulled into the warehouse, the

new union

leaders called a

work

stoppage. Faced with the need to get the cargo unloaded and refrigerated quickly, the

management

capitulated within an hour.

condition that the strikers go back to work,

it

On

agreed to meet with

the leaders the next morning, and, following several days of negotiations,

pay

Hoffa and

raise

his colleagues

had

a

union contract.

of 13 cents an hour, the guarantee of

at least

It

included

half a day's

pay, a modest insurance plan, and the designation of an eating for the workers.

Chapter

1

It

a

also granted recognition to the union,

room which

8

shortly thereafter applied for and received a charter as Federal Local

19341 of the American Federation of Labor.

Calhoun, whose age stood him

who

younger cohorts and

good

in

also gained respect

among

stead

from the

his

fact that

he

had been an active unionist when he worked for the Railway Express

Agency, was the most

sequence of events

at

influential single leader

from going out on

opinion the ideal moment.

in his

bargaining sophistication had combined with to

make him an

company union by and Holmes

of his

all

his general

new

elected president of the

little

single- \

acclamation, with Hoffa as his vice-president

who life,

whose

ings. Clay,

And

calm temperament

as secretary-treasurer.

But Hoffa,

houn

a

strike until

effective chief spokesman in the subsequent contract

He was

negotiations.

this

Kroger's. Proud of his sense of timing, he had

successfully restrained the others

what constituted

throughout

readily

]

acknowledged an indebtedness

also played a

major role

in the

to Cal-

Kroger happen-

research into these days remains definitive, has

concluded that "in the

last

days before the strawberry strike Jimmy

displayed uncanny ability in enlisting the support of his fellow

He was

workers.

a

born organizer. [As] William Crow, one of his

earliest recruits, said:

He

right at you.

He was dence.

me

the sincere-est

Up

to then

feel that

A

'He stood right close up

can really look

year

it

was

later,

nights while

I'd

little

guy

I've ever seen.

working

who

causing

it

to

Hoffa would afterward

"9

his role in the

him, but

in

on

insist that

his

growing

Kroger's

who

strawberry incident, act

of insubordina-

the floor at Hastings's feet, its

contents)..

he had quit before Hastings could

Kroger days were abruptly over.

Within twenty-four hours, he had accepted reputation as

at

"Little Bastard,"

shower the foreman with

any event

me confiJimmy made

gave

union during the day, was

company. The

tion (throwing a crate of vegetables to

He

union but

goaded the quick-tempered Hoffa into an break and

you and looked

had continued to work

for his fledgling

had never forgiven him for

fire

a

just the right thing to do.'

Hoffa,

to

you. His face was, well, open.

been scared to join

out of a job at the grocery

finally

at

a

job offer that

his

an effective union organizer had generated

for him: as a full-time organizer for Joint Council 43, the Detroit

jurisdictional unit of another

the International

The Early Years

j

American Federation of Labor

affiliate,

Brotherhood of Teamsters.

9

The union whose name would be inextricably linked with that of J. R. Hoffa, and which would within a relatively few years become the nation's largest and strongest labor organization, was anything but large and strong when Hoffa went to work for it in 1932. It remained a small and rather inconspicuous craft union made up primarily of drivers of such specialized products as coal, foodstuffs,

and

of

ice a third

Indeed,

its

century after

a

more than

as far

back

Established in 1899,

and received tional

— and

the fifty-six thousand

had counted

a charter

the

—

seventy-eight thousand in 1932

sters

an international.

as

membership had actually declined somewhat over from eighty-three thousand in 1921

previous eleven years

cantly

founding

its

included not signifi-

members

whom

the

Team-

as 1904.

when

from

now

to

the

nine midwestern locals requested

AFL

as the

Team

Drivers Interna-

Union, the new organization was originally plagued by

severe internal cleavage. In an 1899 compromise,

its

a

executive board

members along with employee-drivers all men owning no more than five teams of horses. The owners quickly made use of their superior numbers to control the union, and em-

had agreed

to accept as

ployee interests were sufficiently overlooked to foster

a large

and

disgruntled employee-driver minority. In 1902 the teamster locals in Chicago, representing the bulk

of

this

opposition, disgustedly withdrew from the

and launched

ers,

a

new

solely to

nonowner

a policy, the

TNU

Union

teamsters, teamster help-

and owners of no more than one team. Attracting

by such

Drivers

organization. Their Teamsters National

membership

limited

Team

a

new market

actually surpassed the parent interna-

enrollment of fourteen thousand members within

tional's

a

few

months.

The Chicago Teamsters

much more vigorously for Team Drivers had done, eighty-hour workweek were still

pressed

higher wages and shorter hours than the

although earnings of $12 for an

common. They

also

skilled craftsman,

skilled

workers

who were

west and Europe collectively,

developed the concept of the teamster

to be distinguished

at

this

"wage and

flocking to Chicago time.

as a

from the thousands of un-

from

the rural

Both of these doctrines

trade" unionism

— were strongly

—

Mid-

called,

to shape

the direction of future Teamster leadership.

There was

Chapter

1

a less

commendable

side to

Teamster

activities in

W

Chicago, however.

Much

racketeering and collusion with employ-

ers

accompanied the new unionism. The great labor economist John

R.

Commons,

in fact, declared that

it

was not

1903 that team-

until

ing in the city could be studied as an economic rather than a criminal

And

phenomenon. badge

sters'

as

is still

another scholar wrote, "In Chicago, the teamit

has been for years, to a considerable extent

an insignia of criminal association." In 1903, exerting the pressure uel

Gompers persuaded

the

two

11

of his

office,

AFL

Sam-

president

rival internationals to

merge.

A

new body,

the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was thereupon awarded an AFL charter and opened its first headquarters in Indianapolis. The founders of the Teamsters National Union, by

virtue of their

now

greater membership,

won

the issue over

which

they had originally seceded: owners of more than one team could

not join the IBT.

Now in a conciliatory mood,

elected as

president the former

its first

Team

however, the union

Drivers

Union

presi-

dent, Cornelius P. Shea of Boston.

Shea's regime

crowd, he

He was

won

was

little

a short one.

respect

Soon controlled by

among more

the

Chicago

law-abiding Teamsters.

indicted for conspiracy, and acquitted only to find himself

under sustained attack by the press

as a racketeer.

He was

also

threatened with secession by still-dissatisfied reform elements. At the 1907 convention, with one large local having

left

tional the previous year following a disastrous strike in

with his treasury showing the presidency

a significant deficit,

presided over the union ever since

and had established the Teamsters on

which saw

local horse

showed ally

team

little

Chicago and

he was defeated for

by another Bostonian, Daniel J. Tobin.

The garrulous Tobin had years,

the interna-

a

permanent footing

in these

local truck driving almost completely displace

cartage.

That

his first twenty-five years in office

more accomplishment than

been attributed to four

factors, three

this,

however, has gener-

of them directly involving

Tobin himself: 1.

The second Teamster

president had remained every bit as

craft-conscious as the old Chicago Teamsters had been.

He

had,

with an absence of diplomacy perhaps rivaled only by Marie Antoinette,

And

deemed

unskilled workers to be "rubbish" and "riffraff."

he had constantly warned

any but the most highly

The Early Years

his

membership

skilled trucking

against accepting

company employees,

in

11

by

the interests of a cohesive union. This attitude,

lowered the IBT's organizational

had

potential.

Tobin had guarded the union's funds

2.

definition,

as closely as

he had

his

own. While he was ever the conservative, this policy did not rest primarily on parsimony. The international was far from wealthy at the time, but

president's repeated attempts to increase per capita

its

monthly dues payments were regularly rebuffed ventions: he had, in fact, been able to raise the

when

since 1907, in 1920,

Teamster con-

at

amount only once

the original 15 cents had been doubled.

Hence, the IBT leader was merely recognizing an obvious necessity

spend

for caution. His unwillingness to

in

such directions

campaigns (even among the highly

zational

however, did not forward the Teamster membership

At

3.

decade of

least as this

important

as

organi-

skilled unorganized), size.

any other factor during the

as

last

1907-1932 period had been the early attitude of the leadership

international's

toward the fast-growing

intercity

or

"over-the-road" trucking sector. Tobin and his key lieutenants had

viewed these long-distance operations with suspicion. They saw

new

the

activities

only

a serious threat to the

formed the heart of the Brotherhood might

drivers

them

also be converted into

entirely.

structure of the ers

market and competi-

whose

standards of their local cartage employers,

tive

whose jobs

Moreover, the

them

drivers

newer

time. That the

Teamsters seemed to escape

traditional localized joint council

IBT provided no carried

at this

in

easy

method of organizing work-

across the jurisdictions of several joint

councils. 4.

War

Excepting only the World

I

period (1916-1920), this

period had been one of the low gains for

all

of organized labor.

Concerted employer resistance and governmental antipathy allowed U.S.

total

union membership to

2,560,000 between 1903 and 1916. these

two

adverse

elements

major decrease

in the labor

And

had

sponsored welfare programs and a

rise

only from

in the 1920s

combined

1,824,000 to

and early 1930s

with

employer-

a decline in price levels to

membership

totals:

cause

from 4,722,000

in

1921 to 3,226,000 by 1932. There had been no special reason for the Teamsters to escape this pattern.

Teamster resources

in Detroit in

1932 were even more modest

than those of the national organization. They were, in

Chapter

1

fact,

almost

nonexistent. In the entire city, there were only five hundred

members,

One

in just

two

of these locals was the debt-ridden Commission House

Drivers, Warehouse, Produce, and Fish

had just

IBT

locals.

Employees Local 674.

long and bitter strike in the

lost a

fish

It

industry and was

when new organizer Hoffa, in return for taking the Kroger union with him into it, was given its charter. The other, whose three hundred members Tobin had placed under national

near extinction

Teamster trusteeship

from

(or direct administrative control

India-

was the

napolis) because of financial and electoral improprieties,

even more impoverished union of General Truck Drivers, Local

Not a single labor agreement covered its constituents, and few of these members were paying any dues to the union at all in this 299.

Depression period.

tion

As an organizer, Hoffa received no salary. His sole remunerawas a small percentage of the dues of each new dues payer

whom

he recruited for the Teamsters.

Nor were

his

organizers were

working conditions any more

made

to feel anything but

employers of the early 1930s.

was then known Ford,

who

had

as the

was not

It

"open shop

away

the earth, because they take

a

edly kept

on hand

at his

motor company

most employers of any

size

the Detroit

of America": Henry

worst thing that ever struck

man's independence," report-

pool of five thousand toughs,

a

welcome by

Union

for nothing that the city

capital

called labor unions "the

attractive.

many of them

ex-convicts,

to be used as strikebreakers;

were prepared

and

to repel unionization

by

physical force if necessary.

Hoffa, universally remembered by his associates from these

days as having been absolutely at least

a

fearless, received several beatings,

one of them severe enough

to require stitches.

year he had organized the rest of Kroger's workers,

hundred

who worked away from

the Fort and

Green

But within

some

four

Streets loading

dock, as well as several hundred other Detroit area dockworkers.

He

also,

between 1933 and 1935, made

nizing the truck drivers

from Detroit

who were

to dealerships

all

visible inroads in orga-

transporting

new automobiles

over the country

— the

"truckaway, driveaway, and car hauler" group. In

so-called

this case the

general approach of the indefatigable and well-informed Hoffa to travel

up and dowm the highways leading out of Detroit,

The Early Years

was

pull

up

13

would subsequently /

wake them

the side of the road alongside sleeping truck drivers,

at

One

up, and give his sales pitch.

veteran car hauler of these days

describe a typical Hoffa performance:

was about half way between Detroit and Cleveland. Guess

I'd been

sawing the wood for about twenty minutes when the door opening woke

me

up. I

was

Hoffa.

Now get all

He

out of here and

on me. I

really bore in

He

let

me

the

him

I

But he

a ride.

sleep."

told

guy looked up

Teamsters?" I

He

was awake anyhow

him I

make

in

up

it

"No, you

the Teamsters'

raises

Union

him

go ahead.

to

would have

He

besides.

I

would be

him

invited to all the meetings

got organized I didn't like

Hoffa into becoming

a

and

still

be there.

man who had

a

up.

general

now

and thus

local's business agent, at a salary

the

— even

Ten thousand on

his

dollars in the hole,

who was

landlord,

its

small, drab office

was not working because of a

to

it

had been

owed

threatening to evict

strike.

at best

a bit, to

And even

everyit

from

pay himself even ten

accounts; frequently, in his early

months on

250 in 1935,

who did have The new business

those

with indifference.

agent soon discovered that he would be lucky

book allowed him

it

Local

real.

premises for nonpayment of rent. Most

of its membership, which had actually shrunk

jobs supported their unit

its

of $25 per week.

anything, in even worse shape in 1935 than

three years earlier.

one money

mem-

let

originally en-

The promotion was, however, more apparent than

its

the

bankrupt general freight Local 299, he appointed the

major day-to-day administrator,

if

said in

12

Teamster organizer. In 1935,

twenty-two-year-old Hoffa that

299 was,

He

escaped the attention of Ray J. Bennett,

organizer for the International and the

trustee for the

we

I told

had an answer for everything and he never

If I hadn't signed that membership card we'd

None of this

said if

union guys was always causing trouble.

He

bers called the shots.

and more

is

can't.

scared I'd get fired if I joined a

couldn't afford the dues.

pay

Them

unions anyhow.

ticed

"My name

said,

said,

said, "fust five minutes; that's

so I told

was

me, grinning.

at

said by the time I got back to Detroit everybody

joined. I told I'd

you about

I talk with

I ask." Well, I

union.

little

was a bum looking for

I thought he

Can

half asleep. This

still

if

the local's check-

dollars

weekly from

its

the job, he could justify

the issuance of only a $5 salary to himself.

Given the

situation, as

Bennett had recognized in advancing

young man with such strong organizing

Chapter

1

skills,

a

Hoffa's obvious

14

priority

had

to be placed

on increasing the

bership, thereby bolstering initiation fees

intelligent

its

and dues payments.

and tough

Owen

local's

minuscule

mem-

untenable financial status through

And

Hoffa and

a close friend, the

Bert Brennan, in short order embarked

on an extensive program of trying

to organize

who

anyone

either

worked on a loading platform: Local 299's General Truck Driver charter made all of them logical candidates. "We'd go out," Hoffa would recall, "hit the docks, talk to drivers, put up drove

truck or

a

picket lines, conduct strikes, hold meetings day and night, convince

people to join the union. dues

the

all

As

way down

.

.

.

Pretty soon Local 299

to Evansville."

was

collecting

13

the Teamster successes grew, however, so did the need

on

some of them

the

the part of Hoffa and original "Strawberry

what the former

Brennan (and

their cohorts,

Boys" from Kroger's)

called "hired thugs

to fight

who were

it

out with

out to get us." As

Hoffa subsequently reported,

Our

cars

were bombed

Three

out.

different times,

someone broke

office

and destroyed our furniture. Cars would crowd us off

Then

it

.

.

.

way

got worse.

Brother, your to

life

survive —fight

They found out we

The

into the

the streets.

was

back.

The

your hands every day. There was only one

And we

used

to slug

it

out on the streets.

didn't scare.

police were no help.

talking union.

in

The

police

would

beat your brains in for even

cops harassed us every day. If you went on strike, you

got your head broken. The whole thing didn't take months

Hoffa in

—

it

took years.

14

later years frequently declared that in his first year as

was beaten up by policemen or striketwo dozen times" and that, in a sharp acceleration of these statistics from his pre-299 days, his scalp was laid open sufficiently as to necessitate stitches on no fewer than a half-dozen occasions. "I was hit so many times with night sticks, clubs, and brass knuckles," he once reminisced, "[that] I can't even remember where the bruises were." 15 He did remember, though, that more a

business agent alone, he

breakers "at least

than once he and his fellow organizers were required to pay cash in

advance for emergency room treatment that

was

rarely extracted

and that served

The Early Years

as

from people

at hospitals,

in other kinds

a

condition

of occupations

one more indignity.

15

He

charged, too, that the son of the

owner of

the General

Tobacco Company, which was being peacefully picketed by the Teamsters in the stomach

momentous

this

in the

Hoffa in

year, shot his brother Billy

mistaken belief that he was shooting the head of

Local 299.

of record that Hoffa's Teamsters freely

also a matter

It is

used their

own

muscle not just defensively but offensively

days. Hoffa himself bragged that

maybe

as

damage

physical

on

and,

and

that he

Guys who

was once put

his friends inflicted

— most probably

time

showed up on

I

A

young Local 299

And

back 16

He

twenty-four-hour period

I

got thrown in

to the picket line")

jail.

Every

— although and the

guiltless in this situation

se-

nothing more than the extreme use of

a

from

these days even claims that he

who

saw

the

wouldn't get

automobile, thereby breaking one of his

legs.

were

while Hoffa was generally armed only with his

his fellow

Teamsters ("In that

era,

it

was considered

you used anything other than your hands,"

member of Hoffa's

local recently explained),

a baseball bat to

company

strikebreaker.

men who

beat

up

emphasize

He was

a rival

chains. In 1937, he line

hit

did whatever he had to do," says this old colleague, with

disgrace if

he used

can

("I

got broken up").

leader run over an adversary

way of his

admiration. fists, as

on strikebreakers

police harassment tactic of the day.

out of the

a

likely

close associate

"Jimmy

in these

of arrests

North American record ("Every

went back

Hoffa appears to have been

quence was very

a

the picket line,

time they released me,

common

me up

in jail eighteen times within a

a strike

I

and

tried to break

during

a list

often described with pride the

members of competitive unions

occasion,

did.

I

He

your arm."

as

he had

and similar union duty misconduct "that's

for picket-line fighting

long

in the 1930s

also

also

a

on

at least

one occasion

point to a Sears

once identified

a charter

as

Roebuck

one of four

labor union organizer with automobile tire

was convicted of assault and

battery

on

a picket

and fined $10.

Over the next nine years, Hoffa was, indeed, to receive two more convictions. In 1940 he had to pay $500 when he pleaded nolo of conspiracy to monopolize the wastepaper

contendere to a charge

trades in cooperation with several unionized companies. (His plea

of no contest, he

said,

Motors has pleaded

Chapter

1

was "nothing

nolo."

17 )

And

against a

in

man. Even General

1946 he was charged with

16

extortion for

demanding

of small

that a variety

buy

grocers

retail

own

permits from the Teamsters to operate their

trucks while

bringing goods from the markets to their stores: he pleaded guilty

law misdemeanor, was placed on two

to a lesser labor

and ordered to return the $7,600 he had already

tion, fined $500,

from

collected

years' proba-

the grocers. In these years, he

was

also arrested

on

thirteen other occasions, not even counting those related to the

picket lines, ing, but

all

as participation in

an assault and shoot-

— each of them — were dismissed.

of these other charges

union

to his

on charges such

activities

Hoffa bore

all as a

also directly related

badge of competence. In

"who

labor organizer in Detroit in those days

any

his opinion,

didn't get in trouble

with the police was either buying them off or he wasn't doing job."

He was

also quite intolerant

lacked physical courage. this

to

his

18

"Once

a

of those

who by

his definition

bunch of dissidents,"

veteran of

a

period recalled not long ago, "came up to 299 for one purpose,

whip our

There were four or

ass.

named Brady, an ten or twelve of

while, although

ex-prize fighter

—

five

in the

them and they were

we

finally got

of us

— including

a

guy

union office and maybe

getting the best of us for a

them out

in the street

and

won

that

showed some cowardice. you don't work here no more.'

brawl. But Brady didn't perform well; he

Jimmy said 'You son of And Brady was finished

a bitch;

as far as his

days with the union were

concerned."

Not he

later

ing to

that the youthful organizer

was completely foolhardy. As

observed, "For sport sometime you should go around try-

wake up

a sleeping fear hauler] truck driver, preferably

some

fellow with a couple of thousand miles of hard driving stretching

before him. He's not noted for cordiality and hospitality." in those

19

Drivers

Depression days, well aware that they were natural targets

for thieves as they catnapped alone in their vehicles, frequently slept

with

tire

irons or spanner wrenches in their hands and

willing to use to

identify

them

at the slightest sign

himself "with

a

were quite

of an intruder. Hoffa learned

rapid-fire

introduction":

"Hi-I'm-

Jimmy-Hoffa- Organizer- for- the-Teamsters-and-I-wonder-if-I20 could-talk-to-you. Then I'd duck back." Sometimes, the lack of hospitality that greeted Hoffa point

was such

The Early Years

that he

would abort

his overture

on

the spot.

at this

More

17

than once, the seemingly innocuous cab turned out to be occupied

by employer-hired thugs who emerged, billy clubs swinging, to convey a "warning" to the Local 299 leader (not long afterward the Teamsters implemented travel in pairs).

of having their Detroit organizers

a policy

And, always, such police

tactics as the

issuance of traffic violation tickets, accompanied

by

unwarranted search of

a full

Hoffa's vehicle for "dangerous weapons," had to be reckoned with.

But the ambitious, aggressive Hoffa was not easily deterred. And, as they already had done with so many drivers and other workers, his persuasiveness and tirelessness combined with

Union

cation to the Teamsters

that

seemed

a

dedi-

to be quite sincere to

win him, with the help of Brennan and the others, many converts. By the end of 1937, not only were the car haulers substantially organized but several thousand additional warehousemen and local truck drivers also were.

And Hoffa was

drivers, Tobin's lack

free to turn the

bulk of his

number of over-the-road

attention to the rapidly increasing

truck

of enthusiasm for organization of these drivers

notwithstanding. In this

newer

was controlled by

tive

Hoffa was significantly influenced by

effort,

highly unlikely source a

— Teamster Local 574

in Minneapolis,

a

which

group of dissident Communists.

The Minneapolis Teamster IBT at the time. Its leaders

unit hardly typified the conserva-

— the brothers Vincent, Grant, and

Miles Dunne, a former lumberjack

young

organizer,

Farrell

Dobbs

named

—

were

Karl Skoglund, and the all

of Leon

followers

Trotsky, while most Teamsters preferred Franklin D. Roosevelt. It

enthusiastically favored organizing unskilled workers, Tobin's

"rubbish" and strike

"riffraff."

And

it

weapon, which Tobin had

advocated

maximum

use of the

only

tried to exercise

as a last

resort.

by the

Particularly inspired in 1933,

set out,

to organize

creative

all

Dobbs, the

regardless of skill or the jurisdiction of other unions. realized this goal, although only after a bitter strike in at least

two deaths and

Their attention then

newspaper

asserted,

five

men

first

Minneapolis coal yard workers,

They quickly

which resulted

sixty-seven injuries.

moved

"With the

to over-the-road trucking.

As

their

[intercity] trucking industry rapidly

replacing the railroads in the handling of freight, the truckdrivers'

Chapter

1

18

union becomes the dominating factor

in labor organization."

also recognized in these columns, far-sightedly, that

ble "to have an island of truckdrivers isolated

workers of

or a woolen mill."

a coal tipple

The Trotskyites

in

it

They

was impossi-

one place

like the

21

made use of their existing control of terminals. By refusing to let Local 574 men

initially

the Minneapolis truck

unload incoming trucks unless fellow Teamsters were driving them, they soon forced the out-of-town owners to bargain with them.

The newly-enrolled Teamsters then went on

to organize the next

terminal, and the "leapfrogging" spread.

But the imagination of these Teamsters did not stop

The

here.

Minneapolis leaders organized the warehousemen by restricting the services

of their drivers to Teamster-represented warehouses. Then

they prohibited the warehousemen from accommodating goods that

had not been union made (and union delivered), thereby

cruiting a large variety of factory

By

won

many

1937

workers

thousands of mid western members had been

for the Teamsters

by

this process,

and the Trotskyites were

generally, if quite begrudgingly, being recognized sters as

growth

by other Team-

having been the greatest single cause of the appreciable IBT in this

period— from 75,000

One problem remained new

re-

as well.

over-the-road drivers

(as

in

1933 to 277,000 in 1937.

for the Minneapolis Teamsters.

The

well as the other worker types) had,

through diplomatic necessity, been shared with many other IBT locals scattered

throughout the Midwest. All such

locals

were

now

vulnerable, if they continued to bargain separately, to the lowest

wage

scale in

any of the

ing industry, the

by moving

Dobbs

cities.

owner could

In the low-investment intercity truckeasily benefit

his terminals to the

low-wage

from wage

differentials

areas.

therefore, in 1937, took the lead in joining together for

contract negotiations for

organization, the

all

affected

North Central

Teamster

locals.

The

first

District Drivers Council,

such

soon be-

came the Central States Drivers Council. As such, it represented most over-the-road drivers in the twelve midwestern states, and Dobbs was attempting to have it sign a master regional contract establishing identical wages and other conditions of employment throughout

this area,

notwithstanding the

fact that there

such centralized authority on the employer's

some

side:

was no

he would devise

pressure tactic to drive the employers together.

The Early Years

19

Hoffa watched lar

all

of this in fascination.

"very far-seeing individual

.

a

particu-

the draftsman and architect of

.

.

developed

whom he was later to laud

admiration for the innovative Dobbs,

as a

He

our road operations" and of whose area- wide bargaining he would

how

say, "I realized

as to the fact that

was and

right he

had an impact on

it

you could no longer

organized, in a particular city or state."

The

Detroiter was not

at all

live,

my mind how

no matter

well

22

sympathetic to Dobbs's political

Communists were "screwballs" and "nuts"). Nor would he find the Socialist Worker party activities that his fellow organizer would shortly thereafter views (he steadfastly maintained

embrace

in lieu

movement

of

his

his life that

all

communism

and, ultimately, of his labor

more commendable (Dobbs was to Worker nominee for the U.S. presidency in four

leadership to be any

be the Socialist

different national elections,

ending in 1960). But he was willing to

overlook what he considered Dobbs's ancillary values given what he saw as an overriding strength: "Farrell was," he thought, "a hell 23 of an organizer." Years

in vain, to get

him

he offered Dobbs an attractive salary,

later,

to return

and

recruit

more workers

for the union.

Hoffa was not by any means the only admirer of Dobbs within the Teamsters. a

The

craft-conscious

Tobin regarded the

latter

with

conspicuous absence of enthusiasm, to be sure, and so did the

majority of Teamster local leaders throughout the country. But

Dobbs and

of road driver strategic importance,

his basic concepts

leapfrogging, and areawide bargaining received backing

IBT

influential

leadership in Chicago

of Hoffa's two superiors

Teamster

more

at

in Detroit,

from both

the time, Bennett and the now-ranking

Joseph "Red" O'Laughlin. Anxious to learn from the master, Bennett and O'Laughlin invited

in that city,

directly

themselves to Minneapolis in feisty

— and,

from the

young

Hoffa

assistant,

sat

his

their

Hoffa.

and listened to Dobbs

hour and found

They took with them

late 1937.

Jimmy

as

he

set forth his

views by the

high second-hand opinion of the

latter

only

confirmed by first-hand observation. "I was studying," he would

Dobbs

in turn

was

impressed by Hoffa's intelligence, capacity for hard work, and

own

often say later, "at the knees of a master."

record of organizing successes.

The

wrote, was "eager to learn and quick to

welcomed

Chapter

1

Dobbs subsequently absorb new ideas." Dobbs

Detroiter,

the chance to use Hoffa's talents briefly a

few months

20

when Bennett and O'Laughlin

later,

to

Minneapolis

colleagues

—

— together with

to help

Dobbs

campaign

in his

who

long-distance midwestern drivers

Teamster

have the seventy

to

States Drivers

the several

it

Dobbs's ambitious 1938

in

hundred trucking employers national

at-

his Central

master regional agreement with

a

in the

twelve

states.

employer organization, the American

Trucking Associations, had refused

to enter this bargaining, claim-

lacked authority to do so, and no other such centralized

employer group

existed.

But

in a brilliant

to concentrate the negotiations

first

of the

remained outside the

still

under the umbrella of

locals

Council negotiate

The major ing that

to recruit those

Boy

fold.

Hoffa remained to participate

tempt

sent their subordinate back

several of Hoffa's Strawberry

move, Dobbs decided

on the key

city

of Chicago,

midwestern truck routes included, and then

which

virtually

try to

implement whatever Chicago conditions he might extract

all

to

The strategy, which Hoffa would subsequently copy, worked because the great majority of the employers wanted to be in on the critical Chicago bargaining that would affect them whether or not they participated in it, as would the general trucking strike that Dobbs was not at all hesitant in here throughout the rest of the Midwest.

threatening. In short order, the managers had banded together in

four associations comprising the Central States Employers Negoti-

Committee.

ating

Not long

afterward, a historic areawide Central States agree-

ment was signed by cents per mile

and

the parties. All road drivers

and 75 cents per hour for time

deliveries, vehicle

delays

—

breakdowns,

traffic

were granted 2.75 due

lost

to pickups

congestion, and other

substantial increases over the terms of the expiring local

contracts that the regional agreement replaced. Owner-operators, drivers of their

equipment

own

trucks,

were

in addition to their

to be paid for the rental

wages

as drivers.

granted a modified closed shop in which

of their

The union was

drivers

were required

to belong to the Teamsters as a condition of their

employment.

And

a

grievance committee, with

Dobbs

all

as its

chairman, was estab-

lished to enforce these stipulations uniformly over the twelve-state area.

In the

immediate aftermath of these 1938 negotiations, Dobbs

did something else that was to remain etched in Hoffa's

The Early Years

mind and

21

that the latter ers

would

had voiced

to sign

later

and instead,

it

in a

Dobbs's work, locked out

their

with the

A

employees.

strong state antipick-

made it possible for the union to counter Dobbs once again exhibited his prolific

eting law tively,

Omaha, the trucking employnew contract by refusing move that threatened to undo much of

emulate. In

their displeasure

but

After

a

this tactic effec-

imagination.

thorough review of the companies' routes, Dobbs con-

cluded that the friendlier city of Kansas City was the key to a solution: if the

flow of trucking between

Omaha

could be stopped, the

Omaha

truckers

and the Missouri

would have

with the Teamsters. The leading Teamster

in

to

come

city

to terms

Kansas City was an-

other admirer of Dobbs and quickly agreed to strike the employers in his jurisdiction unless they

And

suspended

their dealings

with Omaha.

the Nebraskans, thus isolated, soon withdrew their resistance

to the master regional agreement. This secondary boycott (the exercise

of economic pressure against one target to get

exert pressure

on another

union's concern)

push

a

phrase

approach

was

to

target that

it

to

actually the subject of the

is

become another Hoffa trademark ("You Omaha jumps," as he was to

button in Kansas City and in his

it)

own

efforts

ments, and ultimately

In point

a

toward other regional trucking agree-

nationwide one.

of fact, Dobbs was not the

first

person to consummate

an areawide trucking agreement on behalf of the Teamsters.

An

IBT general organizer from Seattle, David D. Beck, had done so two years earlier, his master freight contract covering overthe-road drivers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. And aspiring

while Beck was by his

own

admission indebted to the novel policies

of the Local 574 leaders, in the same year that Dobbs and his colleagues were implementing their Drivers Council he actually intro-

duced an even more significant bargaining device.

He formed

the

Western Conference of Teamsters, encompassing the eleven western states and British Columbia. Both his 1936 Northwest agree-

ment and

the

1938

departures from the

Central

States

Chapter

1

first

administrative

the joint council and the international

permanent

The

constituted

major

traditional IBT practice of local autonomy.

But Beck's new creation was the between

contract

body

to arise

on an avowedly

basis.

conference was, in turn, subdivided into twelve trade divi-

22

sions (e.g., bakery, beverage, general hauling) to provide specialized organizing help to the various

member joint

membership

unions. Joint council and local

and the divisions was, however,

at first

Although he frequently pointed trucking as

in

councils and local

both the conference

voluntary.

economics of

to the

intercity

the primary justification for the conference concept,

Beck, as head of the structure, gained an efficient vehicle for exercising control over

use of

all

Teamsters

new components

its

to

in the region.

expand

his

He

could also

membership

in

In 1938, the conference's general hauling division,

trade unit,

largest

make

all fields.

by

far the

an eleven-state agreement bringing

effected

The

higher wages to the over-the-road drivers of 175 local unions.

was reportedly signed by two thousand employers.

pact

however, contract negotiation remained on

trades,

In other

a local basis, as

did the industries negotiated for.

Nineteen years older than Hoffa, the vain, portly Beck had

come

way from his economically depressed childhood by 1930s. He had sold newspapers in downtown Seattle when

long

a

the later

he was seven and, not unlike Hoffa, had dropped out of school early

—

of sixteen to join

in his case, at the age

employee

in a laundry.

The

efforts

his

mother

as

an

of both mother and son were

needed to keep the wolf from the Beck family's door: Beck's

father,

make ends meet by himself. become both a laundry truck

driver

a carpet cleaner,

was unable

Beck had soon and

a

to

thereafter

Teamster, had quickly decided on union leadership

as a career,

and had never looked back. In 1925, he had been elected president of his Seattle laundry drivers'

local; the

following year, as an

official

host for the IBT's national convention being held in Seattle, he had

made

a favorable

impression on Tobin,

who

had appointed him to

the general organizer's position.

Tobin's faith in Beck was almost immediately rewarded.

By

1930, the former laundry driver had just about completely orga-

nized his

all

Seattle truck drivers.

geography and

his

He

then expanded both the scope of

membership, using

a

paradoxical mixture of

conservative "business unionism" to win over reluctant employers

and physical violence to subdue

rival unionists.

He also

stressed

—

to

West Coast longshoremen, Brewery Workers, and Newsboys' Union, many of whose members he recruited for the IBT that

the

—

while the Teamsters could do without their help in times of driver

The Early Years

23

work

stoppages, their (remaining)

Teamster support when they

members depended

instituted picket lines. For over-the-

road driver organization, his use of the "leapfrog" process than that of the Trotskyites.

less intensive

on domain now

the entire

ers

ing"

—

West Coast remained

also included

more

distributive,

food,

the

in

on

greatly

By

1936,

him

for

was no

few truck driv-

to organize. His

truck drivers "allied to truckdriv-

and dairy industries primarily

than did any other part of the IBT.

The

carpet cleaner's son had also achieved

by

time some-

this

thing that he had been completely denied in childhood and had avidly coveted ever since: social respectability. Although he fre-

quently defined unions as "marketing cooperatives established to sell

many head of

so

labor to employers

at

the highest market

price," the fact that this price invariably also considered the

em-

ployer's ability to pay

won him many

community. So did

almost obsessive identification with success-

ful business

his

supporters in the business

executives as role models. (Later he

way Charley Wilson

the Teamsters the

would

say, "I

run

runs General Motors," and

enemy I Chamber of

he more than once announced in his speeches, "For every

make in the ranks of labor, Commerce.")

He before

I

make two

friends in the

cheerfully accepted and even solicited invitations to speak

management groups and counted some of Seattle's leading among his best friends. He was a prominent Elk and

executives

American Legionnaire,

a

major figure

in the Veterans

Wars, and by the end of the 1930s had also served

of Foreign

as Seattle

boxing

commissioner, chairman of the Seattle Civil Service Commission,

and member of Washington State Board of Prison Terms and Pa-

mayor of Seattle said of him, "Dave Beck runs good thing that he does." Tobin had by this time become somewhat ambivalent about

roles. In 1937, the this

town and

it's

a

the rising star in the West. able

competence

attainment of

as

He

continued to value Beck's consider-

an organizer and had no quarrel with the

community

he particularly prized

status,

although there

this attainment, either.

is

latter's

no evidence

that

But he had come

to

have serious misgivings about Beck's creation of the Western Conference, officially because he

viewed

jealousy and internal politics" but

Chapter

1

it

as a

more

"breeding ground for

basically because Beck's

24

new

enough

On

own.

influence threatened his

realistic

Tobin was

the other hand,

to recognize both the conference's role in

expanding

Teamster membership and Beck's deeply entrenched position.

He

therefore maintained a modus vivendi with his former appointee and

even lavishly praised Beck's proven administrative competencies

on occasion. And while the Western Conference was not formally recognized by the

autonomous

IBT

constitution until 1947,

it

was

effectively an

by Beck and not Tobin from the date

unit controlled

of its founding. In 1940, with the

full

support of Tobin, Beck was

elected an international vice president of the Teamsters

new

position and his existing

Union. His

West Coast power base made him

heavy favorite to succeed the old Bostonian

as

IBT

president

a

when-

ever Tobin decided to step down.

Being loaned out to Dobbs did not constitute the

first

special

project that the Local 299 business agent had been assigned. Indeed, since accepting Bennett's offer almost three years earlier, Hoffa

been called upon to help

a variety

had

of people anxious to organize but

not within the logical jurisdiction of his General Truck Drivers local

— among them, grocery

ment

and laundry workers. The experience and

store employees,

contacts

would

brewery workers, depart-

store clerks,

in all cases

be of value

as

he extended his influence

both geographically and occupationally. In one

case, the value

had

already been huge: helping a group of nonunionized but striking

laundry employees on

a

cold

March morning

the eighteen-year-old Josephine Poszywak, thereafter

make Mrs. James

he had met

R. Hoffa.

employment conditions at downtown Detroit laundry had left much to be desired. The Even by

the

in 1936,

whom he would shortly

the standards of the day,

when all when

jobs paid a paltry seventeen cents an hour

the laundering

machines were in operation and nothing

they were not.

In a situation not unlike that a

few years

earlier as a

all-female laundry

two or

boxcar unloader

room

labor force on

three hours of work.

at

which Hoffa himself had experienced

Nor

at

Kroger's, moreover, the

some days could

get only

could these employees leave the

premises until the machines had sufficient bundles in them to justify turning them on: as in the situation

at

workplaces in these depression years,

The Early Years

Kroger's and countless other a substantial

pool of unem-

25

ployed workers waited in the wings, allowing the employer to

on terms that in the

later

insist

twentieth century would seem absolutely

draconian.

The women had

approached the International Laundry

first

Workers Union, which had responded by encouraging them to go out on strike. With replacements for the strikers already hired, however, the laundry

union had decided

— on the grounds

members of

dry's four drivers were

that the laun-

—

Union

the Teamsters

to

request the assistance of the IBT.

The twenty-three-year-old Hoffa arrived on the scene with a set of "Management Unfair" signs. He then established a standard double-ringed picket line, those in the outer circle moving clockwise and those in the inner

assumed

circle

walking counterclockwise.

a place in the outside line and as he passed the

walking counterclockwise agement. Then,

as

he

tried to give each

later

wrote,

one

a smile

happened":

"it

when

she smiled back at me.

and although she was small and looked proud.

I

felt like I'd

There appears fact

know how

been

to be

it felt

Her

little

to be hit

the movies that night.

went together on

From

on the chest with

The Teamster

dated quite infrequently to that point and

males

— some three years

a

who

24

did in

a blackjack, invited

to

go with him

to

then on, he and Josephine Poszywak

a regular basis.

had anything more than

blackjack."

a

hyperbole here. Hoffa,

young Polish-American woman

the attractive

named

she walked erect and

on the chest with

hit

crinkled in

was shining blond

hair

frail

of encour-

was looking

They

into the brightest pair of blue eyes I'd ever seen.

the corners

"I

He

women

organizer,

who

known

is

tepid interest in only

earlier

he had considered

a

who had to

have

two other feyoung woman

Eileen to have been his "girl" for a short while and not long

thereafter he

had had

Sylvia Pigano

—

were married by September

a

brief affair with a union clerical employee,

proposed to Josephine a justice

24, 1936

—

a

to Detroit so that the

of the peace

in

a

few months

later.

They

Bowling Green, Ohio, on

Saturday, following which they drove back

bridegroom could be

at

work on Monday

morning. In many ways, the two Hoffas were exact opposites. The groom exuded physical well-being and strength ("He set a pace that needed, and got, a first-rate body," a lifelong friend has said). The

Chapter

1

26

was

bride

from robust

far

("I

was

a

she later told her daughter. "I don't all

of those prettier

in fact, to

girls at

be plagued

all

skinny, scrawny

know why Dad

thing,"

little

picked

me

with

the laundry to choose from"). She was,

her

life

by poor

had damaged her heart when she was

a

health:

young

girl,

rheumatic fever

and the drinking

of unpasteurized milk had subsequently further weakened these muscles by giving her undulant fever; she was also prone to

many

as four or five fainting spells a year,

countered by the administration of smelling

which were

as

effectively

but never satisfac-

salts

torily explained.

In addition,

school

at

groom, although he had attended Sunday

the

the Christian

Church of Brazil, whose

services

were pat-

terned after those of East Coast Congregational churches, was an atheist.

The

bride had been brought up as a devout Catholic and

continued to think of herself as one even

after she

was excommuni-

cated for having married outside the church. In contrast to the a

groom's complete

fearlessness, the bride

constant worrier. Although he was a tightly

temperamentally unable to

he tended not to

relax,

was

wound man who was fret

about things

over which he had no control and would say, "If you see ten troubles

coming down

the road, don't

worry about them. Nine

will

vanish before they ever get to you and the tenth won't turn out to

be

much of

anything

at all."

A

Hoffa friend of long standing re-

members him as being, above all, a fatalist. She, among many other fears, would develop a phobia about being poor once again and would,

sometimes have nightmares on

in fact,

She

their marriage. a small fire

also, after the

Hoffa Detroit residence incurred

caused by children playing with matches next door,

worried constantly that there would be another that

from

during

this subject

that

fire

and claimed

day on she was always frightened by the sound of a

siren.

More

than

this,

Josephine's Polish-American roots ran very

deep. She had been educated in Polish-sponsored parochial schools

language and had an abiding affection for both Polish

in the Polish

music and Polish weddings (one friend from her laundry worker days has described her

as "strictly ethnic").

Her husband's

American mother never quite forgave her son such

a "foreigner,"

was

distant

and the relationship between the two

from the beginning. Friends and

The Early Years

Irish-

for having married

women

relatives often de-

27

scribed Josephine as "sweet"; insofar as

is

known,

the adjective

never applied to her aggressive, two-fisted husband.

If the

was

groom

was the complete professional, absolutely dedicated to his union, never happier than when the bride was the complete homebody

—

cooking, cleaning, and, starting in 1938 with the birth of Barbara,

two

bringing up her

And

children.

and to learn about the larger world

same could not be

stant, the

said

while his desire to investigate in

of

which he operated was con-

her.

The marriage of "Jo" and "Jimmy," (he

sometimes

they called each other

as

called her "Josie" or "Josephine," but she did not

would nonetheless be an sister Ange-

particularly like either of these names),

unusually happy one for both of them. As Josephine's line

would

say, "Jo really

in her life";

"anchor

.

.

doted on Jim: he was the

.

my

whole

life

That the two people were

.

.

end

the custodian of

.

entirely

never be doubted by anyone in family: the

star

performer

and she would always be what he often described

my

as his

happiness."

devoted to each other would

a position

of intimacy with the Hoffa

husband and wife relationship would from beginning

be, in the

words of one of

these intimates, "a very

to

smooth-

running operation."

Whatever

else

could be said of Hoffa

he could not be faulted in

his choice

of

Hoffa's relationship with Farrell

end

at all

an evaluator of people,

as

a

mate.

Dobbs

did not, in contrast,

happily.

Tobin's misgivings about the Minneapolis Trotskyites had

never resulted in

much

The

Brotherhood of Teamsters was

so

International

much

concrete action by the Teamster president.

an international union,

its title

in these

notwithstanding, as a collec-

no interference

tion of all-powerful local unions, each brooking

from the

international headquarters within

its

own

Beck's West Coast empire hardly stood alone

doms, even though quent occasions

it

was by

far the largest

when Tobin had

strongly entrenched local

tried to

autonomy

capita dues payments), he

days not

(for

geographic

among

of

these.

On

the infre-

impinge on any of the

example, in raising the per

had generally been rebuffed.

In addition, the Local 574 leaders, especially the three

brothers, remained

Chapter

1

area.

the local fief-

enormously popular with

their

own

Dunne

rank and

28

file.

the

The international Communists had,

in fact,

1936 Tobin had established

574 membership; success, he

two

chief executive's only

moves

real

both resulted in complete

Local 500 to win over the Local

a rival

had culminated

after this effort

had merged the two

against

failure: in

new

locals into a

in

no measurable

Local 544, which,

however, was immediately dominated by Dobbs,

Dunnes, and

the

Skoglund.

But by early 1941, Tobin was prepared

He had been

granted somewhat greater power over the local unions

by amendments made

to the

Much more

convention.

to take stronger action.

embarrassed, as

IBT

than

constitution at the 1940 Teamster

he was becoming increasingly

this,

a close friend

of Franklin D. Roosevelt, by the

World War

Trotskyites' shrill opposition to Roosevelt's

II

prepared-

ness program. (The Tobin-Roosevelt association was, indeed, sufficiently intimate that

candidacy for

Roosevelt would four years

a fourth

White House term

at a

later

announce

his

Teamster testimonial

banquet honoring Tobin, an action that the U.S. President defended

by explaining

that "truck drivers

There was

have such big hands.")

also a pressing pragmatic reason.

more

aggressive, and

more

his

from

the Teamsters and join

left-leaning,

Congress of Industrial

colleagues had recently voted to secede the

Dobbs and

Organizations, founded in 1935 by John L. Lewis after Lewis had

himself withdrawn from the American Federation of Labor. Excited

by the Minneapolis move, Lewis had immediately issued charter for a

new

had also placed

local

of truck drivers in the Minneapolis

his brother

Denny

in

charge of the CIO's ambitious

and well-financed organizing drive not only there but

Michigan

cities

of Detroit, Pontiac, and

in the

declined.

Even

developed

from

a respect for the

dent Communists.

Vincent

in Minneapolis:

aside

nearby

Flint.

man who who at first

Fearing wholesale Teamster losses, Tobin turned to

had had experience

CIO He

a

area.

James R. Hoffa,

his indebtedness to

a

Dobbs, Hoffa had

cohesiveness and dedication of the dissi-

He had

also

formed personal friendships with

Dunne and other Local 544 leaders. He was more than three decades later,

to

tell a

televi-

sion interviewer / think that

[Tobin] used our relationship because I had refused

request, or

on an order.

I wouldn't

go and

The Early Years

it

When

he ordered

was none of my

me

to

business.

go

to

And

to

go on

Minneapolis, I said then he put

it

on a

29

me and

personal basis, as a request, and brought up what he'd done for

And

and what he was gonna do for me.

forth,

man made

once the old

so a

personal request at his age [Tobin was sixty-six years old at the time],

you couldn't very well turn him down. Recognizing he was

went

President, I

.

.

Minneapolis

into

.

hundred crack guys, had the war.

in a

took the union over and then Farrell Party.

.

rigged

office,

brought

And we finally

every battle.

and went with

.

memories of the 1941

different

.

But he

.

.

.

he was helped by

instance,

courts

took over the

.

left

Hoffa was among the

true that

it is

Minneapolis.

into

.

the Socialist

25

Dobbs had somewhat

Now

.

We won

General

the

.

.

the

squads that Tobin sent

he whipped

us.

For

Minneapolis Police Department,

the

says in effect there

the mayor, the governor

.

IBT goon

events:

and an antilabor law

and put through by the Republican governor of the

that

state,

had been

and by

the

Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Department offustice

and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who then happened the United States.

had just a

little

.

.

Under

those circumstances

The man

you got

St.

is

irrefutable

Paul in mid-1941

we

—

men

physically,

Dobbs and

from

the others

fights

it").

—

it

Whatever

for ruthlessness that leader.

But

It

He

streets,

his

Minneapolis and

with fists

many and

injuries

sticks ("I

later explain, "to

make

motives for breaking with

Denny Lewis may have been the real

has been suggested that the

in the

may have

was as

in

with both

own Michigan

— the Hoffa participation

ing and an active one.

Teamster

on the

with me," Hoffa would

could handle

incursion on Hoffa's

reason

admit Hoffa

with or without significant help, the

that,

is

sides resulting

took enough sure

to

exaggerates on this point.

Hoffa forces resoundingly defeated the rebels

on both

be President of

26

exaggerates.

What

.

help, didn't he?

to

turf

Minnesota purge was

in later years to

Ralph and

a will-

helped to generate the reputation

surround the famous

Estelle James

have noted in eval-

uating Hoffa's performance on the Minnesota battleground, "That

he did his job so effectively substantial qualities

The

final

of the

is

evidence that he already possessed

trait."

27

chapter in the lives of the Trotskyites as labor leaders

was written only

a

few weeks

later. In

an action that

Dobbs may

have been thinking of when he cited the "help" that Hoffa received,

Chapter

1

30

Dobbs, the Dunnes, and five other Local 544 officers were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice under the 1940 Smith Act. They were charged with conspiring both to overthrow the U.S. govern-

ment by

force or violence and to create insubordination in the

Dobbs and Vincent Dunne were found

forces.

months

to twelve to eighteen

armed

guilty and sentenced

in prison, the first

people imprisoned

under the 1940 sedition law. Grant Dunne committed suicide while

of a nervous breakdown, and Skoglund,

in the throes

noncitizen,

a

was deported. Replacing Dobbs

as vice-president

of the Central State Drivers

Council that he had been so instrumental

a relieved

in creating,

Tobin named James Riddle Hoffa, who had already

1940) re-

(in

Dobbs as the CSDC negotiating chairman. Bennett was once made the ranking Teamster in Detroit, a primacy that he had

placed again

temporarily yielded to O'Laughlin. And, in to be inflicted

on

was himself stripped of and given instead

Dakota

—

a

as

of

all

that since Detroit's

CIO

of the

(in its

ries

should also be

Lewis to lead

fact that

in Detroit

North and South

he had refused to do battle

automobile factories were

who drove CIO members,

the cars the

now

fully

affiliate,

his

organized

under Wal-

away from these factohad embarked on an

car haulers

and assigned

Hoffa returned to Detroit from Minneapo-

of strong-arm goons roughing up

to find scores

Arguing

CIO

wean away Hoffa's

this effort.

and threatening

force to be reckoned with.

United Automobile Workers

aggressive campaign to

lis

a

Reuther), the people

ter

Teamster authority in

was

O'Laughlin

Hoffa (and Bennett) had.

Denny Lewis remained by the

his

a final insult that

his old union,

minor IBT organizer's job

in recognition

with Dobbs

Dobbs by

the departed

his organizers

truckaway employers with both

strikes

and

physical violence.

"We

needed some [more] husky guys around," Bennett

reminisced.

"What

wanted someone

the hell,

who

I

didn't need

no college graduates.

wasn't afraid to use his dukes."

Hoffa the authority to hire

a variety

later

28

He

I

gave

of such tough specimens for

the Teamsters.

One of these

specimens,

whom

Hoffa soon thereafter made

a

Local 299 business agent (by 1941, the local had several such positions,

under Hoffa's clearly established control), remembers:

The Early Years

31

when Denny Lewis's

I'd never seen a pistol prior to then,

We We I

had several of our stewards beat up, sometimes

him, "1 want

calling

to tell

you

had anything like that [a pistol].

remember once,

headquarters,

now

.

arming every one of

that I'm

.

right out in front

now

.

.

.

Teamster

official]

Lewis

groin.

.

.

car

But Jimmy himself never

of our place [Local 299's first permanent

shared with six other locals

.

and me up while we were

jumped

downtown

in

and weighed a

when we

unconscious

was not

It

good sized guy

[in his

to be quite that simple,

down

.

peak

hit

years, he .

.

[another

The guys

.

of them

.

me

in

in the

was almost

They were

however. Fighting between

went on

became so common, Bobby Holmes would

pedestrians couldn't walk

.

died.

the Lewis and the Bennett-Hoffa forces fights

One

Detroit] Lewis

Tom Burke car.

250 pounds].

solid

One of them

left.

our

in

out with baseball bats.

I'm a pretty

six feet, five inches

my

.

sent a car with real hoods strictly to beat Brennan,

the

houses.

up the head of the Detroit police and saying

right

business agents. We're going to defend ourselves. "

I

own

in their

never got no support from the Police Department. Never.

remember fimmy once

to

thugs used them.

for

months;

fist-

later recall, "that

the street without seeing a couple

29 of union guys rolling around, thrashing each other." The twenty-

five

CIO

organizers especially assigned to Detroit for the Hoffa-

raiding project

made some headway by

freely offering their target

employers substandard or "sweetheart" contracts that were

less

The fact that the CIO budget of considerably more thugs than did Hoffa's also

costly than the Hoffa agreements.

allowed the hiring

gave the Lewis campaign an edge.

Needing more the

same quarter

help,

Hoffa in

many

that

1941 requested support from

late

employers, for strikebreaking, and

other unionists, for a variety of organizational projects, had already

turned to throughout the tury: organized crime.

ciated

first

several decades of the twentieth cen-

According

to people

with him in those days, he paid

who were

visits to the

figures in the city. Santo Perrone, "Scarfacejoe"

Coppola, and others to

many

— known

as

closely asso-

reputed top

Bommarito, Frank

members of the "East

— were

asked

to

provide

crowd" in which

Side

Detroiters in recognition of the part of the city

most of them resided

mob

reinforcement

manpower.

Chapter

1

32

The underworld

they had been to their other

many

politicians.

political

system,"

"That's

how

were no

leaders

allies

obliging to Hoffa than

less

— including,

it

should be noted,

("The mobsters have always been wedded as a veteran criminologist

to the

observed not long ago,

they survive. Without that wedding, they'd be terror-

—

and we'd get rid of them.") No deep labor relations philosophy prevented them from extending such aid to a Teamster, even though some of them already sat on the employer side of the barists

some Teamster-employer

gaining table in

mob owned, and tell

relationships: the Detroit

for example, a significant slice of the Detroit laundry

by

soft drink industries

this time.

Lewis would soon thereafter

the Detroit Free Press that "professional

hoodlums and gangsters"

were intimidating truck drivers into "joining the

Union."

30

And

within

a

AFL

Teamsters

matter of a few months the threat of Denny

Lewis was over.

From

then on, Hoffa's relationship with the underworld was

to be an ongoing one.

From

came introductions and the country

Hoffa's

—

allies

his liaisons

with the Detroit gangsters

often strong social

New

in Cleveland,

ties to

mobsters around

many of

York, Chicago (where

had close connections

to the old

Capone

and, ultimately, in just about every major city.

organization)

Nor

did he ever,

remotely, try to conceal these relationships. Thirty-three years after his initial visits to the East Side

TV News

with your

can pick up

with them.

who and

ABC-

an

tell

interviewer that "these [organized crime figures] are the

people you should interfere

crowd, he would

didn't

phone

a .

.

.

know strike.

you're going to avoid having anyone

And

in Detroit

We make

would be

know how

if

it

that's

and

call

what we know them

anybody and have

a

for.

I

meeting

our business, and the head of any union

a fool.

Know who

to neutralize 'em."

31

are

And

your potential enemies another mid-1970s re-

would be offered a similar statement: "I don't deny the fact know, I think, what's going on in most of the big cities of United States. And that means knowing the people, uh, who

porter that

the

I

are in the big cities. I'm

no

different than the banks,

no

different

than insurance companies, no different than the politicians. You're a

damned

fool not to be informed

what makes

you're tryin' to do business in the city."

He

a city

run

was different from banks, insurance companies, and

The Early Years

when

32

at least

33

the heavy majority of politicians in his degree of familiarity and even close friendships with initial

many

criminals.

relationships in the years after 1941

famous,

his

mobster connections were

able discredit.

But

it

world

in

which he and

that some of the

to

as

Hoffa broadened the

and

as

he became more

redound

to his consider-

should not be forgotten that in originally estab-

lishing these relationships, he

the

And

latter

was merely recognizing

his adversaries lived

had already taken.

a

portion of

and walking

He was

nothing

a

if

road not a

realist.

Chapter

1

34

The Biggest Small Man

in

Detroit

2 him from

Hoffa's sense of realism did not preclude

imagination to the

fertile

fullest as far as his

were concerned. He considered workers to be

game

fair

and went so

employees

far as to post a sign that said "If

union

in breweries,

and department stores

warehouses,

in a conspicuous location at his

exercising his

organizing efforts

wide variety of unorganized

— among them,

packinghouses,

drugstores,

a

own

it

moves, sign

it

up"

hall.

Watching from Indianapolis, Tobin

tried to discourage

such

attempts on the entirely logical grounds that they were too far afield

from the IBT's

traditional

and authorized (by the parent American

Federation of Labor) jurisdiction of drivers and loading dock ployees. ees in

But he

many

basically tried in vain.

By

the end of 1941,

em-

employ-

such establishments had been recruited by Hoffa and his

colleagues either for Local 299 or for the

newer Food and Beverage

Drivers Local 337, which worked closely with Hoffa's General

Truck Drivers

local

Brennan and shared a total

headed by Hoffa's close friend

office space

their

from

Bert

new

the three thousand figure of four years earlier.

dues income, they were able to

building, a nondescript brick one

Stadium

more

Owen

with Local 299. The two locals had

of almost seventy-five hundred members by that time, up

substantially

With

now

in

a

to their

own

Detroit's Tiger

modest, litter-strewn neighborhood (where they,

recently created

IBT

Council 43 are lodged to

Although

move

two blocks from

official

locals,

and the parent Teamster Joint

this day).

Teamster publications

assert that

Hoffa "was

of Local 299

elected president ble that he

was

until 1945.

turned a deaf ear to

officially

continually

gued

both

in the

long interval Bennett

pleas for

member and

board

a

deemed

that if there

it

unwise

were such

would "absolutely

zation

and

membership

all

imposed under Bennett

trusteeship

any kind of broad

Hoffa was indeed the de facto leader of 299 from 1935 on,

election.

and

The

until the latter year,

proba-

it is

membership

elected to nothing at the local except

on the 299 board

was not ended

of 24,"

in 1937, at the age

whom

he favored over

by an unpredictable membership.

alternatives,

He

ar-

membership referendum, the organi-

get out of control," and he

of Hoffa,

to risk the defeat

a

business agent. But Bennett

to hold presidential elections.

was unwilling all

leadership

1

Bennett was probably being unduly pessimistic, however.

From

of the evidence, Hoffa was highly popular from the very

all

beginning with the 299 rank and ter,

who joined

$2 initiation

the local in 1936

he

.

.

.

we

always

pattern

Every day had

left.

According to Rolland

McMas-

"Ninety-nine and nine-tenths per cent of the

fee,

him continuous growth

bers loved

file.

upon payment of the then-standard

knew where we

stood.

from the time he came

a thrill in it."

Holmes

We

memhad

in until the

remembers

also

a

day his

fellow Strawberry Striker as being very well liked in the local, and

highly respected for both his intelligence

("It

was

street intelligence,

and he could match wits with the best of them") and strength ("He

was strong

as a bull

his physical

and lived for hard work"). Both

old associates were also impressed from the beginning by Hoffa's

powers of persuasion and assume

able to

that the

Local 299 election

He

was, in

at

his general friendliness.

It

seems reason-

young man from Indiana could have won

a

any point before 1945.

fact, easily elected to

one

significant leadership posi-

World War II. Exempted from military work was considered essential to the therefore, to national defense, he formed the

tion during the years of

service because his union

trucking industry and,

Michigan Conference of Teamsters president.

Although the conference began

association of locals year, helped

pulled

all

Chapter 2

drawn from

just six

by pressure applied by the

of the Michigan

and negotiated

An

in 1942

a single

locals into his

and was voted

as a

its first

tenuously connected

Michigan

cities,

international,

within

a

Hoffa had

growing sphere of authority

master contract for

all

of them.

impressed Tobin thereupon appointed him,

at

the age of

36

The

vacant international trustee's job.

thirty, to a

more

position calling for the

or

less

latter, a

ceremonial semi-annual auditing

of the union's books prior to these books' receiving

by

audit

accounting firm, by

a certified public

part-time

a full-fledged

meant nothing.

itself

But the vacancy was one of only three such posts authorized by the Teamster constitution, and Tobin's naming of Hoffa to it showed

how

young Midwesterner's

rapidly the

trustee's position also

gave the

alert

was now

star

Hoffa for the

first

The

rising.

time

a clear

understanding of the union's financial potential. After the war, his contacts established and his considerable ents in

now

widely

expanding

his

two

president in late 1945 and,

dency of Joint Council 43 just

man who was

for a

much

at this

at his

With

the large

Even more

valuable,

point fully determined to achieve as

power

as

he could

growth of the trucking industry

was the

get,

Cen-

also operated in the

attracted

Southern wages

by the

a

also be used

— an increasing

form of the lower

And

if

Omaha

could be

made

em-

to jump

button in Kansas City, so could secondary boycotts

below

the

button pushed in

nonunion South

trucking

threatened with strikes unless they

ployed Teamsters there, too.

by pushing

Midwestern

potential savings in the

— were

postwar

in the

mileage from his pivotal twelve-state

Teamster-organized

position.

companies that

a

as one-sidedly.

into the presi-

disposal as negotiating chairman of the

maximum

years Hoffa got

bargaining

employers

was voted

Drivers Council.

tral States

why

years later,

national prominence and

apparatus already

number,

tal-

known among Teamsters, Hoffa had little trouble influence. He was resoundingly elected Local 299

Mason-Dixon

in, say,

Birmingham

Atlanta,

line.

There was no reason

might not be able

to agree to Hoffa's

to motivate

demands. "Leapfrog-

ging" and secondary boycotts became weapons not only for organizing but for forcing relative uniformity of terms

on the Southern

labor relationships.

Hoffa then engineered

now two state

a

common expiration

Southern Agreements

(a six-state

Southwest each had one) and

contract.

And by

west until

a

a

who had

Southern wage

Man

in

Mid-

in the South,

he

Southern operations to promise to

rate to the Central States level

Detroit

four-

his twelve-state Central States

comparable contract was negotiated

The Biggest Small

what were

the end of the 1940s, refusing to sign in the

got the Midwesterners raise their

date for

Southeast and

within five

37

The threat of a strike was generally enough to make the home-grown Southern employers follow suit. Within a very few years, drivers in the South would have their hourly rates rise sigin some cases, from seventy-five cents per hour to more nificantly years.

—

than three times that amount.

Not everything was achieved easily, and sometimes goals were not met at all. Ohio employers, in particular, resented Hoffa's intrusion and were willing to pay their drivers a variety of wage rate premiums and special income guarantees to stay outside of the areawide contract and preserve

their local

autonomy. Hoffa could

approach only by allowing the Ohio drivers

this

offset

"Ohio

a special

Rider" to the Central States agreement, under which they could

keep their advantage indefinitely. In Virginia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, extreme tenacity

on Hoffa's

major nonunion companies

eral

primarily within those areas threats

most

— not being susceptible

of the Hoffa imagination.

liberal use

such

failures

as these

were the

wise virtuoso performance. The

by Teamsters

ferred to

his fellow unionists

way

to either strike

and secondary boycotts— remained unorganized despite the

But

by

was required, and sev-

part

that operated either exclusively or

in a short time.

"little

in these days

throughout

He was

rare blemishes in an other-

guy"

and

(as

he was often re-

he would be described

as

his career)

had come

clearly the ranking

long

a

member of

international union in the entire midsection of the country

his

by 1952

and the acknowledged leader of the move toward centralized bargaining and uniform standards for the trucking industry coast to coast.

He

could no longer be remotely ignored by anyone in the

Teamsters, and an international vice-presidency was now, given the

IBT convention, a foregone conclusion. Daniel J. Tobin, in endorsing him for a vicepresidency at that convention, recognized this and more: "He is the number of

votes that he controlled

biggest small

man

in Detroit.

the 1952

at

When you go

hear about Hoffa, but you do not hear

As in

I

said,

he

our time.

is

a

He

very big small is

man and

pretty nearly civilized

a

he

to Detroit today

word about Henry is

one

man we

you

Ford.

developed

now, but I knew him when

he wasn't." In thus joining the international's executive board, the thirty-

nine-year-old Hoffa became the youngest

But

this

Chapter 2

was not

his

man

only major accomplishment

ever elected to at

it.

the convention.

38

A

few months

that, at

earlier, the

immensely popular Tobin had announced

seventy-seven years of age and after forty-five years as

would not run

president, he

for reelection.

IBT

Instead, he said, he

would support Beck, who had become Teamster executive vicepresident in 1947, also with Tobin's support. The social climber from

however, did not inspire the universal support that

Seattle,

"Uncle Dan"

did,

and

a

stop-Beck movement immediately began,

all and Beck to would be happy to withdraw in favor of Tobin. But Beck would not have been happy to bow out, and when he said this he knew that he would not have to: Hoffa had just informed the executive vice-president that he was pledging all of his Central

causing Tobin to hint that he might not retire after say that he

States,

Southern, and Eastern Conference delegates to him, a

move

that rescued victory for Beck.

Tobin, recognizing that he had indeed come to the end of a career, gracefully if reluctantly

withdrew

He was made,

his

reward for

as a

many

for

good within hours.

services over the years,

He nominated Beck, who was elected who from this point on was heavily indebted to

an "adviser" to the union.

unanimously and Hoffa.

Hoffa proceeded to make the most of the obligation. In the next

few

years,

he seemed

as ninth vice-president to

he pleased, the wishes of his

official

be doing exactly

Beck, courting respectability, was, for example,

behind the 1953 expulsion from the International

as

superior notwithstanding.

AFL

a

major force

of the gangster-ridden

Longshoremen's Association. Hoffa proposed an

alli-

ance of the Teamsters and the ILA that would result in joint organizational drives that three

and cooperative action during

of the four regional groups

strikes

and announced

(the Hoffa-controlled Central,

Southern, and Eastern Conferences) were ready to lend the povertystricken outcast union

Beck

more than $400,000; he was persuaded by

to shelve the project only with the greatest

of difficulty. Beck,

moreover, had no particular desire to divert Teamster resources to organize the fifteen thousand warehouse workers

Ward, but Hoffa successfully mounted

a

at

Montgomery

resource-draining two-

pronged attack on the giant corporation: while IBT organizers

Ward employees on the company's loading docks, the vice-president made it known that unless incumbent Ward President signed up

Sewell Avery signed

The

Biggest Small

Man

a

in

companywide

Detroit

contract with the Teamsters,

39

would vote

the union

13,500 shares of union-owned stock in

its

favor of an outside group

was trying

that

to wrest control

from

to avoid being seen

with

Avery.

Beck

known

seemed

also

to

go out of his way

Hoffa appeared, increasingly,

racketeers;

friendships with such

men. Beck wanted

to give overall directions

on

saturation organizational drive going

for a

be flaunting his

to

Philadelphia.

in

Hoffa, with an ill-concealed disdain, plunged right ahead on his

own

more than twenty thousand new

in successfully recruiting

twelve-month period. And while Beck, pressured

Teamsters in

a

by Teamster

officials in

New

York, would have preferred to

let

Hoffa was starting to pick up many of power in the latterjocation, too. The IBT first-in-command, every bit as realistic as Hoffa, regu-

home

rule there continue,

the reins of

responded to questions from reporters about

larly

his aggressive lieutenant

"with

movement the brakes

we want

than Jimmy." Asked

on" Hoffa, Beck

man

whom

in

I

wish

if

I

on anybody who had 40 more

the Teamsters could "take

about him could less

Even

start out,

of no one

he had any thoughts of "putting

Hoffa was not by any means widely professional sphere as yet.

with

Teamsters or the entire labor

said, "Positively not!

to put the brakes

job of organizing?

He knew

with paeans of praise.

a better future in either the

his relations

like

Why in hell would doing that good

a

him." 2 Hoffa was

a

is

enormous pride."

known

outside of his

own

in late 1955, a Reader's Digest article

"There have been kings

who

wielded

power than a labor leader whose name you've probably never 3 Nor was Hoffa, despite Tobin's glowing testimonial to his

heard."

standing in Detroit, necessarily even the best-known labor leader

own

in his

That honor presumably had

city.

Walter Reuther, the Hoffa contemporary

to be

awarded

who had presided

United Automobile Workers nationally from

to

over the

that union's Detroit

headquarters in Solidarity House since 1947 and who, in 1952, also

became head of the Congress of Unlike Hoffa, ther

was almost

("We

who

tended to express himself succinctly, Reu-

nonstop talker

a

are not looking for a fight;

Hoffa could be

was an

at

who was given to pious platitudes we are looking for justice"). Where

times amusing and

essentially

at

humorless man, of

he smiled so infrequently that

Chapter 2

Industrial Organizations.

other times amused, Reuther

whom

it

was once

said that

when he did dust came out of

his

40

mouth. Hoffa's

interest in general social

reform was

Reu-

invisible;

ther stressed "social unionism," or the achievement of social

economic gains benefiting ship.

Hoffa

politics,

on

a

in these

all

of society, not just

and

own member-

days had no particular desire to participate in

and when he did

support went

so, his

highly parochial basis; Reuther was

the liberal

his

wing of the Democratic

party.

a

strictly to individuals

recognized leader within

Both of these intense and

ambitious men, however, maintained an uneasy truce for years, and

Hoffa regularly said that

his relations

with Reuther were

"all right."

In 1936, Hoffa had, at Reuther's request, sent a detachment of truck

drivers to prevent the Ford

Motor Company from removing

from the plant of a supplier

whom

the

UAW had struck,

ther never forgot the favor. In later years, as

CIO

was not

dies

and Reu-

true of

most

comments about Hoffa were models of

leaders, the latter's

self-restraint.

Even within American Federation of Labor circles in the Motor was not the foremost leader. The autocratic head of the Detroit and Wayne County Federation of Labor, Frank City, moreover, Hoffa

X. Martel, was, and he brooked no opposition from anyone running tel

Hoffa

his organization.

went

decision after another

fought with the

AFL

first

suffered in silence as one

in

Mar-

against the Teamsters, then openly

boss, and finally, in the late 1940s, led a walk-

out of Teamster and other locals from Martel's labor body.

He

did

when Martel died, And even then Hoffa

not return to the federation umbrella until 1955,

and the one-man dynasty automatically ended.

made known

his feelings

about

Martel's funeral: "I didn't like

his old

him

nemesis by not attending

in life,"

he declared.

"And I'm

no hypocrite."

But

if

in Detroit,

Reuther was better

known and

Hoffa by the early 1950s

— he

Martel more powerful

officially

spoke for almost

two international unions in the country, Reuther's Automobile Workers and the United Steelworkers, were any larger and he was only, relatively speaking, just beginning. If he was not yet a household word, he already wielded unchallenged power in a broad section of America's most strategically potent union and was clearly destined 650,000 Teamsters

was fond of pointing out

that only

—

for even bigger things.

"doing okay." the labor

He

He

agreed with Beck's statement that his future in

movement would

The Biggest Small

Man

was, as he often proudly said himself,

in

Detroit

be second to no one's.

41

In 1953

and 1954, Hoffa received

his first attention

from the

Committee

to Inves-

U.S. Congress. In 1951, Senator Estes Kefauver's Special

Organized Crime

tigate

Detroit's

Commerce had found

in Interstate

Teamster Local 985 had been used

of the underworld to extort

as a front

money from jukebox

had been offered the choice of paying an

latter

that

by members

distributors.

The

initiation fee

and

periodic union dues,

thereby becoming "honorary" Local 985

members, or of having

a picket line

They

thrown around

had, almost without exception, taken the

in the litany

when

newly

a

years later,

it

option.

first

Nothing much had come of this discovery, one

their locations.

minor

a relatively

of ultimate Kefauver Committee conclusions. But

elected Republican Congress structured itself

two

decided to pursue the matters of labor racketeering in

general and Detroit Teamster affairs in particular. Joint hearings of

—

two Special House of Representative Subcommittees one under the House Committee on Government Operations, the other under were scheduled. the House's Education and Labor Committee The acid-tongued Clare E. Hoffman, Republican from Michigan and a long-time Hoffa antagonist, was voted chairman of the new

—

full

investigatory committee.

The Hoffman committee, tion, did activities.

not mince words in

building on the Kefauver founda-

its

evaluation of Local 985's jukebox

The 1953 committee concluded

"gigantic, wicked conspiracy

in a

threats

to,

that the local

was engaged

through the use of force,

of force and economic pressure, extort and

collect millions

of dollars" not just from the independent distributors but from unorganized workers, union members and even, eral

government

itself.

4

It

at

times, the fed-

found the principal offender

conspiracy to be the local's president, William E. Bufalino, sylvania-born lawyer

who had moved

1941),

thwarting the

Teamster,

it

stature as Detroit's

was probably

to

whom

Denny Lewis CIO most

visible,

inevitable that he

singled out for congressional scrutiny.

man

men

Hoffa

attacks in

and gone into the jukebox industry.

Given Hoffa's erful,

in

this

Penn-

to Detroit, married the niece

of alleged mobster Angelo Meli (one of the

had turned for help

in a

And

and most pow-

would

also be

the cantankerous Hoff-

did indeed quickly proceed to Hoffa, broadening his line of

inquiry in the process.

Chapter 2

42

Hoffa was hardly intimidated by the hearings,

as

evidenced

is

by the following responses on his part to a variety of statements and questions from the Michigan congressman. The exchange also

good an example

constitutes as

any of the candor that always

as

permeated Hoffa's conversational

would be accused of much, but never of Mr. Hoffman ...

I

insincerity.

and the union wanted $25.

eat

dispute that.

I

You

Mr. Hoffman

Mr. Hoffa ...

If

know

don't

it

anything about

happened to the union

I

it.

know

about

it.

The teamsters attempted to collect $25 before would permit me ... to drive truckloads of apples here, and

Mr. Hoffman they

he

personally tried to put stuff in a truck off the

farm here for the Detroit folks to Mr. Hoffa

ahead,

In the years

style.

.

.

.

then also insisted that ...

Mr. Hoffa

don't believe

I

Mr. Hoffman

Nobody

Mr. Hoffa

not true.

It's

I

hire a

union

it.

I

ticed that

resent the fact that

I

defy anybody in this

Mr. Hoffman

I

confine

unload

it.

talking to you.

is

way of doing

to

it.

and embarrass the union by publicity that prove

man

room today

business.

my

you

is

.

.

are trying to disturb

not true, and you can't to

prove that

we

prac-

.

activities to the

job for which the people

pay me. Mr. Hoffa I'm not so

sure.

gation of a shooting,

my

a strike in

absolutely one

.

.

.

For your information, on the investi-

brother was shot by an employer during fit

of anger, without him being involved

in the strike

whatsoever, thinking that

you go and

investigate that?

Mr. Hoffman That was Mr. Hoffa

It

Mr. Hoffman

was

A

a

it

was me. Now, why don't

mistake?

a mistake.

mistaken identity.

It

was your brother

that did the

shooting?

Mr. Hoffa

My

and nobody to

my

brother was shot by an employer, and this

I

repeat

it,

day ever prosecuted the employer for shooting

brother.

Mr. Hoffman Did they arrest you?

Mr. Hoffa They did not.

The Biggest Small

Man

in

Detroit

43

How many

Mr. Hoffman

times have you been arrested

[in Detroit]

since 1937?

Mr. Hoffa

have been arrested, for

I

a

matter of record, numerous

times by antiunion police departments, instigated by employers where they use strikebreakers and tactics that need your investigation.

You

Mr. Hoffman Mr. Hoffa

give us the

question

I

Mr. Hoffman

much

Mr. Hoffa That's what

Mr. Hoffman

Mr. Hoffa

Do you

You

the difficulty there

am

I

think that

well aware it

.

or

is it,

maybe

I

am

Democrat?

a

Democrat?

a

am?

I

know. There

don't

of.

is

a

gentleman

who

told

me you

Republican.

a

Mr. Hoffa you.

I

your opinion

might be because of your record?

Mr. Hoffa What do you think

were

that

is

weight.

think

Mr. Hoffman Are you

Mr. Hoffman

will be glad to investigate.

it.

know, but

I

doesn't have too

We

facts.

.

.

I

If

Mr. Hoffman Mr. Hoffa

I

am

not.

I

you were

You

go by the

in

my

district

couldn't be if

vote for

Mr. Hoffman Don't

individual. I

talk so

much.

.

is

.

wouldn't vote for

wouldn't vote for you.

you wanted

somebody who

I

.

up

to.

to date.

Just one question. In

view

of the statement that was made by another witness, are you an Italian?

Mr. Hoffa

I

am

not.

Mr. Hoffman All Mr. Hoffa

You

I

am

Irish

and Dutch.

right.

don't want the truth.

You would

rather have

it

look

like a syndicate.

Mr. Hoffman Don't worry. Mr. Hoffa

I

don't worry.

On the other hand, when he admitted rized the Detroit

5

Hoffa did generate bad publicity for himself

that as Joint

Teamster

Council 43 president he had autho-

locals to destroy their financial records

each year "to save storage space." Nor, of course, was his public linkage to Bufalino calculated to win

him any good

citizenship

awards.

Chapter 2

44

Hoffman's chairmanship did not

The Michigan Re-

long.

last

publican's committee, abetted by Hoffman's

own

combativeness,

Hoffman was

in short order was soon torn by ousted from the chairman's position, to be replaced by a Kansas Republican, Congressman Wint Smith.

internal wrangling.

Presumably by no coincidence the change

gaged one of the

who

Ratner,

same time

at all,

upon

Hoffa,

committee leadership from Hoffman

in

learning of

to Smith, en-

old associates as a legal consultant. Payne

latter's

had been the Republican governor of Kansas

that

the

at

Chairman Smith had headed the Kansas Highway to assist Hoffa by, it was widely rumored,

was retained

Patrol,

getting Smith either to postpone the hearings in Detroit indefinitely or, short

of

Hoffa more favorably than Hoffman had

that, to treat

done.

The new regime,

nonetheless, began

way on

hearings got under

troit

And,

if

appeared to earlier.

members (with be even more threatening

anything,

by doing

neither.

Its

De-

November 1953. Hoffman still among them)

schedule, in late

its

to

Hoffa than they had been

The Smith committee displayed an active

interest in Hoffa's

placement of Central States Health and Welfare Fund monies with the

Union Casualty and

Life Insurance

Company,

controlled

by

Paul "Red" Dorfman, a violence-prone major figure in the Chicago

mob, and

Dorfman.

his stepson, Allen

had taken

illegal

financial plan.

payoffs from the

And

the

the Central States

of Union

reported

in return for

that the

to

such a

answer

committee recom-

that they be cited for contempt.

When tion

sought to show that Hoffa

Dorfmans themselves declined

enough Smith committee questions

mended

It

Dorfmans

the

employer

trustees

sought an investiga-

Casualty's financial soundness on the other hand,

"They were

committee,

successfully

resisted

by

Mr. Hoffa."

The Smith committee

also tried to shed light

of the Test Fleet Corporation, earlier

by Hoffa and

Owen

a

trucking

on the formation

company

set

up

five years

Bert Brennan in their wives' maiden

names, allegedly with considerable help from another Michigan trucking company, Commercial Carriers, Inc. Hoffa and Brennan

accommodated Commercial Carriers was given them, by settling a Teamster strike

had, the committee indicated, just before this help

there

on terms favorable

The Biggest Small

Man

to the struck

in Detroit

company.

45

Very

little

light

was

to be shed

on

either topic,

however.

On

November 25, the Detroit hearings were interrupted while Chairman Smith left the room to take an important long-distance telephone

He, soon

call.

informed the Detroit press

after returning,

was under strong political pressure to conclude the hearings rapidly ("The pressure comes from way up there, and I just can't talk about it any more specifically than that," he said). And the that he

investigation

was indeed terminated not long afterward.

Ratner was generally credited with effecting

this

happy ending

some observers attributed the abrupt conclusion commitment by Hoffa and the Teamsters to support the Republicans in Michigan in 1954. Chairman Smith, beyond denying that any favored treatment was granted Hoffa, for Hoffa, although

of the hearings to

a

steadfastly refused to elaborate

In 1954, history

more

gressman Hoffman, never one tinued

to

on

his intriguing original statement.

or less repeated itself for Hoffa.

urge the House to

Con-

had con-

to accept defeat gracefully,

him conduct another major And while he was

let

investigation, this time strictly of the Teamsters.

once again denied

his

own

opportunity of leadership in

this case,

Government Operations Committee did authorize such new hearings, by a subcommittee to be headed by Ohio Republican Congressman George H. Bender, who was now his party's candithe House's

date for the U.S. Senate. In September 1954, Bender opened hearings in Cleveland

by summoning

for questioning Hoffa's

ranking lieutenants in Ohio, William Presser and Louis

two

M. ("Babe")

Triscaro.

Not

become intermeans of income maximization. His Cleve-

unlike Detroit's Bill Bufalino, Presser had

ested in the jukebox as a

land Teamster Local 410, working in conjunction not only with the

jukebox operators association but profited

by suggesting

to tavern

also the beer delivery drivers,

owners

their requested beer if they did not their

premises.

He had

recently

Youngstown, where he had bartender

who had

prostitution,

the

served

a

that they

expanded 410's

It

activities

installed as business agent a

three-year

jail

and he was generally believed

Ohio mob.

might not receive

have an approved jukebox on

was widely rumored

were helping him considerably

as

into

former

sentence for promoting to be quite friendly

with

that these contacts, in fact,

he rapidly climbed

—

as

head of

Cleveland IBT Joint Council 41, the Ohio Conference of Team-

Chapter 2

46

sters,

and assorted other Teamster operations

—

to the status

of lead-

ing Teamster in Ohio. Triscaro, Presser's backup as vice-chairman of the council and

number two man

in the conference,

of the

as well as president

Excavating and Building Materials Teamsters Local 436 in Cleveland,

was

who

former prizefighter

a

allegedly had even deeper un-

derworld connections than did Presser. He, indeed, was thought to be Presser's major linkage to the mob. For Bender, both

tempting targets

as

maximum

he strove for the

men were

in favorable public-

ity in his race for the Senate.

After a handful of hearing days in Cleveland, during which

Amendment on

both Presser and Triscaro took the Fifth

and two such days

relating to their personal incomes,

ton, in the course of

which Presser took the

in

questions

Washing-

Fifth again, the

Bender

investigation was, however, abruptly ended. Technically,

"recessed

at

the call of the chairman."

was never

It

it

was

to be resumed.

Ohio Conference of Teamsters, which

Shortly thereafter, the

had been actively supporting Bender's Democratic opponent, threw its

And

support to Bender.

Ohio Teamster

a

few years

later,

a

highly respected

leader testified to the McClellan committee that the

Teamsters had apparently also spent about $40,000 "to pull certain strings" so as to stop the investigation.

now U.S. Senator George Bender, Ohio Conference of Teamsters meeting, and Presser had no trouble finding words of praise: "To you George Bender, the Republican whose name has been handed In 1955,

was

George Bender,

the featured speaker at an

around

an anti-labor Senator,

as

lems that do not exist

Bender anywhere It is,

if

it

and the constant pounding

his advice

.

.

down

.

and

weren't for this one man, and

we would have

Bill Presser

the line."

is

a lot

committed

of course, absolutely unknown

somewhat

Congressman Bender's less

directly

negative

to

George

6

as to

what damage

of the two investigations could have done to Hoffa's sumably,

of prob-

revelations for

either

career. Pre-

would have been

Hoffa than Congressman

Smith's, since only Hoffa's associates and not the Detroiter himself

were

at least initially scrutinized

by Bender. But

it is

equally obvious

that neither project

was welcomed by the Teamsters and

both 1953 and again

in

committees had come close

The Biggest Small

Man

in

that in

1954 House of Representative investigating

Detroit

to causing

Hoffa some problems.

A 47

best-selling

book

a

few years

the investigators "had been

later

comment

could

that

both times

on the threshold of uncovering major

corruption in the Teamsters; corruption involving Mr. Hoffa and

some of his chief lieutenants. Both times the investigations had been 7 halted. The congressmen went their way and Mr. Hoffa went his." And, however valid or invalid this statement may have been, it was widely believed.

If the

said to

sudden conclusions

to the

two

sets

of hearings could be

have constituted good luck for Hoffa, what might be de-

scribed as misfortune for the Detroiter

was waiting just around

the

corner. In January, 1955, the

Democrats regained control of the Senate

and an austere, schoolmasterish member of the majority party, John L.

McClellan of Arkansas, became chairman of the Senate Perma-

The new chief counsel of the Boston-accented young man only four

nent Subcommittee on Investigations.

subcommittee was

a brash,

years out of the University of Virginia

Law

School: one Robert F.

Kennedy.

The Harvard College graduate Kennedy, lan's junior, differed

thirty years

from the senior senator from Arkansas

McClelin other

ways, too. Highly emotional where McClellan was phlegmatic, politically

and economically

liberal in contrast to the latter's

ded southern conservatism, and inclined the Arkansan

was very much

embed-

to brutal frankness

where

twosome constiKennedy was well known to complete confidence. Both men had the diplomat, the

tuted a classic study in contrasts. But

McClellan and enjoyed served together counsel

— on

his

— the new chief counsel

the

since early 1953.

same Permanent Investigations Subcommittee Both had temporarily

could not tolerate what he saw counsel

in those days as assistant

Roy Cohn;

as the

Kennedy high-handed ways of chief left it in protest:

McClellan, together with the other Democratic

senators on the subcommittee, had walked out because of their

unhappiness with the subcommittee's Republican chairman, the

McCarthy of Wisconsin. When the minormembers had returned in early 1954, they had convinced Kennedy to come back with them. controversial Joseph R.

ity

party

There had been no indication whatsoever,

Chapter 2

at first, that

the

Mc-

48

would even Teamsters Union in

Clellan unit the

Kennedy and

investigate labor unions,

many of them former

Federal Bureau of Investigation and virtually

of them zealous

all

in

began by concentrating on such nonlabor

Red China and

possible officials.

what was then

in the course

tary of the Air Force

resigned.

The

called

they had

particularly,

In the latter effort,

known:

agents of the

of interest situations involving high governmental

topics as trade with conflict

alone either

general or Hoffa in particular. Counsel

his assistants,

their loyalty to their boss,

let

made

their presence

of Kennedy's investigations, both the secre-

and an

assistant secretary

of the

Army

had

investigators had then, in late 1955, turned their atten-

procurement program of the armed forces and

tion to the clothing

had rapidly discovered that several leading East Coast gangsters had

come

to

dominate both some of the manufacturing and some of the

trucking of uniforms.

From

this latter finding a consideration

of the union that domi-

nated the trucking industry was inevitable.

And

of the leading gangsters appeared to be on

a friendly basis

Midwest's ranking Teamster made Hoffa, logical further topic

Even

gators.

Beck,

a

on the Kennedy team's agenda.

IBT

corruption.

He was

name

to

add

his

He

also

had serious doubts

to the

list

to delve very

well aware of the

of the previous congressional investigatory

no wish

with the

in addition to

however, Kennedy seemed unwilling

then,

deeply into the topic of failure

the fact that several

efforts

and had

of unsuccessful Teamster investithat the

McClellan subcommittee

even had the jurisdiction to conduct such an inquiry, especially since there

was

a

Senate Labor and Public Welfare

Committee

in

existence. It

had taken the persuasiveness of

rid the chief counsel

a labor relations reporter to

of these reservations. Clark R. Mollenhoff,

Washington correspondent

for

Cowles Publications and

expert of some note, had convinced

Kennedy

that the 1953

a

union

and 1954

congressional investigations were fixed because of political pressure,

something that presumably would not be

a factor here.

A

lawyer

himself, he had also successfully pointed out to the relatively inexpe-

rienced Virginia

Law

School graduate that Kennedy did have juris-

diction since the Teamsters

were tax exempt and,

in his opinion,

misusing their funds; the operations of two agencies, the Internal

The Biggest Small

Man

in

Detroit

49

Revenue Service and the Labor Department, were therefore involved, and McClellan's permanent investigating subcommittee to come in. Kennedy had needed no

had every right

further coaxing.

By

the end of 1956,

he and his assistants had gone to Chicago, Los Angeles, a variety

of other places

the Teamster high

He

had

also

in search

command,

Seattle,

and

of evidence that could incriminate

as well as

lower-echelon Teamsters.

shaken off whatever inhibitions he might have had

regarding his pursuing allegations of wrongdoing in other unions

— the

Plumbers, Steamfitters, Retail Clerks, and Operating En-

among them. And he had come away

gineers

later to write, that

some

persuaded, as he was

cases "cried out for an investigation,"

especially the circumstances surrounding

Dave Beck.

most

8

Mollenhoff had been wrong about one thing. The question of appropriate senatorial jurisdiction was not quite as cut and dried as

he had as

it

made

it

out to be. The Labor and Public Welfare Committee,

turned out, quite adamantly resisted the ambitious explorations

of the Kennedy personnel into labor racketeering.

war was resolved

civil

in

new agency of

And the

senatorial

January 1957 only by the creation of an

on these efforts. The Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field. It was made fully bipartisan, with four Democrats and four Republicans constituting its entire

entirely latter

was

membership. bers

In a further display

of brotherhood, the eight

mem-

number from both the Labor Committee Committee on Government Operations, the parent of Mc-

were chosen

and the

the Senate to carry

entitled the Senate Select

Clellan's

in equal

Permanent Subcommittee on

McClellan

Investigations.

the chairman of the new body, and Kennedy the chief counThe Democratic senators, in addition to McClellan, were John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the counsel's older brother, Sam J. Ervin of North Carolina, and Pat McNamara of Michigan. The Republican representation was provided by Irving M. Ives of New

became sel.

York, Karl E. Mundt of South Dakota, Barry Goldwater of Arizona, and Carl T. Curtis of Nebraska.

From

And

would be only a matter of time, and not much time at that, before the Detroiter who even now was widely believed really to run the Teamsters would be back in the investigatory limelight.

Chapter 2

then on, Beck's days were numbered.

it

50

On

Beck was anything but

the surface,

agency concerned with improper union

a sensible target for

activities.

By

an

1957, the glib

good deal of it, even aside from whatever standing might accrue to him as the president of the seeker of respectability had achieved a

and

largest

He was now sity

union

richest

in the country.

member of the governing board of the Univer-

a

of Washington,

a regular

key participant

at international

labor

meetings, and the chairman of an independent trucking industry

He was friendly with many leading national those who shared his own Republican party

advisory conference. politicians, primarily affinity

and not excluding the present incumbent of the White

House, Dwight D. Eisenhower. 1956 Presidential candidacy, in actually

announced on the

been treated

he endorsed Eisenhower's

the endorsement (which

He

story.

Beck

White House) had generally

steps of the

major news

as a

When

fact,

thought of himself

as a

"labor statesman" and insisted that his public relations staffers build

up such an image. ently, as

He was known

within Teamster

"His Majesty, the Wheel"

in recognition

circles, irrever-

many

of these

extracurricular activities and the intense pursuit of social applause

on

accompanied them. But

his part that

if a superficial

Yet,

kind of prestige, to

when

the McClellan committee focused

almost immediately after

went quickly. Nor, surprise at

all

his style did lend prestige,

his union.

as indicated

Kennedy and

to

on Beck,

as

it

did

February 26, 1957, hearing, he

its initial

above, did his exit

his assistants: they

come

as

any

had found unmis-

takable evidence as they prepared for Beck's appearance that the

former laundry driver had misused hundreds of thousands of dollars of Teamster funds.

Moreover, nothing the president's office

the committee testify

had done

became Beck

less

in his

almost five years in

than his leaving of it.

When

asked him to

come before it in Washington to apparently diverting some $370,000 from the West-

first

about his

that he

ern Conference of Teamsters to finance personal purchases, he declined the invitation.

home

Although he had

following a European

him not

trip, his

to travel, indefinitely.

venture far afield to executive board.

The Biggest Small

Man

in

still

Detroit

— he

Three days

Miami Beach,

He was

just returned to his Seattle

doctor

later,

to chair a

in Florida a

said

— now advised

however, he did

meeting of his union's

few days

after that, in

51

attendance

at

an

AFL-CIO

Executive Council meeting, where he

was the only council member oust any labor leader denly, he

who

to Europe. Traveling

—

a

once tough

man who, when

later say.

"When your

he

finally did

a pathetic fig-

until

he ran out of gas,"

nerve runs out, you run, then

good no more." 9

that hole card don't look so

When

to

the going had gotten tough,

had gotten going. "He kept on running Hoffa would

first

under an assumed

name, D. David, he had almost overnight become ure

would

took the Fifth Amendment. Then, sud-

the country altogether, fleeing in obvious panic

left

Bahamas and then back

the

to vote against a resolution that

appear before the McClellan committee in

March and then May, Beck looked,

if possible,

even worse. Asked

about his use of union funds to pay for such items others) a sizable collection

as

(among many

of expensive undershirts, two boats,

a

twenty-foot freezer, outboard motors, and costly repairs on his Seattle

home, he

May

In his

steadily took refuge behind the Fifth

appearance alone, he tapped

and

if

he

tired,

his earliest ists

knew

his

own

son,

Dave Beck,

and the forced geniality

that

guarantee

this constitutional

against possible self-incrimination 117 times, using

asked

Amendment.

Jr.

had been

it

even

He seemed his

when

nervous

trademark since

days in Seattle had entirely deserted him. Several journal-

pointed out that

when he

spoke, his voice shook, and

it

was

also

noticed that during recesses in the hearings he whistled to himself.

He would be convicted later in ing $1,900

own

from the

wallet,

and

in

sale

of

a

1959 for

1957 of grand larceny for divert-

Teamster-owned automobile income tax evasion. With

into his

appeals, he

would not actually go to jail for five more years, until mid-1962. But as of March 1957, the career of the man who had been the first to implement an areawide trucking agreement and then created the imaginative concept of the geographic conference was, for cal

purposes, over, and a replacement for

all

practi-

him was needed

in the

presidential office of the Teamsters.

Chapter 2

52

James and Josephine with their four-and-one-half-month-old daughter Barbara, at Lorch Lake, Michigan, 1938. (Crancer Collection)

Local 299 staff in front of the union building in Detroit, approximately 1942.

(Crancer Collection)

(above

left)

With son James, 1950. (Cranccr Collection)

(below

left)

Trip to

Hoffa's

left,

(below)

The

Israel,

1956. Israeli Foreign Minister Golda

with Barbara Hoffa next to entire

her.

Meir

Teamster-sponsored traveling party with Ms. Meir

1956. (Cranccr Collection)

is

on

(Crancer Collection)

in Israel,

(above

left)

With Robert

F.

Kennedy during George S.

hearings, 1957. Hoffa's attorney

a lull in the

Fitzgerald

McClellan Committee in the background.

is

(AP/Wide World Photos) (below

left)

Dave Beck points to the leading candiIBT Miami Beach convention. (AP/Wide

Retiring Teamster president

date to succeed

him

at the

1957

World Photos) (above) Prior to the 1957 convention roll-call voting, vice-president Hoffa is swept across the convention platform on the shoulders of enthusiastic supporters.

(AP/Wide World Photos)

International president Hoffa,

Anthony Provenzano

campaigning for

in the latter's

home

New Jersey

state, 1959.

Teamster leader

(AP/Wide World Photos)

Home

At

and Abroad

3 Hoffa once said of Beck was an

his predecessor,

Very

iceberg.

saw Beck come

into

him up and he swung over

to the hotel.

Then he came

everything was ready.

.

I don't

meeting.

.

Hi

.

wanta

fella

what? You go

talk to you.

You

.

.

cars

.

I

picked

[As] he walked through the lobby, to his

room and stayed

bustin' in,

to hell

—

got

at least

till

"Hi

the crowd,

if you don't to

there

up on the platform and

down, walked through

a tremendous speech, got

fella."

didn't visit the local unions.

"Hi fella." [Then] he went up

he'd say

made

He

cold.

Chicago once: he got off the plane, and two

know my name

know who came

your

to

1

Hoffa, throughout his career, was just the opposite, and the difference

was appreciated by

third of his

No more

than one-

in the office

—

in

De-

and, after 1957, at the International building in Washington.

troit

The

his constituents.

working time, indeed, was spent

of the hours found him out

rest

meetings, joining the rank and trucking terminals, and taking

ment. As

a qualified

a

Teamster

file

staff official

the major secret of his popularity as

on picket

— addressing mass

lines,

touring

new

turn behind the wheel of new equip-

the Detroiter's career, "This union

And

in the field

is

could say

among

those

another close adviser could observe

at the

peak of

And this is who know him."

Jim's whole

at

life.

about

this

same

time,

Hoffa

own

is

very accessible.

people.

And

He

loves direct contact with people, especially his

you can sense the genuine admiration of the truck driver

for him because of

Teamster.

He

this.

He knows

has never separated himselffrom the working

everybody's

name

and, at least in a general way,

everybody's problems. If he's a politician at

all,

good sense

he's one in a

of the word. In complete contrast not only to

Beck but

to virtually

labor leaders, Hoffa often included his office telephone

speeches to Teamsters and invited the members to

his

call

gan

at

much of an

phrase

8 a.m. and

worked through For

all

of

was

exaggeration. His regular

rarely over until 2 a.m. or later.

other in

him,

Nor was

boasting that he offered his services "around the clock." this last

all

numbers

workday be-

He

frequently

the night.

this,

the union

was not "Jim's whole

He

life."

was,

man who when he was at home, words of his daughter, "was there totally." "Home" was essentially two locations for the Hoffa family. A modest two-story red brick house at 16154 Robson Street in northwest Detroit was purchased for the equally modest price of S6,800 by

all

accounts, a devoted family

in the

one year

in 1939,

Hoffas bought

a

two-story frame cottage

The

miles north of Detroit.

absence of luxury, was even

holding (visitors to

"This

is

And

its

latter,

less

lives in?").

swimming

the four Hoffas

with

few years

the

at

Lake Orion, about forty

its

one bathroom and utter

pretentious than the family's urban

(a

But the

facilities

son, James,

cottage,

its

amply met

was born

accompanying

the Hoffa needs.

in 1941,

the family) over the years actually spent almost as as

later,

could be heard muttering under their breath,

it

what Hoffa

three acres, and

A

Barbara was born.

after

completing

much

time there

they did in Detroit.

There had been, had spent $6,500 gan, that he

and some

another place. In 1940, the labor leader

to purchase a property in rural

hoped

stalls,

briefly,

to

make

into a dairy farm.

bought livestock and machinery, and

to turn a profit as a

fully

a

barn

expected

weekend farmer. Josephine, however, had hated

the

Memphis environment, and

sell

everything.

He had

profit in the process.

struck oil

Memphis, Michi-

He had added

she had convinced her husband to

acceded to her wishes, making

Not long

on the farm, and

thereafter,

their profit

the

had been

a

$4,000

new owners had a

more

gratifying

$250,000.

The Teamster

Chapter 3

chieftain liked his

Robson

Street

home

and, for

54

reason and perhaps also because the

this

Memphis wanted

rankled, soon told his wife that he never

found more to occupy himself with Josephine

at

still

it.

But he

When

he and

to sell

Lake Orion.

bought the cottage, the three

first

experience

acres contained a con-

amount of brushwood and stumps, and for years he enjoyed the challenge of clearing these away single-handedly. He siderable

particularly liked starting fires to

collected

enough of

it,

burn off the

he created larger

oil,

had intended on several occasions. Once,

power

lines in the

he had

but he was not above reproach in this en-

deavor. Using gas instead of fuel

the

wood once

his efforts

neighborhood of the cottage

fires

than he

caused

all

to melt.

of

On

fire department was called from its away to avert disaster: an embarrassed Hoffa handed each of its members a $20 bill. With a mixture of love and trepidation, Josephine called him "Gasoline Gus." But Hoffa's pleasure in his Lake Orion property was far from a selfish one. He thought of it as an ideal weekend and summer residence for his wife and young children and was quite willing on this basis to spend almost two hours daily driving from Lake Orion to his Local 299 offices, when staying on Robson Street would have been much more economical of his time. "I don't mind," he told his children, "when I think of all the fun you kids are having." Much as he had said of his own father, when Hoffa was at home, whether at Lake Orion or in Detroit, it was "like Fourth of

another occasion, the nearest

base

some

forty-five minutes

July every day."

"Freddie the Fox"

He

told Barbara, Jim, and their friends endless

stories, his

was always getting

own

creations, involving a fox

into trouble with the other animals but

who who

always overcame these troubles and thus each time brought about a

happy ending

to the story.

He

took

his children to

performances

of the Detroit Light Opera Company, to appearances by ers

and Sonja Henie

movies (often

Orion

at the

cottage).

to help

Dad

at the

Roy Rog-

Detroit Olympia, and to a myriad of

"Blue Skies" Drive-in, not

There were frequent

visits to

inspect the troops, and to

far

from the Lake

Teamster picket

lines,

"Uncle Bert" Brennan's

impressive farm in nearby Plymouth, Michigan, for horseback rides in the

warmer months and sleigh rides in the winter ones. There to the Penn-Mar Restaurant for lunch or sup-

were Sunday drives per, to the

nearby towns of Mt. Clemens or Port Huron, or just

At Home and Abroad

55

out to the southern Michigan countryside to observe nature in various seasonal forms.

were

also regular

And

its

for Jim, although not Barbara, there

duck-hunting and fishing

trips, barbells-and-calis-

thenics drills, and (later) excursions to health clubs,

where

father

and son would play racquetball together and then

in the

steam

baths.

(It

was

sit

particularly important to the father that his son never

when Jim was only six years old, the parent him alone in a duck blind for six hours with nothing more than gun and a bottle of soda; his boy would never be deficient in

be thought of as "soft": left

a

toughness

if

he could help

"He could

it.)

turn the simplest thing into an adventure," Barbara

would later recall of her father. "Even going to the lumber store would be exciting with him."- The adventures were also learning experiences, for whenever the senior Hoffa could draw a moral from a situation, he would not hesitate to do so: "If you're going to do something, work at it as hard as you can, day and night"; "It doesn't matter what they say about you as long as you're doing the job that you're supposed to be doing"; "You can learn

by

listening than

every inch, there

you can by is

talking";

Hoffa

it

away from home

was simply counter

who had

"Nothing comes

more For

easy.

a stone."

Possibly because he was also because

a lot

used his muscle so freely

imposed no physical

discipline at

obedience through respect, not

all

fear.

so

much, possibly

to his parental style, the

on

same

as a rising labor leader

his children.

Both of

He

inspired

his offspring

viewed

him with adulation, as a national figure who, in his son's words, "came from nothing and rose as high as he did by sheer force of will, brains

and guts." Both were proud of

celebrity status ("It

was

line

up

at a restaurant.

proud of the devotion

walking around with

like

everywhere he went," Jim

in

his rapidly a

growing

movie

star,

adulthood reminisced, "People would

You that he

could hardly eat").

And

they were

was so universally accorded by

his

Teamsters.

His daughter would "die

if

I

ever disappointed him, because

he tried his hardest to be the best he could be." His son

felt

no

differently.

Typical of the style of Hoffa pere was an incident that took place

when Barbara w as about

Chapter 3

fourteen years of age and her brother

56

Upper Michigan

eleven, at the Hoffas'

and only other holding

retreat, the family's third

in addition to the

aborted dairy farm. Even

the other properties, the retreat consisted of a

more modest than

hunting lodge that lacked

electricity,

was supplemented by an out-

house, and was surrounded by 160 inexpensively purchased acres of

woods and hills. It also featured an old Quonset hut and a minuscule honeymoon cottage. It was, in those days, twelve hours from Detroit

and thus not particularly convenient, but Hoffa enjoyed

opportunities to hunt deer, to

fish,

doors. Josephine always lamented

with the children

On

this occasion,

on

a fishing

to enjoy

isolation but agreed to

its

its

its

out-

go there

she could simultaneously invite friends and

And the retreat, accordingly, when the Hoffas stayed at it.

relatives.

so people

father

if

and generally

usually housed a dozen or

both Hoffa children had accompanied their

excursion out to the middle of a nearby lake one

evening, and Barbara, in an unlikely action, had cast and caught the senior Hoffa squarely

on

the lid of his right eye with her

ing profusely and with the

hook remaining embedded on

Hoffa said only, "We'd better get out of here." Despite pain, he calmly

got his

rowed

brother-in-law that he to the nearest hospital,

and

all

the

way back

his

let

the latter drive

no

the

lid,

obvious

across the lake to the lodge,

spurning an impassioned insistence by

car, and,

Bleed-

fly.

less stoically

him

a resident

the twenty-six miles

proceeded to drive himself

his children there.

The

guilty Barbara to this day

remembers crying "I'm

I'm sorry" almost constantly to her father

until the

sorry,

town's sole

physician extracted the hook. And, just as vividly, she remembers

Hoffa consistently reassuring her during the entire seemingly endless episode,

was

that

felt

I

"I

know you

Of

course you are." "His theory

badly enough," she says of a

"And he

leave her.

are.

just didn't

want

me

memory

to feel

that will never

bad or stupid.

He

did that on instinct and pure love." In only

one way,

Hoffa generate fear in tional one.

He was

a

in fact,

did the professionally belligerent

his children,

and

it

was obviously an uninten-

heavy-footed automobile driver

who

thought

nothing of reaching speeds of one hundred miles per hour did on such roads as the tailgated,

Tamiami

(as

he

Trail in Florida), consistently

and was never happier on the highways than when passing

every car within passing range. Amazingly, he never got either

At Home and Abroad

a

57

speeding ticket (troopers would invariably recognize him and dis-

him with

miss

"Slow down, Jim") or

a

however, once wind up

twenty fence posts during cle

went out of control

on some getting a

was

needed

left to

hill

bottom ("We were

to pull us out," recalls his son).

wore

his vehi-

and came to

With

a

stop

all

day

his typical

a seat belt.

Josephine to administer what punishments were

her children grew up. Her family, in recognition of this

as

sometimes

role,

knocking

On another occasion,

top of a steep

railroad tracks at the hill's

tow truck

recklessness, he never It

a blizzard.

at the

He did, down some

into an accident.

in a cornfield after

called her "the sergeant"

and to embellish the

pri-

vate joke once bought her a whistle to wear around her neck.

The

good-natured mother announced, upon receiving

was

it,

that she

"going to go back to the laundry."

But the required

acts

Generally, instead, the

of discipline were few and

far

between.

two younger Hoffas were sources of

pride

to their parents.

Barbara, always an honors student, became president of her

and graduated from Albion College

large high school class,

Michigan with high enough grades

to earn her

membership

in

in Phi

Beta Kappa. As her father often boasted, her completion of college

marked so.

the

first

She became

time that either

Robert E. Crancer,

on

a

Hoffa or

a

Poszywak had done

a successful schoolteacher and, a

wealthy

St.

in 1961,

married

whom she met

Louis businessman

Miami Beach "company representative"). The mother

blind date while both were attending the 1961

a

IBT convention

(he as a

and father of the bride hosted

a lavish

three-day Polish wedding, to

which eight hundred people were invited and over two thousand came. Barbara would remember these a

festivities for

many

things:

ten-foot-high cake, provided by the Bakery and Confectionery

Workers Union; Frankie Yankovich and ence of the noted

dance of

a

means the

New

York

restaurateur,

wide variety of Michigan least

his Polish

music; the pres-

Toots Shor; the atten-

political figures; and,

of these memories, her

father's not

by no

only wearing

a

tuxedo but also dancing: he had, to her knowledge, never before

done

either.

James

P. Hoffa, frequently if

coverage of the Hoffa family

as

state football player at Detroit's

Chapter 3

erroneously referred to in media

"Jimmy Hoffa, Jr.," was an allCooley High School, as well as a

58

member of that

He

high school's honor society.

rejected scholarship

offers of one kind or another from almost one hundred colleges in

favor of attending Michigan State, where he pledged Alpha

Omega

sophomore

teams. During his

ess to see

him

up

and

year, he got injured,

(who had never been sufficiently excited by to give

Tau

fraternity and made both the freshman and varsity football his father

prow-

his son's football

play at either high school or college) convinced

told his offspring. "I sent

keep playing football to college. If you

you

him

you to school to get hurt," he

the sport: "I didn't send

to get an education. If

you want

to

go out and get yourself a job and send yourself

want

me

to send you, forget football

and get your

education." The son took the advice, concentrated on the books,

and graduated with

Law

of Michigan

a

B

plus average.

School, married a

met

at college football practice,

law

in his

He went on

to the University

young woman whom

and became

home town of Detroit.

The Hoffa household

also contained,

much of

the time,

other residents. Sylvia Pigano, James R. Hoffa's old a brief

he had

a respected attorney at

two

girl friend for

period in the early 1930s, was also a longtime friend of

Josephine's

who had walked picket lines with her in her laundry An outgoing brunette of ravishing beauty, she had for Kansas City and there had married Sam Scaradino,

worker days. left

Detroit

alias

Frank O'Brien, the elderly chauffeur for an underworld

figure.

After her husband's death not long thereafter, she had returned to

her

home town,

married

a cleaning

establishment executive

and upon the demise of this second husband

named

few years

John

Paris,

later

had been invited to move into the Hoffa home with her young

son, Charles. She

was good company

a

for Josephine, in particular,

but one intimate remembers her as being "bossy from the 'go,'

and an awful know-it-all. Jo

relied

much

too

much on

word her."

Charles "Chuckie" O'Brien (he had taken Scaradino's other

name)

called

this reason,

James R. Hoffa both "Dad" and "the old man." For

because also of Hoffa's past relationship with Chuckie's

mother, and because the Hoffas played

boy from the time

that he

was

a

major hand

in raising the

six years old, in 1940,

it

has been

widely rumored but never proven ever since that the Teamster leader did in fact father

him

in his pre-Josephine era. Far

from being

resented by Barbara and James P. Hoffa, he was viewed as a fun-

loving and personable surrogate older brother

At Home and Abroad

who was

never too

59

busy

to take their

mother

to the doctor or to

of other errands for her and to serve

do an endless variety

as a traveling

companion, when

his school schedule allowed, for their father. After he married for

home, and

time, he and his wife both lived in the Hoffa

the

first

the

warm

and witty Mary

Ann O'Brien became one

of Barbara's

closest friends.

Chuckie was not, however, destined

to achieve the

of success that Barbara and James P. Hoffa would. student, he enjoyed his union

evolved into

same degree

An

indifferent

with "Dad" and gradually

trips

a full-time jack-of-all-trades

business agent for Local

more than ever an on-the-road companion of Hoffa's but now

299,

being paid for the pleasure. After Hoffa became international president, he

made O'Brien

general organizer, a post that

a

an almost unlimited expense account

But O'Brien nonetheless

as well as a

lived well

stantly incurred debts that the

beyond

came with

comfortable salary.

his

means and con-

union could not justify paying

for.

He, for example, once took the entire Detroit Red Wings hockey

team

to Detroit's luxurious waterfront Rooster Tail Restaurant

ran up a $1,000

bill in

treating the players to ice carvings, expensive

whose connection

drinks, and other items

was obscure.

On

and

several occasions, he

to collective bargaining

wrote checks that were not

covered by his bank deposits. Hoffa frequently had to dip into his

own

pockets to get

him

off the hook. In his twenties, Chuckie

viewed by the IBT leader

as a definite challenge. In

the latter's infinite patience with that

him

some

was

quarters,

constituted further evidence

he was really Hoffa's son. Relatives, especially,

and close friends were very much

of the Hoffa family environment the 1940s and 1950s

no

Upper Michigan hunting

less

in Detroit

and

a part

Lake Orion

than they were in these years

lodge. But the relatives

Poszywaks. Viola Hoffa's

at

initially

were

at

virtually

in

the all

cool attitude toward her "for-

eigner" daughter-in-law only hardened through the years, and Jose-

phine

—

a sister

would

later recall

up her nose" with contempt

at

— habitually tended

to

"w rinkle r

the mention of Viola's name.

Relations between the James R. Hoffas and Hoffa's three siblings, influenced to

some

extent by the stern widow's antagonisms,

also far from close. The Teamster leader found jobs for his two brothers-in-law and often sent money to them as he did to

were

—

Viola,

who

Chapter 3

not infrequently received her son James's entire pay-

60

words of a family

check. But the sisters and brother, in the

intimate,

"always figured that Hoffa owed them something" and were not

With the

particularly gracious in accepting this aid.

of Viola's

much younger

the family

was conspicuous by

sole exception

brother Steve Riddle, the Hoffa side of

absence

its

home of the most

at the

successful Hoffa.

The Poszywaks, on the other hand, were regular visitors. Josephine was particularly fond of her mother, a pleasant-faced and humorous woman, who wore a hearing aid and in recognition of her handicap was shouted at, but who seemed to her grandchildren

who had no

"to hear whatever she wanted to hear." Hoffa,

when Josephine

in-law (Mr. Poszywak having been killed by a bus

was twelve years

old), treated her

with considerable devotion and

when

always personally drove her back and forth Josephine's

and

two

sisters,

and

friendly

warm

host.

she

their arrival,

it

of time in the Hoffa home,

Hoffa usually

and invariably made sure

you even

if

we

a

grilled steaks for his guests, in

advance of

everyone had plenty to

that

and drink ("If you need something

for

to visit.

where the master of the house was

always purchased large quantities of beer and wine

eat

came

Angeline and Sophie, her brother Ed,

their families also spent quite a bit

especially at the cottage,

father-

else, just ask,

have to go out and buy

it").

and we'll get

The

financial

generosity that he granted Hoffas was also freely offered Poszywaks

He often told "You know, when you're with me, you don't need money." "He had a lot of family feeling," says Angeline, "and he

and, without exception, he refused to be paid back. relatives,

helped a lot of people."

He, by the same token, spent very

Expensive clothes had no appeal for him

anybody," he would often say

— and he He

posed toward any kind of jewelry. years,

and although he did drive

in his business agent

home

in a

"it

for, since

like that for

in a

new

he wanted so

him,"

his

himself.

need to impress

no more favorably wear

a

watch

dis-

for

impresses the bosses and the car") he

modest Pontiac and drove the

buy presents

something

felt

didn't even

he became national Teamster president. to

money on

"I don't

succession of new black Cadillacs

days (because

workers when agents drive up at

a

little

—

latter

He was little:

daughter

was much more kind of car once a difficult

"We'd buy

recalls.

"He

person

shirts or

could always

use them."

At Home and Abroad

61

Nor was he much of a gourmet. He recently said of him, "a

(medium

to beef

working man's

Carl's

He

Chop House

—

asked

office

where many of his fellow IBT a

little else

of a

chef. In Detroit,

venerable but modest institution

a

throw from the Teamster

a stone's

complex on Trumbull Avenue,

officers ate

kept one table reserved

also, reputedly,

food." In addition

well done), he liked spaghetti and seafood (espe-

red snapper broiled).

cially

had, as a former intimate

taste in

and where the proprietor

strictly for

mobsters

favored establishment. In Washington, he frequently ate

fancier

Duke

Zeibert's, but this

of his chief lieutenants felt fully at

home

was almost

at the international

solely

— was at the

due to the urgings

headquarters and he never

there.

Close friends tended to be old friends, Teamsters

who had

shared Hoffa's hardship-laden past. "If I'm going fishing and hunt-

on more than one occasion, "these

ing," he said

going with. trust

My

friends are the people

such people, he would explain.

are the people I'm

came up with." He could "The others you've got to I

watch with both eyes."

Bobby Holmes, had been

a

the scholarly looking English

immigrant

who

Hoffa confidant since the Kroger loading dock days,

was one of these

friends.

So was another "Strawberry Boy," Frank

Collins, the mild-mannered, bookish secretary-treasurer of Local

299.

The

friendship circle also included Frank Fitzsimmons,

chubby, slow-moving former

whom Hoffa had allied himself with in

Hoffa's senior

was now second-in-command jawed Finnish-American who, union officership career

Owen

as a

And Dave

at 299.

like

1936 and

Johnson,

who

a jut-

Fitzsimmons, had started his

299 shop steward. And, of course,

Bert Brennan, the colorful horse-breeding and racetrack-

gambling head of IBT Local 337 and

a

bus and truck driver six years

city

now

Brennan,

who

he pulled out

a

once got sufficiently

gun and riddled

described by a Teamster

mentor

who

shared office space with Hoffa

administered Joint Council 43 with him. The steely eyed

in street

mad

at a

the premises with bullets, has been

who knew

both

ways and violence just

were Jimmy's mentors

Detroit hotel clerk that

intellectually."

A

men

as the

well as "Hoffa's

Minneapolis people

short, quiet chain

smoker

whose admiration for Hoffa's intelligence was unbounded and who was fond of saying that "Jim has the brains for both of us," his equally unquestioned brightness was appreciated by his office mate.

Chapter 3

62

He was

the only "best friend"

have had: Hoffa called him

mark one of

1961 was to

Teamster leader was seen and

the very

and Brennan's funeral

led lives that

were

as

family oriented

— usually

in the Upper Michigan woods. Holmes would declare years after

Lake Orion or

at

best years of

in

few occasions on which the

their families often spent time together

outdoors and often

"The

Hoffa could ever be said to

to cry.

men

Generally, these as Hoffa's,

whom

his "partner,"

my

life,"

Hoffa's death, "were spent working with and being part of his family, and having his family be part of mine."

Jo Hoffa,

clearly,

occupied the highest niche on her husband's

of personal values,

scale

as

he did on hers.

once quite justifiably wrote that

Jimmy and Jo," and

with

"it is a

they had

A

Teamster publicist

mutual admiration society

many

shared experiences. She

coming home work in the 1930s bloodied, and of having to patch and him up so that he could go back to work the next day. Her

frequently told the children stories about their dad

from clean

his

dedication to her children was as strong as

his.

His friends were her

friends.

She could regularly make her husband laugh, often by relaying jokes

— never,

for the straight-laced Hoffa, off-color ones

had heard during the day. all

And arguments between

but nonexistent. "I figured he argues

a journalist,

"so

why

opens that front door

all

that she

day long," she once told

should he have to argue at

—

two were

the

at

home.

When

he

the end of the day he's smiling and I'm

2

smiling." He, in his turn, was unfailingly solicitous of her welfare, invariably telephoned her at least once a day and often this

when he was

more than

out of town, and always sent her red roses on

their anniversary.

One of

remembered by their children, indeed, stemmed from a well-intentioned attempt by Hoffa to teach his wife to drive: he quickly abandoned the effort in the face of the very few quarrels

Josephine's unwillingness to be taught and continued to serve as

when he was at home, with Chuckie O'Brien (if assuming the role when Hoffa was not in residence. When

family chauffeur available)

Barbara turned sixteen, she was immediately given

a car so that she

could ease her father's burden.

Two

potential grounds for marital tension caused

none

Hoffa had readily acceded to Josephine's desires to keep

At Home and Abroad

at all.

his side

of

63

the family at a safe distance.

And

the atheistic

husband and Catholic

wife encouraged their children to attend any church that they pre-

The daughter and son chose

ferred.

a

Methodist church that was

within walking distance of their Robson Street residence almost strictly

on the

basis

of geographic proximity, and that was just fine

with their parents. Hoffa,

who

thought that religion was important

for others even if not for him, easily convinced his wife that

the kids

grow

up, they'll find their

Teamster found

John Wesley,

religion,"

good

temporarily, as

as

church of

any other.

more outgoing than her husband, had

a

considerable

sense of playfulness. She was capable of not only spiking

bowl but

also

of herself answering

friend, Eileen,

which the

latter

a letter

"when

and the pragmatic

his children's reason for favoring the

at least

Josephine,

own

a

punch

from Hoffa's former

wrote the IBT leader

girl

he became

after

famous ("We never heard from Eileen again," she would afterward

man

drily announce). In contrast to the

enjoyed dancing. She

also,

she married, she greatly

lacking his strong puritanical streak,

drank, occasionally to excess, and was a heavy cigarette smoker

weakness that she

tried,

without

much

(a

from her

success, to hide

husband). She loved parties, vacations, and going out to dinner

with friends.

The former laundry worker was ever.

She was,

as

was noted

earlier, a

far

from

lighthearted,

how-

constant worrier, in particular

about her spouse. She worried about

although

his physical health,

except for a mild diabetic condition he remained in excellent shape

throughout these years. She fretted about driver, his "Gasoline

Gus" ways with

fuel,

his

recklessness as a

and the everyday dan-

gers that he faced as a union officer in a violence-prone era. She

was

fearful

about his

failure to properly respect the rays

of the sun:

once, vacationing in the Virgin Islands, he had fallen asleep on a

rock with some rented scuba equipment and had burned his feet so badly that he was unable to wear shoes for several days, painfully burning his less

arms and

legs.

as well as

She was uneasy about

his care-

approach to pulling out the Lake Orion property's stumps,

a

technique that had on one occasion resulted in a tractor's turning

over on him and that often caused severe bruises and cuts to his legs.

And

she worried about the not always so savory professional

associates with

whom

he sometimes aligned himself and about his

refusal to provide himself

Chapter 3

with personal protection of any kind:

64

"Hoffa don't need no bodyguard," was

made suggestion

frequently

and, similarly seeing no reason

never did

standard answer to the

his

that he consider such an arrangement,

why

he should

own

a pistol,

he

so.

mounting

Increasingly, along with her husband's

legal diffi-

dread on Josephine's part assumed dominant pro-

culties, this last

portions. Hoffa himself once told a researcher that he expected to die a "violent, early death" his

unwillingness to have

—

accounted, he said, for

a belief that

family

a large

reason to omit this possibility from her

— and Josephine

list

was

afraid

on an everyday

basis,

told her spouse that, as frail as she habitually was, she that he

would

die

first.

But even beyond these burdens, the wife of Jimmy Hoffa suffered

way

at least

from

loneliness

good

loneliness. "It wasn't a

for a couple to have to live," in the opinion of

whose lexicon

had no

of concerns. She often

Holmes,

in

"the worst disease." Her husband's dedi-

is

him away from Detroit

cation to his union kept

for substantial

periods long before he went to Washington in 1957, and she did

not cope with these absences well. After 1957, she

spend most of her time

in

still

preferred to

Michigan, surrounded by Poszywaks, on

and knowing that her husband's continuing Team-

familiar terrain,

ster positions in Detroit

would guarantee her

frequent reunions with him.

It

was

regular and reasonably

for her the lesser

of two

evils,

however, and virtually every Hoffa family intimate was to com-

ment on

this

aspect that

highly visible loneliness factor in the marriage

was

by the deep love

clearly accentuated

— an

that Josephine

had for her marital partner. The loneliness undoubtedly increased the frequency of her drinking,

worrisome

to her

husband

which ultimately became

that he

implemented

sufficiently

a policy

of having

two IBT business agents watch her when she made public appearances and there was liquor around. As he advanced up the Teamster hierarchy and demands upon his professional time became even greater, her sadness from this single negative dimension of an otherwise entirely positive marriage would only grow. As

a

consolation for Josephine, on the other hand, there were

many moments of enormous

On

August

22,

pride.

1956, for example, a noteworthy event oc-

curred in the fledgling state of

At Home and Abroad

Israel.

On

one of the terraced

hills

65

of Judea, near the

of the birthplace of John the Baptist, the

site

Home

cornerstone was laid for the James R. Hoffa Children's

of

Jerusalem.

The money be

known

as

which was

for this project,

originally intended to

Beth Hoffa ("House of Hoffa,"

some

turn been raised

four months

earlier.

Hebrew), had

in

On

guests had gathered at Detroit's State Fair Coliseum to

IBT's ninth vice-president

at a

Common Council,

a resolution in Hoffa's

He

much

has contributed so

that

to the

Day" by

Detroit's

and the council had passed

resounded with

praise:

cause of humanity and the betterment of

and economic conditions of all

the social

His

honor

honor the

$100-a-plate testimonial dinner.

April 20 had been declared "James R. Hoffa

governing body, the

in

April 20, 2,650

classes

of citizens

in this city.

.

.

.

untiring efforts and zeal for the welfare of his fellow citizens have

aided greatly in the civic and economic development of Detroit as a great

metropolitan area.

.

.

.

The members of

the Detroit

Common

Council

recognize his dynamic leadership, courageous labors, and valuable sense of civic duty.

The

participant

as well as diverse.

list at

the April banquet

Bernard

J.

Sheil, the

was no

Roman

less

impressive,

Catholic auxiliary

bishop of Chicago, offered the invocation. Rabbi Aaron Decter of Philadelphia's

Eban,

Israeli

Temple B'nai Aaron ambassador

to the

delivered the benediction.

United

States,

conveyed

his

Abba good

wishes as one of four featured speakers. So did the eminent Uni-

zation

Wage

of Wisconsin law professor and former

versity

Board chairman Nathan

president of the

P.

Feinsinger; an

Roebuck

— General Motors, (all

immediate past

American Trucking Associations; and Dave Beck.

of

whom

Ford,

—

among many other corMontgomery Ward, and Sears,

Blocks of tickets were purchased by porations

Stabili-

sent ranking vice-presidents)

even greater number of unions, not excluding Reuther's

though Reuther himself was not

and by an

UAW

(al-

in attendance).

The large Sponsors Committee included, in addition to most top members of the Teamster international hierarchy, many major trucking company owners. Its roster also contained several international

union presidents, including A.

J.

Hayes,

who

leading the International Association of Machinists the

AFL-CIO's

Chapter 3

Ethical Practices

in addition to

was head of

Committee. The legendary former

66

Dame

Leahy was a sponsor, as were "Red" Dorfman and two of the original Holmes and Collins. Strawberry Boys from Kroger's The motives for participation in this "Jimmie Hoffa Testimonial Dinner," as the event was officially named notwithstanding Notre

football coach Frank

the Chicago mobster Paul

—

Hoffa's lifelong other spelling of his nickname, presumably varied

widely. For some, a clear-cut desire to help Israel was,

suppose, the sole determinant. But undoubtedly for the guest of

who came

it is

fair to

a positive

regard

honor dictated other appearances, and even those

for the crassest of political or

economic reasons bore

testimony to the increasing importance of the combative

silent

Teamster

The

little

leader.

selection of a charitable cause

was by no means

accidental,

the obvious public relations benefits of Hoffa's chosen project not-

withstanding. Hoffa had long admired the

Israelis for their

values

of survival, pride, and pioneering, which he often likened to the values of organized labor in the United States ("To him, the nation

much

of Israel was very

"with

—

in Israel's case, against the rest

independence."). Nor,

what sters

a

union," in the words of his daughter,

concept of brotherhood and

its

bosses

like a

at

—

to establish

the age of forty-three, had he forgotten

had contributed

homes

to other children's

before.

some eloquence outside Jerusalem on an Au-

affirmed both of these beliefs in rising to

in his dedication speech, delivered just

gust day that

of

struggling against the

childhood of poverty had meant, and his Michigan Team-

He

We

its

of the world

hope

Israel.

was uncomfortably hot even by

this children's

We know

home

will be a center

and appreciate what

it

local standards:

which symbolizes the

must mean

to

spirit

be a child

who

has been uprooted from his family and from surroundings that he has known.

We

believe that the job that Israel has done in setting up educational centers

for young and old alike in

the span

schools,

This

is

its

is

unique.

As

of a few short years

strength

—

is

—

a matter

building

offact, building its

industry,

an undertaking unparalleled

the fifth in a string

of children's homes.

.

in

.

.

this

its

human

country

homes,

its

history.

America

sees

admires what you are doing about the problems of your children, and

and

we

salute you.

America

also sees

and admires what you are doing about

from many lands and

At Home and Abroad

cultures,

who

all the

comprise the nation of Israel.

people,

Out of

6~

an arid land of desert and stone, you are raising up food by the most modern methods of drainage and

You

irrigation.

resources that will in time be a source

You

.

.

of trade balance and prosperity

You

.

.

many

are doing these things against

people of unquenchable

You

and finding natural

and providing jobs. You are building homes and

are building factories cities.

are seeking

spirit.

.

.

great odds, because Israel

to the

a

.

are a nation which believes in democracy

beacon light

is

and

lives

it.

.

You

.

.

are a

Middle East.

The Teamster

chieftain,

accompanied by the eighteen-year-old

Barbara Hoffa and some twenty-five other labor and business representatives, spent eight days in Israel

on

this

1956

Gurion and Foreign Minister Golda Meir, both of have instantly impressed him by

something

less

their intelligence as well as

reaction to

life

on an

Israeli

had

and

tractors,

"You

he asked,

call this

cynicism quickly changed to admiration

He was

also

impressed by the

their needs taken care

their

of

long ago

pioneer-

when he

the farm's

kibbutzim

fact that the

in return for their giving their labor

("He had known the Dunnes and Dobbs, don't forget," assistant not

by

to

kibbutz was

was shown the barbed wire and gun emplacements on perimeter.

seem

farm residents were enjoying the benefits of elec-

tricity, refrigerators,

ing?" But

whom

than positive: pointing out to an assistant the fact

that the collective

his

first

a

Prime Minister David Ben-

variety of Israeli luminaries, including

lack of formality. His

He met

trip.

this

same

recalled).

The cities of Rome, Paris, and London, which the Hoffa party visited on their way back to the States, produced a less positive opinion from Hoffa, however. His general reaction to Europe was that it was "just a bunch of old buildings"; and his evaluation of Paris, which he offered before retiring to bed early one night was that "there's

He

nothing

really

much going on

meant what he

in this

town, anyway."

said about the City

of Light. Paris's

relaxed attitude toward sex held no attraction whatsoever for a

who at a

San Francisco nightclub that he had turned

not to have to watch her.

of

man

had once been so embarrassed by the performance of a stripper

New

He was

York's Latin Quarter with

also

known

his chair

to

away

so as

have walked out

his family in protest against the

suggestive aspects of an act there. Even the hugs and kisses that he

Chapter 3

bH

received by the hundreds from admiring Teamster wives invariably

made him uncomfortable and often caused him to grimace visibly: it was part of the job and he knew that he had to allow it, but that didn't mean that he had to like it. He was, as more than one of his intimates observed, a "real Boy Scout." In Rome, he pleased his daughter by taking her to the Opera, but quickly embarrassed her by falling asleep and quite audibly snoring, producing a torrent of hisses

He

ence. Italy

from an offended

Italian audi-

amount of consternation in "What did you think about Mussolini?"

also caused Barbara a certain

by asking

taxi drivers,

and then proceeding to offer the late Italian dictator.

The

own

Fascist

in the country thirteen years

outspoken Teamster was,

his

highly negative opinion of

premier

at least in his

had many admirers

still

after his death,

and the chronically

daughter's opinion, risking

a fight in each instance.

A

meeting with the Pope was

a less tense feature

Hoffa, as a nonbeliever, eschewed both kissing the papal ring.

American

bowing

of the

trip.

to the pontiff and

The Pope, who had been briefed about his hand to him as a viable alternative.

visitor, offered his

much in character. monumental. "He was proba-

Hoffa's gift to the Israeli children was very

His financial generosity was, in

fact,

bly the most generous, open-handed guy I've ever met," says one

Hoffa intimate, explaining that Hoffa was

song or hard luck guy." easiest

give

A

"sucker for any sad

a

family friend has described

touch in the world." In

his daughter's opinion,

him

as

"the

"he would

anybody anything."

Some of Hoffa's largesse was formulated strictly on the spur of the moment rounding up the neighborhood children in the

—

of the Local 299-Joint Council 43 Teamster complex in

vicinity

Detroit and buying this

them

all

ice

cream, for example. Old-timers in

decidedly unprosperous section of the city

how on money

remember,

too,

several occasions he spent hundreds of dollars of his

own

to purchase sports

equipment for these boys and

But the Teamster leader

also

had

a variety

alized causes that could consistently count

Many were Jewish Israel:

any religion and also greatly respected the

girls.

of special institution-

on

his philanthropy.

charities in addition to the Children's

the atheistic Hoffa admired Judaism as

At Home and Abroad

still

much ability

as

Home

in

he admired

of the Jewish

69

He and

people through the ages to overcome hardships.

supported numerous Catholic causes. In the

also

were

activities that

were

was the Holy Trin-

church in the Corktown section of Detroit, near Hoffa's Detroit

offices: the tell

wife

latter category,

related to St. Jude, Jo Hoffa's patron saint,

particularly favored with contributions. So, too, ity

his

his

would

church's pastor, Father Clement Kern,

neighbor, "Jimmy,

and Hoffa would just

Kern presided over his benefactor

a

I

me

need some help; give

as regularly

well-attended

regularly

one";

a big

comply. (The grateful Father

wake

church in honor of

at the

on the day before Hoffa went

to prison in

March

1967).

Many more who

A

recipients of the Hoffa largesse

were individuals

had convinced the union leader of their personal financial need.

Brink's driver

down on

his luck, for

example, got $1,500, which

Hoffa patiently counted out for him in one-dollar ultimately repaid the spite the

Teamster

elderly derelict

was

for years,

money

leader's attempts to dissuade him.

who had a

bills;

the driver

but only because he insisted on

been

a fixture at

permanent Hoffa

it

de-

Whitey, an

Local 299 headquarters

charity, a situation that

Hoffa

explained to his curious son as stemming from the fact that "Whitey at

one time helped the union."

had been

A widow whose

killed in a trucking accident received

informed the IBT president

that she really

Teamster husband

$400 (and, when she

needed "a job not

a

handout," also was rewarded with

a

job through Hoffa's

Sometimes, the IBT leader acted on

a

misfortune only secondhand,

as

when he

read in a Detroit newspaper of a

run over by

money a

newsboy who had been

and badly injured and sent

a car

efforts).

sum of And it was

a significant

to the boy's parents to help defray hospital

bills.

Christmas tradition that unemployed Local 299 members would

line

up

in front

president

was

of in

their president's office in

December, when

their

town, for money: some $15,000 was typically

dispensed for the purpose, and while some of the amount came

from the

local's treasury,

own

Hoffa's

contributions did not go

unnoticed.

The family-minded IBT

leader

was an

especially soft touch if

the individual's hard luck story involved other ily.

Once he was

street

not

far

told

from

by

a

young man who was walking down

the Teamsters'

ing that "I need $2 to get

Chapter 3

members of the famthe

Washington headquarters build-

home

to Virginia for

Thanksgiving

70

dinner." Hoffa gave the Virginian much more than this amount $400 and also some advice: "First thing you do is buy your mother a present. Don't tell her your problems. You go home in style." When another teller of a sad story sought a job from the Teamster boss and said that he did not want any money at all, but happened to mention that he had pawned his wedding ring for $50, Hoffa immediately handed him $50 and told him to "go get it. That's the last thing you should ever do, pawn your wedding ring. Then come back here and I'll find you a job."

—

—

At Home and Abroad

71

Like Confetti

at a

Country

Fair

4 On March

13, 1957, the

arrests "that's

But

maybe

as

man who had

long

as

a list

of

your arm" was arrested once again.

time the allegation involved

this

long ago amassed

much more

than picket-line

and similar union duty misconduct, and the potential con-

scuffling

sequences for Hoffa were

far

more

serious than they ever had been.

In an action that, befitting Hoffa's current status as the de facto

Number Two Teamster (and, of the now discredited Beck), all

as such, the likely heir to the

generally

made

front page headlines

over the country, he was seized by three FBI agents as he entered

an elevator in Washington's Dupont Plaza Hotel. Arraigned while a

mantle

later,

he was

lawyer on the

John

L.

officially

staff

rule

More

and obstruct the

to influence

than once, he had said that a sensible

of life was to "do unto others,

practiced

short

of the Senate Select Committee headed by

McClellan and of conspiring

committee's inquiry.

a

charged with having attempted to bribe

first."

Now,

he had seemingly

what he preached.

The lawyer was one John Cye Cheasty, formerly a Secret SerNaval Intelligence commander (who currently received

vice agent, a

an 80 percent service connected disability allowance), and an Internal

Revenue Service

sel

Robert

F.

investigator.

Kennedy one month

Hoffa (originally through torney

Hyman

$1,000 in cash to get a

job

as

He had gone

a

earlier

to

committee coun-

and told the

latter that

mutual acquaintance intermediary,

Fischbach, and then in person) had offered as a

down payment,

at-

him

with $17,000 more to follow,

an investigator with the committee.

From

this posi-

he was to furnish Hoffa with secret information from

tion, as a spy,

the

committee

files.

Cheasty, according to the government's version as to what

happened

had taken the money and run

after this,

matter of both conscience and civic duty.

A

to

Kennedy

as a

devout Catholic, he

believed, as he later informed the

committee counsel, "in right and

wrong and

God

I

that

must answer

I

have regarded good

thing to be fought."

my

for

something to work

as

He

1

to

told

Kennedy

conduct. All

for,

that

and

my

life

some-

evil as

Hoffa was in

effect

"asking him to betray his country" and he agreed to serve as

a

"double agent," actually working for the committee while appearing to Hoffa to be working for Hoffa. And, with the cooperation

of the FBI, leader

CIO

was agreed

it

when Hoffa came

would be set for the Teamster Washington in March to attend an AFL-

that a trap

to

Building and Construction Trades conference meeting.

On

the night of

March

watching from across the hotel at

Dupont

12,

street,

with

a large

number of FBI

agents

Cheasty met Hoffa outside Hoffa's

Circle in the heart of the city.

He handed

the latter

an envelope of confidential documents with which he had been furnished for the purpose by the committee. In return, according

had $2,000

to the FBI, he

The papers

Hoffa.

in cash

shoved into

his

related primarily to Beck,

hands by

a grateful

and Hoffa was

re-

ported to have said upon perusing them, "It looks like Beck's goose is

cooked

if that is

what they have on him." The Teamster

then,

according to the indictment, asked for more inside information re-

garding the Senate's investigation of his international president.

The next

night, another meeting

place, again at

secret papers

although on

When was

this

FBI, in

Hoffa had

his hotel

making

on

this

second night, he

announcement of the

its

in his possession

arrest,

documents from the commit-

"which he had just received."

was generally believed

was by

power.

Cheasty brought more

occasion Hoffa did not give Cheasty any money.

The

arrested.

tee files

bail,

Circle. This time,

with him and once more transferred these to Hoffa,

Hoffa walked back into

stated that

It

Dupont

between the two men took

If

this single

that Hoffa,

now

released

sequence of events finished

found guilty on

all

three of the bribery

on $25,000

as a rising labor

and conspiracy

counts on which he had been indicted, he faced up to thirteen years in jail (plus

Like Confetti

$21,000 in

at a

fines).

Country Fair

73

And in fact

it

was taken

given in most quarters that he would

as a

be found guilty. Even ignoring Cheasty's very respectable

credentials, the fact that the prosecution could so easily

many

credible witnesses to the

two March Cheasty-Hoffa meetings

appeared to guarantee an airtight governmental

knew

also that the

rendezvous

FBI had made

was himself so optimistic

case.

a film that

Kennedy,

as to the

outcome

who

documented both

and that would be offered

in their entireties

produce so

that he

to the jury,

announced

at a

press conference following the Hoffa arrest, "If Hoffa isn't convicted,

I'll

The

jump

off the Capitol

defense,

on

was of no small worth:

who

at

dome."

the other hand, also possessed an asset that the services of

Edward Bennett

Williams,

an impressively young thirty-six years of age had established

a reputation as

one of the nation's

handsome, and arguably

brilliant

ablest criminal lawyers.

A

tall,

courtroom enchanter, he had pre-

viously represented clients as diverse as mobster Frank Costello,

U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and four Minneapolis Teamsters

who had

been charged with

illegally taking a bribe

from an em-

ployer, attracting widespread favorable publicity for himself in the process. Eddie Cheyfitz, for

Hoffa

after

under Williams sequently

at

become

greatest fans.

who

being an active the

as public relations staffer

Communist

in

Toledo, then studied

Georgetown University Law School and subwas one of Williams's

the latter's law partner,

At Cheyfitz's

sent Hoffa in the

had served

request, Williams

upcoming

summer

early

had agreed to repre-

trial.

He would

be op-

posed by attorney Kennedy.

The twelve-person jury

that

was ultimately charged with de-

ciding Hoffa's fate included, quite unremarkably for a the heavily black District of Columbia, eight blacks.

trial

And

held in

Williams

quickly proved that he was no ordinary attorney by suggesting to the jurors, in his cross-examination of Cheasty, that Cheasty might

be antiblack. In questioning that brought an admonition from the

judge on the grounds that

it

was

irrelevant to the

asked Cheasty whether he had used

a fictitious

trial,

Williams

name when em-

ployed by the City of Tallahassee, Florida, to "break the bus boycott"

and

to

investigate

the

National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People there. Cheasty heatedly denied the intimation, apparently with good cause. But the possibility that

Chapter 4

~4

the double agent

been

was something

than a paragon of virtue had

less

raised.

Two

other actions that seemed calculated to win over the black

jurors to the Hoffa side were also credited to the

fertile

mind of

Williams, although he steadfastly denied having had a hand in either

of them.

Halfway through the

trial,

Washington's black newspaper, the

Afro- American, published an unabashedly pro-Hoffa issue that called

Williams the "White Knight" and the "Sir Galahad" of the rights

movement and

described Hoffa as the "hardest-hitting

civil

cham-

pion" of the Teamsters Union, which "has 167,000 colored truck drivers."

The

issue included a large picture

Hoffa with Martha Jefferson,

was

identified as

a

black lawyer from Los Angeles

having joined the Hoffa defense team.

number of people

a considerable

whom

of Negro rights" and asserted that that

showing Williams and

it

was

it

identified as

It

who

also listed

"champions

the opinion of these people

Hoffa "had been framed." The judge, upon reading press

re-

ports that this issue had been delivered to every juror, locked the

jury up for the remainder of the

trial

to prevent

any further such

influences.

Nor

did

it

escape the attention of the jurors that the legendary

black former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis was present

courtroom

in the trial.

Louis,

for a

day and

a half

who warmly embraced

he arrived, described the defendant that

he had

come from

Detroit

near the end of the three-week

Hoffa as

to

in full

"my good see

view of all when friend" and said

what was happening

to him.

After less than four hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted

Hoffa, essentially accepting his defense that he had hired Cheasty strictly as a

to take a

lawyer and that he did not

know

that

Cheasty planned

committee job. The FBI movie was dismissed

as

documen-

two men had exchanged an envelope crime of any kind. "The basic factor in the verdict," said the jury's foreman, "was the failure of the evidence to prove any conspiracy. That made the crux of the whole thing one man's word against another's Hoffa's against Cheasty's. And the verdict shows who was believed." 2 tation at

merely of the

Dupont

fact that

Circle, not

by

itself a

—

All of the jurors, black and white, said that they

Like Confetti

at a

Country Fair

had not been

75

influenced in the slightest by racial considerations, and possible,

it is

entirely

of course, that they were not. Kennedy himself was con-

vinced that a combination of Williams's overall courtroom

own

Hoffa's

strong testimony, and the unpreparedness and inef-

fectiveness of the tics

ability,

prosecution— and not the black-oriented

— had won Hoffa

One

his acquittal.

tac-

juror believed that Hoffa

had gained considerable sympathy from the jury through testimony that he

had

defendant,

left

school

who upon

an early age to go to work. The elated

at

hearing the news slapped his son on the

arm

so emphatically that the younger Hoffa almost toppled over, ex-

more simply: "It proves once truth you have nothing to fear."

plained the favorable verdict even

again if you are honest and

A commonly tics

the

tell

held opinion was, however, that the racial tac-

had been of some persuasiveness. Few blacks were willing

to

discount entirely the pro-Hoffa message of the widely read and

highly regarded Afro- American.

And

there

was considerable agree-

ment with the statement of Senator Barry Goldwater of the Select Committee, which immediately revealed that the Teamsters had paid Joe Louis's hotel bill during his Washington visit, that "Joe Louis makes

a pretty

good defense

attorney. That's

all

I

can say."

Williams, in deference to the 287 feet separating the Capitol

dome from counsel

the

ground below

Kennedy

The

bribery

it,

told reporters that he

would send

happened, serve

as the first

a parachute.

trial

did not, as

it

On

occasion on which Hoffa and Kennedy had met face to face. the

snowy evening of February

19,

1957

— exactly

six

days after

Cheasty had originally gone to the Harvard graduate with charges concerning Hoffa

— the

two men had been

his

two Chevy

the only

guests at a dinner party held in the Washington suburb of

Chase, Maryland.

The relations

host for this unlikely event was the ex-Teamster public

man, Cheyfitz,

who had

remained

a close friend

of his

former boss and also maintained cordial relations with Kennedy. Cheyfitz and his law partner Williams had, in

fact, for

some time

been trying to entice Kennedy into leaving the government and joining their law firm.

Cheyfitz had also been telling Kennedy that Hoffa was no

Beck: the Detroiter, in his opinion, had reformed and could

Chapter 4

now

76

be

a definite force for

good within

the McClellan committee counsel

He hoped

the Teamsters.

would agree with

this

that

opinion

once he had sized up Hoffa for himself by spending an intimate evening with him. Cheyfitz also thought that the two guests might

even get to

like

each other, since the patrician Kennedy and the

rough-edged Hoffa actually had

a lot in

common. Both were ambi-

combative, feisty bantamweights. Each was

tious,

workaholic but also

a

confirmed

a

devoted family man. Both prided themselves

on candor. Both were nonsmoking physical demanded, and received,

total loyalty

from

fitness addicts.

his staff.

Each

Each was

fre-

quently described as "charismatic" by admirers, and as "ruthless"

by the

detractors.

The meeting, undergirded by Kennedy's Cheasty allegations, was nonetheless not a Although he

dard.

self to

that

knowledge of

success

by any

stan-

Hoffa had shown him-

be capable of charm, politeness, and friendliness, Kennedy

came away with

body

acknowledged

later

secret

said he

hiding behind

the impression that Hoffa

was." a

He

was "worse than any-

thought that the Teamster was

a

"bully"

facade of toughness, compelled to brag and boast

about his strength and power because of self-doubts that he really

had such an

ability to excel. Hoffa,

been quick to

tell

he subsequently recounted, had

him, "I do to others what they do to me, only

worse." Kennedy also noted Hoffa's readiness to discuss fights,

with employers and

his

many

— "Always he had won," others write — further sign of

the

would later sarcastically as a this 3 insecurity on Hoffa's part. Kennedy had attempted to joke about Hoffa's toughness "maybe I should have worn my bullet proof vest" but the humor "seemed to go over his head." 4 The evening ended early, at about attorney

—

9:30,

when Kennedy's

wife telephoned to

driver had skidded into a tree

Virginia, and although not seriously hurt, cal, in their

living

made The memories

opportunity,

tell

her husband that a

on the Kennedy property was now

in

McLean,

sitting, hysteri-

room. Kennedy quickly took advantage of the his apologies,

that

and

left.

Hoffa brought away from

this

rendezvous

were quite

different than Kennedy's, but they were no more posiThe only word that could describe his fellow guest, the labor leader was to recall, was "condescending." Kennedy had asked him numerous personal questions concerning how much money he tive.

Like Confetti

at a

Country Fair

77

how

made,

tried to

go

over the

fact that a kid

rise to

why

he happened to get into the union, and to college. "Clearly,"

from

HotYa thought, "he was puzzled

poor family, lacking education, could

a

the top of the largest union in the nation.

told an interviewer. "I can

he hadn't

tell

"D

Ho ft a

also later

by how he shakes hands what kind

I got. I said to myself. 'Here's a fella thinks he's doing me favor by talking to me.' " and asserted that the chief counsel was

of fellow a

"a

damn

spoiled jerk."

Ho ft a that

also

took away from the evening

was no more

night because he

that

Kennedy became

— Ho — had accepted ft a

a

at

any of these others.

thing out of

how

strong and

how

player or something

a football

and kept himself

Hoffa that

this

at

Kennedy

challenge from

In a description

it.

Kennedy had would point out that Kennedy was cent of the one that

impression

"mortal enemy" that

his

hand wrestle and had then proceeded

man. not once but twice,

cised

a further

scientifically verifiable than

He was convinced to Indian

6

to beat the

younger

remarkably reminis-

selected to describe him, Hoffa

"a

man who

always made

a

big

how he had been how he always exer-

tough he was,

Harvard, and

Nothing could convince wounding of Kennedy's pride did

in top shape."'

Indian-wrestle

not contribute to the "vendetta" that from that day on he saw the

Bostonian

To he

as

waging

against him.

the surprise of absolutely

would not be

a

no one, Beck had announced

candidate for reelection. And. a mere seven days

after his acquittal in the

Cheasty

been so widely regarded

as finished

case.

Hoffa

— who

— was catapulted

until then

IBT convention in Jimmy Hoffa." representing about this late

had

into the posi-

man from Seattle at Miami. Some eight hundred

tion of front-runner to succeed the

ing

that

the

upcom-

"Friends of

75 percent of the delegates at

September convention, unanimously and enthusiastically

endorsed him for the Teamster presidency in

a

meeting

at

Chicago's

Shoreland Hotel.

The least

action

by the informal "Friends" group was not

unexpected. But the

size

in the

of the turnout, almost double what

come as a surprise, as did the large numbers of Teamsters who had come from outside the traditionally pro-Hoffa Midwest. Only the Western Conference, under the control of Hoffa's adversary Frank Breweven the event's most optimistic sponsors had hoped

Chapttr 4

for.

did

78

was not represented. And many of the

ster,

largest locals in

the Eastern and Southern Conferences, not wanting to be

growing Hoffa bandwagon,

the

Upon

the press that

want me,

The

one.

Louis

was "too

it

unionists,

XVI

early to

this

who

had preceded him into the Shoreland's

ballroom and greeted

"spontaneous"

"There's nothing

am

elected,

his arrival there

.

with

a

prolonged

Jimmy" and "we're with

I

I

demonstration,

and

they

.

received

one:

can do but carry on with your wishes. ... If

will devote

my

full

I

time and energy ... in behalf of

member of our union." 8 Warming to his subject, Hoffa proceeded

every

no

the way, Jim"), had expected an acceptance speech after

all

their

statements. If they

indecision had fooled

at

standing ovation (and cries of "Atta boy,

you

meeting, Hoffa had told

make any

run." But his pretense

I'll

off

sent emissaries.

Chicago for

his arrival in

both

left

.

to read a nine-page

"policy statement," copies of which had been distributed to the

Worthy of some attention as one of the few written IBT leader's basic thoughts about administering his union, the document called for an enlargement of the labor organization from its present membership of 1.4 million to 2 million gathering.

expositions of the

workers, with

marked

at least

25 percent of the IBT's income to be ear-

for organizing.

It

also advocated transferring

many of the

present powers of the general president, including the interpretation

of the Teamster constitution, to the general executive board.

recommended

that the finances of the

certified public accountants, tional. It

IBT

locals

It

be audited by

with copies to be mailed to the interna-

urged an expansion of the Teamster research unit and the

payment of

strike benefits for

well as for strikes occurring

sympathy and recognition

when

strikes as

labor contracts expired. But

it

AFL-CIO position that any union official who pleaded Amendment be prohibited from holding office, Hoffa stat-

opposed the the Fifth

ing that "it is

is

one thing

to stand for a society

of law and order.

It

another thing to pursue a shadow cloak of brief popularity, and

in so

doing lose

a right

of human liberty." 9

Hoffa emerged from rival for the presidency.

this

harbored hopes of attracting candidate.

a sizable

block of votes as

a

"reform"

But the Hoffa bandwagon contained many O'Brien de-

fectors, effectively

Like Confetti

July 26 meeting without a serious

John T. "Sandy" O'Brien of Chicago had

at a

dashing these aspirations and, recognizing the

Country Fair

79

O'Brien withdrew from the

inevitable,

breaks your heart

He

a little bit."

None of

instead for Hoffa.

race, declaring, "It

kind of

asked his supporters to vote

the half-dozen or so remaining candi-

dates appeared to present Hoffa with anything other than token

opposition.

It

was

however,

not,

president. In the next

to be quite that easy for the ninth vice-

few weeks several developments

cast a definite

cloud over Hoffa's prospects.

The

first

of these was

a

four-day appearance, starting on Au-

gust 20, 1957, by the Teamster presidential candidate before the

McClellan committee In actions that received nationwide headlines (and, for an esti-

mated

start to finish, the list

live television

coverage) from

committee linked Hoffa's name

to an extensive

1.2 million East Coast

homes,

of activities that appeared to be

illegal.

And

at best

questionable and

at

worst

while in responding to the various charges Hoffa did

not once invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination,

he was sufficiently vague and evasive in his responses

one senator, Irving M. Ives of New York, to taken the Fifth but you're doing

a

tell

him,

as to

"You

cause

haven't

marvelous job of crawling around

Senator McClellan himself was aroused enough to ask the

it."

Justice

Department

to see

whether or not Hoffa's faulty

memory

constituted grounds for perjury charges.

At these hearings, which were held

columned Caucus

Room

major witness exhibited

He exuded of

his

him

his

a

broad band of personality

at

times both

flip

"I

at

and combative with the committee's chief counsel,

"Bob" or "brother" (as in "You are so right, gave you my answer, brother") in what were often either

He was

usually entirely

but he displayed flashes of the well-known Hoffa temper.

He was both

witty and serious, poised and fumbling, relatively (for

him) relaxed and visibly in his journal, the

Chapter 4

for

respectful, invariably calling

quite terse replies to Kennedy's questioning. affable,

—

on the committee "Sir" or "Senator," but he was

Kennedy

Bob" and

characteristics.

other points surprisingly

— subdued. He was generally quite

calling

marble-

normal cockiness and breeziness throughout much

testimony, but he was

the senators

in the red-carpeted,

of the old Senate Office Building, the

tense. (In a matter

Teamster was

of days, Kennedy wrote

alternately "arrogant, angry, pleas-

80

ant, antagonistic.

Tuesday ... he looked awful. Thursday morning

He

he did well for himself.

mad which

slightly

I

is

think he might very well be."

Room

who watched

and on the millions

the

Caucus

television (live

10

The one con-

on the standing-room-only crowd

stant impression that he left

on

out unless he's

difficult to figure

in

the proceedings

and taped) was, however, that he was not an

entirely cooperative witness,

presumably because he had something

to hide.

At one point following

a line

of inquiry into Hoffa's labor

philosophy, Kennedy said, "I hate to take you back from being labor leader to a business

back; don't

man," and

worry about

it."

At

a

"Go right when he thought

the witness retorted,

several points,

Kennedy was pressing him too closely for an answer, Hoffa commanded, "Just a minute now." And Hoffa frequently

that

curtly

replied to the counsel's questioning rather insolently in the eyes of

some

observers,

by saying "You

didn't ask

me

to bring

it

so

I

tell you offhand." Hoffa also, several Kennedy that the information he was seeking was in the record of the "Hoffman hearings." (Each time Kennedy pointed out, appropriately enough in view of the abrupt conclusion of these 1953 proceedings, that the Hoffman hearings were "incomplete.") Hoffa's whole demeanor was, in the eyes of at least one observer of his performance, that of a man who was "determined to brazen

haven't got it," or "I couldn't times, told

it

out."

When, however,

on the

the questions rather abruptly turned,

second day, to the single subject of Hoffa's relationship with one

Johnny Dio,

some of

the witness appeared to lose at least

his

aplomb. Dio, born John Ignazio Dioguardi

New

York City

for extorting

and

in

racketeer.

money from

He had gone

in

1914,

was

a

long-time

to Sing Sing prison in 1937

truck operators in the garment industry

1956 had become infamous on

a

national basis

by being

charged with the acid blinding of labor columnist Victor Riesel

New

(although he was never prosecuted in this case). In the 1930s

York

District

gorilla"

Attorney Thomas E.

who "by

the time he

Dewey had

called

him

was twenty had become

a

"young a

major

gangster." In the field

himself to be

of labor-management

a friend

relations,

of the workingman.

Like Confetti at a Country Fair

he had not proven

He had

operated

a

non-

SI

union dress shop

upon

selling

He

nonunion.

Pennsylvania and then taken an SI 1,200 bribe

in

would stay been convicted under New York

to use his connections to ensure that

it,

had, ironically,

money

State laws of failing to report this

He was

New

in

York

who had

thugs

with Walter

(not to be confused

UAW-CIO)

Reuther's Detroit-based officials for the fifteen

income.

as

of the United Automobile Workers

also a director

Union, AFL,

it

UAW-AFL

been convicted

and

such had hired

as

New

locals in

a total

as labor

York some

forty

of seventy-seven times for

crimes that included robbery, burglary, extortion, possession of

men had

and accessory to murder. Often, these

stolen mail,

taken

payoffs from employers in return for demanding less than competitive

wages

for the

One of

workers

whom

they represented.

them, Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo, was paid by

an employer simply to

come

on

into the latter's plant

reasonably

a

regular basis and "glare at the employees" to keep

them

had been arrested thirteen times, starting with

a

charge

when he was

in line.

grand larceny

had somewhat lowered

fifteen years old, but

by having

the two-to-one ratio of convictions to Dio-hired thugs

only been convicted once, for unlawful possession of narcotics.

had derived

his colorful sobriquet

now

ing" convictions, and he was

IBT

locals, to

from

He

his reputation for

believed to control

He

"duck-

at least five

be quite friendly with Hoffa, and to be an even more

powerful underworld figure than Dio.

Dio had appeared before Hoffa

testified.

He had

including whether or not he tirely clear,

nounced,

"I

he had even,

would

the

committee some two weeks before

taken the Fifth

knew

after

like to ask

Amendment on

Hoffa.

Making

all

questions,

message en-

his

an exasperated Senator Ives had an-

Mr. Dioguardi

if

there

is

anything

he ever did from the time he was born until the present that

would not incriminate him," conversed

and then responded, "I respectfully decline

on the

stand, he

Hoffa,

who

.

."In

his

had seriously considered taking the to,

was

a

model of

swers to committee questions regarding the

.

with

moment

his

lawyer

two hours

had invoked the constitutional provision 140 times.

but finally decided not

when

briefly

committee played

a series

Fifth

himself

forgetfulness in his an-

his dealings

with Dio. Even

of recordings of wire-tapped

1953 telephone conversations between Hoffa and Dio, showing rather conclusively that Hoffa

Chapter 4

had

tried to pressure

Beck

into letting

82

Dio organize the

thirty

thousand taxicab drivers

New York

in

as a

newly appointed Teamster against the wishes of a fellow Teamster vice-president (but Hoffa enemy) Thomas L. ''Honest Tom" Hickey, Hoffa's

memory seemed

have

to

failed

He

him.

asserted,

in

one way or another more than one hundred times, "to the best

of

my

rattled

recollection,

by the

an oratorical nadir:

my memory,

I

I

"To

will take the

my

the best of

tapes,

he

hit

recollection

I

somewhat of

must

on

recall

memory,

recordings do not refresh your

power of God

apparently can't do

Nor

on the

cannot remember." Chairman McClellan, obviously

irritated, retorted, "If these it

At one point, seemingly quite

can't recall."

irrefutable evidence

do

to

The

it.

man

instrumentalities of

it."

could Hoffa remember whether or not he had arranged

through Dio to smuggle some miniature recording devices, called Minifons, into

a

grand jury hearing so that he would have recorded

evidence of the testimony of his union subordinates

at

the hearing.

Here, however, he seemed to have recovered some of his original brashness:

Mr. Kennedy What did you do with the Minifons you purchased? Mr. Hoffa What did

do with them? Well, what did

I

do with

I

them? Mr. Kennedy What did you do with them?

am trying to recall Kennedy You know what you

Mr. Hoffa Mr.

I

.

Mr. Hoffa What did

I

.

.

did with the Minifons.

.

.

.

do with them?

Mr. Kennedy What did you do with them? Mr. Hoffa Mr. Kennedy, question about

Mr. Kennedy Mr. Hoffa

I

it,

but

I

You wore cannot

I

bought some Minifons, and there

cannot a

recall

recall

what became of them.

.

no

is .

.

Minifon yourself. doing

it,

and

I

may

have.

Mr. Kennedy Did you ever wear one? Mr. Hoffa

You

say "wear."

The chairman not long

What do you mean by "wear"? 11 thereafter exclaimed,

be helpful even a recess,

when

his

memory

is

"We

memory and refreshed." He then

ceeded to the point where the witness has no

have prohe cannot called for

but only after reading on behalf of the committee

a list

of

forty-eight points of "conflict of interest and questionable actions"

Like Confetti

at a

Country Fair

83

ascribed to the ninth vice-president.

somewhat

conjectural:

The

last

of these points was

"Mr. Hoffa has not taken

the Fifth

Amend-

ment, but Mr. Hoffa either avoided or equivocated the answers to 111 questions at Thursday's session and today, although

adjourning early,

I

we

are

think that he broke that record." All of the other

points had been established as "facts," McClellan asserted, either in the course of the hearings or through "information the committee has,

we

and

The

are not disclosing

included

listing

a

all

of the information." 12

summary of monies

between 1952 and 1956, borrowed from union depend on

good

Hoffa had,

"whose jobs

from businessmen with Teamster

will" and

These loans totaled some $120,000, and Hoffa had ob-

contracts.

tained

[his]

that

officials

most of them,

the committee pointed out, without collateral,

without notes, and without interest payments. (Hoffa, on the stand,

had admitted

of

all

this.

which had not yet been

He had

lost,

and $10,000

he

said,

He

said that the

repaid,

was used

some $20,000

in an oil exploration

The Senate

in

money, some $70,000 of for a variety of ventures.

an investment in

a

brewery

company.)

panel also charged that Hoffa had spent $150,000

from the funds of

his

home

Local 299 and Brennan's Local 337 to

purchase the five-acre Indiana estate of Paul "The Waiter" Ricca, notorious Al Capone lieutenant

from the United

States.

who had

(Hoffa had said here that the union had

bought the property, including tennis courts and as well as a

a

swimming pool

two-story house that could sleep twenty people,

proposed school for union business agents, and conducted

company. He owner was.)

ness with a trust actual

An

came back

to

as a

this busi-

stated that he hadn't asked

old skeleton in the Hoffa closet also

Teamster vice-president

a

been ordered deported

who

the

haunt the

in these hearings: as the hearings chaired

Kansas Congressman Wint Smith almost four years

earlier

by

had

done, the McClellan committee focused upon Hoffa's relationship to the Test Fleet Corporation.

of

this topic (and,

by what Smith had there and

I

of course,

But where the Smith investigation

all

others)

had been quickly aborted

called the "pressure [that]

just can't talk about

it

any more

comes from way up

specifically than that,"

Chairman McClellan's summary of this alleged Hoffa activity was far more tangible. McClellan claimed on behalf of the committee that Josephine

Chapter 4

84

Hoffa and

Owen

Bert Brennan's wife, Alice, had

made

a profit, as

co-owners of Test Fleet between 1949 and 1956, of $125,000 on an original investment

of a mere $4,000.

And

he had

a

ready explana-

tion for this highly impressive financial result: Hoffa's 1948 interces-

sion to settle a Teamster strike against the large Michigan trucking

company, Commercial

Carriers, Inc.,

employer had so pleased the

on terms favorable

latter that

it

had generously recipro-

cated in helping both Hoffa and his close friend Brennan. investigation,

will

it

to the

be remembered, had indicated

this

The Smith

much

origi-

but McClellan put considerable meat on the Smith bare

nally,

bones. Specifically, he charged, the general counsel of

Commercial

Carriers had incorporated Test Fleet in Tennessee under his name,

and the Commercial Carriers owner had signed

a

$50,000 note for

— following which the stock was quietly

equipment for Test

Fleet

transferred into the

maiden names of the two wives.

Commercial

the accountant for

Carriers had kept the books and

records of Test Fleet for four years cantly,

Commercial

at

no

salary.

And, most

signifi-

Carriers had handed the Hoffa-Brennan opera-

tion lush contracts for the transportation of Cadillacs.

could not have lost

In addition,

money on

this

The owners

arrangement had they

tried to,

McClellan hinted broadly. In this case, witness fact that the strike

Carriers

And

was

was designed

there

Hoffa had attributed illegal.

his intercession to the

His settlement with Commercial

to avoid a "very serious lawsuit," he said.

was no connection, he had

told the committee,

between

and the subsequent helpful actions of Commercial

his intercession

Carriers.

Nor, he had

testified,

was there anything wrong with

leader or his family having an ownership interest in the try that his F.

a

labor

same indus-

union had organized. Committee member Senator John

Kennedy's questioning of him on the subject

elicited the

follow-

ing response from Hoffa: / find nothing

my

wrong with [such an ownership

interest] because

experience that if you can be corrupt for a very small

or a very large

amount of money,

speaks for itself and

my

there isn't

much

Like Confetti

at a

.

.

has been

amount of money

difference.

My

record

contracts speak for themselves, that they are equiv-

alent to anything that has ever been negotiated in strikes, Senator.

it

any industry without

.

Country Fair

85

.

.

.

I believe that, if there

is

of wages

the equalization

construed as it

my

is

.

.

have such an ownership

firm belief as a labor leader

you are negotiating

and

in,

if

that,

if

My

comes time

it

it

should not be

interest]

.

.

.

because

you know the business that

you have some touch of responsibility

bargain.

to

experience [of having some ownership in a number of trucking busi-

nesses] has saved our drivers throughout the entire central conference

having any strikes and

[let

benefits, than the

know what

from

them] get at the same time the prevailing wage

scales, prevailing increases, in

to

you

,

more for your men

will be in a better position at the bargaining table to get

when

matter of keeping

in the

with other industries,

in line

illegal [to

.

uniformity of payment and the contracts speak

of handling grievances,

for themselves in the matter

many

instances

much higher and

better fringe

average union that takes the position that they don't want

the employer's business

No amount

is

about.

of verbal aptitude could

13

offset the

very telling evi-

dence amassed by the committee regarding Hoffa's relationship

with Dio, however. The several tape recordings of phone conversa-

between the two men, played over the vigorous objections of

tions

Hoffa's normally unruffled lawyer George

confirmed

S. Fitzgerald,

New

attempts to put the thirty thousand

Hoffa's

York

taxi-

cab drivers under the leadership of the convicted labor extortionist.

They

also bore witness to the Detroiter's large role in conspiring

with Dio to

set

up

a

group of "paper"

to gain for himself control

New

of

Mohn

that

it

New

was

all

affairs.

committee charged, Hoffa had talked

In this latter case, the

Beck's administrative assistant Einar

locals in

locals in an apparent effort

York City Teamster

right to

do

Mohn,

after

Beck had

so, into chartering

told

seven bogus

York. The "locals," which had no members, existed

only to the extent of having "officers"

committee, Dio's henchmen

in

the

— many,

according to the

UAW-AFL.

were, in the committee's judgment, lieutenants of

Other

officers

"Tony Ducks"

Corallo, the practitioner of employee intimidation through glaring.

With the his

illicit

votes of these locals, Hoffa had then tried to get

handpicked candidate, John

Teamster Joint Council

16,

125,000 truck drivers in the

O'Rourke,

Chapter 4

who

J.

O'Rourke, elected president of

the organizational umbrella for the

New

took the Fifth

York City

Amendment

area.

in

(Ironically,

replying to

all

S6

McClcllan committee questions dealing with did

win

Beck

votes.

his

union

activities,

1956 election, but he did so without the paper locals'

this

refused,

on appeal from O'Rourke's opponent, Martin Beck

Lacey, to count them.

however, award sixteen other

did,

challenged votes to O'Rourke, and even though

a

subsequent court

decision dislodged the latter in favor of Lacey, Lacey shortly after this

event withdrew and O'Rourke

New

over

— and the Hoffa

forces

— took

York.)

Hoffa was not completely bereft of explanations regarding

his

relationship with Dio. His position in the taxicab matter, he said,

probably stemmed from fied, that the

a

He had

misunderstanding.

UAW-AFL

Teamsters and not the

he

felt,

testi-

should have juris-

diction over the cab drivers but that to get the best organizers available the

IBT should

UAW-AFL

take in the

This position, he admitted,

may have made

it

executive board.

appear that he was

trying to place the thirty thousand drivers under Dio. But, he ar-

gued, Dio was not

a

member of the

would not himself be taken issuance of the "phony" local responsible,

charters,

although Hickey,

sphere of authority embraced

York

was

area,

derelict in his

executive board and therefore

As

for the

Beck was the person

entirely

into the Teamsters at

the

as

Teamster

all

duty

IBT

in

all.

vice-president

whose

activities in the

New

not reporting the bogus quality

of these locals to the international president. Basically,

however, Hoffa

ity to recall the

dounded a

back here on

circumstances involving Dio.

to his credit. Dio's

view of his indictment only

fell

few months

And

this

hardly re-

nationwide notoriety, particularly

in the acid blinding

earlier,

his professed inabil-

made

in

of labor columnist Riesel

the vagueness of

many of

the

Hoffa answers highly suspect ("Mr. Hoffa," counsel Kennedy had

exploded

after the witness

had

said he couldn't recall

whether Dio

in his hotel room recently, "I bet anybody in this country remember what conversation they had with Johnny Dio or whether Johnny Dio was in their room 2 months ago." 14 Nor did Hoffa's clear antagonism toward Hickey help his case. The committee had described the latter as one of the few honest Teamster leaders. Committee member Senator Karl E. Mundt had

had been can

)

told the

New

Yorker,

Hickey appeared from

Tom"

nickname

Like Confetti

at a

"You have

all

entirely

Country Fair

the face of an affidavit."

of the evidence to have earned

his

And

"Honest

on merit.

87

And above

of these considerations loomed, of course, the

all

quite persuasive evidence that had been provided

There was no question

by the

tapes.

that Hoffa's first appearance before the

The unknown dimension, as the combative Teamster left the hearing room at the close of the four days, with a subpoena from Chairman McClellan Senate Select

Committee had bruised him

was how much the

to appear again at an unspecified date,

eight

badly.

committee charges had combined with

performance to hurt

The

his

general verdict

For one thing, five weeks

that he

after,

would as

forty-

embarrassing

was no sign

still

arrive at the

Miami

an overwhelming favorite.

O'Brien's

no meaningful competition

candidate,

own

Teamster presidential prospects.

was

Beach convention on September 30

another, there

his

late

July withdrawal as a

Hoffa had

for

that the negative

For

arisen.

McClellan publicity

had cost Hoffa any significant defections among

his large

army of

supporters.

But

this

prognosis assumed no further problems for Hoffa, and

by the end of September four more of them had the

First,

a

arisen.

AFL-CIO's Ethical Practices Committee had issued on the Teamsters in general and on Hoffa in partic-

scathing attack

ular.

IBT

And

it

had

clearly indicated that if

Hoffa were elected to the

would be expelled from the federaDecember convention. Basing its report

presidency, the Teamsters

tion at the latter's early

heavily on the McClellan committee findings, the

had concluded that "unrefuted sters

Union continues

.

.

.

AFL-CIO

evidence shows that the

unit

Team-

to be dominated, controlled, or substantially

influenced by corrupt influences." Hoffa,

it

had reported, was guilty

of a variety of "inherently evil" and "improper" misdeeds, including using union funds for personal purposes and associating with

and sponsoring "notorious labor racketeers."

September

25, 1957, the

council had approved this Ethical Practices

with only one dissenting vote

on the

council,

IBT

federal grand jury

latter, a

Chapter 4

(that

later,

Committee document,

as this

John

F.

English).

executive council action, a

had indicted Hoffa for perjury.

It

had charged

lying five times in another grand jury investigation.

few months

on

of the Teamster representative

secretary-treasurer

Second, on the same date

him with

One week

twenty-nine-member AFL-CIO executive

earlier,

had looked into reports

that

The

Hoffa had

88

conspired with

Owen

Bert Brennan and also with wiretap specialist

Bernard Spindel to conduct

illegal

wiretaps in the union's Detroit

headquarters to keep tabs on employees. (Hoffa's alleged purpose there

was

what information the

to find out

latter

were giving to

governmental rackets investigators.) October 15 was

who

for Hoffa,

guilty of

was

the

in the

all

set as the date

faced up to twenty-five years in prison if found

five perjury counts, to plead to these latter charges.

same date

that

had been tentatively established for

It

his trial

wiretap case.

Third, as if these problems were not enough, Senator McClellan

on behalf of his

30

start

select

committee, two days before the September

of the Teamster convention, had issued thirty-four

new

charges against the front-running presidential candidate. In an

camouflaged attempt of its pects, the

new

allegations against the

had been meeting

morning

week

all

until after nine in the

long, frequently

evening

24,

in this

stemmed from

on short

Teamster vice-president.

(in

from

early in the

contrast to the

banker's hours of Senatorial hearings), and this second

charges had

ill-

to thwart Hoffa's presidential pros-

committee had reconvened on September

notice, to hear It

own

normal

wave of

the testimony of almost forty witnesses

time frame.

The new allegations essentially condemned Hoffa on three grounds. Twelve of the charges accused him of having manipulated some $2 million of Teamster funds to his own advantage. The primary thrust of the others had been indicated by two less than flattering summary statements: 1) "James R. Hoffa has taken the part of employers and convicted extortionists against members of his

own

union"; and

2)

"James R. Hoffa has constantly defended

and given aid and comfort to Teamster Union selling out the interests

officials

who were

of Teamster Union members by setting

themselves up in highly improper business

activities

and by entering

into collusive agreements with employers."

The long

litany

of specific charges included assertions that

Hoffa had transferred $500,000

in

IBT funds

to a Florida

bank on

an interest-free basis to ensure that the bank would loan $500,000 to

Sun Valley,

a Florida

land development scheme in which Hoffa

and Brennan had an unpublicized option of purchasing 45 percent for the original cost of the land.

bought by

Like Confetti

a

The

land, near Orlando,

had been

former Teamster organizer, Henry Lower, with almost

at a

Country Fair

89

He had

$200,000 borrowed from the union. he had allegedly

lent

received his loan after

$25,000 to Hoffa. Lower had then, the com-

mittee charged, remained on the Local 299 payroll for eighteen

months and drawn at least $59,000 in salaries and expenses during this period from this and other Detroit locals while working on the Counsel Kennedy, leaving nothing to

land promotion project.

the imagination, pointed out in a press conference

accompanying

the issuance of this second battery of charges that Hoffa and Bren-

nan stood and

to

make

"a tremendous killing"

to lose absolutely nothing if

Another charge contended

it

that

Minneapolis "despite the

the concern

the project succeeded

Hoffa had loaned $1 million

W. Thomas department

Teamster welfare funds to the John in

if

did not.

fact that a

top store

official

nished the public, but the committee clearly believed that

former wanted to tion

was

all

store

had admitted

was near bankruptcy." Here, no elaboration was assume the worst of the

right with

in

lender, such an

if

fur-

the

assump-

it.

Hoffa also stood accused of having ordered

a

Teamster lieuten-

ant to "hide out William Hoffa, his [Hoffa's] brother, while the latter

was being sought by

of having used union a

week

the police

money

on an armed robbery charge,"

to pay his brother's hotel bill

in expenses during this period,

and $75

and of having sent another

underling to California to find William's runaway wife "at a cost to the

union of some $5,000 to $7,000."

Among

the

many

other improper activities attributed to Hoffa

was the appointment of Zigmont Snyder, "a notorious hoodlum," as a

John

Local 299 business agent. Another "notorious

.

.

.

Bitonti, received "either $40,000 or $50,000 of

money" from

hoodlum," union dues

Local 299 and through Hoffa's direct efforts, after

Bitonti had been denied loans

of

tions "because

his

from more orthodox lending

institu-

poor character, reputation, and long criminal

record." Hoffa was also responsible, according to the committee, for spending $170,000 in

union money to pay the

Midwestern Teamster

leaders accused of

and to pay the

of these

The new

salaries

assault

combined with

his

men

bombing and

after they

upon him from

legal

expenses of extortions,

had been convicted.

the Senate, certainly

condemnation by the AFL-CIO and

when

his perjury

indictment, clearly created for Hoffa a situation that only a Job

could have contemplated with equanimity. But on top of

Chapter 4

all this

90

had come, on the eve of the Teamster convention, the convention did

go ahead and

elect the ninth vice-president as

Beck's successor, the election might actually invalidated

by the

Generating

a threat that if

at

some

later date

be

courts.

fourth significant problem for the presidential

this

candidate from Detroit,

New York

thirteen

Teamsters, claiming that the

IBT and

its

area

rank-and-file

had violated the

leaders

union's constitution by improperly selecting convention delegates,

had

filed suit in

specifically

Washington's Federal District Court. They had

contended that 80 percent of the nearly nineteen hundred

by

delegates had been handpicked to rig the election for Hoffa

"fraud and deception," thereby violating the union's "contract"

with them. They had asked the judge to delay the convention and election until

new, untainted delegates could be chosen under court

supervision.

The judge

—

Dickinson

F.

pointee of Herbert

Hoover

Letts,

an eighty-two-year-old ap-

— had not taken long

to

comply with

the plaintiffs' request. Within hours, he had issued a temporary restraining order enjoining the election.

immediately appealed trict

The Teamster laywers had Dis-

this action to the appellate court for the

of Columbia, however, and in equally short order had been

rewarded with contained

its

a reversal

own

of the Letts decision. But

uncertainties:

this reversal

even though the election could

proceed, the three-judge court of appeals had ruled, votes only from delegates

who had

it

had

now

could count

been "properly selected accord-

ing to the Teamsters constitution"; the action of the convention's

committee

credentials full

in seating

all

delegates

would be

subject to a

subsequent review by the courts. The union could, in short, go

ahead with the election, but

As Hoffa's attorney

it

did so at

its

own

risk.

Fitzgerald could lament, "Everything has

been happening on the eve of the convention," with problems for his client

"dropping

like confetti at a

conceivable that Hoffa,

"be drawn

as tight as a

successfully challenged

who was bowstring"

said

15

And

country

fair."

by one

close observer to

at this point,

it

is

might have been

by some newly declared candidate

for the

presidential office.

As

the long-awaited 1957 convention

opened

in

Miami Beach,

Teamster vice-president William A. Lee of Chicago appeared to

some

to be that

Like Confetti

at a

man. Unsullied by even the whisper of scandal

Country Fair

91

and generally regarded for both

reason and for his universally

this

com-

acknowledged leadership

talents as Hoffa's strongest potential

petitor (an opinion that

was shared by Lee himself), he had

months been under considerable pressure from

for

the anti-Hoffa forces

His close friend Brewster of the Western Confer-

to enter the race.

him

ence had assured

that he could

immediately count on over four

hundred West Coast delegates should he run. And he had received pledges of support from a variety of scattered locals in other parts

of the country, not excluding his

He had

own bailiwick

of Chicago,

as well.

however, that he would not seek the presidency

insisted,

"under any circumstances."

That he convention's

on

tions

now call to

declared his candidacy, only hours before the order, apparently

stemmed from two

considera-

both of them attributable to the fast-changing

his part,

circumstances. First and foremost, Lee believed that, with so

many

major problems suddenly surrounding Hoffa, there was an excellent chance that the

Miami Beach

delegates

would now turn

to him.

But, second, he was also not unaware that even a Hoffa victory

might allow him to preside over

AFL-CIO would

a

Teamsters Union

— one

that the

charter after expelling the Hoffa-led Teamsters in

—

December if he positioned himself for this office by making a strong showing at Miami Beach. In his primary hope, Lee was assuming that Hoffa's three other declared opponents, none of them individually regarded as a credible threat, would support him. And here he envisioned one or the other of two scenarios in operation. Ideally, the three opponents would now recognize his stronger candidacy and, in the interests of thwarting a common enemy, throw their support to him. He had no objection, however, to an alternative sequence of events, wherein the three other candidates would endorse him on a second or third ballot, after their delegates and his had combined on the first

ballot to stop

Hoffa and create

a

wide-open convention.

Neither of these developments took place. nents,

One of

the oppo-

Democratic Congressman John Shelley of California

time Teamster from

(a

long-

San Francisco), did drop out shortly after Lee's

entrance into the race, declaring that "a united opposition to the forces of Hoffa

from

this

Chapter 4

must take place." But Lee gained

occurrence. Shelley controlled only

a

essentially

nothing

handful of delegates

92

and, at that, he not only refused to back Lee but further the waters

by asserting

would make

A

muddied

Mohn

West Coaster Einar

that his fellow

the best candidate.

Thomas

second opponent, Chicago's

mantly refused to withdraw. Greeting

Haggerty, ada-

J.

visitors at his Fontainebleau

Hotel convention headquarters (which was, unlike the headquarters of the puritanical Hoffa, well supplied with both liquor and attractive

women), he thought

that he

had

still

a

chance, albeit

a

remote

He

publicly claimed to have almost half of the conven-

tion's delegates,

and privately counted over one-quarter of the votes

one. to win.

he planned to challenge the credentials of 177

as his. In addition,

Hoffa delegates and hoped to gain some additional votes for himself

through

this action.

And

"Honest

while the third anti-Hoffa candidate,

Hickey, ultimately joined Shelley in withdrawing, and in

Tom"

this case

did give his endorsement to Lee, he did so only

on the fourth day

of the scheduled five-day convention, long

it

after

was apparent

to

everyone that no one would be able to stop Hoffa.

The evidence

that the

heavy majority of the delegates would

be voting for Hoffa was, in

more applause when he entered

ceived far

way

combined when they

down

the

were read

of Hoffa glish

AFL-CIO

out,

arrived.

his three

to

his

remaining

delegates vociferously

corruption charges against Hoffa

and voted

when

expunge them from the conven-

caucus by the venerable

at its

(who announced, "We don't I

The

re-

made

The Central Conference, following an endorsement IBT secretary-treasurer En-

tion's records.

Hoffa.

objective ob-

the hall and

on September 30 than did

to the stage

shouted these

all

from the convention's very beginning. The Detroiter

servers

rivals

unmistakable to

fact,

love this

hundred votes

little

what anybody says about

care

fellow"), gave

all

but two of its almost seven

to the conference president, an unexpectedly one-

sided margin.

And, comment,

as the

Walk

any

into

Wall Street Journal's reporter on the scene could

hotel in

form or another, picture and you see Contrast

cars with

all this

Like Confetti

at a

Miami Beach and you or banner.

bumper

Or walk

Country Fair

.

Jimmy Hoffa

'Jimmy for

stickers reading

with Jimmy's opponents.

see

one

in

along almost any street here

.

.

President."

.

.

.

If the public display of Hoffa buttons means anything, Mr. Hoffa doesn't

even need

to

go through

the formalities

of being

Everywhere, Hoffa

elected.

Some

buttons, three inches in diameter, stare cut at you.

delegates

wear

papier-mache derbies with vivid signs repeating the slogan, "Hoffa for President."

Even

16

wore newspaperman informed his readers, and they assignment somewhat more broadly than people in normally do. While candidate Lee was giving a speech

the Teamster security guards at the convention

Hoffa buttons, defined their their position

to the

this

Chicago Joint Council caucus, they passed the time by tearing

down

the "Lee for President"

up

cards tacked

outside.

Hoffa came to Miami Beach with not the the convention

garner as a

the hallway

in

17

would

many

elect

He

him.

slightest

thought, in

doubt that

fact, that

he might

75 percent of the votes, primarily because of

as

membership backlash

to the

McClellan committee's aggressive he was to write in regard to Robert

onslaught on him. (Years

later,

Kennedy,

he did was clinch the election for me.

"I think that

went too damned all this

pressure."

all

Our guys were starting to get mad as hell at He now had so many votes to spare, he told

far. 18 )

reporters, that the credentials

committee could disallow some of his

delegates without his raising any objection at

But while

this last

presidential election,

it

far

from

the credentials to

also bore witness to his fear that the federal

his thoughts.

committee would be

who

ful,"

and they took

gates

who

The

court of appeals decision

And, knowing

maximize the chances of success

his supporters

all.

statement symbolized his optimism as to the

judiciary might not allow his victory.

was never

He

that

any actions of

tested in the courts, he sought

in the latter

forum.

He instructed

passed on credentials to be "exceptionally carehis

charge so seriously

that,

sought accreditation, 115 delegates

of the 1,868 dele-

(all

but

a

handful of

them pledged to Hoffa) either were denied such approval or simply withdrew from the convention in anticipation of rejection. And the committee members could hardly be accused of impulsive actions even in seating the remaining 1,753 delegates: they proceeded so diligently that over 100 delegates

still

remained to be ruled on well

into the convention's fourth day.

Hoffa

Chapter 4

won

the election as handily as he had expected that he

94

A

would.

three-hour

roll-call

saw him

receive 1,208 votes, with

women notwith-

Lee getting 313 votes and Haggerty (the liquor and standing)

coming

in third

with 140 votes.

was ever any would prevail, it

If there

question that the forty-four-year-old Detroiter

was removed when the pivotal Los Angeles Joint Council (with 123,000 members) joined the Hoffa a sizable

bandwagon and thereby made

dent in the Western Conference's formerly almost solidly

anti-Hoffa front. In the eyes of many, earlier,

when

it

had been removed even

the widely respected and scrupulously honest English

had nominated Hoffa "for what he has done for the organization" and assured the delegates that there

on here and

there, but

"may be

a little trouble

going

he will take care of that."

The margin of victory was so large that the delegates did not official announcement before embarking on a half-

even wait for the

hour demonstration that appeared to be in the

called

words of one observer,

to

heartfelt.

Hoffa stood up,

"thunderous applause. Then he

Jo up and kissed her and put an arm around her, and there

was more thunderous applause. She was was so thunderous,

in fact,

that for a

feared that the floor of the big collapse,

and one security

19

The applause few moments authorities in tears."

Miami Beach Auditorium might

officer raced

up

to the platform

Dave Beck

edly asked convention presiding officer

to

and excit-

do whatever

he could to bring the cheering to an end. Beck did his best to

comply.

The convention then gave board that was very

by the new position

first

much

its

new

tailored to

vice-president Harold

would become

president-elect an executive

do

his bidding.

J.

Gibbons,

It

was headed

who from

Hoffa's wiretapping and/or perjury charges send the latter to

Owen

this

acting president of the Teamsters should jail.

Bert Brennan was also elected to a vice-presidency, as were

ten other Hoffa choices.

One of the latter,

in an action that surprised

no one, replaced Frank W. Brewster, who was dropped from the board (while Mohn,

reward for

as a

his last-minute influence in

bringing Los Angeles into the Hoffa camp, succeeded Brewster as

head of the Western Conference). Hickey was replaced by

O'Rourke, and English,

in another

forgone conclusion, was re-

elected secretary-treasurer. In his acceptance speech, the president-elect (he

Like Confetti

at a

Country Fair

would

officially

95

assume the

on October

office

pledged to do everything that he

15)

AFL-CIO. He

could to remain within the

he

felt,

Teamsters had complied "fully and properly with

demands" of

cal

and

He

proper ethi-

the federation at the convention, and asked for

make

the

said, "to

do

time to prove that he could

ism."

that the

said,

[the]

promised, he

IBT

a

my power

in

all

"model of trade unionto lead

of the rank and

of labor,

file

of the world." But

if the

of the nation,

in the eyes

in the eyes

organization that was presided over by

George Meany did expel the Teamsters and then attempted its

you

organization to a position of respect and honor in the eyes

this

membership, he declared, the union would defend

every ounce of strength

we

to raid

itself

"with

possess."

In an emotional statement, he also asserted,

To say against

that I do not feel deeply about the charges that

me would

untrue. I

am

be untrue.

To

say that

them

this

is

my

any time for anything

at

myself and

to

life's

I

children. I

know how

work and

I

am proud of my

I believe in the cause

am

not ashamed to face

have ever done. I will fight

to

defend

keep the name ofJimmy Hoffa as a symbol of good trade

unionism and as a symbol of devotion

And

have been made

has not been tough would be

man. I have a wife and

a family

family, and they are proud of me. They

of labor. They know

it

to

the cause

of labor.

he had something to say about the ongoing congressional

investigation: / have no fight with the McClellan Committee, nor have I any desire obstruct a true

Congress

to

and honest

investigation.

to

Investigations by committees of

aid in legislation have a useful and proper place in America.

But when

a Congressional committee concentrates on a personal attack or

misuses

power,

when

a

its

man may

it

can be dangerous for

inference.

.

.

.

What

is

wrong

be judged guilty in a court ofpublic opinion because some

enemy or some ambitious person

until

of us. Something

all

happening

is

to

accuses

him of wrongdoing by hearsay

our historic principle that a

man

is

or

innocent

proven guilty? Destruction of the basic principles of due process and the use of the

lawmaking function judicial processes

is

the individual that

to

smear a man's reputation without the protection of

one of the greatest threats

America has faced

in

our

to

freedom and the

li fetime.

great injustice has been done to the individual

I

want

members of

to

rights

of

say that a

the Teamsters

Union. You are the people whose good name has been smeared.

Chapter 4

9h

Five days city

members

the triumphant Hoffa flew back to his

later,

and received

him

greeted

at

home

welcome. Some two thousand Local 299

a hero's

Detroit's

Willow Run Airport with cheers

and noisemakers.

Many

they threw

object of their affection and his wife as the

at the

Hoffas walked

down

of them also had paper streamers, which

platform on the rear of a truck

The

many

in the

assemblage wore

Teamster

a

headdress of his

that

own

and orange

feathers

that

among

again

understood

Indian, and

and an Indian headdress.

chief,

with several white embarrassed Hoffa

the Indians to "our big chief

the "honest

a

a rather

of an Indian

Hoffa said that

it,

American

the

a feather

He informed

tips.

Hoffa." In accepting

home

—

was

presented Beck's successor with

official

was being given by

it

trailer.

general motif of this event

Fittingly,

two

of Teamster stewards to an impromptu

a line

was

it

a

members" of Local

Jimmy

pleasure to be

299, people

who

problems and those of the Teamsters.

his

They might have understood them, but this was hardly tantamount to resolving them for Hoffa. And the problems continued to mount. Even before the voting for Teamster president, the McClellan committee had subpoenaed dentials

committee and placed

itself

all

of the documents of the cre-

on record

as believing that

half of the delegates had been improperly chosen. the thirteen rank-and-file the

over

thereby joined

who had failed to stop who were now claiming

Teamster dissidents

convention from being held but

that the

It

convention violated the order of the court of appeals.

The subpoenaed records were turned over to the committee, but not without some difficulty. A maid at the Eden Roc Hotel had accidentally thrown them into a trash receptacle. She had then, quite suddenly, died of a heart attack, and therefore was unable to testify to her error

The floor

of commission.

records were recovered after a thorough search of the hotel

where the

credentials

the issuance of

committee had kept them, but only

more negative

national publicity for Hoffa

after

by

a

highly suspicious Senator McClellan.

The

select

committee's chairman, not one to take explanations

from the Hoffa camp

at face value, told

incident

was

that the

committee had encountered

either just another of the

reporters that the

many

Eden Roc

"strange coincidences"

in trying to

procure IBT rec-

ords or a "willful defiance" of the committee and an effort to ob-

Like Confetti

at a

Country Fair

91

struct

its activities,

He had

mind

in

two

at least

experiences.

When

the committee had previously sought the records of a Portland,

Oregon, out.

local,

had been informed that

it

And Johnny Dio had

had thrown them

a janitor

phlegmatically told McClellan's investi-

gators that a thief had broken into his automobile and stolen

of

some

his records.

Much worse

for the

new Teamster

president, within hours of

receiving the subpoenaed documents, McClellan announced that

they proved that Hoffa had been improperly elected.

They

some

chairman

actions that

in pointing

were

"just plain scandalous," the

general

September 1, and this membership meeting. Even

selection a brief

had

to be

ments had been violated, Hoffa's instructions

committee

command-

to the credentials

He

to be "exceptionally careful" notwithstanding.

an illustration Hoffa's

own

made

sampling of the

records clearly showed, he declared, that both of these

as

said,

out that under the Teamster constitution delegates had

to be selected before at a

revealed

Detroit Local 299,

whose

used

delegates

had apparently been chosen between September 8 and September 11, 1957,

and

at

meetings not open to the general membership.

also pointed to a Missouri

IBT

local that

had tampered with

He its

had been properly elected." 20

would appear that the delegates Kennedy underscored this theme in

asserting that "I don't believe

we

delegates' printed credentials so "it

its

delegates properly."

local that elected

committee was evidence

Particularly galling to the tion chairman

have found one

21

Beck had exercised

that

his vested authority as

conven-

outgoing

Teamster president to "interpret" the IBT constitution by blandly declaring the constitutional requirements to be "not

mandatory but

directory." In line with this rather imaginative interpretation, he

had instructed the credentials committee to

seat delegates

"pursuant

to by-laws, rules, or motions which were adopted by membership

method of selection." McClellan quickly made the subpoenaed documents available the lawyers for the thirteen dissidents. The latter, in equally rapid

vote authorizing such

to

fashion, convinced Judge Letts

on October 14

that

Hoffa should not

be allowed to officially assume the office the next day, as he was scheduled to do.

The

elderly jurist issued his second

restraining order for Hoffa,

higher court. Nine days

Chapter 4

later,

and

this

time

he signed

a

it

new

temporary

was not reversed

in

injunction forbidding

98

the president-elect (and at

the convention)

file

of the other Teamsters elected to office

all

from taking

office until the suit

of the rank-and-

Teamsters had been judicially resolved. Until that time, the

District

m

Court judge mandated

newly chosen tion in their

new

his order.

Hoffa and the other

could receive no salary or other compensa-

officials

roles.

Nor

could they spend any union tunds or

make any policy decisions on behalf of the union. The besieged Hoffa did get a badly needed respite on one front. His October 15 wiretapping trial w as postponed so that the federal judge assigned

to that case could consider a claim

by Hoffa' s lawyers

that, in the current atmosphere of publicity surrounding their client,

he could not receive

new

date

would be

on which the Teamster leader

on the

five

The judge informed Hoffa that a on October 25. the same date would learn when he would be tried

fair trial.

a

set for the trial

perjury charges (to which, on October

15.

he had

pleaded innocent).

But no

same day

relief

that

was provided Hoffa by

fudge Letts signed

executive council rubbed

the

AFL-CIO. On

his injunction,

the federation's

in the president-elect's

salt

the

wounds by

its membershisp. It also went recommending that the IBT be expelled from the federation entirely at the December AFL-CIO convention. Only if the federation's largest affiliated international union met two conditions, the council decreed, would these actions be negated: the Teamsters must bar Hoffa (and certain other individuals named in September by the Ethical Practices Committee as also having engaged in "corrupt practices") from all international union offices;

voting to suspend the Teamsters from

on record

as

and the union must allow

a

executive council to clean up

special its

committee appointed by the

administration.

The action was expected, but the strength of the anti-Teamster came as a surprise. Only four of the twenty-nine council members voted against the actions. And two of the four the IBT's forces

—

own

English and the former president of the Bakery and Confec-

tionery

Workers Union, which

itself

of corruption by the executive council tially

automatic. Hoffa.

who

had already been found guilty

—

cast ballots that

w

ere essen-

had consistentlv maintained

that the

more than $800,000 in dues to the AFL-CIO far more than the Teamsters stomped out of the AFL-CIO headquarters

federation needed the Teamsters and the that they annually paid

needed the federation,

Like Con fetti

at a

Country Fair

99

was announced. He offered

building as soon as the council voting

"No comment"

a curt

was, in the action,

one's

to the reporters

words of one of the

combined with

mind

as to

who

of the council,

that

what would happen

awaited him. His face

"tense with anger."

latter,

left little

at the

doubt

And in

his

any-

convention.

The long-awaited second biennial convention was called to order in early December at the cavernous Convention Hall in an icy, wind-swept Atlantic City. The U.S. Secretary of Labor, James P. Mitchell, greeted the

two-thousand-odd delegates and,

veiled reference to the

main item on the convention's agenda, an-

in a thinly

Dwight D. Eisenhower would soon propose members from "crooks and racketeers." The blunt and implacable Meany, in his Bronx-accented, gravelvoiced keynote speech, was more explicit: Teamster expulsion nounced

that President

legislation to protect union

could only be averted, the

AFL-CIO

to resign as president-elect;

IBT had ("God knows,

president said, if Hoffa were

Hoffa was not the only problem the

they've got plenty of problems"), but the

others, in his opinion, could be ironed out inside the

AFL-CIO

framework. The October report of the executive council was then read.

Hoffa was unable to attend the sessions. His wiretapping

had

now

begun, ninety miles away in

presence was required there.

The

New

case for

York

trial

City, and his

Teamster retention was

by the distinguished looking vice-president of the

to be presented

IBT, Einar Mohn, and by the popular Teamster secretary-treasurer,

John

English.

F.

Mohn

led off,

reminding the delegates that the Teamsters had

always been available for help "It has

become

traditional

unions in practically for assistance

paigns.

.

.

.

when

all

when

other unions had needed them.

and customary," he

industries to call

upon

asserted, "for labor

the Teamsters

.

.

.

they have disputes, and in organizing cam-

Nothing can change the

strategic

importance of the

Teamsters, and nothing can change the dependence that the local

unions

affiliated

with the other organizations that are

tion will continue to have try."

As

large

and

Chapter 4

for the charges its

on Teamsters

locals

in the Federa-

throughout the coun-

of corruption, the IBT was simply too

power too widely

dispersed, he said, for

it

to be

domi-

100

who made such make-up. He sat down

natcd by corrupt influences and anyone

understand the union's

failed to

charge

a

to tepid

applause.

The

(whom

leathery English

lean,

reporters had so often

some people may

described with the adjective "venerable" that well have thought that this

word was

name) echoed the

part of his

same themes but with somewhat more eloquence and

more

far

truculence: Regardless of what you or anybody says, deep

down

know

is

there

sters.

.

.

.

not a union connected here that

is

For fifty

when you were on

years,

at the Teamsters' door, they

We

helped you.

.

.

.

Team-

when you knocked

.

We ask for one year to is gone. And Brennan [Sidney

ask for one year, after giving you fifty years.

clean

up our house. Beck

Brennan, another

IBT

is

gone. Brewster

can't be cleared, then that

makes

my

Beck and Brewster, was

also, as

gone. There

is

only one

How

including myself.

it,

him out? Does he deserve

it

is

in

man

—fimmy

Hojfa has done more for our international union than

anybody connected with

Oh,

and who

Miami Beach]

And fimmy

Hoffa.

member who had been named

executive board

the original corruption charges

not reelected at

He

that? is

up

is

to us.

blood run cold. I

never thought I would live

We

your hearts you

better than the

strike

.

.

in

kick

fighting to clear himself, and if he .

.

.

am coming

to see this

we

in the hell can

.

.

.

near the end of my days. I

the Teamsters will get along.

As far

won't forget our friends. Teamsters never forget their friends.

as our enemies are concerned, they can all

go

straight to hell.

.

.

.

English asked for understanding, too, from the delegates:

We

have %40-million and I wish

we had

only $1.50

we

to

God we

didn't

in

the hell did

we

run our organization

attorneys? There 's seven or ten of them a day,

and they

it,

because

when

we

get a

never had any trouble. But the minute

dollar in the treasury all these lawyers are taking

How

have

can't agree

among

now

it.

when

there weren't

any

robbing us, a hundred bucks

themselves.

How

in hell

can

we win

these cases?

Several other delegates spoke

on behalf of the Teamsters.

Two

came from unions that were universally respected for their long-established membership democracy and high moral standards. The president of the International Typographical of them,

in particular,

Like Confetti

at a

Country Fair

101

Union, the only union with

a

formalized two-party system in

Union, one of only two labor organizations

sterers

its

argued against expulsion. So did the head of the Uphol-

structure,

to

have

es-

tablished an independent appeals board of distinguished private

members

citizens to protect its

against unwarranted actions

by the

union leadership.

But not motion

a single

delegate took the floor to speak in favor of the

Except for the chairman of the federation's appeals

to expel.

who made

committee,

it

clear that

he was against only Hoffa and

members (whom he

not the Teamster

described as the principal

victims of the corruption at the top), the forces favoring the IBT's

"No

ouster remained quiet.

hundred journalists never in doubt

phone

one," in the words of one of the three

in attendance,

as to

what had

"would

to be done,

bell the cat."

22

Meany,

grimly took the micro-

to call for the expulsion himself.

Not even

worst enemies had ever accused the

his

American plumber of

insincerity.

Whether

Irish-

railing against college

when offered a choice of publish wrong decision") or making known his

professors ("College professors,

or perish, usually

make

the

opinion of sociopolitical theories ("Ideology

words harmonized a

totally

with

nationally televised interview

elaborate

on

"Because

I

a

view

that he

his thoughts.

program

is

baloney"), Meany's

Once, when asked on

to say

why

he refused to

had just expressed, he had explained,

don't want to."

Now, the errant member

head of the federation vented

his full fury

on an

union. In strident tones, he pointed out that the

Teamsters had done nothing about the "crimes against the labor

movement"

that their leadership

He reminded

had committed.

heavy with emotion,

delegates, his voice

that the

the

Miami Beach

conventioneers had instead voted to expunge the charges against

Hoffa and the others from the records.

Teamsters would be back

welcome

as

since they

soon

as

hoped, he

in the federation soon.

said, that the

They would be

they had complied with the clean-up order. But

had chosen

CIO

had

from

this dictatorship.

to

He

now

do the job

not to clean their

for them,

The

had

own

to "free the

secretary will call the

house, the

AFL-

membership

roll.

You

.

.

.

vote yes

or no."

A

two-thirds vote was required to oust the federation's largest

affiliate,

Chapter 4

and the delegates gave Meany considerably more than

this

102

margin. Ballots representing 10,458,598 cast for expulsion, tion.

Many

selves

of the

under

AFL-CIO members were

with 2,266,497 votes being registered for retenlatter

votes

investigation

came from by

the

them-

three large unions

McClellan

Carpenters, the Sheet Metal Workers, and the

committee:

Hod

Carriers.

the

Of the

128 international unions that were (unlike the Teamsters) entitled to participate in the balloting, 95

ported the Teamsters, 4

voted with the majority, 21 sup-

split their votes,

and 8 abstained. In

New

York, Hoffa received the expected news matter-of-factly, declaring that the

AFL-CIO

Like Confetti

at a

"didn't build us and they won't

Country Fair

weaken us."

103

We Admire the Man Who Can Deliver

5 The

specific consequences, for

tion,

of the expulsion from the

both the Teamsters and the federa-

AFL-CIO remained

to be seen.

Hoffa-led Teamsters had obviously been branded, in the

The

full glare

of national publicity, the pariah of the labor movement. But,

a

few

months before the expulsion, it had been widely believed that oustwould touch off a ruinous civil war between the

ing the big union

two

organizations.

Meany,

Hoffa's union that

be chartered.

Now

normally

He

was not so

this

a

relentless

at least for

certain.

noncompromiser,

the time being

no

rival

informed

union would

recognized the possibility that Hoffa might in fact

be ousted by reform elements within the IBT or that the Teamster

might by dint of imprisonment or other court ruling become otherwise unable to preside over the Teamsters. preferred not to inherit the existence of an

IBT

In addition, an

all

And

the

AFL-CIO

leader

of the sticky jurisdictional questions that

clone within the federation

AFL-CIO

decision

would

on whether or not

pose.

to cancel

some half-dozen mutual assistance pacts between federation affiliand the Teamsters would be postponed for a while. This latter

ates

decision,

too,

recognized the tenuousness of Hoffa's position.

Hoffa, here today, might conceivably be gone tomorrow. If so, this

departure would not be caused by Hoffa's current

New York wiretapping trial, deliberations lasting

woman

however. In

more than

late

December

thirty hours, the

jury in that case told the judge that

it

deadlocked," and the judge thereupon discharged

1957, after

seven-man, five-

was "hopelessly it

without

a

ver-

Eleven members had favored conviction. But the twelfth,

diet.

a

broker in syrups and sugar, had concluded that the government had not proven beyond

a

reasonable doubt that Hoffa had conspired

with Brennan and the wiretap gal wiretaps

specialist Spindel to

conduct the

ille-

of Hoffa's Detroit subordinates.

"I conscientiously kept

my mind open,

looking for proof," the

broker informed reporters, and he hadn't been furnished such proof.

He had

even returned to the judge during the deliberations to ask

for guidance: the

judge had suggested

that if

and people enter with wet clothing, you can but the evidence

is

merely circumstantial.

you

And

subway

are in a

infer that

it is

raining,

the broker had found

the evidence against Hoffa and the others to be of this caliber

mind, enough to justify a finding of guilt. The hung jury allowed the chunky president-elect

—

not,

in his

of the courtroom, on $2,500

bail.

But

it

to

walk out

one of many

lifted this

weights on Hoffa's shoulders only temporarily. U.S. Attorney Paul

W.

Williams, the government's chief prosecutor in the case,

diately

announced

that he

would bring

charge back to court "as soon as observers interpreted this to

with the threat for Hoffa of

a

years should he be found guilty place

this

sometime during the following

On to

that a

new Hoffa

maximum on

trial,

have been permanently resolved in

Supreme Court

prison sentence of five

spring.

his favor.

seemed

realistically,

that the

now

Also in December

ruled that evidence obtained

telephone wiretaps could not be used in federal courts.

meant,

together

second occasion, would take

the other hand, another of Hoffa's problems

1957, the U.S.

Most

practicably possible."

it is

mean

imme-

the wiretap conspiracy

government would have

to

And

by this

drop

its

perjury indictment against Hoffa: the bulk of the proof that Hoffa

had

grand jury wiretapping investigation had

lied in the original

been obtained through the tapping of

his

own

telephones by the

government. The case technically remained outstanding, but

now

obvious that only

ever bring

it

a

prosecutor with

a suicidal instinct

it

was

would

before a jury.

Hoffa's impressive batting average in the courts improved even further, a

month

when the thirteen dissident Teamsters ended him from assuming the presidency. In an un-

later,

their suit to prevent

precedented compromise, which Judge Letts termed

We Admire

the

Man Who Can

Deliver

a

"magnificent

105

disposition" of the litigation, they agreed to

of monitors

scrutinize the affairs

be appointed by the union;

who would

serve as

a

three-man board

let a

One monitor would

of the union.

second by the dissidents; and

chairman, would be chosen by the

monitors, with Judge Letts making

a third,

first

two

should the

this last selection

The court would determine the monitors' compensation, which would be paid by the union. The monitors would be responsible for protecting the rights granted individual members of the union by the union's constitution, and Hoffa was in addition obligated to heed their advice: if he ignored it, they could go to Letts, who would retain jurisdiction, and ask him to reopen the case. The monitors would also have the authority to recommend that a new union election be held at any two be unable

to agree.

time after one year.

And Hoffa was

given the lesser

title

of "Provi-

sional President," rather than "President," under the terms of this

compromise. But, by the same token, the president-elect was leader of the Teamsters to him.

He would

—

in a

form

that

was

now the

official

quite acceptable

still

be drawing his $50,000 annual salary and be

all

the other perquisites of his position, including a basi-

cally limitless

expense account. Under the IBT's constitution, ample

entitled to

powers of the purse and of patronage would be

He would

impose trusteeships on ties,

local unions if they,

were "being conducted

interests

available to him.

control the union's extensive publications and be able to

in such a

among

manner

other possibili-

as to

jeopardize the

of the International Union." His judicially sanctioned do-

now

main would

be nationwide. Where the case of the thirteen

him could have been drawn out for as much as more months in the courts (and even, at that, been resolved

plaintiffs against

eighteen

against him)

it

was

now

— suddenly — over.

Hoffa did not, moreover, expect to have any the monitors.

and

this

One

of them would by definition be

union appointee would have

of the chairman

was confident

as

real trouble

would

much

a

Hoffa man,

say in the selection

the dissidents' agent

that the advice

mal and sympathetic. And

as

with

on the board. He

of the monitors would be both mini-

he, in

any event, expected that the moni-

would be ended in not much more than a year, following which a new IBT convention would elect him to a no-longertorship

challenged bona fide "presidency."

Chapter 5

106

The "magnificent

own

gineered by Hoffa's

lawyer

who had

disposition" had, in

fact,

been primarily en-

Edward Bennett

attorney

so adroitly extricated Hoffa from his problems in

the Cheasty bribery case and

who

had continued

to serve his client

in the latter's other court battles.

with distinction

Williams, the

Hoffa's friend and Williams's law partner, had also

Eddie Cheyfitz,

had

a

The

hand.

two primary lawyers for the plaintiffs, Godfrey P. Schmidt and Thomas J. Dodd, had initially resisted the proposed compromise. They had ultimately gone along only when they were persuaded that, if they did not, the case could indeed be drawn out in the something for which they neither had time nor, courts for months since the dissidents had already spent most of their money, any

—

New

expectation of being meaningfully compensated. Schmidt, a

Yorker

who had

members

generally represented employers rather than union

in court before this, also

was assured by

would be named

and-filers that he

the thirteen rank-

on the

as their representative

board.

As

New

the

York Times observed in an editorial

critical

of the

settlement: Surely, the thirteen must be deeply dissatisfied. Their aim in bringing suit

was a

to

prevent Mr. Hoffa and his crew from taking

new and free

Mr. Hoffa

election

now

is

of officers

new and freely

The

The A.F .L.-C.l.O. has

Now

B.T.

expelled I

he

also

To

represent

N. D. Wells,

ster payroll as

its

bring about

elected convention.

.

.

grounds fot complaint. The elimination of

the first requirement for readmission

is,

But

all obstacles

.

if anything,

more firmly

interests

Jr., a Dallas

who was

already

than

1

on the board, the union

lawyer

of the

in the saddle

ever before, even though the reins can be pulled by others.

L.

to

clean-up efforts of the insurgents within

union have had a corresponding setback.

Mr. Hoffa had been made

and

His reputation for surmounting

president.

has been given a mighty boost. his

at a

office

selected

on the Team-

counsel for the Southern Conference. Schmidt, as he

had been promised, was the appointee of the anti-Hoffa Teamsters.

Named

as

chairman, after no

dent Harry S

Nathan

L.

Truman

Cayton,

less a

person than former U.S. Presi-

rejected an overture to consider the job,

a retired

was

Washington, D.C., judge. And, with

the players thus in place, the era of the monitors began in January

We Admire

the

Man Who Can

Deliver

107

1958

—just

amicably

as

pected that

it

would.

who had

Hoffa,

IBT's provisional president had ex-

as the

immediately pledged

men, seemed determined

three

to avoid

watchdogs of Teamster constitutional

To

absolutely ensure that the

held

a

new

full

cooperation with the

any criticism from these

rights

and financial honesty.

presidential election

way

year hence, he went out of his

would be

to be seen as being

above

reproach. Within six months, he had restored self-government to

almost 50 locals (out of some 104) that had been under international

union trusteeship and scheduled 20 other such Teamster

a similar

affiliates.

change of status for some

He had

reinstated several rank-

who had been suspended from the IBT for various And he announced that he had substantially liquidated the outside business interests that had gotten him into so much hot water with both the Senate and the AFL-CIO. He preferred not and-file rebels

political reasons.

on the

to provide details

matter.

But

tion that his wife

the business liquidations.

all

of

their relatively

union records with them.

months' summary

its

modest suggestions, and

A

two-hundred-page

six

report issued by the board indicated that he and

the union had complied with

deemed

to be a personal

months, he met frequently with the monitors,

In these early

accepted essentially

report

it

that Test Fleet, the organiza-

and Alice Brennan had jointly owned, had been

among

given priority

freely shared

claiming

latter topic,

was generally believed

it

all

"orders" in

Chairman and

but two of what the board in this

this

period of time.

member Cayton, whom one

neutral board

Teamster watcher had likened

had

to a "Daniel in the lion's den,"

resigned from the board shortly before the publication of this mid-

1958 report. But even he, in leaving, had attributed his exit to the overly

burdensome demands of

strictly

the job and had praised the

"distinguished cooperation" of the union leadership. Moreover, his successor as jointly selected chairman seemed to augur an even greater era of Hoffa-monitor

attorney

Martin

F.

good

O'Donoghue

fellowship, since

—

Washington

former law professor

a

at

Georgetown University and long-time counsel for the Plumbers Union had represented the Teamsters Union on several occasions

—

in the past.

O'Donoghue

in the early stages

had, in

of the

fact,

served as lawyer for the union

suit against

it

by the

thirteen rank

and

filers.

Chapter 5

108

But what was past was not, prologue.

The

tall,

amiable

O'Donoghue

new chairman, made it clear that

of the

in the case

quickly

he was beholden to no one. In short order, he had teamed up with

more

the anti-Hoffa appointee Schmidt to pursue a far

activistic

approach than his predecessor had taken. Within weeks, the twoto-one monitor majority had called upon the Teamster provisional president to close allies,

remove

a variety

who had

of IBT

many of them

officials,

been accused of various

illegalities

Hoffa's

by the

McClellan committee.

Conspicuous among these officers

and Hoffa

had refused to

tell

allies

the senate

were two Philadelphia union

Raymond P. Cohen, who committee how he had spent $491,000

friends: Local 107

head

union funds; and Local 929 leader Samuel "Shorty" Feldman,

in

who had

served three years in Sing Sing for burglary,

man learns him," and who had taken

whose un-

complicated philosophy was that "a

to respect people

who

the Fifth

break his neck for

ment when

Amend-

asked by the committee whether he had solicited

$50,000 bribe from an employer to

settle a

labor dispute.

a

Even more

prominent was Hoffa's best friend and business partner, Teamster Vice-President

Owen

Bert Brennan,

who

had

also

invoked the Fifth

testimony that he had

at the senate hearings in refusing to explain

used thousands of dollars of union monies for personal gain.

The monitor majority had

also

proceeded to denounce

shod the union's record-keeping system and quate membership

lists

could lead to

a

plundering of the union's $39

million treasury unless controls were implemented.

Hoffa to

set

up

as slip-

to declare that inade-

It

had requested

election rules designed to keep convicted criminals

out of union office, to investigate local

IBT

officials

who had

been

already challenged by the monitors for past activities, and to dissolve an allegedly illegal merger of asserted that the board

recommendations: said,

Judge

to

wanted

in fact, the

full,

two

locals in Alaska.

It

had

not token, compliance with

its

monitors would go back, they had

Letts to ask that he spell out their

explicitly and, in so doing, force

powers more

Hoffa to comply with their recom-

mendations.

The O'Donoghue-Schmidt tandem, its

own

And, by it

further,

had implemented

personnel to receive and deal with membership complaints. far

most jarring

to the provisional

had announced that there was "a

We Admire

the

Man Who Can

Deliver

head of the Teamsters,

lot still to

be done" before there

109

could be any guarantee of democratic practices in the union and, therefore, that

it

had absolutely no intention of

Teamster presidential election

man O'Donoghue, to safeguard

new

in the near future. First, said Chair-

the union must: adopt

membership

calling for a

model by-laws designed

rights; establish

an effective reporting

control system between the international and the local unions; re-

more than

lease the

remained under trusteeship;

fifty locals that

and amend the IBT constitution

to reflect

all

of this housecleaning.

work to do before there'll be a convenmember of the three-man panel asserted. 2 Hoffa continued to profess a desire to cooperate fully. He suspended the philosopher Feldman. He approved a three-man special

"We've got tion," the

quite a lot of

new

neutral

hearing board (with one public member) to investigate not only

Cohen but

all officials

of Local 107 (although,

appointment was not

action, he stressed that the panel's as

"any acceptance of statements

announcing

in

.

.

.

that there

to

activity,

he established

a

be taken

anything wrong

is

with the operation of Local 107"). As an outgrowth of

to be financed

this

this latter

three-man antiracketeering commission,

by Teamster money,

to investigate

all

racketeering

within the union and to be headed by the same George H. Bender

who

as a

congressman had chaired the abortive 1954 investigation

of the Teamsters and then, from 1955 to 1957, been

And

he avoided anything that could be construed

U.S. senator.

a

as direct defiance

of the monitorship, even though he was assured by

his

knowledge-

able chief counsel Williams that if the union chose to refuse an order

from the monitors "there would be nothing they could do about it."

But with

his

hopes for an early election

now

dashed and with Brennan and other close friends

prime targets of the monitors, Hoffa

at this

so completely

now becoming

point refused to do

accommodate O'Donoghue and Schmidt. Months after the two-man monitor majority (invariably, with Teamster appointee Wells vigorously dissenting) had begun issuing its spate of requests to Hoffa, Feldman remained the only IBT offianything

cial to

more

to

have been ousted, and both of Hoffa's investigatory panels

appeared to be proceeding sluggishly In licly

at best.

mid-September, moreover, the provisional president pub-

went on

cuted and

Chapter 5

the offensive.

made

Complaining

that he

was being perse-

the target of "unfair and poisonous propaganda,"

110

he

— with the

for a

new

was the

full

support of the Teamster executive board

—

one possible under the original order of Judge

earliest

and the entire action was justified by monitor Wells consistent with the judge's mandate.

Nothing

as

date

Letts,

being fully

in the order,

argued, prevented the union from calling an election

called

The

election at a special February 1959 convention.

Wells

any time.

at

of one contended, the judge in issuing

In fact, the habitual minority

order fully expected that an election would be held after one

his

year, to be followed

by an immediate termination of

The February convention

ship.

the monitor-

was soon changed

date

to

March,

of the advance notice needed for delegate selection

in recognition

and hotel reservations. But otherwise the head of the Teamsters

was adamant regarding

his

convention plans.

O'Donoghue and Schmidt rapidly responded by asking Letts at least until Septo give them more time to clean up the union tember, 1959. O'Donoghue contended, among other specifics, that

—

the Hoffa stewardship had

of twenty-one reform effective has

now

now

Hoffa also

forces

over

a

year

remove

first filed

earlier.

openly took on Schmidt,

primary enemy on the board. Through

Letts to

ten out

Schmidt asserted that "nothing

been done" since the dissident Teamsters had

their charges in federal court

as his

comply with

refused to

directives.

whom

he regarded he asked

his attorneys,

the intense, serious appointee of the anti-Hoffa

on the grounds of

"conflicts

of interest." His petition to the

court charged that Schmidt had continued to represent employers in labor negotiations

solicited

and received large contributions from employers

parties to

demned

with the Teamsters and that he had

IBT

contracts. For

good measure, Schmidt was

in the petition for filing

illegally

who were also con-

expense claims that were double

those of the other monitors.

The accused monitor denied could not

resist

associates are experts in that

Hoffa and

can't frighten

all

charges of wrongdoing and

adding that he was "sure that Mr. Hoffa and

padding expenses." Schmidt also asserted

his associates

me

or

his

buy me

were "trying off."

The

to ditch

latter

an offer of $100,000 that the attorney from

me

because they

comment referred to York claimed had

New

been offered him to resign from the board. J This $100,000 might have represented, not an outright bribe as

Schmidt interpreted

We Admire

the

Man

HTio

it

to be, but

Can Deliver

payment of the

fees (actually,

111

$105,000) that Schmidt contended that he was

union for handling the

and

filers.

With

suit

brought against

now owed by

by the

it

the

thirteen rank

between the lawyer and the Hoffa forces

relations

now

so strained, there

there

were ample grounds

was minimal communication. Therefore, for misunderstanding.

It is

a

matter of

mind had also explored three payment of the $100,000 and the re-

record, however, that the fertile Hoffa

additional routes,

beyond

moval request

Judge

to

the

might lead

Letts, that

to an ex-monitor's

status for Schmidt.

One of these,

as the

was the hiring of a

Teamster president readily acknowledged,

private investigator in an effort to unearth per-

would be damaging to the monitor appointed This avenue was apparently not pursued very-

sonal information that

by the rank and far,

file.

very possibly because the habits of the clean-living Schmidt

afforded

A

little

prospect of success in this endeavor.

second was the withholding of other monies due the monitor

from the IBT, some $25,000

in fees

and $3,500

expenses for

in

serving as a monitor since the activation of the board on January 31. In his countersuit to the

Teamster removal

Yorker contended

that he

had given up

law practice

receipt

his

suit,

the earnest

had not yet been paid and to

work on

New

that, since

he

the monitorship, the

of dollars to which he was rightfully entitled would be both

much welcomed. man who originally led

appreciated and very Finally, the

insurgents

in

their

suit

against

the thirteen rank-and-file

and

Hoffa,

Schmidt's most prominent single client in

as

such had been

now

this affair,

filed a

John R. Cunningham, a New Schmidt had misappropriated

separate suit against his old attorney.

York truck

driver,

charged that

$50,000 in rank-and-file funds that had been collected for the legal proceedings and was refusing to give an accounting of

Hoffa and

his

this

money.

primary lawyer Williams disavowed any connection

with Cunningham's action. But the quickly discovered

fact that the

Teamsters had been paying some of Cunningham's Washington,

D.C., hotel

bills

made

the disavowal ring hollow.

His patience exhausted, Schmidt leased a scathing

of monitors. In

memorandum it,

to his

now

issued and publicly re-

two

colleagues

on the panel

he accused Hoffa and other top IBT

officials

of "corruption, incompetence, unfitness, non-compliance [with the monitors] and lack of cooperation."

Chapter 5

He

said that

Hoffa should be

112

removed from even provisional leadership given the sorry record his administration. And, joining O'Donoghue in requesting

of

Judge Letts to rule on the legality of the January 1958 settlement in view of the fact that the full Teamsters membership was never notified in

of the terms of

this settlement,

Schmidt minced no words

arguing that "to leave [the question of legality] unsettled

time ous

is

to provide irresponsible characters like

legalistic 'out' at

some

future time

when

at this

Hoffa with an obviit

suits their

nience and the exigencies of their dictatorial conspiracy."

conve-

4

December, Judge Letts issued his findings on these several matters before him, and they overwhelmingly supported the moniIn

Henceforth, he ruled, the Teamsters would take "orders" from

tors.

the board and not treat the panel's "orders of recommendation," as

the board had taken to calling

its

from being limited

tions." Far

fiats,

to a

simply

as

"recommenda-

"merely advisory"

role,

monitors in the jurist's opinion had available to them "every

method"

to guarantee an honest presidential election

the

known

and demo-

procedures in the union. They had not only the "grant of

cratic

express powers" contained in his original January ruling, Letts declared,

since

but

"all

other powers reasonably necessary." Moreover,

Teamster obstruction had "completely destroyed" the consid-

eration

upon which

the January reference to a one-year

monitorship had rested,

this

one-year

minimum

minimum was now

rescinded

and the monitors could recommend the timing of the convention completely

as

they saw

fit.

As for the Teamster requests to remove Schmidt from board on conflict of interest grounds, it was rejected because union had simply

the the

show such a conflict. And, unwilling to dim view of the Hoffa administration, Letts

failed to

stop here in voicing his

reprimanded the IBT further by finding that tion with the monitors,

it

after its initial

coopera-

had "ceased cooperation ... or refused

or ignored the reasonable and relevant requests of the monitors."

had refused to comply

in

good

faith

with

its

It

end of the "magnificent

disposition" and rather had frustrated and blocked the monitors in their efforts.

Hoffa announced that he would appeal to higher judicial authority It

just

means another

disappointed.

We Admire

the

He had

and

Man Who Can

Deliver

lower court ruling

airily told the press,

fight." Privately,

expected

this

"What

the hell.

however, he was deeply

a better fate at Letts's

hands.

113

Hoffa was acquitted in spring of 1958 in

late

women on

the jury

tion

—July

9,

second wiretapping

York

City.

The

trial,

who

— Hoffa

on the date

had been

government, while acknowledging places simultaneously,

ques-

in Seattle attending a

union

that

in Detroit.

no one could be

was passed

two

this date.)

in a note bearing the three

"Hoffa was acquitted" to Kennedy mittee hearings and,

in

(The

had argued that the Local 299 leader could

have flown back to Detroit and then back to Seattle on the event

four

in

testified that

convention and therefore could not also have been

Word of

held in the

men and

eight

were apparently most influenced by the twenty-

seven defense witnesses

1953

his

New

in the

words

middle of McClellan com-

according to several reporters present, he

turned ashen upon receiving the information.

According

to

Kennedy, the defendant himself had been uneasy

about the situation here. Kennedy wrote subsequently that he had

met Hoffa, purely by accident, in building where the trial was being been exchanged: "Hello, it

feel to

the

But

trial

with

tell

held.

Minimal

— "Hello,

it's

keeping

me

pleasantries

Bobby"

be president of the Teamsters Union?"

the world.

how

Jimmy"

the elevator of the courthouse

had

— "How does

— "Greatest job

in

busy." Then the lawyer had asked

was going, and Hoffa had responded, "You never can

a jury.

Like shooting

fish in a barrel."

3

(Hoffa, on the

remembered nothing about this encounter except that "Hello, Bobby. How are you getting along?" and Kennedy "gave me that silly smile and went on about his

other hand,

he had that

said,

business."

6 )

But, to balance this

good wiretapping

trial

news

for Hoffa,

another threat to the Detroiter's control of the Teamsters had soon thereafter arisen to haunt him. In August, seeking to oust the provisional

and

a

head of the IBT by showing close connections between him

myriad of racketeers and gangsters well established within the

union hierarchy, the McClellan committee reconvened

after a recess

and again focused on the Teamsters. This time, the gloves were clearly off from the beginning.

Chairman McClellan, At

the time

Chapter 5

opening statement, said

Mr. Hoffa appeared

hold the top position convention

in his

in

Miami,

in the

before this committee last year, he did not

Teamsters Union. Since then, however, at a

Fla., he

was

elected to the presidency with attending

114

circumstances that raised serious questions of the propriety and validity of his selection.

On

.

the basis

.

.

of previous testimony before

committee, replete with

this

improper practices and conduct on the part of Mr. Hoffa and some of his associates, a serious question has arisen in the

Mr. Hoffa's motivation and

spelled out in the committee's interim report, the evidence

that in

numerous instances Mr. Hoffa has alined

who

underworld characters,

and most It

to

to

give

and important union.

this great

As

minds of the committee as

and leadership he proposes

the direction

are a part

sinister forces in this country.

will be recalled that

when Mr. Hoffa

[sic]

had shown

himself with certain

and parcel of the criminal elements .

.

.

testified before,

he suffered seriously

from "lack of memory," and thus avoided answering many pertinent questions seeking information, about

which he had knowledge and

in

which the

committee was interested. It is to

be hoped that his

memory

the committee the cooperation

has improved and that he can

and

assistance

it is

now

entitled to receive.

give

.

.

.

unthinkable that the leaders of any such powerful organization should

It is

have an alliance or understanding teers,

gangsters, and hoodlums.

.

in .

any area of its

activities

with racke-

.

Notwithstanding Mr. Hoffa's reported remarks of contempt for the committee, its

source of authority, the United States Senate, and the purposes and

which the committee

objectives for

and carry out the mandate

And ble

labors, the committee will

in the resolution creating

I

Mr. Mr. Mr.

know Mr.

He was a close friend Hoffa I knew Joe Holtzman. Kennedy He was a close friend Hoffa I knew Joe Holtzman. Kennedy He was a close friend knew Joe Holtzman. Hoffa Kennedy He was a close friend

We Admire

Joseph Holtzman?

did.

Mr. Kennedy

Mr.

duty

the start:

at

Mr. Hoffa Yes,

Mr.

its

Hoffa, having been so welcomed, was also anything but amia-

even

Mr. Kennedy Mr. Hoffa, did you

Mr.

pursue

1 it.

of yours, was he?

of yours?

of yours?

I

the

Man Who Can

Deliver

of yours?

115

Mr. Hoffa Just

moment.

a

particular friend of mine.

Two

I

knew Joe Holtzman, and he

wasn't any

8

Hoffa associates in particular received widespread

televi-

sion and other media coverage this time.

The

first

of these got the bulk of

his publicity

posthumously.

Frank Kierdorf had served twenty-seven months in

a

Jackson,

Michigan, prison for armed robbery. Released in 1945, he had in

by Hoffa

short order been hired

Teamster Local 332

member

local

had been marked by widespread allegations of dyna-

who had

mitings and physical beatings of employers

bargaining demands.

Once he had

Another manager had

proprietor.

agent in charge of

as business

His management of the five-thousand-

in Flint.

arguments." Above

run over an obstinate

tried to

said

of him, "You don't give him

he had favored arson

all,

resisted his

as a labor relations

weapon: the premises of recalcitrant owners received personal

late-

night visits from the Flint business agent and were reduced to ashes.

On

the night of

August

3,

1958, while torching a cleaning and

dyeing establishment, Kierdorf accidentally

set fire to

himself and

was horribly burned over 85 percent of his body. Sometime

thereaf-

he staggered through the front door of St. Joseph's Mercy Hos-

ter,

pital in the

nearby

of Pontiac

city

—

a

zombielike figure with his

face grotesquely swollen, his hair completely gone,

blackened

from

blisters

head to

his

was "John Doe of Washington," but prints (preserved only because he

He

his ankles. a police

and scores of

insisted that he

check of his finger-

had clenched

his fists

amid the

anguish of his burning) quickly identified him.

He was more ney

days.

—

live,

a

given blood and plasma and survived in agony for four

As he

devout

you

lay in his hospital bed, the prosecuting attor-

man

—

are about to face

breast of things. Tell

Hoffa himself was

lips

at this

series

committee. Kierdorf, in

few hours

to

a clean

silent for a

burned beyond recognition, he uttered

"Go

fuck yourself."

same time back

Room. Under

undergoing another

a

happened." Kierdorf was

to be his final sentence:

Building Caucus

only

your Maker, your God. Make

me what

moment. Then, through what was

"You have

told him,

in the Senate Office

his continuing

subpoena, he was

of interrogations from the McClellan

fact,

died on the same day that committee

counsel Kennedy, not entirely by accident, was questioning the

Chapter 5

116

head of the Teamsters about

why

he had hired the now-deceased

torch shortly after Kierdorfs parole from prison.

human

And

Hoffa's explanation that he had done so because Kierdorf "was an

experienced organizer" simply was not

Kennedy ence in armed robbery" and confirmed

a credible

to assert that "the only experience

of Americans,

many of whom had

one.

prompted

It

can find

is

experi-

the worst fears that millions

seen photographs of the charred

the Flint Teamster in newspapers

body of

we

over the country,

all

already had about criminal infiltration of the nation's biggest union.

Hoffa had exuded confidence entered the Caucus

testimony.

When

a

Room

few days

a

to start the first

earlier

of

when he had

his several

days of

him on how well

reporter had complimented

he looked, he had grinned and sarcastically commented to the

who had

media people

surrounded him,

"I tell ya,

got troubles." His lame explanation for Kierdorf s his

weak

insistence that he

knew nothing about

many

I'm worried-

—

employment and

the alleged Kierdorf

him about it and he said he intelligent IBT leader some

reign of terror in Flint because "I asked didn't

do

had to have caused the

it"

concern, however.

(Two

man

decades

Kierdorf

shortly after

earlier,

Hoffa had also hired Frank's uncle Her-

as a business

Herman had

agent for Joint Council 43 in Detroit

two

spent

for impersonating a federal officer.

hibited

what seemed

years in

to be a family trait

robbery himself and had returned

Leavenworth Prison

Herman had

as a

subsequently ex-

by engaging

Teamster

his release.

now

told the McClellan

committee

remember such an

intercession, letters

from Hoffa

Although the Detroiter could not

1949 after

official in

Hoffa had interceded with the Ohio parole board for

armed

in

that he to the

parole board proving such action on his part were immediately

produced by the committee's ther tarnished

by

this

staff,

revelation.

already told the committee that

It

and Hoffa's reputation was fur-

was bad enough

Herman was

that

Hoffa had

"a very good friend

of mine.")

The second Hoffa associate to receive exhaustive media treatment was a genuine American primitive, a colorful ex-convict who seemed

to

hearings.

have almost been expressly invented for these televised

Obese Robert "Barney" Baker, although urged by

attorneys to take the Fifth

Amendment,

freely talked for

about his mobster friends in language that was nothing

We Admire

the

Man Who Can

Deliver

if

his

two days not wry:

117

Mr. Kennedy [Committee Counsel] Did you Mr. Baker

didn't

I

know him

know Cockeyed Dunn?

Cockeyed Dunn.

as

knew him

I

as

John Dunn. Mr. Kennedy Where

He

Mr. Baker

Mr. Kennedy Mr. Baker

is

he now?

has met his Maker.

How

did he do that?

believe through electrocution in the City of

I

New

of the State of

York.

.

.

New

York

.

Mr. Kennedy What about Squint Sheridan? Did you Mr. Baker Andrew Sheridan,

know him?

Sir?

Mr. Kennedy Yes.

He

Mr. Baker

Mr. Kennedy

has also met his Maker.

How

did he die?

9 Mr. Baker With Mr. John Dunn.

And, referring lieutenant

to an

John

ambush

in

which

he, Hoffa's

New

York City

O'Rourke, and one Joe Butler were shot at, he I heard was a lot of noise and I hit

J.

told the investigators, "All

the pavement. .

.

.

He lies

They

O'Rourke and Mr.

shot myself, Mr.

Butler.

Mr. Joe Butler passed away." 10 liberally shared his beliefs

don't

mean

proudly declared

with

his

when you

nothing, not

audience ("Little white

are not

that, at separate sittings,

eight pounds of meat and four pounds of

under oath") and

he had devoured thirtyspaghetti.

But the questions and answers quickly established mittee had not reserved

420 pounds

They

ing gab.

had been

Who's

a

two days

five years earlier)

man and

com-

284-pounder (down from

merely because of his

also revealed that, for the past

strong-arm

Who

for this

that the

two

enforcer for what

gift for interest-

decades, Baker

amounted

to a

of the United States underworld: Meyer Lansky, Joe

Adonis, "Bugsy" Siegel, "Scarface Joe" Bommarito, Joe Vitale,

"Trigger Mike" Coppola, and others. ("Everywhere you go," counsel

Kennedy commented,

And, of tee's

"there has been violence.")

particular relevance to the

agenda, Baker had for

main item on

some time worked

the

commit-

for the Central

Con-

ference of Teamsters as an "organizer" under the direct orders of

James R. Hoffa. His duties were not variety of smallish

Chapter 5

odd

jobs:

it

fully defined

and included

was Baker, for example,

a

who had

118

actually paid Joe Louis's

one year

these duties

rallo,

Washington hotel

But primarily,

earlier.

seemed

centerpiece:

on behalf of Hoffa

of "Tony Ducks" Co-

have had physical intimidation

to

Kennedy was

bill

in the style

later to

write in

as their

summing up what

the

committee had found out about Baker, "Sometimes the mere threat of his presence

room was enough

in a

men who

to silence the

otherwise would have opposed Hoffa's reign." 11

Hoffa

sat in the

hearing

testimony, smiling broadly

remarks. When, back on

at

room throughout most of Baker's his employee's particularly humorous

the witness stand himself, he

was asked

if

Baker's admitted associations with the heaviest hitters of organized

crime bothered him, his reply was, testify

me

here that he

knew

"I

am

quite sure, hearing

every one of them ...

it

him

doesn't disturb

one iota." 12

The committee's

show

effort to

Hoffa was continuing to

that

keep ex-felons and labor racketeers on the Teamster payroll hardly stopped with

its

focus on Kierdorf and Baker.

The IBT's

provisional

president was confronted with charges, made primarily but not solely

by the

in his

at all

relentless counsel

Kennedy,

had taken no steps

that he

over six months in office against the scores of possessors

of police records

who had

leged infiltrators

— including

been named

in prior

made known

Many

infiltrated his union.

Dioguardi and Corallo

committee

sessions.

others were

now Joey

Glimco, the head of Chicago Teamsters Local 777 and

had been arrested thirty-six times, two of them killings;

Glenn W. Smith,

a

al-

for the first time:

Many

American public

to a fascinated

of these

— had already a

man who

in connection

Tennessee Teamster

official

with

who had

twice served terms for burglary and robbery before joining the union; Bernard Adelstein, a ranking arrests to his credit;

jurer;

Gus Zapas,

a

New York Teamster

Frank Matula of California,

power

in the Indiana

a

with five

convicted per-

Conference of Teamsters,

despite a record of forty-five arrests; and a large and unsavory col-

whose aggregate criminal box score was undoubtedly impressive enough to blur the distinction between "Teamster" and "hoodlum" in the minds of many Americans. As a widely

lection of others

circulated witticism of this period

had

it,

the International Brother-

hood of Teamsters was an organization

that

had dropped the

"brother" and kept the "hood."

An

old problem for the Teamsters was also

We Admire

the

Man Who Can

Deliver

now

trotted out

119

renewed public consumption. The committee charged

for

that the

IBT's placement of Central States Health and Welfare Fund monies

had been, as the aborted 1953 Detroit hearings led by Congressman Wint Smith had initially hinted, marked by scandal. The $1 million paid in fund commissions over the past seven years to the Union

Company

Casualty and Life Insurance

alumnus Paul "Red" Dorfman and

run by Al Capone gang

exceeded by

his stepson Allen

million the commission that, in the opinion of the

a striking $1

A

committee, should have been paid.

further and equally

damning

charge was that the Teamsters, by awarding the business in the place to the

first

bidder the

three years of

first

To man

Dorfman

operation

— had caused the fund its

— though

to suffer a loss

it

was not the lowest

of some $600,000 in

operation.

millions of television viewers and newspaper readers, one

bore the blame for such

a

combative forty-five-year-old

The chunky,

scandalous situation.

who now

union and

led the

remained the committee's most prominent witness

who

in his several

appearances on the stand throughout these two weeks of hearings

was very much

the person at

whose desk

the buck-passing stopped.

Himself an Al Capone reincarnated, he was unwilling against the gallery of criminals

of

his hierarchy

different

from

who formed

such

a

move

prominent part

because his code of values was not significantly

theirs.

Unless he was afraid of these people, that was.

Kennedy, with the conspicuous lack of subtlety approach to questioning Hoffa,

his general

to

left

And

counsel

that characterized

open

this possibility:

Mr. Kennedy Are you frightened of these people, Mr. Hoffa?

Mr. Hoffa

am

I

not frightened of anybody, Mr. Kennedy, and

don't intend to have the impression that

I

am

controlled by gangsters.

by the same token

I

do not intend

I

to

left, as

am

I

has been stated publicly,

not controlled by them but

go around and evade provisions

of the constitution of the international constitution which you accused Mr. [Dave] Beck of doing by having dictatorial powers.

want

to be able to follow the constitution in

will be cleared up.

February tied

me

1.

up.

Then I

Mr. Kennedy

Chapter 5

I

you

recall

I

went through

a

If

took office almost just about long

trial in

New

had the question of monitors which

You have

I

due time. This situation

people in Detroit,

me up. 15, who have

tied

at least

York which .

.

.

120

police records.

...

I

say you are not tough

enough

to get rid

of

these people, then.

Mr. Hoffa

don't propose to be tough.

I

You

Mr. Kennedy

Mr. Hoffa

I

moved

haven't

against any of them.

don't propose to act tough.

tion of the international union. In

necessary, will be corrected.

I

will follow the constitu-

due time the situation where

13

Hoffa's line of testimony hardly disposed of the doubts that

had been raised regarding least,

his criminal connections.

At the very

Senator McClellan's rhetorical (and sarcastic) question to the

union leader

— "This extraordinary care

petrates these crooks in office; does

of wits

far

that

not?"

you 14

At the most, the head of

in the affirmative.

and richest union

it

in the

more badly

are exercising per-

— had

to be

answered

the largest, strongest,

country came out of

this fortnight's battle

tarnished as a willing associate of gangsters

when he had appeared before the committee one year earlier. He was now much better known than he was in August 1957, to some large extent because of his previous committhan he had been even

tee

testimony but also through his several other pressing problems.

He

was, therefore, considerably more newsworthy.

television

drama

that

was again being played out

Senate Office Building

room

The made-for-

in the floodlighted

more widely not heard of him at all not

was, accordingly,

all

the

And a public that had basically many months before now knew him well, and quite unfavorably. Nor did Hoffa's own techniques as a witness help him here. watched.

Consistent with his established past practice, the president of the

Teamsters continued to avoid taking the Fifth Amendment. not unaware of the advantages of claiming against self-incrimination.

now

On

He was

this constitutional right

the other hand, he believed that if he

him from his presidency on that ground alone. And he was quick-witted enough to realize that he might achieve the same result by adopting any of three did so

the monitors might seek to oust

alternative approaches in giving his answers to the committee's

questions. That he

them was

for

him

One of these

might a

suffer in his public relations

consideration that

was

by pursuing

definitely secondary.

avenues constituted what counsel Kennedy called

"taking the Fifth by proxy." Hoffa would reply to a query that

might prove personally embarrassing by saying

We Admire

the

Man Who Can

Deliver

that while he

him-

remember the specifics, the committee should "ask Bert Brennan" (or some other relevant individual). The recommended person would then claim the Fifth while on the witness stand. (On occasion, this proxy pleading was engineered directly self couldn't

by Hoffa: several times he looked toward the witness and held up the five fingers of one

imagination; and

"Take

testify,

hand

at least

nothing to the

in a signal that left

once he whispered to

a

person about to

five.")

Kennedy reproached Hoffa for from Hoffa's chief counsel Edward

At one point, Senator John using such a strategy, eliciting

F.

comment that "this is the first time I've heard by some other person's taking the Fifth Amendment"

Bennett Williams the guilt inferred

and

a

deadpanned rejoinder frOm the senator, "Well, I'm putting

forward

A

as

it

an original thesis."

second course of action involved what might be called "the

use of stout denial." Hoffa, after listening to a

previous witness's testimony, would simply the record.

I

summary of some

assert,

have read the record and nothing

"That

like that

is

isn't in

in there."

As Kennedy later would write in his book, The Enemy Within, "If the Chairman decided to take the time to call this bluff, twenty minutes would be lost digging into the record that had just been summarized." 15 Often, the Hoffa statement was allowed to go unchallenged simply in the interests of time, and Kennedy begrudgingly later admitted that the Teamster leader had developed this

ploy "to perfection."

The

third Hoffa approach was, for him,

now

an old one. Fre-

quently in answering the questions he merely went off on irrelevant, unenlightening,

a

vague,

and long tangent, highlighted by protes-

remember the details. He adopted, in weapon that had caused Senator him that while he hadn't taken the Fifth

tations that he just couldn't

other words, the same oratorical Ives

one year

earlier to tell

he was "doing

a

marvelous job of crawling around" the

Actually, a fourth Hoffa stratagem it

was reserved

strictly for a single

claimed to have

observed

called

it

also utilized,

although

named Kennedy and did not word. The committee counsel, who

people

involve the use of first

was

latter.

it

on the

"the look" and described

last it

day of the 1957 hearings,

in

the following graphic

language:

Chapter 5

122

me

[Hoffa] was glaring at

across the counsel table with a deep, strange,

penetrating expression of intense hatred. obsessed by his enmity, and

when

times

might

.

.

.

It

was

came particularly from

last

for five minutes

—

the look

his eyes.

seemed completely transfixed with

his face

evilness. It

it

this stare

of a man

There were

of absolute

as if he thought that by staring

long enough and hard enough he could destroy me. Sometimes he seemed to

be concentrating so hard that I had

speak of obvious

an assistant counsel

to

it

him

to

we were

that

to smile,

sitting

discussing

and occasionally I would

behind me.

it,

It

must have been

but his expression

would not

change by a flicker.

During

the

1958 hearings from time

look at

my

brother.

,

And now and

to time,

he directed the same shriveling

then, after a protracted, particularly evil

glower, he did a most peculiar thing: he would wink at me. I can't explain it.

Maybe

would recognize

a psychiatrist

The IBT

the

symptoms.

16

president later explained that the winking

was just

a

for him: "I used to love to bug the little bastard. Whenever Bobby would get tangled up in one of his involved ques17 And he tions, I would wink at him. That invariably got him." often said that "there's no way that I could ever afford all the publicity that the committee is giving me for absolutely nothing." But

form of enjoyment

no one. Hoffa did not remotely enjoy being so

the bravado fooled

widely depicted

as either a willing associate or

of mobsters. And,

even

being portrayed

less

heavy

as a

was so widely interpreted and

an unwilling dupe

documentably devoted family man, he liked

as a

in a

as a battle

major media event that

between the forces of good

evil.

Even worse

union

chieftain, the

committee's second

round of Hoffa interrogations did not confine

itself to establishing

for the

As

Hoffa's gangster connections.

group Here,

also focused it

on

it

had

in 1957, the Senate sub-

witness's personal financial affairs.

its star

alleged that there had been a series of ill-gotten gains

made

Hoffa, and

the three following points,

among

by

others, con-

cerning these gains: 1.

In a

tigators,

sworn

affidavit that

had been furnished committee inves-

former Detroit laundry owner William Miller said that

in

1949 he and the other laundry owners in the city had averted

was being

We Admire

raised for

the

a

by contributing $17,500 to a purse that Hoffa by two officials of the industry's trade

Teamster truck driver

strike

Man Who Can

Deliver

123

At

association, the Detroit Institute of Laundering. this

money,

to Detroit's

the

ex-owner further

premier Teamster, through the good

by two

labor consulting firm headed

"Babe" Bushkin and owners had

On

least

$10,000 of

found

stated, definitely

of a Detroit

offices

close Hoffa friends, Jack

Two

the late Joe Holtzman.

other laundry

orally confirmed Miller's story to the investigators.

the stand, Hoffa conceded that he had gotten $10,000 in

memory

"loans" from Bushkin and Holtzman. But, with the faulty

seemed

that rarely

furnish cifics

to leave

him

for long as he testified, he could

no additional information. He could neither

any spe-

recall

about repaying the loans nor produce any written evidence to

show

that he did repay them.

And

now

Miller, to the committee's disappointment,

that he really wasn't at

all

testified

sure that Hoffa ever got any of the

money. One possible explanation

for his retraction, the

committee

contended, was that Hoffa had accompanied the two Detroit tute

way

its

of Laundering

on

officials

the hearings and reminded actually got the

Washington

to attend

Holtzman, not

that the late

money. Bushkin took

Between 1948 and

2.

their flight to

them

Insti-

the Fifth

he,

Amendment.

1956, Hoffa listed a total of $60,322 as

"collections" and "miscellaneous earnings"

on

his federal

income

tax returns. Despite the committee's strong suggestion that this

money should

properly have been attributed to "bribes from

em-

ployers," Hoffa explained that the true source was racetrack betting.

"There

Brennan] has some horses and he places some bets

'Bert'

are fortunate to

the gains

on

win some money." He and Brennan

a fifty-fifty basis,

he

said,

Asked

if

latter.

he had any documentation to support his racetrack

Hoffa stated that Brennan kept the records. In

nan took the

Fifth

Amendment on

McClellan to ask him, prerequisite

split

in return for his giving

Brennan half of the money gambled by the story,

"and

racetracks in Detroit," he told the committee,

is

[Owen and we

"Is the taking

qualifications

Union]?" In answer to

the stand

for

—

of the Fifth

advancement

this latter question,

his turn,

Bren-

prompting Chairman

[in

.

.

.

the

one of the Teamsters

Brennan took the

Fifth

again. 3.

A

former heavyweight boxer named Embrel Davidson

formed the committee

week

for

Chapter 5

two

years

that he

in-

had been paid seventy-five dollars

by the Teamsters Union

as

an

IBT

a

welfare fund

124

investigator although he had done

no investigating

at all. Instead,

he had helped feed the racehorses on Brennan's farm and trained for his prizefights. In his

mittee, he

was under

boxing endeavors, Davidson told the com-

management of Hoffa and Brennan.

the

Hoffa, Chairman McClellan pointed out, had testified in his

committee appearance arrangement and

this

a year earlier that

Brennan investment. The the senator

Justice

from Arkansas

known

nothing of

Department would accordingly,

declared, be asked to investigate this

warned

inconsistency. McClellan

quences for Hoffa of

he had

use of union funds for a private Hoffa-

its

And more damaging when he returned

September,

that there

were potential conse-

indictment here.

a perjury

awaited

publicity to the

Caucus

The committee, now

in his Senate appearance.

in

mid-

third

round

Hoffa

Room for a

in the full glare

national media attention, reintroduced a subject that

it

had

first

of

dealt

with in 1957: the Sun Valley, Florida, land development scheme

and Hoffa's role the

in

committee had

it.

With Hoffa now

first

alleged

was not when

Sun Valley improprieties on

was asked why he had

the unionist

present, as he

his part,

transferred $500,000 in union

interest-free basis. Even at 2 percent would have earned the Teamsters Union $10,000 annually, it was pointed out. And, once again, the assertion that the bank would now (with the interest-free transfer but not without it) loan $500,000 to this scheme into which Hoffa and Brennan had a hidden option to buy was made by the investigators. This third round also featured an assertion by committee inves-

bank on an

funds to

a Florida

interest,

the account

tigator Pierre Salinger that 57.6 percent of the votes cast for at

the 1957 convention had been illegally cast.

Hoffa

Another highlight

was the appearance of Hoffa's pudgy, jewelry-bedecked Ohio tenant William Presser,

him

to

who ducked most

lieu-

questions seeking to link

vending machine industry racketeering by taking the Fifth

Amendment

(once,

however, he departed from predictability by

promising the committee,

"I'll tell

you the

truth if

you

let

me

get

out from under the oath").

"No

family in this country," asserted Chairman McClellan

at

the conclusion of this September round of hearings, "can escape the

repercussions. All of our lives are too intricately interwoven with this

union to

sit

passively

by and allow

the Teamsters under

Mr.

Hoffa's leadership to create such a superpower in this country

We Admire

the

Man Who Can

Deliver

— 125

power

greater than the people and greater than the

now

This situation even

is critical

for the nation."

And committee member Sam J. even harsher in

his

Ervin,

Jr.

comments. Avoiding

Government.

18

soon thereafter was

direct reference to the

IBT's provisional president but leaving no doubt

whom

at all as to

he primarily had in mind, he observed that the conduct of some

Teamster bosses "makes be

a

Hun

Attila the

appear by comparison to

very mild-mannered and benevolent individual.

from North Carolina was known

senator

on Capitol

sters

Fifth

colorful

one of the better quip-

as

Amendment when

McMaster was his wife, "I will when you get home." And in

her

viously only kidding.

The

he had, for example, not long before

Hill:

informed Teamster witness Rolland McMaster

had taken the

" 19

It is

leave

this

McMaster Yvonne

after

asked whether

up

it

his Attila

you

to

answer

to

comment he was ob-

probable, however, given what had

now

been publicly stated about Hoffa, that the senator's words were taken

literally

By

as

number of people.

James R. Hoffa had

one way or another

expelled his union solely because of his

Although he had been found innocent

wiretapping

his

in

an adult delinquent on four highly visible national

The AFL-CIO had

leadership.

and

a large

late 1958, then,

been attacked fronts.

by

trials

had culminated

in his bribery case

first in a

hung jury and

then in an acquittal, there was a chance that he would

now

face

prosecution in the federal courts for alleged perjury in his Embrel

Davidson testimony. The monitors, decision of Judge Letts, were

battleground. its

And

with the favorable

waging war with him on

a third

the McClellan committee, having already issued

cornucopia of charges against him, gave no impression whatso-

ever that

it

had spoken

Teamsters. Sparked by it

now armed

seemed

A

have

to

its last its

negative piece on the president of the

relentless chief counsel

many more damaging

logical hypothesis, given this potent

Hoffa forces, would be that Hoffa's

now

own

Kennedy,

revelations in

its

in fact,

system.

combination of

themselves be having severe second thoughts about the

at their

helm.

would accept lum head of a ship could

Chapter 5

No

rational rank

a leader

who

and

file,

much

it

longer tolerate

a

man

could easily be argued,

had been so widely depicted

criminal-infested empire.

anti-

union constituents might

as the

hood-

No self-respecting member-

president

who

—

if

the McClellan

126

charges were to be believed

own

— had treated the union's treasury

made

private property,

as his

the Teamsters a haven for organized

crime, and executed collusive arrangements with employers against the best interests of the

membership. Few Teamsters, arguably,

could continue to support to

little

accommodate

president

a

who had seemed

to

do so

the "reasonable and relevant requests of the

monitors" to root out corruption and maximize democratic procedures within the union.

And just

as few,

it

could also be rationally

much longer with a president had made their union an outcast of

contended, would want to put up

whose sheer position holding movement's mainstream, or with

the labor past

a

and pending, with the law had been so

whose

leader

troubles,

significant.

Every one of these assumptions would, however, be wrong. Hoffa remained highly popular with

There had been

serious charges.

him

resistance to

—

in

New

Francisco, in particular.

unknown

in the

his

own

unionists despite the

few demonstrations of concerted

a

York, Cincinnati, Chicago, and San

But

local opposition was,

of course, not

IBT. Moreover, not one of these revolts could

be attributed directly to dissatisfaction with the Hoffa code

easily

of ethics. Hoffa's ever-widening scope of trucking industry bargaining, resulting in

have played

More

diminished authority for local leaders, seemed to

a part in all

of them.

were the tangible gains

lapses

Hoffa since In

members than any major moral

apparent to Teamster

his

that

one of his wiretapped conversations with Johnny Dio, Hoffa

had recognized the primacy of this treat

latter factor

'em right and you don't have

extortionist.

And Hoffa had

Wages had more than in the

had been steadily realized under

advent to power.

Hoffa years:

in

worry,"

20

all

Teamsters

in the

others: ".

.

.

he had told the

delivered for his rank and

tripled for

many

to

over

file

in spades.

Hoffa jurisdiction

cases, as the Detroiter

had widened

his

bargaining arena, drivers had been brought up from 95 cents an

hour as

to $2.46 hourly in less than four years' time. In

noted

earlier,

in the truck, the alternative

had gone from 3 cents

more than

9 cents (depending

We Admire

the

and more

of rewarding long-distance drivers, had shown

ilar rise: it

Overtime was

cases,

even more impressive gains had been registered.

Pay for each mile traveled

common way

some

at the

upon

Deliver

sim-

the size of the vehicle operated).

now generally awarded after eight hours a day,

Man Who Can

a

end of the pre-Hoffa era to

rather

127

than after twelve. Liberal vacations, pensions, health and welfare

now

programs

where not so long ago there

existed in abundance

had been none of these

at

Seniority protection had

all.

become

highly meaningful under Hoffa, and pay for the time that trucks

were inoperable because of mechanical problems, impassable highways, or

some

traffic

cases,

congestion had been enlarged considerably

implemented). The IBT president could speak to truck

who

driver constituents in Detroit

and to Toledo for 75

for $1.50

(or, in

once drove

their rigs to

Chicago

now Chicago commanded

cents;

$36

and Toledo $17.

Even

college professors, with

do nearly

all

of their education, often didn't once reminded

as well, Hoffa's International Teamster

its

large readership: "Recently a professor at the ivy-covered Williams

College in

New

England returned

to the

road driver because he could double hard to be negative toward

Teamsters

a leader

who

an over-the-

as

Williams." 21

It

was

could bring about

this

his salary at

stunning triumph. Indeed, as the labor specialist of the

New

York Times discovered

in privately talking to Detroit drivers at this time,

nearly

mess.

.

only two out of

two hundred such Teamsters felt that "the union was in a The others declared, with every indication of sincerity, .

.

that they felt

Hoffa had done

a

standout job on wages, welfare,

grievances and every other phase of union service. aside the accusations of gangsterism

and racketeering

attempt by outside forces to cut Hoffa

doing too good

a

job

in defense

They brushed

down

as part

of the rank and

Such sentiments were hardly confined

file."

It's

and "Everyone has

just that they're

been such

making

a

a little bit

was

22

to Detroit.

such as "Jimmy's always been good to us drivers and care about,"

of an

to size because he

Remarks

that's all

we

of the cheater in him.

scapegoat out of Hoffa because he's

a successful labor leader"

mouths of Teamsters throughout

the

had flowed

Midwest

with the IBT leader's sphere of authority

a

for

freely

some

from the

time.

Now,

nationwide one, these

sentiments were generally echoed by Teamsters in

all

sections of

the country.

Hoffa, needless to say, did nothing to discourage such opinions.

As he went around

skillfully

membership, he

converted the widespread attacks on his personal conduct

into apparent attacks

Chapter 5

the nation talking to his

on

all

Teamsters ("Well now, you

know and

128

I

know

that

Jimmy

Hoffa

nothing

is

So when Bobby Kennedy

vidual.

destroying the entire Teamsters successful").

a

settings, "All this

a

name, just an indi-

about me, he talks about

Union because we've been

so

told his Local 299 constituents and repeated

hundreds of times

literally

IBT

As he once

—just

talks

in

almost identical language in other

hocus-pocus about racketeers and crooks

is

smokescreen to carry you back to the days when they could drop

you

in the scrap

was

typically greeted

And

it

heap

like

they do

a

worn-out truck." 23 Such oratory

by prolonged hand clapping.

was exactly because of

this

bread-and-butter gratitude

of the membership for the gains that their leader had delivered to

them

that

Hoffa had expected to win

presidency

down.

at

the

Teamster

now-postponed March 1959 convention hands

In the eyes

needed none of the

of most objective observers, he would have illegal

1957 convention victory

vote casting that allegedly marked his

this

time

popular Hoffa had ever needed exception only of the greatly admired,

a clear title to the

(if,

this

in point

of

fact,

the always-

contrived support). With the

Mine Workers' John

L.

Lewis,

whom

no other twentieth-century labor leader had

Hoffa ever,

indeed, enjoyed such rank-and-file adulation. That he had gained

and maintained

bad

as a

It

it

simultaneously with being so widely portrayed

citizen said

also,

much

of course, said

about

his leadership talents.

a great deal

about the values of the huge

majority of Hoffa's union constituents and, by justifiable extension,

about the values of most workers. As A. H. Raskin could

November 1958 article, Hoffa," "We admire the man who can de24 is much less important."

quite accurately generalize in his insightful

"Why They Cheer for how he delivers

liver

—

We Admire

the

Man Who Can

Deliver

129

Hoffa Can Take Care of Hoffa

For

all

of Hoffa's genuine problems, events soon proved that he

had absolutely nothing to fear investigatory commission.

senator Bender

man, the

from

his

own

"anti-racketeering"

Almost from the day

was appointed

ex-legislator's role

as the

was

that

former Ohio

three-man commission's chair-

by the media.

ridiculed

A

widely

reprinted cartoon by the Washington Post and Times Herald's eminent

Herblock showed the chubby Bender following the

number of greenbacks on and being led on

on

the street while crouching

And

dog's leash by Hoffa.

a

trail

a

New

of

a

all

large

fours

York Times

be "more brazen" than the appointment of the commission by "the very man against whom the most serious charges have been made." The Ohioan quickly justified the absence of faith in him by editorial asked if anything could

1

adopting an investigative method that one observer thought was

"roughly comparable to trying to solve to an

aside his a

to send a

form

yelling,

asked the local

their respective

"

'Is

officials to

supply information on "any racke-

which they might be aware within

Teamster subunits.

All of the replies (including those in

the negative.

whose ex-convict contracts,

by going

every Teamster local in the country. The

letter to

teering or gangster alliances" of

were

case

Washington attorney, Bender proceeded independently

judge and

letter

murder

anybody out there guilty?' 2 two colleagues on the panel, a retired Detroit

open window and

Elbowing

a

shaking

The

leader

down

from racket-ridden

secretary-treasurer of a

was quite

locals)

Miami

local

visibly negotiating sweetheart

employers, and freely consorting with

known

racketeers responded, "There are

or gangster alliances in this local union.

on any investigation of this

eration

wrote the Miamian, "The is

most gratifying

of your for

to the

your

—

officials

full

coop-

and members

Thank you

it.

sincerely

3

)

—

he had received from Bender, with

letter that

notation affixed to here."

you

The secretary-treasurer of IBT local of bakery drivers in Tacoma, was even more succinct in his answer: he simply reof cooperation."

fine spirit

turned the

of racketeering

union." (Bender thereupon

Commission. The

another highly suspect

Washington

cases

will give

you give of your organization

commended upon

be

local are to

local

fine report

no

We

it

own

in his

"No

handwriting,

a

scrawled

racketeering

4

In

December

1958, with his research into the locals completed,

Bender reported preliminarily

to

Hoffa that he had found the Inter-

The ex-

national Brotherhood of Teamsters "free of corruption." senator's

two

on the commission almost immediately

colleagues

disclaimed any responsibility for this finding.

Bender continued

his "investigation"

May

intensity until early

1959, charging the Teamsters a formidable

$58,636.07 in salary and expenses for his

mend

the expulsion

and when

with the same degree of

efforts.

failed to

recom-

from the IBT hierarchy of even one hoodlum,

puzzled McClellan committee

a

He

stand as a "voluntary witness" a few months

summoned him later,

to

its

he did not cover

himself with glory in his testimony:

Mr. Kennedy Has anybody been ousted from the Teamsters Union,

Mr. Bender? Mr. Bender Well,

I

Mr. Kennedy That ousted?

.

.

recall is,

.

.

.

on your recommendation has anybody been

.

Mr. Bender

I

am

not going to go into

that.

My

report

is

to

Mr.

Hoffa.

Mr. Kennedy

You came

Mr. Bender That I

am

doing.

He

is

as a

right,

but

.

.

.

not to discuss

my work

or what

5

admitted that he had not taken any action

of William Presser and Louis

major lieutenants

Hoffa

voluntary witness.

M. "Babe"

in Bender's

Can Take Care of Hoffa

own

state

Triscaro,

at all in still

of Ohio and

the cases

Hoffa's

two

men whose

131

clear-cut links to the

now

underworld had

by the committee. (Both,

lished

been convincingly estab-

had been the

will be recalled,

it

some probing by the 1954 Bender investiwas abruptly and permanently "recessed at the call

short-lived recipients of

gation before

it

of the chairman.")

Nor had

York Local 239

sentence for extortion but

a jail

from Ohio taken any kind of stand

the former senator

New

regarding

leader

about

this state

do

And

that.

of affairs was

But

good man

a

is

to be

." 6

probing by

in response to

colleague, Barry

—

serving

a week in salary comment when asked

direct

that "[Goldstein]

have not

I

now

Goldstein,

drawing $375

still

and $25 for expenses. Bender's only

able to

Sam

his old

Republican legislative

Goldwater of Arizona, Bender could do no better

than the following: Senator Goldwater George,

of

a

man

my

to

to

Mr. Hoffa and

to kick this fellow out."

Mr. Bender Last week,

came

ask you a question. Take the case

Suppose you went

like Goldstein.

"Jimmy, you ought would do it?

me

let

I

went

where

attention

to

a

Do you

him regarding

man was

a

man,

said,

think he

a

matter

having relations with

a

16-year-old prostitute and speaking very bluntly, he said, "Well, frankly, that son-of-a-bitch should be kicked out."

No man

no good.

should be in

union

this

who

is

He

said,

"He

is

doing that kind

of thing."

Was he

Senator Goldwater

Mr. Bender That

I

can't

kicked out?

tell

you.

Senator Goldwater Let's take a certainly

no

credit to the

recommendations

.

man

.

.

like

Glimco

in

Chicago.

is

union movement. Have you made any

relative to

him?

Mr. Bender Frankly, no. That matter hasn't come to either.

He

my

attention

7

Hoffa would clean up whatever corruption might

exist in the

Teamsters, Bender insisted, after his reelection. While the Detroiter

was

still

provisional president, in Bender's opinion, he couldn't "go

around kicking people in

an illustration of his

in the teeth." In fact, said Hoffa's appointee

own

general political philosophy, if cats and

dogs could vote, he would personally "shake hands with them."

Chapter 6

132

Commenting one of his

that he himself had appointed the "best prostitute" in

of Republican committeewoman, the

districts to the post

former senator explained that "unless you get the votes of the

washed and the unwashed you have to become get their votes."

Not

can't

win

elections.

a prostitute yourself, but

.

.

.

You

don't

sometimes you have

to

8

Bender was asked

coincidentally,

kind of Teamster payoff

if

he had received any

in return for his lack

of aggressiveness in

the 1954 congressional investigation, and he heatedly denied the

implication as "a damnable lie." testified.

"No

strings

"No

charges were dropped," he

were pulled with me." 9

The always candid Senator Goldwater

later said that

performance on the witness stand had been

make him

almost enough, he told the press, to

a

man

that such a

served

it is

incomprehensible

should occupy the Senate seat once held by [Ohio

Republican] Robert Taft, excellence."

"To me,

subsequently wrote,

who had

congressman and two years

Hill for fourteen years as a

as a senator,

a

man who was

a

symbol of integrity and

10

To Kennedy, however,

there

was

a clear-cut

explanation for

Bender's behavior both in 1954 and now: James R. Hoffa, "believes that

nation of

was

It

Democrat. Counsel

Kennedy, taking an equally dim view of the man

on Capitol

Bender's

a total disgrace.

money, or

influence, or political pressure, or a

three can fix any

all

once said to

[a

What's yours?' "

Washington "It

problem

that faces him.

reporter]: 'Every

must have been

man

As [Hoffa]

has his price.

setback to [Hoffa],"

a

who

combi-

Kennedy

adding, "the night he was arrested for attempting

could not

resist

to bribe a

Committee investigator to find that there was one man who was above and beyond a price." 11

in

America

Whatever the F.

validity

of these speculations on the part of John

Kennedy's younger brother, Hoffa

backs in the

was

at all

first

major, certainly as compared to

and even on an absolute to rescind ambitious

and

to

definitely suffered

do so

basis.

programs

publicly. For a

But

set-

all

of

his other troubles

in

both cases Hoffa was forced

that he

had only recently announced,

man

for

whom

recantation

unknown, the events consequently were noteworthy. The first of these related to a project that the union

Hoffa

two

year of his provisional presidency. Neither of them

Can Take Care of Hoffa

was

all

but

leader had

133

announced, with considerable a

He

fanfare, in July 1958.

revealed to

well-attended press conference that he was launching an unprece-

dented league of transportation unions. ence on Transportation Unity," International

Hoffa had wanted to help

had

common with

in

To

be called the "Confer-

would

a

few years

the Teamsters the fact that

The ILA

it

now

had been expelled

Marlon Brando movie,

the Waterfront."

The conference would

have

also

member

the National Maritime Union. Ultimately,

brace

of the more than

all

under

will be re-

it

and which

had, indeed, a few years earlier served as the real

inspiration for crooked unionism in the

"On

earlier

parent labor federation (the AFL, in 1953) for alleged cor-

its

ruption. life

include the

initially

Longshoremen's Association, which,

called,

from

it

single

its

fifty

it

as a charter

would em-

unions in the transportation sector

Hoffa-managed umbrella: the

railroad brother-

hoods, the airlines unions, and every other transportation collective bargaining agent.

And

all

of the fifty-plus unions would be invited

August 1958 meeting

to an

attached so entire cost

The

to

much importance by

which the Teamsters, Hoffa

that the

said,

union would underwrite the

itself if necessary.

public outcry to this revelation had been both immediate

and highly negative. George Meany, speaking for the AFL-CIO's Executive Council, had announced that any that

member

international

might join the outcast Hoffa's league could consider

pelled

from the

larger federation. ("I expect

all

AFL-CIO

itself

ex-

unions to

comply," the major force behind the IBT's 1957 expulsion

pithily

asserted.)

The

projected land,

quickly attacked as

and

a threat to the

of the U.S. Congress. they

sea,

would introduce

air

union program was also

country's well-being by

Some of the

who

told journalists that un-

der the conference arrangement "you could have one the

need be,

legislation to thwart Hoffa's plans. Hoffa's

ongoing nemesis, Senator McClellan,

more power over

members

latter indicated that, if

economy

man with

than the Government," was only

one of dozens of such potential Hoffa thwarters.

And many of these

national legislators doubtless fully agreed with the sentiments of

McClellan's young chief counsel that the foremost Teamster was already close to holding such sway. "He's not just the most powerful

man

Chapter 6

in labor,"

Robert Kennedy had said

in the

wake of Hoffa's

134

announcement; "he's the most powerful man

in the country,

next

to the President."

The

thing that Hoffa,

last

publicity

was

Meany's

threats

Union,

still

who was

surprised

by the

intensity

needed was another battlefront; and more negative

of the reactions,

luxury that he really could not afford. Moreover,

a

seem

have dissuaded the National Maritime

to

AFL-CIO, from continuing

in the

and to have dampened whatever enthusiasm the unions might have had for the idea.

A

to display interest airline

and railroad

scheduled meeting to get

Hoffa's concept off the ground was postponed, by Hoffa, indefinitely.

Few

people expected

a

rescheduling any time soon.

The second aborted Hoffa program was to bring every

policeman

United

in the

twenty-four thousand members of the

nationwide campaign

a

States, starting

with the

New

York City Police DeTeamsters Union. Most New York policemen

partment, into the

already belonged to an independent labor organization, Hoffa rec-

ognized. But the

was

latter,

opinion

in his

the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association,

much

wages and conditions. The

too "lax" and ineffectual in protecting

New

Yorkers deserved better represen-

tation, and he would provide it thousands of counterparts from

forbade such unionization,

for

them and

coast to coast.

their

hundreds of

Where

state

laws

the Teamsters would get the laws

changed.

Although

in

making

this late

1958 announcement, the nation's

most investigated union president had renounced the

strike

weapon

would not have more negative outcry had he sought to organize the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The New York City police commissioner said that if his subordinates did become Teamsters, he would advise New Yorkers "not to waste their money paying the police commissioner a salary" because Hoffa would then be "the real police com(in

favor of arbitration) for the police, he probably

precipitated a

missioner."

New

York's mayor, Robert

F.

Wagner,

called the

campaign both "dastardly" and "a disgrace"; he promised

would go city's

to court if necessary to stop the

prove overwhelmingly any steps ties

might take

Schmidt,

— repeat any

to quell the campaign.

now buoyed by

Can Take Care of Hoffa

steps

—

The would "ap-

efforts.

" that authori-

Teamster monitor Godfrey

the favorable ruling

called Hoffa's project a "piece

Hofja

Teamster

biggest newspaper warned that public opinion

that he

from Judge

of unmitigated gall."

And

Letts,

the presi-

135

dent of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association part of Hoffa or any of his

"We want no

said,

goon organizers."

Hoffa had expected Schmidt's reaction.

And

the

PBA's angry

response was, of course, also highly predictable. But the

rest

of the

sentiments, which were paraphrased by literally hundreds of other influential sources

completely by

throughout the country, seemed to take him

transportation league. Three weeks after his original

of the organizational drive, he called the campaign

The

through collective bargaining. a

would have

announced if

And

they

off.

flatly,

come

to

want security would not turn help from them. But the right to

the Teamsters

deaf ear to any pleas for organizational

police

announcement

nation's police officers, he proclaimed in a statement issued

Washington headquarters, had every

at his

as

surprise as he had been in the case of his proposed

approach the IBT. Police organization, Hoffa

"will be undertaken

by the Teamsters Union only

to us seeking such organization."

These two reversals were, however, the only ones Hoffa's collective bargaining

(as

opposed

to his activities

mar away from to

straightforward labor relations) record in this period. Otherwise, his efforts as

The

head of the Teamsters brought considerable success.

membership grew by some 132,000 (to 1,567,000) in the year preceding May 1959, and this was particularly impressive given the significant membership losses suffered by many other union's

unions in

this

same period of

national

economic

recession.

The

now of the $840,000 annually AFL-CIO but also as a direct result of

Teamster treasury, the beneficiary that the

IBT had

this increase in

paid to the

dues payers, contained an all-time-high dollar total

of $40 million. With the need to observe boundaries

now

ress in recruiting

tions

as

retail

workers

clerks,

in

jurisdictional

such nontraditional Teamster popula-

airline

employees, and egg farmers. tion, the

AFL-CIO

removed, the union had registered marked progstewardesses,

And

furniture production

Hoffa's special area of concentra-

widening of the scope of the over-the-road truck driver

bargaining unit, continued to be a fruitful one for him. Hoffa's area-broadening accomplishments in the central and

southern regions of the country had already been pronounced. 1955, essentially

under

a single

Chapter 6

all

road drivers in the twenty-two

master labor contract,

states

at least for their

By

worked

economic

136

But Hoffa was

stipulations.

dissimilar agreements that in the

West and

now

busy converting the myriad of he had inherited

as provisional president

East, too, into a relatively few, comparatively uni-

form ones.

When Dave Beck made in 1957, there

were

Coast domain.

from union

his inglorious exit

office

thirty-five road contracts in his old

still

West

By

the end of the following year, Hoffa had replaced

these with

a single

master contract that paralleled the Central States

document

in

many of its

there

were

the East Coast, also, the

was making

strides.

new

Even though

sixteen different trucking contracts there, Hoffa had

still

brought them

On

aspects.

Teamster chief executive officer

much

to a

closer conformity with their non-Eastern

Upon their respecdown their number as

counterparts than they had ever had previously. tive expirations, he fully expected to whittle

well,

with an eye toward

his ideal total

of one:

nationwide

a single

trucking agreement.

In these

months, too, despite

all

of the governmental and other

unsought extracurricular demands on offer his services to his

and

around the country.

literally

his time,

huge membership

Hoffa continued to

virtually

He was by

around the clock accounts, as he

all

frequently boasted, a "working president" and, while he reveled in

was receiving from

the popularity that he fully recognized he

dedicated constituents, he

was

he must continue to earn

it.

intelligent

He remained

constant travels to meet the rank and

was even nearer to them. I

about to give

By most it.

The job

work it

up

"I like this

[at it] is

if

it

More

own

in their

was

"near as the often, in his territory,

job," he once told

an hour of pleasure,"

he could help

standards,

file

his

to understand that

at least as

he so often reminded Teamsters.

telephone," as

"every hour

enough

12

he

a guest;

and he was not

it.

in fact nice

work

if

you could

get

paid the then-handsome stipened of $50,000 annually, a

figure that

would be

increased in 1961 to

most highly paid union ued to receive $15,000

make

official in the nation. a

its

incumbent the

And Hoffa

also contin-

year for simultaneously presiding over

Local 299.

No

less

penses" for

generously, the Teamster constitution covered "all exits

travel expenses

Hoffa

chief executive. Into this category

fell,

explicitly,

without limit "for the purpose of promoting the

Can Take Care of Hoffa

137

and welfare of the international union and the making of

interests

diplomatic contacts for other organizations and for the purpose of

conserving his health." So did the taking of "periodic rests" for the president, and allowance for the leader "in his discretion [to] travel

country

in this

with the approval of the general executive board,

or,

abroad." And, of appeal to

was

also

made

for the "full

a

dential] wife so that she can

was

It

nice, too, to

flight

engineers

sneak

a

look

would

And

accompany

like

Hoffa, provision

that airline pilots

and

come back

just to

they had been told was

among

leave their cockpits and

whom

presi-

the general president."

known

be so well

at the celebrity

the passengers.

devoted husband

and complete maintenance of [the

mere presence

to recognize that one's

in a

Chi-

cago hotel lobby or Boston restaurant could be counted upon to

among

generate considerable excitement

room. And

management

nars,

people

who

the other people in the

to be asked to be the guest speaker at university semi-

conferences, and testimonal banquets honoring

themselves were major names,

Working conditions

in

over the country.

all

Washington were not bad,

town, Hoffa supervised Teamster

affairs

from

a

In

either.

magnificent five-

story glass-and-white-marble headquarters building, built in 1955

by Beck

The

for

what was

at

the time the princely

sum of $5

structure occupied a full block of prime District of

real estate

— on

U.S. Capitol with

more

Columbia

Louisiana Avenue, just across the street from the its

spacious and well-manicured lawns, pictur-

esque fountains, and attractive dogwoods. (even

million.

so since the doubling of

its

It

exuded,

size in

as

it still

does

1977 with the con-

struction of an annex), extreme luxury: bronze-framed floor-toceiling picture

windows; corridor columns covered with imported

Venetian mosaics; tors' table in the

Teamster

a

marble-finished hundred-foot lobby;

a direc-

primary conference room (one of many), which

literature distributed at the building's dedication described

"one of the two

largest in the

United States"; expensive wall-to-

wall carpeting and

custom-made

draperies throughout; and ornately

as

paneled lounges in abundance. Its

designer had also incorporated in

variety of private a

it

bathrooms complete with

a

penthouse terrace,

built-in showers,

a

and

474-seat auditorium containing not only elaborate equipment for

showing motion

pictures (which

Beck used

to do, free

to building personnel) but a costly lectern duplicated

Chapter 6

of charge,

— according to 138

the union

— only by another one

comfortably accommodated

number

one-quarter that

White House.

in the

however, work

did,

It

could have

Only

four hundred persons.

at least

there,

were invariably impressed by the spaciousness

and

visitors

as well as

by the

opulence of the place. building was also, quite probably,

The Teamsters headquarters

the only union base of operations in the United States with a French chef: Jean

Grihangne, formerly of

Seattle's

Olympic Hotel, whose

man Hoffa

sophisticated offerings even the meat-and-potatoes

in-

variably enjoyed (Hoffa also, as general president, got table service in the dining

English;

room,

Beck had

luxury of his own:

a

steam room,

a

of

services

John

recruited Grihangne, but Hoffa had soon after his

added

installation

with

as did the international secretary-treasurer,

others had to serve themselves).

all

a large variety

$50,000

a

tiled

gymnasium

of glistening barbells, and the

Swedish masseur, John Hansen. For the exercise-

a

conscious Hoffa ("Weight on the seat of my pants slows

down my

brain" was a favorite Hoffa expression), the latter addition was even

more of a contribution

employee demand

since

engagement of

to the building than Beck's

But Hoffa seemed

the chef had been.

to stand alone in this belief,

gym

for the

and

its

offerings invariably

way behind the demand for Grihangne's food. Once, indeed, when the IBT leader tried to implement a daily exercise program lagged

for

headquarters workers strictly on

all

a

one underling was inspired to participate

in

voluntary basis, exactly it.

The

idea

was quickly

shelved.

Hoffa's 305-6,

was

own

fully

its

vista

in the building.

walnut-paneled

It

this luxuriance.

mahogany desk and

massive, nine-foot chandelier,

the

office,

compatible with

a

third-floor

far the best

a private elevator, a forty-

eight-button intercom system, soundproofed doors,

dowed

a

magnificent Scandinavian

of the Capitol Hill grounds was by

came complete with

Suite

Highlighted by

a liberally

en-

bar (for guests but not for the teetotaler Hoffa), and built-

in highest-quality television

and stereo

sets. It

had inch-thick beige

carpeting and expensive burnt-orange drapes. All of these accoutre-

ments, as in the case of the building

itself, testified far

more

grandiose lifestyle of the sybaritic Beck than to Hoffa's

modest heady

Hoffa

values.

stuff, a

But

for a

symbol

poor boy from

that he

Can Take Care of Hoffa

had

now

Brazil,

own more

Indiana,

totally arrived

to the

it

was

and yet one

139

more reason

hour

for considering each

as

IBT

president "an hour

of pleasure."

On

many

the

of job

level

when

occasions

Washington, there was

the "little

The man who

satisfaction.

guy" was away from

another contributory factor to his high

still

actually ran the day-to-

day operations of the headquarters, Hoffa's handpicked executive assistant as well as the first vice-president

Hoffa associate relationship

who

enjoyed the

latter's

of the union, was an old

complete confidence. The

between Hoffa and the able Harold

close, in fact, that

when

J.

Gibbons was so

they were both in Washington, the two

top Teamsters lived together in an expensive suite

Woodner Hotel overlooking Gibbons had

the District's scenic

one of the two most important

also served as

of the 1956 Hoffa Testimonal Dinner in Detroit and of the subsequent

trip

by Hoffa,

who accompanied them The

tall,

cialist intellectual

to Israel

his daughter,

who had

coordinator

and Europe. a

former so-

taken Keynesian economic courses

of Chicago and Wisconsin, met

universities

as

Park.

officials

and the many others

second-in-command Teamster was

slim,

the upscale

at

Rock Creek

at

the

his future wife at a

socialist-sponsored peace rally, taught English, and gotten his start in the labor

movement by

organizing

his fellow adult education teachers. a

a

Chicago union made up of

But he was no

newspaper reporter had once described him

four-letter

words

to

as a

effete

highbrow:

man who

"uses

convey four-syllable ideas," and he had been

pleased by what he had considered to be the total accuracy of the statement.

He

city's Retail,

had

wound up

later

had merged

Gibbons had come a

of that

Wholesale and Department Store Employees Union,

and eight years

when

in St. Louis in 1941 as director

to

group of gangsters

this

know

operation into the Teamsters.

Hoffa well in the early 1950s,

(the so-called Irish Buster

Workman

IBT Local 688 away the rapidly rising Team-

gang) had threatened to wrest control of his

from him, and he had responded by asking ster

Hoffa for help in thwarting

this project.

Hoffa had provided

Gibbons not only with advice ("Arm your people. Shoot the son of a bitch

who comes

in the

door of the union

first

hall to take

over") but with an offer of a personal bodyguard to protect the

St.

Louis leader, and Gibbons had accepted both. But Hoffa had been equally impressed

men

left a

Chapter 6

by the toughness of Gibbons: once, when the two

particularly acrimonious

Teamster-employer bargaining

140

Hoffa reportedly said with admiration, "Gibbons, there are

session,

some men

in Detroit

who

me

dislike

— but those fellows back there

you." 13

actually hate

Toughness was not the only

common

denominator for the two

men. The youngest of twenty-three children (Gibbons had never

met

of them and by the 1960s could not even remember

all

how

many of each

sex there were), Gibbons was also a coal miner's son

whose

had died when he was quite young (fourteen years

father

and whose mother had then moved the family from

old, in his case)

an impoverished mining town (Archibald Patch, Pennsylvania) to (Chicago). Gibbons was also highly intelligent and a

a large city

master labor negotiator. Gibbons,

have been lacking back in

ily,

like Hoffa,

And

in professional ambition.

Louis, lived in a house that

St.

more impressive than

was never the

said to

Gibbons fam-

was not appreciably

the very modest Hoffa residence

on Robson

Street in Detroit.

But there were many pronounced with

his socialistic

member of

differences too. Consistent

background, and with

his present status as a

the board of the Americans for Democratic Action,

Gibbons espoused

a

brand of social unionism that was very

much

at

variance with the Hoffa bread-and-butter labor philosophy. While leader of Local 688, the St. Louisian had introduced such progressive

programs free,

comprehensive Labor Health

as a

prepaid medical and dental care for

moved

years before other unions

groceries

file

home

their families

There was no

nursing care that Gib-

and both prescription drugs and

utilize,

A "community

at cost.

the complaints of

all

on

civil rights.

to

view

this

steward" system, to forward

citizens against the city's administration,

hallmark of Gibbons's

Many

local, as

was

was an unyielding stand

foreign labor leaders had

come

to St. Louis

progressive operation in person and had invariably

A

come away

impressed.

688 and

social innovations. (Hoffa never held these

its

providing

the latter were bought at the Local 688 grocery store)

(if

were offered a further

could

members and

in this direction.

charge, either, for the legal advice and

bons's rank and

Institute,

book had even been written about Local "egghead"

tendencies, as he called them, against Gibbons, and he often told visitors to the

because Harold

Hoffa

Teamster building is

here.

We

Can Take Care of Hoffa

don't

that "I can get out in the field

let

him push

his social ideas."

He

141

with pride that Gibbons was "not

also frequently said

longhair

a

but a practical Teamster.")

And

were other

there

Gibbons

differences.

husband notwithstanding, had

a

wom-

well-deserved reputation for

him about

anizing (Hoffa used to rib

also, his status as a

both

his sexual escapades,

frequently and good-naturedly, but he could never fully understand

how

married

a

man

could engage in them). Where Hoffa considered

both drinking and smoking to be "wastes of time,"

well as detri-

as

mental to physical well-being, Gibbons engaged in both with no self-discipline at in

most of

all:

sustained in his sophisticated drinking tastes

his other living habits)

imbibed regularly and hol

by

well, rarely having

any problem with alco-

once, however, he did arrive at an important Hoffa-

(at least

conducted meeting

in

an obvious liquor-induced glow, causing the

Hoffa to immediately announce,

ascetic

smoked

journed"); he

"This meeting

And

cigarettes almost continuously.

could

only

with extreme charity be called even an

dresser

—

much of his

for

he favored cheap

life,

white socks (because "dark socks make graded his wardrobe only

prevailed

on him

to

my

feet

do so

to

— Gibbons's

and

ties,

sweat") and up-

the

in

it

Hoffa

average

old

suits,

ad-

is

if

when Josephine, embarrassed by

uncomplimentary references

quent

(as

expense account, he

a liberal

the fre-

press,

finally

tastes in attire ran to the

expensive and well tailored.

Gibbons was,

in fact, an

extreme hedonist.

tronized the best restaurants in town, stayed

when

traveling,

more

austere superior did not.

of pleasure on linkage of the

no

little

and otherwise

his part that,

two

at

He

invariably pa-

the fanciest hotels

tried to live life to the fullest, as his

And

in a

however

strange bedfellows.

way

it

was

this

very pursuit

paradoxically, explained the

As

Brill has

pointed out with

insight,

Jimmy Hoffa offered Gibbons a different class war. With Hoffa he could personally jump right over to the other side of the class barrier. He might have done do

it

Yes.

while

But

it

by going into business or a profession, but

still

fighting for his workers.

that unionists could be brash

pocket money. That he yielded

— and

Chapter 6

.

.

to the

this

way he

Here was

.

.

.

and powerful and have

temptation

took the chance Hoffa offered

could

Hypocrisy and simple greed?

especially understandable in Gibbons' case.

showing him

women

.

to

to

Hoffa, lots

of

dominate men — and

ride high,

live well,

and

142

play sexual conqueror

world where he had been born as the

in a

twenty-three hungry faces in the crowd

not surprising.

is

who

Hoffa also had two equally competent lieutenants fill

in for

Gibbons when he was away from the

Joseph

Konowe

local there, often

of

came

New

and was to to the

know him

end of Hoffa's

a big

affairs.

He had

of Columbia.

and value

closely

this friendship

but he was very

life,

to

met Hoffa

first

could

merchandising

Washington on temporary duty

to

Teamster headquarters

ister

District

York, head of

of

last

14

much of

adminin

1939

enormously a disciple

of

Gibbons's social brand of unionism. Lawrence N. Steinberg, from Toledo, another

also flew in to pinch-hit

oped

a

a close

Gibbons approach,

liberal unionist favoring the

when needed

at

Hoffa confidant

— even

the helm; he, too, devel-

him

strong attachment to Hoffa, gave

total loyalty,

would be

the slightest hint of scandal; like the Teamster also,

both were

IBT

(into

idealistic

CIO

and Gibbons for

living with Hoffa

while. Like Gibbons, neither had been or ever

and was

first

tainted

a

by

vice-president

alumni, totally dedicated to both the

whose ranks they had brought their respective CIO local movement. Highly literate and relatively ur-

unions) and the labor

bane men,

all

three contrasted sharply with the tougher types

much

part of the

were understandably,

if unfairly,

were

still

very

Each of the three had

his

Teamster landscape, and resented by the

own

the

first official

man who had

latter.

a better

Teamster im-

He

set

public relations department (directed

by

seldom acted without

up the IBT's

who three

style.

Gibbons, convinced of the necessity for age,

all

a

regard for the outside world.

handled the same function for him in

John McCarthy), and supervised

its activities,

St.

Louis,

which included the

production of highly favorable biographies of both Hoffa and himself.

The monthly

ticularly

International Teamster

magazine was another par-

important Gibbons concern,

and while Gibbons (and

Hoffa) allowed

IBT

it

to

have

relative

autonomy,

its

feelings about the

leadership were fully predictable: monitor Schmidt quickly

complained of "the blatant manner

in

which the [magazine had]

been used consistently and almost exclusively for the purpose of self-glorification

and

propaganda." 15

The

attractive,

college-

educated Gibbons also was not averse to boosting the Teamster

image by accepting outside speaking

Hoffa

Can Take Care of Hoffa

invitations

and continued to

143

preach his impressive gospel of union values ("Business ethics aren't

good enough other places,

for trade unions"

was

a favorite

theme)

at,

among

Harvard, throughout his Washington executive

assis-

tant days.

Konowe and internalists

Steinberg,

on

were very much

the other hand,

but with a definite difference in their approach to office

management. Konowe was an inveterate hoarder of paper. "Konowe saves everything," a student of the Hoffa headquarters had once tersely observed.

16

The

New

Yorker had been

of

in charge

the 1957 convention's credentials committee, had suffered personal

embarrassment when the Eden Roc Hotel maid had accidentally disposed of his committee records, and was not about to have this

happen

to

that

little

him ever again. Steinberg, in came across his desk worth

stark contrast,

found very

"Much of Jimmy saying

saving:

recently reminisced, "consisted of letters to

would believe in Jesus, you wouldn't have all you do,' and that kind of thing." He was an

he

it," 'If

you

the problems that active user of the

wastebasket.

With Gibbons had

also

come

several other able additions to the

headquarters staff beside McCarthy. Sidney Zagri, a Harvard

School product

who had

community involvement, was brought Teamster with

a

Law

headed Local 688's ambitious program of

legislative department:

in to establish

he launched the

and run

a

new

latter's activities

novel approach to fund raising, asking each of the almost

1.6 million Teamsters to contribute, voluntarily, 50 cents

monthly

IBT political purposes, and followed this up with invitations to all 435 House of Representatives members to come, two dozen at a time, to breakfast at a leading Washington hotel. From the Gibfor

secretary there,

also, came Gibbons's former personal Yuki Kato Keathley, who now became Hoffa's pri-

mary

and her husband, Ferguson,

bons

a

Louis operations,

St.

secretary,

major position

Two

in the union's national

other former Gibbons staffers

first-rate additions to Hoffa's

made

a

own

who was promoted

warehouse

who were

to

division.

thought to be

entourage were Richard Kavner,

troubleshooter for the general president, and Peter Saffo,

brought to Washington

as a

somewhat lower-ranking

presidential

assistant.

For

all

of the Gibbons imprint, however, Hoffa was quite accu-

rate in asserting, as he often did, that

Chapter 6

IBT leaders were "not

theorists

144

but practical people." With the downfall of the Minneapolis Trot-

noteworthy Teamster

skyites in 1941, the sole

effort at social

reform

was ended. Notwithstanding the influx of theorists into the organization and the increasing interest in political action, the theorists were of and the

influence in the international's policy determination,

little

political action

avowed

overriding

bore

strongly pragmatic flavor.

a

goal remained very

much

The IBT's of

in the tradition

words of the union's chief economist, "to

Samuel Gompers:

in the

improve the

of the union's members within the existing social

status

and economic system."

was any abiding

If there

dent's office,

however,

philosophy

social

in the general presi-

was not one of liberalism but of mitigated

it

A description by Zagri might be said to typify a rather

conservation.

generally held sentiment in this regard: Jim's credo

not too dearly thought through yet, but events are forcing

is

him to think

through. There are times

it

speaking of the

and

class struggle

the rugged individualist

who

so on.

has come

when he sounds

But he has

Big Business, and

He

free enterprise system, the greatest possible business profits

He

hair"

—

,

to

believes in the

and

the survival

of the marketplace.

rules

Government

Big

fears

Marxist,

a great admiration for

to the top in

a large extent he's bought the values of Big Business.

of the fittest under the

like a

because he feels that

—

particularly

the

governmental

"long-

doesn't understand the problems of industry

it

as well as labor unions or businesses, or the

two of these mutually, under-

stand them and each other. In this sense, he's a 19th Century liberal. But he's also

pragmatic enough

necessary in

many

areas

ment compensation. nies giving a

He

—

to

can't,

35-hour week

way

by

his

workers when these companies have

He feels

realistic

that only the

enough

union was necessary

to recognize that

as a defensive

what he

called

some

measure.

political

He

Hoffa

we

will die."

"What we

Can Take Care of Hoffa

sin-

by

"one of the greatest anti-union cru-

sades in history," and he told his

back,

to

Government can do

cerely believed that his presidency coincided (not necessarily

accident) with

be

to

unemploy-

for example, see the sense of trucking compa-

to their

—for everybody.

Hoffa was also action

Government happens

social security, medicare, automation,

face fly-by-night competition. this the right

see that Big

membership

that if "we don't fight

gain across the bargaining table," he

145

frequently warned,

"we

could lose by the stroke of the pen of

a

McClellan."

But the approach was never and earthy. Zagri's new

doctrinaire, always hard-headed

arm was

political

diplomatically

named

Democratic, Republican, Independent Voter Education (DRIVE),

monthly

and, as Hoffa wrote in one of his

International Teamster

columns, I say

He

it

time

is

back

to turn

didn't advocate that

we

to the political

advise [sic] of

He

vote for Democrats.

.

Gompers.

.

.

didn't advocate that

we

vote for Republicans

He

advocated that

polls.

.

.

we reward

.

To make our political tive, I

our friends and punish our enemies at the

suggest that

can, but rather,

And

units at the local union

we

the perspective

UAW's

level effec-

Democrat or

a Republi-

a

is

17

was anything but

of such an abstract concept example, the

man

ask not whether a

he a friend of labor?

is

and joint council

was

pursuit

for others

—

to the bargaining table

with the words, "Well, Walter, what's today's burning social sue?" Hoffa told Paul Jacobs,

suggest to

him

ment?

I

said,

want

home

amazed

What do you

that!

to

my own

you

were

that

I

here.

call (the

have enough trouble

I

not, as he frequently

he once stated in

a

speech to

running of it is

a

union)

a business, instead

business. We're not labor

a

of

a

states-

We're not humanitarians or longhairs. Look, what do

hire us for?

European

as

too narrow,

far

am, the State Depart-

I

"Everybody who writes about me seems

Local 299,

crusade or something. Well,

men

think

members." 18 He did

change society. Or,

is-

that ex-socialist writer dared to

don't want to get into world politics.

taking care of

his

when

that his leadership horizons

me

"Don't give

for

Walter Reuther, whose management counter-

Motors once welcomed him

part at General

The

far-reaching.

as social justice

Is it

situation?

to

Or

throw is it

Dave Beck could not have

a picnic for

to sell

said

it

you?

your labor

any

at

Is it

to study the

the top dollar?"

19

better.

Hoffa's staff also included a large battery of attorneys, headed

by the two men who had done so much disposition" that had

and

his partner

Edward

tions practitioner

Chapter 6

let

him

take office,

to design the "magnificent

Edward Bennett Williams

T. Cheyfitz, and by respected labor rela-

David Previant. Some 150 lawyers, only

a

few of

146

them working out of the headquarters building, collectively comwhat its members deemed the "Teamsters' Bar Association."

prised

Most were some,

were experts

them so well

that he

standard of living for

once

glish,

also very

a driver

much

many of them and

John EnBoston, was

international secretary-treasurer,

of teams of coal wagon horses

in

of the marble palace's brain

a part

he

had "singlehandedly doubled the average lawyers in the country."

all

The septuagenarian

Hoffa

in criminal jurisprudence.

good-naturedly complained that there were so paid

although

specialists in either labor or transportation law,

like Williams,

He was

trust.

invariably accorded great respect by the rarely deferential Hoffa,

who

called

him

"chief," both out of gratitude for his support and

of English's own huge popularity among the memThe wooden-legged secretary-treasurer (he had lost a leg to gangrene some years earlier) in turn ensured that the Hoffa presidency would not suffer from a cash flow problem. He guarded the

in recognition

bership.

union's treasury so carefully that Hoffa once told a visiting reporter,

with

a

money was

twinkle in his eye, "You'd think the

The manager of

of

all

this administrative

large maintained his considerable

because Hoffa had survived so

aplomb

many

visible

own." 20

machinery by and Perhaps

in these days.

outside onslaughts in such a

short period of time, perhaps also because he

prominence had been

his rise to national

his

little

was

aware

fully

that

short of meteoric, the

jaunty optimism that had always tended to mark his ap-

proach to

life

A

never seemed to desert him for long now.

small

plaque that he had placed on the nine-foot mahogany desk in his

bore

office

dum"

exhortation,

Latin

the

— roughly,

"Don't

let

"Illegitimi

the bastards

non Carborun-

wear you down." And,

December

despite the monitors (and his deep disappointment at the

ruling of Judge Letts), the courts, the McClellan committee, and

the

AFL-CIO, Hoffa

at least

most of the time practiced what

it

preached.

A

visitor

who

hadn't seen

him

in

almost eighteen months com-

mented, in March 1959, that there was "not There's

still

the

same

stay." a

21

.

.

[In] general,

own

he wears an

firmly in the president's seat

Another observer thought

sense of his

Hoffa

is

.

that

— and

change.

handshake

direct gaze, the quick smile, hard

and easy conversation. confidence that he

much outward .

.

is

.

there to

"Mr. Hoffa has developed

invulnerability to successful prosecution.

Can Take Care of Hoffa

of

air

.

.

.

147

thumbed his nose unconcernedly as he [has] rolled past all Government and labor." 22 The Teamster president was frequently described by a national press that was now, un[He

has]

his detractors in

derstandably, devoting increasing space to his activities as "self-

possessed" and "self-confident" and sometimes,

less flatteringly, as

"cocksure" and "arrogant."

Nor for

did the

Years

it.

owner of this self-esteem ever make any apologies Hoffa was to say in an interview published,

later,

improbably, in Playboy Magazine (the prudish union leader had originally refused this interview, claiming that he didn't in a

"magazine with

tits

relented), "Certainly,

don't have any

enough

A man

to be

finally

don't have an ego, he

money and he -don't have any ambition. Mine's big wanna do." 23 He often said with obvious

do the job

to

on the back of my picture," but had got an ego!

I

want

I

of

pride, in a variant

same theme, "Hoffa can take

this

care of

Hoffa."

He was encouraged by

encomiums

the occasional

ceived from respected labor relations experts ness School's eminent

mid-1959

that

James J. Healy,

for example,

Hoffa might yet "emerge

labor leaders of

time

all

schooling in sin."

24

On

.

.

.

some of

that he re-

— the Harvard Busiwho

asserted in

one of the outstanding

as

the greatest saints had their

the other hand, the negative publicity that

he was generally accorded by the media typically seemed to have little, if

any, effect on him.

Years

earlier,

he had been easily upset by journalistic attacks

upon either his record or his power. He had actually told one newsman, apparently in all seriousness, that the latter would some day scratch himself on his typewriter and die of blood poisoning. With equal gravity, he could assert to various audiences that the probable

reason

why

tended to

Now

he had such

make

a

poor press was

a great deal

only an unusually

more than

a

skull-littered

him

as a

highway tunnel

U.S.A." and saying "Leave things latter ilk;

could arouse him.

as

they

and beyond some cartoonists or play their high school

skills to

A

club-wielding caveman labeled

are,

"Truck Route,

or else!!" was of this

an enraged Hoffa within hours of its publication told

twenty-five hundred Boston Teamsters,

Chapter 6

did newspaper reporters.

vitriolic contribution

Boston Herald cartoon that depicted

guarding

that his truck drivers

"My

responsibility

editorial writers

who want

some is

far

to dis-

embarrass you and possibly put you

148

in prison."

(The cartoonist, Jim Dobbins, thereupon himself paid

compliment scored

But

this

"I'm pleased that

to Hoffa's basic imperturbability:

— he seemed such was

a

the exception. Hoffa as Teamster president freely gave

com-

all

perhaps because, as one former key Hoffa aide believes, he

"felt

running away from journalists was an admission of guilt."

that

He

appeared, indeed, to be genuinely convinced that he had

committed no wrongdoing of any kind. When

seemed

that he

court

trials

him by

to be leading a

charmed

and the many potentially

life,

AFL-CIO and

26

on one occasion

told

given the results of his

made against "Who's lucky if

fatal allegations

the McClellan committee, he retorted,

they can't find anything wrong?"

As

for the contentions

the monitors that his union

of the

was racket ridden, the

Teamsters Union "has never been corrupt. Our organization

comparable

its

fin

frequently asked visitors,

He

"Why

should

and often told

also believed,

right."

And,

as

wife, children,

advertising that

And

they like me. So

on

— actually

Bobby Kennedy

America." 27

be nervous?"

when unfavorable

that I'm

concerned about

must be doing something

is

to be pleased

giving me.

million dollars."

a

worried about the

portrayals

I

in

he had done for two years, he professed

and others

kind of publicity for ciently

I

life

his family

news about him broke, "The only people are the Teamsters.

is

degree of sinful behavior] to any group of

1,600,000 persons in social, religious or business

He

I

hard guy to penetrate with ridicule." 25 )

interviews, subject only to time constraints, to essentially ers,

a

his fragile

effects

to his free

buy

that

couldn't

I

He was

—

with "the

nonetheless suffi-

of the uncomplimentary Hoffa

spouse and worshipful children to

together whenever he could anticipate a major

news

call

them

story about

himself and give them the "true" version so that they would not

be taken unawares. (One kind of report that invariably surprised the

members of his immediate

his use

family,

on the other hand, involved

of profanity: four-letter words were second nature to Hoffa,

but he never swore rately attributed to

Concern course, and

at

home, and quotations

him

were quite accu-

consistently astonished his loved ones.)

was always

for family it

that

a

extended well beyond

paramount Hoffa his

own

value, of

three dependents.

IBT headquarters building told Konowe that they had proof that Robert Kennedy was "picking up bills for women and prostitutes and keeping them in hotels." Once, two shifty-eyed

Hoffa

visitors to the

Can Take Care of Hoffa

149

For $10,000, they announced to the Hoffa lieutenant, they would

hand

this

proof over to the general president.

who was

information to Hoffa,

to "kick

vehemently directed

Asked about

Konowe

relayed the

and was

in the building at the time,

them

and send them out."

in the ass

Hoffa explained that he did not want

his reaction later,

to embarrass Kennedy's wife and family. The Teamster leader had

another reason too: Kennedy had respected Josephine's private

life

by not forcing the shy wife to testify in any of the Hoffa proceedand Hoffa, for

ings,

all

of his negative feelings toward

much

antagonist, very

primary

his

shown

appreciated this thoughtfulness

his

spouse.

Now, all sides,

generally

uncowed by

the forces pressing in

the cocky Hoffa set his sights even higher.

on him from

He waged

an

ambitious organizational campaign in Florida, bringing upon him-

by

self a strong attack

governor

that state's

keep out of Florida. The

less

we

("I

wish Hoffa would

By

of him the better").

see

an effort, he also renewed chances of open warfare with the

CIO:

such

AFL-

the Teamster president staked out, and successfully swept

employees

into his union's ranks, such federation-sought

as

Tampa

Miami-based Pan American World Airways

brewery workers,

stock clerks, northern Florida citrus grove workers, and

Miami

Beach hotel doormen. Hoffa then announced

a plan to battle a

for the right to represent thousands

men

in

Puerto Rico, publicly

new AFL-CIO union

of truck drivers and warehouse-

vowed

to

compete against federation

unions wherever they had been "derelict" in organizing workers

and spoke of unionizing almost ten million

in their jurisdictions,

governmental employees ganized in toto")

—

in

all

("It will

cases,

be necessary to organize the unor-

without any visible regard for feder-

ation sensibilities.

He also,

according to the Associated Press, said that

enacted legislation putting unions tor

McClellan and others were

under

now

if

advocating

(to

tent because of Hoffa himself), the Teamsters might

some

all."

had obliquely at

the 1957

28

called

Hoffa and

man who

"crooks and racketeers"

convention, deemed this strike threat "the

most arrogant, brazen thing

Chapter 6

his cohorts

primary

employers

Secretary of Labor Mitchell, the same

AFL-CIO

large ex-

"call a

strike all across the nation that will straighten out the

once and for

Congress

the antitrust laws, as Sena-

I've ever

heard in

my

life,"

and Hoffa

150

soon thereafter denied having made stood by

As

its

But the Associated Press

it.

guns.

for the monitors, the Letts

December 1958

decision not-

withstanding, Hoffa continued to treat the edicts of the three-

member

panel strictly as nonbinding recommendations.

On more mem-

than one occasion, he was reported to have said to the board

"O.K., you've advised me; your advice

bers,

is

rejected."

He was

hopeful that the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would dissolve

Judge

Letts's ruling

when

rendered

it

its

verdict in the near future.

was soon

In this latter expectation, he

to be disappointed. In

unanimously

mid-June 1959, the three judges of the higher court upheld almost

of what Letts had ordered. More than

all

gave the monitors than the six

a

good

more

deal

in the

they

that,

way of specific powers

Hoover Administration appointee had bestown upon them

months

earlier.

Now,

if

Hoffa rejected any recommendations of

The would then investigate the recommendations, amend them where it deemed such modification advisable, and send them back the panel, the monitors could take the matter to federal court.

court

Any

subsequent

court.

There was

to the provisional president as official court orders.

noncompliance would put Hoffa to

be no more foot-dragging by

Warming

in

contempt of

the Teamsters.

to their theme, the appellate court judges also

dated that Hoffa

now must

man-

investigate charges of misuse of union

funds outstanding against two of his close associates, and that the

Teamster leader had as

soon

be

his best friend,

as possible.

the McClellan ies to

to take appropriate action against each

One was

the

man whom Hoffa

of them

considered to

union vice-president Bert Brennan, accused by

committee of wrongly diverting union welfare mon-

pay the boxer Embrel Davidson. The other was Ray Cohen

of Philadelphia, the Local 107 leader (and international trustee)

had taken the Fifth

Amendment

when asked whether he had Teamster money into

his

before the Senate Select

misdirected thousands of dollars of

own

pockets. In Brennan's case, proceed-

ings for discipline "should be instituted forthwith."

ceeded in blocking the inquiry into his court injunction. said that

The

assuming

the disciplinary process for

Hoffa

activities

Cohen had

by getting

suc-

a state

appeals court judges in this latter situation

Hoffa "should make

tion set aside and,

who

Committee

Can Take Care of Hoffa

a

good

faith effort" to get the injunc-

that this

was done, then

get

on with

Cohen.

151

And

the higher court further called for: the expulsion

IBT of two Chattanooga H.

L.

union

local

officers,

from the

Glenn W. Smith and

Boling, for allegedly using their local's funds to get criminal

indictments against twelve other Teamsters quashed (or "fixed") in a

Tennessee court; an audit of the books of Teamster Local 245

Springfield, Missouri, accused of

a variety

the suspension of convicted extortionist official

of two Teamsters

John

irregularities;

McNamara

J.

upgrading the caliber of union

He

Hoffa remained unruffled.

in

an

as

New York City; and several other

locals in

specific actions geared to

of blatant

officials.

expressed confidence that the

U.S. Supreme Court, with which another Teamster appeal would be

filed,

would upset

ruling.

this

anyone

He

membership

insisted that the

He

was

free to elect

that

employers with criminal records could (and sometimes did)

pleased to union office.

it

from him and

across the bargaining table

pointed out sit

"men have walked

that

out of jail and been elected to Congress." And, while none of these freely offered considerations

unwelcome

on

his part

alter the

appellate decision a whit, he could even take comfort

from one portion of the ruling

itself:

nent on the board of monitors,

now had

The

could obviously

court found that the

New

Schmidt, his foremost oppolittle

choice but to resign.

York lawyer had

had originally contended, been

in a conflict

indeed, as Hoffa

of interest situation

because he represented employers in their dealings with the union.

Schmidt,

pending

who

a decision

disqualified

him

as a

officially resigned

on the board

technically could have remained

by

Letts as to

whether the

conflict

of interest

monitor, did not, however, go quietly.

because the union was conducting

a

He

"contemptu-

ous" campaign of "retaliations and reprisals" against him.

He

nounced

reform

that "there can be

no reasonable hope of

of the teamster organization of Hoffa and

his clique."

29

had not yet paid him for

.

.

.

while

it

is

internal

an-

under the domination

Nor could he resist adding that the union many services that he had rendered as a

monitor. For other services, he had been compensated only after

long and unconscionable delays.

draw from a

the panel since

member of his own law

its

firm,

Also going out not with

He became

the third

man

to with-

implementation and was replaced by

a

whom

he had recommended.

whimper but with

a

bang was an-

other force that had dogged Hoffa ever since his installation as provisional president, the

Chapter 6

McClellan committee

itself.

Now

nearing

152

impro-

the end of its two-and-one-half-year investigation into labor prieties,

it

brought back Hoffa for yet another interrogation

—

his

fourth round and, counting each separate Hoffa appearance before the

committee

as a distinct entity, his thirteenth actual visit to the

hearing room.

The primary objective of the senate agency this time was to show that the nation's most famous unionist had done essentially nothing to clean up the Teamsters, the federal court order notwithstanding.

was

pothesis It

And

knowledge

the committee, secure in the

now

correct,

pulled out

all

that

hy-

its

the stops.

asked Hoffa about the two Tennessee

IBT

officials

who were

believed to have tried to quash the indictments against their constit-

produced

witness

who

Ohio's Teamster

uents.

It

leader,

William Presser, with the solid support of Hoffa, installed

a

testified that

nonunion, ex-convict brother-in-law local. It

as

an

of

official

Crum, who

elaborated on the charges that Schmidt

had publicly made, both recently and many months ing

Cincinnati

a

brought forth another witness, ex-monitor Schmidt's attor-

ney, Bartley C.

had

a

some $105,000 due him from first tried

to "starve"

involv-

earlier,

the Teamsters: Hoffa, said

Crum,

Schmidt out of his monitorship by refus-

ing to pay the monies to the point where the electricity in Schmidt's

home was

turned off for nonpayment of

Crum, Hoffa had

new

monitor's fees

resigned from the board in favor of this deal,

then, according to

amount

offered to pay Schmidt the six-figure

(plus another $45,000 in

of

bills;

Crum would

Crum

now

due him)

himself.

As

a

if

he

condition

be expected to favor the Hoffa position

in his voting.

Yet another per,

testifier, a

contended that

carried

a

on the paper's

top executive of a Detroit daily newspa-

Teamster under Hoffa's

direct control

was

full-time payroll although he did almost

no

work except for showing up briefly on Saturday nights, because "we want[ed] to avoid any trouble." And still a further feature of these last select

committee hearing days was an allegation

had once declared, "In the Teamsters Union every

and has

his vote counted,

and

God

help

him

if

man

that

Hoffa

stands

he votes the

up

wrong

way." Hoffa, on the witness stand, unequivocally denied categorically rejected further

committee allegations

that

all.

He

also

he had "be-

trayed" his unionists by negotiating inferior Teamster contracts in

Hoffa

Can Take Care of Hoffa

153

return for monetary favors

from employers and

union money to finance

own

to

all

cus

of his

earlier

Room, when

his

that he

had misused

personal expenses. And, in contrast

performances in the Senate Office Building Cau-

despite

moments of rage and temper he had tended

with respect (and even to deal with chief counsel

to treat the senators

Kennedy, most of the time, with a certain cool detachment), he now stood by his statements and his actions far less politely.

He

shouted, "I think you're sick,"

young attorney of taking

a

at

Kennedy, accused the

Hoffa quotation out of context for

headline-making reasons, and threatened to sue him for "casting aspersions on

my

loyalty to this country"

by indicating

that

Hoffa

shared the values of the allegedly communistic secretary-treasurer

of the International Longshoremen's Union, Louis Goldblatt ("I'm dealing with Goldblatt like our Secretary of State deals with

shchev," Hoffa yelled).

The

interaction

between John

F.

most famous witness, never notable far less cordial

than

it

Khru-

30

Kennedy and for

for example, inquired of Hoffa

its

warmth, was

When

ever had been.

the committee's

now

also

the future president,

whether some $20,000 that he had

invested in a business with an employer representative the racetrack winnings that Bert

came from

Brennan had, according

to Hoffa,

shared with him, the following dialogue ensued: Senator Kennedy

I

have never been completely convinced, Mr.

Hoffa, to be frank with you, that Mr. Brennan did win this

money

at the racetrack.

Mr. Hoffa

Why

Senator Kennedy

Mr. Hoffa

don't you ask him? I

did,

and he took the Fifth Amendment.

Maybe he had

Senator Kennedy

I

a reason.

think he does have a reason.

You

suggested that

we ask Mr. Brennan. Mr. Brennan took the Fifth Amendment when he answered the question, and have never considered that I

that

was

a satisfactory

several people,

money

explanation of the cash you had or that these

business agents,

who

to survive, that they loaned

themselves had to borrow

you S2000

in cash

without any

note or without any interest.

Mr. Hoffa Thank you for reviewing the testimony. Senator Kennedy

Chapter 6

Does

it

suggest anything to you, Mr. Hoffa?

154

Mr. Hoffa

It

doesn't suggest anything except this

you have many times

trying again, as

headline about or to embarrass Hoffa. That

No.

Senator Kennedy these hearings

am

I

come

fact, that

in this hearing, to

you

are

bring

a

is all.

attempting to give you

my

reaction, as

where the cash might have

to a close, as to

come from. 31 Mr. Hoffa Then you ought to read the record.

When

Senator Kennedy, referring to labor reform legislation

was currently co-sponsoring,

that he

again listening to for the passage

when

of the

this bill is

Hoffa snapped,

the best

still

after

argument

"I reserve the right

.

.

.

passed to advertise to every worker in America

who

the individuals

bill,"

"Mr. Hoffa,

asserted,

you today, you do remain

voted to put the yoke around their necks and

destroyed their union." (The Massachusetts senator thereupon in-

formed him, "So there passes

you

will be

will attempt to

the Teamster,

"You

do

bet your

no mistake of

that," life

I

it,

prompting

hope when

I

a final riposte

will advertise."

it

by

32 )

Even Chairman McClellan was not spared the Hoffa anger. When the Democrat from Arkansas, presumably misinterpreting a

comment by Hoffa concerning "Let

witness,

done

.

to fix a

.

.

me

inquire,

the use of

.

.

.

the Tennessee Teamsters, asked the

Mr. Hoffa, do you approve or con-

union funds for the purpose of undertaking

judge?" he was rewarded with

"I don't believe

I

am

a testy

here to be ridiculed."

33

response from Hoffa,

On

the union leader instructed the chairman, with ence, to "let

me

finish the question I've

another occasion,

no apparent defer-

been asked."

And, away from the hearing room, Hoffa vented even more spleen

on

his interrogators, singling the

special attention. In a speech

ances, he told the

Kennedy brothers out

made between

his

for

committee appear-

Western Conference of Teamsters

that the

Kenne-

dys had "probably sunk to an all-time low in attacking Teamsters before the committee on pure hearsay."

He and

other

members of

the IBT, he said, had been "harassed" out of "a desire to seek a

headline

—

to destroy an individual." Referring to Senator

Ken-

nedy's now-announced political aspirations, he said that the Ameri-

can public "ought to

know what

type of individual

[is]

34 As for the pending presidency of the United States."

seeking the legislation

supported by the aspirant to the White House and others, Hoffa

Hoffa

Can Take Care of Hoffa

155

jumped

many

gun

the

— indeed,

on

most

his

promise

to

advertise:

of

staple

a

— HotYa speeches and interviews now was

charge that "the tw o rich Kennedy boys are trying to get T

a

a

law

passed that will destroy the entire American labor movement."

A

few days

HofFa round had been concluded,

committee publicly released

the select

Teamster

after the fourth

leader in the

form of a

with deja vu for the millions of people mittee's activities ever since Hoffa's

new

denunciation of the

who

first

had followed the com-

appearance before McClel-

August 1957. the report

lan and his colleagues in its

a

special report to the Senate. Replete

among

stressed,

of twenty-one charges, Hoffa's previously emphasized con-

total

nections to the sinister figures Corallo,

and

Johnny Dioguardi. "Tony Ducks" to the shadowy Joe

"Red" Dorfman and

Paul

Holtzman.

The

two men,

the document reiterated, had helped Hoffa York locals into the Teamsters, following which Hoffa and they had executed contracts calling for low wages and poor working conditions for the covered employees with first

bring the several

Hoffa's

New

And Hoffa had done nothing

full blessing.

the situation even after

it

had been,

"brought to public light"

in the Senate hearing

Dorfman. "the corrupt labor

Midwest mob

leader

at all to

terminate

committee report's words,

in the

who

room.

introduced [Hoffa] to

society," together with his stepson Allen and his

wife Rose, allegedly had to date received more than S3 million in

commissions and service

contracts.

It

"for a set of insurance brokers in the field

handling Teamster insurance

fees for

had been "a handsome return," the senators noted,

and no

office space

who up

had absolutely no experience

until a

few months before Hoffa

m

early

1950 and 1951." The report estimated that the Teamsters paid

SI. 65

successfully

maneuvered

the insurance business to

million in excess commissions and fees to the

Leo Perlman, the

official

them

Dorfmans and

to Dr.

head of the Dorfman-controlled Union

Company. Even worse if possible, the IBT members were "literally digging into comfortable living for the Dorfmans and their

Casualty and Life Insurance senators charged, while their jeans to assure

cronies," their benefits under the health and welfare plans were significantly curtailed.

The committee clared: a total

Chapter 6

of

itself

six

had done

a

great deal of digging,

man-months had been

spent by

its

it

de-

staff in

156

scrutinizing the linkage of Union Casualty and Life Insurance to the

Central States Health and Welfare Fund and to the smaller Michigan

Conference of Teamsters Health and Welfare Fund. "The evidence is

Hoffa used these two funds to pay

clear," the report said, "that

off a long outstanding debt to the Chicago underworld."

And,

months

lest

have been forgotten since

it

earlier in the

to

end

some or

all

of

a

first

made many alle-

$17,500 reputed payoff

Teamster dispute with the Detroit

a

was

McClellan committee hearing room, the

gation that Hoffa received

ing

it

Institute

— through the middleman Holtzman — was

of Launder-

also registered

once

more. "In the history of this country," the report charged,

be hard to find

members

a labor leader

or his trust."

who

"it

would

has so shamelessly abused his

35

Hoffa's immediate reaction to the press was a simple, four-

worded

one,

"To

hell

with them." His amplification was no

less

my

record of achievements for the workers

beside the record of Jack

Kennedy or Bob Kennedy any time."

predictable:

"I'll

And, returning

place

to a now-familiar refrain, "This

to get a headline in Jack

expense."

A it

that

at

my

36

possibly apocryphal but nonetheless widespread story has

committee counsel Kennedy, driving back

Virginia,

home one

immediately turned

McLean,

to his

night following a typical eighteen-hour

day, noticed the light

to

another attempt

is

Kennedy's campaign for President

on

in Hoffa's

his car

Teamster Building

around and went back to

his

work-

office.

own

He

office

spend yet more time trying to get the goods on Hoffa. Hoffa, for one, was himself quite willing to believe this ac-

count.

He

Edward Bennett

even, according to

far as to leave his office lights

on intentionally

Williams, went so

after he- did leave his

Kennedy away from

third-floor suite for the night, in an effort to trick

into

repeating the performance. "If this kid don't get

this

[obsession with Hoffa]," he told a reporter while the hearings were still

going on,

"he'll crack up.

I

talk to

people

who go

to parties

with him, to his home, and they say he's got one topic of conversation.

Hoffa. He's got to flip."

to be concerned

by the

37

caliber

The Teamster

leader professed not

of his opposition

— "He's

not the

brightest fellow in the world," he frequently said of the "kid"

Hoffa

Can Take Care of Hoffa

— but 157

he was fully aware of the intensity of Robert Kennedy's interest in

him and of Kennedy's dry comment,

"My

first

love

is

Jimmy

Hoffa."

Nor was the Harvard graduate's preoccupation with Hoffa known only to a favored few. Even the Washington Post's gossip columnist, Maxine Cheshire, could report about the time that Ethel Kennedy stopped for a red light near Capitol Hill and, pointing to a building in the vicinity, asked the several little Kennedy children

who were

passengers in her

"What's up there?"

car,

A

chorus of

"The Teamsters Union," whereupon the wife "And what do they do?" "Work overtime to keep Jimmy Hoffa out of jail!" was the immediate response, prompting from Ethel an "And?" "Which is where he small voices replied,

of the committee counsel asked,

belongs!" shouted the children, happily.

A

variety of motives,

been imputed to Kennedy's

many

F.

relentless pursuit

phenomenon

entirely pure,

of Hoffa.

To

have

this day,

primarily to political ex-

Kennedy's younger brother quite visibly had pub-

aspirations of his

was thought

And

some of them not

opinions attribute the

pediency. John lic life

38

own;

McClellan committee days, he

in the

to covet particularly the Massachusetts governorship.

the presumably vulnerable Teamster president constituted, in

this version, a

wholly tempting target

as a

springboard to such

a

career.

A was

corollary has been built around the fact that Robert

also an entirely

as the latter

devoted

sibling.

A

himself so frequently contended, would greatly improve

the chances of the older Kennedy's labor reform

and thus produce cap.

An

Kennedy

successful expose of Hoffa,

bill's

being enacted,

a definite feather in the presidential candidate's

investigation into such a glamorous field as labor racketeer-

ing (with special emphasis on the premier suspected racketeer)

would

also give the Massachusetts senator,

nationally

known

figure, television

still

in

1957 not really

a

exposure that could perhaps be

gained in no other way. Self-respect has also been attributed: Robert

ing to this school of thought, was the Capitol

dome"

fiasco in the

still

Kennedy, accord-

smarting from his "jump off

Cheasty

case;

he could offset

this

public embarrassment only by proving Hoffa guilty of something, anything. Hoffa himself, of course,

had advanced

his interesting In-

dian hand-wrestling theory as a further reason: as was noted earlier,

Chapter 6

158

the

first

time that the two

men had

ever met

—

in

Kennedy,

ess.

at

—

home in Chevy Chase, Maryland he had humiliKennedy by beating him, twice, in this test of physical prow-

Eddie Cheyfitz's ated

February 1957

and thus

in

in turn,

acknowledging

presidency, frequently joked that he

dethroning Beck

his role in

paving the

unintentionally

way

now

had

for a

a

Hoffa IBT

"debt to repay

to society."

Whatever the

validity

of these various explanations, the

reality

Kennedy primarily went after Hoffa because he came to think that in pursuing Hoffa he was maintaining the rule of law. He saw the head of the Teamsters as the leader of a gigantic conspiracy against the judicial system itself. He believed, from all "the most of the evidence apparently quite sincerely, that the IBT powerful institution in this country aside from the United States Government," he often called it was riddled with corruption. It would never get rid of this corruption, in his opinion, as long as Hoffa was its leader. He had no doubt that the great majority of seems

to be that

—

—

Teamsters, including Teamster

But he run his

also believed that the

as a

officials,

were thoroughly honest.

union under Hoffa was frequently not

genuine labor union

at all. Instead, as

he was to write in

1960 book, "As Mr. Hoffa operates [the Teamsters],

conspiracy of evil."

this is a

39

Committee were impressive two and one-half years of interrogation, it conducted over five hundred open hearings on 270 days. The testimony of its 1,525 sworn witnesses, 343 of whom took the Fifth Amendment, filled a staggering 46,150 pages of fifty-odd volumes and consumed over fourteen million words. Its staff of more than one hundred persons, including thirtyFinal statistics for the Senate Select

by any standard.

In

five investigators

and forty-five accountants, traveled over 2.5 mil-

lion miles.

Over

its

eight thousand subpoenas were served and almost

130,000 documents were photostated. Help from not only the Federal

Bureau of Investigation, but the Internal Revenue Service, the

Bureau of Narcotics, and the General Accounting Office was ally

liber-

provided. State and local police departments and investigative

agencies also participated.

1957-1959

dollars,

came

The

full

cost of the investigation,

to $2 million,

making

it

the

in

most ambi-

tious such congressional activity in decades.

Hoffa

Can Take Care of Hoffa

159

Three decades this effort

enacted in tion,

later, a

tangible and significant result of aD of

remained, in the form of

a labor

September 1959. Senator John

cosponsored with

his

M.

league, Senator Irving

F.

reform law that was

Kennedy's

Republican McClellan committee col-

had languished

Ives,

in the

through the Senate. But Kennedy had played

sailing

own legislaHouse a

after

major role

in seeing the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959 through to passage.

constituted his only important legislation as a

and

the efforts

of the

framers

bill's

setts

many

mulative effect of the

member of Congress, Phillip Landrum

— Congressmen

as well as the

Massachu-

facilitated considerably

by the cu-

of Georgia and Robert Griffin of Michigan, senator — were undoubtedly

It

widely-publicized charges related to

Hoffa. Officially

named

Labor-Management Reporting and Dis-

the

closure Act, the law brought about, for the

time in the 150-

first

year history of American labor unions, the detailed regulation of internal

union

Persons convicted of such serious crimes

affairs.

as

robbery, bribery, extortion, embezzlement, aggravated assault, and

grand larceny were barred from holding any union office for five

Union members were guaranteed an ambitious and far-sweeping "Bill of Rights." The latter, among other fiats, provides for equality of membership rights in union elections, which must be held at regular intervals and either by secret ballot years after conviction.

or at a convention of delegates chosen by secret ballot, with

all

candidates also being guaranteed the right to have an observer at the polls and at the ballot counting.

It

establishes strict standards to

ensure that increases in dues and fees are responsive to the desires

of the membership majority. financial reports

to

by union

And

officers

maximize the chances

that

it

mandates the

filing

of annual

with the U.S. Secretary of Labor,

union monies will be spent in the

of the membership rather than of the officers. The Landrum-Griffin Act also restricted union activity externally in two important ways. It closed some loopholes that had interests

developed cotts

in

labor

existing

— union economic

activity

at

another employer that

It

also

is

law

concerning

waged

against one

secondary

boy-

employer

to get

the actual subject of the union's interest.

outlawed so-called "hot cargo" arrangements whereby em-

ployers

would agree

in a contract

with

their

union not to handle

products of or otherwise deal with another employer involved in a

Chapter 6

160

As

labor dispute.

of the internal reforms, the Teamsters

in the case

and the specter that the Congress had conjured up of power corrupting served as a major spur to this second facet of the

The

act

was not

mammoth

mittee's

new

legislation.

com-

the only visible result of the McClellan

moreover, Beck's inglorious career had

efforts,

— the Bakery

been ended. The heads of other international unions

and Confectionery Workers, the Textile Workers, and the Operating Engineers after the als

— had

been forced out of

also

Within

office.

year

a

committee had gone out of business, over twenty individu-

from the ranks of labor and management had been sentenced

prison terms. Indictments were

now

also

of Hoffa's closer associates, including

to

pending against several

who would be who would

Bill Presser,

convicted of contempt of Congress, and Barney Baker,

go

to jail for

course,

of

fect

two

been ousted from this

occurrence

all

failed in

still

what was obviously

ran the Teamsters.

to the lucrative return

of the Hoffas and the Brennans

its

major

not been

of Teamster welfare fund

money

in

Sun Valley, and

to the

ment store. He remained very much what Chairman McClellan had called

some of

on investment

co-owners of Test

as

and Brennan's unpublicized option

easy

He had

of the charges linking him to Dioguardi, Corallo,

Dorfmans, and Holtzman,

election of

the ultimate ef-

remained to be seen.

But the committee had toppled despite

the Teamsters had, of

AFL-CIO, although

the

still

single objective: Hoffa

the

And

years for extortion.

John W. Thomas depart-

in charge

notwithstanding

the "just plain scandalous"

his delegates at the

way of Frank Kierdorf with

Fleet, to his

to his lending

1957

IBT convention,

the

matches, and the intimidating

organizational techniques of the colorful Baker.

Hoffa maintained spite the attempts

his presidency,

albeit "provisionally," de-

of counsel Kennedy and others on the committee

to establish his support

of Joey Glimco, Glenn Smith, Bernard

Adelstein, Frank Matula,

Gus Zapas, and scores of other possessors most of whom had looked on television

of major police records, exactly as gangsters

were expected

to look: jewelry bedecked,

loudly dressed, and giving the impression that they might smell, as a

McClellan committee

a cross

visitor

between Chanel No.

the job regardless of

what he

5

once said of their perfumery, "like

and musk of moose."

said (and

He

still

held

most members of the com-

mittee did not believe) were Bert Brennan's racetrack winnings.

Hoffa

Can Take Care of Hoffa

161

He had

survived notwithstanding the boxer Embrel Davidson, the

extortionist

Sam

Ray Cohoodlums" Zigmont Snyder and

Goldstein, and the suspected embezzler

hen, in the face of the "notorious

John Bitonti, Paul "The Walter" Ricca, and all of the other topics on the committee's long agenda of alleged Hoffa wrongdoings.

Whether or not he belonged

in jail, as the

whether or not he was

supposedly chortled,

a

Kennedy "very

children had

evil influence in

the U.S.A.," as their father had frequently described him, Hoffa

had completely weathered the onslaught of the and

its

tions that Hoffa had violated the law in his union,

all

of

many ways

conten-

its

governing

in

had proven nothing. The assumption of guilt

Kennedy and many of

Committee

Select

vigorous prosecutor. The committee, for

that counsel

the senators had patently imputed to the

Teamster president could not remotely be equated, from the evidence presented, with the establishment of guilt

quantum of evidence

certainly

was not enough

The required

itself.

to hold

up

in

any

courtroom.

Hoffa as

faced major, present threats

still

John Bartlow Martin could write

his

at

from the

the time, in the conclusion to

widely read seven-part senate investigation

Evening

Post, if

courts. But,

series in the Saturday

he could surmount these imminent other problems,

"the investigation, which has

made him

a national figure

and has

him an identity few public men possess, may someday seem him like an almost unmitigated blessing." The committee, Mar-

given to

tin explained,

both

his

may

rank and

well have strengthened Hoffa's position with file

and

lesser

Teamster

Hoffa with the former, by creating cuted

little

underdog

ment," and with the for the lesser

batting average

was

a

It

had helped

public image of the "perse-

stood up to the United States Govern-

latter,

many of them

he goes,

As

who

leaders.

because they were stuck with

go."

him

— "if

40

Teamster leaders themselves, the committee's really not

much

better.

To

the basic senatorial

contention that the union was permeated with corruption, VicePresident Gibbons submitted the following specifics, none of which

apparently were ever seriously questioned: of the 106 names of re-

puted Teamster racketeers and hoodlums that had been mentioned

by the committee during

its

existence, 16

names could be located were union members

nowhere

in the union's files; 9 other people

who had

never been IBT officers and who, under the law, were not

Chapter 6

162

only entitled but usually required to be Teamster members

by

their respective

if

hired

employers; 34 others no longer had any Teamster

connection; and 8 others had been arrested but never convicted of

Of the

a crime.

remaining 39 people, Gibbons noted, 26 had been

convicted of misdemeanors or felonies before employment by the

Teamsters or election to said to be lawbreakers

and holding

office,

office.

This

left

exactly 13

who

could be

who were still members of the Teamsters men had arrest records

and

and even some of these

relating to disorderly

conduct or

was hardly

traffic violations. It

union whose membership was

now

bad record for

a

2 million, the

second-in-command Teamster pointed one was, the

for an investigation as ambitious as this

not

far

a

below

out. In fact,

results consti-

tuted "a case of the mountain having labored and brought forth a

mouse." 41

The committee's lining in

of this.

all

If

chief counsel professed to see a definite silver

Hoffa and

his lieutenants

had been forced out

of office by the investigations, Kennedy often argued, the LandrumGriffin

Act most probably would never have been enacted. Hoffa

and the others

who

held their union offices "despite over-

still

whelming evidence of corruption," he wrote in his best-seller, constituted "the symbol in the minds of Congress of what needed to be corrected. ... In the long run, the legislation and the awakening 42 of the public are what are important."

But he could not possibly have been say time and time again

happy when John

F.

I

see a

man

as

like

Hoffa

Kennedy's sentiment by

be supported by any union differently.

pleased. His brother

he ran for the presidency, "I still

free"

it

was primarily

how

— and Robert Kennedy

Moreover, the younger Kennedy had

further fact that

am

he, indeed,

not

— Hoffa reciprocated

asserting, "I don't see

member"

would

to live

who had

he can felt

no

with the

ousted Beck

and thus allowed Hoffa to ascend to the IBT presidency. Presumably, the ambitious attorney

was

aware

also

that as chief prosecutor

he had shouldered the major responsibility for building an tight case against his adversary,

mance

—

that

and

that a

more

of an Edward Bennett Williams, say

skillful

air-

perfor-

— might have put

Hoffa away. Williams had, in his adroit

Hoffa

fact,

been Hoffa's ranking lawyer ever since

handling of the Cheasty

Can Take Care of Hoffa

case.

And on

close reflection

163

Robert Kennedy could take consolation

in the actuality that

he had

come up against a recognized master. Kennedy might also have gained solace from a recognition that much of what he was trying to prove about Hoffa was fundamentally unprovable. For example, as arbitrator George W. Taylor pointed out at the time, "The exact line of demarcation between 'sweetheart' contracts and the exercise of labor statesmanship

drawn."

readily

43

Nor

can

a definition

is

not

of an "excess commission"

Dorfmans admitted they received were twice the normal rate

for an insurance broker be easily provided: the that the

commissions

that

for the industry but argued that the Teamsters only paid the stan-

dard percentage and that the enterprise during

the latter It is,

with

designed to finance the

rest,

early years,

came from monies

from other operations of

in addition, a

its

no crime

Dorfman

transferred to

company.

the parent insurance

be on the friendliest of terms

at all to

mobster.

Hoffa himself, despite

moments of

his

was no

vulnerability,

slouch on the witness stand, either. Poised, quick-witted, and enor-

mously knowledgeable, the any badgering from

a chief

thing that he

last

who was

counsel

would

accept

was

quite capable of such

behavior (Kennedy had asked Glimco, "Morally you are kind of

yellow inside, are you not?";

Amendment on one a truthful

answer

when

Beck, after taking the Fifth

occasion, had informed

in this situation

it

Kennedy

might tend

the counsel had told him, "I feel the

that if he

gave

to incriminate him,

same way"; and when

Momo

"Sam" Giancana, described by Kennedy in the hearings gunman for the group that succeeded the Capone mob," showed a surprising tendency to giggle as he took the Fifth AmendSalvatore

as

"chief

ment, Kennedy remarked, "I thought only Giancana"). Although the committee in

little girls

its

giggled,

Mr.

final report scoffed at

Hoffa's testimony as "a curious and practically unfathomable mixture of ambiguity, verbosity, audacity, and mendacity,"

was

in reality a skillful

fulness,

and patient elaboration of

a

the

mix

mingling of stout denial, convenient forget-

up by the taking of the response by

44

Fifth

man who was

relatively

by proxy,

it

minor

details.

constituted a

Backed

formidable

withstanding the most prolonged inter-

rogation ever given anyone by

a

congressional committee either

before or since.

For

Chapter 6

all

of this, there could be no denying that Kennedy himself

164

had made mistakes. There had been no

no

real focus in his attack,

centerpiece such as the Dioguardi-Hoffa connection had temporarily

(but only temporarily) appeared to be and around

sive,

ever

more

specific case for

which

wrongdoing could be

and over

impact for that reason alone. than

time span so large

a It

seemed

to

many

Under

built.

Kennedy's direction, the case against Hoffa was presented shot, superficially,

perva-

a

scatter-

diminish

as to

to be nothing

its

more

expedition, an effort to scrutinize every conceivable

a fishing

area of Hoffa's activities with the

might emerge.

It

hope

that

something incriminating

gave the impression, to the U.S. attorney general

of the time among others, any usefulness in court.

It

of being too amateurish to have

was not Kennedy's most impressive

endeavor.

Not and

just once but twice, then

now

in the case

—

in the

John Cye Cheasty

— Hoffa

man

thought

had publicly bettered Kennedy. Even though the that he

had shown,

as

he said

in

television following Hoffa's final

summing up

latter

his case

.

.

.

on national

committee appearance,

Hoffa has made collusive deals with employers union membership

trial

of the related McClellan committee

sold out the union

.

.

that

"Mr.

betrayed the

.

membership

.

.

.

put

gangsters and racketeers in important positions of power within the

Teamsters

.

.

[and] misused union funds," Hoffa

.

Kennedy's opinion, eluded justice.

Kennedy,

who

also

the evil that Hoffa represents for

hard grind

all

along

and for myself.

go

to waste."

I

It

now reminded

—

am

had again,

was an untenable

the public that

two and

in

situation for

"we have fought

a half years. It's

been

a

who work on our committee lie down and see all that work

for the people

not going to

45

The Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field would soon thereafter go out of existence, and its chief counsel would have to sublimate his anti-Hoffa feelings, at least for a while.

the unionist.

As

But he was

his father

able neither to forget nor to forgive

once said of Kennedy, "Everyone in

family forgives, except Bobby."

Hoffa

Can Take Care of Hoffa

He would

get Hoffa,

some

my

day.

165

The Lengthening Shadow of the Law and a Stunning Triumph

Even

as the business

of the Senate Select Committee was grinding

to a halt, the embattled Hoffa

the government.

The

latter,

still

from

faced other very real threats

as expected,

had

lost all interest in

prosecuting the Teamster chieftain on charges that Hoffa had lied in the original

grand jury wiretapping investigation.

viewed the chances of proving Hoffa guilty of perjury Clellan committee testimony regarding the boxer as

being sufficiently slim

of action, too.

as to justify

Two more

troubles

it

now

in his

Mc-

And

Embrel Davidson

an elimination of

coming down

course

this

the road

toward

Hoffa, therefore, had vanished before they had ever gotten to him. In

two other

arenas,

however, the government was

far

from

inac-

and the threats were consequently more meaningful for the

tive,

union leader.

One of

these involved an ambitious joint effort

by the U.S.

Departments of Justice and Labor to separate Hoffa from dency by toppling what the government saw

By October

his support.

from

New

illegalities

York City

to

as the

his presi-

foundation of

1959, at least a dozen grand juries spread

Los Angeles were looking into possible

committed by Teamster

leaders loyal to Hoffa.

More

than twenty-five indictments had already been brought against jor Hoffa backers in such key

cities as

New

Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Miami, and Los Angeles. ditional ones

A

seemed

Ad-

inevitable.

few of the indictments, which were

for misuse of

ma-

York, Philadelphia,

typically levied either

union funds or for extortion,

hit the labor leader

home,

especially close to

was

Midwestern organizer Barney Baker

New

with

whom

he

York's John J. O'Rourke, Philadel-

Ray Cohen, Cleveland's William

phia's

men

since they involved

New

particularly friendly.

and the inimitable

Presser,

So did

into this category.

fell

Jersey's swaggering, intimidating gangster

Anthony "Tony

Pro" Provenzano, whose Local 560, with almost fourteen thousand

members, was one of the Provenzano,

reputed

a

seemed so much it

largest

As

IBT

to

remove him from

office,

an order

president had steadfastly defied.

of

a further part

this

combined

and Labor project,

Justice

Secretary of Labor Mitchell promptly invoked the

Act and

Griffin

locals.

Genovese crime family,

the

doer of bad deeds to the Board of Monitors that

a

had already ordered Hoffa

that the

of the international's 920

member of

its

enumerated major crimes from holding union after conviction.

ten days as to

new Landrummany

provision barring anyone convicted of its

By

office for five years

telegram, he ordered Hoffa to report within

what the Teamsters were doing

to

comply with

the

provision.

Hoffa,

a

few days

thereafter,

announced

that he

ery local union, through the joint council presidents,

anyone on the payroll only five

IBT

that

officials to

is

had asked ev-

"Do you have

wrong? Get them out," and had found

be in violation of the Landrum-Griffin

conviction stricture. All five were, he pointed out with

now on

nation,

notified Mitchell, "that our investigation

who, ity

as

some

indig-

leaves of absence. "Please be advised," he then

of this date,

is

fails

to disclose

any person

serving the international union in any capac-

contrary to the provisions of [the

new

law]."

1

In an

accompany-

ing announcement for public consumption, he could not resist

adding that the speedily dispatched wire from the labor secretary

showed

that Mitchell

had been insincere

drum-Griffin would not be used

as a

from the Board of Monitors Letts,

that

a

September 1959, request

to the official creator

Hoffa be stripped of

of the board,

his presidency for

violated the judge's original clean-up order.

funds,

promising that Lan-

witch hunt.

More immediately ominous was Judge

in

Board Chairman O'Donoghue and

having

He had misused union

the panel's rank and

file

representative argued (the Teamster monitor appointee refused to sign this request to Letts),

The Lengthening Shadow of the

by allowing some $675,000 belonging

Law

to

167

his

home

any

Local 299 to be on deposit in three banks without drawing

interest.

The

biggest of these tainted accounts

was one

that

had already

been given wide publicity by the McClellan committee

in 1957: the

$500,000 in the Florida National Bank of Orlando. $500,000 loan to the Sun Valley,

as security for a

development to

buy

in

which Hoffa and Brennan had

a significant

chunk of

stock.

their

hidden option

Sun Valley had

in default

on the

balance. Hoffa

the strong suggestion of the monitors, tried to

what

to let him,

and he was currently suing

it

believed to be

Neither Hoffa's attempt that the

Teamsters had by

($50,000 in a

made any

New

at

this

its

in at

remove

remain

in

regaining the

money nor

the fact

time closed the two other accounts in an Indianapolis one)

by allowing

banks without drawing interest

lowing the Letts January 1958 decree, contended the two

formed the

in an

to force such a return.

York bank and $125,000 to

the local's

latter,

contractual rights, had refused

difference to the monitors, however. Simply

any union money

point

was now

remaining $400,000 from the Orlando bank, but the exercise of

at this

had recently,

repaid one-fifth of that loan. But the development

bankruptcy and

had served

It

Inc. real estate

panel's anti-Hoffa majority,

fol-

men who

Hoffa had flaunted the

fiduciary standards established in the court order.

For good measure, the monitors added Letts that Hoffa's option

ued to hold for almost

And,

on the Sun Valley

Judge which he contin-

in their request to

stock,

a year after the order,

was another

violation.

just in case this did not convince the jurist that Hoffa should

be removed, they also argued that the subject of their appeal was defying the IBT's constitution by continuing to serve

as president

of Local 299: the constitution, they pointed out, explicitly called for the union's international president to "devote his entire time to the service of the international brotherhood."

Most observers thought, quite justifiably as it turned out, that the last charge would not prove to be very persuasive. Tobin had regularly taken time from his presidency to serve as labor chairman of Democratic national campaigns, and Beck had spent hours almost every day on his

weekend

own community

and business

interests.

The one

month that Hoffa tended to spend in Detroit supervising home local hardly seemed vulnerable, particularly twenty-hour workdays and seven-day workweeks that he

a

the affairs of his

given the

Chapter 7

168

typically did devote to the service of the international. Finally, the

union's constitution gave the international's executive board the

power

approve or disapprove

to

all

of the president's

and

activities,

members of this body, essentially all of whom themselves more than one union position, could hardly be ex-

the fifteen

presently held

pected to begrudge Hoffa his Local 299 presidency. Multiple job

holding was

a

deeply embedded

and had been for years;

officials

way of life among high Teamster and a man sufficiently high up in

the structure could quite legally amass a very respectable

serving

as, say,

chairman of

seemed

president of his local union, head of his joint council,

and an international vice-president.

his conference,

likely, then, that

even

if

the monitors did pursue this consti-

would negate another. The Sun Valley situation appeared

June

Supreme Court

circuit court decision that

with more

to be fraught

November 1959 announce-

difficulty for Hoffa, particularly after a

the U.S.

It

one portion of the IBT constitution

tutional tack in the courts,

ment by

income by

would not review had strengthened the power of that

it

the

the

monitors so appreciably. But even here the star-studded Hoffa legal staff, still

ing the ouster

headed by Edward Bennett Williams, did succeed

IBT

trial

president

in

for optimism.

sought by the monitors by issuing so

stays, rehearings,

Court

some grounds

and appeals

that the docket

many

Sun Valley

trial picture:

they

representatives of the media

any such

who was

that he could

— but

spending so

of course, joking,

is

at-

out of the

— he now told

to step aside. In Letts's opinion,

filed, a self-disqualification

by the

became automatic.

much time

comment, "I'm going

lawyer myself before long."

on which Hoffa version

in various

to be able to

And while

courtrooms

hang out

a shingle

the ninth (or, depending

accepted, seventh) grade dropout was,

many of

his close associates believed that

circumstances been different for a

him no choice

alleged to be prejudiced

now

bow

an affidavit charging him with

filed

was properly

affidavit

Hoffa was

as a

petitions for

Washington was overwhelmed by them. And Hoffa's

bias against Hoffa, thereby allowing

judge

in giv-

delayed the

of the Federal District

torneys even, in April 1960, got Letts himself to

if

It

had

him he would probably have made

formidable attorney. His superb retentive powers, knowledge of

details, analytical ability,

his lawyers.

and persuasiveness were envied even by

Moreover, he possessed

The Lengthening Shadow of the Law

a

genuine interest in the law,

169

own

an interest that had already been whetted appreciably by his

brushes with illegality and that would only deepen as his personal

problems grew. Despite

legal

his general

eschewing of reading, he

delighted in scrutinizing legal cases, which were often sent to

by lawyers and law school professors. He would frequently abilities

of his

own

battery of lawyers by asking the latter

questions about these cases, and he sometimes astonished

He

his personal insights into the subject matter.

hesitant to

make "suggestions"

most often

as helpful

As fession

ones

— by

for Hoffa's desire to

—

at

also

him

test the

numerous

them with was never

— which were invariably accepted, his counselors.

employ

so

many members of the

pro-

one point during the McClellan committee hearings,

he was using the services of no fewer than one hundred of

them

— Hoffa attorney Jacob Kossman probably explained

accurately. In addressing

Judge

Letts's replacement,

don't

said: "I is

know

bold and

if

Mr. Hoffa would

fearless,

like

me

to

Kossman

tell this

He

but he's afraid of the court.

himself with more lawyers than

I

quite

the seventy-

nine-year-old Federal District Judge Joseph R. Jackson,

He

it

or not.

surrounds

believe he should. That includes

me. What he's afraid of is technically violating the law." 2 Subsequently arguing before Jackson, in there should be fided,

"We

to destroy

no Sun Valley

trial,

late

April 1960, that

the theatrical

have come to the conclusion that

Kossman con-

[the monitors] are

Hoffa and take control of the Teamsters.

.

.

.

This

out is

a

big prize, this union, $60-million in assets, 1.6-million members, a

fabulous fortune." defense,

from

And Kossman's

distinguished colleague in the

David Previant of Milwaukee, declared

a needless

removal from

office could

works 20 hours

chief executive officer

a day,

the lowest grievance to a major negotiation."

and

their several fellow

in vain.

The man who

have to stand

trial

more swayed by

who

"damage as

on everything from 3

But the two men

also addressed the jurist

spoke

replaced Letts quickly ruled that Hoffa did

on the Florida-based charges. Jackson had been

the contentions of the monitors that Hoffa had not

honored the fiduciary cial

lawyers

that the

be irreparable. Hoffa

rules

imposed upon him

in the original judi-

order than he had by any of the defense arguments.

The

trial

would be

a civil

and not

a

criminal one, since Hoffa

had been accused not of stealing the funds, just of mishandling them.

It

Chapter 7

was

clear to

all

concerned, however, that

it

would be

170

another harrowing experience for

man who, by most

a

had already had enough such experiences

unknown now seemed

The only held. The Hoffa

standards,

to last a lifetime.

when

to be

the

would be

trial

wasted no time following

legal cadre, as expected,

the Jackson verdict in seeking a temporary stay, and the appellate

court granted this delay.

Even

better

from the provisional

court of appeals also ruled that the it

president's viewpoint, the

trial

should not take place until

had heard other pending appeals related to the Teamster-monitor

dispute.

These covered

a territory that

was

as

wide

as the

imagina-

They ultimately totaled thirty-eight, tion of the Hoffa to which were added nine mandamuses and three petitions for writs of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court by a defense force that was reluctant to forfeit any opportunity. They included a Hoffa legal talent.

contention that under Landrum-Griffin

(which,

ironically,

the

union had so vehemently opposed) Hoffa could not be removed

from

by the court even

office

members,

it

Another appeal asked

cers.

And

still

he were to be convicted: only the either elect or oust their offi-

immediate presidential

for an

election.

another one insisted that either the pro-Hoffa or anti-Hoffa

forces could block any court

Board of Monitors This

if

was argued, could now

if there

nominee

to the chairmanship

were "reasonable grounds"

last appeal, registered in

July 1960,

of the

for so doing.

stemmed from what The

could be construed as both good news and bad news for Hoffa.

good news was

that

O'Donoghue had now,

He had

resigned his position. sor

— who,

in

complete frustration,

support of Schmidt's succes-

indeed, had in the recent past been accusing

O'Donoghue of "being had

lost the

also reached the

obsessed with getting Hoffa."

end of

his tolerance for

Washington law firm and being bothered

at

being picketed

in

But the bad news

bowing out of

the

for

at his

home by anonymous

late-night telephone calls, activities that had plagued

time.

Chairman

O'Donoghue

him

for

some

Hoffa was that Judge Letts (who, even

Sun Valley

situation,

had retained overall

monitorship jurisdiction) wanted to name former FBI agent Terence F.

McShane

Shane,

who

to succeed

twice testified against

welcome

O'Donoghue. The appointment of Mc-

had investigated Hoffa on behalf of the bureau and had

to the

him

in his

Teamster leader

The Lengthening Shadow of the

Law

wiretapping cases, was about as as that of, say,

former Michigan

171

F. Hoffman Cye Cheasty would have been.

congressman Clare

On change

there had also been another personnel

the other hand,

in the

or the ex-Secret Service agent John

monitorship in the recent

past,

one that had preceded

O'Donoghue's departure by several weeks and that was by no means coincidental with it. And Hoffa could take considerable encouragement from this change. It involved the one slot that the Hoffa forces could directly control, that of the Teamsters Union appointee on the board, and from the provisional president's viewpoint

could not have resulted in the advent of

it

a

more

helpful

monitor.

IBT monitor

Wells, the original parted,

unhappy with

the

appointee, had long since de-

demands on

his

time that his duties were

making. His successor, Daniel B. Maher, had also because of poor health. As the

new man,

Detroit's William E. Bufalino, the

the

House committee

now

resigned

the Teamsters had

same William

E. Bufalino

named

whom

investigating labor racketeering in 1953 had

alleged to be the leader of a "gigantic

wicked conspiracy"

who had

extorted, through his Teamster Local 985, millions of dollars

jukebox

distributors,

itself Bufalino's later, still

when

seemed

name had

by him,

colorful,

to

also

come

before the public four years

the McClellan committee had described the

controlled

women." The

many

from

workers, and even the federal government

as a "leech

same

preying on working

local,

men and

new Teamsters Union selection O'Donoghue in-

aggressive

observers, the still-Chairman

cluded, to be bent

on sabotaging

ship above

Almost from the day of his

all else.

the performance of the monitorarrival in

May

1960,

he filibustered monitor meetings, often by eulogizing James R. Hoffa, and greatly slowed

down

the progress of any anti-Hoffa

moves. At other times, he stalked out of these meetings imaginary

fit

conferences with that he

frequently unavailable for private

O'Donoghue

or simply canceled appointments

had made with the

latter.

Bufalino also fought with the young lawyers the small, low-budget

Board of Monitors

staff,

who

at

some

confidential mail

tant, this actually resulted in a

Chapter 7

bandaged

constituted

which was

practical purposes the chairman's staff; at least once,

denied a look

in a real or

He was

of pique.

hand

all

when he was

by an O'Donoghue left

for

assis-

for the monitor,

172

who

thereupon told reporters that the hand had been hurt by the

staffer

they had both reached for the same mail. He refused member expense accounts, began telephoning O'Donthe latter's home very late at night (and was believed by

when

to sign staff

oghue

many

at

to

have been the invisible hand behind the anonymous

calls),

who had beHe was undoubtedly the major single source of the resignation of the now highly vulnerable O'Donoghue. From the Hoffa viewpoint, he was a man and

in general

come an

made

life

miserable for the chairman,

anti-Hoffa minority of one in any event.

well worth considering for future responsibilities.

Nor,

as

matters developed, did the threat of the former FBI

employee McShane ever relating to

Letts, the Circuit

ment.

It

now

To accommodate

materialize.

McShane's nomination

as

the appeal

monitor chairman by Judge

Court of Appeals had already stayed

this

appoint-

agreed with the Hoffa position that either party to

the original Letts decree could block a

nominee

for the chairmanship

subject only to the party's putting forth "reasonable grounds."

Mc-

Shane's past adversarial relations with Hoffa, the appellate court further conceded, constituted such grounds.

The panel of monitors

would, consequently, have to function without

and

until Judge Letts

nominated someone

to

a

chairman unless

whose

selection neither

side could validly object.

Such

a

nomination was never made. Instead, the octogenarian

justice seemed, finally, to

have become disenchanted with the ad-

deemed a "magnificent disposition." Even before their ruling in the McShane situation, his appellate colleagues had greatly disappointed him by deciding that, ministrative machinery that he had once

because of the tenets of Landrum-Griffin, Hoffa could indeed only

be removed by

a

democratic vote of the union membership and

not by judicial order.

Now

his further

subservient to a Hoffa veto power.

It

wishes were clearly to be

was only

a

matter of time

before Letts, exhausted after almost three years of involvement in the Teamster-monitor warfare and at this point totally disheartened,

would

abolish the board.

ing that the

He

did so in late February 1961, announc-

IBT could hold

board election

at its

a special presidential

convenience.

and executive

The union was expected

to sched-

ule a convention to conduct this election within the next

months, certainly no

later

than July.

Within weeks, joint councils

The Lengthening Shadow of the

few

Law

in

New

York, Chicago, Detroit,

173

Los Angeles,

St.

Louis, and a half-dozen other major cities unani-

mously recorded themselves

in favor

of Hoffa and his entire

slate

of incumbent executive board members. For the forty-eight-yearold

man who, once

had

had emerged unscathed from

again,

one point seemed

at

end

likely to

a battle that

his career, election

was

a

certainty.

But it seemed to be the Teamster chief's fate always to be dogged by something. Even as Letts was getting ready to issue his edict that would call off the court-appointed watchdogs, an arrest

maybe as long as your arm" lengthened. Hoffa and two other persons were indicted by a

record "that's 1960,

jury on twelve counts related to his Sun Valley In

promoting the Florida land development

ment charged, Hoffa and a

,

a

"all

They had touted

on high, dry and

in mail

and

the lots in the development as being

rolling land,"

many make them

whereas

as to

related charge

was even more damning

in fact

were "so

unsuitable" for

for Hoffa,

enormously proud of his widespread reputation vicing the

members of

his union.

had promoted the flawed land

"Teamster model

the buyers that they

city

It

as a

who was

for effectively ser-

contended that the three

haven for IBT

retirees, billing

anywhere from $150

to

more than $1,000

it

for the lots

had acquired for about $18 each, they had therefore,

this at the

men

of tomorrow." Since they had charged

edly, not only realized ill-gotten gains of

done

project, the indict-

building, and had otherwise misrepresented the real estate.

A

as the

grand

two defendants (Henry Lower, president, and Robert E. McCar-

local

low and permeated with water

home

federal

activities.

former Detroit bank manager) had engaged

related fraud.

December

the other

former Detroit Teamsters

thy, Jr.

In

alleg-

some magnitude but had

expense of the Teamster rank and

file.

Eight of the

twelve counts were based on use of the mails for the claimed fraud.

The

four others contended that the telephone and telegraph were

used for the same purpose.

And,

as

both the McClellan committee and the monitors had

done, the government also charged that $500,000 had been removed

from the Local 299 treasury

in Detroit

interest-bearing Florida National

bank

in turn lent

Chapter 7

money,

it

and deposited

Bank of Orlando

was once again

in a

non-

account.

The

to the

Sun

alleged,

174

company of which Lower was

Valley, Inc. land development

dent and in If

go

which Hoffa had

convicted on

all

presi-

his concealed interest.

twelve parts of the

to jail for sixty years, five

new

on each count.

charge, Hoffa could (In a distant

second

he could also be fined $12,000.) Publicly, however, he

place,

shrugged off the news of

his indictment

with

a cavalier "It's just

another lawsuit" and "We'll try the case in court." Hoffa could take care of Hoffa. Privately,

on the other hand, he was

ever had been before when faced with

and understandably hands.

And

a

far

For the government was

so.

all set

to

change

the U.S. Justice Department, never before exactly a

staunch friend of

his,

would now be headed by

his viewpoint, could not have constituted

Marquis de Sade made the

The man was Robert eral

more worried than he

governmental onslaught,

of the United

worse choice had the

selection.

new

Francis Kennedy, the

attorney gen-

Hoffa might regularly describe him in

States.

such terms of opprobrium

government," and "that

a

man who, from

a

as

little

"punk kid,"

"parasite living off the

monster," but to John

the just-elected Democratic successor

F.

Kennedy,

to Republican Dwight D. Ei-

senhower, his younger brother was the only logical person for the job, once the President-elect's long-time supporter

Governor Abra-

ham

F.

Ribicoff of Connecticut had declined

joked about the nepotism involved

it.

head out that front door, and look up and

nobody's around brother,

I'll

hair?"

would be up

there to

to inspire,

my

the street, and if his

you would you

the press that

tell

States,

But he genuinely respected the former

McClellan committee counsel's ity, his ability

down

Attorney General of the United

mind combing your

Kennedy had

whisper the announcement") and asked

"Bobby, before we go out

are to be the next

John

in the selection ("I'll stick

and

tenacity, his

code of personal moral-

his tolerance for

to the responsibilities

work. His brother

of the position.

Moreover, on most matters concerning the administration of justice

— the

desirability

of a

citizen like, for

example, Hoffa eluding

—

the two brothers were in total agreement. CanKennedy was unhappy because the Teamster boss was still Robert Kennedy, appearing on "Meet the Press" the week

criminal penalties didate free.

before the Presidential election, could declare, "I think

tremely dangerous situation

The Lengthening Shadow of the

at

Law

the present time, this

it is

an ex-

man who

has

175

background of corruption and dishonesty, has misused hundreds of thousands of dollars of union funds, betrayed the union membera

ship, sold out the

membership, put gangsters and racketeers

of power, and

tions

still

heads the Teamsters Union."

in posi-

4

What had already become a famous feud was. therefore, all set to take on a new and, for Hoffa, a far more formidable dimension. The only member of the Kennedy family who never forgave now had another chance

He made both

it

tion.

For

to right a festering

set

up

nonlawyer

find, placed

who

enjoyed

of

his personal atten-

them under

the supervision of

his deepest respect

— the decep-

former investigator for the McClel-

lan committee, Walter Sheridan files

new head of

he hired twenty of the brightest and most ambitious

it,

tively soft-spoken, iron-willed

the

the

within his domain and

a special unit

complete support and much of

his

young lawyers he could a talented

wrong.

most of it. Almost immediately,

Department

the Justice

gave

the

— and made available

to them all of The lawyers sometimes referred Twenty," but more often, in open

his old senate subunit.

to themselves as the "Terrible

recognition of the sensitive task with which they had been entrusted, they described their operation as the

They were

to

"Get Hoffa Squad."

complete the business concerning the head of the

Teamsters that the McClellan committee had begun.

It

was

now

their responsibility to put the alleged operator of the "conspiracy

of evil" behind

bars.

Senator John McClellan was not entirely done with Hoffa. ther.

With

days of

committee

his old select

late

now

ei-

defunct, he scheduled five

January 1961 hearings on the Teamsters Union for the

Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that he contin-

ued

And

to head.

the Senate

Caucus Room,

for

one more time, was

during two of these days the scene of testimony by James R. Hoffa. This time, there were no television cameras, the Hoffa legal

team having successfully objected counsel's table a

more

to their admission,

was presided over by Jerome

S.

and the chief

Adlerman

familiar Hoffa adversary. In addition, the

in lieu

of

good guys and

bad guys had now, of course, been firmly established

in the public's

mind. Otherwise, the key ingredients were amazingly reminiscent of an

earlier

relating to

Chapter 7

day

New

— even York

to the point

of resuming the testimony

City's gangster-controlled Teamster Local

176

239

almost the exact point

at

at

which the McClellan committee

questioning on this subject had, nineteen months

The

now

alleged continuing boss of the

he no longer had any

New

stopped.

earlier,

York

although

local,

was

official title in its hierarchy,

the

formidable ex-convict and prior player in the Hoffa morality play,

Anthony "Tony Ducks"

He

Corallo.

appeared before the reconsti-

tuted McClellan probers as a witness, although only after a seven-

month

police search had located

been served with not

a

him on Long

itself buttress the

tor

in

Teamster

McClellan did use Corallo's appearance

— —

Corallo

since

vain,

in

had

subcommittee's basic contention that Hoffa

had condoned continuing corruption

him ment

Island and he

subpoena. As an ex-officer, his presence could

to shed light

on

an opportunity to ask

Amend-

back upon the Fifth

fell

a tape

as

But Sena-

locals.

recording in which Hoffa had pur-

shown himself in the best light. The tape was allegedly made by the New York City

portedly not

June 30, 1959. According to McClellan,

captured

it

police

on

report that

a

the Local 239 secretary-treasurer had given to Corallo following the

former's

visit

Hoffa

to

in

Washington. In the

quoted by the secretary-treasurer Corallo to steal from the local

as

as

saying that

long

as

Hoffa was

tape,

it

was

all

right for

he didn't get caught. Hoffa

also purportedly said to his visitor, in the transcription, that a jailed officer

of the

239 had just such

local (Local

a

man,

its

former presi-

dent) had to be taken off the payroll but could certainly be paid secretly.

own

In his

appearance on the witness stand, Hoffa heatedly

He had

denied having said anything of the kind.

even

set

eyes on Corallo before.

"a fabrication and a lie." stand

why

the senator

He

He

never, he said,

called the recorded conversation

said that he

found

it

difficult to

under-

from Arkansas would give any weight

to a

garbled, often unintelligible transcription of someone's interpretation as to

what he (Hoffa) had supposedly

that the transcript

ing that

at

He

pointed out

in

it,

indicat-

nineteen points whatever was said was incomprehensible

New

York City

had invaded the constitutionally guaranteed right

to privacy

to the listeners.

police

told him.

had no fewer than nineteen deletions

by planting

Not only

their

that,

microphone

Clellan, in Hoffa's opinion,

body did

that to

he argued, but the

in Corallo's apartment: Senator

"would be

the

first to

scream"

if

Mcany-

him." 5

The Lengthening Shadow of the

Law

177

More

calmly, Hoffa also responded to charges previously

made

subcommittee by members of Philadelphia Local 107

to the

they had been beaten up or

laid off

money by

alleged misuse of the local's

Cohen,

who

remained

from work

that

questioning the

Raymond He promised a "full

the now-indicted

secretary-treasurer.

its

after

report" and a "proper investigation" of these latest charges. But

he had already thoroughly investigated Cohen's presumed other illegalities,

he

and had found nothing: "Mr. Cohen," he told

said,

"denied any wrongdoing, and

the Senators,

proven otherwise."

As

for a suggestion

cal

answer not unlike one years earlier

offered without any

that he

in positions

of power,

unequivo-

had given

to counsel

Kennedy

was both immediately forthcoming and

show of emotion

at all:

"Hoffa

With perhaps the

lan thereupon

slightest bit

test

my

of sarcasm, Chairman McClel-

announced, "Let's put

not afraid, period."

of

isn't afraid

anybody, and that includes you. Nobody needs to try to guts."

until

in his union, an

still

he might be "afraid" of the gangsters

more than two

him

believe

by counsel Adlerman, who counted off

eight allegedly corrupt Teamster officers that

I

6

it

in the record.

Mr. Hoffa

is

7

The two main actors in this 1961 drama, the last in which they would ever directly face each other as interrogator and interrogatee on the subject of corruption, then parted with the harsh words of the other ringing in each man's ear. Hoffa, no longer making even a pretense of courtesy to a legislator whom he was now convinced was as fully biased against him as was the new attorney general, told McClellan, "Everytime I come up here, you castigate me and 8 the union, just so you can get a headline." McClellan, not one to hold his tongue

either,

informed the unionist that corrupt elements

by you, that's one thing sure and certain." 9 these neo-McClellan committee hearings were

"will never be put out

The day

after

adjourned, McClellan called a plea

a press

by the earnest Arkansan

conference.

to speak out against labor officials

especially against the

centerpiece

was

for further tightening of the labor

laws to prevent malfeasance by union leaders.

most

Its

whom

man whom

He would

continue

he thought were corrupt,

he held to be primarily re-

sponsible for the lawlessness within the Teamsters Union. But, unlike Robert F. Kennedy, McClellan was

He

now just a minor irritant.

could really do no more damage to Hoffa than, through the

Chapter 7

178

widely publicized hearings, he had already done. The January sessions had

the earmarks of an anticlimax. Their business

all

never again be attempted

at all

by the

would

legislative branch.

remained to be seen just what new problems for Hoffa the

It

Get Hoffa Squad would devise. The

named had no

man

after

whom

was

the squad

delusions here and consistently told friends that his

worst days were

still

ahead of him.

was

It

a

"vendetta," he would

often say, "persecution, not prosecution."

He

did not believe that Kennedy's pursuit of him

would neces-

He had great faith in his Teamsters Bar Association and even more in his own ability to withstand a challenge. He also recognized that one longstanding habit of his might now well work end badly.

sarily

he had always conducted

in his favor: in cash

—

a

his business transactions

$25,000 check that he once drew

Edward Bennett Williams remains ception to this policy

to this

as

day the only

known

— and even had IBT employees cash

paycheck for him

as

make

governmental prosecution of him more

a successful

But Hoffa Justice

also

soon

as

it

was

now knew

issued. This fact

that he faced years

only

remuneration to

might

ex-

his entire

also

now

difficult.

of concentrated

Department onslaught. Outwardly, he professed complete

"You know and I know that if they had found one little wrong on Hoffa, he would be in jail today." Inwardly, he

optimism: thing

was aware

that not

in turn for, say, a selves,

"Hoffa

all

of his friends were entirely

some of them might be persuaded trusts

reliable

and

that

dropping of governmental charges against themto testify against him.

nobody," was another well-used Hoffa statement.

"Every man has Everything

his price."

however,

is,

relative.

And, compared

to his situa-

tion before the turning off of the congressional spotlight and, especially,

the calling off of the monitors, the best-known unionist in

America was

now

not badly off

was,

at this point, the

even

this

The Sun Valley indictment

seemed somewhat further off than

peared to be

when

Orlando

in early

the Hoffa defense

it

had originally ap-

the twelve counts were registered back in

cember. Although the mail fraud in

at all.

only cloud on his immediate horizon, and

March,

it

team had

trial

was

at first

scheduled to begin

had been postponed indefinitely

filed

Law

after

motions challenging the validity

of the indictment: the grand jury was empaneled under

The Lengthening Shadow of the

De-

state rules

179

and not federal ones, Hoffa's lawyers had claimed, and thus the indictment was improper. Also contributing to the postponement

was

the resignation of the

man whom Attorney

had personally chosen to prosecute the revealed that his

Miami law firm had

case:

General Kennedy

he quit

after

was

it

paid $25,000 to a county judge

in a fee-splitting scandal.

For the versial

to

first

time since his advent to the presidency, the contro-

Teamster was, consequently,

bona

fide trade

union

devote

free to

of his energy

all

And, more than anything

affairs.

else, for

Hoffa, this meant directing his considerable talents toward

a

long-

time special area of interest: widening the scope of the truck drivers' bargaining unit.

The

basic areawide bargaining concept involved

had, as Hoffa had readily acknowledged, science of Farrell

on

a

Dobbs

major regional

basis

idea in the

union.

He

ments to

could

now

in the years preceding 1955,

concentrate on bringing

all

Teamster truck drivers

in the

general presidency,

this

in

full

of these develop-

all

form of

a

master freight

United

however, he would solidly entrench himself

First,

and

of the

after his installation as leader

their logical conclusion in the

agreement for

was also upon the

as

definite progress in building

Midwest and South

both the East and West

the pre-

been implemented

first

by Dave Beck. But Hoffa had,

made

indicated previously,

stemmed from

and, of course, had

States.

in the

time with absolutely no strings

IBT

at

all

attached, at the judicially authorized convention.

This Teamster convention, held during the 1961, at as

Miami Beach's plush

major

The

Many

a

week of July

Deauville Hotel, constituted every bit

triumph for Hoffa

as

he had hoped that

it

would.

trappings of a genuine presidential contest were present.

of the two thousand delegates wore king-sized "Re-elect

Hoffa" buttons and campaign

hats.

with the same message cruised long

first

Miami Beach

coastline.

An

airplane carrying a streamer

lazily in the

blue skies above the

Josephine Poszywak Hoffa overcame

her public shyness long enough to lead a conga line of Hoffa supporters through the Deauville lobby with verve

dozen candidates' wives. English,

who

— there was

a

And

after

enough

Hoffa was nominated

him "the man with

for a half-

— by John America"

the

most guts

in

fifteen-minute demonstration

marked by

the continu-

called

ous chanting of "Hoffa, Hoffa, Hoffa."

Chapter 7

180

But

when

in sharp contrast to 1957,

two opponents

Hoffa's

for

the presidency had garnered almost 30 percent of the vote, his sole

time — the mild-mannered Milton votes out of the — received only

rival this

Jersey cast

J.

Liss

fifteen

New

of Newark,

one thousand

first

and then withdrew, allowing the reelection of the incumbent

The

president by acclamation. raise Hoffa's salary

delegates took exactly ten seconds to

from $50,000

to $75,000

— thereby giving him

the highest paycheck of any labor leader in the country.

And

they

granted overwhelming approval to scores of constitutional changes, all

designed to centralize authority firmly

Among diction all

these

amendments, the already broad Teamster

was extended

workers

in his hands.

without limitation,

including,

housemen and helpers;

juris-

to include:

all

who

teamsters, chauffeurs, ware-

employed on or around

are

carriages, automobiles, trucks, trailers,

and

all

horses, harness,

other vehicles hauling, carry-

ing or conveying freight, merchandise, or materials; automotive service

maintenance employees, warehousemen of all kinds employed

work, stockmen, shipping room employees and loaders

.

.

.

,

in

and

warehouse

all classes

of

dairy employees, inside and outside, including salesmen; brewery and soft

drink workers; workers employed in

employed

in

ice

cream plants;

the manufacture, processing, sale

milk, dairy and other products;

all truck

and

all

other workers

distribution

of food,

terminal employees; and cannery

workers, (emphasis supplied)

who

In reply to a delegate

workers inserted had

said: "I

said that he

say to

you

like to see'office

proposed amendment," Hoffa

in that particular

would

"would

that if we tried to spell out everything

—

we have in the International Union and we gave a lot of thought to it we would have to devote almost a Sears Roebuck catalog to

—

it.-'

And

this

was not much of an exaggeration. Beyond

ries specifically cited in

workers

in

airline stewardesses,

office

the

new

article,

such diverse categories

as

the

IBT

the catego-

already represented

egg farmers,

retail

and furniture production employees,

workers, policemen, tree surgeons, and

many

clerks,

as well as

others.

Only

about 30 percent of the estimated 1.7 million members of the truck drivers union, in fact,

now

actually drove trucks.

of the AFL-CIO, the union had

felt

No

no obligation

longer

a part

to observe any-

one's jurisdictional boundaries, and a standing quip within labor

The Lengthening Shadow of the

Law

181

of the time was that the "Teamsters try to organize every-

circles

thing that begins with the letter 'A' secretaries

.

."

.

.

—

a factory, a store, a

But the change did give Hoffa

ited authorization for organizing essentially

and unlim-

official

everyone outside of

trucking and vaguely related occupations, allowing tential territory

group of

him now

po-

a

of more than forty million workers.

Hoffa had repeatedly denied that he planned to "raid" AFL-

CIO

unions in an effort to get

frequently hinted that he dictions if they failed to

whom

new members,

would do

but he had just as

actively organize the latters' juris-

so.

He

he more than once described

Meany,

believed that under as "that

dopey, thick-headed

Irishman," the federation had become lethargic and unimaginative.

Someone had

To

to

do the AFL-GIO's job.

defray the expenses of this stepped-up organizing and also

to finance other activities

conducted by the international president,

per capita dues to union headquarters from the local unions were raised to $1 a

month

per

member from 40

cents. This

would give

the parent union an estimated annual revenue increase of $12 million (to

about $20 million).

And

Hoffa's major goal of bringing

single nationwide trucking contract

ment

that "if a majority

of the

was

affiliated

all

truck drivers under a

facilitated

shall

a

new require-

Local Unions vote for area

negotiations for an area contract fin trucking],

Unions

by

Local

all affiliated

be bound by such vote, must participate in such area

bargaining and shall be bound by the area contract approved." In addition,

made

paid officers of union locals were automatically

all

delegates to future Teamster conventions, a

thenceforth effectively bar rank-and-file

move

members of

that

would from

locals

attending such conventions since most locals had regularly been allotted

fewer convention

The amended

seats than they

had full-time

constitution also eliminated a clause forbidding

from holding union membership, Hoffa

racketeers

that this elimination

made

sense because the ban

most

Act [and

banning of felons from holding union

and

its

It

first

explaining

was "more

tive than the

years]."

officers.

restric-

anti-labor law ever passed, the Landrum-Griffin office for five

contained a clause allowing both the international union

locals to

pay the counsel

officers accused

of any

fees

illegalities;

and

all

other defense expenses of

the only limitation here

was

that

the international executive board or local leadership had to believe

Chapter 7

182

that the accusations in it

bad

faith in

were groundless,

authorized the president to select

union

if

politically motivated, or "filed

an attempt to embarrass or destroy the union."

he deemed such

a shift

new

a

And

headquarters city for his

from Washington

to be desirable.

This enlargement of presidential powers was ostensibly intended to expedite organizational efficiency, but

make

it

it

was

actually designed to

harder for the Justice Department to prosecute Hoffa by

removing the

official

union records from the nation's

capital.

There was some opposition to Hoffa's constitutional changes. The higher dues were approved only after nearly ninety minutes of acrimonious debate and only with

a

provision exempting "extreme

new scale. One delegate heatedly pointed new convention delegate provisions would

hardship cases" from the

out that a result of the

be to build

"barricade" around rank-and-file Teamsters so that

a

they could not attend future conventions. Liss sponsored an amend-

would have provided for election of the international union officers by a secret ballot referendum supervised by outside observers (it was resoundingly defeated, Hoffa's supporters arguing that the secret referendum was "based on a foreign system, the soment

that

and

called Australian ballot"

up and make

that those

who were

not willing to get

convention

their feelings public in a

were

roll call

"bunch of yellow-bellied bums"). And the change binding

a

local

unions to the results of area wide bargaining under the majority rule concept was not adopted without

a certain

following verbal exchange between a

as the

amount of grumbling, San Francisco Bay area

delegate and the general president illustrates: Delegate Painter, Local 70 [to California]

It

you spoke

whole day, and wrote

seems to

me when you came

to Local 85

letters to

out there

and spoke to Local 70 for

a

our wives and families and did

everything in your power to get us involved in the area-wide con-

we

turned you

tract,

and

vote.

Everybody

in

down

in Local

No. 70 with one dissenting

70 wanted no part of

it

and

now you

get us

here and through your machine you put President Hoffa [interposing] Stop that

punge

it

from the

kind of

record. Hoffa don't have

a

remark and ex-

no machine. This hap-

pens to be the independent delegates representing each of their

memberships from

their Locals.

They

will decide

what

to

do

— no

machine.

The Lengthening Shadow of the

Law

183

Now

from the record "Hoffa's machine."

strike

Delegate Painter, Local 70 President Hoffa

record.

A

.

.

that

won't

Convention

will ask the

I

[name not given]

we

There

is

I

a

it

from the

.

.

.

.

.

this

but

I

move

.

motion which has been regularly moved

and supported to expunge from

Now,

expunge

to

have no discussion on

on the question.

take a vote

President Hoffa

machine.

anything from the record.

strike

.

delegate

you

I

this

record any references to

All those in favor please

rise;

now

a

Hoffa

please be seated.

those opposed.

Let the record

show

it is

unanimous, including Painter. 11

But, as the above occurrence might also be said to exemplify, the Teamster leader did attempt to ensure that

all

of

his relative

handful of opponents had an opportunity to speak. Even with the vast majority of

all

of the delegates solidly pro-Hoffa, he was will-

would

ing to take no chances that the election results

this

time be

He had tape-recorded the nomination and from his own Detroit Local 299 in an effort to

successfully challenged. election of delegates

thwart any legal protest of the 1957 variety and had encouraged other locals to follow this example.

And

he had issued

strict

that Landrum-Griffin's requirements for the administration

orders

of labor

unions be scrupulously observed.

He was that he

become an undisputed president suspend convention business on the Fourth

sufficiently eager to

both refused to

of July and scheduled

(in

the process generating

mock

groans from

the delegates) an unusual four-hour night meeting, in the interest

of getting to the presidential election eration lenge,

was

faster.

But

his

primary consid-

that the election results be incapable of effective chal-

and he thus immaculately observed the

rules

of convention

decorum. Indeed, even Liss,

whom Hoffa had telephoned when the New-

ark leader had failed to appear at a constitutional committee meeting to speak in favor

of

would be welcome, with

"full fairness."

his secret ballot

motion and assured

told the convention that he

And

tary procedure (helped

that he

had been treated

Hoffa's circumspect regard for parliamen-

by the

availability

of no fewer than thirty-

seven Teamster lawyers to ensure his compliance) even led

Chicago delegate

Chapter 7

to say, "I don't think

I

have witnessed

a

a

chairman

184

allowed more democracy to creep

that has

good

here." For

in

measure, Hoffa himself proudly asserted, "I wonder

if

believe the chair hasn't bent over backwards to create

the delegates

democracy

Another, of many, delegate compliments to the presiding cer

came from

Los Angeles Teamster. Speaking from

a

microphone, he informed Hoffa, "Jimmy, tion. I

don't

I

read about

know of any man him

AFL-CIO

this is

my

that has the patience

sixth

conven-

of you, unless

Hoffa contrasted the vari-

intramural squabbles of the time with the apparent

unity of his Teamsters behind him: "While the house of labor

be divided, ours It

was

its

offi-

his floor

in the Bible."

In his acceptance speech, an exultant

ous

is

not the wing that

is

crumbling and

the IBT's very success, he said, that

problems:

all

may

falling apart."

was causing

the union

of the forces of "wealth and privilege" were

amassed against the Teamsters because they were the only union the entire labor real

in

meeting"; the statement received enthusiastic applause.

this

movement

that

was doing an

in

effective job in raising

incomes and organizing the unorganized. This was

true, partic-

ularly,

of the accusations of gangster control registered against the

union.

The

and

accusations were part of a conspiracy by the employers

Congress to

their "slick, pot-bellied representatives" in

credit

dis-

and destroy the union.

And, implicitly making the point

which

tion in

its

members could

many

constituents, as he had so

contact

him

at

that the

IBT was an

organiza-

take great pride, he invited his

times before in other speeches, to

any time, day or night: "Sterling 3-0525 and Sterling

3-0670 has been there for four years. Those telephone numbers will be there the next staff] will

in the past."

For

and

know where

will be able to

the

five,

all

have

my

if

I

am

am, and for the sake of a second

I

services

around the clock

call,

you

you have had

of this unquestioned pride of the leadership for

all

in servicing

of the creeping into the convention of

not merely the trappings but the still

as

12

membership, and

might

not on the other end, [my office

realities

of democracy,

a purist

have registered an occasional objection. Elected

as the

three trustees of the international union and as such entrusted with

auditing the secretary-treasurer's accounts semiannually, prior to a certified public audit,

were two convicts and

The Lengthening Shadow of the

Law

a

man under

indict-

185

ment. Incumbent trustees Frank Matula, already found guilty of perjury, and

Ray Cohen, now

still

under

maneuvers, were returned to to

perform

his

1960 duties

office.

1959 indictment for

his

defrauding the union but able to fend off

trial

by

a series

of legal

(Matula had actually been able

as a trustee

only because he was given a

"freedom break" from the Los Angeles County

jail where he was whose appealed conviction for destroying union records subpoenaed by the McClellan committee had been upheld earlier in the week, was elected as a

serving his perjury sentence.) William Presser,

new

trustee.

Tony Provenzano, under

In addition,

money from New Jersey

trucking companies, not only sat on the

all-important constitution committee but thirteen international vice-presidents.

ments included another alleged

a

member of the

with

at least

elected as

one of the

The committee on arrangeJoey Glimco, also once

inhabitant

Babe Triscaro was

committee, where he had some-

officers' reports

common

thing in

was

extortionist,

The former jail

suspected of murder.

indictment for extorting

two fellow committeemen,

since

Presser and Matula, too, lent their energies to this key committee.

None of these

assignments would have been possible without

Hoffa's approval. Each also carried the top Teamster's strong en-

dorsement. Each was reciprocated by unbudging loyalty on the part

man

of the

"There I

is

know

which

favored

only one guy

because

I

— Matula,

I

am

who

for example, telling the delegates,

can help you

one of the guys

will be forever grateful."

when you

whom

are in trouble;

he has helped and for

13

Hoffa had, furthermore, appeared to be displaying more than the convention.

He warned

his audience that the

a little

paranoia

Justice

Department had dispatched "dozens" of women FBI agents

to

at

Miami Beach

lobbies, dining

them

an effort to unearth incriminating evidence.

in

"These women," he

asserted, "are

mingling with delegates in hotel

rooms and bars, trying to pick them up and get where they can be forced to divulge things that

into situations

are the union's private business.

Don't get hooked by these Justice

Department hookers." 14 Agents who were not disguised ers,

he was convinced, could well be posing

employees

— bellboys,

as

as

hook-

uniformed hotel

desk clerks, maids, or restaurant workers.

Others, he suggested, actually had the brass to seat themselves with the delegates, and he

Chapter 7

demanded

that "every single person look at

186

the

man

are

on

sitting alongside

this floor."

Hoffa had

of him to make sure that only delegates

15

later displayed to the delegates a transistorized listen-

ing device which he said had been found hidden in a television set

near the convention headquarters: declared, to learn that

estimated

would not

convention

in attendance at the

known, but Hoffa was only then moving that would remain with him as long as the

Not long

attorney general. agents,

had

now

hall

into a

could not have

Kennedy-phobia

President's brother

was

he told the Jameses that FBI

thereafter,

on the younger Kennedy's

wherever he went, tapping

The

surprise him, he

had been responsible for the "bugging." 16

at 150,

Those

it

one of the agents, whose number he

were following him

orders,

and opening

his telephone,

his mail.

agents were also, he believed, beaming electronic listening de-

vices

on him from half a mile away, aided by

they had rubbed onto his clothes.

tended to be Finally,

total,

it

was not an

17

For a

invisible

man whose

powder

that

grasp of reality

inspiring performance.

even the most enthusiastic of Hoffa supporters

ami Beach might privately have had second thoughts about

in

Mi-

at least

one convention action that had been taken unanimously. The delegates resoundingly and without any visible objection voted to exonerate

Hoffa and

all

other Teamster leaders on every single charge

of "malfeasance, misfeasance and non-feasance" brought against

them in Congress and the courts over the past four years. The resolution absolving the leadership (and attacking the senators

and judges

as

being part of an effort to "embarrass and harass"

the Teamsters) in fact

commended

the officers for serving the union

with a "high degree of devotion" worthy of the members' approbation."

It

counsel

was made after a Edward Bennett

stirring speech to the

Williams,

which the accused had defended

who their

against self-incrimination under the Fifth dress,

Williams also pointed out

committee charges had been

that,

levied,

constitutional

Amendment.

after all

privilege In his ad-

of the McClellan

only six indictments against

current major Teamster officials had resulted.

of the six had resulted in court convictions, of the Matula and Presser

convention by chief

noted the fortitude with

histories, led

a

He added remark

that

none

that, in

view

some journalists

present to

question his semantics.

The Lengthening Shadow of the

Law

187

Nobody

Talks Back to Hoffa

8 Two slogans were particularly drawn upon by the trucking industry as

Hoffa turned

undivided attention to

his relatively

1960s. "Practically everything

or part of the

way by

was the

we

in the early

it

wear, use or need comes

eat,

truck" was one of them. "If you got

brought

it"

puffery,

were justified,

dramatic growth that

it

was

for trucking even in these years

Few American had achieved

and none of these could equal,

a

truck

some understandable

other. Both, allowing for

of no small dimensions.

it,

all

a sector

industries could rival the

in the previous four decades,

in dollar

its

current impor-

little

significance in

amounts,

economy.

tance to the

Virtually nonexistent before 1914 and of

our transportation system before the 1920s, trucking by the 1960s

had highly impressive

statistical credentials.

1

In 1961,

employed over seven million people and with tuted one of the

two

largest

private sector. In that year, parts,

it

spent $3.8 billion on

new equipment,

taxes to various levels of the government.

Moreover, selves

freight

open

its

15,283

some

its

It

also pur-

11.7 million

126.5 billion miles.

common

carriers (those

holding them-

for hire to the general public to transport

wherever geographically allowed

Commerce Commission) and hire

in the nation's

billion in special

chased 15.5 billion gallons of motor fuel so that registered trucks could drive

directly

agriculture consti-

employers of labor

and accessories and paid approximately $3

highway use

it

to

all

do so by the

types of Interstate

2,399 contract carriers (also for public

and transporting freight on

a

continuing basis for individual

shippers specifically contracted with) alone realized gross revenues

of $7.4

The revenues

billion.

or value of services generated by

all

trucks (in addition to the for-hires, these included private carriers

— those carrying only the goods of

"exempt"

carriers, those

used

their

owner's business

strictly for limited

— and

operations such as

newspaper delivery or transportation wholly within municipalities

ICC

and thus exempt from most

regulation) in that year probably

exceeded three times that figure. In achieving this 1961 performance, trucking to gain against

its

had continued

perennial rival, railroad freight business.

It

now

accounted for 21.75 percent of intercity ton-mile movement, against 43.21 percent captured in the

same year by the

as

railroads.

(Inland waterways, pipelines, and airways captured the rest of the

market.)

Only

thirteen years earlier, railroads

65.24 percent of this

ing 10.02 percent. In terms of the even

among

distribution the

motor

carriers

billion total,

years

— from $7.1

had

risen

first

menac-

more meaningful revenue

from $2.2

billion in

of

1947 to their $7.4

a far smaller gain in these

billion to $7.9 billion.

rapidity and the recency of trucking's progress ap-

peared even more graphic earlier

a less

interstate for-hires, gross operating revenues

while the trains had shown

Both the

had accommodated

with trucking's share then

traffic,

were considered.

when In

figures of a scant quarter-century

1935,

when

the federal

government

gave the industry's growing importance tangible recognition

through the passage of the Motor Carrier Act, there were fewer than 3.7 million registered trucks on the roads. Total industry reve-

Commerce Com2 $500 million. And

nues for that year were estimated by the Interstate mission as being "probably no more than" intercity truck vehicle mileage

mated 1960 a

total

of 81.5

was

billion.

less

than one-quarter of its

While these aggregates pertain to

time of general economic depression, each

the highest theretofore attained

For the nation in the

esti-

by motor

this quarter-century,

is

believed to represent

carriers.

which saw Hoffa climb

Teamster hierarchical ladder from underpaid business agent

of the bankrupt Local 299 to acy, the consequences of the

decentralization and the

from the

city to the

economies

in

his present position

growth had been

of

great.

total

suprem-

Vast industrial

accompanying exodus of the population

suburbs had taken place because of

it.

Sizable

minimal inventory investment had been afforded

Nobody Talks Back

to

Hoffa

189

many

businesses

by the

train.

Thousands of

years

by the

and more

faster

smaller, off-route

railroads

now

were

competitor of the

communities bypassed for

able to contribute collectively

an important part of the national

The United

flexible

States could prosper as

of goods and services.

total it

had never prospered before.

Nonetheless, trucking by no means faced guaranteed future successes as Hoffa contemplated his national agreement. Affecting it

now were

ominous

three increasingly

factors. All

of them were

relevant to collective bargaining. First,

the industry, always intensely competitive internally, in

tion than

it

ever had been.

more formidable external competiThe threat came primarily from the

railroads,

newly awakened

to the potentialities of technological

the 1960s

change

was confronted by

after years

far

of apparent obliviousness.

"Piggybacking," the transportation of loaded highway

on

railroad flatcars,

and had

now

had grown enormously

many of the

revitalized

rails.

vantages over long-haul trucking: greater

It

in the last

trailers

few years

possessed several ad-

economy

in handling ex-

penses, terminal costs, and labor productivity; increased speed, once the flatcar

was moved out of the

freight, thus

minimizing

loss

terminal; and greater safety for the

and damage claims. In 1955, fewer

than 170,000 railroad cars were loaded in

almost 600,000 were, and even

at that early

had already drained the

of

profits

many

this

manner.

By

1960,

point the development

once-flourishing over-the-

road truckers. Railroad competition had also

become more

threatening in

other areas. Despite the increasingly unimpressive record of the railroads

when

stacked against trucks in terms of both freight-

hauling revenues and total intercity ton-miles, several recent devel-

opments had enhanced the future of many been

a

pronounced trend toward

railroads.

railroad mergers,

There had

which inevitably

decreased the huge overhead expenses of the involved companies

and allowed other operating economies. Railroads were spending

more money than ever before for modern, efficient rolling stock: aluminum cars with high cargo capacities; high-speed

lightweight

diesel locomotives; multilevel racks for transporting automobiles;

and tailor-made freight.

And

accommodate other specialized types of railroad union work rules and practices,

flatcars to

traditional

which had caused the perpetuation of thousands of obsolete jobs,

Chapter 8

190

were

now

realized

slowly being modified by the unions. Part of the gains

by the

railroads

from

all

of these developments were aggres-

sively being offered current trucking customers.

Air freight competition could also no longer be disregarded by the trucker.

The airways accounted

distribution

among

for only 1.82 percent of revenue

regulated freight carriers in 1960, but they had

tripled their ton-miles in the past decade, and this trend was

accelerating. Air cargo,

still

now

consisting mainly of such lightweight,

high-value items as electronic parts and jewelry, was also starting to

show

A

increased diversity.

second growing threat to the

common

and contract

carriers

came from other trucks. Former and present customers of the forhire carriers were increasingly envisioning sizable economies and efficiencies from transporting their own goods in their own trucks. American Telephone & Telegraph's 78,400 trucks qualified it as the nation's largest private trucker. But some thirty-eight other carriers had fleets of more than 1,000 trucks, many of these well over that figure. And the end was not in sight. In 1961, there was an estimated minimum of 57,000 nontrucking company truck fleets, up enormously in a very few years. At least private carriage was legal, however. Of even more concern to the regulated trucker was the so-called "gray area" operator, also growing fast. The latter kind of carrier would claim to be either a private trucker or an "exempt" one. It thus could avoid the large tax burdens, rate restrictions, and safety and hour regulations

of the government. Actually, however,

hire carrier, unfairly

1960s,

it

would

competing against the bona

act as a for-

fide ones.

American Trucking Associations was estimating

By

the

that such

"bootleg" truckers were costing the regulated segment more than $7 billion

a year,

or an

amount roughly equal

to the total current

revenues of the genuine for-hires.

Third and

on motor

now

finally, as

carrier prices

an area of worry, severe upward pressure

from

costs

of all kinds, including labor

appeared to be gaining some

momentum. The

costs,

industry had

always been cursed by extremely low profit margins, with direct operating expenses typically absorbing over 97 cents of each reve-

nue

dollar.

But the new competitive pressures were simply no

longer letting the carriers raise their rates to absorb the growing

expenses in payroll, taxes, plant, equipment, and insurance. Hence,

Nobody Talks Back

to

Ho/fa

191

operating ratios were increasingly unsatisfactory for most trucking

companies and dangerously near the

level

of insolvency for some.

James R. Hoffa was understandably

interested in

all

aspects

of the multisectored, Teamster-organized trucking industry. Local cartage, trucking

performed

on an

strictly

ways received some considerable personal

intracity basis,

attention

had

al-

from him,

as

had the car hauling subdivision of trucking that had provided him with so

much

organizing experience in his

more

Nonetheless, in

recent years he had devoted his primary ef-

common

and contract for-hire long-distance

known both

general freight. Also trucking,

it

was

union days.

"over-the-road" portion of the industry,

forts to the so-called

up of the

earliest

as "intercity"

the largest and, in his opinion, the

made of

carriers

and "line haul"

most intriguing

trucking segment. While his national agreement contemplated en-

compassing

all

of general truck

thousand truck drivers

in

freight,

and thus the four hundred

both over-the-road and

local cartage

who

together accounted for the largest single occupational grouping

within the Teamsters, he had chosen to focus on the road drivers for several reasons.

Sheer

statistics

commanded

his interest, for

one thing. In 1961,

over-the-road trucking accounted for about two-thirds of the 126.5

by

billion miles traveled

third

of a million

drivers.

all

trucks and

And

by

itself

employed some

90 percent of its more than seventeen

thousand employers were represented by the IBT, which lacked only

few holdouts

a

in the

In addition, Hoffa lis

South among companies of any

had since

his first

exposure to the Minneapo-

Trotskyites and the pragmatic ideas of Farrell

road drivers

By

as the

definition

key to

size.

Dobbs viewed

the

his organizational successes elsewhere.

much more mobile

than local cartage drivers, they

could provide the needed "leapfrogging" by refusing to deliver to or pick up ers.

A

from unorganized workers, including

favorite Hoffa expression

the road drivers,

cartage

you can

you can get

Because of this

all

last

had always been, "Once you have

get local cartage, and once

you

get local

premise, the Detroiter had from almost the his

own

experience in the realm of the

The Strawberry

house notwithstanding, he had

Chapter 8

work-

the rest."

beginning gotten most of long-distance driver.

the cartage

risen

Strike at the Kroger's ware-

through the ranks above

all

as

192

a

He had come

representative of the road men.

sector

—

to

know

technology, economics, and personalities

its

anyone ever had. His reputation

as a negotiator

was

—

the road

as well as

built essentially

on what he had done here alone.

And, presiding over an increasingly tion that

now

residents, he

grasp

all

and

try,

had been forced

to specialize.

the intracacies of bakeries, office

diversified labor organiza-

had more members than many American

work

line stewardessing.

—

let

Even

a

close friend of his

knows

about egg farmers, road driving

had explained, "More

little is

is

near and dear

about warehousing and

the one activity he has been

and on top of."

able to stay both with

He would

Hoffa could not

alone tree surgery, egg farming, and air-

As one

R. Hoffa's heart. If Jim

J.

less

had

brewery work, the dairy indus-

than any other sector, [over-the-road truck driving] to

states

delegate the nontrucking areas to others and even in

trucking concentrate on general freight, with special emphasis on the road drivers.

Amid

the

rampant deregulation and

fast-rising

nonunion com-

petition that today pervades the intercity trucking industry,

the

Teamsters Union no longer possesses enormous power. Contractual

improvements gained from employers across the bargaining

table have, in recent years,

spread dissatisfaction

been miniscule enough to cause wide-

among IBT members. Even

then, generally

speaking, the union has not procured the improvements easily.

When

Hoffa was the chief bargainer for the union,

contrast, the

IBT

Teamster boss's

came with

many

definitely held the

significant talents,

the territory as

years.

it

this

advantage simply

existed at the time and had existed for

negotiator to perform poorly. Indeed, far to say that

sharp

upper hand. And, despite the

some of

would have been hard

It

in

in these it

days for any union

would not be going too

almost no labor relations arena had ever historically

displayed such an imbalance of

power favoring

the union.

Part of the explanation could be found in the basic characteristics

of the employers. Even today

a sector

of relative pygmies,

hauling, as Hoffa pursued his goal of national coverage for

it

line

and

was an industry of small, intensely competitive carriThe gross operating revenues of $160 million that its largest member, Consolidated Freightways, reported in 1961 barely made

local cartage, ers.

Nobody Talks Back

to

Hojja

193

3

a dent in the $7.4 billion industry total. ers

— beyond Consolidated,

the 1961

The

ten biggest carri-

contained

list

descending

(in

Ryder System, Roadway Express, Associated Transport, Pa-

order)

Intermountain Express, Interstate System, Denver-Chicago

cific

McLean Trucking, and Cooper-

Trucking, Spector Freight System, Jarrett

enues.

— 4

collectively garnered

And

13,847 of the

under 10 percent of the industry's rev-

more than 17,000

regulated carriers had

(1960) gross operating revenues of less than $200,000, while an

additional 2,276 grossed

between $200,000 and $1 million from

operations.

Despite a

wave of recent mergers and

consolidations, the aver-

age carrier's resources were, understandably, also anything but impressive: based on data compiled by the Interstate

Commerce

Commission and made available to the industry, the average management was responsible for a mere thirty-five employees, fifteen power units, twenty trailers, and an $111,500 operating property investment, even ative "giants"

when

the

were taken

much

larger figures for trucking's rel-

into account.

And

the industry contin-

ued to be marked by exactly what had beset days

— what one observer of

it

had

tremely competitive battle royal

it

from

its

earliest

called "a rough, brawling, ex-

among

The observer might have added

small units."

that despite

5

both the merger

trend and a definite infusion in the past decade of professionally

many of the

trained managerial specialists into trucking,

small units

remained, even in the 1960s, in the hands of their founding fathers.

The

had often been motivated

latter

selves in the 1930s

only

a

few

to

go into business for them-

and 1940s because of the ease of entry:

dollars for a

down payment on

a

truck (even

it

required

less, if

the

truck was merely rented) and a strong back to haul the freight to

and from the vehicle. They could survive trucking's formative years because,

one industry professional could admiringly

as

declare,

"they were rugged, tough-minded individuals, undaunted by adversity

and not afraid of competition." Their continuing individual-

ism, however, also helped explain

why

the cards

seemed

to be so

heavily stacked against the employer side in the collective bargaining.

The

small scale of operations of the average carrier

mandatory union

in

Chapter 8

made

it

that the industry present a relatively united front to the

its

multiemployer bargaining

if

it

hoped

to achieve

any

194

made

kind of labor relations parity; the widespread individualism this

cooperation almost impossible to achieve.

But even

two

if these

would

truckers

still

factors

had not been so pervasive, the

hardly have been well equipped to exercise a

strong voice in their labor relations.

The

basic

industry also were working against them.

economics of

Motor

cannot by themselves even warehouse. As soon

work stoppage but

vital

as a truck driver

occurs, not only does the revenue completely cease,

customers

may

turn to any of the several fiercely competi-

forms of transportation

tive substitute

their

freight carriers

— perhaps permanently. Few

of the thousands of marginal operators in the industry

in the 1960s

did not believe that the loss of revenue alone might be the death

blow

even

for them:

one-day

a

over,

thought of themselves

petitively

all

as

the largest truckers,

more-

being sufficiently big or

com-

secure to escape extremely damaging effects from a

three-week

To

strike.

employers

in this industry, then, the union's chief bar-

gaining lever, the strike threat, was an even it

had forced some

strike in past years

Not even

such carriers into bankruptcy.

was elsewhere. But, because

more potent tool than some extent

the carriers did differ to

in their willingness to accept at least the short strike, the prospects

employer front were even further decreased, and the

for a united

Teamsters had

As

a

of

if all

commensurate added advantage. this

were not enough, two other

factors regularly

prevented the employers from getting together in their dealings

with the IBT.

One of these was

the

huge

the intercity carriers operated. uct

mix

(and thus in type

routes, kinds

diversity of conditions under

They tended

to differ

widely

in

which prod-

of shipper), degrees of regularity of their

of equipment

in operation, type

of driver required,

average length of haul, and, often, general financial condition. result

was

that the cost impact

sion might not

work

the

The

of any given labor contract conces-

same hardship on one company

as

on

another.

For example, under some of the existing contracts, special types of intercity trips such as "multiple leg runs" (those requiring the driver to pick to the

home

the driver

up or drop more than one

trailer

and then return

terminal in a tour of duty) and "through runs" (where

would not

Nobody Talks Back

to

return to the starting point within a single

Hoffa

195

wage guarantees. Drivers fortunate more rumunerative of these runs could often guarantees together in a single day. Thus they

tour of duty) warranted special

enough

to drive the

add several of the

much

could earn as

as

twenty hours' pay for eight hours of work.

The company with few of the

runs, or

concede the guarantees to the union

did

could cheerfully

at all,

multiemployer bargain-

only would the concession not be onerous to

ing: not

would

none

in the

have the beneficial

also

result

but

it,

of hurting the competitor

it

who

have such scheduling. The same equanimity might be shown in

granting, in the areawide contract, special pay for driving heavier

equipment

—

again,

assuming

much

that the grantor did not suffer

from the concession and particularly if other employers did. The other factor was the- ability of some companies to governmentally authorized

their

rates,

increases,

more

Interstate

Commerce Commission had

and contract

raise

offset labor cost

easily than could other companies. Since 1935, the

common

tried to put the

carriers operating in interstate

by regulating the

basis

and thus

commerce on

the

same

could charge. Companies

rates that they

operating exclusively intrastate had normally been subject to similar regulation

by

state tariff bureaus.

had to

In either case, the rates

be reasonable, compensatory (not below

and not unjustly

costs),

discriminatory. Traditionally the carriers had petitioned the

ICC

bureau through their respective employer associations

state

or

after

each round of collective bargaining, had received relatively pro

forma approval

to raise rates

tions to the Teamsters,

with the same profit margins

Geared

their

new

obliga-

to operate

as before.

would otherwise competition and forcing them to compete strictly governmental regulation made eminent theoretical

to protecting the carriers from what

be severe price

on

commensurate with

and had thenceforth been allowed

service, the

sense in this dog-eat-dog industry. In practice, however, equality

under the law was not ers

really granted the

managements. Some

carri-

could expect to lose business immediately with their higher

rates

— most often

and the roads

—

illegal

to the unregulated private

and exempt

carriers

"gray area" ones but sometimes also to the

while the revenues of others remained unaffected.

rail-

Much

depended on the commodities handled, the routes used, and the cities serviced.

Individual carriers could always

rate schedules in

Chapter 8

an effort to reverse

this

file

their

own

lower

customer desertion. But,

196

given the uniformity of economic terms generally imposed on the

employers within regions by the union,

this

statement sense, especially with the typical

hardly

made income

employer already opera-

ting so close to the margin.

The

with relative

carrier

elasticity

of demand, then, had

choice of either resisting higher labor costs

or suffering in silence after the

fact.

had no special incentive to

resist

were not so unreasonable

as

higher rate approval or

of

life

its

at the

But the more favored operator

demands

at all,

so long as these

to jeopardize either

own

a

bargaining table

governmental

superior market position. This fact

also helped account for the

weakness of trucking's collective

bargaining position.

The

industry's labor relations apparatus reflected

all

of these

varying circumstances and schisms. Although roughly 59 percent

of the trucker's normal revenue

1960 was absorbed by payroll,

in

and unionized (or unionizable) employees accounted for over 88 percent of payroll costs, resources devoted to labor-management relations

For sales,

were conspicuous by all

their absence.

of the recent infusion of

ety of other functions), there

industrial relations associations

they existed financed.

at all,

And

the

in the entire industry.

on the

state

and

and

a vari-

fifteen full-

Employer

local levels,

where

were almost universally understaffed and under-

American Trucking Associations, which main-

tained a small labor relations staff at

headquarters, had refused to

let it

partment was empowered to

knowledge" and it

as a

its

Washington, D.C., national

become

labor problems of the industry: the

Teamsters where

traffic,

were perhaps no more than

time labor relations professionals

for

specialists into trucking (in

cargo claims, terminal design, accounting,

ATA

directly involved in the

Industrial Relations

De-

act exclusively as a "clearing-house

"coordinator" of negotiations with the

was requested by concerned employers

to

fill

this role.

In over-the-road trucking, the important aspects of labor contract negotiation

and administration, consistent with the growth of

Hoffa's broadened scope of the bargaining units, were handled

by-

ad hoc regionwide communities. These were composed almost exclusively of operating truckers,

the interests of the industry

Nobody Talks Back

to

Hofja

who

had been requested to

act in

by the regional trade associations

to

197

which they belonged. The committeemen were sometimes owners of companies and sometimes "professional" managers, but rarely lawyers, since both parties in trucking's labor relations were leery

of such "outsiders." They had been either elected or "selected" by larger groups within the regional associations but either

expect to spend considerable time

which

related only to their

own

away from

their

way

own

could

duties,

companies, and to receive no extra

pay despite the long hours and tensions such assignments normally involved.

They came most frequently from the ranks of the larger carriers, the Roadways and the Pacific Intermountain Expresses, which were most likely to have become active in the trade associations in the

first place.

reluctantly

And

they had accepted their assignments, generally

and "for

one time only" (although they had often

this

returned) because they

(1)

had

a sincere,

gard for the welfare of the industry;

have some voice or

(3)

in decisions that

(2)

would

not wholly unselfish, re-

wanted

their

company

ultimately affect

it

anyhow;

desired professional recognition for themselves or

prominent name for

their

to

a

more

employer.

Since the carriers they represented were consistently so diverse

and since the committeeman rosters themselves might be expected to

change radically from one negotiation or contract administration

meeting to the next, these employer groups were rarely able to maintain unity of purpose in dealing with the IBT. The employer representatives not only began

from

their position

almost invariably finished in even greater disarray. still

try's

have almost no

faith in

management,"

declare

the

each other,

co-owner of

as parts

a large

of weakness but

"We

of the same indus-

eastern carrier could

on the eve of the projected national agreement.

stand each other's problems, but

each other and

much

we

"We

knew

that they

might be paying

high personal price for their participation:

"While I'm negotiating with the union, the truckers accounts."

as

Many

a particu-

one of them had

larly said,

my

under-

have no incentive to defend

incentive not to antagonize the union."

of the committeemen also

are out stealing

employers

I

represent

6

But the system had been, and would

be, preferred to the several

alternatives available to the trucking employers. Self-interest

not masochism had led the truckers,

who were by no means

and

oblivi-

ous to any of the severe drawbacks in their method of bargaining,

Chapter 8

198

That

to continue to support the labor relations status quo.

no means

could have different

machinery remained

ideal at

when

in place

man. And

attributable to the presence of a single at all,

a

(or in

own, or

with their local Teamster leaders was

tried to strike bargains

was not an employer

by

bargaining power by

least tried to increase their

multiemployer system, or attempted individually

small groups) to negotiate with the international on their

even

their

employers

the

but

a

who

personality

ironically,

he,

both

on and

sat

dominated the other

side of the bargaining table. James R. Hoffa was very much respected by most trucking managements, some-

times to

degree that seemed to border on hero worship.

a

This

not to imply that the self-assured Teamster had not

is

made enemies

in the

ranks of the truckers. Inveterate ones could

uncovered by any minimally discerning researcher. The

readily be

great paradox of trucking labor relations

manding

public image

IBT

leader

rank and

with

the

—

view of Hoffa's de-

in

contracts, his natural outspokenness, and his unenviable

— was

who

file

whom

that there

were so few of them. Generally, the

inspired such widespread popularity

from

his

own

generated equally positive sentiments from the people

he was officially

in

an adversarial relationship.

The following, entirely typical, remarks were freely offered to author as he roamed the country in 1962 and 1963 gathering

information for his Harvard Business School doctoral dissertation

on Hoffa and the trucking industry.

from managers who had

In

road negotiations. These same employers also reputations for competency try, (2)

had gotten

to

know

round of bargaining but

in

sters, for

—

Hoffa intimately, not just through other negotiations and also

and

From

(3)

spoke,

in

tins

matters

in

the author's

of other Team-

their freely given opinions

example, often being not nearly

relating to the

enjoyed excellent

(1)

and character within the trucking indus-

related to contract administration,

opinion, quite frankly

they emanated

cases,

all

participated in the 1960—1961 over-the-

as favorable as

were those

head of the IBT.

the vice-president of

a

large carrier based

m

the Central

States:

James R. Hoffa has many

of the characteristics

of the founders of our

country: great personal and physical courage, boundless energy.

has one of the keenest minds of anyone I've ever met.

S'obody Talks Back

to

Hoffa

.

.

.

.

.

.

He

He's the greatest

199

known. He's tough, both

negotiator I've ever

But he honors

,

in the last few years better

affable,

and emotionally

tactically

to the

point ofplacing himself

than almost any other

almost hypnotic (you have

a hard worker.

A

immaculately even

jeopardy. He's withstood a huge personality crusade against

in political

him

his contract

.

.

.

Has

a great

watch out for

to

man

could have. He's

this in negotiations)

memory for names,

and

faces

and

associations.

master psychologist, also.

The opinion of

co-owner of

a

medium-sized

a

New

England

company: He's an extremely

intelligent

fair in most respects,

demands

as

man,

the smartest

a fair day's

any employer, and knows

guy

work for

I

know. He's very

a fair day's

pay

as

much

the overall industry better than anybody.

wants no more than any other union leader

(less

He

than many, like Walter

Reuther), because of his inordinate intelligence and knowledge of the industry's

problems. But sometimes he's politically not

demands: any labor leader must look I disagree with like

him on some

him very much.

From

.

.

things, but I admire

him tremendously and

labor relations director of a large carrier, operating in

more of a man than

is

for his goals.

He's actually a genius.

.

both the Western and Central Hoffa

in a position to curb his

to his constituents

States:

the general public gives

him

credit for being.

He understands the trucking He may ramrod his actions

industry better than any other union official.

protecting the industry.

He's tops

And,

finally, the

.

.

.

through, but he's been quite influential in

—

a great statesman.

thought of the president of

a smaller,

Chicago-

based company:

My

opinion of Hoffa

that he's apt ble to

to fly

have a

memory —

it's

is

very high.

.

.

.

better negotiator than he

beyond

listen to reason.

He

has no real weaknesses, except

off the handle pretty quickly. It

He

belief.

is.

He's

He's sharp as

would be almost impossi-

like

a tack

.

remains an ability -to-pay man.

an elephant with his .

.

and

he'll

always

He knows just how

far he can go and he won't jeopardize the goose that lays the golden egg,

which

the trucking industry.

is

All of these

men, and most of their counterparts from the doz-

ens of other companies visited in the course of this particular research,

had added that Hoffa had never been anything but honest

Chapter 8

200

in his dealings

with them.

And

these cases he had been "foo

in

conscientious [laughter]." Whether he was guilty of the

wrong-

doings charged by the government, the monitors, and the AFL-

CIO,

management interviewees

the

"could not say" and until such time therefore, they

he might be proven guilty,

must "reserve judgment.

made

This respect had his

typically asserted that they

as

it

much

easier for

Hoffa to implement

system of master contracts with uniform provisions.

The

larger carriers,

generally speaking, had always favored

such an arrangement on other grounds.

had worked

in

against the traditional cost-cutting practices of the

favor,

their

Its stability

smaller operators, with the strong union providing an effective vehicle for policing actions. In addition, at least

many of

these truckers

had

dared to hope that the broader units could strengthen the

management

side even

more than

it

did the union by forcing the

highly competitive and often mutually suspicious carriers into

more united this

front in labor negotiations. Such employers also

unavoidable togetherness

tariffs later

as leading to

more

man

into

more reason

own

operators,

fallen constituted

who had had

under the old

destinies

had never believed

that these advantages

what Hoffa had

really

uniformity was akin to

wanted

(in the

in his

at least

some

local bargaining systems,

outweighed

labor relations participation. Moreover, they had that

To

for supporting his goal.

The thousands of smaller say in their

costs.

whose hands most

of the consolidated power on the union side had only one

saw

rational actions if

had to be raised because of increased payroll

them, therefore, the high caliber of the

a

their loss

felt in

of

the past

contemplated nationwide

words of one small-company owner)

Army trying to make one size of uniform for all of its would do irreparable damage." However, even these smaller companies (with a few conspicu-

"the U.S.

men:

it

ous exceptions)

now

appeared to be recognizing the advantages of

allowing union authority to be concentrated

in the

hands of a reput-

edly competent leader, as opposed to seeing their locals controlled

by Teamsters whose reached Hoffa's

level.

abilities

In

had varied widely and had rarely

coming

to this conclusion, nonetheless,

they were assuming that what they had been hearing about Hoffa's consideration for special local conditions

Nobody Talks Back

to

Hoffa

would continue.

201

These reports about the various dispensations were ranted.

A

mere twenty master contracts governed

haul drivers, as against over seven times that lier,

but

officially

many

war-

fully

Teamster

all

number

a

line

decade ear-

current departures from their provisions had been

sanctioned by the

of these deviations, such

man who now

as the previously

tinued past practices that were

more

ran the Teamsters.

Some

noted Ohio Rider, con-

favorable to the covered em-

ployees than the current master contract allowances, and, although

most of these would ultimately end

uniformity

as national

made

them obsolete, they understandably aroused no employer enthusiasm at all. Many other deviations, however, recognized special economic circumstances affecting particular subgeographic areas, companies, or products handled by being

Companies operating

in

less costly for the carriers.

South Dakota, for example, to

day must labor under conditions that are country.

The

state's

unknown

in

this

most of the

widely scattered and sparse population and

its

mean that the pound of freight

general absence of centralized manufacturing activity carriers

must

at times. it

is

The

all

but

literally beat the

all-important back haul

bushes for is

a

rarely as easily obtained as

elsewhere. In addition, secondary roads are often inadequate,

and the winter weather

rigorous. Because of these obstacles,

is

Hoffa had granted terms to the truckers for

their

South Dakota

operations that were less expensive than those imposed by the central states

agreement. Both mileage and hourly rates paid to drivers

were lower and employers could use the drivers

for loading

and

unloading, for no additional pay other than their normal guarantees.

Under

the so-called

"Iowa 75-Mile Rider," pertaining

to truck-

ing operations conducted wholly within that sparsely settled state, all

drivers

were paid on an hourly

miles of their

home

employer than the Truckers

in

was

less costly for the

alternative guarantee system.

Nebraska, North Dakota, and other relatively un-

profitable agricultural areas also

rate for runs within seventy-five

terminal. This inevitably

who

count upon contractual

could not pay the union scale could

relief

when

they had requested

it

from

Hoffa, always assuming that they could furnish proof of their

al-

leged inability to pay.

Riders for individual companies based specifically on financial considerations, as opposed to geographic ones, were in the 1960s

most widespread

Chapter 8

in the territory that

Hoffa had controlled the lon-

202

Not long

the Central States.

gest,

the conclusion of the

after

1961-1964 Midwestern master agreement, there were well over one

hundred such since

new

riders to

it.

The number was

also not a static one,

were regularly granted by the quarterly meetings

riders

of the Joint Area Committee's Subcommittee on Change of Operations.

This

body was normally composed of

latter

and three union representatives.

Its

actions

three

employer

were subject

to the ap-

whose deliberations Hoffa played a dominant role, as he did in its West Coast counterpart (although not elsewhere, since the existing demands on his time simply would not allow it). The riders were most often sanctioned by both unionproval of its parent committee, in

and employers for sound economic reasons: for the union, jobs

ists

were frequently very much

eyes of the employers,

at stake; in the

the welfare of the industry could be affected.

At times, however, there were undoubtedly other motives voting for relief for

a

requesting trucker, especially

when

an

for

em-

ployer representative on the subcommittee chose to vote for the rider request

of

own company.

a carrier that

was

competition with his

in direct

This situation might

still

have stemmed from

a

genuine desire to help over-the-road trucking under the general

premise that an industry also

known, however,

representative (2)

is

no stronger than

to result

from

link.

It

was

employer

meaning of the

didn't fully understand the

(1)

wanted or already had

weakest

its

the fact that the

rider,

a special rider himself, or (3) feared incur-

ring Hoffa's wrath.

This

last possibility

volved company risked

could never be entirely dismissed. fatal

consequences from

it

if

The

in-

only because

of the international president's control of the awe-inspiring strike

weapon.

And

representative

was therefore

it

who

in

a rare

— and

foolhardy

— employer

subcommittee discussions disregarded

strong message from his union counterparts indicating

Jimmy would do

a

"what

in this case."

Illustratively, at a typical Central States

subcommittee meeting

of the time, seven rider requests were approved while only one was denied.

One of

the successful petitioners sought to eliminate

its

multiple leg runs and simultaneously requested freedom from an

overtime pay provision. it

If

it

could not obtain

this relief,

would not only be forced out of business but

Nobody Talks Back

to

Hoffa

a

it

nonunion

argued, freight

203

would

line

with

take over

customers.

its

condition, and the forthcoming

when

assured

guy has

this

a

It

statement to support

a financial

claim of adverse financial

unanimous vote was presumably

Teamster representative announced, "Jim thinks

a

strong case."

On the other hand,

a

request for both greater pickup and deliv-

ery flexibility and the elimination of

No

provided the subcommittee its

all

special runs

special reason for the desired concessions

subcommittee,

at least in the

direct reference to

Hoffa

all.

who

seemed

to speak

volumes

to the

was no

written petition, and there

in this situation at

But the adamancy

with which the three IBT representatives registered to the request

was denied.

was presented

their objections

to the three employers,

thereupon also voted negatively.

A

third area

on the

basis

He was

of concessions from the Teamsters, those given

of the product handled, definitely grew under Hoffa.

willing to exclude certain types of freight

from

his

master

road contracts altogether and to cover their drivers with separate, expensive riders, once again always subject to the

less

test

of finan-

cial necessity.

The

transportation of iron,

steel,

modities, once considered to be very eration

by the union, was

and many perishable com-

much

an "over-the-road" op-

in Hoffa's presidency

commonly covered

by such contractual supplements. These types of freight are low rated and not particularly profitable, most frequently allow just one-

way

hauls,

and

result in the

kind of abnormal driver and vehicle

company have any control. Iron and steel carriage also demands special equipment on which no other commodity can be placed. The 1961 negotiations

layover over which neither drivers nor the

for the

key Central States contract produced

a rather

lengthy adden-

dum that was much less demanding of companies engaged predominantly in such businesses than was the master contract in several areas.

It

required layover pay after the twenty-fourth hour follow-

ing the end of the run instead of after the fifteenth hour. In case of

breakdowns or impassable highways, hourly rate

after the ninth

duties less

on

a

that

all

were

to receive the

hour rather than immediately. Pickup

and delivery limitations were

addendum provided

drivers

less restrictive.

drivers

Most importantly,

would be paid

for their

the

normal

percentage of gross revenue basis, the wages to be "no

than" 23 percent of gross revenue. Most other master contracts

Chapter 8

204

allowed such special

also

and similar commodity

relief for steel

transportation.

Most runs of U.S. readily lending

commodity not

mail, likewise a low-rated

back hauls, had also been accorded

itself to

less

stringent contractual terms as Hoffa had achieved his ascendancy.

Here, however, the dominant method was not the "industrywide-

within-regions" type of supplement but separate riders for individual companies.

Nor,

as

Hoffa served notice on

all

parties that he

wanted

a

single coast-to-coast contract covering not only over-the-road but also local cartage drivers in 1964, did tice

of isolating special products for

many

people expect

less rigid

this prac-

contract terms to do

anything but grow. As one higher-level Teamster had said of his

pragmatic leader's ambitious 1964 goal, formity' in

its

original sense

is

"When

'over-the-road uni-

not economically practical, by taking

we

can

truckers.

On

portions of 'over-the-road' out of the traditional definition still

have our 'over-the-road uniformity.'

There was nothing the contrary,

most

sions to realism

felt

in

—

mounted

worlds by supporting

any of

as the

his

—

"

this to repel

most

evidence of Hoffa's various conces-

that they could gain the best

widened bargaining

of both

unit program.

They

would have stability for their industry and individual dispensation from contractually imposed uniformity for themselves where this was genuinely warranted. For the employer recalcitrants

at

the bargaining table, however,

Hoffa was quite willing to take another approach. be called

strike-happy leader. In the

a

first

He

could hardly

four years of his Teamster

presidency, only one important trucking service interruption, a

four-week 1958 six years

there

it

on the West Coast, had taken

remaining to him

would be none

an industry such used

strike

at all.

as this

as the chief negotiator for the union,

But the potential of the

was too obvious

for

him

strike threat in

to ignore,

and he

often.

Invariably the threat

minority of the

carriers.

employers operate is

place; in the

the best

way

in

to

was of

a "selective" strike

competition for the struck employer's business

win gains

for our

struck employer has to settle fast."

Nobody Talks Back

to

confined to a

Hoffa often explained that "letting other

Hoffa

members because then

When faced

the

with an unexpected,

205

tenuously maintained, hard line from some of the companies

if very

in the 1961 Central States negotiations, he

announced, in

Hoffa performance, that he had "ten major companies" that he

would

The

He would

however, name these compa-

not,

hard-liners quickly capitulated.

some 16,000

Similarly, in bargaining for a

mind

in

run while the others were struck, in the event of

let

continuing stalemate. nies.

a typical

few months

later,

New England

Hoffa again threatened "selective"

drivers

an-

strikes,

nouncing that he had "several" of the 1,025 involved companies

mind

name them. He

to be struck but again refusing to

throw out

ever, in this case

a

few

participate in this strike action at

work

drivers quitting

"all the.

"About 500"

hints:

would

beginning, with another 1,000

its

way

how-

did,

drivers

in

to

Chicago." Freight terminals

New England companies in New York, PennsylNew Jersey, and Illinois would be closed down, he added.

used by the struck vania,

As

had

it

For

ploy significantly weakened

in the Central States, this

what employer cohesion

all

nation over

there had been.

practical purposes, all

Hoffa

now

exercised the total

of his IBT negotiating teams

that he

had always been

able to wield in the Central States, and this did not detract

was

by

solidly supported

of

all

from

one-man united he was

negotiating effectiveness, either. Forming a that

domi-

his underlings,

spared the internal dissension that so regularly undercut the

ployer efforts. In file

front fully

em-

well aware of his vast reservoir of rank-and-

support, he sometimes even appeared to be flaunting his hold

over those

who

In the 1961

for

fact,

his

some time

nominally helped him bargain on the union's behalf.

West Coast

to

tell

the 105

negotiations, for example, he neglected

members of the Teamster

Policy

Com-

mittee, the official delegator of authority to the small bargaining

team

that he headed, that the talks

Francisco's Sir Francis

According to to get

a participant,

one of

would come

Drake Hotel

[the policy

into the

"Every

had been transferred from San to the

now

room

at the

now.' " Ultimately, Hoffa did

ster

a federal

and then Hoffa would have

committee members]

call

say,

the

'O.K.

The union man

— You can leave

committee together, and

mediator in attendance

at this internal

meeting, he "reviewed in a very general

Chapter 8

in.

Fairmont, hat in hand, and answer

Jimmy's question. Then Hoffa would according to

nearby Fairmont Hotel.

Team-

way what had

tran-

206

spired. said,

He

glossed over much.

economic package he

the

you guys what we've done, because you'd have

tell

The

it

over the

all

Committee then gave him unanimous vote of approval. This was pathetic. Nobody talks

street before a

And on

'We're close to an economic agreement, but I'm not going to

I

left this hotel.'

Policy

back to Hoffa." In contrast, the

was so severely constrained by

negotiations that

three-man employer negotiating team

one of the three people chose

freedom of action by refusing

for a while to protest his limited

to attend the bargaining sessions at

Later, the boycotter returned, but the heavy-handedness of the

all.

employer policy committee caused someone Hoffa, a

who

vacated the

site

else to leave the

by storming out of

written employer proposal and throwing

it

management negotiating team chairman. He across the table that he

wanted

According to one of the people ing technique, "Hoffa

had thought he had

was

in

a sure

The

He

all

employers

agreement and was just sore that the

afford at the time.

of what he personally

And,

as always,

bargaining by the cleavages split

among

act freely."

new

felt

contract that

em-

the industry could

he was aided immensely in his the employers.

between the policy committee and the negotiating

team constituted only one of these

rifts.

Within the policy

commit-

the representatives of the larger road carriers and those of the

smaller firms displayed

on governmental to

told the

up

of the

who witnessed this unusual bargainno way irrational in his actions. He

quickly returned to negotiate a

bodied virtually

tee,

after ripping

in the face

international president need not have been concerned,

however.

The

it

room:

to "give the proposal back in pieces."

employer negotiating committee could not

ers

in these

policy committee

its

cohesion. This lack of unity

rate regulations.

were generally

ICC

little

The

interstate in nature

rate supervision, but

was based

operations of the larger carri-

and were thus

fully subject

approximately five hundred over-the-

road firms represented by the California Trucking Associations alone were strictly intrastate in scope and were therefore subject

only to the Utilities

less stringent rate regulation

of the California Public

Commission. Even the employer negotiation team, more-

over, although united in

its

resentment of its overly tight mandate

from the employer policy committee, was weakened appreciably by internal strains that were based on the contrasts between the

Nobody Talks Back

to

Hoffa

207

companies

that

its

three

Chicago, had enjoyed

members came from: one

Denver-

firm,

relative prosperity in fiscal 1961; a second,

Consolidated Freightways, had not; and the third company was

far

One

smaller and mainly interested in specialized types of freight.

leading employer could later say, in explaining the relatively rapid

acquiescence to Hoffa's demands,

some very

cluding

shape

at all

tently,

"A

minority of the

big and influential ones, was not in

and couldn't afford even

good

financial

Not

inconsis-

contract to "the

same old

a short strike."

new

another trucker attributed the

carriers, in-

of unity among the operators."

story, lack

In the 1961

New England Freight Agreement negotiations — in-

volving companies in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut

— Hoffa

was

on the disunity

in charge or to capitalize

The

union's

men

seventeen states,

remind

also did not hesitate either to

New

— one

employer ranks.

in the

from each of

the sixteen locals in the three

was believed

president

said originally that his role in the negotiations

have

to

would merely be

of an "observer." William J. McCarthy, the head of the largest

England trucking later

and

local (Boston)

would himself become IBT

"The Committee

tions for

to

was 100 per cent

show

in

that

New

twenty-seven years

was

president,

officially listed as

come

invited Hoffa to

one basic reason:

International

man who

a

And one committeeman

chairman of the committee. viewer:

who

Teamsters

England Negotiating Committee numbered

The Teamster

plus Hoffa.

his

told an inter-

to these negotia-

the employers

.

.

that the

.

back of the Committee and, hence,

that a strike against a firm with operations outside of, as well as

New

within,

England, would bring about

wherever

[that firm]

a

complete shutdown of

operated."

it

But just before the bargaining formally opened, Hotel Somerset in mates.

He

$2.41 and

late

March, Hoffa met with

cited the expiring

compared

to the

it

New

at

Boston's

his sixteen

England hourly wage

new wage

scale that

teamrate

of

he had just negoti-

ated in the Central States (effective shortly in the latter area, the rate

would be

informed are

$2.94).

The supremely

his audience:

"After

going to have to sign

having an agreement where less

than

Chapter 8

a

all

self-confident

leader then

the helling and damning,

a contract. a driver in

driver [elsewhere]?

IBT

.

.

.

How

you guys

can you justify

Boston gets 50 cents an hour

Some of you guys ought

to be

208

ashamed

go out on the dock and take

to

members' dues. Your

the

contracts are twenty years behind the times."

From

8

this point on, the international president fully

As had been

the bargaining. local leaders

who

for years

dominated

the case elsewhere around the country,

had run

their

own

provincial fiefdoms

conspicuous lack of interference from either Tobin or Beck

with

a

were

now

forced to recognize the

of the Hoffa

realities

of them reluctantly concluded that resisting executive

would be

at best futile

and

worst

at

Most

era.

their activistic chief

Even

suicidal.

disre-

garding Hoffa's considerable powers under the Teamster constitution (not excluding the

unions more or

him

resistance to

risky.

trusteeships

on

huge popularity with the

his

— almost always

bership, including

made

power of imposing

less at will),

local

mem-

membership, inevitably

their

Cooperating with him, they could

at

keep their jobs and whatever duties he lacked either the time

least

him might well mean

or the inclination to perform; fighting

the

ending of their Teamster careers.

Not

that they

had to be happy about the transfer of power,

which sometimes might even cause them some public embarrassment.

A

by both Teamsters and employers

management representative) stance could come about: of

a

At

the negotiations,

Hoffa turned

forget which one but

it

(it is

presented here in the words

in this particular

replied,

difference

—

man immediately

Nobody The

better think

answered, "You're

right,

the latter circum-

or [local leader

in regard to a

He

operation?" The answer was,

—

X]

to [local leader

makes no

"You're wrong

how

illustrates

discussion concerning a specialized operation.

Hoffa

New England bargaining

story told in the aftermath of this

((

asked,

Y]

—

problem under

"How many men

Five per cent of the

total.

again." This time, the same

Jimmy

.

It's fifty

per cent."

talked back to Hoffa.

began

carriers

in this case relatively united, for once.

respected owner, Alvin R.

Holmes of

the

A

Holmes Transportation

Service, Worcester, Massachusetts, headed the policy committee.

He and the

committeemen used staff assistance provided by American Trucking Associations. They also worked closely in his fellow

planning their strategy with the full-time professional representatives

of the two permanent southern

ations: the

Employers of Motor

Nobody Talks Back

to

Hoffa

New England employer associ-

Carriers, representing

companies

209

headquartered in the Boston area, and the Carriers' Council, Inc., representing the

England employers. The

deemed

early rapport

to be "unusually effective"

On

the

New

England Motor

non-Boston southern

among

was

the three groups

by employers.

day of the negotiations, however, the

first

New

New

En-

gland operators were surprised to find the representatives of two large

and comparatively prosperous national

carriers sitting at their

bargaining table. These two companies had already signed the Central States

nounced

agreement for

their intention

their

midwestern operations and

now

an-

of bargaining separately with Hoffa about

New England activities. Only since 1958 New England trucking been of any conse-

the terms of their southern

had

their

volume of

quence, and the

move on

their part

was without precedent.

The main body of employers strenuously objected to any form of multigroup bargaining. With all of its members having much more at stake in New England than the outsiders and with most of them in considerably weaker financial condition than the latter, it contended that

it

had sole authority

New

to negotiate the

The

Freight Agreement. Hoffa exuded conscientiousness.

was very

said,

clear

on

Under

this point.

it,

England

just the slightest suggestion of righteous indignation, he

who wished

choice but to negotiate with any trucker

law, he

he emphasized with

had no

to negotiate

with the Teamsters. Therefore he would negotiate with the independents ahead of the main group,

if the latter

did not care to bargain

with the independents.

The main group thereupon walked out of the conference room, and Hoffa proceeded to outline the midwesterners.

He

his

suggested

equitable," they should grant in

proposed contractual changes to that, to

New

be both "consistent and

England the same terms

that

they had already given in the Central States.

As

the union's master negotiator had fully expected,

take long for the it

was dangerous

main group

to return, apparently

it

did not

convinced that

to let the independents set the pattern.

Now

bar-

gaining simultaneously with the independents, the main group presented in considerable detail to Hoffa reasons

New

England prevented

States concessions to the

its

IBT

members from

New

England

specifically cited the relative prosperity carriers (including the

Chapter 8

two

why

conditions in

granting the Central locals. Its

spokesman

of "most" Central States

visitors) as stacked against the

income

210

statement problems of so

New

stressed

many of

own

his

companies.

He

also

England's comparative lack of open highways and

long hauls, both normally allowing greater profitability, and the greater traffic congestion in his region, leading to higher labor costs

Nor was New

because of nonproductive but remunerated time.

England's prevalence of what he called "outmoded and highly costly" trip rates, instead of the Central States mileage

payment

system, spared his attention.

This case for some concessions from the Central States key bargain was by no means without merit, as Hoffa had recognized his own He had no more

New

from the inception of

planning for these

negotiations.

intended to jeopardize the goose

England

laying the golden egg here than he had elsewhere, and, while he

was bent upon extracting

maximum danger

a

package that he considered to be the

one affordable by the

that he

New

would push beyond

The previously noted

Englanders, there was no

this point.

threat of "selective" strikes

was enough

to propel the employers to an April settlement that dealt with the

New

England

realities. It called for

wage

rates to

become

identical

to those in the Central States, not immediately but only over a

five-year period. Thus, the 58-cent hourly

apportioned

Effective

wage

rate increase

was

as follows:

April 11, 1961

100

Oct. 11, 1961

50

April 11, 1962

80

Oct. 11, 1962

50

April 11, 1963

100

Oct. 11, 1963

50

April 11, 1964

50

April 11, 1965

50

April 11, 1966

Total

580

Hoffa granted other economic concessions, too. The lucrative trip rates

were frozen

cost-of-living

incomes

New

at their

wage adjustment

clause that

as the national price level rose

England

for

Nobody Talks Back

to

two more

Hoffa

The Central States would further increase

present levels.

years.

And

would not

take effect in

certain fringe benefits in

211

the areas of both health and vacations

would be allowed

to lag

behind the midwestern pattern for a while.

Some employers

feared that the settlement

them out of business, even though

tance of this contract, suffering a strike,

As one

option.

was an even

agreement means

a

drive

still

less palatable

trucker, registering the sentiments of a

others, told the industry's us, this

would

only alternative to accep-

their

good many

weekly trade publication, "For many of slow death. But

to

have refused to accept

would have killed hundreds of us here and now." 9 The employer majority, on the other hand, did not share this gloomy view. The New Englanders would have much preferred to it

have continued

their separate bargaining

words of one owner, "we

fully recognized that, in the

who had joined them been tailored to as well as

local people

of the generous concessions" of the outsiders

are paying the price

that they could live

with the Teamsters and

at the

bargaining table. But they also believed

with the

their

own

new

agreement.

needs by

It

had, they thought,

man who knew

a

their industry

they did and had genuinely tried to accommodate these

needs. Their

ill

truckers. Hoffa

But he would

will was reserved almost exclusively for the other would "take care of Hoffa," as he had often boasted.

also, in their

opinion

(as in

the opinion of so

employers elsewhere), take care of the companies with dealt

of

and on whose well-being he

his drivers

many

whom

fully recognized the well-being

depended.

Hoffa probably could have implemented

his

areawide bargain-

ing arrangements with their relative national standardization 1961, he his

was claiming an "85 per cent uniformity"

twenty remaining contracts

Teamsters and that

his respect

he could give

for his goals,

he

his

— through

his popularity

from the employers

rank and

file a

in the

alone.

— by

terms of

with the

But the

fact

variety of rational arguments

and do so with great personal persuasiveness,

defi-

nitely facilitated this implementation.

For internal Teamster consumption, the international president used both economic and legal reasoning. In the

ments

as

economic sphere, he continually drew upon four arguhe crisscrossed the country enlisting support for his

program.

One argument was

Chapter 8

that

agreements of

a

broader scope would

212

help to counteract the growing size (and, as a normal consequence, the

growing resources) of the individual

carriers.

Smaller local

unions would no longer need to deal with companies that had

merged, unilaterally augmented

their routes, or

otherwise increased

power. The Teamsters, Hoffa often asserted without even the

their

of

trace

had

a smile,

to

meet strength with strength.

moving from higher- to lower-wage locations, since there would be no such places. The mileage and hourly rate standardization would thus Secondly, companies could no longer justify

strengthen the job security of

of different

all

workers and eliminate inequities

of pay for different work.

rates

Third, the pooling of pension and welfare funds allowed by the areawide

mechanism would

lead to

more economical operation

of these funds and therefore to increased benefits for the covered employees.

management under

Fourth, the stability afforded trucking

broader agreements would that it

would

compete

this last

on one

the

for a healthier industry, a situation

As Hoffa once phrased

necessarily benefit the workers.

advancing

in

make

argument: "We're making every company

And

our bringing

this

about

has already led to great improvements for the carriers and our

mem-

strictly

level: service.

The companies have brought in new equipment, built new new operations that they never would

bers.

terminals and introduced

have thought of otherwise."

He

Hoffa also regularly advanced two law-related reasons.

pointed out that the secondary boycott provision of LandrumGriffin

had forced the IBT into areawide (and, now, national) bar-

gaining mechanisms. the union strikes

used

Only under the widest to worry about

no longer have

possible system

would

illegality here,

for

all

could then be considered "primary" ones. Hoffa had freely

this

same argument long before

the adoption of the

new

labor

law, and for "Landrum-Griffin," at least insofar as the secondary

boycott was concerned, one could have read "Taft-Hartley" before 1959.

The only

difference

was

that the post-1959

drum-Griffin's strictures to justify older law served

him

a

Hoffa used Lan-

nationwide contract, where the

exclusively as a vehicle for

demanding

the

areawide agreements. In addition,

ployers,

Hoffa often informed

his

membership

emboldened by Landrum-Griffin and

Nobody Talks Back

to

Hoffa

also

that the

by the

emanti-

213

Teamster Justice Department "vendetta" being waged by "the two rich

Kennedy boys," were now showing more "muscle" in their relations. The Teamsters must, therefore, fight back

labor

through the area and national agreements.

were made with what was apparently

All of these points

conviction,

by

tough-minded

a

total

whom Teamster word

individualist

of mouth from coast to coast had already made something of

The performance, consequently, was all but unbeatable. As York IBT leader, himself highly antagonistic toward area-

legend. a

New

wide agreements, could begrudgingly the presidency of

many

this local

me

could outsell

spellbinder with the rank and

file

been reelected to

say: "I've

times without

membership on

to the

versus-area-or-national contract.

but Hoffa

a defeat,

the question of local-

He

can outsell anybody! He's a

—

charmer."

a

Even

Hoffa's speeches were not grammatically flawless. years of experience and advice

Konowe, and ones

—

still

Steinberg,

after

advisers as Gibbons,

public utterances

his

this

—

private

his

as

job alone," "I don't have to walk around

goddam bodyguards" and "Hoffa

with no

To the when a

from such

contained occasional assertions that "Hoffa don't need

nobody; Hoffa can do

^air

a

end, he at times said "youse,"

don't like paper work."

other times "you 'uns,"

at

simple "you" would have sufficed.

of, say, a

John

Lewis,

L.

who

a

lacked the theatrical

could both quote from Shake-

same address

speare and speak in Latin in the

and be rewarded by

He

Mine Workers, efforts. He was no

to his

standing ovation for his

Jack Kennedy or Martin Luther King.

But the Teamster forceful, blunt,

chieftain

was nonetheless

taneously, never

from notes of any

recently recalled, "exactly

("Well now, you and just an individual.

I

kind.

what he wanted

from the heart." Whether

that

Hoffa

is

to be intimidated is

by anyone

going to make

("I

Chapter 8

it

just

Kennedys

nothing

—

came

directly

just a

me

his

"Jimmy Hoffa

all

name,

of us, because we've

membership of

his inability

was brought up on the

street,

squirm, wiggle, twist or turn

with them"), he instinctively chose

effectiveness.

and

So when the Kennedys speak of destroying

been so successful") or reminding

hell

powerful speaker:

to say,

railing against the

know

Hoffa, they're really speaking of destroying

nobody

a

He always spoke spon"He knew" one admirer

and absolutely uninhibited.

speaks

my

his

words

—

to

maximum

for

language" was

and

a

statement

214

frequently offered by Teamsters.

And

was given

it

as a reaction to

Hoffa's declarations about the broadened contract no less than

was on other matters. Therefore, it was of no consequence tractors within the

leaders

— asserted

union

that

—

it

some of Hoffa's demost of them former autonomous local that

none of his professed reasons constituted the

true explanation for the top Teamster's steadfast espousal of wider

bargaining. These critics

felt

that the true motivation

behind Hoffa's

program was an insatiable appetite for personal power. "At least Beck just stole money," as one of these detractors said. "Hoffa has usurped everybody's authority and

now

negotiation and administration are

made

idly diminishing

all

the decisions in contract

solely

number of people who were

by him." The rap-

willing to voice such

opinions, even if their theories could be proven valid,

no longer

mattered.

Sobody Talks Back

to

Hoffa

215

"Open End" Contract Administration

9 Workers rights

who

under

believe that their employer has violated their existing

a labor contract

ance procedure. Using higher union and

it,

almost always have access to

a griev-

they can take their case to successively

management

levels

and hope

that

somewhere

along the line the involved management representative, agreeing

with the union that the original employer action was inappropriate, will rescind

Should

what was done. this desired

outcome not take

place, aggrieved

They can

ees generally can pursue the matter further. a neutral third person, to

be selected jointly by the union and the

management, resolve the dispute once and

for

on

all

a "final

and binding"

employ-

request that

basis.

In almost

all

by

arbitrating

it

such situations, the

arbitration provision substitutes for the labor organization's right to strike

and the employer's right to lock out during the

agreement. Stability

thereby guaranteed to

is

one- to three-year period that the contract

all

come very widespread

in

United States labor

tracts at the latter point

nation's 125,000

had not only

a

that called for arbitration, a figure that

from the approximate 97 percent

of the

lasts.

Spreading rapidly in the 1930s and 1940s,

Roughly 94 percent of the

life

concerned for the

this

system had be-

relations

by the

1960s.

labor-management con-

grievance provision but one is

statistic

not appreciably different

of today. Only two major

industries, in fact, stood out for their failure to include the arbi-

tration apparatus: construction,

where the duration of the average

job was (and

is)

deemed too

consuming process

make

brief to

the

somewhat time-

and trucking.

feasible,

Hoffa had almost nothing good to say about arbitration.

He

once told an interviewer:

Even

one or two hours or longer

if it takes

we

ourselves

are better off

submit a grievance

knowing some

to

sides

and actually pleases nobody. In

grievances

my

strike the employer.

to

a settlement

satisfactory settlement

If

we come

we

attempts

to

specifically attributed the sin

We

hire a third party at

the

me

him

so I will use

Many

of greed to

a day.

He

and

skills.

He

understood

we

it,

and

finally

too.

make

a decision to

decide halfway for

We

have had that

again.

it

felt,

to

tries to

even the most basic communi-

once recounted having spent $3,000 for an arbitra-

tion, only to discover

about;

we want

1

arbitrators:

goes out

the next time

arbitrators also lacked, he

cations

cannot

don't come out with a completely

employer so he will hire him the next time

experience and I don't think

we

out with a settlement both sides can live

He

please

please both

out the union or for the

to lock

with and one which doesn't change the terms of the contract.

$100

among

do from both sides,

opinion, the best method of settling

mutually agree, either for the employer union

who

we

leave open the end for final settlement and, if

to

is

work out

third party

than

to

to

the business as

when

the

award was rendered

wasn't even on the subject

it

had

to settle

by ourselves."

it

much

Instead of arbitration, Hoffa tract administration.

Under

it,

all

union and management could not

we were

arguing

2

preferred "open end" con-

grievances

ined bilaterally. But no neutral could

"nobody

that

come

would

still

be exam-

into the picture. If the

resolve the grievance themselves,

the former would be free to strike and the latter to lock out.

To

Hoffa, the use of lower- and higher-level joint grievance

committees composed solely of Teamster representatives

made

sense.

Even

problems, he contended, in an industry the parties could be expected to

ment.

No

outsider could

were treated

at great

know

know this,

as

and employer

did not have

unique

other

its

as trucking

only

the real intent of the agree-

even regarding subjects that

length in the contracts, such as paid-for time

and seniority, and certainly topic.

officials

if arbitration

As he had cautioned

if the

agreement was

silent

on

a

given

the employers in a speech that he gave

"Open End" Contract Administration

217

moved

national association several years before he

their

to

to

Washington:

Many

of the grievances that come

in

.

.

are incidents that are not recorded

.

in the written contract. I don't believe you can anticipate, in the contract,

everything that

may happen

being that, in a

matter of interpretation of some unusual situation or in the

matter of a grievance which

awful

during the

decision, so

we

.

.

sides

take care of the particular incident in a

.

result

making

required, in

is

The

contract.

out in the contract, an

isn't actually spelled

of work and thought on both

lot

of that

life

way

the

to satisfy

both sides?

The award of an

outsider would, the

IBT

leader thought, be

mean-

ingless in such a situation.

More

than expertise would be guaranteed under "open end,"

management

representatives

for both sides.

Nor was

it

an entirely equitable arrangement

any danger that constant

there, to Hoffa,

committee deadlocks would prevent any decisions rendered,

on

at least at

their merits."

labor and

on both the lower- and the higher-

committees would make

level

number of

Provision for an equal

in Hoffa's opinion.

at all

from being

the higher levels, if "all cases are decided strictly

He

recognized that there would be some cases of

unavoidable deadlocks, where the committee was genuinely divided

on the merits of a

dispute.

But these should be few and

and there were, anyway, worse things than

a strike

far

between,

— such

as arbi-

tration.

The average employer, whose strike

was

identical to that

consistent attitude

of nature toward

a

toward the

vacuum, quite under-

standably did not agree. Management's high opinion of the ster

president notwithstanding,

sizable trucker

end."

It

community was,

virtually

many

member of

it,

the entire labor contract

points during the latter's

completely on the union's terms

the

adamantly against "open

in fact,

allowed, as the employers saw

to be renegotiated at

every

Team-

as the original

life,

and

as

bargaining had been.

"Open end" was tantamount, as one manager phrased it, to "a football game in which one side is allowed to bring along the referee." In the opinion of the employers, carrier

completely

at

the union's

it

mercy

placed the

motor

freight

in obtaining an equitable

settlement of grievances.

Nonetheless, Hoffa had implemented the "open end" ma-

Chapter 9

218

chinery in

much of

negotiations.

Among

by the end of the 1960-1961

the country

twenty remaining labor-management

his

New

agreements, only those in northern

England and for

a

few

widely scattered Middle Atlantic areas did not contain

its

ments. In the other contracts, while there were

some minor

deviations

from the Central

administered ever since his

of

a third party

States

rise to

still

"open end" system

basic ele-

that he

broad midwestern power, the use

had been either eliminated or greatly

restricted.

And, despite the present departures from the Central brand of "open end,"

from Hoffa's

tactical

little

meaning could be read

compromises on

Teamster president's apparent

to the

the contracts, there

had

was no reason

a

temporary

attitude

into

States

them

aside

basis. In contrast

toward other parts of

for believing that he

would be

willing to allow any important deviations in the grievance arbitration procedure after the next versal Central States

round of trucking negotiations. "Uni-

open end" was

referred to at

IBT headquarters

as "one of Jim's 'must' demands for 1964."

Hoffa himself was predicting that sessions

what would then be

after the

1964 bargaining

the single national contract

would

continue to be administered on an area basis, but that there would

be only four such administrative

areas.

These areas would be the

conference regions, and the interpretations of the contract

official

would then come from a master joint committee, "composed of representatives from all four conferences." Hoffa often added that he would be the union chairman of

membership votes me

A

this

this position."

close examination of his preferred

tration can

do much

master committee, "if the

to explain

form of contract adminis-

why, even

in the face

of the deeply

rooted management opposition, he had given "open end" such priority.

The above-cited

reasons that he publicly (and, from

evidence, sincerely) advanced

tell

all

of the

only part of the story.

For the trucking industry, there had been

parallels

between the

growth of "open end" and the spread of the areawide contract itself. "Open end" also did not originate with Hoffa, having governed the

first

Central States agreement in 1938

— three years before the

Trotskyites were dislodged. (Vincent Dunne, in language that could

have been spoken verbatim by Hoffa two decades 1940

IBT convention,

"I think

"Open End" Contract Administration

everyone here

later,

told the

realizes that in

an

219

arbitration

award

more or

it is

less

a kick and a pat on the back."

of a 50-50 proposition

4 )

— you get

But, as in the case of the area

agreement, the concept had been refined and extended by Hoffa

soon

growing sphere of influence had permitted

as his

South

in the 1950s,

and to the East and West

in the

—

as

to the

1958-1961

period.

The Teamster

president could justify regularly attending only

the higher-level joint grievance committee meetings under the tral States

and Western States contracts, by

tant

of the twenty agreements

was

inevitably

felt at

In southern

New

still

far the

in existence.

Cen-

two most imporBut

his influence

other meetings.

England, for example, although the contract

negotiated in 1961 called for the higher dispute-handling committee to

meet

at

"established times," one year after

its

enactment

this

body had not established any meeting times and had yet to meet at all. The reason, in the words of one employer, was that "no one

knew how

to interpret the contract

.

.

.

Hoffa wrote

but he

it,

didn't plan to attend our meetings."

Hoffa, accordingly, invited the involved Teamster local leaders

and management

representatives to his

Washington

terward. This meeting culminated in the

IBT

office

leader's issuance

mimeographed clause-by-clause

"interpretations" of the

gland Freight Agreement to his

visitors.

tions bore a

Many

soon

New

af-

of

En-

of these interpreta-

marked resemblance to previous interpretations of Agreement clauses that had been rendered,

similar Central States

with Hoffa's direct participation, by the comparable Central States committee. The later in the

first

southern

New

same month and monthly

England sessions were held thereafter.

comment made over the telepresident to one or more committee

In other contractual situations, a

phone by the

international

members might suffice: "If the facts are as you've stated them, the company must pay," or and surprisingly often "The union has no case at all here." Whether dominating a joint higher-level committee meeting in person or barking such comments as these long

—

—

distance,

Hoffa consistently stressed the need for objectivity

in the

decision-making process. Blind loyalty to fellow Teamsters just because they were Teamsters

made no

union committeemen were frequently

Chapter 9

sense to

him

at all,

and the

told, "If the facts are against

220

'Open end'

the union, vote against the union.

is

good only

if it's

used responsibly."

Hoffa was well aware of the resentment against

system on the part of the truckers.

was

One argument

committeemen

that the union

his preferred

used by the

latter

often sustained the position of

the brother union business agent presenting the case to them, in

complete disregard of the merits of the ing personal friendships

quently pointed out,

committeeman:

among

of the two

brought

come

a case to a

Hoffa

felt

indicated that

On

it

in

handy when the

men were reversed and the erstwhile committeeman committee on which the agent

quency of such voting would never be that

the employers fre-

the indebtedness of the union

agent presenting the case, and this could roles

Aside from strengthen-

action could concretely help a union

this

would gain him

it

case.

Teamsters,

fully

The

sat.

known, but

compelled to make such statements

fre-

the fact

as the

above

did exist.

the other hand, Hoffa did not overlook the possibility that

the other side might also, at rimes, vote for reasons that

were

less

than pure. Employer representatives were regularly exhorted by

him

no

to be

less

statesmanlike in

The "open end" system Western

States in 1961

tral States

their deliberations.

that the

had one major

IBT

president installed in the

official variation

theme. Five types of grievances

on the Cen-

— those pertaining

to dis-

charges, suspensions, closing of terminals, discontinuance of runs,

and subcontracting party's

— would

could, consequently, be cal

be reserved for an impartial third

no

strikes in these situations.

For

all

There practi-

purposes, however, there was no real difference, even from the

start,

six

still

decision should the higher committee deadlock.

between the Western and Central

hundred

(known

cases that

as the Joint

came before

States systems:

the western higher

of the

first

committee

Western Committee), for example, exactly two

stalemated and resulted in the invocation of arbitration; and these

two

cases

privy to

were widely described both by Teamsters and employers

JWC

Above

deliberations as being "not very important ones."

all,

under both the West Coast arrangement and in the

Central States, the key single characteristic of "open end" was identical:

James R. Hoffa dominated the deliberations of the higher joint

committee

in each.

"Open End" Contract Administration

221

Hoffa's huge influence in absentia on the Central States

of Operations Subcommittee, actually

"open end" committee

States higher joint illustrated.

was no gave

it

been

there, has already

His paramountcy over the entire Central States process

less.

Nor was

which

the West,

Change

of the Central

a subsidiary

—

it,

from the very beginning, any

attention — can serve 5

special

different in

since an ambitious research project of the as

Hoffa had accepted the union's nomination to become the union chairman of the J

first

WC for a one-year period. Many West Coast

truckers, faced with the implementation of

circumstances, had also preferred the job and had made

him

"open end" under any

any other Teamster for

to

known

this preference

to him.

however, he had shown absolutely no inclination the contrary, he

day

an instructive case example.

seemed

to

have

Once

to get out.

settled into his position for the

in,

On long

haul.

He to

was, in

what he

cies

of

fact, allocating a relatively large

called "educating

And

his system.

he was, toward

time on each dispute than he had ever cases

coming

tral States.

this end,

felt

to his long-established higher

Even before

the three-day

JWC

called to order, invariably at a leading

on both

sides

was always

committee

was preliminarily

the lower joint

thoughts

at either

And

conversion to the

deliberation sessions

Both

were

the union and

on the day before the

would

first

JWC

actually present to

Hoffa's attitude concerning each case

slated to reach the

committee

Cen-

San Francisco hotel, Hoffa's

session, to screen the grievances that they

the higher committee.

a

in the

JWC meetings

in 1963.)

considerable.

the employers held separate sessions

that

spending more

(This policy, for a while, necessitated that

midwestern quarterly scheduling was made

intrica-

compelled to devote to

be held monthly, and then bimonthly, before

effect

share of his time

both parties" in the West in the

level

JWC

was never

deadlocking

after far

at

from anyone's

meeting.

At the union meeting,

to

which

all

interested local business

agents were invited, Hoffa was not always present because of his

other duties. In that case, international office spokesmen

would

relay familiar kinds of Hoffa verdicts concerning agenda items that

the boss

JWC

felt

strongly about. Regarding one dispute headed for a

decision, the union representatives

Chapter 9

might learn

that

"Jim says

222

the contract

another,

it

is

very

clear: the

might develop

employer

is

On

obligated to pay."

"Jim doesn't remember the employer

that

agreeing to this arrangement and so he doesn't think the union has a as

good grievance here." Or, Hoffa's opinion might be announced more tentative: "Jimmy says if the circumstances were exactly as

you've

said,

for itself

When screening issues

then there can be no argument.

and the company

is at

The

contract speaks

fault."

Hoffa was in attendance, the dominance of his personal

was

Teamsters pressing grievances whose

fully as evident.

JWC

had previously been considered by the

settle their cases

Those seeking

were told

to

before taking them to the joint committee again.

to bring cases that Hoffa felt

might create an unfavor-

precedent for the union were advised to withdraw them

able

("Here's what's

wrong with

their disputes before the

insertion of a

new

this case").

JWC

And

agents trying to get

by the use of such subterfuges

grievance in a request for a

JWC

hand, agents bringing cases that Hoffa the agenda (even

not having been

when on

with

their

at the

a

the other

warranted inclusion on

these actions violated official

first dealt

often given advice

felt

review of

On

lower committee decision were verbally chastised.

as the

JWC policy by

lower committee

level)

were

forthcoming presentations. Whether or

not Hoffa had attended the meeting, his suggestions were almost

always followed.

The employer

screening session tended to have

two

objectives.

Both involved the establishment of precedent. Particularly

when

the employers believed that the case under

weak one for the company presenting it, or when the involved company was requesting a JWC interpretation that could affect many carriers adversely, an attempt was made to talk the company into dropping the case. Sometimes this effort succeeded. Often it did not. Companies frequently took even "weak" cases to the JWC despite the warnings of the employer consideration

was

a

group because of a mandate from the home widely believed, because of

a belief that the

good reputation with Hoffa. A second purpose was to help tatives plan

cases

office or,

it

was

at least

company enjoyed

the involved

company

a

represen-

and develop strategy for what were considered "good"

from the employer

viev/point, again with a particular eye

toward the establishment of precedent.

"Open End" Contract Administration

In this case, the other

em-

223

ployers tended to ask the

company

they thought Hoffa might raise

representatives questions that

at the joint

meetings. If not satisfied

with the answers, the other employers most often freely offered advice on

how

vidualists,

was

to

do better

far

— advice

that, in this

stronghold of indi-

from always accepted.

The Joint Western Committee had an employer chairman, who officially operated with as much authority as did Union Chairman Hoffa. A visitor to the JWC hearing room would, however, have had to be shown this in writing to believe it, for the Teamster president controlled the joint sessions totally. In the opinions of

many western Teamsters and ally inherited

employers, in

— on an informal

basis

—

all

fact,

Hoffa had person-

of the authority that had

been reserved for the impartial arbitrator under the former West

Coast contract administration system.

Not

that the person serving as

employer chairman had never

One had, once. At the counterpart, a member of the Con-

tried to function independently of Hoffa.

very

first

JWC meeting,

Hoffa's

solidated Freightways top

management, took

his

mandate

literally

and challenged the union chairman's heavy-handedness. His com-

pany was immediately informed it

that if he did not

mend

his

ways,

should not expect sympathetic treatment from the union commit-

teemen when and that his

it

its

own

grievances

chairmanship the next day,

his superiors,

At the

came before

the higher

therefore faced either deadlocks or losses. as

meetings,

it

lost

on

his successors.

was Hoffa who almost exclusively

introduced each grievance, questioned the union and resentatives in an attempt to ferret out the facts issues,

and decided when the

the union chairman, invariably,

committee

company

and

rep-

clarify the

parties should be excused. In the exec-

utive sessions held as soon as the parties had

for the joint

resigned

he had been instructed to do by

and the lesson was not

JWC

committee

He

who

left

the

room,

it

was

suggested the course of action

to take, together with a statement (often

including a detailed recitation of relevent precedents) of his reasons for this.

The other union members of the JWC, typically put Hoffa's recommended course of action into the form of a motion, if the employers had not, and then voted for it. They openly disagreed with the IBT president only infrequently, and longtime observers

Chapter 9

224

were aware of no instance

which any union committeeman

at all in

had gone against Hoffa's recommendations

in the actual voting.

(Hence, Hoffa's above-mentioned request to his agents that

be decided

on

strictly

their merits

would appear

cases

all

have been more

to

directed to the lower-level grievance committee voting or to other

occasions in which he himself did not participate than to the ster J

WC

Team-

voting action.)

The employer committeemen, except on the rare occasions when vital industry concerns were believed to be at stake, spoke infrequently when the parties to the grievance were being questioned,

and

in the executive sessions

argued with Hoffa only mildly

had become quite apparent

that his vote would The extent of the employers' normal participation gave them much more in common with the union committeemen than it distinguished them from the latter, and their

and only

after

it

favor the union's position.

voting almost always favored the motion made, whether or not an

employer had himself made

so that the vast majority of

all

JWC

were made unanimously.

decisions

who

committeemen

of-

although sometimes only privately, several reasons for

this

People fered,

it,

had themselves served

as

situation.

In his relations with the union

tion

stemmed

committeemen, Hoffa's domina-

primarily from the strength of his official position.

The impressive powers that the international presidency bestowed upon its holder were not to be ignored. Provided under the Teamster constitution

with ample budgetary resources and patronage,

Hoffa had not hesitated to use either versely, his their

own

in

support of his friends. Con-

antagonism could serve to

power,

now

that he

was

strip

in the

The Western Conference chairman, whose important to those to

who

contract,

of

were once quite

policies

at all in

IBT

now

affairs

that Hoffa,

the chairman's tepid support of a nationwide trucking

had asked (although not forced) him

committeemen themselves, to think

officials

served as union committeemen, was said

have absolutely no influence

unhappy with

Teamster

ascendancy in the west.

as elected officers

to resign.

of

And

their locals,

the

had

about being reelected. They could rarely hope to be retained

in office if their charismatic international president

opposed them.

Secondly, the union delegates quite universally likely correctly, that

Hoffa

felt,

knew much more about

"Open End" Contract Administration

and very

the contract

225

than any of them: in the words of one committeeman, restating the

New

already noted opinion of a

were

least

on

A side sit

by countless

also paraphrased

contract." There

was

England employer others, "After

in

all,

words

Jim

wrote the

point in arguing with such an expert,

little

at

rational grounds.

third reason for Hoffa's unchallenged control of the

was

on

that

that,

union

because the union committeemen were forbidden to

cases involving their

own

locals,

and most often had no

burning desire to engage in such "deals" with brother agents

as the

ones implied above, their motivation for strong argument with the international president was, at best, minimal. This last explanation,

however, did not apply

when

of contract interpretation,

to questions

the decision automatically affected

sion readily could be extended to the other locals in a case involving the calculation

also

was inap-

when

the deci-

all locals. It

plicable to the relatively infrequent other instances

(as,

for example,

of holiday pay).

The apparent apathy of the employer committeemen was, similarly,

based on pragmatic reasons.

One

reason was identical to that explaining the union side's

conduct: there was almost universal respect in employer ranks for

knowledge of the

Hoffa's

contract.

ble exceptions, the truckers

individual

on

committeeman was

the

Although with one or two nota-

JWC

also believed that

no other

as well qualified to decide grievances

or questions of interpretation arising under the Western States

Agreement. Hoffa's familiarity with the contract was also advanced by

many managers the employers

tem

retained in

one reason for the infrequency of deadlocks on

as

open

the five subjects

to impartial outside arbitrator handling.

would have its

preferred to see the old arbitration sys-

entirety, they felt that

the arbitrable issues (especially putes,

by

far the

most

While

any neutral's decisions on

on discharge and suspension

common

dis-

of the quintet to come before the

JWC) would not differ markedly from those made by Hoffa. The companies won most of these grievances, and one employer, summing up

the sentiment of the

this situation in the it's

easier for us to give in at the

time and a

employer majority, elaborated upon

following words:

good

money

in losing

case, we'll

Chapter 9

win

it

it

"When we have

JWC

level than to

to an outside arbitrator.

a

poor

spend

case,

a lot

When we

of

have

with Hoffa."

226

However, some employers were on the

tives

sions

arbitrable issues.

were not always due

To

cynical regarding Hoffa's mo-

them, the Teamster leader's deci-

to his familiarity with the contract.

They

argued that Hoffa was probably deciding such cases even more favor-

employers than an outsider would have, for

ably for the

currently in his interest to

win management support

for

it

was

doing away

with mandatory third party decision-making completely. "If Hoffa can point to a high percentage of decisions which sustain the

em-

ployer position in these five types of cases," one of these truckers

"he can claim that he

said,

As

later

is 'fairer'

than any [outside arbitrator]."

paragraphs will show, the JWC decision record did nothing

to detract

from

this theory.

Secondly, but of at

least as

much importance

as the first expla-

nation for the behavior of employer committeemen at

was

ings,

the fact that the

instructions

committeemen were bound by

from the companies

if

Of there

the previously cited

were only

that did

committeemen

go

to

mandatory

their

And

the carriers

to deadlock their dispute.

first six

five deadlocks.

meet-

they had previously agreed, in

the employer screening session, to accept the case. rarely allowed the

JWC

hundred

JWC

cases, in fact,

These consisted of the two cases

arbitrator handling

and three others that

did not involve arbitrable issues. Technically, even these latter three cases could

JWC if a

have been sent on to an impartial third party, since the

rules (like those in the Central States) allowed this to

happen

majority of the higher committee voted to take such a course

of action following the union

a stalemate.

Such voting had never occurred:

committee members had invariably opposed

it

because

they preferred to have the strike clause become operative. However, a strike

had never been

called, either: realism

had prevailed and

in

words of one employer committeeman, "the companies had acquiesced after the deadlock." Even the relative handful of truckers whose financial and competitive all

three cases, in the understated

statuses

yielding

might have allowed them

on

a

to suffer a strike in preference to

grievance could never be sure that they would win

their objectives

even should the work stoppage take

place.

company representatives originally asked the employer committeemen to back their case independently only to the point of the vote. Under these circumstances, there was Consequently,

as a rule, the

"Open End" Contract Administration

227

nothing to be gained by the employer committeemen indicated that he

would

no

if

Hoffa had

definitely sustain the union's position. Since

employer committeemen speaking

there

was

out

Hoffa had shown that he would support the company, only

if

also

logic in the

a

small area for potential employer resistance remained: where the

head of the Teamsters had not yet clearly expressed

a preference for

either party.

The pro-Hoffa conduct of the employer committeemen last situation

was, however, due to

believed that the union leader

a third reason.

Some

in this

truckers

was overly proud of his knowledge

of the contract, even to the point of becoming somewhat vindictive

toward employers who,

as their

departed chairman from Consoli-

dated Freightways, demonstrated too meetings. cases,

on

They shared

initiative in

even aside from those involving the

their merits.

impossible to

committee

come

definition

by, that the union chairman had already penal-

mal leadership of the reason alone

all

five arbitrable issues,

Each believed, although proof was by

few employer committeemen who had questioned

ized the

this

much

the opinion that Hoffa had not judged

JWC

when

by voting against

their

his infor-

companies for

these companies had later had cases before

the joint committee. (These truckers also claimed that Hoffa had

shown It

was

vindictiveness toward their contention that

it

some of his own

locals in his voting.

was not merely

coincidence that the

a

anti-Hoffa locals in both the California Valley of the West and in Pontiac, Michigan, in the Central States were regularly taking so

few grievances

to their respective higher committees: the belief

of

was that the locals in these areas knew that Hoffa would intentionally vote against them in their grievances.) Whether or not this allegation of vindictiveness was valid, the fact that it was fairly widespread was meaningful in explaining the employer committee's actions. Since the management committeemen, like their union counterparts, were usually considering cases that did not directly involve their own operations, most of these representatives saw little sense in going counter to Hoffa's desires with any degree of frequency if there was even the possibility of these employers

being so penalized.

Even considering Hoffa's exhortations that all cases be judged strictly on their merits, and even with the knowledge that more

Chapter 9

228

decisions than not

on the

five arbitrable issues

were supporting the

employer, one might logically have expected to find age of the overall J after

all,

a

high percent-

WC actions favoring the union. The strike clause,

allowed the Teamsters an enormous, and unique, advan-

tage in the joint committee meetings. In addition, the decision-

making process was governed by the desires of a union leader. It is of more than passing interest, then, that approximately 60 percent of the decisions regularly sustained the employer's position.

some JWC sessions, in fact, the proportion of the company approached 75 percent. In

No official "won many

a

to

parties.

record have been easily maintained,

types of decisions on grievances (such as those relating

to reinstatement with back pay, for example) a clear-cut

awarded

and lost" record was ever kept by the

Nor, of course, could such since

cases

do not always allow

"winner" or "loser." However, the accuracy of the per-

centages suggested above, which were arrived at by an examination

of one hundred randomly selected decisions of the

JWC

under the

1961-1964 contract, was commonly vouched for by employer and union representatives

alike.

By way of example, at

one meeting,

teemen

as

a

the joint committee heard thirty-two cases

three-day affair that was described by

being "typical" for

its

decisions.

Of the

its

commit-

thirty-two cases,

eighteen culminated in fairly clear-cut decisions for or against the

company (e.g., "Company must pay"; "Discharge upheld"; "Union pay claim denied"). And, of these eighteen decisions, thirteen

— or 72.2 percent — were awarded Breaking the eighteen cases

to

the

down by

company. both their nature and

their victor,

Major

Case

Issue

Party Sustained

1

Runaround pay*

Company

2

Alleged improper calculation

Union

of holiday pay 3

Discharge

Union

4

Discharge

Company

5

Discharge

Company

Seniority in job bidding

Union

6

preference

''Open

End"

Contract Administration

229

Major

Case

Party Sustained

Issue

7

Runaround pay

Union

8

Discharge

Company

9

Discharge

Company

10

Discharge

Company

11

Runaround pay

Company

12

Subcontracting

Company

13

Alleged improper calculation

Union

of vacation pay 14

Calculation of mileage pay

Company

15

Leave of absence

Company

16

Runaround pay

Company

17

Runaround pay

Company

18

Runaround pay

Company

* So-called because the grievant alleges in such cases that the company dispatcher has improperly awarded the run to another driver, thus "running

around" the grievant.

The

dispositions of the fourteen other cases of the thirty-two con-

sidered,

Case 1

2

3

were

Major

as follows:

Disposition

Issue

Discharge

Reinstatement with half back pay

Seniority in merger of three different seniority boards

Company not directly involved: union wanted an interpretation* from Hoffa

Holiday pay

Referred to lower joint committee, to

be treated

as a factual dispute rather

than as one of interpretation 4

Seniority in selection of start-

Referred to lower joint committee, to

ing time

be treated as a factual dispute rather than as one of interpretation

5

Weekly

guarantees

practice) as affected

ICC 6

(past

by new

Postponed for further study sentation by parties

after pre-

regulation

Discharge

Case withdrawn

after presentation

by

parties

7

Work

assignment

Referred to lower joint committee, to

be treated

as a factual dispute rather

than as one of interpretation 8

Alleged company refusal to

Parties

post job opportunity

JWC

Chapter 9

were advised

to settle outside

after their presentations

230

Major

Case

Work

9

Issue

Disposition

assignment

Referred to joint council, for involved jurisdiction of

locals

Suspended while JWC determined whether lower joint committee exam-

Alleged improper calculation

10

two

of pay for work performed

ined the correct records

Runaround pay

11

Postponed to find out company's past practice

Runaround pay

12

Postponed to find out company's past practice

13

14

*

A

Alleged improper calculation

Withdrawn by

of pay for work performed

presentations

Alleged improper calculation

Neither

of pay for work performed

tained

the parties after their

position

party's

fully

sus-

request for interpretation of contractual language in the absence of

a bona opposed to starting at the lower joint committee level. In practice, however, some employers sought to circumvent the lower body and bring their cases directly to Hoffa by claiming that their factual disputes were interpretative ones even though they were not.

fide factual

controversy could go directly to the

JWC,

as

—

It

will be noted that nine of the thirty-two cases involved

of the five arbitrable

subcontracting, and that the

of them (numbers

4, 5, 8, 9,

company

position

10 and 12 in the

was upheld only once (number 3

position

one

issues, in these situations either discharge or

was sustained

first table),

in six

the union

in the first table),

and

was one "compromise" decision (number 1, second table) and one withdrawal (number 6, second table). The company's percentage of "wins" among the clear-cut verdicts was therefore 85.7. The there

statistic

did not contradict the belief of the truckers that they might

be doing

with

at least as

a third party,

would have done evidence was, obviously, far from

well on such cases as they

although the

overwhelming.

Of the

remaining eleven cases

listed in the first table as

having

had reasonably definitive decisions, moreover, seven of them or 63.6 percent also went the employer's way. In regard to the second table alone,

were disposed of by the local

JWC

after

two of

the fourteen cases

Hoffa had conversed with the

union agents representing the grievants, and two

held private discussions with the involved tives. In all

management

after

he had

representa-

four instances, the desire to avoid a bad precedent by

"Open End" Contract Administration

231

the party with

whom

he conferred was believed to have motivated

The withdrawals of two cases after presentation were explained by one committeeman as stemming from "a realization by one of the parties that it would lose with Hoffa and its desire, accordingly, to get a compromise outside of the JWC." these discussions.

Teamsters cited the

union was winning only

fact that the

minority ofJWC disputes

as clear

decided on their merits.

They admitted

cases

were more

a

evidence that the cases were being that the merits

of

many

likely to support the employer's position than the

union's, because of the prevalence of "political" grievances brought

committee by IBT agents. And Hoffa's

to the higher

they argued,

showed

that he

decisions,

was exercising whatever power he had

responsibly and even in a "statesmanlike" way.

The employers in ment and were quite

the

West

typically agreed with this assess-

free to praise

Hoffa for

his actions.

They

pointed out that their knowledge of the union president's strengths,

and of their

his relative political security within the Teamsters, dictated

having preferred him originally

they were not surprised

sometimes to

referred,

at his

however,

as

union chairman and that

performance

in

San Francisco. They

to the reports that

have decided cases of companies and

locals that

wrath on grounds other than "statesmanship" their belief that the latter quality

may

Hoffa was

known

had incurred

his

in also expressing

not have extended to every

dispute.

A

minority of the employers also asserted that most of the cases

were of much

interest

only to the company and Teamsters directly

involved, as indicated by Hoffa's screening only the relatively few cases that he considered to be important

and by the employers' also

concentrating, although less effectively, on the cases that might

involve key precedents. Hence, these truckers claimed, Hoffa actu-

by voting

ally lost little

for the

employer

in the executive sessions,

and he might gradually have been able to win management support-

They contended, in effect, that Hoffa's "tactical decisions" extended to many more cases than those involving the five arbitrable issues a theory that, if true, would ers for

"open end"

in the process.

—

explain the high overall employer "victory" percentage.

Challenged for proof of

this theory, these truckers

tended to

than persuasive. They pointed out, reasonably

be something

less

enough, that

survey confined exclusively to the "significant" cases

Chapter 9

a

232

would be

But "significance" was invariably

sions.

what

method of appraising Hoffa's

the only meaningful

However,

there

concerning one case.

and

issue,

single case to tions.

deci-

eye of the beholder:

the definition for one employer rarely did for another.

fit

only"

in the

was deemed

in all quarters as the

have come before the JWC

was

It

it

was complete unanimity among the truckers It was always referred to as the "miles driven

by

cited

grounds for hesitancy

all

in

in

its first

of the theory holders

most important

years of delibera-

some

as offering

applauding Hoffa's actions on the more

important disputes.

The "miles driven only"

stemmed from

issue

request

a local's

for interpretation of the "guarantee" portion of the contract's line

The language was murky

haul single driver provisions.

and said nothing

at all

at its best,

about pay guarantees for certain types of

would cause problems, and one of these problems had triggered, in March 1962, the local's plea to Hoffa that he make explicit what the original intent of the parties runs.

was

It

inevitable that

in negotiating

it

it

had been.

In the executive session

on the

(8)

hours for the driving time on

time spent other than driving in actuality

at

operations are to be paid eight

a particular trip, plus

pay for

all

Some of the trips eight hours. And the

the hourly rate."

consumed considerably

less

than

employer committeemen, firmly believing negotiators

union chairman stated

case, the

man

that "drivers in long line single

of the

that the intent

was an eight-hour guarantee for the whole workday and more generous could be suicidal for the companies,

that anything

felt sufficiently

aroused to bring about the

first

deadlock in

JWC

history.

Hoffa then announced that the union would nies in order

of

one company

their size.

But the

after another,

capitulation as the lesser of It

was

left

strikes

strike the

as its strike deadline

two

evils

compa-

were never forthcoming:

was

and accepted the

to the pragmatic Hoffa to

chose

set,

new

make amends

ruling.

for

what

appears to have been a rare error in judgment on his part. Within a

few months, he

unilaterally modified the eight-hour stipulation

to a less onerous requirement that the

on

trips.

because

According

"it

to a close

was becoming too

"Open End" Contract Administration

companies pay for

six

hours

his action was taken some companies, and some

Hoffa adviser,

costly for

233

agents also

saw

their sentiments

the sense of cutting

it

Hoffa was guided by

out.

and reasoning."

Concerning the modification, one employer could least

we

We

can live with six hours.

"At

say:

couldn't have continued in

business under the original ruling."

Almost no employer

where "open end"

in the Central States,

had been so long established, shared the opinion of the West Coast minority that Hoffa was using

trucker

a

double standard for

"significant" and "less important" cases. There were, therefore,

grounds for believing that the western minority would, with further

come

experience with Hoffa,

to the

same conclusion.

Otherwise, however, the similarities of higher committee contract administration in

Committee

Chicago (where the Central

1961-1964 period much greater than the

The Chicago

States Joint

were even

deliberated) and in San Francisco

differences.

process of decision making, as indicated earlier,

was

identical,

was

in San Francisco.

with Hoffa's presence being

And

much

felt fully as

the practical results in Chicago

quite consistent with those of the West: the employers a clear

Area

in the

majority of the cases, Central States

JAC

as

it

were

were winning

deadlocks were

averaging fewer than two annually, and strikes had been

all

nonexistent throughout the JAC's twenty-five-year history.

More-

over, while case

on

it

was admittedly more

difficult to

send

to a neutral in the Central States than in the

a

but

deadlocked

West

(since this

could be done only by majority vote of the JAC), the infrequency

of such

referrals

was equally

instance in the past decade

striking: there

when

had not been

a single

the required majority vote had

been forthcoming. Perhaps there was

a certain

irony in the fact that almost

all

truckers were so greatly opposed to "open end," in view of the

percentage of employer "victories" and given States employers' denial that

Hoffa was using

at least the

a

Central

double standard

in his decisions. Nonetheless, the

management

opposition,

marked

the Central States fully as

much

West, was entirely

rational

under even the best of employer circumstances.

The products

trucker resentment, by and large, was not directed

of "open end"

Chapter 9

as the

at all

— except

in a

few

which

at

the

rare instances such as

234

the western "miles driven only" case (and the few other "signifi-

Most employHoffa had shown instances of

cant" cases individually cited by western employers).

even those

ers,

who

believed that

personal vindictiveness in his decisions, readily admitted that the decisions themselves "usually" had been appropriate ones, and ones that an outside arbitrator

might conceivably have made.

Rather, the employers indicted the process of decision making,

and the

possibilities for

abuse that they saw

in this process.

the fear of a double standard, they contended,

had not the process allowed

isted

Theoretically, there

was

still

it

would not have ex-

plausibility.

a definite place for a third party,

since any deadlocked case could be referred to a neutral vote. Equally theoretically, the

decision that

was unfavorable

Even

by majority

employers could always prevent any

to

them by

the simple act of bringing

about deadlocks through their equal committee votes. That practice diverged so greatly from theory was, of course, due to

were

as visible as a

Mack

realities that

truck: Hoffa's union preferred a strike

threat over voting for referral to a neutral because the threat

almost tantamount to

its

winning the

case,

rarely willing to accept a deadlock for the

By

definition, then,

"open end"

was

and the companies were

same

reason.

in the trucking industry

turned

power heavily in favor of the union. Because the Teamster strike weapon was anathema to the motor freight carrier, the latter was completely at the union's mercy in obtaining an equitable settlement of grievances. The labor agreement could, indeed, the balance of

be renegotiated every time that the higher joint committee session,

sat in

and on the union's terms.

Moreover,

at least

four other doubts could be justifiably raised

about the efficacy of the process in the Central States and West: 1.

Because Hoffa was

in

such complete control of the other

union committeemen and because the employer committeemen

were so reluctant

to speak, there

was

at

most times not even the

semblance of any "judicial" determination to "open end." Even

when Hoffa

listened to the stated opinions of the other

committee-

men, these opinions were undoubtedly often colored because of the widely held fear of antagonizing him. In either event, therefore, contract administration

was based upon precedents

established or crucially influenced

vidual rather than that of any

"Open End" Contract Administration

by one man

common

— the

either

rule

wholly

of an indi-

consensus.

235

As

2.

a

consequence of

in a position to

committee power, Hoffa was

his joint

reward and penalize particular

carriers

and Teamster

agents arbitrarily, at any time. Whether or not he had actually ever

done

or

this,

would do

it,

was beside the

precedent could govern his decisions only

Even

in a clear case

cases

were

consideration for

when he wanted

it

to.

of inconsistency with precedent, moreover,

was no curb on Hoffa's

there

No two

point.

avowed

ever identical, and the union chairman's

ability to decide

any case on any basis

he desired.

For example, even the

politically secure

Hoffa could never be

guaranteed the permanent applause of his membership. As any other union leader, he always had to be attuned to the wishes of his

was very good

constituents (something that, of course, he

While the executive sessions were

officially private ones,

could not afford to antagonize large groups of rank and

that

that were was now well known

by decisions

sters

it

the danger that he might rule in favor

—

at

doing).

Hoffa

Teamthem and

file

consistently unfavorable to

that he greatly influenced. Therefore,

at least occasionally

of the union for purely

—

feel

compelled to

political reasons

could never

be entirely dismissed. 3.

Hoffa's extremely busy nationwide schedule raised the possi-

bility that

make

he would not always be able to

priate to the specific grievance situations,

always desired to do

this.

Some

decisions appro-

even assuming that he

representatives of both parties be-

lieved that he was increasingly overlooking circumstances peculiar to individual subregions

and localized types of problems, merely

because of his preoccupation with so

many

other regions and

made

that time pressures,

problems. 4.

A

strong case could also have been

both for Hoffa and the other committee members, were forcing too

many

cases to be decided in a single day.

twenty-five cases,

when

A

daily

agenda containing

the sessions followed the Central States

format of being held three months apart, was not Thus, each case was guaranteed that

at all

attention that an outside arbitrator

would not receive would have given it

merits of the case consequently,

at

it

— with the

times,

the interests of completing the business at days. tee

The

Chapter 9

being overlooked in

hand

in the allotted three

use of precedent and the consideration of lower

minutes allowed

a

unusual.

nearly the

commit-

speedy disposition of many of the grievances,

236

to be sure, but these tools did not

by any means

fully assuage the

fears. It

ers

might have been completely true

that, as

Teamster support-

of "open end" were arguing, Hoffa knew the intent of the conan outside arbitrator could not. There was probably

tract as

accuracy in the assertion of both parties that the

knowledge of motor that

of anyone

else.

freight labor complexities

And

Hoffa's charge that

IBT

much

president's

was unmatched by

some

third parties

had

attempted to "please both sides" and actually pleased nobody was very likely

made by tor fees

a valid one.

and time,

to be far

But

was

satisfied

of these points, and

its

(e.g., its

less telling

economies

ones

in arbitra-

"educational" value to the participants) seemed

outweighed by the one-sidedness of the "open end" process

and the dangers inherent It

all

those favoring "open end"

in

it.

to Hoffa's credit that the

with

his decisions: the

employers were, by and

large,

opportunity for his "renegotiating"

the contract, intentionally or unintentionally, existed at every meet-

ing that he attended.

"Open End" Contract Administration

237

Preference for the Status

Quo

"Hoffa," said one of the most highly respected of

all

trucking

ployers in 1962, "is one of the few labor leaders

who

that technological

he

is

change will come, and won't

em-

recognizes

forestall

it,

though

concerned with minimizing the displacement and ensuring that

the workers share in the gains."

The statement

fairly reflected the

opinion of the enormous ma-

jority of the speaker's fellow managers.

ever the

realist,

The Teamster

had demonstrated concretely

that he

president,

would not

obstruct the accelerating changes pervading the industry.

The union

president

was well aware

many of

that

these

changes, most of which had been generated by the growing external

competition that

now

confronted trucking, threatened either the

income or the very employment of Teamster

drivers.

recognized that cooperation from him was necessary try's rapid

growth trend was not

to be reversed.

He

But he if the

also

indus-

asked only that

no more drivers than were absolutely necessary be deprived of their jobs in the process, and that those drivers remaining share in the profits resulting

man who was

from the increased productivity. Otherwise, the

universally recognized

one manager once

least

make

it

stick"

said

by truckers

was eminently willing

to

having, as at 'no'

and

compromise.

Four convincing examples were often

They pertained

as

of him, "the power to say

cited

by employers.

to Hoffa's attitude toward: the minimization

of

"watered miles" caused by the construction of new mileage-

reducing highways, trucker participation in piggybacking, sleeper cabs,

and double bottoms. Each warrants attention. 1.

The Minimization of "Watered Miles" Even though public

highway construction

itself

could hardly be collectively bargained

within the trucking industry, the great growth of highways

much

1950s and early 1960s had been very

a part

in the

of the technological

change of this sector of transportation. Both over-the-road

parties,

while arguing in Washington and the state capitals that the trucking

companies were paying an unfairly high proportion of the taxes financing the highways, had not only

had lobbied for

For the

it.

carriers, the

ery speeds had opened up

new

welcomed

new

this

growth but

routes and faster deliv-

markets. For the Teamsters, these

new markets had

offered the possibility of offsetting the threat to

employment

had been caused,

that

piggybacking

in particular,

by the

However, one major labor

relations

problem

for the parties

had also stemmed from the highway growth. Under the contracts, mileage pay had been granted ally

on the

railroads'

activities.

basis

of the

tradition-

American Automobile Association

official

mileage distances.

When

latest official state

highway maps had been used

such figures had not been available, the to determine the

number of miles to be paid for. And, in the comparatively few instances when the parties had had neither of these sources at their disposal, representatives of the

union and employers had personally

logged the number of miles on the route, with their points of origin

and destination being the nearest U.S. Post Office. In the absence of new roads, these distances remained the only ones recognized for the purpose of mileage payment.

Both the duplication of effort and

the temptation for exaggeration involved if the individual driver

was allowed

to calculate the miles as these

were driven were thereby

avoided.

The construction of new highways, however, made many of the recognized mileages inaccurate, usually because they

too high. Because of this fact and also because

work of their

lieved that the

new

drivers

roads, the industry's negotiators

negotiations

—

told Hoffa that

the old and the the companies

new

routes the

it

was

Quo

—

in the

to

now

truckers beeasier

on

the

1955 Central States

unfair to pay drivers

on both

same amounts. They requested

no longer be forced

Preference for the Status

many

was considerably

were

that

pay for the "watered" miles.

239

Hoffa was sympathetic.

incomes by eliminating

all

He was

unwilling to decrease driver

of the "water"

at

one time, but he admit-

ted to the industry negotiators that their case

was

He

a strong one.

compromise, which was immediately accepted by the

agreed to a

management

representatives. In each of the next six years, the

em-

ployers could subtract one-sixth of the excess mileage, provided that such elimination did not result in the reduction

of more than

one-half of each annual one-quarter-cent-per-mile pay increase

granted by the contract. Moreover, this "one-sixth formula" would

only apply to changes in routes changes, the actual

new

before 1955; for

all

subsequent

(or otherwise calculated) mileage for the

would be made

routes

In the

AAA

made

effective

immediately for pay purposes.

1960-1961 round of negotiations, the general mileage reduc-

tion principle

was retained

most of the other

Only

and extended to

contracts.

a labor leader

and only

ried this off,

in the Central States

who was

politically secure

a statesmanlike

could have car-

one would have wanted

to,

compromise Teamster incomes were, by The truckers recognized this and were quite

since even with Hoffa's definition, diminished.

pleased with the unionist's response. "It's fortunate for the industry," as

one top manager

what had happened

said in reference to

Hoffa understands our problems and

here, "that

is

willing to

weigh

our proposals on what's good for both management and the union." 2.

Trucker Participation

loaded truck

trailers

on

in

Piggybacking

The

carrying of freight-

railroad flatcars, or piggybacking, has al-

ways acted completely to the detriment of over-the-road jobs, and thus to Teamster membership totals. As the practice began its rapid growth in Hoffa's early presidential years, accordingly, certain acts of violence

— such

as the

peppering with rocks and buckshot of

automobiles moving on piggyback trains

— were invariably

attrib-

uted (rightly or wrongly) to Teamsters on the grounds of plausible motive.

On

the other hand, the financial interests of individual

em-

ployers had often been advanced by trucker participation in the pig-

gybacking

activity.

Hoffa himself, claiming that piggybacking had cost the IBT

some twenty thousand no attempt

drivers

to restrain his

between 1959 and 1961 alone, made

emotions on the subject. And,

he did not exempt the truckers from

his

tough

talk: "If the

companies and the railroads think we're going

Chapter 10

in this case,

to

sit

idly

trucking

by while

240

piggybacking costs us thousands and thousands of jobs," he would regularly say in these or similar words, "they'd better think again."

The harsh tempted points in

IBT

rhetoric aside, however, the head of the

two ways. He

at-

Teamster and employer view-

to reconcile the conflicting

generally protected, through both contract

negotiations and informal union-management discussions, a stable

number of

drivers before any piggybacking

could be performed.

And

by the road

carriers

he inserted in most of the over-the-road

labor agreements a clause providing, in effect, that the carriers pay a

$5 fee into employee health or pension funds for each

trailer that

they did piggyback.

The

the employers than officially

it

tended to be.

piggyback without incurring any penalty (beyond the $5

contribution) only if the

more rigorous for Typically, a company could

driver protection invariably sounded

number of

it

did not have available

the point of origin

at

regular drivers and equipment needed to carry the loss

from the

diversion of the freight to the railroads, the carrier had to

compen-

freight.

sate the

Should an available regular driver

employee

suffer

for such loss. Thus, if four such Teamsters

been available to drive piggybacked freight from

York, for example, the

wage

to each

carrier

would now have

St.

to

railroad haul the trailer. Informally,

pay

had

New

a full day's

when

drivers

however, the determination of

was drawn

were on layoff

particularly tightly.

status (although actually

company was in financial trouble, two terms proved to be quite flexible

"available") or the definition of the fore,

Louis to

of the four drivers, plus the expense of having the

neither "regular" nor "available"

Especially

any

not particularly onerous

the union's

and, there-

at all.

Similarly, while the $5-per-trailer contribution

was

itself reli-

giously enforced, the extraction of the tariff in no

way

decreased

The amount went

the piggybacking activities of the companies.

some four times

further in the early 1960s than

most truckers privately considered the payment

when compared

and

should be that

does now. But

to be a "bargain"

to the payroll savings allowed them, especially

Nor made by employers

the longer runs. fice

it

was Hoffa's position that benefiting

some

on

financial sacri-

from piggybacking,

the health and pension funds were the

logical recipients

of such money, seriously debated.

On

appeared to be in agreement that in

this area, just as in his reaction

Preference for the Status

Quo

the contrary, the industry

241

to the

"watered" miles, Hoffa had acted reasonably and,

in

view of

trucking's competitive problems, with foresight. 3.

Sleeper Cabs

The two

drivers of sleeper cabs offered their

employers one enormous advantage tal

trucking industry regulation.

in this era

They

did not have to stop en route

mandated eight-hour

to take the legally

of heavy governmen-

rest after

every ten hours

of driving time. With one driver behind the wheel, the other could be sleeping, back in the small metal bed-containing box on board,

and the vehicle could quite legally be driven

on

this basis.

all

but continuously

Because more freight-miles per day could thus be

handled by the sleeper cab drivers than by the drivers of two single-

man vehicles,

the employers had been particularly anxious to initiate

sleeper cab services.

The Teamster

president

displacement involved here.

life

He

fully

aware of the potential labor

also recognized that the

movement of

quarters and constant

of

was

the sleepers

made

one that was not popular with the majority of

cramped this

kind

his drivers.

Nonetheless, he was increasingly willing to allow the expansion

of such two-person operations in the ing sector. In this case, in

by negotiating terms

fact,

that

interests

of

a healthier

truck-

he actually encouraged the growth,

much of

the industry

found

to

be

irresistible.

Each of the two drivers regularly

received, under the terms of

Hoffa's contracts in these years, less than a 2-cent-per-mile (or

something under 20 percent

no money

when

at all

mathematical logic,

extra)

in the vehicle

this

was

when behind

the wheel, and

but not driving.

far less costly to the

premium

By

simple

employer than

paying each of the drivers of two single-person vehicles the slightly

lower

rate for collectively covering the

the single sleeper cab transversed. sleeper cab drivers also gained

By

the

same number of miles

as

same token, however, the

something

in the

way of additional

income. They also stood to make considerably higher annual in-

comes than they might otherwise have made:

ment terms companies

the IBT-granted pay-

made use of the sleepers so attractive to the number of hours that these drivers could work year was generally far more than those assigned

actually

that the

in the course

of

to the operators

a

of single-person vehicles.

Hoffa's hope was, of course, that the industry a

competitive edge in

Chapter 10

its

would

also gain

never-ending fight against railroad freight

242

transport by passing

To some though

on some of its

sleeper cab savings to shippers.

extent, this favorable reversal of fortune did happen, al-

—

noted

as

earlier

— the

overall competition for trucking

continued to be formidable.

Double Bottoms The double bottom, using

4.

two

pull

semitrailers,

sleeper cab.

is

received

It

industry started to use lost to railroad

it

a single tractor to

of somewhat more recent vintage than the its

great impetus only in 1958,

when

the

in an explicit attempt to recapture business

piggybacking, and now, increasingly,

air freight as

well.

As of the

the

few northeastern and midwestern

had allowed the double bottom

states

ders.

early 1960s, only a

Most

new

duction.

type of transportation, had

Even where

the double

ting license, moreover,

superhighways, since

its

its

to operate within their bor-

hazards and

states, fearing safety

flatly

traffic

slowdowns from

refused to permit

its

intro-

bottom had been granted an opera-

commonly been

use had

typical length (about 98 feet)

(perhaps 90,000 pounds) had not allowed

it

to

restricted to

and weight

comply with

existing

state length and weight laws on the regular state highways.

However, where proven

the double

itself able to offer

bottom could be driven,

companies

it

significant savings in fuel,

depreciation, maintenance, and interest costs.

also held out the

It

obvious advantage of reduced labor expenses, with one driver ally pulling

single

twice as heavy

liter-

load as was transported under the

bottom arrangement.

The union had not been ers,

a

had

oblivious to these savings. Hoffa staff-

indeed, had calculated the average overall cost reduction to the

companies

as

single savings

being over 6 cents per trailer-mile, with the greatest

coming from

the reduced payrolls.

Yet, as in the case of the sleeper cab, the Hoffa administration

had recognized the need for the double bottom try's

competition.

tom's spread, involved, and

It

had never sought

despite the threat to its

sole reaction

seemed

in

view of the indus-

to restrict the

employment to

double bot-

that

had been

have been to demand that

part of the savings be shared with the drivers.

Under

the 1961-1964 Central States contract, for example,

drivers of recognized double bottom equipment were paid 11.075

cents per mile in 1962 and, after January 31, 1963, received 11.325 cents per mile

— while mileage

Preference for the Status

Quo

rates

of 9.925 and 10.175 cents, re-

243

spectively,

were being paid

of four-axle single bottom

to the drivers

units.

To minimize what Hoffa panies, there

was

when

States for driving

felt

could be subterfuges by the

com-

considerably higher differential in the Central

a

regular

highway

semi-trailers

were used

for

double bottom purposes: the mileage rate in these cases was 12.94

became 13.19

cents in 1962 and

additional

bow

to

economic

cents in early 1963. But, in an

realities,

some Teamster

contracts did

not even go this far in asking for higher pay: the upstate

New

York agreement, for example, made no distinction between types of double bottoms being driven, calling only for an additional 2 cents in the

mileage rate for any double bottom work.

On these bases,

Hoffa was also quite willing to join the

in trying to convince the hesitant

states that their fears

double bottom had been unwarranted.

On

carriers

about the

several occasions, states

had allowed limited-period experiments with the new

vehicles, but

always with exacting requirements concerning driver past safety records and present physical conditions. Regularly, the Teamster leadership had cooperated with the employers in these experiments

by taking drivers out of seniority so that the special rules could be met. These joint efforts of the parties had persuaded several

—

among them, Massachusetts and New York more extensive permanent use of the double bottoms.

states

On

—

to

allow

the eve of James R. Hoffa's contemplated 1964 nationwide

trucking contract most employers were not especially unhappy with their

dependence upon him.

most

did), they also

If

saw him

they viewed

as a

him

as

an autocrat

(as

benevolent autocrat, an enlight-

who had generally attempted to act in the best of trucking. And while certain terms negotiated by Hoffa

ened unionist

inter-

ests

(most

notably, those pertaining to the "open end" system) had clearly

come under heavy

trucker attack, employer-offered examples of the

Teamster president's "statesmanship" were the

management

if

offered a choice between having

continuing to negotiate with Hoffa,

most

more common than

criticisms.

Nonetheless,

the

far

enthusiastically pro-Hoffa

it is

safe to

no union and

assume

that

even

employers would have selected

the former. In that way, they could at least gain the privilege of unilateral decision

Chapter 10

making on terms of employment and thus avoid

244

what they considered for the

to be the

few undesirable portions of Hoffa's

And, while many managers had nothing but appreciation

contracts.

IBT

president's role in stabilizing the industry's

was

conditions, there

widespread embarrassment

also

wages and in trucker

ranks that any labor leader had to be the stabilizing force for an industry.

Moreover, some employers, increasingly

more

Some

truckers

who knew

the industry as he had been as

up

to that point.

voiced

as

he was had his breaking

and the severe pressures with which he had been

confronted almost continuously for years

him

now

compromise with Even a man who was

as willing to

tough both physically and emotionally

point, they argued,

had

future.

Hoffa well, for example,

he would no longer prove

fears that

in these years,

grounds for uneasiness concerning the

specific

now seemed to be pushing

into occasional irrationality. Often cited here

was Hoffa's be-

havior in the negotiations leading to the most recent Central States contract.

At these 1960-1961 bargaining

House some of the

sessions,

conducted

at

Chi-

cago's Palmer

Hotel, the unexpectedly hard line initially

taken by

carriers

had triggered an equally surprising

response from Hoffa. In an atypical display of bitterness, he had

accused the employers of engaging in delaying

of causing

was

with the hope

tactics

John F. Kennedy, no friend of Hoffa's, White House. Kennedy would then immediately

a strike just after

installed in the

intervene and stop the strike on terms unfavorable to the Teamsters. In this "anti-Hoffa conspiracy," Hoffa charged, the fact that the

two primary employer

negotiators happened to be former Federal

Bureau of Investigation agents could not be overlooked. (Many managers

in the industry

generally explained

commerce nies

have historically had such

by the

fact that the theft

a

brings FBI agents and truckers into contact.

have often seen good managerial

Much worse

background,

of goods in interstate

The compa-

talent in the agents.)

than the complete lack of foundation for these

charges, the employers contended,

was

their aftermath. In full

view

of the negotiators for both teams, the head of America's biggest

union

lost all

minutes.

of his monumental self-control for no

He broke

chairs

As

at the

management

one witness later said of this tirade,

Preference for the Status

Quo

than thirty

and repeatedly used the same few words

of extreme vulgarity, directed the room.

less

representatives in

"He quivered and

245

shook It

like a

was

man

out of his mind,

frightening.

he was for that length of time.

as

But he ultimately regained

was obviously chagrined

at

composure and

his

what had happened." Another observer

outburst registered a widely held employer opinion: "Hoffa

of

this

is

not the

man

contrary to

he was.

The

his.

of pressures on

.

.

.

fuse has

Jimmy

today

He's not

become

—

as

amenable

shorter.

.

to opinions

There

.

.

are a lot

particularly his legal troubles

— and

they're taking a toll."

degree than

new many

afford, although

some

This second manager and others like him

Hoffa might push national uniformity to

companies and even whole regions could riders

felt

a greater

that the

and deviations undoubtedly would be maintained. They were obvious possibility that even

also quick to point out the

make such demands

did not

in 1964,

Hoffa

if

he might try to extract them

over the length of the contract by the "open end" process.

A

larger

remained

group of employers believed

that the

now

needs

as responsive to the industry's

IBT

president

That

as ever.

group, however, voiced concern that the increasing competitive and cash flow problems of the industry might

by the drivers

call for

greater sacrifices

1964 than even the politically secure Hoffa, proud

in

of the gains that he had achieved for

his

members, would be willing

to ask these Teamsters to make. Still

remain

a third

as

group of truckers feared

Teamster chief executive

at all for

dicted that his difficulties with the law in the relatively near future. Since

that

Hoffa would not

much

would

longer.

force

him

It

pre-

to resign

no other Teamster was believed

to possess either his ability or his intelligence, the conclusion here

was

that he

would

inevitably be succeeded

by

a less desirable

union

official.

These

would

last

employers

result in a

also

worried that Hoffa's resignation

long period of chaos for the industry. They fully

recognized that he rarely delegated anything of consequence in trucking labor relations and that he had to succeed him.

There were enough

groomed no one

rival factions

within the

international hierarchy to ensure a major

power

and enough ambitious

in office to

that there locals

would

local leaders

still

at all

IBT

struggle for his job

make

it

likely

also be attempts to regain lost authority for the

and joint councils. This internal warfare would patently

weaken

the union's bargaining strength.

Chapter 10

But

it

could also lead to

246

irresponsible,

upon

politically

motivated union demands being made

the employers and to a greater use of the IBT's dreaded strike

weapon.

As all

different as these three fears were,

may have been

common

thread:

all

warned

and

immediate

for at least the

as

unwarranted

future, they

that the continuation

had

as

a

of an accommo-

dating Teamster president could hardly be taken for granted.

Accordingly, the employers had had greater motivation than ever to search for

And,

ways of increasing

in fact, several

past been advocated a

own

their

means of achieving

this

bargaining strength.

end had

in the recent

by managers. Some employers had urged

system of trucking company

strike insurance

that

be implemented.

Others had suggested that the compulsory arbitration of both grievances arising under existing contracts and the basic terms to be

included in

new

contracts

was

means by which

the only

of employer bargaining table equality could be

a

measure

realized. Still others,

convinced that bargaining cohesion could never be gained for the entire industry,

had argued

in favor

of more exclusive employer

organizations to represent only carriers with similar operating

problems.

None of

the projects ever got off the ground. Despite their

worries about the future, the truckers could no more unite as they

prepared for the 1964 bargaining sessions than they ever had been

And man who

once again, said more about

able to.

that they could not,

the

ran the Teamsters than

did about the employers

it

themselves.

The proposal

for strike insurance

industries outside of trucking.

By

was based on experiences

the early 1960s, employers

in

who

had bought such coverage from private insurance companies had been reimbursed for losses incurred by airline,

and railroad

appeal for

motor

sectors.

strikes in the

But the concept

freight, given the far greater risk

trophe in the event of

work stoppages

there.

of strike insurance argued, with obvious

motor

carriers

clearly

were guaranteed

that

IBT

newspaper,

had

a special

of financial catas-

Trucker proponents

justification, that, if the

would not put them what they considered to

strikes

out of business, their willingness to reject

be excessive union demands would be proportionately increased. Against the logic of the proposal, however, stood two insur-

mountable

obstacles.

Preference for the Status

Quo

247

Hoffa quickly became aware of the project and publicly

First,

expressed strong disapproval of

fund "a

lot

He

it.

called the plans for a strike

of baloney" and predicted that "the employers won't

have the guts to adopt such insurance."

He

also

warned

the truckers

that, just in case they did decide to implement the concept, the

union would counter

it

with

a

huge

strike

fund of its own. Taking

a hint that achieved in formidability what

it

lacked in subtlety, a

number of employers immediately asked the strike insurance advocates to drop the whole idea. They were followed, in short

large

order,

by

others.

other roadblock to strike insurance was the widespread

The

recognition in these days that the Teamster strike threat was often a

"selective" one: as the histories of the last Central States and

New

southern

England negotiations have brought

out,

Hoffa was

few

than

all

more disposed

to strike only a

represented in the bargaining.

were usually among the larger reason whatsoever

why

larger competitors. Yet

only

if

carriers, rather

carriers

What was more, the few carriers ones. The smaller companies saw no

they should subsidize the strikes of their it

was

a fact

of

strike insurance life that

the majority of the truckers, large and small, contributed

financially could the insurance

premiums

for

any of them be made

economically acceptable. The exodus of potential participants in the

wake of Hoffa's warnings had all but guaranteed that this majority would never be realized; this second factor made such an outcome a certainty.

The

plans for compulsory arbitration of both

new

contract terms

and grievances arising under existing contracts fared no

better.

Shortly after the conclusion of the 1960-1961 Central States negotiations, the Wisconsin filiate its

Motor

Carriers Association, a state af-

of the American Trucking Associations, had

officially

asked

parent to "initiate legislation which will permit the Federal gov-

ernment

and

to appoint impartial panels to settle labor grievances

to participate in collective bargaining

between labor and manage-

ment, and further that such arbitration be compulsory upon both labor and

management

Explaining

its

action, the

was trucking's sumed the dominant

labor

in the trucking industry."

Wisconsin group had pointed out that

largest item

of expense, that labor "has

role in negotiations

because of the importance of trucking,

Chapter 10

1

it

of contracts," and

was "in

as-

that,

the public interest

248

that neither labor

nor management be

the general public

by

Viewing tee It

in

...

a position to injure

and unwarranted actions." 2

selfish

ATA's Executive Commit-

this request favorably, the

announced an "endorsement of the principles" contained

directed

its

Industrial Relations

Committee and

staff to

in

it.

propose

ways of implementing these principles. Hoffa, no supporter of arbitration in even its mildest noncompulsory and for-grievances-only form, saw red. Demonstrating no

more forbearance than he had shown

in the case

of strike insurance,

he announced that the Executive Committee's action was cause for

ATA. He telephoned the ATA's managing director and told him to call a new Executive Committee meeting to repudiate the original action. He announced that he had contacted some of "war" with

the

the "leading" Wisconsin employers to inquire about the Wisconsin resolution,

He also

and had been told that they knew nothing about

said that truckers

throughout the country were against com-

pulsory arbitration as the

"first

step

toward fascism"

management relations and predicted that, because of "The [ATA] policy will be revoked, you wait and

tion,

happen because the industry

He was

will reject it."

at least half right.

Committee, "studying" the

issue

in labor-

this

opposi-

see. It

won't

3

The ATA's

Industrial Relations

of compulsory arbitration

by the Executive Committee, soon made

rected

it

clear that

not favor applying such arbitration to contract negotiations.

while

it

did endorse the original

ATA

as diit

did

And

stand on the compulsory

arbitration of trucking industry grievances,

edge that such an unprecedented system by ally

it.

it

did so in the knowl-

itself

would never

actu-

be implemented.

The

stand on grievance arbitration did give the employers an-

other chance to display their hostility to the "open end" concept.

They were

free to

system

acceptable to Hoffa, the idea of governmental interven-

still

admit

that,

tion in contract administration port.

were the impartial private

would have

little

arbitrator

management sup-

Having had years of experience with governmental economic

and safety regulation, most company executives were convinced that political pressues often prevented public authorities

cising their best

from exer-

judgment. Given only the choice of "open end" or

the publicly appointed arbitrators, however, they preferred the latter as (in the

words of more than one

Preference for the Status

Quo

trucker) "the lesser

of two

249

evils"

— even,

of Hoffa's not very subtle

in this case, in the face

antagonism.

Compulsory

on the Most employers, had never favored it. They feared that the union chieftain had allowed compa-

arbitration of basic contract terms was,

other hand, a horse of a quite different color. exactly as Hoffa had said,

under

it

the flexibility that

form of local deviations

nies in the

would be its

to

meet varying circumstances

largely (or completely) abolished

by the government

in

understandable desire for national uniformity. They worried that

such arbitration could constitute

a

major step toward nationalization

of the trucking industry, especially since motor freight was already regulated so highly. Nor, they believed,

mean

would

it

even remotely

the end of strikes, since Congress could hardly be expected

to enact legislation indefinitely requiring

employees to work against

their will.

But most of grounds that

it

all,

the truckers opposed such arbitration

would

with the union in view of Hoffa's strong stand against

of

sity

their dislike for

on

the

lead to worse, rather than better, relations

"open end" might

let

them

The

it.

inten-

take this risk

once, in the case of grievance arbitration. Here, however, there

were no compelling reasons their standing

why

with Hoffa and,

as

they should further jeopardize

why

above, several reasons

they

should not.

The

by the employers,

third course of action being considered

having more exclusive groups of employers bargain with Hoffa, on the other hand, seemed to have unassailable logic in back of

The

intensity of their strike fears

was

it.

not, of course, the only

reason explaining the bargaining weakness of the employers. As

brought out ever

earlier,

the widening bargaining units had forced an

more heterogeneous group of employers

to be represented in

the single negotiations, and Hoffa had been quick to capitalize their diversity

The

upon

of operating problems.

structural disadvantage

had been plain

since the earliest area contracts, but the

many

to the

companies

other reasons for

supporting Hoffa's broadened bargaining had prevented the industry

from attempting

employer

by

a

fears

to offset

it

in

any meaningful way. The current

about the future had, however, been accompanied

realization that the

Teamster president's

official

1964 plans

envisioned even greater employer diversity (both geographically

Chapter 10

250

and

of trucking operations).

in types

ing employer groups

The most prominent of

And several proposals for maknow been advanced.

had

inclusive

less

these proposals contemplated the for-

mation of an organization composed general

commodity

length of haul of

carriers,

at least five

strictly

of the larger interstate

primarily those having an average

hundred

especially fearful that restrictions that

miles. Its supporters

were not unduly burdensome and those engaged

for the shorter haul intercity carriers

cartage but could be onerous for their companies to

all

carriers in 1964. Shift

of

premiums,

in local

would be applied would be far

for example,

companies, which geared their operations

less costly to the cartage

to the needs

were

and thus rarely scheduled

local retail stores

employees for much more than eight hours

a

day and

their

five days a

week, than they would to the continuously operating long-liners.

Even Hoffa himself, many of this would not now stand in the way of such separate contracts for them, despite his

plan's backers contended,

specialized groupings (and

announced goal of the

single

1964 contract). In the opinion of one of these advocates, "With his high level of intelligence, and with his bargaining becoming more visible to the

government

all

the time, Hoffa has

danger of the open accumulation of too realizes that strong

among

much power.

.

to see the .

He

.

also

people on both sides can strengthen an industry."

Ironically, here

unity

begun

it

was not Hoffa

the potential

this effort to failure (as

it

member

—

at least directly

carriers

— but lack of

themselves that

doomed

did similar employer efforts on behalf of

other types of carriers).

There was

a crucial difference

of opinion among the long-liners

concerning the proposed membership complexion. firms

felt

that unless

haul, type

member

of

all

common

Many

of the

— regardless of length of — were included, the non-

carriers

freight, or gross revenues

would be able to offer less resistance to Hoffa than would be to set a high floor below which the union's subsequent demands to the long-liners could not go. Other dissenting firms believed that the creation of a group comprising just long-liners would guarantee that Hoffa could "divide and conquer," since it would present him with an automatic employer carriers

ever and thus their role

cleavage (long-liners versus the other groups).

A

rift

between the

ATA and the West Coast truckers prevented these two groups from combining

their forces

Preference for the Status

Quo

even to consider the matter further.

And

251

there

were serious doubts among some employers

Given

power

head of the Teamsters would refuse to

fears that the

deal with the

new group

at all.

own bargaining

motivation for increasing their

sufficient

on more nearly equal

so that they could deal with Hoffa

him

terms, however, the truckers could have ultimately forced negotiate with their

— and

of long-liners

in fact favor such an exclusive organization

consequent

Hoffa would

that

more

to

exclusive groups and thus have obviated

this last possibility. Similarly,

with enough incentive, the employers

could have formed, even with their

own

sufficiently united overall front so that

Hoffa could not have divided

and conquered them. For strike insurance

selective subgroups,

both

that matter, Hoffa's objections to

and the compulsory arbitration

would have made no difference, him from a position of strength

if

at least

a

of grievances

the employers had confronted

rather than

from

their traditional

weakness.

Nor was tainable at

such ability to circumvent Hoffa's wishes

by the

truckers. If the latter

had been so

any time have aligned themselves

side

of the IBT president's various

—

unat-

inclined, they could

in subarea

local

at all

groups

— on the

union leader opponents.

—

Many areas still contained such people for the most part, proud men who were suffering in silence as Hoffa's ambitious program was stripping them of their own power. They recognized that, after years of administering their provincial Teamster empires almost

own, they were now being reduced not much more than dues collectors. Without any totally

on

their

from

for a return to bargaining decentralization

rank and

file or

visible

employers had been willing

on the IBT chief executive's

own

ward off

to join forces

with

much

con-

them, however, the combination could have exercised straint

to

of

support

either their

do nothing

the employers, they could

this destiny. If the

to the status

actions.

Delegation by the employers of the negotiating function to an individual

employer tic

who was empowered side as Hoffa possessed

alternative

with the same authority on the

on the union's was another

had the truckers only wanted

would have achieved

to

implement

it.

realis-

It,

too,

the result of keeping the Hoffa factor entirely

within the bounds of normal labor relations.

But these avenues toward more nearly equal management bar-

Chapter 10

252

would have necessitated a significant change employers. They would have had to prefer

gaining strength attitude of the

governed, this

of by Hoffa, by

in lieu

own

their

in the

to be

And

representatives.

choice was simply not one that was supported by the majority

of the industry. With the sole exception of contract administration,

where the

desire for

compulsory

arbitration

stemmed from em-

ployer unhappiness with the process and not the product of "open

end" and where Hoffa was

still

preferred as quasi-arbitrator to any

other Teamster, the employers preferred to be at the

mercy of any other

Moreover, of

all

this

authority,

most

Hoffa's mercy than

at

particularly of each other.

preference had been registered with a

full

knowledge

of the present and potential weaknesses in the IBT leader's

system.

The

present drawbacks to the system were, after

all, still

more

theoretical than real to the average trucker. If Hoffa's basic interests

did not coincide with those of the industry, most operators had not

personally leader

felt

was

the effects of this in their labor relations. If the

vindictive, the consequences

localized

of

minority of the industry.

best, to a small

this trait

If

far,

extended,

at

he was overlooking

problems under the pressure of his other

had, at least thus

IBT

duties, the results

not been very grave for the typical

carrier.

In addition, while the potential drawbacks could undo the

effi-

cacy of the whole system in rather short order, the fact remained that they related to the uncertain future

might prove himself

and not to the present. Hoffa

to be unreasonable in his actions,

opposed

to

asking his constituents to accept lesser contract packages than they

had been accustomed to receiving, or even unable to continue

as

head of the union for

also possible that none

much

(or unwilling)

longer.

But

it

was

of these dangers for the truckers would

materialize.

What however

the employers had been able to assess

logically abhorrent

them major advantages. stability,

proven

itself to

It

it

may have

had

was

a

system

that,

been, had thus far allowed

satisfied their

need for competitive

be quite responsive to the general labor

problems of the industry, and been governed by an individual

whom,

generally

speaking,

the

employers both respected and

trusted. Self-interest had, in short, continued to generate their support

Preference for the Status

Quo

253

of a powerful Hoffa and their unwillingness to narrow the bargaining strength disparity. If and nesses

became of

practical

when

the present arrangement's

importance to them, they would have

sufficient incentive to search actively for a substitute course tion.

as

weakof ac-

For now, the status quo was preferable. They approached the 1964 bargaining as dependent on Hoffa

they ever had been.

Chapter 10

254

Personal Diplomacy, with Significant Interruptions

n The

respite

from

his outside

problems with which Hoffa had been

provided in 1961 had allowed him to

over

fly

But most of

servicing his constituents.

a million miles in

this collective

bargaining

time had been spent in hammering out the various renegotiated trucking contracts and administering "open end." With the contracts

now

locked up for three years each and "open end" a going

operation, his plans for these next three years featured the recruit-

ment of new Teamsters, and he intended called "personal

see

what

diplomacy"

shake the devil's hand. they need that

little

emphasize what he

"Everybody wants

to

from the them a chance to ask questions and Whenever our agents in the field tell us push, I'll simply hop on a plane and visit

His hopes for

give

I

.

.

extra

the workers myself."

.

1

new

spoke in terms of "at

organization were ambitious.

least

had

He

frequently

one million" currently unorganized fu-

Teamsters outside of trucking.

national notoriety line

to

the devil looks like," he breezily told a reporter

Wall Street Journal, "so

ture

in this effort.

And

now made him

he was well aware that his a

major drawing

card: his

about the million dollars worth of free publicity that Robert

Kennedy had given him had played

so well that

it

had become

a

He had certainly become a household name, if not exactly on his own terms, and the McClellan committee had undeniably been the major reason. He almost always drew large crowds among potential recruits wherever he appeared, standard part of his repertoire.

whether before

chili

con carne factory workers on the West Coast,

Michigan appliance plant employees, or an assemblage of geons

He

packed houses on the

also generally attracted

to nonlabor groups

on which he spoke

sions

tree sur-

Chicago.

in

—

many

occa-

the prestigious

at

Law School Forum, where an initially hostile audience wound up giving him a standing ovation, for example, and at a

Harvard

variety of business executive lunches

and knowledge were

intelligence,

and dinners, where

his candor,

also invariably, if begrudgingly,

appreciated. After a Hoffa speech had impressed a convention of

Sigma Delta Chi,

the professional journalism fraternity,

of one of his

own

Teamster publications proudly pointed out

the invitations to speak throughout the country

busy

full

time

if

the editor

he saw

that

would "keep him

to bask in the glory at the expense

fit

of

the union."

Not

all

free

Hoffa, however.

warded

was even

publicity

The AFL-CIO

for his harsh

words about

a million dollar libel

Meany had

Meany was

re-

the Teamster president

by being

AFL-CIO

officials)

slapped (together with twenty-four other top

with

welcomed by

sarcastically

president George

and slander

suit.

told reporters at a late 1961

The normally humorless

AFL-CIO

executive board

meeting that Hoffa would remain unacceptable to him "unless he does what Saul of Tarsus did, go off in the wilderness for

a

year

and repent," and Hoffa's sense of perspective had allowed him to enjoy

that.

But when the

up by saying added that

that

Hoffa was

still

"I don't think that

had followed

ments," and the other

in his right

mind could deny

officials had endorsed this statement,

— for Hoffa — enough.

death, called

Meany

a

The

this

"unfit to head a trade union" and

anyone

Teamsters remain dominated by criminal and corrupt

that the

was

federation's top officer

suit,

which ultimately died

"labor sniper" and charged

that he

ele-

enough a quiet

and the

others had "maliciously launched a vicious, calculated and calloused

attack"

on the reputation of both the Teamsters and

"When

you're old and decrepit on top of being stupid," Hoffa told

their president.

reporters in reference to the sixty-seven-year-old federation leader,

"you're in trouble."

The

object of Meany's disaffection

tive than his

Words

like

was

actually far

sensi-

tough exterior and general brashness might suggest.

Meany's

hurt.

So did the occasional heckling

received in these post-McClellan committee days.

Chapter 11

more

An

that

Hoffa

especially po-

256

tent

wounding came

in

Golden, Colorado,

Coors Porcelain

1962: handing out organizational leaflets at the

Company

there,

Hoffa was picketed by

of

in the early spring

hooting group of some

a

250 students from the nearby Colorado School of Mines. Their placards invited the father of a recent Phi Beta a current

Michigan State honors student

to

Kappa graduate and

"Go Home" and urged

"Keep Golden Clean." But the words, unsettling

as

com-

they were, were nothing as

pared to the sudden appearance of several tangible problems. These

now more not

manner

or less simultaneously piled up for Hoffa in a

unknown

to

him, and they put

a definite

crimp

in his ambitious

"personal diplomacy" recruitment plans. In early

March

Florida in the

1962, preliminary arguments got under

Sun Valley mail fraud

which the Hoffa defense team had earlier

case.

won

The

way

technicalities

an indefinite delay

under a

year

had been successfully countered by the prosecution, and

new grand jury had

in

a

indicted Hoffa in October. This time, the gov-

ernment's key figure, Attorney General Robert

F.

Kennedy, exuded

optimism: "Hoffa won't be so lucky. The prosecutors have enough evidence to win a conviction."

Compounding his situation, on May 17, 1962, the forty-nineyear-old IBT boss was arrested and charged with assaulting a mildmannered subordinate ten years

him

The

earlier that day.

his senior

who

had spoken back to

subordinate, Samuel Baron,

warehouse

director of the Teamsters'

charged that the muscular Hoffa had knocked him

without provocation the union's

after cursing

him

was

field

division. In his warrant, he

down

twice

in the presidential office

Washington headquarters, blackening

his left

of

eye and

deeply cutting the skin below his right eyebrow in the process.

As Baron

later elaborated

discuss a contract

furniture

on the incident

company.

An argument

denly advanced on Baron with his twitching.

He had knocked a chair. All this

dozen other Teamster

Personal Diplomacy

had ensued and Hoffa had sudfists

clenched and jaw muscles

the field director to the floor and, after

the latter had risen, had shoved

him over

for the benefit of

summoned him into his third-floor office to that the IBT head was negotiating with a major

Hoffa had

reporters,

him down

again, this time pushing

had happened before some of the

officials

who were

half-

present could intervene.

257

thought," said the subordinate, "

"I

his

man

'this

is

absolutely out of

mind.'

Hoffa for some time had

known Baron

to be disloyal

and had

him of leaking anti-Hoffa information to Walter Get Hoffa Squad. The general president had, how-

strongly suspected

Sheridan and the

ever, displayed his habitual inability to fire

He

here.

himself now told the press that he would have "absolutely noth-

ing" to say about the encounter. cinct police station, trial.

He was

Booked

at

Washington's

First Pre-

he pleaded not guilty and was granted

released

face a year in jail

on $500

and

$500

a

Then, exactly one day a

employees even

bail,

but

if

found guilty

later

a

jury

he could

fine.

after his

booking on the Baron charge,

Nashville grand jury indicted Hoffa for allegedly sharing in

than $1 million in illegal payments from the Detroit trucking

more com-

pany, Commercial Carriers, Inc. Here, he was threatened with

a

year in prison and a fine of $10,000 on each of two counts: conspiring with the

company

(as

well as with his old friend, the late

Owen

Bert Brennan) to violate the Taft-Hartley Act provision that makes it

employee representatives

generally illegal for

to take

payments

from employers, and receiving such payments. This third problem,

completely by surprise.

second-handedly

Chicago and

in

attack

— on

a

remnant of the

He had

distant past, took Hoffa

heard about the indictment quite

his car radio

while driving into

to give a speech to the Federation

address he levied an unusually bitter,

this

on the media, which he blamed

"They

live

"They

thrive

on propaganda," he

Of most

on misery. They

told his

downtown

of Telephone Clerks

for

much of

spontaneous his trouble.

Sherman Hotel audience,

are sadistic

minded." 2

immediate urgency, however, was the Baron

charge, since the jury

trial

now

assault

was scheduled to begin on June 12, and

two U.S. marshals for protection, of IBT officials to withdraw his case. Not even an impassioned request from his old friend Harold Gibbons, the cause of Baron's originally coming to Washington, could get him to change his mind. And Baron remained just as impervious to a variety of more menacing pressures, including one anonymous telephone call informing him that "Hoffa wants to know what kind of coffin you want" and other telephone messages the field director,

was adamantly

that contained

Chapter 11

assigned

resisting the pleas

nothing but heavy breathing.

258

But

it

word

remained, as Baron well recognized, his

May

no other Teamster who was present on

Hoffa's, since

against

17 could

be expected to corroborate Baron's story. "It would," as the

acknowledged, "be absolute suicide."

director freely

trary, all six witnesses either told the

Baron was the aggressor or refused the

trial

flicts"

for

two months,

in the

testimony

—

the

On

field

the con-

U.S. Attorney's office that

to testify at

government

—

all.

After delaying

citing "serious con-

decided not to prosecute. And,

finally

although the well-publicized case did nothing positive for Hoffa's public relations,

it

clearly,

He had

out far worse.

from

his viewpoint, could

indeed struck Baron, exactly

have come

as the plaintiff

had claimed, and he was by any definition extremely fortunate in the consequences.

The same good luck did

however, accompany Hoffa

not,

in the

government's next attempt to separate him from the International

Brotherhood of Teamsters. This the Justice Department, not the that the

effort involved, at the request

Sun Valley charges but

government believed would give

of getting Hoffa: those concerning the

from Commercial Carriers ing

company

that

of

allegations

an even better chance

it

payment of money

illegal

to the Test Fleet Corporation, the truck-

Hoffa and Brennan had

set

up

in their wives'

accommodated the government and displeased the Hoffa forces, the Sun Valley case was temporarily removed from the federal court docket in Tampa, where it had been scheduled to be heard. And the head of the Teamsters was instead maiden names.

In an action that

ordered to appear in criminal court in Nashville, Tennessee, in

October 1962,

to be

examined regarding

activities. In the carefully

The ville

decision

on the

by

Commercial Carriers

orchestrated Robert F.

for Hoffa, the Florida mail fraud trial fully, the frosting

his

late

Kennedy

would then

scenario

constitute,

hope-

cake.

the federal judiciary to hold the

trial in

represented another Justice Department victory.

Nash-

Both the

Tennessee city and Detroit were legally permissible locations Nashville, Detroit,

because Test Fleet was chartered in Tennessee,

and

because Commercial Carriers was based in Michigan.

But the prosecution had wanted the former friends in Detroit, far fewer in Nashville.

newspaper, the Tennessean, was edited by

Personal Diplomacy

place.

And

Hoffa had

many

the major Nashville

a friend

of the attorney

259

former administrative

general, his

would more or Department's

James sity

Law

assistant

John Seigenthaler;

this

guarantee news coverage favorable to the Justice

case.

Neal, a youthful graduate of the Vanderbilt Univer-

F.

School in Nashville, would be the chief prosecutor for the

He had won

government. associate

less

a

Benjamin Dranow

bankruptcy fraud case against Hoffa in

Minneapolis the previous year, and

had been highly recommended to Kennedy for gence and aptitude for painstaking research.

his native intelli-

He brought to

the pros-

ecution forces the further advantage of being able to speak to a

He was

Tennessee jury in Tennessee-accented tones.

entirely con-

vinced that Hoffa and Brennan had blatantly violated the TaftHartley Act by conspiring to -receive hundreds of thousands of

from Commercial Carriers

dollars

these payoffs to Test Fleet (later

the last

names of its two key

They

1958.

them

in Detroit

many months

after the

and that

renamed Hobren Corporation,

after

had continued from 1947

until

figures)

had, in other words, gone

Wint Smith hearings and for

in return for labor peace

on

for five years after the

had originally taken notice of them, McClellan committee had accorded

national attention. In fact, Neal had concluded, the

full

payments had

finally ceased

illicit

only under pressure from the Board of

Monitors.

The

chief prosecutor and his competent cadre of assistants,

headed by another bright young criminal lawyer, Charles N. Shaffer, Jr.,

doubt

looked forward to proving

in Nashville.

of the nonlawyer Walter Sheridan, ville's

Noel Hotel

all

of

beyond

this

They would operate under

who

and

who

and certainly no

at

Nash-

himself was

with Attorney General Kennedy.

The Hoffa defense team was more seasoned than tion,

reasonable

took up residence

for the duration of the trial

in daily telephone contact

a

the overall direction

less talented.

Nashville native, Z. T. Osborn,

Jr.,

It

the prosecu-

included a highly regarded

who had

successfully argued a

landmark case on reapportionment before the U.S. Supreme Court and was

now

Association.

Haggerty,

next in line for the presidency of the Nashville Bar

Other

official

a past president

aggressive and effective E. Bufalino,

(if

members were

James E.

highly controversial) Detroiter William

who had performed

member of the Board of Monitors;

Chapter 11

the veteran

of the Michigan Bar Association; the

so

much

service for Hoffa as a

Bufalino's predecessor as union-

260

appointed monitor, Daniel

Maher of Washington; and

boyant Philadelphia criminal lawyer Jacob Kossman.

members of the Teamster Bar Association had come too, although not as lawyers

were

of record in the

also regularly available to the defendant

trial.

the flam-

Many

other

to Nashville,

Their services

away from

the court-

room and generally in nearby Andrew Jackson

Hoffa's suite on the seventh floor of the

Completing the

of major players was the presiding federal

district

Hotel.

cast

court judge, William E. Miller. Plagued by a heart condition

him

that forced

to limit the trial hours to four each day, the fifty-

five-year-old jurist's reputation for

uncompromising

integrity

so widespread that Sheridan could later report that a Chicago plot to bribe

him had never gotten

was

mob

off the ground because no one

could be found with enough courage to approach him. 3

Other people involved with the to be

more venal than

Miller,

trial

were apparently thought

however. Even before the Nashville

proceedings began, several of the government's best prospective

— men and women who were believed most Hoffa — received anonymous telephone The

jurors

calls.

falsely identified

himself

as

likely to convict caller in all cases

"Allen from the Banner [the Nashville

Banner, another local newspaper]" and asked a series of questions

about Hoffa and the Teamsters. This imaginative strategy, to which

Hoffa was himself never linked, automatically disqualified those called

all

of

from serving on the jury. They could no longer be

considered in the eyes of the court to be objective.

more blatant effort was reported to Judge Miller. On the morning of October 24, 1962, James C. Tippens, an insurance company executive who had been tentatively named as a juror, told the judge that he had been contacted by a neighbor and offered $10,000 in hundred-dollar bills if he would vote against convicting Hoffa. Tippens was removed from the jury, and the neighbor Lawrence "Red" Medlin was booked on suspicion of attempted bribery. Once again, however, no participation by the defendant himself Then,

still

prior to the final selection of the jury, an even

—

—

was ever

On call

established.

the other hand, this time Miller

was

sufficiently aroused to

not only the attorneys for both sides but also Hoffa to his

chambers.

He

conscientiously refrained from suggesting to

that either the defendant or his lawyers

Personal Diplomacy

had had any hand

them

in either

261

of the two attempts to influence the jury. But he stressed to his visitors that

he had never before remotely encountered such

undermine due process and indicated

effort to

that he

a

considering locking the jury up for the entire length of the

Prosecutor Neal supported such

much

however, was very tacts

against

brazen

was now trial.

course of action. Osborn,

a

and argued that the juror con-

it,

were probably the work of "crackpots and do-gooders" one

had independently

tried to aid Hoffa. Shaffer, not

theory as the

go by unchallenged, pointed out

last

who

to let such a

that

it

was

a

matter of "public record" that jurors had been approached before

which Hoffa had been on

in cases in

second wiretapping

trial in

New

trial.

York,

in

He

specifically cited the

which

a

juror had indeed

been approached and had thereupon been excused from serving.

The

Shaffer statement, in turn, brought a strong protest

fense attorney Bufalino,

who

York overture had never been connected and

a rather testy

proof to

relate

it

from de-

correctly pointed out that this

directly to Hoffa, either,

response from Shaffer, "I say

to defendant Hoffa. If

New

we

did,

I

don't have any

Mr. Hoffa would

be prosecuted." 4

The meeting ended with an announcement by Judge Miller that It was combined with a strongly worded warning that he would tolerate no further jury

he had decided not to lock up the jury.

tampering and

FBI was

now

a disclosure

by the jurist

to the defense

team

that the

investigating the attempted bribery of Tippens.

But there was further evidence of jury tampering.

On Novem-

ber 17, 1962, acting on a tip from an informant to Walter Sheridan,

FBI agents observed Nashville's ranking Teamster, Ewing T. King, contacting a Tennessee state late at night.

King then swapped

sedan of another Teamster it

to the

heme of the

happened

highway patrolman on

to be

deserted road

white Thunderbird for the drab

and drove some eighty miles

in

patrolman, James Paschal, whose wife Betty

one of the jurors. Several days

room having been emptied of facts to Miller

his

official

a

all

later,

spectators,

with the court-

Neal revealed these

and asked for removal ofjuror Paschal on the grounds

of "compelling, suspicious circumstances indicating an improper approach." 3 The judge, agreeing

fully,

promptly complied.

King, taken into custody, took the Fifth

Amendment when

questioned. Patrolman Paschal told the court only that King had offered to get

Chapter 11

him

a

promotion.

When

asked by Miller

if

he hadn't

262

found

it

strange that

good deed

And

a

for him, he

complete stranger had offered to do such

had

replied, simply, "I don't

yet another juror

December

21.

investigation

was excused from

The same informant who had

by tipping off Sheridan had

a

know."

further service

on

triggered the Paschal

also told the

head of the

Get Hoffa Squad that Hoffa had confided to him (the informant) that

he had "the colored male juror in

my

hip pocket." Hoffa had

explained, said the informant, that a black Local 299 business agent,

Larry Campbell, had

and seen to

trial

Ewing

come

from Detroit

to Nashville

Parks, lived in Greater Nashville and

male on the jury,

prior to the

Thomas

item of business: Campbell's uncle,

this

a retired railroad

knew

the single black

worker named Gratin

Fields.

Sheridan and his assistants immediately investigated the story

by tracing the telephone

calls that

over the past few months,

them by

was made much

a project that

to

pay telephones. They learned that

Hoffa

easier for

Campbell had apparently disregarded

the fact that

tions to use

Campbell had made

instruc-

Fields's son, Carl,

had indeed been offered $5,000, with another $5,000 to go to father if the father voted to acquit Hoffa.

The

his

money had

bribe

been channeled through Parks.

There was no evidence

way

acted improperly.

that the senior Fields

had himself in any

But the circumstances seemed

striking that prosecutor Neal, possibly harboring the

the case

now

might

sufficiently

thought that

be threatening the Guinness world record for

number of attempted jury tamperings in the course of a single trial, decided to ask Judge Miller to remove yet another juror from the jury box.

Neal made

his request,

once again,

time there was

a variation

on the theme. He produced

affidavit

from

in closed session.

the informant that affirmed and elaborated

alleged statement

by Hoffa

that the latter

But

this

a sworn upon the

had the black juror

in his

The informant, who clearly had assumed no little risk signing his real name to the document, had been willing to do only with the promise that his identity would be kept confiden-

hip pocket. in

so

tial:

even the notary public

hotel

room had not

was submitted

to the

who

witnessed the signing in Sheridan's

actually seen the signature,

judge

in a sealed envelope,

then asked to reseal without showing

it

affidavit

which Miller was

to the defense.

The judge quickly complied with both of

Personal Diplomacy

and the

these prosecution

263

Over the heated objections of the Hoffa attorneys that was no meaningful evidence of jury tampering at all, he resealed what he had read and directed that Fields be replaced on the requests.

there

jury by an alternate. the

"most amazing

He was

set

he told both

case,

parties,

contained

of circumstances" that he had ever seen.

referring just to the extracurricular interest in the ju-

But the

rors.

The whole

now

trial,

almost nine weeks old, had been marked

by two other circumstances

that, if

not exactly amazing,

at least

could also qualify as being highly unusual.

One of the

these had been the

courtroom of

man,

young

a

up

to

"from

as

he had

months

sat

air pistol.

The

dishwasher named Warren Swanson whose

a life

sentence for murder in Nebraska,

showed

chip off the old block by walking, almost unnoticed,

a

Hoffa and

a voice

1962, appearance in

5,

former mental patient with an

itinerant

was serving

father

himself to be

a

December

a

firing several pellets at

higher power" had told

He

him.

him

later

Jimmy Hoffa" hotel room some

reading the Bible in a Cincinnati

earlier.

He had found

claimed that

to "kill

himself compelled, he

said, to carry

out this instruction. Fortunately for both Hoffa and Swanson, the pellets did Hoffa little

harm, merely bouncing off the defendant's face and arms. But

they understandably enraged the Teamster president and, with the personal fearlessness that even his worst enemies never doubted, "

the 5'5

Hoffa sprang

2

at his assailant,

squarely on his jaw, and knocked

took over the treatment of Swanson

him

landed

uppercut

a right

to the floor.

Others then

— Hoffa's near-at-hand

Chuckie O'Brien by jumping on the

assailant

the head several times until Hoffa yelled "Stop!" and

marshals by handcuffing Swanson and taking

assistant

and kicking him on

courtroom

him away. Swanson

required fourteen stitches in his scalp.

Had

the

example, the

have been

—

weapon been almost anything but the air pistol German Luger that it resembled Hoffa might

—

killed,

fact, at first

and he undoubtedly recognized

this.

thought that Hoffa had been murdered.) But the union

he told reporters, was just as

Swanson on sprung

Chapter

at

1

well

(O'Brien, in

leader shrugged the incident off with his typical coolness.

sounding

for

the

"some

jerk with a pellet gun." And,

though he encountered such potential a regular basis,

Swanson,

he explained

when

assailants

asked

gun wielder, "You always run away from

as

why he had a man with

264

and toward

a knife,

more

attributed a

a

man with

a

gun." (Years

in

and out of the courtroom," he asked, with

a

gun?

he walked

in

.

.

however, he

event than he did

sinister characteristic to the

was searched

the time: after pointing out that "everyone

in

later,

"How

that

the hell did he get

I'm sure the marshal didn't overlook him.

.

with

a

diately

defense, recognizing opportunity

moved

And

gun, after everybody'd been searched! Like

Martin Luther King. You're suspicious but you can't prove

The

at

went

when

"What happened

for a mistrial.

it

it."

6 )

knocked, imme-

in this

courtroom,"

attorney

Maher informed

hostility

evidenced against the defendant by the Government in the

the court, "is the inevitable result of the

past five years. Prior to the trial

.

.

trial

we

we

said

couldn't get a fair

because of the flood of publicity brought against the defen-

.

Government and the Attorney General of Judge Miller was unmoved.

dant by the States."

7

Actually, defense motions for either a

were

point old hat to the judge.

at this

trial

He had

the United

delay or a mistrial

denied them

but

all,

volume of other objections by the Hoffa team, had constituted the second more unusual aspect of the Nashville proceedings. Osborn had tried to win dismissal of the original jury panel on the grounds that it systhe frequency of such requests, as well as the sheer

tematically excluded females, blacks, and workers; Miller

fused to entertain this challenge

on the ground

produced no evidence to support for a mistrial after the Justice

its

that the defense

contention.

go into

re-

had

Maher had moved

Department's Shaffer had cited alleged

Hoffa violations of Taft-Hartley that occurred legislation did not

had

effect until 1948;

in

1947 because the

he was overruled. The

defense had tried to get the case abrogated by arguing that the

government was thus of having cial

actually accusing Hoffa of accepting a bribe,

committed

a felony, rather

than sticking to the

charge of conspiracy, which carried with

penalties

of

a

misdemeanor; Miller ruled

it

and offi-

the less serious

that this

argument was

frivolous. Hoffa's attorneys objected in vain that their telephone lines

had been unconstitutionally tapped by government agents,

they objected to the testimony of

a variety

prosecution, and they objected to the

documents

of witnesses for the

showing of checks and other

that purportedly let Test Fleet profits flow into Hoffa's

pockets. Bufalino objected, Haggerty objected, and

jected

— often and,

Personal Diplomacy

at times,

Kossman ob-

both so vehemently and so simulta-

265

neously that the judge finally announced that each legal team had

and not "have

to designate a single attorney to handle the objections

two or

three lawyers

jumping up

own

Hoffa registered his

seemed

that never

surrounded him

him

to desert

when

at the

same time."

objections, with the outspokenness

who

for long, to the reporters

was not

the court

The

in session.

Justice

Department, he asserted, was indeed monitoring the telephone

"Our phones are tapped and our hotel rooms are bugged. [We] make remarks just to see, and the Government attorneys [know] next morning what [we've] said. We're building a new office building in Detroit, and they come to me and say the whole place is wired and bugged. I say, 'Hell, whaddya expect? Go on and finish the building.' " The FBI agents were "all stool pigeons.

lines:

.

A

bunch of rats and

He

still

walking on

stool pigeons."

espoused

his invisible

.

8

powder

theory, too:

"You

are

and an FBI agent comes up and rubs

a picket line

.

this

white chemical on you and you're wired from then on. They can pick up everything

go

to the school

say so.

you have

until

and investigate

They go around

clothes has

country

my

kid.

and

to his friends

They gave

He's

a

good

kid, if

'How many

say,

"They

as well:

— when Hoffa makes

finally

handed over

a reservation, call

December

the nearest FBI of-

9

was

For seventeen tense

to the jury for deliberation.

a

You

arrives.

21, the long-lasting case

hours over the next two days, the six

had been replaced by

of

does he carry around

wouldn't believe some of the creepy stuff they are pulling." the afternoon of

do

I

suits

orders to every airline office in the

and give the time he takes off and the time he

On

And

the suit cleaned."

How much money

Jim Hoffa got?

in his pocket?'

fice

you say

was not above using other devious methods

the FBI

men and

six

women

female alternate) tried to reach

(Fields

a verdict.

Seven jurors reportedly favored acquittal but could sway no others to their position.

Miller that they

Three times the jurors came back and told Judge

seemed

back to their locked

to be deadlocked; each time he sent

room

to try again.

They

them

finally reported that

they were "hopelessly" deadlocked. And, with the greatest reluctance, the to

judge thereupon did what he had so steadfastly refused

do on so many prior occasions: he declared

comes

a

time," he said,

agree, they cannot agree,

Chapter 11

"when

if

and that

the is

a mistrial.

members of

"There

the jury cannot

it."

266

But Miller was hardly willing

announced

made steps.

to let

go

it

He

at that.

also

because of the "shameful" attempts that had been

that,

our jury system," he was taking three alternative

to "corrupt

He was convening

a

new

federal

grand jury to make

a full

investigation of all the jury tampering evidence and to return indict-

ments where probable cause might questing

U.S.

the

information that

was directing that

unsealed and

relevant

all

And

jury.

he

of the two closed court sessions

would be

public; the only exception to this

documents read only by the Court

which because of their at

new

re-

of jurors Paschal and Fields be

in the dismissals

made

present

to

office

in its possession to this

that the entire records

had resulted

"certain

Attorney's

had

it

He was

them.

exist for

strictly confidential

at the

second session

nature cannot be released

the present time."

For the defendant, the outcome was cause for both elation and concern. In the situation immediately at hand, Hoffa

was obviously

emerging with

more than

was leaving

mood was one

of huge trial a

relief as

fused to put

He

Jimmy

he cheerfully wished "everybody

fully shared the

Hoffa

in

years, jury

five years

might

And where

just-concluded Nashville

and he was

proud sentiments

Bobby Kennedy's stocking." new trouble was coming down

the road for the controversial union leader, in the

two

for victory

as patently, a

jury-tampering charge.

for

hung jury,

the

Bufalino that "in 1962, Santa Claus has simply re-

But now, just

in the

five

man. Although he told

Merry Christmas" and headed

celebrations back in Detroit. his attorney

little

the Cheasty bribery charges, he

was "naturally disappointed" with

connected with the

of

on

his acquittal

a trial in federal court as a free

the press that he his

For the fourth time in

a victory.

with

years, starting

now

tampering

trial

form of a

potential

the worst-case scenario for

would have

— exactly

him

to prison

— was

a felony,

sent

like bribery

threatened with, should he be found guilty,

behind bars.

face in the

And

this

on top of whatever

Sun Valley mail fraud

case,

him

at least

liability

which had

now

he

been

revived by the Justice Department and awaited only the setting of a trial date. It

was

also fully

understood that Attorney General Ken-

nedy was readying even more challenges Bar Association:

a federal

to present to the

Teamsters

grand jury was currently combing the

investments of the Central States, Southeast, and Southwest Areas

Pension Fund in an effort to unearth Hoffa wrongdoing; and

Personal Diplomacy

it

was

267

well

known

that the

Hoffa family's past tax returns were being

studied with almost religious fervor for the

Back

same

reason.

in Detroit, Hoffa's initial jubilation left

him.

He

told a

Judge Miller had been prejudiced against the prosecution, Neal was "one of the most vicious

television interviewer that

him. As for

who

prosecutors

ment."

It

was

ever handled a criminal case for the Justice Depart-

a "disgrace," in his opinion, "for

anyone

to

make

a

10 In his case, he was statement that this jury was tampered with."

firmy convinced, the government was persecution than

was

it

in

much more

interested in

law enforcement.

His testiness was understandable: he was well aware of the seriousness of his position and the fact that the prospects of his

ultimately going to jail had never before been so large.

and told intimates, that

Nonetheless, for the

He knew,

worst days were in front of him.

his

first

time in several months, since the

trial, Hoffa was now free, temmore than pro forma attention to his role as And he made the most of the opportunity.

of his Nashville

original scheduling

porarily, to devote

labor leader.

Back on the hustings

in a

resumption of

sonal diplomacy," he once again

motion

as

seemed

his

man in perpetual new Teamsters from

to be a

he met with groups of potential

coast to coast. His off-the-cuff speeches varied tailored

with considerable

skill to his specific

could be counted on to contain

at least

you think

the things that

if Hoffa really

did

all

for a

Hoffa address

now

and were typically

audiences, but they

one rhetorical question:

he did he'd be standing here with you today?" too,

postponed "per-

to include

"Do

Bobby Kennedy It

was standard

words

like

says fare,

"vendetta,"

"spoiled brat" and "trumped-up charges."

He

also accepted a large variety

of other speaking invitations

and displayed on these occasions the same conspicuous bluntness that

had always marked

his public addresses.

He

told an audience

of Michigan building trades unionists that proposed legislation in

Congress to regulate the organization of labor unions was "garbage" and that the sponsors of the proposal were "bums."

formed

a

Mine,

Mill,

Attorney General Kennedy had "conspired to create try to break

down

nounced, on the

Chapter 11

a

television

in-

that

Gestapo"

the largest union in the United States.

NBC

He

and Smelter Workers convention

He

to

an-

program "David Brinkley's Jour-

268

nal," that "there are

was

more con men

in a carnival"; that

out, a faker";

of his

and that

own money

honest about

And

it.

Senator McClellan was

to the union because

it

a lot

"pays dividends. Let's be

expect to get elected."

I

for

of operations, in an effort to stop that city

The

from bolting

a

group of dissident Teamsters

for several reasons. First, unlike the relatively

dissidents since his 1957 ascent to the presidency

Chicago and San Diego and milk,

Cincinnati, for drivers

in

AFL-CIO.

to the

Philadelphia rebels had warranted such personal attention

from Hoffa

in

a "faker. Flat, right

Teamster president he contributed

as

more than two months, from February to late April he made the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia his primary base

1963,

IBT

Washington than there ever

in

example

— these

few other

— cab drivers

and cab drivers in

soft drink,

Teamsters were

all

over-the-road

and thus represented not only the heart of the union but

Hoffa's strongest base of support: a successful effort

also

by them might

encourage other road drivers to attempt (very possibly with AFL-

CIO

encouragement) the same kind of rebellion, with obvious omi-

nous ramifications for both the union and the local involved

— Local

members, the fourth rebels

107

their

president. Second,

arguments on both the corruption

their

and the dictatorial ways of

make Hoffa

its

with some eleven thousand

largest within the Teamsters. Third, while the

had originally based

Raymond Cohen,

— was,

their local's leader,

the now-indicted

they had subsequently altered their attack to

primary

target; the latter's personal prestige

on the

therefore very definitely

was

even though they had

line. Finally,

been both underfinanced and not especially well organized, the dissidents in

had almost

November on

sters

won

a

National Labor Relations Board election

the issue of the local's remaining with the

or switching to the

AFL-CIO: they had

ingly high total of 3,274 votes, with the

NLRB

Team-

received the surpris-

pro-IBT

forces getting

3,870 votes.

The

had given

evidence of Teamster-generated violence prior to the

it

balloting. In this

had

set aside the election after the rebels

second election the challengers definitely had

mentum going for them. To help him ward off

the threat, Hoffa imported almost one

hundred Teamster leaders from other

them

as they, separately

and

of the Local 107 drivers with

Personal Diplomacy

mo-

cities

and closely supervised

in small groups, tried to a

pro-Teamster

approach

sales pitch.

He

all

issued

269

a variety

of well-publicized personal statements from the Warwick,

condemning the

dissident leaders as "a small

of [the union's members]

are willing to sacrifice the security

own

to satisfy their

selfish

ends."

installed in his hotel suite carried

were

group of men,

11

in order

Several special telephone lines

recorded messages;

many of these

and contained both an incentive

in Hoffa's voice

who

(the

promise

of higher wages and benefits in future road driver contracts) and

announcement

threat (an

CIO would The

who went

anyone

that

lose pension benefits).

effort paid off. In the

He was

And

ers that

the greatly relieved Hoffa,

he was willing to

pulling out

"let,

meager 2,550

a

bygones be bygones"

victory than the sheer statistics

ham-fisted Cohen,

dom

who

had theretofore run

the stops.

won

told report-

as far as the

wound up with

would

indicate: the

his Philadelphia fief-

without interference from Hoffa (while giving the Teamster

president wholehearted support nationally), to give total obeisance in all

IBT

a

AFL-

for the dissi-

who immediately

Local 107 supporters of the bolt were concerned,

even more of

all

second election, the Teamsters

big, getting 4,893 votes to a relatively

dents.

over to the

local autonomists,

ways.

One

he recognized the

forced to turn to Hoffa for rescue and

now

of the

had no choice but

last

realities

of the old-time

of his having been

would no longer oppose

the

nationwide trucking contract.

Then, on

convened

May

in late

9,

1963, the grand jury that Judge Miller had

December

to look into the jury-tampering matter

presented Hoffa with another indictment.

He was

charged with

having "unlawfully, willfully and knowingly" attempted, with six coconspirators, to influence as Hoffa's

ster leader

members of the Nashville jury. Named Ewing T. King, the Nashville Team-

codefendants were

who had

home of juror Betty Paschal; W. "Red" Medlin, the man who had

driven to the

Nashville merchant Lawrence

James C. Tippens; Detroit Teamster Campbell and Campbell's uncle, Thomas E.

allegedly tried to bribe juror

business agent Larry

Parks of Nashville, the close

two reputed approachers of Gratin

Fields; a

Hoffa friend and the handler of considerable IBT insurance

money, Chicago insurance broker Allen Dorfman; and Nicholas

Tweel of Huntington, West of

a

Virginia, and

New

company handling cigarettes for vending machines. The indictment contained five counts. The first of

Chapter

1

J.

York, the owner

these

270

charged that Hoffa and the six other influence the jury.

named men had conspired

Each of the other counts alleged

on

stance of jury tampering. If convicted

all five,

to

a specific in-

Hoffa could be

sentenced to twenty-five years in prison and fined $25,000.

Hoffa denied

all

wrongdoing. He pointed out

that he

had never

even met three of his six codefendants (Medlin, Parks, and Tweel)

know them if he saw them. In a message that was now becoming entirely predictable, he attributed his new difficulty to an attempt by Attorney General Kennedy to "smirch the union in his war against me." He surrendand wouldn't

however

heartfelt

—

ered to authorities in Philadelphia and after signing papers on the coffee table at the

on $10,000

home of a

bail.

Several people

seemed false

U.S. Commissioner there was released

who

observed Hoffa

to be relatively cheerful

had terminated the Nashville

was convening

on

reflect further

now

he was

that great. to

more or

— and

since

his

it

was no

Judge Miller

with the announcement that he the labor leader had had time to

jury-tampering charge, and it

was not

really

codefendants might be ultimately proven

both King and Medlin, having been caught

red-handed, appeared to be in a particularly unenviable

— any

would have

months

four

his vulnerability to a

Whatever

less

things considered, and

trial

new grand jury,

point noted that he

convinced, as were his lawyers, that

have done

position

a

all

more than

impression. In the

at this

evidence that could be produced against himself

to be construed

by

a

jury

as

being highly tenuous.

had never personally made contact with any jurors, nor did the 9 indictment so

much

as hint that

he had.

He was

He

May

charged only

with "aiding, abetting, counseling, commanding, inducing" the tampering.

He would

again be represented by solid legal talent, too: Os-

born, Haggerty, and Bufalino, once more, with the aggressive and

outspoken Jacques M. had

Schiffer, a

New

York

attorney

whom

Hoffa

known for years, now also slated to play a starring role. Nor own track record do anything but give him cause for opti-

did his

mism:

since his convictions in the 1940s

on the two

relatively

minor

charges related to his labor leadership, he had been found guilty of absolutely nothing despite being tried twice for illegal wiretapping

and once each for bribery and accepting

He was

illegal

employer payments.

heartened by the thought that the respective juries

Personal Diplomacy

may have

271

concluded in each case that the Justice Department action against

him had not

He was

constituted fair play.

well aware, in addition,

had personally shown himself to be no pushover

that he

courtroom appearances.

Now,

with so

much

in his

experience behind

him, he would presumably be even more effective in his testimony.

With

of motions expected from both the defense and the months would probably go by before the Tennessee would actually be held, but he would be ready for it when

a variety

prosecution, retrial it

came.

Hoffa was not, however, ready for another action of

vened grand jury.

It

was announced

jury-tampering indictment, and

this

less

time

not insignificant total of 140 years in fines. It

came about,

ironically, as

investigation of Hoffa's

had been shelved

that

result in a

than four weeks after the it

threatened

jail,

him with

as well as

the

$37,000 in

an offshoot of the government's role, the alleged set

of illegalities

that the latter

would more

easily

Hoffa conviction.

On June

4,

1963, a federal grand jury in Chicago indicted the

on charges of having fraudu-

president and seven other persons

lently obtained

others

con-

of the Test Fleet case because the

in favor

Department had thought

Justice

IBT

Sun Valley

a

$20 million in fourteen loans for themselves and

from the $200 million Central

States, Southeast,

and South-

Named with Hoffa was the Dranow, who was now in jail for James F. Neal had proven him guilty of

west Areas Teamsters Pension Fund. old associate Benjamin

latter's

the bankruptcy fraud that

committing. Also indicted were an accountant, real estate

Only

a

lawyer, and three

operators and builders.

no such pension fund whose truck driver constituents were on the average relatively young as compared to workers in other industries, had ignored the subject rather consistently even while unionized workeight years earlier there had been

Hoffa,

at all.

ers in

automobiles,

steel,

and

many

other sectors were gaining

World glaring, how-

meaningful negotiated retirement incomes in the decade

War ever,

II.

By

1955, the omission

was becoming

rather

after

and the Central States and Southern contract that he bargained

that year called for the trucking

worker into

Chapter 11

a

employers to pay $2 weekly per

newly created fund

for pensions.

The arrangement

212

was designed

to be self-administered jointly

the employers. (Other himself, also

by the Teamsters and

Teamster contracts, not negotiated by Hoffa

implemented pension plans

in the

mid-1950s, but these

The second

largest

entirely administered

by the

tended to remain outside of Hoffa's authority. plan, that

of the Western

was

States,

Company,

Prudential Insurance

for example.)

weekly employer payment had

In the years since 1955, the

steadily increased: to $3 in 1958,

And

1963. States,

$4

in 1960,

$5 in 1961, and $6

number of workers covered by the Central Fund had more over 200,000 by 1963 some $5 million each

since the

Southeast, and Southwest Areas Pension

than doubled

—

—

to

month was now

automatically going into the fund treasury, with

very few legal strictures

how

as to

the monies could be invested.

The only major governmental requirement was a

that there

board of trustees to administer the pension fund, and

more union

could not contain

ment

representatives that

this

to be

board

manage-

start

on three

representatives.

stipulations.

The

at least six

board, in the

had to

the Teamster leader

suffice for

had to be

a large one,

The number of employer be matched by the number of union ones. was adamant that a simple majority vote

board decisions.

employers on

first place,

appointees from each side.

trustees, secondly,

And

had

did

it

Hoffa had insisted to the employers from the

with

in.

this

He had

anticipated opposition

from the

combination of three points, since with

assuming only that he could win one employer over point on a given vote

— he could control the board

to his

it

view-

just as fully as

he did any other combined group of Teamsters and employers.

He had

indeed been met with such resistance, and

March 1955 pension meeting he had surmounted

it.

at a fateful

According to

Ralph and Estelle James, he belligerently informed the management representatives as he

made

his

way

out of the

he got his way, "representing the union,

room

we

will

then that unless file a

grievance

and we will take you out on strike. God damn it, until you do agree to draw up the proper kind of trust that we can live under. I can tell you that much, and will, God damn it. Take that home, and see how you like it." The employers did not like it. And they did not have to go home to envision against every carrier, every one,

I

vividly

all

that

Hoffa was threatening. As the same authors have

pointed out, "the tremendous latent force inherent in the open-end

Personal Diplomacy

273

grievance procedure; the image of selective shutdowns, dictated by

Hoffa over hastily manufactured grievances, came immediately to

mind." 12 Once again, Hoffa quickly got For let

his

way.

conquest, the Teamster leader had

a year or so after this

midwestern and southern banks invest the

a variety of favored

employer pension contributions for him. But by 1957 he had come

was no need

to appreciate that there

to abdicate a

more

active role

many millions of dollars and many advanFrom that time on he had personally made

handling of these

in the

tages in not so doing.

almost

all

of the CSPF's important investment decisions.

He had

not been a timid portfolio manager. Other institutional

pension funds of the era tended to put most of their

common

high-grade securities.

stocks, corporate bonds,

money

into

and governmental

Hoffa's investments heavily favored speculative, leisure-

oriented real estate.

Many

hotels in

booming Las Vegas

Palace, the Circus Circus, the Sands, the

the Desert Inn,

among

others

— were indebted

primarily to Central States Pension

Fund

— Caesar's

Dunes, the Stardust, and either exclusively or

loans for their establish-

ment. The same could be said for Miami's Castaways Motel, Reno's Harold's Club casino, and the

land,

two major

high-flying projects in Cleve-

huge Eastgate Coliseum recreation complex and the

Cleveland Raceways.

The key this

figure in the

CSPF

readily explained his proclivity for

kind of investment. With the labor force getting ever more

liberalized vacation

there

was time

and holiday benefits

to enjoy

life as

all

over the United States,

there had never been before. Hoffa

believed instinctively that loans for leisure-time ventures were only logical in

view of this graphic

fact.

They would pay dividends many

times over. It

had not, however, been so easy for Hoffa to explain two

other circumstances that often attended the loans. In the first place,

many of

the recipients

were something

less

than model citizens. Ohio's William Presser was a major beneficiary

of the Eastgate Coliseum loan, for example, and

whose names were linked

to

a variety

of people

midwestern organized crime received

made it clear that anyway, some of these people

financing for the Las Vegas activities. Hoffa ness

was business and

that,

the hugely successful Las

Chapter 11

Vegas

hotelier Morris Dalitz, a

busi(like

former

214

whom

known since his early days in Detroit, and Presser) were close friends. He made no apologies. It was also frequently commented that CSPF loans tended to bootlegger

Hoffa had

burden the borrowers with relatively low for example,

when

the going rate

interest rates

(6V 2 percent,

imposed by other lenders might

be several points above that percentage). Here, Hoffa often pointed out that the Teamsters' primary goal in forging the loan policy was

make new ones" and

"to reward friends and to

maximum

possible return

to achieve these ends.

would

Recognizing that rumors of

inevitably result, he nonetheless

could never be corroborated, and this

seemed

now

significantly each year, dollars that

it

let it

paid out.

go

bad press

a

to be his unavoidable lot.

that the Central States

that extracting the

on investment would accomplish nothing

June

4,

in such directions as

As he often asked

fact

in the retirement

rhetorically,

"What

other

month?"

1963, Chicago federal grand jury indictment,

one of the

as

of the

Pension Fund was flourishing, had grown

and was anything but cheap

Hoffa was accused of "fraud, "overreaching"

Such rumors

He was proud

large industry pays a pension of close to $200 every

In the

payoffs

illicit

at that.

deceit,

now

misrepresentation" and of

sixteen trustees (eight of

them

appointed by the employers and the others by the Teamsters) of the fund. Specifically, he

was charged with having knowingly

familiar-

ized himself with fraudulent loan applications prior to their filing

with the fund and then having talked his

none of whom was defendants,

it

was

as "finders fees"

lion

indicted, into

alleged,

approving these loans. All of the

had taken

and stock

cash, stock options,

and had collectively siphoned off roughly $1 mil-

worth of the fraudulent loans

From

fifteen fellow trustees,

into their

own

pockets.

the $1 million allegedly diverted in this way, Hoffa stood

accused of having taken $100,000 to "extricate" himself "from personal involvement" in the case

was

now

Sun Valley

consequently dropped

cause aspects of

it

situation,

and the Sun Valley

as a separate

were "necessarily embodied"

one for him bein this

Chicago

indictment. But the twenty-eight counts contained in the June 4

grand jury action hardly confined their allegations of Hoffa wrongdoing to the Florida retirement project. The

man who both

ran the

Teamsters and controlled the decisions of the pension fund trustees

had

also,

it

was contended,

Personal Diplomacy

falsely told these trustees that

$2 million

275

in

borrowed funds were

Miami pital

to be used for construction of a

North

of fact, "a substantial portion" of the hos-

hospital. In point

construction funds had already been diverted.

And

Hoffa had

made similar false and misleading statements to his fellow them to approve loans for a variety of other projects,

allegedly

trustees to get

involving hotels and shopping centers in Florida, Alabama, Louisi-

New Jersey,

ana, Missouri,

and California.

Aside from the sheer enormity of the charges and the he was from

fact that

accounts genuinely surprised by their issuance,

all

Hoffa was particularly bothered by two aspects here. For one, coming on top of his need to prepare for his jury-

tampering the

new

the

trial,

indictment guaranteed that he would in

months ahead again be preoccupied with

his legal

problems even

while conducting Teamster-trucker labor relations. As in the case

of the

first

cloud

now

hanging over him, the

trial

for fraud

undoubtedly some months away. There was simply too stake,

however, for him to approach

imum

readiness. In this case, as

it

with anything

was not as

much

than

at

max-

true of the jury-tampering

matter, moreover, Hoffa did not initially even

what he was being charged with:

less

was

comprehend exactly

one of his lawyers announced,

apparently quite sincerely, on the day of the Chicago grand jury action,

"He

inability

doesn't understand

by definition compound

his preparation

But even more unsettling on servicing

his

his position

of trust

tration

He's absolutely

it.

at a loss."

This

on the part of the normally knowledgeable Hoffa would

of the

to a

problem.

union leader

who

membership was the implication as the

mammoth

prided himself

that he

had abused

de facto dominant figure in the adminis-

pension fund. The $200 million in the fund

had come from contributions by the employers, consistent with their contractual obligation to the

Teamsters, and was intended

IBT retirees. Anything that milked the fund theremoney out of the pockets of Hoffa's own constituents,

solely to benefit

fore took

the

same ones who had

for so long been cheering for their leader

because he delivered.

They would undoubtedly continue to cheer, at least for a while. who immediately denied any wrongdoing and pointed out he was "just one of the sixteen trustees," had still only been

Hoffa, that

accused, after

all,

and not convicted. In addition, the government's

past failures in Hoffa-connected trials

Chapter 11

were

fully recognized.

Most

216

Teamsters continued to see their president Justice

been proudly and painstakingly erected on

a

a potential this

And

blemishing.

Hoffa, ever the

reputation that had

foundation of bread-

a

and-butter membership gratitude now, for the

of

innocent victim of

as the

Department persecution. Nonetheless,

first

time ever, faced

realist,

was well aware

circumstance.

As he summoned committee

demands

Washington

to

seventy-five-man national bargaining

his

in early

November 1963

to outline the

Teamsters would serve on the truckers

that the

national contract bargaining that was scheduled to begin in ber,

Hoffa consequently had

trial

would begin

much on

his

on January

in Nashville

— Hoffa The

grounds.

6; it

had already been

requests to dismiss the indictment case

had

now

also

Decem-

mind. The Tennessee

postponed several times while the courts considered jected

in the

on

— and

a variety

re-

of

been marked by the recent disbar-

ment of the eminent Hoffa lawyer Z. T. Osborn of Nashville, on the shocking

and ironic grounds that he had

tried to bribe a prospec-

upcoming trial (Osborn made entirely on his own: his

tive juror for the

told the court that his

overture was

feelings

he

had gradually changed from

said,

friend,

and

his friend

of

a

lawyer to that of

a

was being "persecuted" and "abused" by the

government). The Chicago

what happened

that

toward Hoffa,

trial,

in Tennessee,

tentatively

and depending upon

would open on February

Moreover, several of Hoffa's

closest associates

3,

1964.

had been con-

victed in the recent past of crimes. Ohio's William Presser had

been found guilty of contempt of Congress.

New Jersey's

Provenzano had been sentenced to seven years tion.

in prison for extor-

Barney Baker was appealing the two years

awarded

for taking illegal

Anthony

that he

had been

monies from an employer. Frank Collins,

the Detroit Local 299 secretary-treasurer and former "Strawberry

Boy," had been convicted of perjury and sentenced jail

term. Collins had for years been as all

Their problems

hit the

there

IBT

was always

president close to

Hoffa movement. This

allies.

home.

the chance that the court problems of

the foremost Teamster himself

Personal Diplomacy

intimate as

of them were longtime friends and loyal

any person, but

And

to a three-year

much of a Hoffa

would

latter action

inspire

some kind of dump-

might, for example, presum-

277

by some of the erstwhile whose power Hoffa had usurped. This last possibility was a remote one at ably be triggered

now

of the Teamsters was

no anti-Hoffa

moment. The head

the

regularly claiming that "there are really

today." In his words, "The

locals left

And

almost solidly in our camp.

members

are

the local leader has learned that he

He

nothing under the master contract system.

loses

IBT autonomists

local

actually gains:

he gets greater economic strength on his side, better contracts, and less

to

trouble with fewer people." But vestiges of fervent opposition

Hoffa did remain within Teamster trucking locals

several cities. In

New

York, one ranking IBT

nously telling visitors, "Everything boils the contract." In Chicago, Hoffa'

one

local

— Independent

sters. In

San Francisco,

much

how you

enforce

win over

to

with approximately

which,

as large as

was omi-

official

to

had never been able

Local 705

twenty thousand members, was

down

in at least

any within the Team-

bitterness against Hoffa for allegedly

trying to "sell out" superior local conditions in the interests of

remained. In Los Angeles, the

regional standardization in 1961

union president's popularity had suffered for the same reason. These locations remained the conspicuous exceptions to Hoffa's successes

and posed no

real

A

threat as matters stood.

would, however, do

much

to

Hoffa conviction

give an oust-Hoffa drive

some

momentum.

A

growing

local cartage

fear

among

the sixteen thousand over-the-road and

employers with

whom

IBT

the

president

negotiating had been that Hoffa, in the face of

might ship

feel

compelled to recement

by going

package.

after

And when

wage and

demands were outlined

would be

of these

factors,

with the member-

his popularity

an unusually costly the

all

at

fringe benefit

the early

Novem-

ber Teamster bargaining meeting in Washington, this fear appeared to

have been amply

justified. Hoffa,

who

informed the employers that "we won't that a

dreams of a

earlier

had

you too hard" and

"uniform" national agreement would be the main Teamster

now made demands that many truckers. He requested

consideration,

over

only weeks hit

three-year period

the figure

— "$900,000

companies to meet

The employers hoped

this cost

that the

a

staggering $600 million

day,"

— and he immediately conceded

ble for the

'Chapter 11

a

exceeded even the worst

that

as

he bluntly restated

it

would be impossi-

without raising their

rates.

demands, which represented by

278

some

large distance the

most

them, would be whittled

down

had ever made upon

appreciably during the actual bar-

December and January. They assumed

gaining sessions in still

costly that Hoffa

national agreement.

IBT boss had

And most of them

regularly

fully

recognized that the

shown himself to them over

an entirely reasonable bargainer, governed above

many

pay considerations. But, with so

upon Hoffa and

tales

When asked,

"My

lain said,

no one's

God, what gaze

at a

of the Republic goes

life."

More

November

F.

Kennedy's assassination.

are

we coming

to?" In the Senate, the chap-

vacant place against the sky, as the President

down

like a giant cedar."

An

eighty-four-year-

me

declared, "I've never had anything hit

than

thousand people from

a

Grosvenor Square ("They had

And,

in

Moscow,

Khrushchev quickly burst into

all

to

so in

my

over London boarded

do something,"

a

Embassy

BBC

in

analyst

the wife of Soviet Premier Nikita tears.

Overpowering

followed shock as people learned of the

As never

22,

fears.

buses or tube trains, drove, or walked to the American

explained).

converging

W. McCormack of the U.S. House of Representatives

"We

Texan

ability-to-

no longer be sure of any things

he heard the news of John

Speaker John

by

now

Hoffa's reaction to the events of

Certainly, 1963, allayed

strains

the years to be

all

of his verbal abusiveness and temper becoming

increasingly widespread, they could

old

that he

placed his primary value on national standardization and a single

either before or since, the

fatal

grief typically

shooting in Dallas.

world was bound together

in

mourning. Hoffa was in Miami Beach discussing the national trucking

agreement with

when was

the

officials

news came

also out

of the Southern Conference of Teamsters

in to the

Teamsters Building. Harold Gibbons

of the headquarters, enjoying

a leisurely

lunch with

Edward Bennett Williams at Duke Ziehen's celebrity-studded restaurant two miles away. Larry Steinberg, in charge of operations in the absence of his two superiors, broke down and wept when he was

told (by telephone) of the tragedy.

American

flag

lowered to half-mast

He

immediately ordered the

— before,

in fact, the flag

U.S. Senate across the street was so altered. And, closing the he sent

all

of the

offices,

in the building home. Gibbons soon midday break, supported the Steinberg

of the employees

thereafter returned

Personal Diplomacy

from

his

279

actions in their entireties,

compose

a

and joined with

his

longtime friend to

statement of condolence that would be issued on behalf

of the Teamsters. Gibbons then telephoned Hoffa in Florida to in-

form him of what had been done and

him

to read

the proposed

statement.

was not sympathetic. He flew

Hoffa's response rage and announced, tel's

as

into a towering

he had upon the occasion of Frank X. Mar-

death almost a decade earlier in Detroit, "I'm no hypocrite."

Expressing his

worms

own

wishes for the slain president

eat his eyes out"),

he asked Gibbons to

the instructions to close the building he's the General President?").

tell

("I

him who gave

("Which one of you thinks

Under no

conditions, he said

tuating his declaration with a heavy dosage of profanity

authorize the expression of condolence.

emphasize

his sentiments

why

who

He

— punc-

— would he

then hung up, but to

he shortly thereafter telephoned both Gib-

bons and Steinberg and administered asked a secretary

hope the

his verbal blasts again.

He

also

participated in one of these telephone calls

she was "crying instead of rejoicing.

For Gibbons,

who

siderable oral abuse

the last straw.

when he

He

in recent

from

weeks had been the object of con-

his increasingly testy

roommate,

told Hoffa that he could "get himself a

it

was

new boy"

returned to Washington and tendered his resignation from

the executive assistantship

he "stuck with the

little

on the

guy"

spot.

He

later told reporters that

despite his treatment

by Hoffa because

"the guy has been through a lot of trouble without deserving it."

But enough, he

now

announced, was enough. Not long afterwards,

Steinberg also asked to be relieved of his duties with the international union, as did three other

on Gibbons's former

key Hoffa aides

staff in St. Louis:

who

had worked

both of the Keathleys and

Kavner. 13 Subsequently, Hoffa was widely quoted as having asserted that,

with the events in Dallas, "Bobby Kennedy

lawyer now." However, he shortly

on

his part

is

just another

after this stated that this

had been misconstrued: he had merely sought

to

remark convey

ship

would now be one of ten members and no longer have any special personal relationwith the nation's chief executive. As to what he actually had

said

on November

the thought that the attorney general

cabinet

Chapter 11

22,

on the other hand, he had no

regrets at

all:

280

for the rest

of his

same thing again

he would often declare that he would do the

life,

if

On November

confronted with the same circumstances.

of the funeral and

25, the date

a

National

Day

of Mourning, most Teamster locals were closed for business. They included the

Teamster bur

in the

Louis units controlled by Gibbons and the Steinberg

St.

affiliates in

Toledo. But Local 299 in Detroit, the Excali-

Hoffa personal

geographic proximity to to evening.

No

and other Michigan

closet,

it

locals in close

were conspicuously open from morning

one could accuse Hoffa of

In 1964, the President's

insincerity.

Commission on

President John F. Kennedy, headed

the Assassination of

by Chief Justice Earl Warren

and including some of the nation's foremost public servants and

was no more

attorneys, concluded that there ica's thirty-fifth

to the killing

chief executive than had originally

of Amer-

met the

eye. Lee

— the unstable gunman who had been arrested on the and charged with the crime — had acted

Harvey Oswald

November

22

alone,

Warren Commission found.

In

its

mind, there was no "persuasive

evidence" to support arguments for

rumors

Fifteen years later, tions appointed

however,

It

relied heavily

examination of the assassination

of a second gunman, and the as its

of

a

Committee on Assassina-

a Select

by the U.S. House of Representatives contradicted

the 1964 conclusions. cal

conspiracy, the plethora of

a

that continued to suggest the latter notwithstanding.

select

on the findings of an acousti-

site.

This indicated the presence

committee consequently offered

opinion that Kennedy was "probably assassinated

as the result

conspiracy."

As

to the kingpins in this conspiracy, the

that three

men had

committee suggested

the motive, the means, and the opportunity to

carry out the murder, although

it

considered the possibility that any

one of them was actually involved to have been remote.

One was

Carlos Marcello, reputedly the most powerful Mafia chieftain not

only in his

Coast

area.

home state of Louisiana but throughout the entire Gulf He had been singled out by Robert F. Kennedy in the

Attorney General's massive campaign against the mob; with the

—

elimination of the source of his

power

Kennedy would no longer be

meaningful

a

could be killed with one stone since a

his brother

new

And two birds would presumMafia as was JFK. (In threat.

president

ably not be as committed to pursuing the

Personal Diplomacy

— the younger

281

in

tact,

August 1962, Marcello had reportedly explained

why

quaintance nedy,

to an ac-

President Kennedy, and not Attorney General Ken-

would be

killed

with

"You know what

this rationale:

they

you want to kill a dog, you don't cut off the tail, head.") Moreover, Marcello had publicly threatened

say in Sicily: if

you

cut off the

to arrange the president's

murder, according to some testimony.

Florida's Santos Trafficante. also

known

as

one of the country 's

major Mafiosi and another prime Robert Kennedy second possibility an FBI informer

in the

m

target,

committee's scheme of things.

was

He had

1962 that "Kennedy's not going to

a

told

make

it

to

the [1964] election; he's going to be hit." third

Still a

member of

might have been

cated,

the conspiracy, the

House panel

indi-

— although the committee pointed out — the leader of the International that

he might also not have been

late

Brotherhood of Teamsters, James Riddle Hoffa. Several considerations had led the

highly qualified

last

members of Congress

to this

conclusion.

TeamEdward Grady Partin, to both the FBI and to the House Assassinations Committee itself. Partin had quoted Hoffa as having told him in the late summer of 1962. "I've got to do something about that son of a bitch Bobby Kennedy. He's got to go." and as In the first place, there

was

the testimony of a Louisiana

ster official.

having talked about killing the president's brother on other occasions as well. a plot

And,

as others. Partin

general's superior. Hoffa. after

much

as

"fly off I

it

quite credible that such

carried

Hoffa's

clearly detested the president as said, .

.

.

would have died himself if he knew he could have gotten 14

themselves, these Partin allegations

no weight

many

at all

would presumably have

with the committee. Talk,

as has

been ob-

Even accepting as givens intense hatred of the two Kennedys and the reports of others Partin that Hoffa had talked about having Robert Kennedy

served by

besides

attorney

[when] the name [of the president] was even mentioned.

[both] killed."

By

all.

at the

he did the attorney general; he would. Partin once

think he

them

found

might have been transformed into one aimed

murdered.

1

^

a

evaluators of

it,

is

cheap.

linkage of the Teamster president to the

Novem-

ber 22. 1963, assassination could exist only in the wildest of imaginations.

Chapter 11

But two other Partin-related considerations combined

2S2

with these

committee reason

to give the

first

keep Hoffa's name

to

in its live file.

For one thing,

if

Partin

was

with the Louisiana Teamster

And

Kennedy.

John

in the

F.

... an

gunman equipped with assassin

a

with

rifle

He had

noted the "advis-

of having the assassination committed somewhere

in the

And

he had

South," where segregationist zealots could be blamed.

commented on "the

informed the FBI of this

polygraph

istered a

complete

Kennedy

potential desirability of having Robert

shot while riding in a convertible." plot, the

16

when

Secondly,

him, and he had passed

test to

Partin had

governmental agency had adminit

to the agency's

satisfaction.

were

In addition to the Partin testimony, there

tions

telescopic

a

without any identifiable connection to the

Teamster organization or Hoffa himself." ability

Hoffa had discussed

plan for disposing of Robert

it was remarkably similar to the one actually used Kennedy killing. Hoffa had proposed "the possible

use of a lone sight

to be believed,

a specific

between Oswald's

killer,

clear

connec-

Jack Ruby, and the Teamsters. In

Ruby had been second-in-command of Chicago A mob-

1939 and 1940,

Local 20467 of the Scrap Iron and Junk Handlers Union. controlled labor organization that

was notorious

and physical intimidations even in the

became

a

Teamster

affiliate in

murder of its founder. rior,

Its

new

for

later

leader,

one other way: 1950s of so

here and the

his stepson Allen

recommended two Dorfmans

tions. (Paul

may

be re-

company was

Hoffa

in at least

the recipient in the early

Central States Health and Welfare Fund monies

that a congressional investigatory

him and

in

it

Committee for the 1956 Detroit. As was also noted

to be officially connected to

his insurance

much

local

and Ruby's immediate supe-

served on the Sponsors

Dorfman was

shakedowns

1939, immediately after the unsolved

"Jimmie Hoffa Testimonial Dinner" earlier,

its

of Al Capone, the

was the mobster Paul "Red" Dorfman, who,

called,

when

city

committee

about possible

that he

in

1953 questioned

illegal

payoffs to Hoffa

and Allen be cited for contempt

consistently refused to answer these ques-

and Allen also each took the Fifth

Amendment when Mc-

asked essentially the same questions a few years later by the Clellan committee.) Allen had, of course, been

coconspirator in the

May

9,

named

as a

Hoffa

1963, jury-tampering indictment in

Tennessee.

Personal Diplomacy

283

Both Dorfmans, indeed, could

also quite accurately be de-

two of Hoffa's closest personal friends from the 1950s The deceptively soft-spoken, red-haired father was a constant enough companion of the Teamster president that Robert Kennedy scribed as on.

could observe,

at the

peak of the McClellan committee hearings,

"Paul

Dorfman and Jimmy Hoffa

father

and

his lean, athletic

now

are

as

And both

one."

son were often in attendance

the

IBT

at

conventions and other meetings. In addition, the Dorfmans were partners with Hoffa in a variety of business investments, including

an

company,

oil

Dorfman age.

FBI records established

Kennedy

F.

camp, and several

a girls'

real estate ventures.

pere was not, moreover, the only Ruby-Hoffa link-

assassination,

that, in the month preceding the John Ruby had engaged in several long-

distance telephone conversations with close Hoffa associates.

At

two of

least

these conversations

Robert "Barney" Baker so

much

earlier.

him a

for seven minutes

a

collect (in response,

on November

call to

October and November and

McClellan committee hearings

message from Ruby asking him to do

fourteen-minute

call to

— the Teamster "organizer" who had done

to enliven the

Baker had phoned Ruby

said, to a

were with the gargantuan

Irwin

S.

1963.

7,

this)

five years

Baker

later

and talked to

And Ruby had

placed

Baker on the following day. Between

Ruby

22, 1963,

also placed a

late

twelve-minute

Weiner, the primary Teamster Union bondsman,

four-minute one to Murray

W. "Dusty"

Miller, the

head of

the Southern Conference of Teamsters.

Baker told the House Assassinations Committee

Ruby had sought a

his help regarding a labor

competing nightclub was being allowed

wouldn't

let

Ruby's nightclub do

Ruby had asked him

that

this.

to write a

problem: the owner of

to run

shows by the American Guild of Variety

amateur burlesque

Artists,

Weiner

bond

in 1978 that

but the union

testified, also in 1978,

in

connection with a

lawsuit against that competitor. Miller offered the committee the

same

basic union-related explanation for the telephone call that he

had received.

The House panel nonetheless found

these testimonies to be less

than convincing. There were considerable evasions and inconsistencies

on the

part of the witnesses.

time nightclub owner like

Chapter 11

It

also

seemed odd

Ruby would come

that a small-

to such

Teamster

284

heavy

hitters

Baker and Miller (who were

as

strangers to him) with such a

one or that he would

Nor

bers.

know

minor problem

also,

apparently,

as this stripper-related

num-

their private unlisted telephone

Ruby was in fact The congressmen could Ruby and the Teamsters

did the panel find any indication that

planning the lawsuit that Weiner described. not, therefore, dismiss the possibility that

had transacted

by Baker,

a different

kind of business than the one described

and Weiner. Unlikely

Miller,

as

it

might have

been,,

some kind of conspiracy could have been forged between Ruby and

man who

Hoffa, presumably through intermediaries, to silence the

had himself silenced John In addition,

each other.

it is

They

quite possible that

certainly

ing a wide variety of

mobsters.

And

Kennedy.

F.

Ruby and Hoffa

did

know

had many mutual acquaintances, includ-

New

Orleans, Dallas, Chicago, and Florida

Hoffa's son, James P. Hoffa, once told an inter-

my

viewer, "I think

dad knew Jack Ruby, but from what

under-

I

[Ruby] was the kind of guy everybody knew. So what?" 17

stand, he

Finally,

Hoffa could count both Marcello and Trafficante

among his many friends. Marcello had had business dealings with the IBT leader in Louisiana, where his widespread influence extended into the Teamsters. And when Hoffa was subsequently faced with imprisonment, according to FBI $1 million placed at his disposal

bribing judges and others taking

on

this large

Marcello apparently had

who

could stave off

FBI informer

is

a

...

.

.

had described himself

of Hoffa.

as a friend

his

1962 statement to

John F. Kennedy was "going to be hit," he the same informer: "Have you seen how his

man who is not a millionaire, a friend of He doesn't know that this kind of encounter is very

It is

not right what they are doing to Hoffa.

hardworking man and does not deserve

man Kennedy him."

.

hitting Hoffa, a

the blue collars? delicate.

in the

that

had, in fact, told is

him

to

)

Immediately before the Floridian had made

brother

Kennedy

F.

18

Trafficante, too,

the

("In

this jailing.

"was Marcello paying back Hof-

whatever services Hoffa had rendered

assassination?"

of

for purposes

and risky responsibility," one John

assassination student has asked, fa for

files,

by organized crime

is

in trouble,

it.

.

.

.

Hoffa

Mark my word,

and he will get what

is

this

coming

to

19

Personal Diplomacy

285

Putting

of these

all

lacking to

is still

show

facts

that

and theories together, one ingredient

Hoffa had any hand

the

at all in

Novem-

ber 22, 1963, killing: hard evidence.

The Hoffa-as-part-of-a-conspiracy conjectures, which began to be widely disseminated in John F. Kennedy Assassination publications and documentaries once the House committee had introduced Hoffa's name, and which perhaps reached their fullest flowering in the torrent

of "Mafia Murder" explanations surrounding the 20

make for intriguing They lack anything that remotely prohowever. Even if one accepts the highly controversial

twenty-fifth anniversary of the killing in 1988,

reading and conversation. vides proof,

conspiracy theory and attributes to the head of the Teamsters not

only motives but expressed desires and clear personnel linkages, hardly justifies a conclusion of Hoffa complicity. As with

this still

anything

else,

the burden remains

build a case so cogent that

To

such

date,

now

certain

will be a

a case has

on those

alleging

wrongdoing

to

must be accepted by an open mind.

it

simply not been erected, although

that the speculation concerning Hoffa's

seems

it

involvement

permanent part of the Hoffa legacy.

What

has been established

is

that the

Warren Commission,

surprisingly in hindsight, apparently never investigated any of these possible Hoffa connections to the occurrences in Texas. (A single, early 1964

memorandum of the commission

Union

sters

as the first

president's death, this.)

21

of

six

did specify the

Team-

groups that might have desired the

but there was no meaningful follow-up

at all to

Yet, the FBI did begin, independently, to explore at least the

Ruby-Barney Baker

relationship as early as

December

from the very beginning, Hoffa was understandably fact that

He

1963.

And,

sensitive to the

he was not above suspicion. could hardly deny his connection either to Baker or to the

other key players. But he could avoid

problems that he might have

compounding any

in this area,

and

in at least

potential

one

of

set

circumstances he aggressively did so. In the mid-1960s, Lee Harvey

Oswald's widow, Marina, came to the University of Michigan

Ann Arbor

to take a variety

in

of special courses. At the time, the

Law School, James P. Hoffa. And, defying all laws of probability, the widow of the unstable gunman proceeded to meet and date at least two Law School Michigan student body also contained,

Chapter

1

at

the

286

With Josephine Collection)

at

the 1961 Teamster convention in

Miami Beach. (Crancer

The

first

lady of the Teamsters and her husband, immediately following

Hoffa's 1961 presidential acceptance speech. (Crancer Collection)

(below)

Deep

(above right)

sea fishing in Florida, approximately 1963. (Crancer Collection)

At the U.S. courthouse in Chicago, immediately after his convicand mail and wire fraud, 1964. (AP/Wide World Photos)

tion for conspiracy

(below right)

known

A

rented plane conveys birthday greetings to Lewisburg's best

resident, 1969.

(AP/Wide World Photos)

(above)

A

considerably grayer Hoffa leaves the Lewisburg Penitentiary after

four years, nine months, and sixteen days, 1971. (AP/Wide

World Photos)

House of RepresentaSubcommittee hearing, 1972. (AP/Wide World Photos)

(above right) Testifying about parole procedures at a U.S. tives Judiciary

(below right) Hoffa supporters picketing the

(Crancer Collection)

IBT Building

in

Washington, 1973.

(above) Leaving U.S. District

Court

in

Washington

after receiving Judge Pratt'

unfavorable ruling regarding the constitutionality of his parole restriction, 1974.

(AP/Wide World Photos)

Grand Ville hardtop, just after Bloom opened its trunk in a search for the missing Teamster's body, 1975. (AP/Wide World Photos) (below) Hoffa's dark green 1974 Pontiac

field

Township, Michigan,

police had

students

who were

friendly with the

strongly encouraged by his father,

younger Hoffa. The

went

to great lengths to avoid

being seen anywhere with the famous special student. president had

enough troubles

ing fate to burden

Personal Diplomacy

latter,

already; there

The Teamster

was no sense

in

tempt-

him with one more.

287

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the End of an Era

Outwardly, Hoffa showed

little

signs of concern in the face of

all

now augmented by the resignation of his top aides wake of the Kennedy assassination, as he opened the formal

of his problems, in the

trucking negotiations at Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel in mid-

December

1963.

Barely suppressing gaining team at the

smile, he

a

informed the employer bar-

meeting of the

first

you're so well organized this year and at the

seams."

any "palace

He

rift"

parties,

"I'm happy to see

hope you don't

I

fall

apart

steadfastly denied to reporters that there was

involving Gibbons, Steinberg, or anyone

else:

the

union, he insisted, was as "strong and united" as ever, and rumors

of dissension "don't mean ster locals

in

— four of them

New

—

had

national bargaining concept fact that

predicted that the six

in greater

Chicago and San Francisco

firmed the

He

a thing."

that

would

York

now

tween wages and benefits all

of

yet approve

now

He

publicly con-

— and announced

— divided equally bethat he fully expected

actions, as the bargaining proceeded,

loudly than his words.

He seemed

his personal assistants

had been

it.

it.

But Hoffa's both

City, and one each

officially rejected the

he was asking for about $600 million annually,

or for a package increase of 30 cents hourly

to get

Team-

in past

to be far

weeks: his easily aroused

a

considerate of

officials

irascibility

almost nonexistent, and he displayed

accept but to solicit advice

more

and elected Teamster

spoke more than he

with them was

willingness not only to

from subordinates

that

was very much

removed from

the

normal Hoffa modus

clear signals to the

would

in fact

operandi.

He

soon gave

also

employers inside the bargaining room

be willing to

settle for a

good

that he

deal less than the official

$600 million package, quite possibly for concessions that would cost only half that amount.

Nor, amid so many

and

legal

political

problems, did he any

longer appear to have his heart set on achieving national uniformity

of contractual terms for the four hundred thousand road and cartage

He needed

drivers.

there

was no need

all

the friends he could get at this point, and

problems by pushing

to ask for

either recalcitrant

Teamsters or employers beyond their points of toleration. Winning the 100 percent uniformity of wages, fringes, and conditions that

he had claimed as a 1964 goal for so long could wait; he would be

with enacting the

satisfied

national contract in the history of

first

the once totally decentralized trucking industry.

Hoffa did, however,

insist

on speed

in the negotiations.

He

not want the bargaining hanging over his jury tampering

which, having been postponed for one nitely start in a strike

would now

final time,

Chattanooga, Tennessee, on January 20, 1964.

did

trial,

defi-

He

set

deadline for six nationwide companies for midnight, Janu-

ary 15, and

assumed

would have

that the threat

its

usual traumatic

effect.

The

contract

was agreed

before the deadline. plicated

It

to

by the truckers

one ever worked out between

Hoffa's opinion, and

less

than an hour

was forty-seven pages long, "the most com-

it

would

a

union and employers"

cost the industry

in

by union estimate

some $300 million in the course of its thirty-eight months. Industry spokesmen thought that $400 million was a more realistic figure and agreed fully with the union president that trucking rates would have to be raised appreciably to absorb the added

costs.

nounced the document "a great contract," and no

less

than the

New

York Times called

union's president.

.

.

.

The

it

[national]

Even

ward

in the area

national

the 1960-1961

agreement will tighten

power

will increase his

in

1

But the national pact was do.

an authority

"a personal triumph for the

Mr. Hoffa's grip on the union and dealing with the industry."

Hoffa pro-

also

noteworthy for what

it

did not

of wages, no further progress was made to-

uniformity beyond what had been achieved in

round of negotiations: drivers

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

End of an Era

in

New

York, Los

289

Angeles, and Detroit

—

to cite only three

wage

tually continue to earn

and

was

it

fully

examples

— would contrac-

exceeded the national

rates that

expected that political

realities

scale,

would generate

a

number of additions to the list through various local supplements. Working conditions, while now relatively uniform coast to coast, would continue to be left up to local negotiation almost entirely. And "open end" would remain essentially untouched from its present parameters, Hoffa's original 1964 plans for a single centralized

administration by himself of this novel system notwithstanding.

On the other side of the ledger, when this new basic expired on

March

would

for the first time

strike.

And

have the power to

L.

McClellan,

article that

he wrote for the Reader's

that

the International itself to

was already

common expiration date, were typical.

His opinion, verbalized in an

by

enemy Senator John

old Hoffa

written in anticipation of the

was

nationwide trucking

of dire predictions.

setting off an avalanche

Digest,

call a

the very thought of such an occurrence

The worries of

agreement

best-known labor leader

31, 1967, the nation's

Brotherhood of Teamsters

.

.

.

is

now powerful enough

put a stranglehold on our nation's economy. The Teamsters

control the trucking industry.

.

.

.

If they called a nationwide

strike,

you

could not get ambulances to take sick people to the hospital, nor hearses to carry the dead.

Farmers could not get produce

turers could not

send

in

would soon be swept

shelves

to

urban areas; food manufac-

canned goods. Milk would not be delivered. Market City dwellers would

clean.

literally face

starvation.

Hoffa

reported to have said that he

is

believe that the the head

would not

call

such a strike. But I

American people, instead of relying on

of the Teamsters union, would prefer

admits that he has the

power and can

use

it

to

if

the

mere word of

be protected by law. Hoffa

he wishes.

No

one

else in

our society can wield such force. Industry cannot; our laws prevent

The government

itself,

commerce. Hoffa does.

under the Constitution, has no power .

.

.

Hoffa had indeed said a strike.

power

constitutes a threat to the

many

times that he

would not

call

such

But, beyond the Teamster president's professions of intent,

were convincing reasons

and so

such

it.

prohibit

and well-being of our country. 2

security

there

And

to

many

Chapter 12

why he could not do what the senator

other people feared.

290

the nationwide contract did not cover either the drivers

First,

of perishable single-produce freight (the milk and most of the farm products alluded

to)

hearse workers cited

governed by

to be

or the nonfreight drivers (the ambulance and

by the

a variety

senator).

These employees continued

of contracts, many of them confined to

individual metropolitan areas and with widely different expiration dates.

Second, the presence of alternative transportation (railroads,

nonunion trucking, strike

could place

a

airlines,

and barges) meant

that

no Teamster

"stranglehold" on the economy. While a nation-

wide over-the-road and cartage

strike

would

clearly present a

inconvenience to the public, "stranglehold" was simply

went too

Abraham Weiss could

Director

IBT Research

observe, "the Teamsters already

bad enough press and much government opposition

a

public reaction to any large-scale Teamster strike drastic."

that

far.

Third, there was the very practical reason that, as

have

major

word

a

There was,

in the opinion

.

.

.

the

would be too

of many Teamsters, an excellent

chance that restrictive legislation would be immediately forthcoming should Hoffa ever attempt a nationwide road and cartage strike.

own

opinion, this prospect alone made a general strike "Only an idiot who couldn't recognize the consequences would call such a strike," he would often say, "And I'm

In Hoffa's

unthinkable:

no

idiot." Finally, the

Teamster general president favored the

selective,

limited strike to the large-scale strike under any conditions. His

frequently offered rationale for the former kind of strike

—

that the

struck employer, with his competitors allowed to operate in this

dog-eat-dog industry, had no choice but to nent sense.

made

And

settle fast

— made emi-

the selective strike threats that Hoffa had actually

several times in the course of recent over-the-road negotia-

tions lent further credence to a belief that he

was

sincere in this

preference.

By all

the

same token, words

like McClellan's,

of their hyperbole, bore witness to just

since he earlier.

had

The

sat quietly at the feet

how

even

far

of Farrell Dobbs

a

if

stripped of

Hoffa had come quarter-century

old master from Minneapolis had to be proud, his later

rupture with Hoffa notwithstanding, as he watched his pupil climax his

long-embraced dream. Even in

Chattanooga, Chkago, and the

its

incompleteness, the 1964 con-

End of an Era

291

stunning triumph for the union's president.

tract did represent a

And

there

was no reason

why

Hoffa could not achieve the

rest

of

immediately ahead, assuming

his national objectives in the years

only that he could avoid court conviction.

Chattanooga had been designated tampering hearings

at

the scheduled January District

last

minute. Three weeks before

of the

20, 1964, start

the site of the jury-

trial in

Nashville, Federal

Judge Frank W. Wilson had agreed with the attorneys

Hoffa and in

almost the

as

for

his codefendants that their clients could not get a fair trial

Nashville because of the widespread publicity there concerning

not only the

first trial

but

now also

lawyer Osborn to influence the ordered the case transferred to

its

of Nashville, although the

east

Judge Wilson,

a tall,

the effort of prominent Nashville

new jury. He had, accordingly, new location some 140 miles southdate

trial

would remain

as

it

was.

soft-spoken forty-seven-year-old Tennes-

sean with a reputation for painstaking research and judicial scholar-

made another major

ship,

even though

finish,

possibly as

many

were expected

— with

on the trial's opening day. He would be locked up from start to

decision

decreed that this time the jury

at least forty

prosecution witnesses and

people testifying for the defense

to last a

minimum

of

a

— the proceedings

month. The twelve jurors,

once chosen, would be under the constant surveillance of seventeen federal marshals.

They would spend

their nights at a hotel

and be

allowed to see or talk by telephone only with members of their

immediate

families.

The judge had

anticipated a negative reaction

attorneys to these security measures, and he got

it.

from the defense Lawyers

defendants vigorously objected that such precautions dice the cases of their clients.

be

some proof

that the

They

also

would

for the

preju-

argued that there should

measures were necessary before they were

imposed. Wilson overruled them.

Nor was the jury that

the Hoffa legal staff

was

finally, after five

The

lenges by both sides, seated.

Wilson

their

few blacks collar

eight

days of examination and chaldefense attorneys conveyed to

opinion that the twelve-member panel contained too

(one), too

few union members

workers, and too

men and

Chapter 12

happy with the complexion of

four

many

women

(also one), too

college-educated people

few blue-

among

its

to fairly represent a cross section of

292

the

community. Even worse from the defense standpoint,

a large

two hundred Chattanooga residents who made up body from which the twelve jurors were selected

majority of the the original

seemed genuinely nous sign to

want

to

on

to serve

this particular

who

one Hoffa lawyer,

at least

jury

— an omi-

offered his opinion that

keen interest in serving on any jury was more often than not displayed by those

The

who

favored conviction.

began uneventfully enough, with possibly

trial

surprise over the first

two weeks being

the fact that the

most famous defendant was almost never

directly

its

biggest

name of the

mentioned

in the

testimony. Instead, the parade of witnesses put on the stand by the

— Nashville

trial

alumnus Neal and

second native Tennessean, noted

trial

attorney John

two Sr.

chief prosecutors

—

about

testified

codefendants.

the

alleged

of

activities

now

a

Hooker,

J.

Hoffa's

five

3

Nashville policeman James T. Walker led

Thomas Ewing

that defendant

long after the

start

Parks had

of the Nashville

trial,

off.

come

He

told the court

to his

asked him

if

home not knew his

he

(Walker's) neighbor Gratin Fields, and inquired as to whether Fields

might need money to pay off some debts. Parks, he informed him that "the big boy" (not further

had

said,

identified)

also

needed

"one other person on the jury to hang the jury." Fields's

son Carl then

$5,000 for himself

testified

and $5,000 for

had offered him

that Parks

his father if his father

an acquittal. After pocketing five $20

voted for

Parks had placed

bills that

near him, he had had second thoughts and telephoned Parks that he couldn't talk to his father about the

good sport about the whole

trial at all.

Parks, apparently a

had told Carl

thing,

to keep the

money

anyhow. Testimony was

also introduced in an effort to

cago insurance broker

Tweel

tried to

Dorfman and West

pay Dallas Hall,

local stated

in a prosecution

Chi-

Virginia businessman

of Nashville Teamster leader

under oath that King had offered to get

sergeant's stripes for the Tennessee state trooper,

whose wife was on

that

Nashville nightclub operator, to

A member

get in touch with jurors.

Ewing King's

a

show

the conspiracy

trial jury.

James Paschal,

Evidence was produced

attempt to connect Detroit Local 299 business agent

Larry Campbell to the jury fixing.

But anything

that

might meaningfully

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

End of an Era

link

Hoffa himself to

293

was conspicuous by

the tampering effort

IBT

weeks, the in

absence. After

its

two

general president had yet to be remotely involved

what prosecutor Neal was

calling "a solid chain

of evidence."

labor leader's repeated professions of innocence to the media

The

people

who

surrounded him

he walked the block from his Patten

as

Hotel suite to the gleaming Chattanooga federal courthouse were consequently, as the days went on, becoming

And

vincing.

optimism

the jaunty

Hoffa had exuded for months

now seemed

courtroom conditions forced upon him during

that the sedentary

would cause him

trial

to be entirely sincere.

primary worry appeared to be

In fact, the energetic Teamster's

the long

more and more conoutcome that

as to the trial's

to get out

To

of shape physically.

obviate this possibility, he soon arranged to have regular workouts

with barbells

whose

Neal,

Then, unleashed

of getting flabby rivaled

fear

thunderbolt.

Edward Grady

that

would

in

his

own).

on February

put on the stand

It

the prosecution

4,

a surprise witness,

Baton Rouge, Louisiana and

He was

tance of Hoffa's.

recess

secretary-treasurer and business agent of

Partin,

Teamster Local 5

ment

noon

after the a

YMCA (where he often crossed paths with

at the local

the

a

personal acquain-

same man whose reports

to the

Hoffa had talked about having Robert Kennedy murdered

later help

House Committee on

generate the Select

nations' highly qualified conclusion that the

might have had

a

hand

ominously for Hoffa

in the

murder ofJohn

at this point,

in the

Kennedy. Far more

F.

Partin had been in and out of

Hoffa camp and had

acted as guard at the door of Hoffa's hotel suite.

now

informed the court, to jury plot

Hoffa's associates but Hoffa himself. as

many

specifics

Assassi-

Teamster president

Nashville during the entire length of the 1962 Test Fleet

had been freely accepted

he

govern-

And

on these discussions

He

trial.

at

times even

He had

been privy,

talk involving

not only

he was ready to provide

as the court

was willing

to

request of him.

Hoffa was visibly shaken by sitting near

him when

heard him say, face.

Chewing on

intently at the

and

"My

who had

dence.

Chapter 12

abrupt turn of events. People

the business agent walked into the

God,

it's

Partin."

The

courtroom

color drained

from

his

the end of his ballpoint pen, he then glowered

tough Louisianan

until that

The "deep,

this

very

whom

moment

he had

enjoyed

known

his

since 1957

complete confi-

strange, penetrating expression of intense ha-

294

tred" that Robert

Kennedy thought

and

that he

his brother

received during the McClellan committee hearings

when compared

love

was

had

look of

a

what was now directed toward the witness

to

stand in this dramatic Chattanooga confrontation.

who had

Partin,

And,

in a

anticipated such a reaction, shrugged

it

off.

southern drawl that was surprisingly soft given his

tall,

muscular appearance, the thirty-nine-year-old minor Teamster of-

proceeded with

ficial

It

was

his testimony.

enough, even from the

tantalizing

Before going to

start.

more than one hundred people

Nashville, he informed the

in the

hushed courtroom, he had contacted Department of Justice lawyer Frank Grimsley,

number

who had

in Nashville

him Walter Sheridan's telephone him to get in touch with Sheridan if

given

and told

he discovered any evidence of tampering. ville

on the

first

day of the

trial,

and

He had

Nash-

arrived in

that night, in the

Andrew

Jackson Hotel coffee shop, had met Tweel. Once the social amenities

had been attended

close friend

would be

a

to,

Dorfman had

Tweel had informed Partin that Hoffa's called him (Tweel) and told him that it

"personal favor" to

Dorfman if Tweel "would come to method for getting to the jury."

him

set

up

The witness could

get

no further

Nashville and help

a

Hoffa

at this point. Several

attorneys successively leaped to their feet ("like pistons," in the

words of one observer) the suppression

to

demand

a mistrial or, at the

of further testimony by Partin. The

Louisiana Teamster in Nashville, they contended, was

very role

least,

of the

illegal

be-

cause he had been planted as an undercover agent by the U.S. gov-

ernment and had consequently improperly intruded on Hoffa's rights:

any reports leading to the current

trial that

given the government were therefore, as one

Hoffa stable of lawyers phrased

it,

he might have

member of the

large

"clearly the fruit of a poisonous

tree."

With the jury excused from the courtroom, defense attorney Schiffer also offered

Judge Wilson

a

second reason for ruling out

Partin as a witness. Partin had been indicted in Louisiana in July

1962 on twenty-six counts involving stealing

union and making

false entries in its

that the Teamster's price for cooperating

would be dismissed.

money from

his local

books, and Schiffer suggested

was

that the indictment

Partin retorted that he had neither asked any-

thing nor been promised anything.

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

End of an Era

295

Judge Wilson took the defense request under advisement overnight and the next morning announced that the Baton Rouge Teamcould

ster

He

testify.

found, he said, that the government had not

placed Partin in the midst of the defense. Partin had,

on the con-

been "knowingly and voluntarily placed there by one of the

trary,

defendants."

The

tale that Partin told in his three

and one-half hours of

testimony on February 5 was repeatedly interrupted by defense objections and mistrial

motions

— an

awesome 168 of them by one

manner reminiscent of not only the day before but also the Nashville trial, two or three of the nine attorneys for the defendants jumped up simultaneously. But when the surprise witness was done for the day, there was no question that he had count.

At times,

in a

done Hoffa and

now

Partin

codefendants incalculable damage.

his

on the night of October

testified that

when he had met Tweel and

22,

1962,

learned of Dorfman's interest in jury

come into Andrew Jackson

tampering, he had also been invited by Hoffa himself to

bedroom

the

Hotel. there

"He a

in the

"Mr. Hoffa

three-room Hoffa told

me

were going

The next

me

to get to

few scattered jurors and take

ville

around for

to stick

might be some people he wanted said that they

suite at the

one juror and try

their chances."

was getting ready

day, Partin said, he

told

me when

I

to get to

to leave

me

hand behind

his

his

Nash-

into the bed-

came back he might want me

something for him and he put

that

4

temporarily, and "Mr. Hoffa [again] called

room and

few days,

a

to talk to," Partin stated,

to pass

back and

hit his

back pocket." Hoffa further asserted, according to Partin, that he

—

would pay $15,000, $20,000 whatever it takes to get to the jury." 5 The prosecution's trump card also left no doubt in anyone's mind as to who had been the informant who had tipped off Walter Sheridan

he had

at least

twice in Nashville.

commented

to

Hoffa that the

On November trial

7,

Partin said,

did not appear to be going

very well for the defense, and had thereupon been told by Hoffa,

"Don't worry too much because in

my

bell

hip pocket.

— came

in

One of my

and took care of

I

have the colored male juryman

colored business agents it."

— Camp-

Partin also testified that,

some

two weeks earlier in Nashville, Ewing King had told him that he knew a highway patrolman whose wife was on the jury: King was

Chapter 12

296

going to try to get the patrolman to talk to could sway her toward Mr. Hoffa." directly implicated

me

keeps telling

him.

He

And even

Hoffa by quoting the

wife "to see

his

he

if

here, the Louisianan

latter as saying,

"King

he can get to the patrolman, but he doesn't get to

keeps fumbling around." 6

As harmful

as this presentation

was

to the defense,

been planned by the Justice Department without Partin, as

a

it

had not

major misgiving:

Hoffa attorney Schiffer had pointed out

in the previous

Judge Wilson, was himself not exactly

day's private session with saintly.

In addition to the

and

falsification

nized, the

1962 indictment for misuse of union funds

of records

that Schiffer

man from Baton Rouge had

had not

pass unrecog-

let

over the past twenty years

been convicted of breaking and entering, received

bad conduct

a

discharge from the U.S. Marines, and been indicted for rape, forg-

When

he had contacted the Jus-

ery,

and first-degree manslaughter.

tice

Department's Grimsley, indeed, he had done so from

Rouge prison

cell that

was serving

as his

a

Baton

home away from home

in

the aftermath of an ultimately dismissed kidnapping charge that

had been lodged against him. The FBI, not believing him to be

work with him (although Sheridan had not shared such suspicion and had drawn heavily on his trustworthy, had not wanted to

services).

One of the few that the defense

entirely predictable happenings of this trial

would pounce upon

unsavory record

this

was

in the

cross-examination to raise doubts about Partin's credibility. Partin's story to the Justice

tacting trial

it

was

in the first place,

to start,

grounds of

Department

some

three

He had done

believability.

actually not been

some time before

he was con-

weeks before the Nashville

this request

so,

he

said, in

after the trial,

asked him to help assassinate Robert

in

why

moreover, was also open to some questioning on

would, of course, be probed long

He had

as to

F.

words

that

because Hoffa had

Kennedy.

happy with

his general president for

was made of him

at the

IBT Building

Washington, Partin had told Grimsley and Sheridan. Hoffa had

become too much of a power-hungry had been willing to suffer

murder had been made declared: breaking

dictator for his tastes.

to him.

Now,

he had no choice, he had

and entering was one thing; the

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

But he

in silence until the overture to join in the

End of an Era

killing

of the

297

was something

attorney general of the United States

would be

than

less

And even

man

a

himself, he did not

account

if this

the unvarnished truth

without any request for

if,

a favor for

knew.

the authorities everything that he

tell

— which Partin had professed

and on which he had passed

He

else again.

to be

a lie detector test

— did

administered to

him

strike the jury as

being sufficiently farfetched as to detract consider-

(at

Sheridan's orders) by the FBI

from the Baton Rouge Teamster's

ably

problem. The assassination

lated

construed

anyhow

to a

was

credibility, there

irrelevant as

talk,

jury-tampering

might

trial,

not

a re-

might be

it

be inter-

also

The

preted as inflammatory and prejudicial to Hoffa's rights.

de-

fense could be confidently expected to probe Partin's motives for

Kennedy

entering the scene and thus to try to delve into this Robert

But the prosecution recognized

matter.

treated with

For

when

all

extreme delicacy or of

Partin

this,

that the topic

on February

conviction of their primary target was well within reach.

they alone in their opinion.

One of

Hoffa's lawyers

Sheridan in the hallway and said, "I have seen

my

be

to

the prosecution forces believed strongly that

the stand at the close of court

left

had

could backfire.

it

time but that was the greatest coup

I

some

a

5,

Nor were

came up

to

great coups in

have ever seen."

7

And

the general president himself not only unleashed an avalanche of

profanity at an assistant outside the courtroom but

have picked up it

a

heavy desk chair

in the defense

was reported

room and

to

hurled

several yards.

The expected counterattack on Hoffa's legal counsel, Chattanooga

Partin began the next day.

trial

lawyer Harry Berke, asked

questions about the various offenses that the witness had been

charged with

knew of

I

my

— not

would

past.

I

tell

of which Partin claimed to remember ("If

have lived

his earlier years

alive

all

you," he it

finally told Berke,

down").

and that he had received

Marine Corps.

He

he had been forced to

He

also

a

got Partin to admit that in steal

milk and food to stay

bad conduct discharge from the

informed the court

pending against Partin not only for stealing union and making

I

"I'm not ashamed

false entries in its

that charges

were

money from

books but

still

his local

for manslaughter

and leaving the scene of an automobile accident in which there had been

a fatality.

Certain of Berke's questions ("Weren't you charged

with the rape of

Chapter 12

a

colored

girl in

Mississippi in 1948?") brought

298

him

rebuke from Judge Wilson on the grounds that they

a stern

tended to "degrade" Partin with "unwarranted charges" (Berke replied that he trial

was merely trying

lawyer clearly was of the belief that

price to

memory), but the

to test Partin's

was

this

a

enough

small

pay for raising them.

Over

the next

month, the defense, both

in

cross-examination

of Partin himself and through the production of a host of witnesses

of its own, continued to give the government's witness considerable

He was described (by, among others, a Baton Rouge psychiatrist who had treated him in 1960) as neurotic. He was depicted as a narcotics addict who owned a kit containing needles and a syringe. He was characterized as a woman chaser. A negative attention.

dozen witnesses told the court that they would not believe what Partin said even under oath, and one of these, the Teamster's former secretary in

Baton Rouge, termed him "a professional

the end of the

trial,

himself described a Partin in

words

own

Near

defense, the artful Hoffa

1962 conversation that he had held with

late

certainly not calculated to help the latter: "I just

couldn't envision

asked

testifying in his

liar."

what

him whether

this

man was

talking about, and

or not he was physically

ill

finally

I

and whether he

should have some type of treatment because he was nervous, upset,

almost incoherent, talking about the 28 counts ranging

all

through

it all,

the

way from kidnapping

the prosecution

seemed

what the jury would decide

as

government does not contend

that

Justice

that he

now

8

had

And,

to be as optimistic as to

Hoffa had originally been. "The

Mr. Partin has

led a perfect life,"

Department attorney Neal declared, "The government does

contend that he

is

telling the truth."

The government's

uneasiness concerning what Partin might

say about the alleged Robert far

[sic]

to manslaughter."

more

the jury

Kennedy

assassination plot vanished

quickly. In a closed session with the parties

from which

was excluded, Judge Wilson disappointed the defense by was not germane to the current trial

ruling that talk of the plot

and consequently was not to be explored

in

any

detail.

The jury

subsequently learned only that Partin had originally talked with

Grimsley about "an assassination plot

John a lie

find

.

.

.

not involving President

Kennedy" and that he had thereupon been given and passed detector test on his version of this plot. The defense team could absolutely no Justice Department vulnerability in this. F.

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

End of an Era

299

Most of the Hoffa lawyers were convinced, however,

that get-

ting a mistrial declared for some reason constituted their only

February 5 testimony. And, with the stakes

after Partin's

point so high, they pushed for such an outcome,

grounds, no

even

on

several different

than they had in Nashville

— and with

less success.

They out

less fervently

hope

at this

repeatedly charged that the

illegal surveillance in

lawyers.

One

government was carrying

Chattanooga of the defendants and

their

such contention was accompanied by an affidavit

from Hoffa's professional wiretapper

friend,

Bernard Spindel, that

he had eavesdropped on coded conversations between FBI agents.

The charges invariably received a statement from Judge Wilson that he would hold a hearing on this matter only after the jury-tampering case had gone to the jury. (Such a hearing was held by the judge. In it, the government steadfastly denied all illegal surveillance, and Spindel took the Fifth

Amendment

the surveillance complaints

one point. Wilson ruled

that

were "utterly without merit" and

dis-

at

missed them.)

The defense

also claimed that the

had paid to date to Partin was law.

The prosecution

for Partin's expenses in

a

$900 that the government

witness fee in violation of federal

successfully argued that the

and therefore

legal (even

money was only

though

it

was paid

month to Partin's estranged wife and amount that he owed her under their separa-

disbursements of $300 per

constituted exactly the tion agreement).

And showing

three defense lawyers vociferously accused Wilson of bias against the defense. Jacques

the course of a series of outbursts,

allowing

M.

Schiffer contended, in

that the district

"drumhead court-martial" and had

a

judge was

indicated "time and

time again to the jury that the defense counsel are charlatans, that we're tricksters, that we're trying to fool the jury." Harvey

(whose

last

name Neal

Silets

regularly mispronounced, to Silets's obvious

discomfort) said that Wilson had displayed "prejudice against the defense."

And

Berke, following

a

reprimand from the judge for

having "willfully disregarded the court's instructions," argued that he had been thereby "unfairly chastised in the presence of the jury." Wilson, after refraining from replying to any of these accusations, finally

responded, "This court has absolutely no bias and prejudice

Chapter 12

300

against any of the defendants. for the court

throughout the

On March

The

attorneys have

made

it

difficult

trial."

1964, after deliberating for five hours and forty

4,

minutes, the Chattanooga jury found James R. Hoffa guilty on

two

counts of trying to fix the jury in his 1962 Nashville conspiracy trial. If

he received the

was pronounced

tence

maximum in a

penalty on each count

few days, he could go

when

sen-

to jail for ten

years.

Three of Hoffa's codefendants

— the

two Teamsters, Ewing uncle, Thomas Ewing

King and Larry Campbell, and Campbell's Parks

— were

man and

found guilty of obstructing

also

justice. Allen

Dorf-

Nicholas Tweel were acquitted.

Hoffa received the announcement of the jury foreman impasbut

sively,

one interested party could not

at least

emo-

restrain his

Walter Sheridan raced out of the courtroom upon hearing the

tions.

news and placed

form or another,

the telephone call that, in one

Robert Kennedy had been awaiting for seven years. Sheridan's

words

to his superior were,

responded to the

man whose

"We made

it!"

A

first

Kennedy

jubilant

input had been so vital to the convic-

"Nice work." 9

tion,

Outside the courtroom,

his

two

and Bar-

crestfallen children

was convalescing with Miami, and Hoffa would join her there immedi-

bara's husband, Robert, at his side (Josephine a heart

ailment in

had much

ately after the sentencing), the general president

to the spectators

He would,

can justice" and "a railroad job." the

money

to

who

and media representatives

of course, appeal. The whole

He

trial

was

to say

surrounded him. a "farce

pitied those

who

of Ameri-

"don't have

pay for an appeal." The jury had been intimidated by

being "locked up" in

a hotel

and allowed to speak to no one unless

they were accompanied by federal marshals. As for his leadership

of the world's largest union, he was hardly ready to be counted out:

"You

can rest assured of one thing.

Teamsters Union

is

behind Hoffa in

The

entire

his fight.

membership of the

The wages, working

conditions, health, the welfare and the pensions, the things

got for them. This

is

what they want, and

this is

why

we

have

they are

all

10 behind Hoffa in this."

Only time would tell how accurate the IBT chief executive was words. The general reaction was that no one would try

in these last

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

End of an Era

301

him

to oust

was by no means

Hoffa was, for the

a certainty:

now

long career,

in his

not until his appeal was decided, but

at present,

considered

by many of

this

time ever

first

enemies to be

his

vulnerable.

On March

12,

Judge Wilson, before announcing Hoffa's sen-

who

stood

of the jury

in this

tence, delivered an eloquent statement to the celebrity

and faced him: Mr. Hoffa, case

it is

clearly supported

is

more

is

it

by the evidence.

an alleged attempt

difficult

for the court

willful violation

court for sentencing

court for sentencing

soul

— and

certainly sentencing

perform

— most

You stand here nation.

this

to

you

his informa-

is

rights to

this

the most distressing duty

defendants that stand before this

have either violated the property

have violated the personal

of

had reported

to bribe a juror.

imagine under those circumstances a

to

You stand here convicted of seeking itself.

of the court that

of the law. Most defendants that stand before

that this court ever has to

uals or

verdict

the opinion

It is

after the trial judge

you did corruptly,

tion with regard to

Now,

of the court that the

of which you stand convicted, that you did knowingly and

those matters that

the opinion

rights

of other individ-

of other individuals.

corrupt the administration ofjustice

convicted of having tampered, really, with the very

You stand

here convicted of having struck at the

very foundation upon which everything else in this nation depends, the very basis of civilization

itself,

and

that

is

the administration

of justice,

because without a fair, proper and a lawful administration ofjustice, nothing else

would be possible

the administration

in this country, the administration

of business, the carrying on

of labor unions,

of occupations, the carrying

on of recreation, the administration of health services, everything that call civilization

we

depends ultimately upon the proper administration ofjustice

itself.

Now,

if a conviction

of such an offense were

to

type of conduct and this type of offense permitted the court,

it

would surely destroy

said this, the

to

this

pass without action by

this country more quickly and more surely

than any combination of any foreign foes that

Having

go unpunished and

we

could ever possibly have.

judge sentenced Hoffa

to eight years in

prison and a $10,000 fine. King, Campbell, and Parks got three years apiece.

And Hoffa

lawyer Schiffer,

who was

tempt of court (he had, according to Wilson,

Chapter 12

cited for con-

tried to prevent justice

302

and "degrade and debase" respect for the court during the

was given

who had

Hoffa,

when

the "evidence

Wilson

told

in his presentencing

calmly and coolly"

sifted

is

would be

innocence,

eligible

when asked

if

He

statement that

would prove

he

left

will take

I

my

his

his sentence for a

icily

now

responded,

he had any questions regarding the sentence,

derstand the sentence perfectly and bail,

it

under the terms of

parole after approximately thirty months.

$75,000

trial),

a sixty-day jail sentence.

un-

"I

appeals." Free on.

immediately for Florida with two items of no

small urgency, in addition to the filing of the appeals, on his agenda:

from

the rallying of sufficient support as to

thwart any danger of

the Teamster rank and

within the union

a revolt

file

claim of

(his

having the "entire membership" behind him notwithstanding, he

was quite unsure

as to

preparation for his sion funds.

His

trial

move was

would

union received

them

fight,

a

and

react)

27.

designed to shore up his membership sup-

two-page

letter

all

from

officers

and members of the

their general president assur-

He was just beginning to much for himself as for

"nothing has changed."

that

would now

Chicago on April

start in

Within days of the sentencing,

port.

ing

his constituents

on charges of fraudulently using union pen-

trial

The new

first

how

he asserted, and would do so not so

his union, for the

Jimmy

Chattanooga jury "did not return

Hoffa, private citizen:

it

a verdict against

returned a verdict against

Jimmy when

Hoffa, president of the Teamsters Union." "Until that day

Union

the Teamsters

lays

down

arms and reaches into your

its

pockets to pay for the price of peace," he continued, "the president

of this international union, whether he be Hoffa or someone the future, will

He

occupy

a precarious place in society,

else in

indeed."

11

expressed in this letter confidence that his conviction would

be reversed, by the Supreme Court

if

were necessary

it

far in the appellate process, because "the best legal

country are certain that the record

Chattanooga]

[in

to

minds is

would be

that

in the

filled

would reveal "the police error." He vendetta methods of the Justice Department" so that "this and his attorneys

spiracy to jail

go

with

and

state

foul con-

a labor leader will be reversed." In the meantime, he

as accessible to the

membership

"Whenever

possible,

finding out

what your problems

I

as

he always had been:

will be in the field talking

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

are.

End of an Era

.

.

.

with you

The open-door

.

.

.

policy in

303

will continue."

Washington headquarters

"your continuing support ...

in

He

asked in turn for

our efforts to secure

a better

of life for you and your family" and reminded the readers that have come quite

A

few days

a

way down

later,

12

that road thus far."

the general president

was

way "we

able to

announce

something more tangible. The fifteen-member general executive board of the union, holding

wood,

Florida,

its

regular quarterly meeting in Holly-

unanimously passed two resolutions. One of them

expressed "continuing faith" in and "continuing support" for James R. Hoffa, as well as the opinion that the Justice

Department had

"trampled on" Hoffa's "constitutional rights and

The other authorized tees

IBT members

rank-and-file

through which voluntary contributions to pay

legal bills

On

civil liberties."

to set

up commit-

their president's

could be made.

the surface, the second resolution,

by staunch Hoffa friend and northern

which was proposed

New Jersey

Teamster leader

Anthony Provenzano (presently appealing his extortion conviction), was unnecessary. Months earlier, the executive board had authorized Hoffa to pay his sizable legal

from the

$600,000 since 1961,

bills,

said to

have exceeded

international union treasury.

And

the

amendment adopted at the 1961 IBT convention had seemingly made even that move superfluous by sanctioning defense constitutional

expenses for union officers then. In solid reason for

counsel,

sters to trial

it

a

very

Provenzano's action: the union's respected general

Edward Bennett

considered

however, there was

fact,

illegal

Williams, had just warned Hoffa that he

under the Landrum-Griffin Act for the Team-

spend any union monies on either the upcoming Chicago

or the Chattanooga appeals process. Relations between Williams and Hoffa had been strained for

some time. Hoffa had wanted the lawyer who had done so well for him in the Cheasty bribery case to represent him in his subsequent court appearances. Williams had refused: personally defending a

man

accused of selling out the union

inconsistent with his

mandate

had asked Williams for

as

Teamster general counsel. Hoffa

his resignation;

take the issue to the executive board,

many

members was, he thought, Williams had threatened to

where he possibly had

friends as Hoffa. Lately the dispute

"Mexican standoff'

in the

words of one IBT

a

insider.

But Williams was not the only person holding the view

Chapter 12

as

was merely simmering,

that

304

paying Hoffa's defense fees with union funds was

Department of Labor

for the U.S.

illegal.

And,

also did.

Lawyers

in April 1964,

twelve dissident Philadelphia Teamsters announced that they would sue every executive board to recover the

payments

member

that

had already been made. Their attorney

members of

also advised the

not only to end the practice but

the board that they could be held

personally responsible for reimbursing the union if the courts ruled the

payments

prodded by

to be unlawful and,

this threat,

two board

members immediately asked IBT secretary-treasurer English make no more payments until the issue could be clarified. It

did not take long for English, a board

comply.

He

that the

Chicago

would most

suspended the payments, began.

And Hoffa

himself, to

on the exact date

ironically,

consequently faced what

be his most expensive and longest court case

likely

were

estimates

trial

member

to

that

it

might

last for

four months

— with

a definite

cash flow problem.

Not

that the politically astute general president could publicly

admit that he had suffered aged

a defeat

even in

this situation.

He encour-

his lieutenants to state that the decision to stop the disburse-

ments was entirely

his

own. He

also

announced

that he

would not

even, for the time being, tap the voluntary contributions sent to the

March Provenzano-

sponsored executive board resolution. These

latter contributions,

him by

the rank and

file

in the

wake of

had been somewhat disappointing.

which ranged from $1

to $100,

They nonetheless

totaled over $50,000

helpful to a

man

still

and could have been

strapped for funds, but Hoffa emphasized that he

would not "touch a penny" until the Internal Revenue Service had ruled on whether or not they were taxable. Instead, he said, he would dispose of some of his own stocks, bonds, and real estate to pay his present and upcoming legal bills.

Only long

list

James Haggerty of Michigan, from the had defended James R. Hoffa in prior court

elder statesman

of lawyers

who

proceedings, was with the Teamster leader as the pension fraud

opened

in

Chicago on April

unavailable or, in at least as their

former

27.

many

The other cases,

had

trial

attorneys were either

fallen

out of favor with

client.

With the conspicuous exception of Williams in far earlier days, Hoffa had generally not been happy with the performance of any

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

End of an Era

305

of his criminal lawyers for long. His original confidence in his Chat-

tanooga legal staff notwithstanding, his treatment of his attorneys

marked by angry outbursts during

there had been

and scathing dressings

down

back

the court recesses

many

tended

anyway, be-

to exercise a layman's cynicism about the profession

lieving that

He

the hotel at night.

at

lawyers were motivated by greed and that they

therefore prolonged the proceedings so as to increase their incomes.

worst suspicions

In Chattanooga, his

as to

what

all

the

money was

moments, he

financing had, he thought, been confirmed: in his free

had read the variety of often obscure legal cases that various professors and others had sent

him and

when

then,

he had ques-

tioned his legal staff about these cases, had frequently

from

stares

an attorney

his audiences in the process;

was often informed, "You son of

test

a bitch.

law-

drawn blank

who

failed the

You're not doing

your homework!"

He had

sometimes, too, whispered

in

anger to counsels whose

performance before the Chattanooga judge and jury did not come

up

to his

own

high standards, "Sit down!" or "Cut

several occasions,

when

it

out!"

On

the whispers were insufficiently audible to

achieve the desired result, he had handed the offending lawyers

same command

notes expressing the

represented gerty,

now by

in written

form.

He would

be

only two other lawyers in addition to Hag-

both experienced Chicagoans: Maurice Walsh and Daniel

Ahearn. In other details, though, history

The

fense objections and at

the Great Lakes

the length of the

from

As

a

in

spare, six

would tend

to repeat

itself.

federal judge, strong-willed Richard B. Austin, overruled de-

family

announced

would be locked up

that the jury

Naval Training Center and

closely guarded for

with each juror being permitted

trial,

member

a single visit

week and only one telephone call daily. defense table would have little space to

each

Chattanooga, the

with Hoffa's seven codefendants here being represented by

lawyers of their own. As in Nashville, the prosecution would

rely to

some

initially

would

large extent

on

facts that the

McClellan committee had

turned up. As in the jury-tampering

try to convict

trial,

Hoffa by linking him to the

mitted by other defendants: in this case, too, evidence to connect

The key man

Chapter 12

him

it

the

government

illegalities

had

com-

insufficient

by a more direct route. was Benjamin Dranow,

to the alleged crime

in the linkage attempt

306

the Hoffa friend

cuted

who was

currently serving federal terms not only

bankruptcy fraud that James Neal had successfully prose-

for the

him on but

income

also mail fraud,

tax evasion, and bail

jumping. Over the years, the McClellan committee had alleged,

his

path and Hoffa's had crossed frequently under highly questionable

Dranow

circumstances.

Thomas department

had,

store in

owned the John W. Minneapolis when Hoffa had reportfor example,

edly been instrumental in getting sion

Fund Teamster loan

it

a $1

million Central States Pen-

was near

despite the fact that the store

bankruptcy. According to Robert

F.

Kennedy, Hoffa and Dranow

had once spent $350,000 of Teamster monies to purchase twentysix

thousand Teamsters Union jackets to be given free of charge

to rank-and-file

IBT members in Detroit; Dranow had allegedly some $17,000 on the transaction. 13 And

received a commission of

now Dranow

stood accused of having helped Hoffa

bail

himself out

of Sun Valley, the Teamster-promoted Florida retirement

wake of its

nity, in the

sota retailer, the

wanted

financial collapse in 1958.

The former Minne-

government contended, had located people who

borrow from

to

commu-

the Central States Pension Fund, charged

the latter high finders' fees for the $20 million in loans that Hoffa

would ultimately engineer, and then diverted some the fee

money

to the

Sun Valley

some way

dants were accused of having in ture,

which the

Justice

creditors. All

$1 million of

of the other defen-

participated in this ven-

Department viewed

as

labyrinthine

a

exchange of checks to conceal an improper use of union funds.

At the core of the government's argument

that he

in obtaining loans

had used "misrepresentation, deceit and

from

ing himself from the secret interest.

tion put

was

on

case against Hoffa

Sun Valley

project in

which he had

artifice"

a

45 percent

the prosecu-

weeks of its presentation (which

by the introduction of tried, in

whom

114 witnesses

the stand during the ten

thousand documents)

the

the pension fund, with the goal of extricat-

And most of the

also highlighted

was

one way

a

mammoth

twenty

or another, to establish this

as fact.

One Hoffa the

whose testimony regarding both Dranow and government placed especially high hopes was Bal Har-

witness on

bour, Florida, real estate investor Stanton D. Sanson.

He

told the

court that after he had applied for a $2.5 million apartment house

mortgage loan from the Teamsters

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

in 1958,

End of an Era

he had been contacted

307

by Dranow,

who had

put

him in telephone touch with Hoffa. Hoffa would take over Sun Valley, he would

if he

had assured Sanson that

get not only the apartment house loan but sufficient funds to turn

Sun Valley project around. But Sanson had wanted no part of the retirement community and pulled out of all dealings with both men, he testified, after Dranow had asked him for a 10 percent the

commission, payable in cash, on the apartment house loan.

Another witness was potentially even more damaging to

Vaughn P. Connelly of Miami asserted Dranow and Calvin Kovens, another defendant in this Chicago

Hoffa. Real estate investor that

trial, got him a $3.3 million loan from the pension fund and then demanded that he pay them a $300,000 finders' fee, "under the table" and in cash. When Connelly was tardy in coming up with some of this fee, he said, Dranow told him that he was hopeful that no physical harm would come to him, but that "these boys play

rough" and

"Mr. Hoffa

that

money ]." Connelly

is

$100,000 in cash for the "boss,"

was hardly

a

raising hell [about not getting the

he

that

said

gave

subsequently

who was

Dranow

not further identified but

mystery.

Yet another key prosecution witness was Frederick Lowe, the son of the now-deceased former president of the Sun Valley land

development company, Henry Lower. Although Hoffa had denied having any ownership in Sun Valley to the McClellan committee

and stated to the to

buy

select

into the venture,

had found in

a

committeemen

Lowe

cookbook

in his father's

had only an option

that he

identified a

document

home)

that, the

claimed, proved that 45 percent of the development

being held in trust for Hoffa. "J.

R. Hoffa."

Some time

The paper was,

later in the trial,

expert testified that the signature

But Hoffa,

who had

was

entered this

(that

he said he

government

was

in actuality

indeed, signed

by

an FBI handwriting

Hoffa's. trial

expecting the worst, was

unexpectedly heartened as the parade of governmental witnesses continued, by the cynicism of Judge Austin himself regarding the prosecution's efforts. indicated that he

he

said.

several occasions, the outspoken jurist

less than overwhelmed by the prosThe government was simply not proving its

was something

ecution's performance. case,

On

Austin described the federal evidence

as

being both

contradictory and confusing, and once bluntly stated that the Justice

Department's case was

Chapter 12

"full

of holes."

On July

9,

he dismissed not

308

only seven out of the twenty-eight counts in the original indictment but

of the charges against one of the defendants (Herbert R.

all

Burris, a

New

York attorney whose accountant

remained on

father

because of insufficient evidence.

trial)

By

the

motions

same token, however, Judge Austin rejected a series of a newly optimistic defense that the twenty-

now made by

He

one other charges also be dismissed.

could not agree with the

defense position that the entire governmental case was based

on

drawn from conjecture and without foundation" and, two days of hearing these motions, ordered the attorneys for

"inference after

the defendants to start calling their witnesses immediately.

Austin also dashed defense hopes by refusing to admit evidence

Haggerty, Walsh, and Ahearn had counted on to bolster the

that

Hoffa position. The attorneys had planned to show the jury that the Central States Pension

Fund was

in solid financial shape,

been growing each year, and was paying it

ever had.

The judge decided not

to let

declared, with the trucking industry a year into this thing, it's

bound

its

beneficiaries

them because,

had

more than

as

he tersely

employers "putting $58 million

to

grow," and

growth had

this

nothing to do with the case anyhow, in his opinion.

Dranow was

not impressive on the stand. His prison pallor and unkempt appearance vividly symbolized how far he had descended from his halcyon days as a financial wheeler and dealer. They also bore mute testimony to the fact that he was even now a generally

jailhouse resident.

And

he tended to rant and rave

as a witness,

once announcing that he was being intimidated by the presence of

governmental agents sage

—

that he

much of

tent,

in the

courtroom. Although

was innocent of everything his other

preoccupied and

ill

— was

testimony was not.

at ease.

At

mes-

times consis-

He seemed

confused,

several points, he punctuated his

answers with long silences while he swallowed the prosecution

his basic

at all

pills,

warned the judge was designed to

an action that

let

him

so that he could not be cross-examined ("as he did at his

collapse trial in

Minneapolis"). Hoffa, on the other hand, registered his typical facile perfor-

mance.

when

He

stressed to the court

indicted

more than

what he had

thirteen

of the sixteen pension fund

months

trustees,

than any one of his fifteen colleagues.

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

End of an Era

originally

earlier:

he was only one

with no more or

He

emphasized

insisted that

less

authority

he had always

309

good

acted in

faith in

performing

his duties as trustee.

denied that he had ever used his position as

IBT

He

firmly

president to induce

the other trustees to approve loans to his fellow defendants or any-

one

He had had

else,

neither anything to do with the alleged kick-

backs from the loan recipients nor any knowledge about these

kickbacks and nothing whatsoever to do with the preparation of loan applications for his codefendants, he said.

As

for the "J. R.

had found signature,

standing. legal

cookbook

in the

in his father's

home,

Lowe

was not

it

his

the testimony of the FBI handwriting expert notwith-

He

always used the

When

documents.

produced

Hoffa" signature on the document that

a

fuller

"James R. Hoffa"

in signing

prosecutor William O. Bittman thereupon

copy of an apartment

lease

agreement between Hoffa

and codefendant Kovens and got Hoffa to acknowledge that the "J.

R. Hoffa"

on

was indeed

it

dent insisted that

it

was not

his

own

signature, the general presi-

document.

a legal

In his five-and-one-half-hour closing argument,

trayed Hoffa as a

Bittman por-

man who had "betrayed his responsibility" to the He did have the 45 percent secret interest in Sun

Teamsters Union.

Valley, the thirty-two-year-old Assistant District Attorney con-

tended, and to recover the $400,000 of Teamster monies that he had

placed in a Florida bank as security for

Sun Valley, he violated

fiduciary obligation to protect the pension fund

his

by fraudulently

obtaining loan approvals for his coconspirators. Bittman pointed

out that of the 114 governmental witnesses, not one had been convicted of a crime, whereas

Dranow was now

in prison for four

of

them, and he suggested to the jury that deciding whose position

was more

credible

was hardly

a difficult

assignment.

And Dranow,

he asserted, had been in complete cahoots with Hoffa and the other defendants: the seven his

gang look

On

the

like

men on

trial

made,

in fact, "Jesse

James and

purse snatchers."

humid afternoon of July

26, 1964, after seventeen

one-half hours of deliberation and 441 ballots, the eight four

women who

had been sequestered since

late

and

men and

April convicted

Hoffa on one count of conspiracy and three counts of mail and wire fraud.

Hoffa was acquitted on the seventeen remaining counts. Each

his six

codefendants was found guilty on the conspiracy count

Chapter 12

310

of

and

one other count, with Dranow being convicted on

at least

of four counts.

total

The

general president

would not

time for three weeks, but he

now

learn his exact penalty this

could be sentenced to

maximum

next twenty-eight years. If he received the

of the four Chicago counts,

for each

the

jail for

punishment

would

his obligation

total

twenty years on top of the eight years that he had been awarded Chattanooga.

He

—

Appeals would be made of

was taken by tic

clearly the least as

soon

jury-tampering conviction.

his

that the

for the

making

also faced $13,000 in fines,

1964 fine total $23,000

tial

surprise

by

of

Hoffa's legal team, which

his guilty verdict,

was guardedly optimis-

Chicago decision would ultimately be overturned. But

Teamster chieftain to escape

could

still

not one but

jail at this point,

and privately

to be reversed,

almost definitely stay on

as

this regard.

Teamster president

pending the appellate process, which might drag on for years.

Not one of his

fourteen colleagues on the

influence remained such that almost

much

as

IBT

board had the individual clout to dislodge him, and

A

poten-

his worries.

Hoffa recognized that the odds were against him in

He

new

his

in

as possible, just as in the case

And

two convictions would of course have

two

a

as

executive

his internal

no one was willing

to try.

conspicuous exception was Vice-President John B. Backhus of

who was now publicly calling for his resignation bemuch damage to the union's reputation," but while undoubtedly reflecting the private views of many

Philadelphia,

cause "he's done too

Backhus,

other executive board members, seemed to be standing alone. if the

Even

board did muster the ten votes that would be needed to oust

the twice-convicted chief executive,

moreover, Hoffa could

still

under the union's constitution appeal the action to the next Teamster

convention, which would not be held until 1966.

There was

essentially

nothing beyond

this single

consideration, however, to cheer Hoffa up now. In it was him by

unionist recognized that

would

be filed against

Hoffa Squad had

still

entirely possible that

new

charges

The Get and it would

the Justice Department.

only tentatively gotten Hoffa,

presumably continue to pull out

comforting

fact, the realistic

all

the stops that

it

could until

its

quarry was actually behind bars. Attorney General Kennedy was said to be seriously thinking

of bringing him to

old charge of accepting illegal payments

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

End of an Era

trial

again on the

from Commercial

Carriers,

311

had led

Inc. that

to the

him

was

a

fine-tooth

New

for allegedly trying to bribe an official of the National

Labor Relations Board. Service

Rumors were circuOrleans would soon be

in Nashville.

grand jury in

lating that a federal

indicting

hung jury

was known

It

continuing to

go over

comb. And he

now might

need

452 Philadelphia-area Teamster rank and

Chicago conviction, had thousands of

filed suit to

dollars already paid

defend Hoffa and other

IBT

Revenue

that the Internal

with

his old federal tax returns

money more on the

filers,

recover

from

the

all

than ever:

heels of the

of the hundreds of

Teamster treasury to

officials. In a career

marked by personal

problems, Hoffa had never before had to contend simultaneously

with

many.

as

At

least

Judge Austin's exact sentence for Hoffa, when

announced on August

17,

was

have been meted out by the

from the

maximum

The head of

jurist.

on each of the four counts,

five years in prison fine,

far

IBT

the

it

was

that could

received

as well as a

$10,000

but Austin mandated that the four terms would run concur-

rently.

Hoffa would also be

eligible for

probation

at the discretion

of the federal parole authorities and consequently could, leaving aside his appealed eight-year jury-tampering penalty, be out of jail in

perhaps as

little as

two

There was no doubt

was the

years.

mind, however, that prison

in the judge's

best-known labor

right place for America's

leader. In a

sentencing statement that was less elaborate than the one

Judge Wilson

five

months

Chattanooga but no

in

earlier

graphic, Austin asserted, "This court

one

is

sound of the clanging jailhouse door has defendant and the community. This but

it is

On

one

that

I

may

less

that believes that the

a salutary effect

on the

be an old fashioned idea,

hold."

Friday evening, October 22, 1965, a lavish $100-a-plate

testimonial dinner

was held

in the

ballroom of

Americana Hotel. The sixteen hundred rived in time to attend a preliminary

guests,

ribs

of beef (thick

cut) as their entree,

meal with baked Alaska and

New

York

most of

City's

whom

ar-

smorgasbord reception and

partake of an open bar, had a choice of rolled

prime

made by

petit fours.

filet

of salmon or

and could conclude the

They

also received a

copy

of an ornate printed program, whose gold-lettered cover announced

Chapter 12

312

the

name of the person who was being honored by

the affair:

James

R. Hoffa.

The

speakers were anything but sparing in their praise of the

general president. Cecil B. ation for the ter, after

said

city,

Advancement of Colored People's

Philadelphia chap-

lauding Hoffa for what he had done to help blacks in that

of the honoree, "He's just about

like Jesus Christ

Bobby Kennedy was on one

died on the Cross. ers

Moore, president of the National Associ-

from the teamsters

Flynn, director of the

who

some informon the other." Dinner chairman Thomas E. Eastern Conference of Teamsters, made a side,

similar analogy: "He's been crucified. His troubles are nothing but a J.

New

vendetta from top to bottom."

O'Rourke, intending

also to

pay

York Teamster

leader

John

high compliment, told the

a

IBT had grown enormously "because General President James Hoffa is somewhat of a business agent." 14 Tony Provenzano extolled the virtues of his friend. And a delighted Hoffa, for whom the thirteen-piece band played "Hey, Look Me enthusiastic

Over"

as

crowd

that the

he walked to his seat

at

the head table, received both a

lengthy standing ovation and the $150,000 proceeds of the dinner

(some of the guests had received complimentary

O'Rourke,

in presenting his

union president with the money,

had announced that Hoffa could use a gift to

however,

some as to

tickets).

it

charitable institution."

15

as

he wished, "perhaps

There was

where the money would

little

actually go.

If,

as

question, in happier

times less than ten years earlier, the proceeds of another Hoffa

testi-

monial dinner had helped to build the James R. Hoffa Children's

Home

of Jerusalem,

time charity would begin

this

home. The

at

$150,000 would go to Hoffa himself, to finance his mounting legal expenses.

The union dinners to help after its

had, in its

recent

president out.

A

weeks scheduled

several such

Detroit dinner was canceled

sponsors decided that they could not, under the Taft-

Hartley Act, take sters

fact, in

money from employers with whom

the

Team-

had labor contracts, but Hoffa subscription dinners were

planned for Chicago, San Francisco, and two or three other large cities.

The

several

hundreds of thousands of dollars that were con-

templated would go

a

long

way toward

getting Hoffa out of the

bind in which the continuing unavailability of the his legal defense projects

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

had placed him.

End of an Era

IBT

He was

treasury to

currently, he

313

ongoing appeals by the not altogether

freely said,

paying for

satisfactory

method of personally borrowing

So

far,

his

the

money.

these appeals had not been going well for him. Three

new jury-tampering trial had been quickly denied by One of these had been based partly on the testimony of bellhops that they had seen "a lot of drinking going on" among the jurors in Chattanooga. A second new trial request had featured a requests for a the courts.

Hoffa charge that the government had planted of one of his lawyers.

ment had provided

A

a

spy in the offices

third contended not only that the govern-

prostitutes for

some of the Chattanooga jurors

but that Judge Wilson had told one of these prostitutes that he was

going to "get" Hoffa (Wilson, in

a bristling,

had denied the hooker's affidavit as

a

and fraud"). Circuit

And

unanimous

recently, in a

ten-page statement,

"complete and

total fabrication

decision, the U.S. Sixth

Court of Appeals had affirmed the jury-tampering sentence: announcing

the three appellate judges here, stated that they

their opinion,

had

flatly

had found no errors affecting Hoffa's "substantial

rights."

The U.S. Supreme Court now remained the Teamster president's sole realistic hope for reversing this first of his two convictions. If the High Court declined to review the Sixth Circuit Court action, as was expected, only the quite unlikely granting to Hoffa of a rehearing on grounds more convincing to the judiciary than the ones already offered would keep him out of jail. Meanwhile, the appeal in his fraud case remained pending at the circuit court of

appeals level.

His notoriety was not proving to be good for Teamster business, either.

There had been some recruitment of new members,

about twenty-five thousand of them over the past year. But the international

was

at this

on organizing, and

was not

point spending almost S3 million annually

in the light

of

this hefty

investment the payoff

Some of the lack of success,

especially impressive.

certainly,

could be attributed to the handbills and other communications from target employers,

reminding

their

workers that Hoffa "faces

teen years behind prison walls" and asking,

your

fate in the

Worst of all the union

hands of people for Hoffa, he

by many IBT

"Do you want

thir-

to put

like this?"

was already being written off within

officials.

The executive board had

officially

(and sincerely) pledged that he could keep his presidency until such

Chapter 12

314

time

as all

of his appeals were exhausted. But

this

process was

now

expected to terminate reasonably soon in imprisonment for Hoffa,

and behind-the-scenes jockeying for rassingly

his

job had become embar-

Western Conference leader Einar

visible.

Mohn was

openly campaigning for the presidency "should Jim be unavailable," and supporters of Vice-President

Harold Gibbons were ag-

gressively trying to advance the prospects of their

man, on the same

not-so-subtle basis.

The paeans of praise at the Americana Hotel notwithstanding, a man on the rocks. He would continue to occupy such a precarious position unless his convictions both of them Hoffa was clearly

—

were reversed, and no new ones were forthcoming.

He

some sort of reprieve on January 31, 1966, however, when the Supreme Court unexpectedly did agree to review his jurytampering conviction. It would be only a limited review, confined strictly to determining whether or not Edward Partin's testimony should have been admitted in evidence, and would not delve into got

any of the twenty other points that the general president and lawyers had requested the justices to ponder. But

gave the Hoffa camp to the

new

it

his

nonetheless

hope. If the High Court could be swayed

Hoffa position that the presence of the governmentally-paid-

Amendment

and-placed informer Partin violated Hoffa's Fourth

protection against unreasonable search and seizure, and/or Fifth

Amendment Amendment home free. And,

privilege

very

at the

something that prior expect

at least until

the

He would and

reporters,

Gibbons

now

and/or

Sixth

virtually guaranteed

January 31 he was not

to

really entitled to

IBT presidency at the union's upcomMiami Beach in July. It would presumably take

fall

the

for the

Court case

to be decided.

certainly run for reelection, he immediately told

—

in

language clearly meant to abort any

boomlets — he

He

self-incrimination,

Hoffa was

least,

at all: reelection to

ing convention at

tion."

against

guarantee to the right to counsel, Hoffa could be

said that he did not "expect

also hinted broadly that he

would

Mohn

or

any opposi-

ask the convention to

change the union's bylaws so that he could personally name an acting president should he be jailed.

That he would get whatever he requested of the Miami dele-

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

End of an Era

315

gates

was

He had

foregone conclusion.

a

derived considerable pride,

when

during the dark days in both Nashville and Chattanooga, truck drivers had pulled up to

and

him

as

he walked

"Hi, Jimmy. We're with you

yelled,

of their vehicles. There had been

all

the

many such

down

the street

way" from

the cabs

occasions, and he had

taken the frequency as a solid barometer of his popularity just as he did

now when

big tractor-trailers pulled up in front of the marble

Washington and

palace in

their drivers, invariably

pointment, asked the receptionist

made himself available.

without an ap-

they could personally convey

when he was

wishes to the general president;

their best

always

if

in

town, he

All of his troubles notwithstanding,

he continued to receive enthusiastic support from his Teamsters. In

no

1966, his

less

than in previous years, the hold that he exercised over

immense union was

all

but

When

total.

he was almost anyplace

within the domain of the 1.6-million-member labor organization,

among

he was

rabid partisans.

Equally notable was the almost total absence of membership imft'-Hoffa sentiment, a continuing source

A

president.

who

leader

of satisfaction to the IBT

Midwestern building and construction trades labor

over his long career met

literally

thousands of Hoffa's

constituents recently observed, "I never heard a rank and

by many other disinterested viewers.

Other

might

leaders

find

awkward

it

obliquely, their legal problems. Hoffa

he could flaunt

his, as

of his membership, "I

Team-

anything bad about Jimmy," and these words could be

ster say

restated

file

a

was so

to

trial.

...

week

after the

politically secure that

Supreme Court announcement:

[but]

I

.

.

.

[or the] long,

that goes

with

anxious hours that go with

have lived that road with

I

even

he did in Detroit, to the thunderous applause

hope you never experience the turmoil, the torture

an indictment

discuss,

my

a

family for nine long years

would not surrender. We will continue the fight, continue no matter how bad it becomes." 16

the struggle ...

He

decided not even to wait for the July 4 opening of the

convention to endorse the person vacated the presidency. for the

new

which

his

office

On May 3,

who would

succeed

him

if

he

he announced that his preference

of general vice-president, the mechanism through

hand-picked successor would ascend to the top job, was

an old friend: Frank E. Fitzsimmons, Detroit Local 299 vice-president and (since 1961,

Chapter 12

when Hoffa

elevated

him

to an international

316

vice-presidency

upon

Owen

Bert Brennan's death) one of the thir-

teen international vice-presidents as well.

He ding

could have

made

more popular

a

choice.

A

bland and plod-

Fitzsimmons had for years been regarded

if affable lieutenant,

who saw him in action either in Detroit or at executive board meetings as a man who held his jobs solely because of his close relationship to Hoffa. When in Hoffa's presence, he was seen as very much of a gofer, an "errand boy for Jimmy" (as many by those

observers described him). His most significant contributions to a

meeting were typically the pouring of coffee and the distribution of

He would

sandwiches to those in attendance.

won

quite probably have

of all executive board members"

a contest for "least respected

down if such a competition had been conducted. When operating on his own, Fitzsimmons was even

hands

A

pressive.

"unbelievably stupid.

.

.

.

and

my

interviewing

when he

11 a.m.,

ate

as

hidden in an alligator skin

cigarettes

him

in his office

bon-bons

in

my

me

of whiskey without offering

glass

im-

My strongest memories of him are of his

smoking non-union Camel case,

less

prominent Detroit newspaperman remembers him

face

one morning

about

at

and poured himself

anything.

I

don't think

I

got

one page's worth of usable notes from the whole interview." As speaker, Hoffa's heir apparent

was

also,

plete bust: he could, as a

member of

"empty

flat,"

such

a hall in

less

nothing

almost invariably,

his

exception only of

and he tended to be described

total,

Even Gibbons,

as

that

more than com-

there

whom

this

was probably no one could be said

the eleven other board

fully centralized if they

much

But there was no

of any single board

allegiance

situations.

members would disavow

Hoffa's

from

his

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

saw

in a

as a better alternative

better alternative: considerations

of Hoffa's huge popularity with their inability

all

and highly personalized system of governance

could, in favor of what they

for themselves.

at this

of November 22, 1963, could no longer be

counted upon to support the general president in

second

in

unquestioning loyalty. With the

Tony Provenzano,

on the executive board of

Many of

com-

union once said of him,

But Fitzsimmons offered Hoffa something

point.

a

than flattering terms as "tangle-tongued."

pensated for his weaknesses:

else

a

a

member

own

constituents and the

except Hoffa to

command

board colleagues would have made such

End of an

Em

317

a

disavowal of the general president foolhardy,

of the executive

as all

board members fully recognized.

With Fitzsimmons,

it

was

a different story.

The devoted

warm

could be relied upon to keep the presidential seat fellow Detroiter should Hoffa go to jail.

Even

better, his

Fitz

for his

compliant

personality might actually allow Hoffa to run the Teamsters himself

from prison through

a

messenger system. Such an absentee manage-

ment would not be unprecedented,

either, as

Hoffa well recognized:

Joey Fay of the Operating Engineers continued to lead

as the

Jameses could report

Hoffa's idols

make

.

.

.

crucial decisions

Hoffa

command

more union funds workers every

union

1965 book, Fay was "one of

in their

Hoffa enjoys pointing out that Fay continued to

from

prison, and clearly conceives of this as

well."

a possibility for himself, as a

his

he went to Sing Sing for extortion in 1947; and,

unofficially after

to

17

Fitzsimmons would carry out

award an employer economic

relief or

pour

into the organization of agricultural processing

he had implemented the coffee

bit as faithfully as

and sandwich orders. Hoffa did not publicly admit that he harbored these thoughts, of course.

On

the contrary, he insisted to the media people

him hard on this plan for a Fitzsimmons would not be a "fill-in"

pressed

president

becomes

president, he

—

least

latter vice-presidents

shelved their

initial

at all:

"When

becomes president

words fooled absolutely no one Both of the

who

caretaker administration that

of

all

the general vice in fact."

But the

Gibbons and Mohn.

quickly recognized reality and

intentions of challenging Fitzsimmons at the

convention for the general vice-presidency. Both would have beaten the Local 299 vice-persident handily in a race pitting their delegate

support against that of Hoffa's gofer. But neither of them, nor

anyone

else,

could expect remotely to prevent Hoffa himself from

getting everything that he

Two

Teamster included

—

"The most amazing

wanted at

— Fitzsimmons

as the

Number

Miami Beach.

fact

about the whole convention," was,

indeed, as Time magazine's correspondent at the Florida July 1966

gathering put

"that

it,

to exert his iron

July opening session

introduced

Chapter 12

him

as

Jimmy Hoffa

continued, despite everything,

hold on the Teamsters." 18

moment

From

that Vice-President

the Fourth of

Murray Miller

"the greatest Yankee Doodle of them

all," to the

318

banging of the closing gavel four days

two thousand

later,

Hoffa dominated the

delegates as completely as he had, in this

same

city,

in 1961.

He was

Testimonials to his hold on his audience abounded.

him

likened to Jesus this time, but one speaker described

as the

not

most

important American since George Washington. Secretary-treasurer

John English received almost deafening foot-stomping applause

when he

said

of Hoffa, "He says he's not guilty and

guilty and the executive

may, we don't

care.

The

board says he's not hell

I

guilty.

say he's not.

Come

what

with everybody!" Sales of a recorded

song called "Hoffa's Blues" in the lobby outside the convention

were

brisk.

And

a

hall

sandwich named "The Jimmy Hoffa," consisting

of roast beef, mustard, sauerkraut, chopped olives, and swiss cheese

was

demand

also in considerable

(although here

it

is

of

possible,

course, that people simply preferred the ingredients in this offering

few other sandwich

to those in the relatively

"The Edward Grady

they might even have devoured

were on the menu and

The

feistiness that

appeal to the

"To

hell

and

Partin"

that if

it

sufficiently attractive).

had always been so much

membership was no

a part

evidence

less in

with our enemies," he shouted in

a

of Hoffa's

this time, either.

keynote address that

who were

attacked, in particular, "stupid reporters" lies

alternatives

writing

"filth,

and garbage" about the union. Looking directly into the press

section beside his rostrum, he thundered,

you write about

labor.

labor convention."

The

the filth

cover

a

You

"You

are overpaid for

shouldn't have the right to

delegates started to chant,

them out. The IBT chief executive was rewarded by more than

when he

"Throw a

chant

elaborated on these opinions about the fourth estate.

He

members of

the

got a standing ovation

when he

asserted that the

Teamsters Union, and not journalists, were the only ones qualified to

judge "whether or not

I

am

a fit

person to run

union." Whatever private thoughts official verdict in

this international

may have been

harbored, the

Hoffa's favor was unanimous.

And, speaking even more loudly than the words, were dozens of convention actions that gave the fiery Teamster leader absolutely everything that he had wanted. in the

He

United States received

got,

a

The most highly $25,000

raise,

with exactly one delegate being recorded

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

End of an Era

paid labor leader

to $100,000 a year. as

opposed

to the

319

move, convention approval

for the legal defense of union officials,

most obviously Hoffa himself (assuming that the pending suit being brought by the Philadelphia rank and filers was satisfactorily re-

An amendment

solved).

raising

minimum monthly membership

dues from $5 to $6 was overwhelmingly approved. Hoffa received

new

comprehensive terms.

He would

for negotiations

authority to establish local union contract

henceforth be allowed to determine the format

and to name whomever he wanted

to the

union

bargaining teams. And, to the surprise of no one, Frank E. Fitzsim-

mons was unanimously elected to him first in the line of succession.

No

the

new

position which placed

union president had ever been granted quite

duly constituted convention. If this was Hoffa's at least

going out

On

as

much by

hurrah, he

last

a

was

in style.

October

4,

Court of Appeals

in

by a two-to-one vote, Chicago upheld the Teamster 1966,

and conspiracy conviction.

It

the U.S. Circuit president's fraud

of

also sustained the convictions

Hoffa's codefendants in the case.

Writing the majority opinion, Judge

two defense contentions, ert F.

Kennedy, Democrat of New

getting a fair all

trial,

and

(2)

Ryan Duffy

rejected

adverse publicity and "public

that (1)

Kennedy (now Senator RobYork) had prevented Hoffa from

between Hoffa and Robert

clashes"

F.

F.

the pension fund had lost

no money

at

on the loans involved.

"Whenever any person of prominence

is

charged with a

crime," the judge declared rather matter-of-factly, "the story usu-

wide distribution through various news media. The fact that a juror may have read newspaper accounts or heard comments on radio and television relative to a criminal charge is alone not sufficient ground for excusing a prospective juror." As for the no-loss-on-the-loans claim, "Due to the long-term nature of the loans and fact that subsequent loans were made to refinance earlier loans, it was impossible to ascertain with certainty whether ally will receive

.

or not a loss occurred. In any event, loss isn't

it is

an essential element of the crime."

In his dissent, trial

Judge Luther M. Swygert

his

two

colleagues.

stated that "a

number

errors independently require reversal of convictions of

Chapter 12

.

well established that actual

The minority of one was not happy with of

.

all

320

defendants." In Swygert's opinion, the prosecution's case "sustained neither a single

fund

as

scheme

to defraud the Teamsters pension

charged in the indictment, nor

a single overall

There was

to violate the mail fraud statute as alleged.

between the charges and the proof.

.

.

.

Much

evidence was submitted to the jury." In

conspiracy

a fatal variance

irrelevant prejudicial

fact, said

Swygert,

a

study

of the record convinced him that the prosecution had intentionally charged "a sprawling, amorphous scheme and conspiracy, in order

of

to allow the presentation

mass of immaterial,

a

prejudicial evi-

dence."

Within

a

month, an appeal of the appellate court verdict was

with the U.S. Supreme Court, which had recently heard oral

filed

arguments

in the

jury-tampering

on two grounds. One, Judge Swygert in

case.

essentially,

The new

appeal was based

was the reasoning

The

his dissenting opinion.

articulated

by

other one, which did

not lack for imagination, was a defense contention that the Justice

Department had improperly juggled the scheduling of Hoffa's fraud and conspiracy

trial

so that

it

took place

a

mere

six

weeks

after the

Teamster president had been convicted for jury tampering. The

on the prosecution's part

goal

in taking this latter action, the defense

argued, was to bias the Chicago jurors against Hoffa and

them more amenable

to convicting

him

a

second time.

And

make

this

was

of Hoffa's lawyers,

particularly unfair to the defendant, in the eyes

because the alleged pension fund incidents took place long before,

and not

were

after,

the jury-tampering activities. Therefore, if the Court

to overturn the jury-tampering conviction,

it

must

necessarily

reverse the fraud and conspiracy conviction.

The jury-tampering oral arguments that were presented to the Supreme Court on behalf of Hoffa by Joseph A. Fanelli, another

member of the seemingly

limitless stable

of Hoffa attorneys, were

heard by only seven of the nine justices. Justice Byron R. White had

had been Robert Kennedy's deputy

disqualified himself because he

attorney general in 1962; Justice

Abe

Fortas had

bowed

out because

his former law firm had once represented several Virginia Teamsters

in a suit against Hoffa.

who

sat in the filled

The remaining judges,

courtroom on October

like all other

people

13, listened to a dra-

matic presentation by Fanelli that focused exclusively, as the Court

had

earlier directed,

on the

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

issue

of whether or not Edward Grady

End of an Era

321

an informer had violated Hoffa's constitutional

role as

Partin's

rights to privacy

To

and counsel and against self-incrimination.

who began by

Fanelli,

pointing out that "the opening scene,

starting in late 1962, finds Partin in a Baton Rougejail facing charges

of kidnapping, manslaughter, embezzlement and forgery," there

was no question

that Partin's role

some

the attorney said with

Nashville

camp

paid agent,

as a

had done

a

The government,

"spy." In return for providing

on the IBT leader on an almost

reports

so.

passion, had planted Partin in Hoffa's

daily basis to the

Get Hoffa

Squad, Partin had been treated so leniently by the government that in the four years that

had

now

elapsed since he

first

volunteered to

spy on Hoffa, not one of the serious charges pending in 1962 had

been pressed. Hoffa was constitutionally entitled to protection from such treatment, and the fact that he did not receive

made

With equal

this

protection

of the process of justice.

a travesty

fervor, Assistant

Attorney General Fred M. Vinson,

Jr., asserted to the justices that the

government had throughout

merely taken "reasonable steps" to protect the integrity of the Nashville

to relay it

had been

jury. Partin, he declared,

any defense plans that he might

specifically instructed not

learn.

Moreover, he argued,

had been Hoffa himself who had originally invited Partin to come

to Nashville.

who

But many

left

summations of both

the

sides,

High Court building following

the

including Walter Sheridan and other

members of the Get Hoffa Squad, were by no means convinced at this point that the Justice Department's position would be sustained when the seven judges rendered their decision.

Nor

did those

who had

the oral arguments

been present

by any means stand

in the

courtroom

alone. Hoffa

now had

one but three hopes of reversing the Nashville conviction: jority of the justices rights alleged

by

his

found

that

to hear

if a

not

ma-

even one of the three constitutional

lawyers to have been violated by Partin's intru-

sion had been actually infringed upon, the head of the Teamsters

would

yet one

more time emerge from an indictment unscathed.

recognition of this

fact,

indeed, a

new

consensus seemed to be

emerging among Hoffa watchers, especially Hoffa watchers

were

also

M. Cipes in

members of the crisply put

November

Chapter 12

1966,

it

bar: as

who

former federal prosecutor Robert

in an article published in the Atlantic

"When

In

the appeal

is

Monthly

discussed in legal circles,

322

the usual question

members and

rank-and-file

how

not whether Hoffa will win, but

is

win." 19 Within the Teamsters Union, too, officers

a

he will

heavy majority of both

was convinced

that Hoffa's long

run of luck would continue and that the case would be dismissed.

The Supreme Court's announcement, on December

12, that

it

was affirming the jury-tampering conviction and eight-year prison sentence, consequently took tices

— Potter Stewart, Hugo

John M. Harlan

—joined

many

people by surprise. Four jus-

William J. Brennan,

L. Black,

Jr.,

and

by Stew-

in the majority opinion, written

held that Partin had entered the Hoffa hotel suite on Hoffa's

art. It

and that Hoffa had

invitation that Partin

would not

upon "misplaced confidence

relied

reveal his

wrongdoing." There was nothing

Constitution protecting people against such "misplaced con-

in the

fidence," the opinion added. Nor,

it

said,

was

employment

the legal

of informers anything new: "Courts have countenanced the use of informers from time immemorial."

Douglas and

Tom

Two

other justices, William O.

C. Clark, asserted that the Court lacked jurisdic-

making

tion to hear the Hoffa appeal in the first place,

Court members

who were opposed

a total

of six

Chattanooga

to reversing the

conviction.

lier,

Only Chief Justice Earl Warren dissented. Fourteen years earas Governor of California welcoming the Teamsters to their

international convention in Los Angeles, he

then, "not only tive

something great of itself, but splendidly representa-

of the entire labor movement." 20

did not

had been positively

of the IBT. The union was, he had declared

effusive in his praise

Now,

while he presumably

harbor the same thoughts about the Teamsters, he sided

still

with the present head of the organization in an opinion that made

up

vigor what

in

Here

the

it

lacked in colleague support:

government reaches

into the jailhouse to

employ a man who was

himself facing indictments far more serious (and later including one for perjury) than the one confronting the inform.

It

would

assisted

him

in the

in

but, rather, for the

to

he offered

.

of attorney and .

.

client

I cannot agree that

keeping with the standards ofjustice

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

End of an Era

in

engaged

to

something that

purpose of infiltration,

The government

future be committed.

of a criminal defense. in

whom

in its

to see if

zeal even

gaining a position from which he could be a witness

confidential relationship

is

against

employed him not for the purpose of testifying

had already happened, crimes

man

in the

what happened

to the

preparation in this case

our federal system.

323

Hoffa still would not go to jail immediately. Technical appeals would delay the event for several weeks and possibly months enough time, almost certainly, for him to participate in the national trucking contract negotiations that were scheduled to begin on January 17.

Some of

more rabid supporters even dared to hope would still be set aside on the grounds that the

his

that the conviction

government had used

wiretapping and eavesdropping devices

illegal

to gather evidence in the case: attorney

name of the "Friends of James announced

that a $100,000

ward with proof that

William E. Bufalino, in the

R. Hoffa Committee," immediately

reward awaited anyone

who came

for-

had happened, and the publisher of New

this

Hampshire's Manchester Union-Leader newspaper (perhaps not entirely coincidentally,

from the

the recipient of a $2 million loan

Fund eighteen months

Central States Pension

earlier) offered

an-

other $100,000. Others thought that the fertile collective imagina-

of the Teamsters Bar Association might find other ways of

tion

gaining for Hoffa yet one

more day

in court, possibly

through

a

rehearing of the key argument that Partin's testimony should never

have been admitted in the ren's

they took heart from Justice War-

words.

But such optimism

was

case:

unrealistic. Far

in the

more

Hoffa camp was

typical

now was the why

Local 299 truck driver who, explaining

as

uncommon

as

it

opinion of a Detroit he had joined

some

two thousand of his colleagues in staging a surprise sympathy "holiday" to protest the High Court decision, pointed out that the contract let

to

him

honor

even

a

take a day off for a funeral

man who was

"dying."

— privately — by Hoffa himself,

come to an end. The prosecutorial methods Teamsters

New

after so

many

years

— and

that

that this

was

a funeral,

was widely acknowledged,

It

that a long string

had

finally

had nailed the head of the

may have

been, as the editors of the

York Times (quoting Warren with approval) believed that they

were, "offensive to the

fair

administration of justice."

21

The Su-

preme Court's decision may have overlooked what Justice Douglas had called "the need to make as sure as it is humanly

in another case

possible that one after full

pursuit

is

convinced that in

whom

the

mob

and public passions are

treated fairly," as the editors of the Nation it

had.

22

And

Victor

S.

in

were quite

Navasky may well be

correct

arguing that there was something fundamentally improper about

Chapter 12

324

the creation of the Get Hoffa a

Squad

in the first place:

"There comes

point," he has contended, "at which the disproportionate alloca-

men, money and time moves from a matter of quantity to matter of quality, from prosecution to persecution." 23 Hoffa had,

tion of a

of course, frequently offered the same opinion,

if less articulately.

But a jury of his peers had found Hoffa guilty, and the appellate process had now been essentially exhausted. Even before any final

was rendered

judicial verdict

unknown

December door would

after

the jailhouse

in the

pension fund case, the only

1966,

12,

real

was the exact date on which

clang behind America's most powerful

labor leader.

was, nonetheless, business as usual as the triennial national

It

trucking negotiations opened in mid-January, in the ballroom of

Washington Hilton Hotel. One supremely self-confident figure thoroughly dominated both sides of the bargaining table. As a newsman who was present summarized the situation, the

Mr. Hoffa

told

the session

would proceed.

employer and union

He

officials

where they would

and how

read an 86-page document of master contract

proposals, identifying the specific problem each

He

sit

was designed

to

overcome.

chastised the operators for supposed shortcomings in treatment

ployees, calling each of the employers by their first

respond

man,"

questions (they called

to his

usually with a "sir").

names

of em-

as they stood to

him "Mr. Hoffa" and "Mr. Chair-

He further

sessions

would be conducted. Power was

knew

24

told

them how future bargaining

clearly talking

and

the employers

it.

At one

point, according to another report, Hoffa

the chief negotiator for the

wrong

it's

snapped

at

major employer group, "You are so

almost impossible to believe your statement." 25 At

junctures, he

made

it

clear that

he would accept

many no back talk. He

had already personally communicated with every employer of any size,

he

said,

companies

— increases of about — was eminently affordable by the

and what he was proposing

percent in each of the three years (after

5

being allowed to raise their rates by the Interstate

Commerce Commission) and

fair to

both

sides.

He would

never

consider a national strike, only selective ones against individual,

unnamed companies. But he be represented

at

insisted that

all

of the employer groups

the table: the fact that the major

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

End of an Era

employer associa-

325

tion

to exclude the others because the latter

wanted

seen as friendlier

to him and thus usable by him

groups were

in a "divide

and

conquer" strategy meant nothing to him. Everyone had come to

Washington

to negotiate a

Hoffa called

It

national contract

once), and only if

it

1964 agreement were effected.

new

was

a

all

life's

work,"

companies that had signed the

new one

parties to this

("my

could such a result be

performance that was both familiar and im-

pressive.

The employer representation issue was resolved after a oneweek deadlock. It was agreed that an "observer" representing the carriers outside the

major group could

sit

in

on the negotiations,

thereby allowing Hoffa both the leverage and the national coverage that he

had demanded. The "observer" was obligated to "speak

through" the major group, and the claim a victory of sorts, but

more

it

could consequently also

latter

was generally concluded

that,

one

time, Hoffa had gotten his way.

On

the other hand, the general president also received a rare

The major

rebuff in these negotiations.

tempted to take

its

industry group,

now

chances bargaining with the genial and low-

powered Fitzsimmons

rather than continue across the table

from

the increasingly abusive Hoffa, refused to join the union in a petition to the Justice

Department

negotiations were over.

Many

gaining session. the head

to delay Hoffa's

The

refusal

who were

people

present

Teamster thenceforth even more

he had been:

at

management

one point, the

level

imprisonment

was conveyed testy

at

felt

until the

an early barthat

it

made

and insulting than

of invective was such that the

negotiators walked out and did not return to the

table for several days.

But others

imminence of

strictly to the

attributed Hoffa's snappishness

his jailing,

with or without

a short

postponement.

The $200,000 reward aggregatively offered by the "Friends of James R. Hoffa Committee" and the Manchester Union-Leader did produce one

result.

Benjamin David (Bud) Nichols,

specialist in electronic gadgetry,

affidavit that

his

in an

trial

not only

lawyers but also on the jury members. At Sheri-

dan's instructions, he had, he said, placed four

Chapter 12

Tennessee

he had been paid $1,684 by the Get Hoffa Squad's

Walter Sheridan to eavesdrop during the Chattanooga

on Hoffa and

a

came forward and swore

microphone "bugs"

326

and tapped

Hotel rooms of the

six telephone lines in the Patten

Teamster president and

He

his attorneys.

also claimed that he

room

inserted tiny transmitters under the hotel

had

mattresses of the

sequestered jurors.

mid-February, Hoffa's lawyers, hoping for the

In

Nichols affidavit and illegal

best, sent the

of supplemental materials charging

a variety

governmental spying to the Supreme Court. Sheridan denied

much

everything, asserting that he had never so Solicitor General

Thurgood

wrote the Court

in a separate

as

met Nichols.

Marshall, on behalf of the prosecution,

memorandum

that a thorough, recent

review of the Hoffa case by the Justice Department had turned up

no support whatsoever for the Nichols

On

story.

February 27, the Court responded to the spying charge by

refusing,

without comment, to reconsider

Consistent with

its

normal practice

its

December

in such situations,

diately mailed this finding to the district court

originally rendered judgment in the case, Frank

now

Wilson would

tanooga.

judge

decision. it

imme-

who had

W. Wilson of Chat-

determine the exact schedule for

Hoffa's jailing.

While the Tennessee jurist was weighing these had an unexpected

visitor: the

logistics,

Hoffa

hot-headed and very tough leader of

whose hatred for both Kennedy was legendary. Chavez,

the Teamsters in Puerto Rico, Frank Chavez,

John

F.

Kennedy and Robert

in early 1964,

of the

had written

slain president that

F.

a letter to the grieving

was notable

for

its

younger brother

lack of subtlety:

Sir:

This

is

for your information.

The undersigned

is

going

to solicit

from

the

membership of our union

that

each one donate whatever they can afford to maintain, clean, beautify and

supply with flowers the grave of Lee Harvey Oswald.

You can

rest

assured contributions will be unanimous.

Sincerely,

Frank Chavez Teamsters Local 901

And

in the fall

26

of 1964 he had come to

intention of killing the

now-U.S.

New

Senatorial candidate Robert

nedy because of Kennedy's treatment of Hoffa.

Chattanooga, Chicago, and the

York City with

End of an Era

He had

the

Ken-

been talked

327

out of his homicidal plan on that occasion

minute by

at the last

friends.

On March

1,

Chavez resumed

1967, however,

arrived at the Teamsters Building in

manent bodyguards,

all

men armed

three

time, Hoffa himself aborted the

his effort

and

two

per-

Washington with with

pistols.

Chavez project

his

This second

— according

to an

informed report, by pleading with the Puerto Rican to "give that

goddamn gun

tion."

27

Chavez,

.

.

.

who was him

they never even asked to his superior

the last thing

we

need

so intimidating to to

and returned

pay

is

me

another investiga-

many merchants

that

weapon few months later,

his bills, did surrender the

to Puerto Rico.

A

he was shot to death by one of the two bodyguards under circumstances that have never been satisfactorily explained. (Hoffa's diate reaction to this to the John F.

Kennedy

news, he relayed take care of the

a

different

from

a

key aide to "go to Puerto Rico and

Chavez family.")

knew Jack Ruby,

It is

a further interesting

the

man who

killed

John

F.

Oswald

made two last attempts to imprisonment. They asked Judge Wilson filed additional

ostensibly be-

motions on Hoffa's

stave off their to extend bail

stay free almost indefinitely, since the

or less forever.

The lawyers

also

The judge

behalf.

refused, pointing out that if he acceded to this request,

that

footnote

Kennedy.

Hoffa's attorneys

while they

imme-

response

assassination: within minutes of hearing the

message to

cause of his intense admiration for

client's

his

Chavez, the avowed admirer of Lee Harvey Oswald,

to history that also

murder was very

Hoffa could

motions could be

made

the

filed

more

same request of Wilson

Hoffa had asked the trucking companies to join him in making

to the Justice jail until

in the

Department, that the labor leader not have to go to

the national negotiations

were concluded. Wilson

replied

negative here, too: he acknowledged that Hoffa had "large

responsibilities," but the greatest said the

man who had found

that

the very soul of this nation,"

of the defendant's

responsibilities,

Hoffa had "tampered,

was

his responsibility

really,

with

"unto the or-

derly process of justice."

Hoffa, Judge Wilson thereupon announced,

render to a U.S. marshal on at that

March

would have

to sur-

7 at 9 a.m., to be taken directly

point to a federal prison.

Chapter 12

328

NE

No. 33-298

13 At

on Tuesday, March

8:51 a.m.

and drizzly day tal in

7,

1967

— appropriately,

—Jimmy Hoffa got out of Courthouse

front of the U.S.

a black

gloomy

a

Lincoln Continen-

Washington, D.C.,

in

to be

taken into custody.

The

small, informal farewell dinners that he

hosted each night over the past

week

for old friends

Dorfmans, the Frank Fitzsimmonses, and others fas felt particularly close

— were now over.

riod of intense personal anguish. [Hoffa]

went

to jail

were

gonna

last

hellish," says a

with him constantly during

nervous breakdown.

"The

this time.

And

the

was

so

at

the

Allen

Hof-

a brief pe-

couple of weeks before staffer

"He was on

imminency of his

Hoffa arrived

— the

whom

He would lie on the floor and who thinks that he too

breakdown because of after

to

Teamster

go!' " (The staffer,

went home

and Josephine had

who was

the verge of a yell,

'I'm not

almost had

a

boss's imprisonment,

the Courthouse and stayed in bed

two weeks.) At 8:20 a.m. on March 7, the doorman at Hoffa's apartment house had telephoned up to the building's most famous resident with a warning and a suggestion. The warning was that a swarm of reporters was awaiting Hoffa in the lobby; the suggestion was that the Teamster leader avoid meeting these interviewers by leavfor

ing through a back entrance. But Hoffa had spurned this advice

with thanks: "No; they have an assignment to complete, the same as

me." And, holding the hand of his four-year-old granddaughter,

he had tearfully walked to the main elevator and downstairs to the interrogation.

down

he had turned

Similarly,

a

recommendation of

like

who had

Chuckie O'Brien and attorney Morris Shenker,

companied him

then ac-

had wanted to spare

to the federal building (he

his

wife and children the ordeal and had convinced them not to come). that he avoid the expected large

crowd of media

people there by going around to the back door.

And Hoffa had

They had urged

away

again, with characteristic fearlessness, declined: "I never ran

from anybody and son of

this

have

as

soon

job to do

a

wages, which

I'm gonna

.

he had

as

I

now told

had pressed

that

know you

all

hope you're getting paid union

most of you

if

he

his tan raincoat,

the automobile: "I

left

which

for

.

.

now. Drive

start

to the front door."

slumping under

doubt

I

if

microphone and camera holders

the assemblage of

on him

up

a bitch right

Instead, shoulders

in

be damned

I'll

You

are.

fellows with the

mikes, get up here." And, standing in the cold rain, he offered an impromptu farewell statement: "This is a very unhappy day in my life the Government has wire-tapped, room-bugged, surveilled and done everything unconstitutional it could do. They have .

.

.

.

temporarily been able to do so. ...

His voice quivering his

a bit,

hope

.

.

to be back."

he directed the

rest

of his remarks to

own members:

This will never be a weak union

none of the

legislators

for a living I

I

hope and

realize

it's

.

.

.

trust that those

.

remember

who have

all I

have

then,

faced building

this: .

.

.

None of the courts, who work

only you,

been a part of

not just Hoffa they are doing this

I urge everyone to

He

.

understand that.

they can do this to any citizen.

That's

.

understand your problems

.

.

to.

If they can do

this to

Hoffa

.

beware of the Constitutional to say,

this conspiracy will

gentlemen.

rights they are losing.

.

.

.

1

accompanied by four lawyers, entered the granite-

— the same one

that he

had been taken

to a decade

—

by FBI agents on the John Cye Cheasty bribery charge and shook hands with U.S. Marshal Luke C. Moore. Moore led the

earlier

attorneys and Hoffa, office to

Chapter 13

work out

now

officially in custody, into the marshal's

the final details for the incarceration.

330

Two

hours

glum-looking Hoffa raincoat

on

the massive steel garage door at the back of

later,

opened and

the building

a

dark blue Pontiac pulled out.

back

in the

somebody," Hoffa

Dillinger or hell

between two marshals

seat

his lap hiding the handcuffs

firmly chained to the floor ("As

they thought

I

on

his wrists

said later. "I don't

was gonna run

and

for Christ's sake,

if,

to").

bore

It

2

The

—

a

his

his legs

was John

I

know where

the

leader of the Teamsters

leaned forward in the vehicle and spat vehemently against a closed

window

at

now

Clark R. Mollenhoff,

Washington correspon-

the

dent for the Des Moines Register and Tribune, the same

Bobby Kennedy

decade earlier had convinced

Union was

a

man who

a

Teamsters

that the

quarry well worth pursuing and thus the person

who

had started the long progression of events that had led

to this day.

(Mollenhoff, a 1958 Pulitzer Prize winner,

by another

former Hoffa aide to have told the weren't for

Jimmy,

I'd

be out of

lead car in a caravan of several shals,

began

its

alleged

is

latter in the

And

a job.")

government

mid-1960s, "If

it

the Pontiac, as the

mar-

vehicles carrying

192-mile drive to the federal prison in Lewisburg,

Pennsylvania, where Hoffa

would

serve his prison term.

Ironically, this entire humiliation for

Hoffa

— the shackling and

chaining and the caravan, which he likened to a "capture scene from

Bonnie and Clyde"

— could have been avoided. As the IBT president

was informed by the

authorities only

when

it

was too

late,

he could

Lew-

quite legally have exercised an option of reporting directly to

isburg on his own. Instead, as his son has observed with no attempt to hide his bitterness,

"he became

a

In his first hours at the 943-acre

buildings

known

as the

media event."

complex of Italian Renaissance

Lewisburg Penitentiary, Hoffa was photo-

graphed, fingerprinted, issued

a

regulation blue

denim prison uni-

number 33-298 NE. Also in complete custom, he was told by the admissions office

form, and assigned the prison

keeping with prison

of the behavior expected of him:

"You

will

and neat and your bunk made each day.

.

keep your person clean .

.

You

will get along

with your fellow inmates and respond willingly and courteously to

any directions that will

may

conduct yourself

be given to you by staff members.

at all

times as

to take his place in the free

person." Following

No. 33-298

NE

this,

a

person

community

who

as a

.

.

.

You

sincerely wishes

morally responsible

he was stripped, run through

a

delousing

331

shower, and placed in isolation behind an iron door for twenty-four hours.

Hoffa's orientation schedule

at

the federal institution also con-

tained meetings with psychologists, the prison chaplain, the chief

And

correctional officer, and a variety of other staff specialists.

took

a battery

of intelligence and general aptitude

he

tests calling for

such feats as fitting blocks together and placing pegs in holes, challenges that presumably gave

Lewisburg,

him no

trouble.

"medium

a thirty-five-year-old

was by no means the

least desirable place to

four-man

could have been sent.

Its

tively cheerful dining

room. They could greet

inmates ate

security" prison,

at

NE

which No. 33-298

tables in a rela-

their visitors in a

comfortable area decorated with paintings done by fellow prisoners while sitting on brightly painted chairs and

modern

at attractive

After completing their daily job assignments (for which they

tables.

could earn as

much

as

$70 monthly), they could partake of

a

wide

choice of activities that included, in addition to television viewing

(with movies on weekends as well), baseball, volleyball, tennis, weightlifting, leathercraft, painting,

and academic

Or

classes.

they

could pursue a literary interest by drawing from the ample offerings

of the large Lewisburg library or follow

by participating

in the prison chapter

a

more civic-minded path

of the Junior Chamber of

Commerce.

By

other standards, too, the Lewisburg administration could

be judged as progressive. bilitation

It

coordinated a growing

programs, including one that allowed

prisoners at a time to

work

town of Lewisburg. Each

number of reha-

as

many

as thirty

in the small central Pennsylvania college cell

had radio earphones. The guards

walked around completely unarmed.

On

the other hand,

Lewisburg was both crowded and danger-

ous. Constructed early in the Depression to hold 1,050 prisoners, it

this

at

kinds

point

— double

bulged

lifers,

was

space for any purpose spread, as

were

with just under 2,000 people of

gunmen,

rapes,

at a

safecrackers, forgers, arsonists

all

— and

premium. Homosexuality was wide-

by both gangs and

individuals.

"No

one has

the foolhardiness to intercede in the rapes," Hoffa quickly observed,

"because then they, too, would be punished for fighting. So you just

sit

there or lay

on your bunk. Pretty soon the screams

are

over."

Chapter 13

332

The

maggot infested, was frequently inedible. Heroin and hashish, as well as most other kinds of drugs, were easily available, often brought in by the guards and sold to the inmates by them. Weapons were even more accessible, with the metal bunks that were furnished the prisoners providing all that was needed to fashion knives. ("And," as Hoffa was subsequently to food, sometimes

"you'd sure

say,

have

as hell better

a knife to protect yourself if

you're in your twenties because you're a prime target for rape.")

Four prisoners were

"shanked"

—

two

Hoffa's time there. There were

killed

with

knife

a

— during

doctors, neither available after

4 p.m., for the entire prison population. Hoffa's

cell,

was not one

too,

facilities, a

by one

wooden

chair,

and

living quarters that fronted

yard, the corridor

was

on

contained a cot,

a clothing locker that

But

move a

around.

it

toilet

was two

much more

One of

a

and

relatively light

feet

than

dozen such

long corridor opening into

windows made

actually for this reason

cells.

it

foot, leaving the energetic labor leader not

nine square feet in which to

Seven and one-

to cause envy.

half feet in width and about ten feet long,

a court-

airy,

and

it

one of the prison's more sought-after

to Hoffa, residing in

it

was tantamount

to "being buried

alive."

Nothing about Lewisburg, indeed, appealed

new

He saw

to Hoffa.

marked by "bad guards, bad food, and bad everything" and was to say of the fifty-eight months that he spent there, "I can tell you this on a stack of Bibles: prisons are archaic, brutal, unregenerative, overcrowded hell holes where the

his

address as a place

humane

inmates are treated like animals with absolutely not one

thought given to what they are going to do once

You're an animal in

a

they are released.

cage and you're treated like one."

3

To

old

associate Larry Steinberg, he confided, "I'd have been better off if I'd

killed

"Prison

is

somebody." One of hell

on

earth,

Little indignities

most of at

his adult life

only

his favorite expressions

hell couldn't

were constantly

be

this

on the man who

inflicted

had known none

at all.

side the

door of his

cell

he finally did manage to

ened by

a

No. 33-298

guard shining

NE

large.

often kept fall

A

for

For most of his time

Lewisburg, he had to wear shoes that did not

were both too long and too

became,

bad."

bright light

him awake

fit

and pants that

immediately out-

for hours,

and when

asleep, he could count on being reawak-

a flashlight in his face.

He

ultimately

wore

333

a special

snow from

eyeshade to keep the light out. In the winter,

the corridor

windows

regularly

blew into

his place

of confinement.

Prison officials frequently brought their friends to the Hoffa

simply to look it.

at

him, "as you'd look

caged lion,"

at a

as

cell

he put

His basic job assignment, unstuffing old mattresses and then

week, caused not only

restuffing them, for forty hours each

hands but

his

nose (from the

to bleed

lint)

his

on many occasions.

Consistent with prison policy, his anus was invariably inspected for

drugs before he was allowed to return from the visiting room.

Most of all, he missed its,

Despite his workaholic hab-

his family.

he had always prided himself on being

a

man

family

first

"and

jail

with

everything else second," and he surrounded himself in

photographs of Josephine, Barbara, Jim,

his

granddaughter Barbara

two boys, David and Geoffrey, both of whom wait to meet since they were born while he was

Jo Crancer, and Jim's he would have to in prison.

He was

particularly concerned about his frail wife,

who was

taking his confinement very badly, and invariably concluded his letters to

Barbara

—

living in St. Louis

— with

a

request to "keep in

touch with your mother." In the case of his lawyer son, the same desire

was made known

weekly from Detroit not (who, under prison

month) but

as

rules,

could

could

visit at all

and No. 33-298

member" could

still

headed

as

a

basically unlimited).

now

officially desig-

nated Chuckie O'Brien as his "foster son." If family

only see prisoners for three hours

member

so long as pending litiga-

visits,

For eminently practical reasons, Hoffa

the union that he

Lewisburg

no more than three hours

visit

an attorney (whose

to

of an immediate family

was the only topic discussed, were

tion

Jim came

in person, since in the role

members could

month, no other nonlawyers

a

NE

wanted

he could

get.

as

much

liaison

O'Brien

if a

with

"family

help as a courier, relaying messages to the interna-

tional headquarters.

He

could drive Josephine to Lewisburg once

month and perform other personal

services for the

a

man who had

raised him. After three decades, accordingly, Sylvia Pigano's son

was

finally

rules a

accorded an

official status

within the Hoffa family. The

of prison visitation simply made

it

unwise not

to

make such

move. Just before he

want you

Chapter 13

went

to prison, Hoffa

to forget about

had told

his family,

"I

me." But nothing now gave him more

334

happiness than Josephine's his pleasure

He would

or those of his children, although

was patently tinged with no small amount of shame.

not allow his daughter to bring Barbara Jo, even though

small children

when

visits

were permitted, and on the

the family visits

became very upset because he couldn't look For

few occasions

relative

were not made known

him

to

his best.

man whose superabundance of energy had

a

hour workdays, sometimes seven days

a

advance he

in

filled

twenty-

week, and taken him

all-

over the country without the need for any justification to others, the loss of

freedom was

also especially jarring.

"His frustration was

not on the physical side: he could handle that," his son has observed. "It

was on the mental

physically, too, the

a bird."

But

confinement had to be traumatic for Hoffa,

who

had rarely been able

side,

to

at

sit still

being caged up like

for

more than

a

few minutes

at a

time and whose nervous vitality had regularly found an outlet in

push-ups and other calisthenics, For

of

all

buoyed by an ever-present as

Teamster

as well as in sheer

Hoffa soon accepted

this,

leader.

belief that he

was

Officially he

work.

his fate philosophically,

would eventually

still

return

the general president,

although his $100,000 annual salary had ceased

when he went

hind bars (replaced, for the duration of his prison stay, by

a

be-

$48,000

annual living allowance for Josephine). With the time off for good

behavior that he fully assumed he would receive, he

would be back

time to accept reelection in person

in

felt

at

that he

the IBT's

next convention in 1971.

Meanwhile, Fitzsimmons would hold

many

detractors

lectual

ing to

midget and

know

down

the fort.

might dismiss the general vice-president a

that

"peanut butter sandwich." But

many months

after

it

as

an

Fitz's

intel-

was comfort-

the Hoffa incarceration

Fitzsimmons remained so deferential that the nine-foot Hoffa ma-

hogany desk

in the

bear Hoffa's gold

dum"

Washington headquarters building continued

name

plate, the

to

Hoffa "Illegitimi non Carborun-

plaque, and Hoffa family photographs.

Hoffa's handpicked successor had implemented "suggestions"

him by O'Brien and

relayed to

the various Teamster lawyers

who

had visited Lewisburg very well, too. True, Fitzsimmons had ceived

much of

re-

the credit for the big package that had ultimately

been extracted from the trucking companies in the 1967 national bargaining

No. 33-298

(at least

NE

70 cents per hour over the three years, with

a

335

But Hoffa had called from jail, and Fitzsimmons was

potential of 78 cents if inflation continued).

many of Fitz's

negotiation signals

award-

also conscientiously following Hoffa's orders regarding the

Fund

ing of Central States Pension

The

visitors to

loans and other major matters.

Lewisburg, indeed, regularly reported Hoffa

being "very cheerful" and "making the most out of his prison

Noah

and the Lewisburg warden,

"He

prisoner:

mental attitude.

him

a

is

the same."

something that

his fellow

.

.

.

deemed him

model

a

and has an excellent

He gives us most courteous treatment, and we give He appears to have asked for no special favors,

4

his celebrity status

won

might have impelled him

to do,

for himself considerable respect

from

inmates and the guards. His rapport with the

latter

and he seems to have both

L. Aldrich,

very strong character

as

life"

was, indeed, such that

more than once when he heard

the guards

complaining about working conditions, he offered to unionize them.

Hoffa was also quite popular with the other prisoners, and for

good

reason.

Ever the labor

leader,

he formed and headed

a

com-

mittee that brought prisoner gripes directly to the attention of the

warden (although, except in the quality

in the case

of the food and

a

of

temporary improvement

a

permanent upgrading of the law

mechanism apparently achieved little). He was source of many jobs within the Teamsters Union and elsewhere parolees, whose being paroled often depended on their having

library offerings, this

the for a

job waiting for them:

visiting

room without

IBT

the

a

his

son and other visitors rarely

mandate

to call

hierarchy and "get this guy a job."

He

for their eventual release

one of his former Teamster to

buy Christmas cards

prisoners.

might pave the

from Lewisburg. Each

assistants a considerable

year, he sent

sum of money

to be sent to the families of his fellow

Once, when he learned

had died, he sent the child

By

the

also helped less

sophisticated prisoners prepare the legal briefs that

way

left

some ranking member of

that the

money

dog of an inmate's

child

for a replacement.

every report, he seemed, in

fact, to

get along well with

all

segments of the heterogeneous Lewisburg convict population. Black Muslims, whose belligerence intimidated (and with

some a

whom

definite risks

many

other inmates

the completely unprejudiced Hoffa initially ran

by

his free use

of the word "nigger"), developed

high regard for him; he, in turn, was quite favorably impressed

Chapter 13

336

not only by their stress on physical conditioning but by their devo-

Morton

tion to their religion.

Sobell, the

World War

eighteen years in prison overlapped with Hoffa's

was

a fan

IBT

president

of

on one occasion saw him scrutinizing

a

years,

how

the

snapshot that

and asked, "What do you have

his wife

Morty, blueprints?" Hoffa's four-man complaint committee

included a former

army major and

black. His friends included

and

spy whose

two

Sobell delighted in telling the story of

his;

had been taken of Sobell and there,

II

first

a

both highly

Puerto Rican,

as well as a

literate white-collar

inmates

illiterates.

To

many work in

tion of his

worked out around

hours available to him each day

the

fill

after

comple-

the prison mattress factory, Hoffa regularly

gymnasium and took

in the penitentiary

a track in the

He

prison yard.

also, as

noted

fast

walks

earlier,

em-

barked on an ambitious reading program under the long-distance supervision of his daughter Barbara.

Hoffa had always been particularly the

Washington

New

dailies.

conscientious peruser of newspapers,

a

York Times, the Wall

But with

Street Journal,

this exception,

and the

he had never made

reading even a minor hobby. For years, the built-in bookshelves in

had contained only

his Detroit office

books and

office

had been equally barren of reading material

not directly related to his job.

adulthood he had finished only

The Enemy Within.

And

was widely rumored book, Robert

F.

that in his

Kennedy's

it,

but rather asked Steinberg to

summa-

Kennedy's chapters for him.

rize

Now,

he devoured the books that Barbara selected for him

(each time sending not only a

L.

It

a single

Larry Steinberg claims that the Teamster

president didn't even read

for

of unused labor reference

1912 congressional report on industrial relations, and

a

Washington

his

a set

permanent inclusion

whom

Lewis,

copy

to her father but a second

in the prison library): biographies

copy

of John

Hoffa had always greatly admired, and Eugene •

V. Debs, the Indiana-born socialist head of the American Railway

Union,

who had

World War

I

war; a book by

about John ver's

F.

been jailed

when he

because he considered

Drew

New

latest Peter

Centurions;

and Fall of the Third Reich. All,

No. 33-298

NE

it

to be a

wholly

capitalistic

Pearson about Washington, D.C.; books

Kennedy; the

F.B.L; The

attacked America's entry into

at

Drucker; Future Shock; Hoo-

The Greening of America; The Rise his request, were in the nonfiction

337

category, and

most were written about some aspect of America, by

American authors. He wasn't much interested unless he could

some

see

practical applicability.

His self-imposed regimen of exercise, combined with the involuntary dieting necessitated by the unattractiveness of the prison

more

food, resulted in an even

Teamster

practical benefit for the

The mild diabetes that he had suffered in recent years and that had required him to visit a doctor every two weeks, with as little publicity as possible since he did not want this condition widely known, in short order vanished. With some bitterness, he later observed that the prison authorities had done him a favor in president.

this area,

"the only favor

I

can think of," because they had confis-

cated his diabetes pills and torn

up an explanatory

Washington, D.C., physician upon

his

letter

more

so.

Nor was

his

admission to Lewisburg,

forcing the chronically health-conscious Hoffa to

ulcer that

from

become even

there any reappearance in prison of the bleeding

had required

a brief hospitalization

and the transfusion of

eight pints of blood in early 1966 and had constituted Hoffa's only

known

other

health problem.

his daughter's opinion, "trim, ally

have saved

He was

to

emerge from

prison, in

hard and tough. Prison might actu-

his life physically."

No. 33-298

NE

also cultivated three other interests, if mini-

mally. After decades of conscientiously avoiding the practice of any religion,

he apparently attended Lewisburg's Catholic chapel with

some reasonable frequency, possibly in deference to Josephine's wishes. He became sufficiently interested in Hoffa family history to inform his son on more than one occasion that "there's a lot of Hoffas buried around here.

You

though the busy young attorney round

trip

from Detroit

port, Pennsylvania,

himself of

avail

to

should go and check

—

whom

for

Lewisburg

it

(the last leg,

And

al-

from Williams-

by automobile) was adventure enough

this invitation.

out,"

the weekly airplane

— did not

he listened to the phonograph

records that inmates were allowed to receive in addition to their

books; Barbara sent him mostly classical music. In prison, too, the nation's to collaborate

the

first

best-known labor leader found time

with journalist Donald

I.

of two autobiographies, The

book, published by the Henry Regnery

some

Rogers

what was

Trials of Jimmy Hoffa.

Company

valuable information, particularly about

Chapter 13

in

to be

The

in 1970, contains

its

subject's early

338

But

years.

Hoffa

it

presents a biased

understandably so) view of

(if

And

put-upon victim of a governmental vendetta.

as a

mouth

quently puts language in Hoffa's

that

fre-

it

even with the most

no one who knew the Teamster

willing suspension of disbelief

boss can accept as genuine: Hoffa used words like "perforce," "dialectics"

and "Herculean" about

as often as

he did "isoniazid"

and "amethopterin."

There was

of course, always the daily news

also,

abiding avocation, which

times brought the imprisoned Teamster

at

information that he found of more than passing occasion took place

when he

— Hoffa's

some

fifteen

months

interest.

One

such

after his incarceration, F.

Kennedy had

been assassinated in Los Angeles while celebrating

his California

learned that his old adversary Robert

Democratic presidential primary victory over Eugene McCarthy. Hoffa would

later report his reaction to this

June 1968 news

as

having been one of relative indifference: "I can't honestly say that I

bad about

felt

Over

it.

the years I'd

nothing."

5

It

is

Our vendetta had been come to hate him and

more than

too long and too strong. yet

when he

however,

possible,

got

that the

it

I

felt

man who

had reacted with such extreme rage to the Gibbons-Steinberg condolence efforts of November 22, 1963, sentiments in this case: in one of his

of R.F.K., "Don't think

asserts I

want

it

known

that a hell

of

I

was

a lot

somewhat more negative two autobiographies, Hoffa

felt

the only one

of people

who

felt

the

hated him.

same way

I

did about him." Hoffa then goes on to quote with approval an article

appearing one day after Kennedy's death in which the

York Senator

is

described with words like

rich kid," "rude, arrogant

New

"demagogue," "greedy also to cite Dwight D. Kennedy was "shallow,

and pushy" and

Eisenhower's contemporary

finding that

vain and untrustworthy." "If

you think

I

pass these along with

satisfaction," says Kennedy's best-known target here, "you're 6 right." (Not one to forgive and forget where Kennedy was con-

cerned, Hoffa to the end in fact referred to

and

Kennedy

as a

"creep"

who was out to get me at all costs.") from the outside world was not as welcome. But other news

a "vicious bastard

Increasingly, as Hoffa languished in prison with his court appeals still

pending but no particular grounds for optimism on them for

at least

the near future, Fitzsimmons

No. 33-298

NE

was showing

signs of want-

339

ing to keep the job to which he had been assigned only a caretaker's role. It

was

now Fitz who was

unlimited expenses, after

simmons who the

palace,

getting the $100,000 salary and almost

all,

and not Hoffa.

White House dinner

headlines. Hoffa institutional

was

It

now

Fitz-

received the deference around the Teamsters marble

no longer had

invitations,

and the newspaper

a jet airplane at his disposal

and

powers of the purse and patronage unrivaled by any

other labor leader, but his replacement did. For the personally selected

Hoffa stand-in,

it

was

than pouring coffee and

a lot better

being the butt of Hoffa's abuse. Fitz was starting to that he

give

had decided that he liked the

lifestyle

make

it

known

and did not want to

up.

it

The process of revelation was

a

slow one. Eight months

after

Hoffa went to prison, the International Teamster, always an accurate

barometer of Teamster leadership positions, mentioned Hoffa's

name no

less

than thirty-four times in

included five Hoffa family

member

its

thirty-two pages and also

photographs: two each of the

general president and Josephine, and one of the Hoffa children. For

March 1967, almost every Teamster issue, moreover, could be counted upon to offer at least one unabashedly

at least

two

years after

pro-Hoffa feature ("Hoffa Nation's Generations," "Hoffa

Named One

First Political Prisoner in

Two

of 10 Greatest Living American

Labor Leaders," "Eastern Conference Trade Divisions Reaffirm Support for Hoffa").

And

considerable publicity was

still

being

given by the publication to the "James R. Hoffa Scholarships,"

awarded annually

to eight especially meritorious college-attending

children of Teamsters "as a living tribute to the dedicated leadership

of General President James R. Hoffa." Furthermore, for months, Fitzsimmons continued to

James

P.

Hoffa and other Hoffa

loyalists that

insist to

he and the Teamster

lawyers were doing everything that they could to expedite Hoffa's appeals in the fraud case and reopen the jury-tampering one. "Don't

do anything, you'll only rock the boat," he told them

Nixon administration took of

it

office in

after the

January 1969, "I'm taking care

with [Attorney General John N.] Mitchell."

More

than once,

he pulled out the keys to the general president's office and said to the son of his old friend, "I don't

want

these:

them." Publicly, there was no question where

Chapter 13

Jimmy

Fitz

can have

stood regarding

340

the

man who had

friend," he

him where he was: "Jimmy Hoffa

put

announced time and time

him on

regularly questioned

if

wholehearted support,

he always has had."

But

who

the topic and at Teamster meetings

around the country, "and as

my

is

again, to the reporters

he

available in 1971, he will have

is

my

July 1967, the pudgy general vice-president

as early as

He

started to telegraph his signals.

told a union executive board

meeting in that month that unlike Hoffa, he neither could nor

wanted

to

make

all

of the decisions, big and small, for the IBT.

He

intended to restore decentralization to the regional and local officials.

It

was proper, he

lower-level Teamsters.

The

problems through

to channel local

said,

vice-presidents, also,

would henceforth

have the authority over matters in their respective regions that they

had lacked in recent years. But in return for such treatment, Fitzsim-

mons emotionally mors

that he

asserted, he expected loyalty.

was being bad-mouthed, he

would soon

the vice-presidents

try to replace

anyone had any

ster chief executive. If

He had

and even

said,

him

criticisms,

as acting

Team-

he wanted to hear

them now. The only comments forthcoming from his

heard ru-

stories that

the

members of

audience were entirely complimentary to him.

Fitzsimmons was starting

to

make

rather major personnel

changes around the headquarters building, too. berg, both of

whom

had sublimated

Konowe and Steinabout Novem-

their feelings

ber 22, 1963, and returned to pinch-hit for Hoffa in Hoffa's

last

preimprisonment months, were informed that they would no longer be

welcomed

in

such

a role

when Fitzsimmons was away from

Washington. Fitzsimmons's favorites

— Ohio's

"Big Bill" Presser,

Murray W. "Dusty" Miller of the Southern Conference, and Eastern Conference director

enlarged duties.

New

Hoffa were

now

for

Thomas

E. Flynn

presidential assistants

— received substantially who had

never worked

regular denizens of the general president's

office.

And

Fitz

was

striking out

on

his

own

in other

scores of civil rights and liberal leaders in

ways.

marching

1968 funeral procession for Dr. Martin Luther King, that the politically conservative

He joined

in the spring

Jr.,

something

Hoffa (although he both knew and

admired King) could never have brought himself to do. In July 1968, Fitzsimmons

met with old Hoffa

United Automobile Workers to design

No. 33-298

NE

rival a

Walter Reuther of the

new

labor federation.

It

341

would ultimately be named stitute a potential

the Alliance for Labor Action and con-

competitor to the AFL-CIO.

Perhaps none of this really meant anything. The administrator

of the nation's largest union clearly had to make

and

sions every day,

it

myriad of deci-

a

could hardly be expected that every one of

them would duplicate what Hoffa himself would have done. But was increasingly

Hoffa, as he

telling his visitors at

weeks and months went on, was no longer

man

been that he had picked the right

Lewisburg

as confident as

as the

he had

to keep his presidential seat

warm.

On the other hand,

another old Hoffa friend was fully living up

to expectations during the general president's early prison tenure.

Anthony Provenzano, Genovese family

New Jersey

the

captain,

Teamster leader and reputed

had preceded Hoffa to Lewisburg by ten

May

months, having been incarcerated there in

He had

four-year term for extortion. tions

and resources to generate

and he was

for himself,

mentor.

a

immediately used

number of

now happy

"Tony Pro" gave Hoffa

1966 to begin

to

for his old

own four-man

an arrangement that frequently brought with

table,

He saw

to

it

that the

IBT

dining

the availability

it

of somewhat higher-quality food than that offered to the inmates.

connec-

special jail privileges

do the same

a seat at his

his

rest

president's privacy

of the

was not

unduly invaded by the other prisoners when Hoffa worked out the

gymnasium and prison

yard.

And

a threat at

oring Hoffa, live as

long

as

Lewisburg.

A

few years

Tony had proposed

a toast,

earlier, at a

"May

vow

he and his family

Now

himself.

Hoffa, in turn, probably saved Provenzano's extortionist

al-

banquet hon-

they want and never want as long as they live."

he could help implement some of that

New Jersey

in

he and his associates shielded

Hoffa from the violence, homosexual and otherwise, that was

ways

a

life.

When

the

was suddenly ravaged by a stomach probto not much more than ninety-five

lem and quickly wasted away

pounds, the prison authorities unaccountably refused to grant his

wish to get treatment

at a hospital

outside the prison. Hoffa inter-

vened and threatened the warden and publicity and a lawsuit should

his staff

with both adverse

Provenzano not be allowed such

Within hours, Provenzano was transported to

a local

aid.

medical center,

where he underwent surgery. But

Chapter 13

a

rupture ultimately took place between the

two

friends.

342

Now

looking forward to his golden years, the fully recovered

Provenzano asked Hoffa to use the clout

that the latter

still

had

with the Central States Pension Fund to amend the fund's bylaws.

Provenzano hoped

that he could,

Teamster pension even though

him from holding union

vent

through such

office.

(Under the

Landrum-Griffin Act, an extortion conviction, tomatically disqualifies a person

but the legislation

five years,

a process,

is

from serving silent

get a

term would pre-

his current prison

as a

of the

strictures

noted

as

earlier,

union

au-

officer for

on both jury tampering and

fraud.)

whose court experience involving the Central States machinery had generated for him a philosophy of once burned, Hoffa,

twice shy, adamantly refused, reportedly asserting that

of people like you that

I

got into trouble in the

some

shouting match, accompanied by the

two men, ensued. And Provenzano

first

"it's

because

A heated

place."

physical jostling between

— once, with Fitzsimmons,

Hoffa's most dependable source of support at Teamster executive

board meetings and

a

man whose

admiration for the

was absolutely unquestioned by anyone

IBT

president

— was from then on

a

vehe-

ment Hoffa enemy.

may have

Hoffa

gone, but he was hardly

Teamsters were concerned Christmas in jail in 1970,

— forgotten. Even

many

(in

as

as far as countless

he spent his fourth

thousands of cards conveying holi-

day greetings to him from members and

Lewisburg

—

their families arrived at

accordance with prison regulations, he was allowed

to receive only

correspondence that contained no written personal

messages).

The "Free Jimmy Hoffa" movements

that

had sprung up

around the country ever since his jailing also seemed to be as

numerous

were

as ever,

and some of these

locally

sponsored efforts

of Teamster

quite ambitious in their thrust: a large contingent

wives from Newark, turned from a trip for Hoffa's release

New Jersey,

had, for example, recently re-

to Washington, D.C., where

from

at least

a "political"

it

had demonstrated

imprisonment. In

a

few more

weeks, on Valentine's Day, Hoffa could expect a private plane bearing a banner that announced "Birthday Greetings fly

Jimmy Hoffa"

over the prison: such an event, financed by an

Massachusetts, had taken place each year since his

No. 33-298

NE

IBT

first

to

local in

behind-bars

343

birthday in 1968; on

all

three occasions, there had been considerable

national publicity.

Non-Teamsters remembered him,

The White House had

too.

a

wide variety of

well as by the Teamsters.

The document

just been presented with a petition sponsored

non-IBT labor groups

as

bore 250,000 signatures from people in

upon President Richard M. Nixon

commute

Hoffa and

As

far as the

subject of

On

of

all

all

by

walks of

life

and

called

clemency to

to grant executive

his sentence.

prison authorities were concerned, however, the

this attention

continued to be just another inmate.

the one occasion to date that he had been allowed out of

Lew-

isburg

—

on

contention that his conspiracy and fraud conviction had been

his

in

mid-1969,

obtained through cial

room with

illegal

He had

treatment.

when he had gone wiretapping

to

Chicago

for a hearing

— he had hardly received spe-

been handcuffed once more and housed in

a

DuPage County prison. him on this trip a steak dinner at one of his favorite restaurants, Berman's Chop House in Detroit, on the automobile route that he and his two federal marshal escorts traveled to Chicago was marred. The marshals received severe disciplinary penalties for taking him to this modest restaurant instead of directly to the Wayne County jail, where a bunk in a ward with nine other prisoners awaited him and where he did go Even

several other convicts at the

—

the single small luxury allowed

—

immediately

after the meal.

Nor had

the

sults. District

Chicago hearing

itself

Court Judge Austin, ruling

used in the pension fund

was

trial

produced the desired

re-

that the wiretap material

irrelevant to the evidence

on

which the Teamster president was convicted, had denied Hoffa's request for a

new

trial.

down

Austin had also turned

the five-year sentence that he had originally

a

request that

meted out

to

Hoffa

be allowed to run concurrently with the eight-year jury-tampering sentence. Hoffa would, the for conspiracy

and fraud

what he had done

Even

judge decreed, have

after

he had paid his debt to society for

in Tennessee.

however, might not prevent the from emerging from Lewisburg before the up-

a thirteen-year sentence,

general president

coming Teamster convention nized.

He had

in July 1971, as

actually been eligible for parole

conviction in October 1969, having served

Chapter 13

to serve his time

Hoffa

fully recog-

on the jury-tampering

more than one-third of

344

his first sentence at that time.

And

had rejected

it

1971.

By

his request then,

the latter

while the U.S. Board of Parole

had told him to reapply

of his combined thirteen-year sentence, and the

Board might

see

And,

was just possible

March would be even more

his friends believed, if pressures

officials.

it

as the date for the

$1 million.

The

had

John

L.

was

that such influence officials

tried to get

announced

Hoffa to advance

would then use

intermediaries

try to persuade Senator

some

Board's hearing in the matter of

being attempted surfaced. Justice Department that unidentified "intermediaries"

likely,

could be exerted on influential

James R. Hoffa approached, various reports

them

that

to free him.

fit

Hoffa's release in

of

March

in

month, he would have served almost one-third

the

money

to

McClellan to intrude on Hoffa's

behalf with the Parole Board. (The Senator said only that he had received a "mysterious suggestion" to this effect and that he had

immediately spurned

There were

it.)

also

widespread rumors that

major potential financial contributors to Nixon's upcoming 1972

campaign were attempting

reelection

to influence the

White House

to release Hoffa.

The 1971,

efforts,

whatever

Parole

the

their specifics,

failed.

On March

notwithstanding Hoffa's record

Board,

"model" prisoner and the

31,

as

a

Josephine Hoffa had recently

fact that

suffered a severe heart attack and several small strokes and lay hospitalized in

San Francisco, once again denied Hoffa's parole.

no reason, although many observers believed

that a

It

gave

January 1971

Supreme Court reaffirmation of Judge Austin's sentence had been Hoffa would not get another chance

influential in the board's action. at

parole until June 1972.

He was now, however, leave ted,

Lewisburg to

allowed

visit his ailing

moreover, to travel

this

a small consolation.

He

could

wife in California and was permit-

time on his

own

recognizance, unac-

companied by marshals. The Bureau of Prisons granted him this furlough, one of fewer than one hundred such arrangements that it authorized in 1971, strictly for a family emergency, and technically

no union business of any kind was

to be discussed.

But while the

highlights of Hoffa's five April days in San Francisco were his fre-

quent visiting of Josephine

Center and Jo

(as

a

reunion with

at

the University of California Medical

his eight-year-old

granddaughter Barbara

well as with the other Crancers), he did conduct considerable

No. 33-298

NE

345

Teamster business. In

daughter would

fact, as his

everyone and held meetings

recall,

"he called

the time" in his spacious suite

all

on

the nineteenth floor of the San Francisco Hilton. His extensive guest

included not only old Teamster associates Harold Gibbons and

list

Robert Holmes but the Southern Conference's "Dusty" Miller and

IBT

A man who had been constantly

vice-president Joseph Diviney.

on Hoffa's mind

more than four

for

years also

came

to the Hilton:

Frank E. Fitzsimmons.

The

changed very much. the

same Hoffa:

in the hotel

was

it's

One IBT

to his visitors to

official told

an interviewer, "He's

refreshing to see him." Another said,

he was

telling

have

"At dinner

everybody the score on everything. He

giving orders to the lawyers, arguing with them just like

still

he always did. ...

guy and away.

seem

general president did not

I

couldn't detect any change, the

just as sure he's right

on everything

same bouncy

when he went

as

"7

But there was

a difference.

Beneath the veneer of

self-confi-

as to what he should do regardwould begin in Miami Beach in three months. He wanted to be president as much as ever and was aware that he could theoretically be reelected from his prison cell (a petition backing him for another five years was, in fact, already

dence, Hoffa

was genuinely unsure

ing the Teamster convention that

being circulated throughout

New

England, and

it

pointedly in-

may hang his hat"). He had no membership overwhelmingly preferred him

cluded the words "wherever he doubts, either, that the as

IBT

leader to

Fitz.

He

ling,

and

all

still,

his

at

anyone

on

— and,

specifically, to the

fifty-eight, considered himself to be

unimpressive

a relative strip-

superb physical shape certainly had to be reckoned as

to the good. If he

the union

else

a

had to wait

day-to-day

until

basis, so

mid-1972

be

to

resume running

it.

On the other hand, he was greatly worried about Josephine, whose condition had improved since his arrival in San Francisco but whose health was generally described by her doctors as being very poor.

He was

solely because he

convinced that he had been denied

had continued to hold union

accordingly, that if he resigned

from

(not only the international union lesser

his several

office.

his parole

He

believed,

Teamster positions

and Local 299 presidencies but

his

jobs as head of the Central Conference of Teamsters, Joint

Council 43 in Detroit, and the Michigan Conference of Teamsters),

Chapter 13

346

he could gain his freedom within

of "significant and

basis

new

matter of

a

few months on the

a

And

information."

while

this

course

of action would by definition deprive him in the short run of

his

union leadership, he thought that he would definitely be able to get it

back

by 1976, when the next

the latest

at

would be

Maybe

held.

earlier, if

international convention

something could be worked out

with the ever-pragmatic Nixon.

Broaching the subject to

what was

for

him

his

San Francisco Hilton guests

a rare request for counsel,

Hoffa received mixed

advice and returned to Lewisburg on April 12

had not made up

his

in

undecided.

still

mind even by mid-May and

at that

He

time re-

quested, and received, an extension until the beginning ofJune

from

an increasingly impatient Teamsters executive board, which could not

make

its

own

knowing

on June 3, he dispatched his son to an executive Washington with a letter stating that he would

Hoffa's. Finally,

board meeting

plans for the July convention without

in

not be a candidate for the general presidency "because of my present legal difficulties"

days

later,

he

by taking out

and endorsing Fitzsimmons for the

officially resigned

[sic]

all

five

Seventeen

of his union positions

of paper, writing "I agree not to be in orga-

a piece

nized labor as a

from

slot.

officer"

on

it,

and sending

it

to his old walnut-

paneled office in Washington.

The Miami Beach convention almost mentioning the so long.

man who had dominated

The most

his old friend

was

Fitzsimmons."

that that

And

April if his

not

a

bile

Teamster

IBT conventions

"Jimmy Hoffa

is

Jimmy

Hoffa.

while one speaker did bring

political prisoner"

last

prior

for

Fitzsimmons could bring himself to say of

twenty-one hundred delegates to

was "a

aggressively minimized

their feet

by

I

am

Frank

many of

the

asserting that Hoffa

and that he would have "been paroled

name had not been Jimmy Hoffa," the speaker was at all but the new president of the United Automo-

Workers, Leonard Woodcock.

An

official

Teamster history cited

Hoffa

in brief reference to the establishment

of the

summarizing union highlights since the 1966 convention

by name exactly once, Hoffa Scholarships.

The ex-president did get something tangible from the delelump sum of $1.7 million, before taxes, in lieu of the annual pension of $75,000 to which he was now entitled. And two gates: the

No. 33-298

NE

347

would also be receiving incomes from the IBT: James P. would henceforth get a retaining fee of $30,000 to serve as a counsel for the union, and Josephine would continue to receive her $48,000, now as director of the women's political action section other Hoffas

of the Teamsters.

however,

Ironically,

this latter

inflow of funds to the Hoffa

man

family coffers turned out to have done the

The

major disservice.

him an August hearing on

the basis of the "significant and

information" provided by the resigning of his union

now

quickly also,

employment arrangements with

immediate family were viewed

as

who had

offices.

new

But

it

his parole, and,

action,

its

it

known

is

two members of

the

IBT

after

all.

his

To James

P.

written the board that his father intended to be "a

teacher, lecturer or educator" if paroled, the denial

was being withheld

strictly

was completely

Woodcock, he

"arbitrary and unfair." Just like Leonard

parole

a

evidence that Hoffa had really

not severed his connections with the Hoffa,

Hoffa

for the third time, denied

while the board again refused to explain that the

Lewisburg

at

Parole Board, as Hoffa had expected, granted

felt

that

because the requestor "was

named Hoffa."

On

his

very

first

day

as general president

after Hoffa's official resignation

was accepted

—June one day — Fitzsimmons had 21,

received an honor that his predecessor had never been remotely

accorded:

The

president of the United States had gone to a

Beach meeting of the IBT executive board his elevation

In

Miami

to congratulate Fitz

on

and to pledge complete cooperation with him.

paying

Richard Nixon had not needed to go partic-

this visit,

ularly out of his

way.

He was

in the vicinity,

anyhow,

at his

Key

Biscayne compound, and even counting his twenty-minute speech

IBT leaders at Miami Beach's Playboy Plaza Hotel, the entire project consumed less than one hour. But the very fact that the to the

had been willing

nation's chief executive ularly given the status

pariah of the labor

much Nixon hoped called

of the Teamsters Union

movement it.

in his rather

Almost no one doubted

Chapter 13

as the

most notable

for almost fifteen years,

showed how

valued his existing friendship with Fitzsimmons and

to strengthen

him

to schedule the trip, partic-

No

one doubted

fulsome address, that Fitz's appeal

that Fitz was, as

"my

Nixon

kind of labor leader."

was based on

the consider-

348

able help that the head of America's richest

and biggest union could

Nixon in the latter's 1972 presidential reelection campaign. Nixon could, however, do something for Fitzsimmons, too.

lend to

The

on the former caretaker

pressures

since 1967

from prison were Fitz

that

by Hoffa's legion of supporters

now becoming

had been exerted ever

to get their

man

released

almost intolerable. At every turn,

was being badgered not only by

his

own

constituents but

by

Hoffa friends and family members to get Hoffa out of jail, and Fitzsimmons's explanation to them that he was doing everything that

he could was appearing increasingly lame. The best of both

worlds for the

man, and

(2)

latter,

now, would be

no longer any kind of

the Teamster hierarchy. satisfy

Nixon

a

Hoffa

threat to

who

was:

(1) a free

Fitzsimmons within

could, with one

sweep of

his pen,

both requirements.

No. 33-298

NE

349

The Post-Prison Years

14 Early on the afternoon of ceived the telephone

December

call that

23, 1971,

Robert Crancer

several hours in his Lewisburg, Pennsylvania motel

from the warden

re-

he had been anxiously awaiting for

at the federal penitentiary,

and

it

room.

It

was

informed Hoffa's

son-in-law that Lewisburg's most famous temporary resident was

now

ready to be released.

The commutation by morning, in response to filed

President

Nixon had been signed

late that

a petition on Hoffa's behalf that had been

by attorney Morris Shenker only one week

the former Teamster president his

earlier. In

freedom so soon

giving

thereafter,

Nixon had acted especially quickly. Normally, the need to get input from the sentencing judge, the original prosecutors, and others might be expected to take as much as two months. In this case, Nixon had done without such help. Only the recommendations of Attorney General John N. Mitchell and the U.S. pardons attorney had preceded the president's own. Now, all that remained was for Hoffa to sign a "Conditions of Parole" form in the warden's office, and, with Crancer looking on, he prepared to do so. The document contained the customary language: the parolee would not use drugs, possess firearms, drink to excess, or violate any law. It also stipulated that Hoffa would reside in Detroit and regularly report there until March 1973 to a federal probation officer. Hoffa then asked the warden to "call Washington and find out if there are any other restrictions on the parole," and the warden, after honoring this request, advised him

that there

were "no

announced affixed his

restrictions except the ones

you

see here." Hoffa

that he "could live with these" and, almost casually,

name. With

his son-in-law,

he then departed, through

three sets of electronically controlled gates and to the cheers and

good luck wishes of scores of Lewisburg inmates who witnessed his final

moments

at

the prison after four years, nine months, and

sixteen days.

Harold Gibbons had engaged Hoffa and Crancer

men

to St. Louis.

the Williamsport Airport to convey

at

daughter and son-in-law. The plane would

where James

P.

for

three

all

Hoffa would spend the Christmas holidays with

nearby suburb of Glendale,

his family in the

which waited

a private plane,

houseguest of his

as a first

stop in Detroit,

Hoffa would be picked up (and where

part of the city labor leaders

were

from Lewisburg with champagne,

all set

another

in

to toast Hoffa's release

would

in a party that

last for

several hours).

Josephine was already in Glendale. Only hours before her hus-

band gained

his

freedom, she had

ment of anticipation series

her

— suffered yet another

of small seizures. But

bedroom

at

— very possibly from the

a

in her

seemingly endless

cardiovascular specialist had

come

to

the Crancer residence, and her condition had im-

proved so rapidly that she had actually gone out to

a

neighborhood

when your

beauty parlor. She told Barbara, "I'm going to look nice father

excite-

comes home." Barbara Jo would

also be present to share in

her grandfather's Christmas celebration, and the former

IBT

presi-

dent was particularly eager to reveal to the eight-year-old his sur-

named Black Gold, which Hoffa would be a holiday such as the number 33-298 NE had not known

prise gift for her: a riding horse

had purchased while

in prison.

former bearer of penitentiary

It

for years.

Hoffa was himself, however, also in for questions fired at

when he

him by

a surprise.

the host of media people

got off the plane in

St.

Among

the

who met him

Louis was one that came, he would

always claim thereafter, completely out of the blue: "Jimmy, what

do you think about the

restriction that

you

can't

engage

business?" Asking for a clarification, the parolee the wire services

were reporting

that the

in

any union

was informed

that

commutation had been

granted on condition that Hoffa not engage "either directly or indirectly in the

management of any

The Post-Prison Years

labor organization prior to

March

351

6,

1980," the date on which his original thirteen-year sentence

would have ended. If he were to violate this condition, just like any other, he would have to return to jail to serve out the full sentence. Hoffa was bitter upon learning the news. He wanted nothing more than to resume his old job when the plane from Williams-

—

port had stopped in Detroit, a Detroit

News

reporter had asked him,

"Jimmy, do you want to be president of the Teamsters again?" and he had answered, "Jack, do you like to breathe?"

— and

now

he

would have to wait years. "I never would have accepted the commutation if I'd only known," he adamantly insisted to intimates. "What the hell, I'd have been out without any restrictions in 1974." In the months immediately after his St. Louis trip, however, he publicly denied harboring any hard feelings. On the American Broadcasting Company's "Issues and Answers," he announced not only that he didn't believe that his release had involved political considerations but that "President at

the present

moment

Nixon

is

the best qualified

and relations between the two In point

my personal

for the presidency of the U.S. in

opinion." Fitzsimmons, he insisted to reporters, was

still

men were "good."

But Fitzsimmons was something

else again.

believed his successor to have engineered the restriction

ing union business, and he

now

ingly inclined to

Still

and

and Hoffa

make

from all,

knew

first

He was

also increas-

statements such as "Fitzsimmons doesn't base about running the union."

the conditions of his parole could have been worse, it.

Such

activities as

mediating

a strike

involving

trucking companies and Teamsters in Puerto Rico were out

had asked him

parties release,

to serve in such a role within

— both

weeks of

his

and the Justice Department had almost immediately refused

him permission as

Hoffa

on conduct-

privately expressed the opinion that

"there has never been a rat like this rat Fitz."

his ass

his friend

of fact, Hoffa did not seem to hold anything personal

against Nixon.

know

man

— and he obviously could not run

for

union

office

matters stood. But, as probation and parole officers soon inter-

preted the strictures of his parole, he could not only attend union social affairs

almost

at will

but even, within limits,

meetings of his old springboard Local 299. as ever

with individual Teamsters.

on national union

(for

Chapter 14

He

He

show up

at

could be as friendly

could freely offer his opinions

issues, including those that directly related to his old

example, Nixon's current price and wage restraint pro-

352

gram, which Hoffa soon

was "not

after his release told reporters

bothering the Teamsters").

He was

also essentially at liberty to travel far

from

Detroit,

and for substantial chunks of time. Specific Department of Justice authorization had to be granted in each case, but this

was almost

always readily conferred, and even the stipulation against conducting union business seemed to be given a certain

Right

license at times.

was allowed ple's a

after his release, the

amount of

poetic

former general president

to join the ailing Josephine for ninety days at the cou-

Miami Beach condominium

(in Blair

House,

building erected

a

decade earlier with Central States Pension Fund loans) and man-

aged during

period not only to speak

this

show up twice

institute but also to

CIO

Meany

sions, but

leadership

which the AFL-

midwinter meeting.

its

he was warmly welcomed by

of

whom commented

several

Granted

a detour, in turn,

March

IBT

an

studiously ignored his presence on the latter occa-

leaders,

area funeral

at

the hotel in

Council was holding

Executive

(George

at

from Florida

many of

on

how

the other labor

well he looked.)

to attend the

Washington-

of Teamster Secretary-Treasurer Thomas Flynn

in

some of his supporters in an anteroom at make known his views as to who should suc-

1972, he convened

the funeral parlor to

ceed Flynn.

He

then engaged in

a

heated argument with Fitzsim-

mons over the matter. He would do anything short of jeopardizing his parole to pave the way for his ultimate return to power. But he did not have a one-track mind about his situation. And much of Hoffa's attention these days

was

also

devoted to

a cause that

was quite unrelated

to

unionism and about which the Lewisburg alumnus also harbored strong opinions.

He became

an active,

if

improbable, advocate of

prison reform and willingly shared his opinions on the subject with the world. nal line

Almost no Hoffa interviewer, no matter what the

of questioning, departed without having heard

narration about just

how

bad

life in

a

origi-

lengthy

the penitentiary was. Hoffa

appearances on "Face the Nation," "Firing Line," and other widely

watched television shows almost exclusively focused on issue.

Old

from

it.

on

friends could count

of the confinement system by

a

this single

a scathing first-hand indictment

man who had

so recently

emerged

Special judiciary subcommittees of both the U.S. Senate

and House of Representatives listened to Hoffa,

The Post-Prison Years

whom

they had

353

them once his degree of feeling had become he expounded on the topic.

invited to testify before

known,

as

Prisons, in Hoffa's view,

Young

ble."

infested,

who came

people

out of the violence-prone, drug-

homosexual rape-prone

or enthused about nals."

were turning out "nothing but trou-

how much

institutions left either "embittered

they think they can

make

as crimi-

Everyone suffered from the overcrowding. The guards, from

his experiences,

were worse than incompetent: "You [might] come

back and find some guard sonal mail or

sitting

on your bunk reading your per-

making remarks about

pictures of your family or

something. There's nothing you can do." So-called experts in pe-

nology were anything but knowledgeable: "They've never been 1

'em go spend 90 days."'

there. Let

He had no end of suggestions, most of them well-worn

ones:

segregation of prisoners by age and offense, no imprisonment

most

for first offenders in

situations, higher salaries

training for guards, adequately stocked libraries ational facilities, substantially less

inmates in

advanced

a

at all

and improved

and better recre-

crowding, and the training of

would be marketable on the outside. He also more imaginative idea of his own: a parole commission

skills that

for each prison to decide

when

inmates should be released, with an

inmate elected by other prisoners serving

as adviser to

it

(on the

premise that no one would be better qualified to evaluate other inmates than such a person).

The

realistic

Hoffa was well aware that

come of any of Making them, however, might help pave the way nothing would in the short run

run implementation. His efforts also allowed

man who now had that

these proposals. for their longer-

a chronically restless

plenty of time on his hands to vent frustrations

had been building for years. In

September 1972,

it

was revealed

that

Hoffa had

tried to help

another kind of prisoner, although in this case the attempt was rather quickly aborted. Apparently at the initiative of

bons, an outspoken

critic

of the Vietnamese

had already brought back peace

He

could again use the bargaining

to perfection but that

Chapter 14

man who

tried

to the

himself to go to Hanoi

of American prisoners of war.

For Hoffa, there were three attractive aspects to ect.

a

from North Vietnam

feelers

White House, the former IBT president to negotiate the release

War and

Harold Gib-

skills that

this last proj-

he had once honed

he was otherwise these days not permitted to

354

use at

in

all

any other way.

He

could in

this case, if his talents

succeeded, achieve a very tangible result, and in a short time frame.

And, of greatest appeal,

Nixon,

his serving

erable pressure to bring the

POWs

home,

who was

under consid-

such

manner might

in

a

well induce the nation's chief executive to waive the parole restriction

on union business. Hoffa and Gibbons met with the president's

Henry A.

special assistant for national security affairs,

who was

Kissinger,

reported to have offered no resistance to the idea. Attorney

General Richard G. Kleindienst was also believed to have favored the plan, although he officially denied this. Secretary of State Wil-

liam P. Rogers, however, was vehemently opposed.

combined with

position

a generally

become known,

the matter had

to

end both the

Hoffa's hopes for an imminent parole

The

And

Rogers's

negative public reaction, once

POW

effort

and

amendment.

parolee's best chance of having the union business restric-

tion set aside

now

lay back with the courts. If he could get his jury-

tampering conviction overturned, he and

his

lawyers believed, he

would immediately become a "free agent": there could be no parole constraints if there was no conviction, and in having already served almost

all

of

his five-year

pension fraud sentence, he had

satisfied

his obligation to society in his other case.

The

striking

down of the jury-tampering

conviction, however,

point hinged on a rather shallow reed: a thirty-one-page

at this

made by none other than Edward The Baton Route Teamster's own difficulties with

alleged recantation statement

Grady

Partin.

the law

had by no means yet been resolved, and he was therefore

quite vulnerable to suggestions as to

how

he might end them.

He

had been informed by agents of his fellow Louisianan Carlos Marcello, the

powerful gangster

Hoffa out of jail in the judges and others

at

who was

first

place

thought to have tried to keep

by putting money

for bribing

Hoffa's disposal, that his best course of action

here might be to sign an affidavit stating that he had perjured himself in

on

Chattanooga. In gratitude, Marcello would then intervene

Partin's behalf

Inspired

by

with the forces of law.

this

news, Partin had given some kind of statement

to the Marcello agents.

document that

But he had not been willing

that incorporated this statement,

and he

later

to sign the

announced

he had really admitted "nothing" to the affidavit-seekers.

"Sure,

I

said

some words," he had

The Post-Prison Years

declared,

"and they wrote them

355

down. But

.

.

I

.

just told

them what they wanted

to hear."

2

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit was overwhelmed by the Partin document when it received ably, the

foundation of Hoffa's 1973,

of

announced

it

this

fifth

that

jury-tampering appeal.

would not grant

it

And

it

in

as the

January

An

a rehearing.

than

less

appeal

court action had immediately thereafter been filed with the

Supreme Court by Hoffa's lawyers. But corded

was

it

similarly being ac-

chance of prevailing.

little

On

team was

the other hand, the Hoffa legal

at this

considering the use of an imaginative argument that

and

Predict-

their client, increasingly,

were convinced might

its

let

point

members

Hoffa regain

control of the Teamsters. If the courts could be convinced that the

ban on union business imposed by Nixon order was

illegal,

Hoffa would automatically be

officer in his old Local

No

condition

— one

that obviously

whom

he had released from

person

commutation

free to

become an

299 and then to run for the IBT presidency

in 1976.

a

in his 1971

president, after

had ever before imposed such

all,

was not

in the original sentence

jail.

And

the condition, quite

from any absence of precedent, might be construed

aside

illegal

on other grounds. For one

thing,

it

a

— on

as

being

could be argued that

Nixon's action ran counter to the Constitution's separation of powers, since

only the judiciary can impose punishment. For another,

the condition

might be

his livelihood, rolee's First

said to

have violated Hoffa's right to earn

guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment. The pa-

Amendment

guarantee of free association was also argu-

ably being taken away.

By

mid-1973, Hoffa was highly optimistic that

of argument would be three different

Having submitted

fruitful.

law firms for analysis and then asked

of attorneys to evaluate the findings of the cluded that there was "about an the restriction

removed. 3

85%

He was

this latter line

the concept to a fourth

first three,

group

he had con-

chance in court" of getting

firmly determined to pursue the

novel strategy, and he had begun to shop around for the best possible constitutional

lawyer to present the case to the judiciary.

Meanwhile, Hoffa's superabundance of energy would hardly let

at

him be Jim's

idle

on other

downtown

fronts.

He

accepted his son's offer of space

Detroit law office, which the younger Hoffa

had opened in 1967 on the top floor of the Building. There, he spent

Chapter 14

many hours

city's ancient

daily

Guardian

communicating with

356

Teamsters and others

over the country

all

when he would once

the day

After his parole period ended in pletely free to

the

as

he planned ahead for

again be general president.

March

go anywhere and do anything

1973, he

was com-

that did not involve

"management of any labor organization," and he became once

again

the

Hoffa of

peripatetic

monthly, selecting

old.

He

gave several speeches

engagements from the

his

hundreds of

literally

requests to lecture that arrived at the Guardian Building in the

same

period of time and generally favoring college groups and charitable organizations.

$10,000

a

Although he probably could have gotten up

to

date for his services, he never charged either of the latter

kinds of audiences anything except his expenses and frequently ab-

When

sorbed even these costs himself. ganizations

example

— the

he addressed industrial or-

Michigan Automobile Dealers Association,

— he tended

for

to ask that his honoraria be given to charity

(often, to a children's charity).

He also

devoted

a great deal

founded

ation for Justice,

Lawrenson and pledged,

NAJ

he publicize the radio talk

in

as

he was, to prison reform. Not only did

many of his

show appearances

dug deeply into

his

of attention to the National Associ-

1972 by former convict C. Edward

in

own

that he

speeches and the television and

now

frequently made, but he

pockets to help finance

NAJ

expenses. In

return for such support, the organization's leadership offered

signed to mediate prison disputes and quell inmate riots be,

him

of the Association's Crisis Control Center, de-

the directorship

on the shortest of notice. Accepting the

—

the country exercising his outstanding negotiating

skills.

if

need

around

position, he flew

He was

instrumental in improving conditions for prisoners in Lucasville,

Ohio, and thus in thwarting what was shaping up oner protest there.

He

Baltimore and Rockville, Maryland, resolved

and cooled off an explosive situation

strike,

Once

again, he refused to accept

A help

visible platform

him

in his

such

a

major

pris-

riots in

both

as a

almost single-handedly averted

Washington, D.C.

in Lorton, Virginia.

any money for

his efforts.

as the directorship clearly

attempt to regain his Teamster general presidency,

but he seemed genuinely to take great satisfaction in his ects

and much pleasure

in these years.

could only

A

in the

District

revision that allowed the

The Post-Prison Years

few

strides that prison

NAJ

proj-

reform made

of Columbia Office of Personnel policy

employment of former inmates on any job

357

for

which they

crime for

qualified, except positions related to the

which they were convicted, gave him considerable

Supreme Court decision

April 1974 U.S.

gratification.

An

that restricted the arbitrary

opening by prison guards of personal mail sent to inmates did likewise.

He

told friends that he fully intended to keep his Crisis Control

Center directorship even after he resumed union leadership. In turn,

was delighted

the National Association for Justice

Once, when Lawrenson was asked by

questions if

"What

we

his organiza-

Hoffa to hold such an

tion allowed such a controversial figure as

important post, he answered,

have him.

to

why

a reporter

"You wouldn't be

me

asking

any

didn't have such a controversial figure."

stands out about him,"' says a former law partner of the

who came

younger Hoffa

to

know

the firm's celebrity guest well

in these days,

was

his generosity.

And

He

his honesty.

had

He

integrity to spare.

did

what he said he would. I

had a friend whose dad made a product, but didn't know how

it,

and [the father] was

about

visit,

business] couldn't

hotel.

.

market

to

offinancial disaster.

farm, his bar and restaurant, and his

to lose his

the father a

teetering on the brink

.

He

was

I paid

.

evaluated the situation and told the father that [the

go and

indignant, said that I

that he should get rid

had insulted

of it.

his dad's ability

.

.

.

The son became

.

.

.

he wouldn't hear

of it. I

came back

to

and saw

Detroit. Hoffa breezed in

that I

was

I told told

him

the

whole

story,

now opened up for my

He

and then Hoffa

could

now

sell all

friend's

Hoffa gave

As

it

dad

and he

.

.

.

Soon

insisted

for Hoffa's keeping his

(for the

good guy?" I and a market

is

D.C. and

Detroit.

the father could sell the

on giving Hoffa a handsome

to charity.

word,

attorney fondly

this

bers the former labor leader's accepting one tation

a

calls,

"This

Washington,

in both

he could produce.

business at a very large profit, fee.

said,

him, "Helluva good guy ." Hoffa made two phone

He He persisted.

disturbed.

asked me, "What's the problem?" I said, "Nothing, fimmy."

remem-

Michigan speaking

Scrap Dealers Association)

at

invi-

the behest of the

attorney and then, in the press of his scores of other obligations, forgetting

all

to Florida, to

Chapter 14

about

it:

"Two

days before the speech he went

spend some length of time

there.

I

down

phoned him and

358

he flew back the next day.

honoring

his

He

prided himself, as he always said, on

commitments. And he wouldn't even accept money

for the plane fare.

"

His rapport with the Teamster rank and

On

remarkable. bers

a typical

were deposited

day, as

many

in the large

file

continued to be

as forty letters

Hoffa mailbox

at

from

mem-

Lake Orion,

where he and Josephine now lived much of the time. When he walked down the streets of Detroit, he could count on being enthusiastically

greeted by significant numbers of his former constituents

and often being, despite

his uneasiness

hugged and kissed by them.

(In the

with close physical contact,

words of one observer of

this

"He was like the Messiah." "We'd walk from the GuardBuilding down Woodward Avenue over to Grand Circus Park

adulation, ian

and back.

It

was

literally

impossible to go more than a few feet

and coming over to greet him.") would thank him profusely "for what you did for my family" and refuse to accept his money, often causing him to force compensation well in excess of what the meter had called for upon them. Hundreds of drivers made special detours to the Hoffa lakefront cottage just to "say hello to Jimmy." Thousands of "Bring Back Jimmy Hoffa" bumper stickers sprouted on trucks from coast to coast. In 1974, a random poll conducted by the truck driver without people crossing the

On many

street

occasions, cab drivers

magazine Overdrive revealed that spondents would vote for Hoffa if

a staggering

as

83 percent of the re-

Teamster international president

they were given the chance; for the rest of his

regularly cite this result, with

The former

enormous

general president

life,

he would

pride.

was well aware, however,

he could take nothing for granted in his quest to regain his

that

office.

Hundreds of thousands of new Teamsters had joined the union since he had gone to prison, and they had for the most part done well economically under Fitzsimmons. Hoffa was, to nothing more than the say,

Beck.

And

the

name

of a past president

man who had its

different than,

tended in his pre-Lewisburg

days to express disdain for public relations accordingly, quite convinced of

many of them,

— no

was

at this

juncture,

importance to him.

In this regard, Hoffa welcomed an overture from the actor Robert Conrad, former star of the television series "The Wild Wild West," who was planning a movie version of Hoffa' s life. Hoffa

The Post-Prison Years

359

met

at

who

length with Conrad,

subsequently announced that he

had acquired the rights to produce the movie and to play the Hoffa role.

Conrad added

"and

it's

in

making

aim

also Hoffa's

.

.

.

statement that

this

not to

hard-hitting biography that will

make

tell it as it is."

4

it

was

his

aim

whitewash but

this a

But

it

a

was obvious

Conrad, an ex-Teamster in Hoffa's Central States Conference

that

movie would do

himself, enjoyed Hoffa's confidence that the

no harm

latter

at all

with

Conrad's project never became that the undeclared

helpful to

him

did.

the

his electorate. a reality.

campaigner viewed

But another endeavor being potentially

as also

Hoffa decided to work closely with veteran

professional writer Oscar Fraley in putting together the second of

two autobiographies,

his

The

Hoffa: The Real Story.

short book,

all

of whose future earnings were assigned in advance to the National Association for Justice, 1976, four that

would lend

it

was scheduled

for publication in February

months before the union's convention. Hoffa a

major boost

anticipated

to his presidential candidacy,

which

he assumed would by then have been legalized by a

lifting

commutation condition. "We'll have

chapter," he

a hell

told Fraley, "if things break as quick as

Hoffa:

of

a last

his

5

expect."

The Real Story was published ahead of schedule and

posthumously, ance,

I

of

six

weeks

after its protagonist's

and Hoffa's hypothesis about

therefore, be evaluated.

picture of the

its

mid-1975 disappear-

potential influence can never,

But no publication has ever painted

man whom Hoffa had

chosen

a

darker

as his successor. Fitz-

simmons, a

guy

I took off a

3-C Highway Company

way from shop steward

to

general vice-president

when he got Washingtonitis

.

.

.

.

man who had

Fitz,

conditions attached to

.

.

.

.

.

my

ice

.forgot

who made him

well that

cube in

commutation.

when

hell.

I stood

So he was

6

And

he did." The author specifi-

charged Fitzsimmons with political influence peddling

tergate

.

.

all the

according to Hoffa, "would have done almost anything to

keep the Teamsters' presidency. cally

.

He knew damned

for reelection, he didn't have the chance of an the

and hand-carried

truck

staff

to

prevent

me from

selling out to mobsters

Chapter 14

and

and conspiring with regaining

letting

my

known

.

.

.

Nixon's "Wa-

office.

racketeers into the Teamsters.

360

.

blackjacking union officials into line by giving $7 million in annual

.

.

organizing funds only .

.

to

people

sending Hoffa supporters

.

who promise

among

the

so they couldn't influence delegates to the .

.

.

two men with criminal

.

.

" Siberia"

in

1973

records.

own

Don,

son,

making vast loans from

.

known .

officials to

1976 convention.

one year was a ripoff to the tune of $1,185,000

in

.

Teamster

permitting underworld establishment of a union insurance scheme which

.

alone and in which his .

support him.

awarding a $1.3 million Teamster "public-relations" program

.

to

to

in the

York area

the billion-dollar

Teamster pension fund

to

mobsters.

winning Teamster support by giving regional union

.

New

participated on a national level.

officials

powers

that belong to the International executive board.

.

.

my wife and my my influence. 1

stripping

.

undermining

Much briefly or

many days,

of not

son of union posts as a further means of

sweeping indictment was elaborated upon

this

at all.

But

either

to Hoffa, himself the alleged doer

of so

unsubstantiated similar deeds in the McClellan committee it

much seem

did not

to matter. His basic

Fitzsimmons was unfit to continue

as

IBT head

message

—

that

— was one whose

He intended to have everyone know that he was "back, very much back" and that he would be the general president again "come hell or high water." He was "not a guy who believes in limited warfaie," he wrote, "so the rats better

justification

start

was

jumping

to

him

the ship."

self-evident.

8

him in the course of Blair House condominium

Fraley developed a deep admiration for

most of them at the Miami Beach. He was impressed, as so many others had been, by Hoffa's retentive memory, his mental alacrity, and his personal their taping sessions,

in

charm. In the book's epilogue, the professional journalist says of his coauthor,

There was about him a magnetic quality and he talked of the power struggle ahead with an almost joyful anticipation. Combat had,

way of

life.

And

[truck drivers]

him

in a

his faith never

who

after all, been his

wavered that "my guys," the nation's

are the backbone of the Teamsters,

would stand behind

showdown.

The Post-Prison Years

361

As one

company owner

me:

You had

to

"To

Teamsters, Jimmy was God. They knew he was always fighting

the

believe him.

old-line trucking

for them, physically if necessary.

was

as

good

drawn up by

a battery

[Hoffa] laughed

And

I'll tell

handshake was

as gold; a

the boss.

thing.

of

His word

legal papers

of lawyers."

when

I told

him

that, a

deep rumble coming out of the

broad chest like the sound of a subway train.

was

you another

better than a bale

told

"You

They

see?

all

knew

I

"9

The negative

portrayal of Fitzsimmons in the

book symbolized

a no-holds-barred public attitude toward the incumbent Teamster

president that had actually been publicly displayed early 1974. In February

the audience of his

by Hoffa

since

of that year, the former IBT leader informed

home

city's

widely watched television program,

"A.M. Detroit," "Fitzsimmons is crazy. He goes to a shrink twice a week and he's running a union for more than two million Teamsters?"

and thenceforth he freely repeated

now

Hoffa also

claim to interviewers.

this

delighted in asserting to the press not only that

much of Fitz's time was being

spent unconscionably far afield from

union business, on various golf courses throughout the nation, but also that golf

was

a

game

posthumous publication,

for "fat old either, to

men."

It

did not take Fraley's

break the news that Hoffa con-

sidered Fitzsimmons to be a "liar" and a "double-crosser": Hoffa

had been

liberally saying

months prior

it

to

media people

more than

eighteen

to his disappearance.

What seemed

to convert the

private critic of Fitzsimmons to a nist

for

had been Hoffa's

man on

no

less

parole from a vehement

impassioned public antago-

new awareness of

an affidavit that the U.S.

attorney general had signed on October 15, 1973. In

it,

Mitchell

declared that no one in the Justice Department, himself very definitely included,

nor President Nixon had

initiated or

suggested the

inclusion of the no-union business parole restriction. In the docu-

ment, the attorney general also said that the

mons had June 1971

—

ing James P. Hoffa and others that he

Mitchell."

Williams retainer

first

time that Fitzsim-

him about getting Hoffa out of jail was in more than two years after Fitzsimmons had started tell-

ever talked to

One

as

year

earlier,

"was taking

Fitzsimmons had

fired

Teamster general counsel and given

care of

with

Edward Bennett his lucrative

job to former White House lawyer Charles

Chapter 14

it

on-

W. Colson.

362

And Hoffa was now that

convinced, "putting two and two together,"

Fitzsimmons had done

that his original belief in restriction

The

had been

pay off Colson for getting the at this

point absolutely certain

Fitzsimmons's active hand

in creating the

justified.

once-tractable Fitz

on him by

this to

He was

parole restriction added.

was by no means taking

his old boss docilely,

this

his public attack,

he had made moves that were every

hitting as Hoffa's

would be and no more

IBT

subtle. In

who might have been tempted to attend a testimonial Jimmy and Josephine Hoffa (on the occasion of the ex-

president's sixtieth birthday) at the Latin Casino in

New Jersey, president,

were advised not

Cherry

Harold Gibbons, subsequently accepted an

lesser officials

invitation,

under Fitzsimmons's patronage were also conlater,

forced by Fitzsimmons to relinquish his post as

St.

move

Local 688 secretary-treasurer, a his presidency

Hill,

come: only one international vice-

to

spicuous by their absence there. Three months

him

hard-

bit as

February 1973,

officials

dinner for

and

onslaught

however. Even before Hoffa began

Gibbons was

Louis Teamster

that automatically also cost

of IBT Joint Council 13

in his

home

location.

Then, while addressing the Western Conference of Teamsters in

when

San Francisco in September, Fitzsimmons announced that

Hoffa had come to that city twenty-nine months

earlier to visit

Josephine, he had in fact discussed union business, the conditions of this special

prison furlough notwithstanding.

president did not explain exactly

such a disclosure.

The Teamster

what had motivated him

Anyone who thought

that this portion

speech came strictly under the heading of small

would probably have made

known

a contribution to the

Soldier had Fitz solicited

talk,

general

make

to

of the

however,

family of the

Un-

it.

Equally lacking in mystery was

a

resounding endorsement of

Nixon by Fitzsimmons, made

in

already been badly embarrassed

by Watergate

November. The President had disclosures, and most other labor leaders were now demanding either his resignation or his impeachment. To Fitz, nonetheless, Nixon was "the most influential President this

will

end

his

country has ever had and I'm sure that he

term in the glory that he deserves." 10

Not too much remained

to be done,

ensure a Hoffa-free Teamsters did act

on one remaining

The Post-Prison Years

bit

Union

Fitzsimmons thought, to

until 1980.

But the IBT head

of unfinished business not long

after

363

him began:

Hoffa's aggressive public campaign against

of 1974, he

fired Josephine

Hoffa

in the spring

of the union's women's

as director

political action auxiliary, thereby depriving her of her $48,000 an-

nual income, and terminated James P. Hoffa's $30,000 annual lawyer's retaining fee.

on

cast

He

could live with the aspersions that Hoffa had

his golf playing,

although not happily, but words

like

"crazy" and "liar" went beyond the range of his tolerance.

Fitzsimmons was not the only

Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano, had aborted the relationship

in

Hoffa enemy these days.

visible

the once-close Hoffa friend

Lewisburg when the

still-head

who

of the

Teamsters had refused to help him get unearned credits toward an

IBT

pension, had been released

from jail

in late 1970.

He had gone

to live in Hallandale, Florida, not far

from the Miami Beach condo-

minium where

He was becoming

the Hoffas wintered.

embittered that his extortion conviction disqualified

increasingly

him

for the

money, while Hoffa's jury tampering and fraud convictions did

Not one

to accept defeat gracefully, he

Hoffa's parole

on the premise

clout with the Central States Pension several occasions

Tony had

had resumed

his effort after

former president

that the

Fund

not.

still

had

administrators, and

tried to contact his old friend

by

on

tele-

phone. His attempts were in vain: Hoffa had refused to take the calls.

In Florida in 1972, the

nowe,

whom

man whose

enraged Provenzano had given Joe Ko-

he had encountered on the

special assistant

street, a

Konowe had

message for the

once been: "Tell Hoffa

I'm gonna snatch his granddaughter and put her eyes out." Hoffa

had been visibly shaken when he got the news and said to Konowe,

of

"Joe, I'd talk to him, but he's a crazy son

In 1973

about

a different topic.

Teamster others,

official,

According

former

to a

Daniel Sullivan, in

New

New

York City

version corroborated by

a

solicit

support in

Jerseyite a bit: in the course of these conversations, he

"pulling out Hoffa's guts" and

now

(according to Sullivan) by

by kidnapping

Hoffa could not afford to take these threats Provenzano's

political

opponents within

have been murdered. Others

Chapter 14

Provenzano, but

with Fitzsimmons. The passage of time had not changed

again threatened physical violence,

to

a bitch."

talk to

Hoffa met several times with Tony Pro to

his fight

the

and 1974, Hoffa apparently did

his grandchildren.

lightly: at least

his Local

who had

two of

560 were believed

spoken out against him

364

Tony was known

had been physically assaulted.

guy" and two of the more frequently used words about him were "intimidating" and "scary."

"a real bad

circles as

descriptive

Even

within Teamster

his conversational style

1970s, journalists

still

tended to be formidable: in the mid-

talked about a press conference that he had

called years earlier at Local

560 headquarters; in

it,

he had denounced

Kennedy

in

language that was

the then-Attorney General Robert F.

so filthy that the

newspaper reporters could not

locate a single direct

quotation that they could share with their readers, and the television tape had been unusable. According to a Hoffa intimate, Proven-

zano was one of the few people on earth

one

— whom Hoffa himself

— and possibly the only

feared.

wary of other people,

Hoffa's family thought that he should be

attempt to dislodge Fitzsimmons, the former

too. In his relentless

Lewisburg inmate was antagonizing proved them to be

fully capable

of physical violence, not excluding

murder. Hoffa's amiable successor was the latter as a

man

own

after their

York,

New Jersey,

States

Pension Fund loans. Fitzsimmons

desire at

all

to

at this

point perceived by

hearts as they pursued their

various criminal interests administering

no

of men whose records

a variety

IBT

local unions in

Chicago, and Detroit and influencing Central

go back

them

left

alone.

They had

to dealing with the stronger-willed

predictable Hoffa, their past friendships with

less

New

and

him notwith-

standing.

The former head of have

bodyguard, however, either

a

where he and Josephine

"You

the Teamsters

get a bodyguard,

you

He

lot

cottage, that

get careless," he

assured his children,

"no one

bulk of their time.

would

who were at

particularly concerned

the isolated lakefront country

will bother us out here, because

all,

the

want

many journalists who

nobody. talk

really

I

don't

lie

The Post-Prison Years

to

do away with him:

interviewed him

about nobody.

bad about people.

it's

on

a

dead-

he naively believed, despite the threats of

Provenzano and the potential of the other mobsters

no one would

often say,

of people with bodyguards have been

about their parents living alone

end road." Above

Lake Orion,

in Florida or at

in these years spent the

sometimes adding that "a killed."

adamantly refused to

still

If

I

do,

I

tell

I

at

to kill him, that

as

he told one of

Orion, "I don't cheat

don't frame nobody.

'em. So what the

hell's

I

don't

people

365

me for?" 11 He had come a long distance from the days when he thought that he would die a violent death. Death, on the other hand, held no fear for him: he told intigonna

try to kill

mates, "I've had a

and done everything

full life

tomorrow with no

could die

law, "Bob, I've been fortunate.

and

Indiana,

I

wish

as

was just

I

that he

wanted to do.

I

I

asserted to his son-in-

farm boy from

a

became president of the world's

been able to smell the roses.

Not

He

regrets."

Brazil,

greatest union. I've

How many other people can say that?"

by any means struck

visitors as

harboring

a

death

he delighted in the company of his children and grandchil-

two Hoffa locations. When at Lake Orion, he could particularly enjoy his two little grandsons, since they lived less than an hour away. He frequently came by his son's greater Detroit house and took David and Geoffrey, in a move that was much appreciated by his daughter-in-law, to the cottage for entire weekdren

at the

ends.

He installed

a

merry-go-round,

a teeter-totter,

and

a collection

two boys and often went out with them to look for frogs and to catch minnows. He became an expert in repairing toys at his workbench and was probably one of the few grandfathers in the Lake Orion region whose grandsons regularly sat with him on his rider as he rid his three acres of their excess grass. Nothing gave him more pleasure than these latter occasions, of swings and

slides there for the

which were rivaled only by the

visits

family both to the lake in the

summer and

minium

in the winter.

making up

familias,

He

also

On

of the

St.

Louis branch of the

to the Florida

both properties, he was the proud pater-

for lost time.

took pride in keeping himself

years as he had ever been.

The banquets

with two fifty-pound dumbbells and ery night

when he was home and

ward off

their effects.

So did

a

twice

as physically

that

of his speaking engagements were always

a

a threat,

week

— not

that

and

like, say,

in

but workouts barbell, ev-

any event, helped

swimming and

Frank Fitzsimmons

in these

of 150 stretches with tree-chopping

Lake Orion. At sixty-one, he had the body of

man

fit

supplemented many

hundred-pound

a daily series

ropes attached to a doorknob and

it

condo-

a

far

— and he intended

at

younger to

keep

way.

He was proud, too, of his continuing reputation now seemed almost to flaunt it in his speeches and

Arriving

Chapter 14

at a Belleville, Illinois,

for candor

interviews.

meeting of retired Teamsters and

366

seeing a heavy representation of late-model Cadillacs and Buicks

among

"The

the cars outside the building, he told his audience,

why

reason

unions have gotten so soft these days

in the

parking

we've

lost

and your

lot.

We've fought long and

something

right out there

is

hard, but in the process

very important. You've gotten so soft

that's

you have no

bellies are so full that

interest in helping the

Teamsters out by going out and carrying picket signs. Until you

and there aren't wrinkles

get skinny again

He

continue to deteriorate."

He

in

your

bellies,

labor will

to great applause.

make

a

buck doing anything

backwards; they can't run their

But they go to

down

frequently charged that "a lot of the politicians in Washing-

ton, they couldn't spell rat

sat

all

own

else.

They

can't

personal lives at

over the place shooting off their mouths about

govern the country and

all.

how

how to deal with the Russians." Nobody,

he was wont to say quite openly now, ever even heard of the Ken-

nedy family before the McClellan committee was

were absolute unknowns. The old man was

And

Just a bootlegger."

while

many judges

a

created:

goddam

"They

bootlegger.

"start out okay, they

become sons of bitches and abuse their power. They see too much misbehavior in front of them and they start to think that the only way to handle people like this is to send them to jail, out of sight. They get very cynical about law-breakers in general. They think of them as sub-human. They get to look down on people. But try getting them to quit the bench. They hold on for dear life so as to get their retirement benefits some day." often

In his effort to convince the courts that President

on

his

Nixon's ban

conducting union business was unconstitutional, Hoffa had,

by early 1974, completed lawyer.

He had

his

shopping around for

a constitutional

selected for the job of suing both the president

and

the attorney general of the United States, the necessary avenue for

reversing the

Nixon

and

articulate

He had

primarily

stipulation, the highly regarded

Leonard B. Boudin. In

one

sense,

Boudin was an unlikely

built his reputation ies

choice.

on defending such well-known

of the 1960s and early 1970s

as

liberal

luminar-

Daniel Ellsberg and Benjamin

Spock. Hoffa's political views, such as they were, tended to be

much more

conservative: "Give a

bum

a dollar

every day and the

time you miss paying him, he'll say, 'Okay, where's my dollar, you cheap SOB?' Everybody wants to take today; nobody wants

first

The Post-Prison Years

367

to give."

Hoffa favored neither gun control nor enforced school

was

busing: in the former case,

it

stopped, not the guns; in the

latter,

a

who

should be

the right of Americans to send

own

their children to schools in their

And

the shooters

neighborhoods was

basic.

the Hoffa prescription for both drug pushers and rapists

was

notably uncomplicated one: "Line them up against the wall and

shoot the bastards."

But each man genuinely respected the esteemed Boudin's will to

come

gotta his

before

is

only one

him another

Hoffa above

all

"Too many of these people are Your Honor; no, Your Honor.

fight:

subservient to the judges. 'Yes,

Don't upset the judge. This

other.

day'

case,' the

" 12

Boudin,

lawyer thinks. like Hoffa,

'I

was

own man. Boudin, in turn, accepted the case because he agreed with Hoffa

that

it

was unique

("A President shouldn't be run-

constitutionally

ning the labor movement") and also because he liked Hoffa personally.

"He was

trade-union leader," he told an interviewer,

a great

"and maybe will be one again. tough, confident. for

He

.

.

.

He's

a relatively relaxed client;

has confidence in his lawyers and in himself

having chosen them." 13

Nor was Boudin unimpressed by

Hoffa's grasp of the relevant constitutional issues: the school drop-

out had devoted days to studying the law literature that might pertain to his situation,

sophistication

On June

on 5,

and he consistently surprised Boudin by

1974, the case

the U.S. District

Court

stressed his belief that

in

was heard by Judge John H.

(since the

punishment,

Pratt of

Washington. Boudin, with some passion,

Nixon's restriction was unconstitutional for

four reasons: an absence of any inherent establish

his

this score.

a

power

in the

Presidency to

violation of the double-jeopardy clause

ban on Hoffa's union

activities until

1980 was actually

an additional penalty), an infringement on the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of association, and

Amendment's guarantee of

a violation

of the Fifth

the right to earn a livelihood.

charged that the ban resulted from an

illegal

He

also

conspiracy between

Fitzsimmons, Nixon, Colson, and former White House counsel

John W. Dean, that he

who had

a

had originated the

few days

earlier testified in a deposition

restriction. In return for the condition,

Boudin suggested, Nixon got both

Chapter 14

a

political

endorsement and

368

from

financial contributions in 1972

Brotherhood

the International

of Teamsters.

Asking Pratt

to dismiss the plaintiffs plea, Assistant U.S. At-

torney Michael A. Katz matter-of-factly argued that the judge was

confronted in the case with only one question: whether the restric-

imposed by Nixon was

tion

Whatever motives may have

legal.

been in back of the condition were absolutely, in Katz's opinion, irrelevant.

And,

was

to him, the condition

one, lawfully

a valid

imposed and properly accepted. Pratt's decision, issued

on July

19,

went

against Hoffa. Nixon,

power

the jurist ruled, acted fully within his pardoning

in

commut-

ing Hoffa's prison sentence in late 1971 with the union activity restriction.

Even

Fitzsimmons-Nixon-Colson-Dean

if the alleged

conspiracy could be proven, he

said, the

not be invalidated "for the same reason

of an

validity

who

act

White House action could

[that]

one cannot attack the

of Congress on the grounds that the Congressmen

voted in favor of

it

did so for improper motives."

What was

more, Pratt held, the crimes for which Hoffa had been convicted

were

directly related to his union activities:

justified in

Nixon was consequently

imposing the ban because "the public

interest in the integrity

great influence

of union

on the economic

activities life

.

inasmuch

.

.

as

has a strong

unions exert

of the nation and on the welfare

of individual members of unions." Hoffa had expected

better.

He had come

to his

Detroit office to await Pratt's announcement, which layed to

him by Boudin by

downtown

would be

telephone, and in anticipation of a vic-

tory celebration he had scheduled a press conference there.

he got the bad news from his attorney, in

media people

He

who had jammed

then, in a flash

full

the premises, his face turned ashen.

whom

second telephone

call,

much

he had placed so

Less than a minute after this conversation a

view of the

from Josephine,

mild complaint that the

been.

workmen who were

faith.

was concluded, he at

Lake Orion. In

very different league from Boudin's communication,

cottage

When many

of the well-known Hoffa temper, lashed out

long-distance at Boudin, in

took

re-

it

expressed

a

a

then expanding the

accommodations were being noisier than they should have Hoffa's response to this was very much at variance with

And

his prior reaction:

to his wife. "In a

"Now,

Jo, don't

worry about

few days we'll have

The Post-Prison Years

a beautiful

it,"

new

he said softly

addition to the

369

house."

To

who

the newspeople

did not

know

Hoffa, the change of

pace was remarkable, particularly given the circumstances.

who

it

was

entirely in character,

those

on two counts.

displays of temper rarely lasted long, and having unleashed

First, his

his

however,

did,

To

thunderbolt

lawyer, he was almost instanta-

at his constitutional

neously able to compose himself. Secondly, he was unfailingly solicitous

of his

frail

wife and always, in the words of one Hoffa

friend, "unbelievably nice to her."

The former general president, no novice at using the appellate would quickly appeal the Pratt decision. And he still, once the shock of July 19 had worn off, expected to win his case: Boudin and his other attorneys remained optimistic that his position was a process,

strong one and that the judges

at'

the next level, the Circuit Court

of Appeals for the District of Columbia, would find sive than the stand taken

by the attorney

it

more persuaOther

general's office.

some of them by no means favorably

constitutional scholars,

posed toward Hoffa himself, agreed, and

dis-

encouraged

this fact also

him.

But

arguments would not be heard by the appellate court

final

until early 1975,

by

it

until

and

much

a

would presumably not be rendered

decision

later that year.

Such

a timetable ruled

out his

running for the presidency of his old Detroit Local 299 in January, a step that

he had originally planned so

himself to

as to position

return as general president at the July 1976 Teamster national convention. bitter

He had

power

expected to win the Detroit post handily despite

a

struggle between his supporters in the local and those

of Frank Fitzsimmons that had become embarrassingly public even before he emerged

The

from

prison.

fighting had not been confined to

mere words,

1970, the local's president, old Hoffa friend and loyalist

either. In

David

E.

Johnson, was brutally assaulted. Subsequently, shotgun blasts shattered

two of Johnson's

office

windows, and

in 1974, a

explosion destroyed his forty-five-foot cabin cruiser.

mysterious

A

trustee

of

the local had lost an eye to another shotgun blast, the local's secretary-treasurer

had had

his

had exploded outside the

Johnson had announced

barn burned to the ground, and

home of

that he

Chapter 14

abandoned

bomb

yet another Local 299 official.

would

retire at the

support Hoffa as his successor. But with the able for the job, he

a

latter

end of 1974 and

no longer

avail-

his original plans and, refusing to

be

370

intimidated, ran for reelection in order to thwart the presidential

chances of the Local 299 vice-president ard.

The two

— Fitzsimmons's son, Rich-

factions ultimately agreed

sulted in both

on

a

compromise

that re-

Johnson and Fitzsimmons being reelected to

present positions without opposition.

The

situation

remained

their

tense,

however.

The world of violence was never very

far from Jimmy Hoffa, summer of 1975, his son might be coming even closer. "Dad was pushing so

of course, but in the spring and early feared that

it

hard to get back in office," the younger Hoffa creasingly afraid that the

There had been three and one

trip to the

mob would do visits in a

was

recalls; "I

something about

in-

it."

short time frame to Lake Orion

Guardian Building law

offices

calone, an alleged kingpin in the Detroit Mafia,

by Anthony Giaand

his

younger

brother Vito. Friendly with Provenzano and believed to be related to

up

him, their avowed purpose in coming to the cottage was to a

"peace meeting" between

in years past

Hoffa, with

whom

they had also had a close relationship.

Hoffa had,

in

million-dollar loan earlier,

Tony Pro and

set

fact,

helped Anthony Giacalone get a half-

from the Central

States Pension

Fund

a

decade

and the elder brother was widely believed to have been the

principal contact for

Teamster

leader.

some

years between the Detroit

(Nor had Hoffa ever remotely

mob

and the

tried to hide his

when a reporter had observed the two men walking together in Miami Beach and subsequently asked Hoffa, "What were you doing with Tony Giacalone?" he had been given as an answer, "All I know is that Tony association with Giacalone in these years: once,

is

a great

guy and

he's a friend

of mine.") But Hoffa's son had

viewed the "peace meeting" overture convinced that

Tony

Giacalone,

hand out business cards

listing

who

as at

himself as

only

a pretext.

He was

one time was known

to

president of an "extermi-

company" 14 and was thought to be capable of the exterminaof humans as well as animal and insect life, was "setting Dad

nating tion

And, while the senior Hoffa had concluded each of the meetings with the Giacalones by adamantly refusing to meet with Provenzano (who, he told the brothers, was a "bum"), this

up"

for a hit.

young attorney's fears. The son knew was becoming increasingly uneasy each time

hardly ended the

that his

father, too,

that the

The Post-Prison Years

371

Giacalones arrived in their big

wood:

"I

He

own

could

tell

by the look

finally forced

pistol. It

was an

upon

a

much

in his eyes

when he was with them."

his father, for future self-protection, his

of desperation, not so much because owned an armed weapon before and

persuasion ("He was," says his son, "a

gun guy") but because,

was forbidden by law

Chapter 14

tan-topped green Cadillac Fleet-

act

senior Hoffa had never

quired

new

as a

fist

convicted felon, the former

the re-

guy, not

IBT

leader

to carry such an instrument.

372

July 30, 1975, and

Aftermath

Its

15 Normally the soundest of

sleepers,

James

Hoffa was awake

P.

at

summer home of his in-laws almost 1975. He had an uncomfortable feeling

the Traverse City, Michigan, the entire night of July 30, that

something was very wrong, and he was unable,

fitfully in the light

of

a brilliant full

moon,

he tossed

as

to rid himself

of

his

anxiety.

He was quite sure that the difficulty much the object of his concern in

ther, so

at a loss as to

visit to

further specifics.

Lake Orion

be relevant.

Tony

a

few days

still

Tony

reason to

harm

indicted

From

and

this

might or might not

maintained his allegiance to James R. Hoffa's

the elder Hoffa:

a Pontiac,

now

he might have another

on the very day

by the same jury on fraud and income tax evasion charges. but

now

friend

might

in the

crowded

who knew what

series

simmons's shiny as the

the mercurial Provenzano

of happenings within Local 299 that

new union-owned

10:

sat in

Nemo's

Bar, not far

This might possibly also have presaged

for the elder Hoffa, although the line to the

was somewhat more tenuous.

now

Richard Fitz-

Lincoln Continental was dyna-

Local 299 vice-president

his office.

Tony

be thinking? Similarly, another violent incident

extended back five years had taken place on July

from

after the latter

Michigan, grand jury, Giacalone had been

leaked information, Hoffa had not said anything against

in his testimony,

mited

was

Giacalone had paid yet another

earlier,

sworn enemy, Tony Provenzano, and had talked to

related directly to his fa-

recent weeks, but he

a

problem

former IBT head here

And both as the

Hoffas believed

at this

point that what they viewed

"flawed" parole arrangement would soon be rescinded

sibly within days.

They had

ward Levi had concluded

memo

learned that a

by Justice Department lawyers

— pos-

recently prepared

for the use of Attorney General

that the restrictions

Ed-

were unconstitutional

and therefore should be eliminated. President Gerald R. Ford, apfirst

year in office, was also considered as

a potentially positive factor: a

fellow resident of Michigan, his rela-

proaching the end of his

with the former IBT president had never been unfriendly,

tions

and he was presumably agreement.

The

that

removed from

elder Hoffa

Free Press reporter

hoped

far

the

Nixon-Fitzsimmons

had only the previous week told

whom

Ralph Orr,

Detroit

he greatly respected, that he

Orr would personally cover

the story of the rescission,

and upon learning that Orr planned to be on vacation for the follow-

two weeks and would have to turn the assignment over to a news break then, had said, "Just so it ain't no kid, Ralph. I don't want no kid." What would be good news for James R. Hoffa would not, of course, be received with ing

fellow journalist should the

by

equal happiness

others.

Morning proved

the

7 a.m., Josephine Hoffa,

young attorney

who

son for several hours only with great telephone. She

him

was

that his father,

calling

justified in his fears.

difficulty,

reached

him by

from the Hoffa lakefront home

due back

At

had refrained from contacting her

at

Lake Orion from

to

tell

luncheon ap-

a

pointment by 4 p.m. the previous day, had not been heard from in all this time.

Jim had to ask her to repeat some of the information: was so frantic as to be, for a while, almost

her conversation unintelligible.

Josephine's hysteria

would have been understandable under any

conditions, given Hoffa's turbulent professional world. For the wife

of a

man who was

in addition so dutiful

toward her

that he invari-

ably kept her fully informed of his whereabouts, and rarely let

more than

a

when away

few hours pass without telephoning, the

absence of communication was highly ominous. Within minutes, the son had chartered a plane and

was on

his

way

to his parents'

home. Barbara Hoffa Crancer, her

mind before

like her brother, already

receiving, at 7:30 a.m., the

same

had much on

tearful

from her mother. Robert Crancer had recently been

Chapter 15

message

in a serious

374

automobile accident and was

in a St.

Louis hospital for plastic sur-

gery on his nose. This had necessitated Barbara's postponing to

Michigan for herself and Barbara

Jo.

The

a visit

in turn,

visit,

had

originally been scheduled to coincide with a cataract operation that

had been planned for Josephine

August

in early

— the mother's

sec-

ond such eye surgery.

As she closed her eyes

in her airplane seat

en route to Detroit

on July 31, the daughter had a vision of her father, whom she was already sure was dead. He was slumped over, wearing a darkcolored, short-sleeved polo shirt. that,

It

has mystified her ever since

while she could not possibly have

wearing

known

this fact prior to

her

Lake Orion, the clothing was exactly what Hoffa was

arrival at

when he

disappeared.

Josephine Hoffa did not wait long after 4 p.m. on Wednesday,

come and gone without word from her spouse to take By early evening, she had summoned close friends Louis

July 30, had action.

Linteau and Cindy Green, the operators of a Pontiac, Michigan, airport limousine service in

ownership distraught

woman.

two decades

than

which Hoffa was believed

to

have an

and they decided to spend the night with the

interest,

Linteau and Hoffa went back

earlier, after

a

long way: more

Linteau had pleaded guilty of conspir-

ing to receive gratuities from employers as an officer of Pontiac

Teamster Local 614 and had gone to jail for it

that

he continued to receive his union

this,

Hoffa had seen to

salary.

Josephine told her two guests that her husband had

house

at

about

1

p.m.

on

that afternoon to

left

meet "somebody"

the

in the

parking lot of the stylish Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield

Township, some

fifteen miles

northwest of Detroit and approxi-

mately twenty miles from the cottage. At about 2:30 p.m., he had telephoned her to ask, "Where the hell stood up."

It

was

is

Tony

Giacalone? I'm being

the last contact that she had had, or ever

would

have, with her spouse.

Linteau provided Josephine with slightly tion.

He had

received a telephone

call

more

recent informa-

from an enraged Hoffa

at

about 3:30 on the same afternoon. Hoffa had told him, too, that he

had been "stood up" but had not elaborated.

The

Federal Bureau of Investigation could not enter the case

for a while. Federal

July 30, 1975, and

Its

kidnapping legislation requires

Aftermath

a

twenty-four

375

that the victim has

been taken

across state lines takes effect and, of course, the bureau

would have

hour wait before the presumption to be offered a convincing at all to

be able to involve

showing

that there

had been

on

this basis.

Other

itself

involving extortion, for example

— might

a

kidnapping

statutes

also allow

it

— those

jurisdiction,

but these, too, would have to await future developments.

On

the other hand, the five-man Bloomfield

Department could come

in as

soon

as

it

was

Township

Police

notified of the disap-

on July 31 by Linteau, and its investigators took action within the hour. They forced open the trunk of Hoffa's

pearance, at 8 a.m.

unlocked dark green 1974 Pontiac Grand Ville hardtop, which was

now

standing almost alone in the

was no body

sure that there

Machus Red Fox lot, to make They also questioned Red

in the trunk.

Fox employees and various other possible witnesses, no one had seen anything. They

in vain since

however, learn (from an

did,

after-

call triggered by the now fast-spreading news) that two men had seen Hoffa in the restaurant parking lot on the previous day: he seemed to be waiting for someone, and the two men had stopped to chat with him briefly and to shake his hand. The local police chose, however, not to speak with Anthony Giacalone for the moment: With somebody like that, you "just don't go talk,"

noon telephone

the Bloomfield

Township's chief investigator had explained. "You

wait until the right time." 1

James

P.

Hoffa spent most of

the telephone, calling people

some

shed

light

whom

group of reporters

family could offer no

that

in the early

news and

Orion on

that there

a blank.

evening to

had gathered outside

no press conference. The Hoffas, he

at

he thought might be able to

on the disappearance. But he drew

emerged from the lakefront house large

afternoon

his first

that he

He

tell

the

and

his

would, accordingly, be

said,

were just waiting and

hoping. In fact,

however, he was attempting to do more than

this.

With

Giacalone so obviously a key suspect in the July 30 chain of events, the

younger Hoffa had arranged to meet the alleged Mafioso the

next day, ship. ing.

He

at

an intersection not far

But he did

He

away from Bloomfield Townaway from this meet-

hardly expected to take good news

waited

anticipate finding out something. at

the intersection,

on August

minutes before concluding that "Tony Jack"

Chapter 15

1,

(as

for forty-five

Giacalone was

376

widely known) had replicated his performance of July 30 by

now

standing him up.

Giacalone was not the only person ately suspected

of having had

hand

a

whom

Hoffa's son immedi-

know something

O'Brien, in his opinion, might also

Chuckie

in the disappearance.

that he

would

not be willing to divulge, the forty-one-year-old foster son's onceclose ties to the vanished labor leader notwithstanding.

The in the

drawn

beer-bellied O'Brien had

postprison years

— by some

steadily

away from Hoffa

reports, because his foster father

had refused to help him become president of Local 299, by others because Hoffa had not been willing to pay O'Brien's considerable

gambling and other debts O'Brien posed

after

advancing him some $50,000 that

had not repaid. The straight-laced Hoffa had

still

his foster son's recent

second marriage to

a

also op-

divorced former

beauty queen with three children.

Always

friendly with Giacalone

had been), O'Brien was these days called

"Uncle Tony" and

5

from

much over

to the

it.

He

Tony

a

one Hoffa

he

asked so long as he could person-

P.

$45,000-a-year

office, a

Fitz's

Hoffa from the Teamster

IBT

organizer, scheduled

He was

choice assignment.

were "ungrateful" and was

Hoffa family to be not only very also a turncoat.

man

capable of

soon to the anti-Hoffa Southern Conference of

to be reassigned

that the Hoffas

now seemed

Frank Fitzsimmons camp: he had survived

was now

Teamsters main

the closer with the

appeared additionally to have gone very

purge of both Josephine and James payroll and

all

of course, Hoffa himself

to the Hoffas, he

doing almost anything that ally benefit

(as,

He combined

openly saying

in turn believed

much of

in a single person, in the

relative, the qualities

by the

an ingrate himself but

of "a pathological

liar,

words of a

mooch,

and an opportunist."

James

P.

big brother

Hoffa was convinced that

was

suffering

from

his

once-admired surrogate

a guilty conscience: just three

before the disappearance, the attorney had learned

O'Brien had been surprised by Jim's

visit to the

from

union

days

a client that hall (to give

a

legal seminar) and "turned white and just took off without saying

a

word when he saw you

here." This behavior of Chuckie's had

defied explanation at the time, since relations

July 30, 1915, and

Its

Aftermath

between the two men

377

were

Now,

not overtly antagonistic.

if cool,

still,

lawyer to have made

it

seemed

to the

total sense.

According to Hoffa's son, O'Brien had told "conflicting sto-

when he telephoned

ries"

on July 31

the family

to

convey

And, although O'Brien's

cern about the disappearance.

his

con-

offer to

guard Jim's wife, Ginger, and their two boys at the son's home while Hoffa stayed with his mother and sister at the lake had been

"Jimmy

lawyer had subsequently had second thoughts.

the

accepted,

called

me

me

to

he wanted

about 3:30 in the morning [of August

come

"At

first,

I

told

and kids were secure in bed asleep, and

me

agents ... to I

didn't like

stay with

what he was saying

conversation was going. So to sleep.'

I

no, that his wife

wasn't going to leave

I

so I got one of the [union business]

to,

come over and

him

and said

Teamster

right over to the cottage," the

organizer later told friends.

them. But he wanted

1]

them and

that night.

said,

'Look,

I

I

went out

didn't like the

Jimmy, you're

there.

way

tired.

his

Go

"2

Far from going to sleep, the younger Hoffa (soon joined by his sister)

had kept

insisting

adamantly that O'Brien take

we have

tor test to "resolve the doubts that

firmly,

with

a lie detec-

about you." Just as

O'Brien had declined, declaring that he would have

his

lawyer

first.

Following

a

to check

heated verbal exchange, O'Brien

had departed. During the next several days, he seemed to drop completely out of sight.

En

Township

route to the Bloomfield

Hoffa had stopped

and Green to lunch, Hoffa

at the

restaurant

on July

30,

Airport Service Lines, Inc. office of Linteau

talk to Linteau.

was forced

His old friend having just

left

to settle instead for small talk with

for

em-

ployee Elmer Reeves, in the course of which he informed Reeves

of the names of the

Reeves was

when

men whom

initially

he was on his

to meet.

pressed to do so by police investigators. But under hypnosis,

which he was then administered by Hoffa family, he had no trouble

thony Giacalone, was no longer (all

way

unable to remember any of .the names

the

more

so

July 30 notation,

now "TG

at all.

in

a

psychologist hired by the

One

of the three men, An-

doubt by anyone

that Hoffa's office calendar

as a suspect

had revealed

— 2 p.m. — Red Fox"). A second was

a

a close

Giacalone associate and Detroit area labor consultant, ex-convict

Chapter 15

378

Leonard Schultz. The third was Anthony Provenzano, of northern

New Jersey

and Florida.

Tony Jack and Tony drama, each had

on the and

by

a

alibi.

Giacalone was widely observed

early afternoon of July 30 getting a

a haircut at Detroit's

Schultz's sons.

rest

Pro, presumably the major players in this

formidable

A

of the afternoon

finally contacted

by

rubdown,

a

sauna bath,

suburban Southfield Athletic Club, owned

friend of his told police that he also spent the at

an office building attached to the club.

reporters,

Tony Jack

When

snappishly denied that he

had scheduled any meeting with Hoffa and shortly thereafter flew

Miami area. Tony Provenzano was also seemingly in solid shape. A number of people claimed to have seen him playing cards at the Union, New Jersey, office of his old Teamster Local 560. And he, too, angrily told members of the media that his hands were entirely clean. "Jimmy was, or is, my friend," he blurted to the journalists who besieged him a few days later at his expensive winter house in Hallandale, Florida. "I don't know where Jimmy went. I'm as south, reportedly to the

shocked

as

anyone by

to help find [him], telling

I

his disappearance,

will."

He

them, "You're embarrassing

You guys

neighborhood.

and

if

I

can do anything

then urged his visitors to leave,

me

in front

of everyone in the

make me look like a driver." They did leave, but

out on the lawn

mobster. I'm not. I'm just a truck

member of

the press corps departed, the tough ex-

convict noticed that he

was sweating and laughingly remarked,

before one

"Hey, you think you weren't gonna get out of here something?"

alive

or

3

The FBI entered the investigation on August 3. Its director, Clarence M. Kelley, announced that it was doing so because, during the previous twenty-four hours, "extortionate communications"

had been received

in

connection with the disappearance. Under the

federal extortion statutes, the tigative jurisdiction,

that

Hoffa was

still

in the past tense.

agency was therefore assuming inves-

although very few of its investigators thought

alive,

and many of them

Most of the

spoke about him

bureau's almost three hundred agents

in the greater Detroit area

were assigned

moved

into the Lake

these immediately

freely

to the case,

and several of

Orion cottage with

telephones, radio equipment, sleeping bags, and cots.

their

The new

house guests overcrowded the residence's single bathroom, and

July 30, 1975, and

Its

Aftermath

379

they gave Barbara, in particular, "a strange, although comforting, feeling:

they were the former enemy, after

all."

Anyone with meaningful knowledge of

now

was widely publicized,

as

coming

forth and sharing

it

Hoffa's whereabouts,

stood to gain some $275,000 by

with the authorities. Local 299 had

almost immediately upon learning of the July 30 happening offered a

$25,000 reward for such information, and

this

by an announcement by the Hoffa children

had been followed

would add

that they

a pledge by Overdrive Magazine that it would put in $50,00 of its own. The hope was that the money, combined with governmental promises of complete confidentiality to all tipsters, would operate as a powerful motivator.

$200,000 to the fund and by

Such, in

was the

fact,

enforcement agents,

One a

announced

caller

Telephoned reports flooded the law

as well as various television

and newspapers not only

on

case.

in

that

Hoffa was

sailing

around Lake Michigan

141-foot yacht. Another said that while sleeping he had re-

ceived a message that the missing jail.

and radio stations

Michigan but throughout the country.

A woman

man was

in a

South American

claimed to have seen Hoffa's body on

a small lake

A man who called himself "Morning TV station that Hoffa was in nearby Glen-

near Somerset, Michigan. Star" told a Los Angeles

The Chicago

dale, California.

the labor leader

garage.

An

the Detroit

office

was buried under

of the FBI was informed that

the floor of a

program sponsored by some

eight-year-old "Secret Witness"

News

Midwestern truck

received a record total of 120 tips on Hoffa,

20 of them from people claiming to have extrasensory perception.

The Michigan were told far

state police,

to look

who had

also

now

joined the search,

on the grounds of the Franklin Cider

from the Red Fox

Mill, not

restaurant.

There was no paucity of communications to the James law firm,

either. Several

man

while in

a

Murray Chodak,

a trance.

that while driving along the

observed Hoffa in

Hoffa

people claiming to be psychics telephoned

the attorney son or his partner, the missing

P.

A

had seen

truck driver regretted to say

banks of Ohio's

burning house

that they

trailer.

Maumee

River he had

Several people called the

Guardian Building to announce that they themselves were holding the labor leader prisoner

return for the reward

$500,000 in

Chapter 15

a call that

and would be happy to exchange him

money. One man

in

tried to raise the ante to

he made from California: even

as

he was

380

two law

telling the

phones) that he could produce Hoffa

was

million, he

arrested

and had traced

call

words had been,

it.

if

you now. I'm on

seemed remotely

to

that

it

warned

publicly

it

audible

credible

were

investi-

number of false tips that had it was a violation of federal

that

law knowingly to furnish the bureau with under investigation. Privately, even

investigators believed that Hoffa's

They shared

whom

Cohen,

was

many

body would never be found. Mickey

the Hoffa family had independently asked to look

by questioning some of his underworld

good chance

a

information about

false

at this early date,

the opinion of former Los Angeles crime figure

into the matter

there

last

the telephone.")

and none of them checked out. By mid-August, the FBI

alone was sufficiently nettled by the

a case

alerted to the

(The West Coast extortionist's

"I can't talk to

tele-

they could produce the half-

by the FBI, which had been

All of the stories that gated,

come

him on two

partners (conversing with

that

friends, that

no one would ever know what had

happened.

For

had been optimism. Chuckie O'Brien's

a brief while, there

sudden dropping out of sight following

his

August

1

early

morning

combined with

verbal altercation with James and Barbara Hoffa had

make him a prime suspect within a matter of hours. Witnesses placed him in the Machus Red Fox Restaurant parking other factors to

lot at 7

a.m. on July 31, the morning after the Hoffa disappearance.

Although he had originally claimed Athletic

Club

no evidence day.

And

a

ing on the

at the

that the

to

have been

Southfield

at the

time of the disappearance, club records gave

Teamster organizer had been there

at all that

maroon 1975 Mercury that O'Brien had admitted drivafternoon of July 30 was found by FBI examiners to

contain stains on

its

seat that

appeared to be blood.

son resurfaced in Detroit on August 6

Memphis and

— from,

When

as

it

the foster

turned out,

then Washington, where he had apparently been or-

dered to go back to Michigan by Fitzsimmons the investigators had their key

—

it

looked

as

though

man.

But during intensive interrogation of him by federal and local O'Brien was able to weaken all of this potentially in-

authorities,

criminating evidence. the

FBI well knew, he

Detroit

wedding

then traveled to

July 30, 1975, and

at

He had said:

which three FBI agents were

Memphis

Its

never really been missing

Aftermath

at all,

as

he had gone to an August 2 suburban also in attendance,

to spend time with his

new

bride,

and

381

finally paid a business visit to his boss,

Washington headquarters. morning:

lot early in the

which he was frequently friend,

it

He

close to the red

who was

Jr.,

also

July 31 was therefore hardly unique in

had been

initially

own, he

work from

a

the Teamster payroll.

this regard. In addition,

he

he was actually

later recalled that

maroon 1975 Mercury owned by

driving a car at the time: a

friend Joey Giacalone, the son

He

his

in

confused in recounting his whereabouts on the

of July 30 and

early afternoon

on

IBT

farm house

and having no car of

to the restaurant to await a ride to

Robert Holmes,

the

at

Red Fox parking

often stood in the

was very

living these days,

went

Fitzsimmons,

his

of his Uncle Tony.

would need an automobile that day only after he had come to work and so had called Joey and prevailed on him to drive the Mercury over to the Teamster Detroit had, he said, found that he

He had

complex.

office

then driven Joey back to the

and gone on in the car to the

now

Strawberry Boy,

from another Teamster bag

in a

box, but

way over

to the

it

Sr. (the

official,

was packed

had started to leak

Holmes

house. Mrs.

fish

a gift to

fish,

him

to

meet Anthony Giacalone

at

Holmes

in ice inside a plastic

blood

on the

in the car

Holmes had taken the it was too

hands and chatted with him for so long that

his

old

the head of Teamster Joint Council 43) to

twenty-pound coho salmon. The

deliver a

latter's office

home of Robert Holmes,

fish off late for

the Southfield Athletic Club, as

he had originally planned to do. Instead, he went to a car wash and

had some of the

fish

blood washed

off.

Joey's office. Joey Giacalone and the

happy

to furnish the investigators

He

then returned the car to

Holmeses would, he knew, be

with further particulars should

these be desired.

O'Brien would continue to be suspected of having had some

hand

James

in the disappearance P. Hoffa.

by many people, most

But he would never again come

the star performer in the Hoffa mystery as he this

chronology.

would now be

What had him

—

his

seemly near vanishing during the

and even

had brought

Chapter 15

a denial a

by

being

to his giving

seemed so obvious

Everything that could be

embarrassing retraction concern-

ing the Southfield club, his flaunted

6,

was prior

for a short while

insufficient to indict him.

definitively used against

particularly

as close to

ties to

the Giacalones, his un-

critical five

by the manager of the

days prior to August car

wash

that

anyone

1975 maroon Mercury in to his establishment on the

382

day

question

in

(Within

case.

a

— added up

more than

to nothing

a

very superficial

week, the forty-five-year-old car wash supervisor

was dead, apparently of natural

causes, in another interesting but

once again unusable O'Brien-related happening.) August, with promising leads conspicuous by their ab-

In late

sence, the

FBI and the U.S. attorney

in Detroit decided to issue

who might know

subpoenas for grand jury appearances to anyone

anything about the events of July 30. The hope was that the threat

of contempt

citations, possible

under such machinery, would induce

testimony that might be possible in no other way. ber

2,

1975-

was buried without knowing a

month of having asked

jury heard from the

Many fully.

first

that her son

had disappeared but

of those

who

testified in these closed sessions

cooperated

Martin and Irene Woehl, next-door neighbors of the Hoffas

Lake Orion, said that Hoffa appeared to be quite relaxed

worked on

grounds on the morning of July

his

no longer requiring the services of a hypnotist told

after

him daily in vain— a duly constituted of some seventy witnesses scheduled over for

few weeks, Joey Giacalone.

the next

at

And on Septem-

— the same day that the eighty-five-year-old Viola Hoffa

all

knew about

that he

Lawicki, a truck driver

Red Fox unusual

who

30.

to

he

as

Elmer Reeves,

jog

his

memory,

Hoffa's conversation with him. Ernest regularly delivered food to the

Machus

some length that he saw nothing when he stopped there early on July 31.

restaurant, testified at

at

the restaurant

Stanley Gould, one of several lawyers assisting Leonard

Boudin

in

the effort to rescind Hoffa's union business restriction, revealed that for a

few embarrassing moments on July 31 he had been thought

when he had

be Hoffa's kidnapper:

to

telephoned Lake Orion and

given Cynthia Green a message for Hoffa's son, his words had

been sufficiently garbled that until the son phoned Gould back for clarification,

it

looked

as

though Gould was holding the elder Hoffa

captive.

But such witnesses

as these,

while models of loquaciousness,

were clearly of limited usefulness to the grand jury.

who might have had much more

to

tell

And

witnesses

seemed almost universally

determined to keep the information to themselves.

Chuckie O'Brien, wearing answer

a variety

later told reporters that

July 30, 1975, and

Its

a size fifty sports jacket, refused to

of questions in it

Afiermath

his appearance.

was "appalling" when

(James P. Hoffa a

"man

like this

383

who

claims to be a foster son withholds such needed information.")

Tony Provenzano pointedly informed the journalists who pressed upon him in the hallway outside the courtroom that this was his first

to

trip

Detroit since Barbara Hoffa's wedding to Robert

Crancer twelve years

earlier,

him

inside the jury

minutes on the stand

And Tony

room,

Tony had

it

also

was

been

than enlightening.

less

Hoffa disappearance would hurt his prospects for

to plead the Fifth

had swung with

his

every question

clear that in his ten

Giacalone, worried that the publicity linking

upcoming mail fraud and at a

tax evasion case,

Amendment.

A

was

who

him

to the

a fair trial in his

told

few months

newspaper photographer

cameras snapping

else to say

William Bufalino, announced to

Tony Pro had answered

the waiting reporters that

asked of

much

but he had nothing

to anyone: although his lawyer,

by

his attorney

earlier,

Giacalone

had approached him

when Tony Jack had come

courthouse for his indictment, and his appearance

to this

same

time accord-

this

number of cameramen, but he had nothing communicate now, and he entered and left the building

ingly attracted a record at all to

staring stonily ahead.

Some of the

witnesses appeared unwilling to leave anything to

chance. Lawyers were not allowed to the hearing

room, but there was no

accompany

restriction

their clients into

on conferences with

counsel in the hallway outside, and several people

seemed stand.

with

to be almost in perpetual

Joey Giacalone

left

the

motion during

room twenty-one

his attorney, leading to speculation that

the constitutional

amendment

who

their

time on the

times to converse

he was

a

heavy user of

against self-incrimination. Suspected

Detroit mobsters Raffaele Quasarano and Peter Vitale,

men who were once to

friendly with Hoffa and had

Fitzsimmons, between them had

two

a slightly

partners in a garbage disposal plant that

been the

last resting

testified

place of several gangland

two more

now gone

over

higher average: the

was believed murder

to

victims,

have

Qua-

sarano and Vitale talked to their lawyer in the hallway twelve and thirty-one times respectively. (The lawyer, putting the best face the situation, explained to reporters standing near him,

on

"These men

They don't speak the English language fluently. We wanted to make sure they understood each question in its proper context before answering it so their answers would

are not sophisticated individuals.

best help the grand jury." 4 )

Chapter 15

384

Other witnesses, not content with merely reacting tions,

themselves went on the offensive. Anthony

to ques-

the

Zerilli,

J.

reputed chieftain of the Detroit Mafia, angrily threatened to sue

anyone

who

described

him

as a

Mafioso: "I

am

member of

organized crime or an

have been," he announced, "a organized-crime conspiracy.

now on

I

intend to challenge

he

Zerilli said that

ance.

At

least

knew

differently than

detector

test,

on

serve notice

visitor

a court

of law." 5

contended that James P. Hoffa,

O'Brien had

earlier refused to take a lie

should be given more rigorous scrutiny

as a possible

know

that a prior

Another witness wanted the jury

suspect.

persons that from

all

such accusations in

absolutely nothing about the disappear-

one courtroom

who no

witness

I

all

not now, nor never

who had

cast aspersions

to

on him was himself a

"liar"

and

a

"prostitute." Still

who

others

testified

— various Teamsters, Southfield Ath-

Club employees, an attorney with

letic

offices

in

the building

contiguous to the club, friends of Chuckie O'Brien

unshakably precise in the calone, Provenzano,

facts that

— were

so

they offered to support the Gia-

and O'Brien July 30

stories that not a

few

observers suspected that their testimonies had been coached.

As

the grand jury investigation proceeded, without producing

any meaningful

results at all despite the large quantity

and consider-

development took

able variety of its witnesses, an unexpected

place.

William B. Gallinaro, the chief investigator for the U.S. Senate's

Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, was approached by Harry Hall

who

Harry Haller,

(alias

brought "greetings" from

be speaking on their behalf.

alias

a

Hary

Helfgot), an informant

group of Mafiosi and claimed

The crime

bosses, Hall said,

felt

to

that

they were being treated unfairly by the FBI and Michigan state police in their respective Hoffa investigations because they in fact innocent

were

of any wrongdoing. The mobsters had learned,

according to Hall, that Hoffa had been executed not by Mafia people but by lower-level Teamsters, and they were consequently getting publicity that they neither deserved nor wanted.

off themselves for the "hit," they

Hoffa's body. And, as latter

it

happened, they

was, since another informant

had told them, and they

To

take the heat

wanted the investigators

now wanted

knew

who had

exactly

to find

where the

helped in the burial

to share this information with

Gallinaro and his senate associates.

July 30, 1975, and

Its

Afiermath

385

Gallinaro, an experienced Mafia investigator,

He had known

former convict with

Hall, a

ties to

was

intrigued.

both the Mafia

and the Teamsters, for two years and had found him to be

He was

ally reliable source.

money

asked for no

further impressed

by the

gener-

a

fact that Hall

for his efforts. After further negotiations, dur-

ing which Gallinaro guaranteed complete anonymity to the Mafiosi,

he and

a colleague, F.

Keith Adkinson, met Hall in a Los Angeles

them

restaurant as Hall had instructed

ployees received a burial site

to do.

There the senate em-

containing information as to the purported

An

from the ex-convict.

elated senator

Henry M. Jack-

chairman of the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommit-

son,

and

tee

map

a

candidate for the U.S. presidency, thereupon publicly

acknowledged the

of the information and announced that

receipt

the "first big break in the case"

had taken

place.

He added

that,

while he could not reveal where his staffers had obtained the map,

he could say that organized crime was "definitely involved" in the

procurement.

The map could have been

clearer.

It

and ignored most other

details,

allowing considerable

at all

Those who scrupulously followed

confusion.

for

contained no street names

worded commandment

to

go

"left"

its

room

vaguely

from the Machus Red Fox

restaurant for nine and one-quarter miles and then proceed another six

and

apart

a half

miles could, for example,

from each

other.

Even

naro and Adkinson that the

a further

still

wind up some

to get to this site. Ultimately,

however, the senate investigators a

twenty-nine-acre

half-dozen miles west of Pontiac, Michigan, in Waterford

They, accordingly, went there of Michigan

state

—

site a

Town-

to be joined not only

by

a

many private money by being $275,000 reward

policemen but also by

citizens,

who hoped

the

to discover the body. Their intensive digging

first

how

for misinterpretation as to

concluded that the burial area was within

sizable corps

Galli-

of the Hoffa body would be marked

site

by no means eliminated the room

ship.

distance

message from Hall to

to gain the

of holes in

the rattlesnake-infested tract also attracted hundreds of curious local residents, like

who

created

atmosphere,

soft drinks."

what one newspaperman

many of

called "a picnic-

[the neighbors] bringing along beer

and

6

But several days of searching

in

the relatively small area

brought no more success than the grand jury investigation had pro-

Chapter 15

386

Not

duced.

of

a trace

who

consternation of Hall, to Gallinaro

was found

a burial site at this

—

to the apparent

point relayed a communication

and Adkinson that the mobsters were upset by the

of the investigators to follow simple instructions. Soon,

inability

the rented backhoes, garden tools, and other implements that had

been used in the search became, for the Waterford Township history. Gallinaro,

had great

that he

now

some

faith in Hall,

with the informant's After a few

in

more

but he was increasingly unhappy

failure to furnish

days, he and

any more

Adkinson asked

permission to return to their Washington

with such promise was If the

now

ending

as

specifics at

for

all.

and received

What had begun

offices.

an apparent hoax.

Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee was in

fact victimized,

it

organization than

did not stand alone.

CBS News

Township wild goose

had

known

when both men were

at

less sophisticated

an

from $10,000 of its money by claimed that he knew where

who

body could be found. The

said that he

No

was, shortly after the Waterford

chase, parted

an imaginative escaped convict Hoffa's

tract,

disgrace, continued to maintain

convict, Clarence

the former

IBT

Lewisburg.

And Medlin

N. Medlin,

leader five years earlier

indeed had. But

the rest of a story that he had just told an impressionable Greens-

boro, North Carolina, freelance writer and college journalism instructor

named

Patrick O'Keefe had been concocted out of

cloth. Hoffa's remains,

concrete

Medlin told O'Keefe,

the ocean floor

Hoffa had, he

Florida. trip to

on

said,

two and one-half

a journalist,

surrounded by

miles off

Key West,

been shot to death while on

Key West. Medlin had decided

through

lay

whole

a fishing

to reveal this to the public,

because of his deep friendship with Hoffa.

O'Keefe, excited, immediately contacted Harpers Magazine, for

whom

he had done previous work, and was advanced $700 by the

New

York for further discussions. But the involved Harpers editor, Lewis Lapham, apparently did not believe Medlin's story when it was presented to him

publication to bring himself and Medlin to

in face-to-face discussion

and sent the convict and O'Keefe over to

CBS. The network reacted more favorably: Medlin was interviewed that same night on videotape, by Morley Safer of "60 Minutes," and received $1,000 for his Hoffa comments. The next day, O'Keefe was hired as a CBS consultant and given $9,000 more for his

agreement to lead

July 30, 1975, and

Its

Aftermath

a

network news team

to the body:

CBS 387

assumed

that the

pockets, but

money would soon

wanted,

it

its

way

into Medlin's

announced, to avoid making any

later

it

find

kind of direct payment to a newsmaker such as the convict.

The network was the

money. He

quite correct in

He was

CBS news

for a third successive day. offices

with

en route to

Key

New

Orleans

team was exploring the ocean waters off Key

as a

West

news

Tampa

at

arrested five days later in

even

the

assumption: Medlin took

men were presumably

O'Keefe, while the two West, vanished.

its

during an overnight stopover

also,

of the

New

On

the previous day, he had visited

Orleans Times-Picayune, represented

himself as having been Hoffa's former bodyguard, and asked, without success, to be paid for the "true story" of Hoffa's disappearance.

The

News

proved to be

his

undoing. Watching the

that night, a Times-Picayune reporter recognized

wanted

come

visit

for his

Tampa

vanishing

to the paper earlier in the day.

which blocked off New Orleans

The

On December seemed

Medlin (now

same person who had

reporter alerted the FBI,

exit points

and then began

its

suc-

at

long

1975, a genuine break in the frustrating case

4,

last to

have occurred.

chief of the U.S. Organized that the

Crime

On that date,

One

to the

of the witnesses, Ozer

Hoffa "ab-

said,

had seen

time of the crime, accompanied by three men,

in a car at the

but this witness did not

know

been subpoenaed to

The other

the identities of the men.

witness had done more: he had already

now

Robert C. Ozer,

Strike Force in Detroit, revealed

government had unearthed two witnesses

duction and murder."

had

Evening

manhunt.

cessful

Hoffa

act) as the

CBS

testify

named

the three

men,

who

before the Detroit grand jury

in fact, currently in the city. They would appear in the room the very next day. The three, all from New Jersey, were known to law enforce-

and were, jury

ment

authorities

Provenzano, and

in all

that

dier" in the Vito

associates

a

of Anthony

forty-seven-year-old busi-

was described by those

"right-hand

man"

for

familiar with his

Provenzano and

Genovese Mafia family. He was believed

participated in a variety of "hits" his short, slender build

Chapter 15

close

Bugs" Briguglio,

ness agent in the local, life as a

as

were members of Tony Pro's Teamsters Local

560. Salvatore "Sally

professional

state

a "sol-

to

have

on Tony's behalf and was known,

and eyeglasses notwithstanding,

to be

on

388

regular call as Provenzano's prime muscleman. Gabriel Briguglio,

nine years younger than his brother and, at five

was reputed

five inches shorter,

he had been

tions:

who had

loanshark

was believed

to

a colleague

of

lie in

year-old

Thomas

The

third

Dump

Andretta, had recently served

guilty of threatening the

of

life

a

beneath the Pulaski

member of the

a used-car

trio, thirty-eight-

two

had

for his role in a counterfeiting conspiracy; he

years in prison

also

salesman

pay more than $35,000

either unable or unwilling to

inches,

Armand "Cookie" Faugno,

Brother Muscato's

in Jersey City.

two

December 1972 and whose body

disappeared in

Skyway

feet,

to specialize in loanshark opera-

been found

who had

been

for a 1967 loan

of $5,000. All three

men

appeared briefly before the grand jury on Decem-

ber 5 and, to no one's surprise, refused to answer any questions.

When one of them was killed Hoffa,

The at

asked bluntly by

a reporter if

he had

"No comment."

he intriguingly responded,

three suspects also refused to be included in a police lineup

the nearby

obtained

later

a

Oakland County

Jail the

next day, but Ozer quickly

court order that mandated such participation from them.

—

When the two witnesses camouflaged among decoy witnesses for their own protection were shown the lineup, one apparently had no trouble in identifying Salvatore Briguglio as one of the men who

—

had driven off with Hoffa on July identify the others,

30.

But she had been unable

to

and even her one apparent success was greatly

diminished by her admission that she had seen Sally Bugs's picture paper in connection with the Hoffa abduction on the previous

in the

The other witness reportedly was unable

day. three

Provenzano

The case.

earlier,

to lighten his sentence

fascinating statement.

driver

any of the

associates.

prosecution, however, had a

One month

to identify

named Ralph

a

trump card

convicted murderer

had provided

The murderer,

to play in this

who was

hoping

federal investigators with a a

former Local 560 truck

Picardo, claimed that a few days after Hoffa's

disappearance, he had been visited at the

New Jersey

State Peniten-

tiary in

Trenton by Thomas Andretta, Andretta's brother Stephen

(also a

New

Jersey Teamster), and a union accountant. Stephen

Andretta, Picardo said, had told

him

that the

Provenzano group

had been involved in the Hoffa event. Andretta had further

stated,

according to Picardo, that Hoffa's body had been stuffed into a

July 30, 1975, and

Its

Aftermath

fifty-

389

drum at a Detroit terminal owned by the Gateway Transportation Company and then carted across the country on a Gateway truck to a garbage dump in Hudson County, New Jersey. And, Picardo reported, Andretta had also told him that he himself five-gallon oil

was not present

New Jersey,

in Detroit

on July 30 because by staying behind

he could "provide an

Picardo,

who had

found guilty of

alibi for

Tony Pro." 1975, when he was

May

been in prison since

firing five bullets into the

was obviously not

a

head of an

model of integrity. But,

showed

that he

had been

visited at

associate,

government's

in the

opinion, certain facts warranted giving his story

Prison records

in

some

credence.

Trenton by the

when he claimed to the name of Stephen

Andrettas and the Teamster accountant exactly

Tony Pro had prominently placed among those who could vouch that he was

have been. Andretta in

New Jersey

on the afternoon of July

30.

playing cards

And, most importantly,

had recently furnished authorities with other charges

Picardo

concerning the Provenzano wrongdoing, and these charges upon investigation had checked out almost in their entireties. Stephen

Andretta's name, accordingly, had been added to the

list

of those

to be called before the Detroit grand jury. In the case ities

of Thomas Andretta's brother, however, the author-

were unwilling

to accept a Fifth

Amendment

plea.

Instead,

Stephen Andretta was given an unwanted immunity from prosecution for anything that he

from using

might say and on

this basis

an excuse for not

his constitutional right to silence as

answering grand jury questions.

If

was prevented

he refused to answer now, he

could be jailed for contempt of court.

He

nonetheless chose not to talk

Detroit jury on

on July

December

11.

When

when he appeared

asked by Ozer where he was

30, 1975, he replied that he would

attorney, William Bufalino.

could not represent

He had

him because

first

the attorney

Andretta would be asked to

have to speak to

his

already been told that Bufalino

the other three suspects (his brother and the

whom

before the

testify,

was

two

now

representing

Briguglios) against

and Bufalino was

in

any

event unavailable because he had suffered a heart attack and was in intensive care.

handcuffed,

Andretta, however, stuck to his demand, was

and led away

was sentenced

to jail.

Maintaining his

silence,

he

to nine weeks in Michigan's Milan Prison for

contempt.

Chapter 15

390

The court

finally

phen Andretta among testify

—

in a

allowed

recovered Bufalino to include Ste-

a

and Andretta thereupon agreed to

his clients,

manner of speaking. During

on the witness

his eleven early

1976 days

stand, he eclipsed the walking performances of Joey

Giacalone, Raffaele Quasarano, and Peter Vitale by leaving the

room

a total

fastly

denied that he had discussed anything about Hoffa with Pi-

of 1,117 times to consult with the attorney. 7

He

stead-

cardo and insisted that on the afternoon that Hoffa disappeared he

had been playing union

New

he came back to

handed the keys

to a

of honor

the guest

game

a card

called

Greek

rummy

with Provenzano, the Briguglios, and

hall

at the

Local 560

his brother.

When was

Jersey, his testimony completed, he

new

union-leased

and that night he was

car,

Local 560 party. 8

at a

More than a decade and one-half after James R. Hoffa vanished, one of the most famous missing persons cases in American history is

according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation,

officially,

A

open.

time

crowded tice

Detroit FBI agent continues to be assigned to

file

it

on

a full-

now draw from

the contents of a dozen

cabinets for his information.

The Department of Jus-

and he can

basis,

still

agency nonetheless believes,

as

it

has believed for years, that no

one will probably ever be brought to bureau agent could recently put

it,

trial.

"for

all

The Hoffa

file is, as

practical purposes,

one

dead

as a doornail."

For the FBI to have to hold

were most of Hoffa's

was no question why.

as to

who had

In the years since 1975,

to the closest

conclusion

is

nothing

if

not

almost from the beginning the bureau was con-

frustrating, since

vinced, as

this

it

friends

and

associates, that there

caused the labor leader's death and has subjected Ralph Picardo's story

of scrutiny and not found

it,

in its

major

details,

wanting. Moreover, in the long period since the disappearance, other informers,

bureau

secrets,

whose

identities to this

day remain closely guarded

have also come forward and independently con-

firmed various portions of the convict's

Ozer himself today

feels that

tale.

Prosecutor Robert

indictments should have been sought

by the government, because the chance of these resulting

no

tion

would

But

he stands almost alone: for

certainly be

know what happened on

July 30, 1975, and

Its

Aftermath

less

in convic-

than in most Mafia-related cases. all

July 30,

of

their confidence that they

1975,

most investigators

are

391

equally convinced that they lack the

quantum of evidence necessary

to convince a jury.

The bureau

New

of the opinion that Tony Provenzano and

is

Chuckie O'Brien

Tony

an unwitting dupe and

as

Giacalone

conscious expeditor, and out of motives that were fully the date of the crime.

As

mob

counted on by the

his

to

have

its

way

in

specifically,

by the Vito Genovese

reported capo

a

—

to allow

administration of its Teamster locals and

its

Central States Pension Fund, while Fitzsimmons

infiltration into the

could be.

its

as a

known on

son feared, Hoffa could no longer be

— more

Mafia family in which Provenzano was it

his

most probably with

Jersey colleagues indeed killed Hoffa,

The violence-prone Provenzano

also

had

his further,

him

personal reason involving Hoffa's refusal to help

more

get his

pension.

of the disappearance that has been generally ac-

In the version

cepted by FBI lino,

the in

officials,

Tony

Pro's mobster superior, Russell Bufa-

decided that Hoffa should be done

man who had harbored

away

with, and he gave

grudge against Hoffa since

his

Lewisburg the contract. Provenzano's Detroit

lone,

was then asked

with Provenzano president

at

arrived

Provenzano was

to invite

the

Hoffa to

a

the

relative,

Giaca-

"bury the hatchet" meeting

Machus Red Fox. When

at

their days

nor

Giacalone

neither

restaurant,

there, but others were:

the former general

Thomas Andretta and

the

two Briguglios, who had flown from New Jersey to Cleveland that morning on a private jet and then switched to another small plane and landed

it

at a small,

met the three men

at

secluded greater Detroit airport. O'Brien

the latter location and drove

Bloomfield Township restaurant,

most

likely

them

to the

without accurate

knowledge of their mission. In the

Machus Red Fox parking lot, O'Brien picked up another The latter was waiting there in accordance with

passenger: Hoffa.

Giacalone's instructions, to be driven ostensibly to meet both Giaca-

lone and Provenzano at a nearby alist (the

red farmhouse that

residence in this period).

with both sent

home owned by

was serving

It is

as

a

Detroit industri-

O'Brien's temporary

highly unlikely that Hoffa, uneasy

Tony Pro and Tony

Jack,

would have entered

a

by one or both of them and containing passengers such

the Briguglios and Andretta unless

someone

whom

(O'Brien, despite the recent differences between the

Chapter 15

car as

he trusted

two men) was

392

driving

it.

With O'Brien welcoming him,

and Hoffa got in

— and was

was

FBI version, the Briguglios and Andretta then flew back

In this

New Jersey,

again by

to the private jet.

way of Cleveland where

Other Provenzano

associates

by Frank Sheeran of Pennsylvania, who had Hoffa

close to

positing

—

in an incinerator

it

drum

the

they changed back

— quite possibly

led

for years also been

proceeded to dispose of the body, perhaps by de-

perhaps by sending

owned by Quasarano and

Vitale, or

across the country in the fifty-five-gallon oil

it

described by Picardo and then placing

Dump

a different matter,

probably by stran-

knocked unconscious.

gulation, after being

to

it

killed in the vehicle,

it

in

Brother Muscato's

in Jersey City.

The last location, it may be recalled, was believed to contain body of loanshark Armand "Cookie" Faugno, who had also

apparently fallen into disfavor with Provenzano. And, in

tors to

have served

man who had thony

investiga-

as the final resting place for at least

one other

incurred

New

was

Tony

also

thought by

who

vanished in 1961 in Ulster

York, and whose body was similarly never found.

But intensive searching of the location

at

various points over the

years has failed to produce any of the bodies, and, although

mobster leaks to the FBI chosen ground for

all

still

vouch

some

for Brother Muscato's as the

three victims, this appears to be the one major

ingredient in the Hoffa chronology

main

An-

Pro's wrath through the years:

union competitor

Castellito, a

County,

the

fact,

many

rat-infested sixty-acre landfill

on which bureau personnel

re-

day divided.

to this

FBI's widely shared viewpoint that Hoffa's death was a

The

mob

however, been disputed by

at least

one

respected criminologist. Vincent Piersante, former chief of the

Or-

planned

killing has,

Crime Task Force

ganized

in the

Michigan attorney general's

and the chief investigator on behalf of the is

the single

most counter-productive

act that

organized crime could have com-

And

something like

would be absolutely devastating

.

.

this

they're not that stupid.

The mob to

it.

realized that .

.

.

And

All hinds of anti-crime strike forces were reactivated

.

case,

would have been

mitted at that time.

was.

Hoffa

state in the

firmly convinced that the murder of Hoffa

office

in

it

its

wake, instead of being the casualties of Ford Administration budgetary cutbacks.

.

.

.

All kinds of mobsters went

have gone otherwise.

July 30, 1975, and

Its

.

.

to jail

who probably wouldn't

.

Aftermath

393

Hoffa's disappearance did a

wanted

him

lot

ofgood for law enforcement. IfJimmy ever

[in his fight with

mob

Hoffa both wanted and very

support in his 1975 efforts to return as to

back

IBT

much

president.

have among the Teamster

would be

the only presidential votes that

file,

to

in his death.

it

,

Whatever popularity he continued rank and

for refusing

Fitzsimmons] he certainly got

In Piersante's opinion,

needed

mob

get a measure of revenge against the

to

cast at the

1976 convention were those of the local union officers and business agents

who were now

indebted to Fitzsimmons and consequently

had no choice but to give

some

Hoffa might have had

Fitz their backing.

outside chance if his old

allies in

organized crime could be

persuaded to grant him their allegiance once again. "The

him both

give

clout, too.

mob

and get the

and physical backing, and

financial

That was

his motivation:

to use

its

mob

had

it

could

political

overturn the parole restriction

clout with the local unions so that he

could be reelected." But "Fitz was not the emperor that Jimmy was

and the

mob

preferred Fitz, one reason being that

it

got

its

hooks

into the pension fund

under Fitzsimmons even more deeply than

ever had under Hoffa.

Jimmy was

as

some people thought

that the

mob

.

.

.

not

a

complete tool of the mob,

our [wiretap] tapes showed the trouble

guys often had getting

his

permission to do things."

Nor, Piersante thinks, could Hoffa use in jail

not

by revealing things about them

now

them

a threat to

to the

put mobsters

government

support him: "Most specifics that he

knew

if

they did

might hurt

that

either also involved himself, so he couldn't say those things,

or were

beyond the

statute

of limitations.

Piersante's scenario as to the events

The mob

Fox

it

some

sent

Hoffa

to tell

of July 30 runs

insultingly low-level messengers to the

in effect,

"Jimmy, you're through;

enough money," and Jimmy,

who was always

retire

a volatile

this

way:

Machus Red

— you've got

guy

,

just blew

He was, even at 62 years of age, in great shape, and he had great anger. He attacked [the Briguglios and Andretta] They hit back. There was a fight. And either they killed him in the fight or he just had a up.

.

.

heart attack.

.

.

But nobody had planned

been no reason

to.

.

.

president that he thought he was.

Right

were

after told,

Chapter 15

to kill

him.

.In 1975, he was not .

he died, the hoods had

"For God's sake, get

rid

.

.

.

.

There would have

the threat to

come back

as

.

to

make

a

phone

call,

and

in

it

they

of the body somehow!"

394

The Michigan criminologist, who with some justification feels knows the "mind of the mob" after more than four decades

that he

of firsthand observation, supports his unplanned killing theory with

one

last point:

Usually, in a gangland murder,

and who did

it.

the information

They want is

The

we know

within hours

known. Even when

why

it

was done

there's a disappearance,

easy to get. Here, there was complete silence from the

mob for weeks. This was happening before,

it

in fact.

absolutely extraordinary

The mobsters were

I can't recall

.

all in a state

it

ever

of shock.

Piersante school of thought, if definitely a minority one,

has other adherents besides Piersante. But a third and

last

explana-

tion of Hoffa's death appears to be the exclusive property of a single

person.

It

would consequently warrant no

not for two

facts: (1)

member, and

family

Richard

all

(2)

the chief culprit in

it

is

is

were a

it

Hoffa

none other than

M. Nixon.

Nixon, the family member

alleges,

Hoffa would return to power, and for

was "scared a

—

possibly as

much

as

$6 million

to death" that

very understandable rea-

former U.S. chief executive had had

son: the

money

attention at

the espouser of this third hypothesis

—

sum of name in a

a sizeable

placed in his

Swiss bank by Fitzsimmons and the Teamsters as remuneration for his

approval of the Hoffa parole restriction.

while total

it

And

such

a transaction,

might be heavily camouflaged, could never be guaranteed

concealment. Hoffa, with his keen powers of observation and

would be

inquiring mind,

sure to find out about the deal and expose

when he got back to his old job. He must, therefore, not be allowed to come back. Hoffa's parole restriction, even if it were not

it

overturned in the courts, would ensure such until 1980.

a desired

outcome only

The murder of Hoffa would make his nonparticipation much at stake, Nixon ultimately commissioned

permanent. With so the latter action.

Asked is

for

proof of this blockbuster theory, the family member

not convincing. Nixon and Fitzsimmons were "close friends"

who met on

San Clemente one. They nia's

both

a social basis

at

Nixon's Key West

also golfed together

at

home and

his

Southern Califor-

La Costa Country Club, some twenty minutes from San Cle-

mente and the location of newspaper alleged

July 30, 1915, and

Its

that

Fitz's

Nixon got

Aftermath

West Coast home. the Swiss

A

Dallas

bank payoff from the

395

much going on between Fitzsimmons,

IBT. "There was just too

Nixon and it all centered around [Hoffa]." "When a decision is made to kill a man like [Hoffa], there has to be an awful lot at stake, and for Nixon in this situation there Charles Colson and Richard

definitely

member

was." The family

in

persuading others, and

A

person

who was

ever, take a deeply

Some key

is

fully recognizes the

problems

used to being received with incredulity,

far closer to

Hoffa than most people

harbored belief in Nixon's

will,

how-

guilt to the grave.

figures in the Hoffa case's cast of characters have

knowledge concerning

already departed, taking whatever inside

the

disappearance that they might have had with them. Salvatore Briguglio, indicted in 1976 for the 1961

Provenzano soon,

Anthony

rival

was riddled with

he stood outside

March a

21, 1978.

Law

trial

by two unidentified men as York City's Little Italy on

six bullets fired

a restaurant in

murder of

and scheduled to stand

Castellito

New

enforcement authorities were unanimous, for

change, in concluding that he was killed to keep

him from

talking

about the Castellito crime and very possibly also about July 30,

One month

1975.

he had ruefully confided to an inter-

earlier,

viewer, "I've got no regrets, except for getting involved in this

whole mess with the government. ...

theirs.

go

I

If

they want you,

have no aspirations any more; There's nothing left."

in this union.

I've

gone

you're

as far as

can

I

9

Frank Fitzsimmons died the death of a heavy cigarette smoker, of lung cancer, in 1981. Although he clearly had Hoffa's removal

from the

scene,

much

to gain

and notwithstanding the

he was on the best of terms with Provenzano and Giacalone as

O'Brien)

at

the time of the disappearance,

tion has ever tied

him

opinion of one insider,

to the event in Fitz's

by

fact that (as

well

no known investiga-

any meaningful way. In the

devout Catholicism alone would have

prevented him from participation. In the opinion of another, for

all

of Fitzsimmons's weaknesses, he was incapable of endorsing any crime of violence: cheating

at golf,

by widespread

allegation,

was

second nature to Hoffa's pudgy successor; murder was something that he is

not,

total,

would not have sanctioned even however, to say that

Fitz did

knowledge of the July 30

plans.

in his wildest

dreams. This

not have advance, and even

Many

people

who knew him

well believe that he did.

Chapter 15

396

Anthony Provenzano died

December 1988 of a heart attack where he was serving twenty For the past two years, poor health in

in a hospital near a California prison

years for labor racketeering.

had prevented him from performing

He had

janitor.

been

gunning

murder

to serve twenty-five years to

down of

Bugs

Sally

have paid

mob

prison, he

New

York

for

in 1978.

(Testimony

Tony's

at

interesting parallels with the Hoffa disap-

pearance as the FBI understood the to

in

life

as a

time had

which he had been convicted following

showed some

trial

from the California

his release

the Castellito murder, for the

job assignment

eligible for parole in 1985, but at that

waived consideration: on

would have had

his prison

latter.

Provenzano was shown

enforcer Harold Konigsberg $15,000 and offered

the elder Briguglio brother a business agent's job with his local in

return for their killing the union boss's competitor. Kongisberg, Briguglio, and

County,

two other men then

enticed Castellito to an Ulster

New York, summer home,

hit

him with

a lead

truncheon,

and strangled him with piano wire. Provenzano had, for an airtight

alibi:

disappeared.

On

he was marrying

And

Castellito's

his

body,

the eve of his seventies and

second wife

like Hoffa's,

knowing

when

a while,

Castellito

was never found.)

that his days

were num-

bered, Provenzano chose to spend his sunset years in California.

To

the end, he resisted governmental pressure to talk about Hoffa.

The Provenzano and

Salvatore Briguglio Castellito murder in-

dictments were triggered by the fallout from the Hoffa case. And, as the

mob

had

feared, other indictments

ther result of a reemphasis

and jailings were the fur-

by the FBI and other agencies on

links between unions and organized crime in response to

July 1975 public outcry for

it.

The reemphasis hardly spared many

other alleged principals in the Hoffa disappearance. all

the

more tempting

as targets

ernmental belief that their

the

a post-

These

men were

because of an understandable gov-

non-Hoffa

legal

problems might generate

from them about Hoffa in return for lighter sentences. such revelations were forthcoming. Gabriel Briguglio im-

revelations

No

parted nothing of value to mitigate a seven-year sentence for racketeering

and extortion. Thomas Andretta, the recipient of twenty

years for racketeering, and his brother Stephen,

number of

who

got the same

years for racketeering and extortion, steadfastly main-

tained their silences.

July 30, 1975, and

Its

Anthony Giacalone, who was sentenced

Aftermath

to ten

397

was equally unhelpful

years for tax evasion,

was Tony Jack's brother, Vito, a

who

to the authorities.

So

served a short prison term for

firearms felony. Chuckie O'Brien, convicted of several relatively

minor crimes and behind bars for ten months

1979 after

in

Nor

bor law violation, had nothing significant to say. Sheeran, Russell Bufalino, or anyone

else.

tongues, quite possibly took a lesson

from the

Briguglio.

Some of them

a la-

did Frank

in holding their

All,

fate

of Salvatore

conceivably, the opinion of the over-

whelming majority of Hoffa case investigators notwithstanding, know nothing that would help break the case. Whatever the actual-

now

ity, it

appears clear that only the unlikely occurrence of

kind of deathbed confession will great mysteries

Should

of modern times.

this revelation

at this late

date solve one of the

-

ever take place, Josephine Hoffa will,

however, not be available to be informed of son's

arms

some

in 1980, at sixty-two years

it.

of age,

She died

in her

five years after the

disappearance and five years after she had told her children, "I'm

not going to be around Less than three at

her

much

weeks

home and was

longer."

after her

husband vanished, she collapsed

taken to a Detroit hospital, physically and

emotionally exhausted. She soon recovered sufficiently to return to the cottage, but she desire to

seemed from

that point

do much of anything except

sit

on

have

to

silently for

lost the

hours in front

of the small Catholic shrine that had been one of James R. Hoffa's last

to entice her out

of her

shell

a variety

by

woman who

parties

ing

a

tried

of social invitations were

with

firmly, if politely, rebuffed

she

who

presents to her. Well-meaning friends and relatives

had loved

for years

and dancing. She had no desire for personal vengeance, but

would be rendered by God concernher husband's disappearance. She would leave matters in His

knew

that justice ultimately

hands.

Never much of an after a

eater,

Josephine ate only the barest essentials

her husband went and she steadily lost weight.

normal poundage of 112 she had

At the time of her death, she had cavity behind her nose that

a

On

from

spinal

column. She

her final night, a patient in

Detroit hospital while her children were

Chapter 15

1980,

84 pounds.

malignant tumor in the sinus

was pressing on her

possibly also had a brain tumor.

By

fallen to a skeletal

making

plans to

move

a

her

398

to Boston's

by

a series

famed Lahey

Clinic, her health

of heart attacks that resulted

was

in her

further debilitated

being transferred to

the hospital's intensive care unit. In the opinion of both her son and

her daughter, however, the real cause of her death

is

her medical certificate: she died of a "broken heart." that Josephine

"Mother,

if

last

words

probably ever heard were from her daughter:

you want

July 30, 1975, and

not carried on

The

Its

to go,

Aftermath

go and be with Dad."

399

Hoffa Evaluated

16 Eddie Cheyfitz, whose untimely death of a heart attack

in

May

1959

deprived Hoffa of one of the closest confidants he ever had, once

observed of his old boss, "He's a

man who

when to And then,

never knows

keep going until he gets to the 102nd

stop. He'll

floor.

at the top, he'll step

off and that

There was certainly that aspect to James R. Hoffa.

And Chey-

because he won't realize that he's

end of him."

will be the

statement was remarkably prescient in explaining the feisty

fitz's

labor leader's ultimate downfall. But there ingredients too, and they

were many other key

were not by any means

all

consonant with

each other.

Hoffa had the deepest of feelings for

by

far the

union. that

majority of his

many waking

but he spent

his family,

hours in the service of his

He was an instinctive cynic who claimed to see his belief man has his price" constantly justified by events, but

"every

he regularly,

if naively,

labor union associates

placed considerable faith in business and

whom he often

barely

knew

at all.

He

prided

himself on his candor and was naturally outspoken, but he tended at

the

sonal sional

same time life, life,

his it

considerable

to express himself tersely

and warily. In

code of behavior was irreproachable;

was twice found discredit,

he

to

his per-

in his profes-

have been criminal, and, to

willingly

— even

proudly

his

— associated

with some of the seamier members of the American underworld.

No file,

labor leader has ever been

more popular with his own rank and employment conditions

primarily because of the economic and

was

gains that he

whom to the

able to produce for them, but the employers with

who

he dealt and

end

necessarily financed these gains remained

his equally ardent supporters.

He was

both intellectually

curious and an anti-intellectual. In addition to being documentably kind, generous, and thoughtful, he self-centered,

was almost completely

fearless,

was capable of being

He worried

and temperamental.

but he was

and

same time

the

at

ruthless,

if at all,

little,

a

driven man.

Of

of these attributes, Hoffa's connection to lawbreaking

all

and lawbreakers with

his

understandably associated

is

and foremost

first

name. The linkage was the most widely publicized

to Hoffa's

life,

and

it

facet

captured the public imagination, particularly

because of the enormous power that he wielded.

was

It

of

also,

course, thoroughly proven to have existed, if not as abundantly as

many of Hoffa's

detractors always insisted, at least far

more amply

than his supporters typically admitted.

There trayal

nowadays almost

is

a

unidimensional quality of this por-

of Hoffa. The well-tailored saleswoman

hand bookstore

who

Missouri second-

in a

not long ago informed the author

when he

inquired of her whether she had the valuable 1965 book, Hoffa and the Teamsters, "If

we

have

would probably be under 'Crime,'

it, it

was conceivably echoing the opinion of spected

when,

New

millions.

Nor

did the re-

York Times do anything but reinforce the situation

in a front-page

1989

article,

it

reported that

can labor leader "is sometimes compared to

a

Jimmy Hoffa and Al

Capone. But most people here say the accusations in the oil industry,

skims profits for his

powerful Mexi-

own

that he sells jobs

use and has been

responsible for murdering opponents are merely the inventions of jealous politicians and rivals."

generally tasteless

if

today

last

on

of

widely

as

immediate aftermath of the disappearance

Jimmy

Hoffa, so to speak, sleeps a

of the seemingly endless

the Hoffa-as-mobster motif: "Question:

person ever to see

It is

And most

Hoffa jokes that appear to circulate

as they did in the

also focus

1

Who

was

Hoffa? Answer: Jacques Cousteau."

with the

fishes.

matter of record that Hoffa was found guilty by

his peers

fix a jury. It

the

a

jury

on two counts of knowingly and corruptly trying to is no less a statement of fact that he was also convicted

on one count of conspiracy and three counts of mail and wire fraud in connection with the Central States Pension Fund. Although he

Hoffa Evaluated

401

had

at his

disposal

been able to draw

more

most people have ever

legal talent than

upon, both verdicts

were sustained by higher

And no

courts in the elongated appellate processes that followed.

amount of

rationalization related to

Edward Grady

Partin's role

or background, to allegedly illegal surveillance engaged in by the

government, to claimed judicial bias against Hoffa

in

Chattanooga,

to defense contentions that irrelevant prejudicial evidence

mitted to the jury in Chicago, or to anything

else,

was sub-

can remotely

alter

Nor can any talk of a governmental "vendetta" do so, however much Robert Kennedy's allocation of so many of his resources to the mission of putting Hoffa behind bars may help to these actualities.

explain the latter's It

is

fate.

also incontrovertible that, for

all

dogged the labor

leader

such relationships clearly did

exist.

charges of Hoffa-mobster affiliations that

throughout

They tended

to be based entirely

that Hoffa's selection

Washington

many

his career,

of

office could

these relationships the very least,

were

of the unsubstantiated

on pragmatism,

in the

liberal intellectuals to assist

same way

him

in his

be said to have been, and by themselves

At

not, of course, illegal in the slightest.

however, they could be said to have been morally

reprehensible; at the most, they always posed the risk of siphoning

off Teamster resources for purposes that

To

were never intended.

was accused of much more than he warranted. The McClellan

give Hoffa his complete due, he

wrongdoing

in his

mob

liaisons

committee charged, for example, that health and welfare insurance

his collusive channeling

of

Union Casualty and Life was not low bidder, cost the union

monies

to the

Company, although it some $1,650,000 in excess commissions and Insurance

fees paid to the family

of Hoffa's close friend, ranking Chicago gangster Paul Dorfman,

owner of the involved agency. But as objective and scholarly an observer as Sam Romer, upon conscientiously studying all of the relevant committee documents here, concluded that while there was certainly favoritism in the awarding of the business to Union Casuas

alty, "it is less certain that

from

beneficiaries, suffered larly

the union

impressed by the

particustaff did

statistics

company. One was

expenses-related percentage of

Chapter 16

Romer was

McClellan committee

this transaction."

fact that the

not challenge two major sets of Casualty's successor

members, who were the fund

premiums

presented to a

it

by Union

claim that, while the

that

Union Casualty

ini-

402

tially

proposed to retain was

high 17.5 percent, actual experience

a

over an eight-year period reduced

The

an average 7.6 percent.

other was an insistence that, while commissions to the Dorf-

man agency were

twice the normal

charged to the fund

paying the the

this to

at the

from

rest

standard

rate,

with the company

profits earned elsewhere.

Dorfmans themselves

also

made

commissions were

rate, these

this

2

(As noted

second claim

in

itself

earlier,

appearing

before the McClellan committee.)

As another example, the well-publicized Hoffa purchase

for his

union of the northern Indiana

home of

henchman Paul "The Waiter"

Ricca, in retrospect seems to have

been just the opposite of a that the it

$150,000 that

does now, getting

Capone

Even with the acknowledgment Hoffa spent went a lot further in 1955 than sellout.

Chicago lakefront

a five-acre greater

came complete with with sleeping

the infamous Al

swimming

tennis courts, a

facilities for

twenty people for

estate that

pool, and a house

that price was, if any-

thing, a steal.

Nor,

it

must be recognized, did the Central

Fund do anything but of

its

flourish, the

unsavory character of so many

loan recipients notwithstanding.

in Hoffa's last four preprison years (to

relatively

few loan

defaults,

CSPF

and

Its assets

by

will be recalled, sufficiently

mance

other American workers. Hoffa's

proud of

its

perfor-

that they tried, unsuccessfully, to introduce this aspect as

evidence in his Chicago

But there thirty

all

doubled

$400 million), there were

to those received

essentially

virtually

pensions compared favorably

lawyers were,

it

States Pension

nothing speculative about Hoffa's attempts to place

is

thousand

trial.

New York City taxicab drivers under the leadership

of the convicted labor extortionist and indicted acid thrower Johnny Dio, or his conspiring with Dio to establish a group of bogus locals in

an ostensible effort to gain for himself control of New York City

Teamster

activities.

Or

about Hoffa's hiring of the armed robbers

Herman and Frank Kierdorf

as

Teamster business agents, and

his

employment of the underworld enforcer and strong-arm man Barney Baker is

fact,

as his

own

personal performer of special assignments.

not conjecture, that both Paul

related son, Allen,

were two of the

and that the labor leader's the major league gangster

Hoffa Evaluated

circle

Dorfman and

his equally

closest friends

It

mob-

Hoffa ever had

of genuine intimates also included

Tony Provenzano. Hoffa

did sponsor and

403

strongly endorse for key Teamster leadership positions such ex-

Babe Triscaro, Frank Matula, and William Presser. And associations with Detroit mobsters were both longstanding and

convicts as his

freely

acknowledged.

Undoubtedly, some of these criminal connections

underworld

nal linkage in 1941 to the

possibly also the

ties to

Dio

They were viewed by him tions,

may have

that he placed

Hoffa

and very

in Detroit, certainly,

as

sound business moves. In other

such as in both Chicago and northern

the status quo. Robert

origi-

— were voluntarily established by Hoffa.

ster leader inherited locals that

crime, and he

— the

New Jersey,

the

situa-

Team-

were already controlled by organized

believed that he had no choice but to allow

Kennedy, for in charge: of,

all

of the "conspiracy of evil"

himself

felt

no

that the latter

longer had the luxury of getting rid of the mobsters even if he

wanted

to

do so ("He wouldn't

live,"

Kennedy once remarked

in

predicting the consequences of such a Hoffa effort).

To

recognize that Hoffa's deeply

dictated his

embracing of his gangster

embedded clientele,

sense of realism

however, no more

excuses what he did than does an appreciation that the apparently did not view himself as a captive of the

was quite times.

sante

willing, certainly, to

IBT

mob

chieftain

He

at all.

go against underworld wishes

at

The wiretap tapes of Michigan criminologist Vincent Pierand Hoffa's turndown of Provenzano's pension request both

testify to this. So,

above

nized crime for the

more

all,

does the clear-cut preference of orga-

pliable

Fitzsimmons

to

Hoffa

as the general

president once Fitz had taken over that office and exhibited his laissez-faire predilections.

Yet such considerations change nothing:

life must place his connection to some of America's more blatant law violators prominently in its equation, as it must Hoffa's own two convictions. But it is no less mandatory in evaluating these sixty-two years

an assessment of James R. Hoffa's

to inspect Hoffa's role as

head of the

largest, strongest, wealthiest,

and most strategically located union that the nation has ever known.

He to

was, after

all,

more than anything

else a labor leader. If

judge him on criminological grounds,

sure

him on

profession.

fair

mea-

very different and vastly superior Hoffa must

no exaggeration

Chapter 16

it is

as justifiable to

labor relations ones, in the performance of his chosen

And here a

by any objective standard be It is

it is

said to

to say that

have existed.

no major union

leader has ever

404

enjoyed the combination of popularity with his

whom

and respect from the employers with

own

rank and

he dealt than did the

school dropout from Brazil, Indiana. John L. Lewis of the

Workers got

much,

as

if

no

file

Mine mine

greater, adulation, but the coal

operators were not nearly as positive about Lewis as the people

who

ran the trucking companies were about Hoffa. Walter Reuther

was

greatly

admired and appreciated by

Automobile Worker

his

constit-

uents for such pioneering breakthroughs in collective bargaining as

supplemental unemployment benefits and profit-sharing. But

Reuther's aloofness and unconcealed sense of self-importance pre-

vented any

comes

popularity with the membership, and his cheering

real

among employers was almost

section

to

mind

is

accessibility to the

membership

spend two-thirds of

certainly helped.

background

a

many

was "brought up on the

extended to the inclusion of his

that

many of his

speeches and

mammoth workweeks

his

So did

of

in

that was, in

a

willingness

out in the

marked

field

contrast

labor leaders, not an easy one, combined

with Hoffa's determination not to street," as

let his

electorate forget this: he

he often reminded his audiences,

and the reminder got him mileage

tough-minded

else

not often easily explained. In Hoffa's case, an

numbers

office telephone

to the histories

one

at all.

Popularity

to

No

nonexistent.

in

what remained

a

union of

individualists.

His oratorical

skills in

general served

him

well, too.

Not many

make such entirely personalized attacks as those emafrom Robert Kennedy and intended solely for him appear to

leaders could

nating

be the laying

down

and regularly

did.

of the gauntlet for

("We

all

know

that

all

Teamsters. Hoffa could,

Hoffa

is

nothing. Hoffa by

himself is just a name. Hoffa by himself is just an individual.

Hoffa

is

attacked, this

whole union

is

threatened.

When

The government

wants to destroy us because we've been so successful.")

Some of

his personal living habits

extent, aided his standing life-style

—

conceivably

also, to

some

with the membership. The frugal Hoffa

the unimposing Detroit residence and modest Lake

Orion cottage, the almost aggressively unpretentious wardrobe, the inexpensive and personally driven automobile, the utter absence of

show on any dimension

— got considerable

publicity in Teamster

publications and allowed further identification of his rank and file with him. And the eschewal of liquor and smoking, the almost

Hoffa Evaluated

405

Victorian approach to sexual improprieties, and the visibility of a

loving and clean-cut family presumably only added to the appeal.

But none of these

would have meant very much, of

factors

course, without a demonstrably superior collective bargaining per-

formance.

And

immense popularity without question

Hoffa's

stemmed primarily from the extremely favorable contracts was as

able to execute ever since 1940,

when he

that he

Dobbs

replaced Farrell

negotiating chairman of the Central States Drivers Council. The

wage

mileage and hourly

he

rate gains that

achieved in the

first

Central States were dramatic, unprecedented, and well publicized.

They were soon tual

fields

by huge progress

in such other contrac-

job security and fringe benefits and then,

as

bargaining

paralleled

improvements

economic

by

widened,

scope

other geographic

in

areas

and

his

as

noneconomic

and ultimately on

a

national basis.

The bread-and-butter

membership

gratitude of Hoffa's

proven performance accounted considerably for the legal all.

problems decreased

He was

his standing

for this

fact that his

with the rank and

file

not

at

proof of the validity of the theory that he had

living

once propounded to Johnny Dio:

a leader

have to worry.

ents right wouldn't

who

treated his constitu-

Some members undoubtedly

believed Hoffa's assertion that "all of this hocus-pocus about racke-

smoke screen to carry you back could drop you in the scrap heap." Others

teers

that

is

a

everybody had

a little bit

was being scapegoated time was his

rationale

they

surely held to the

view

them and

in

that

Hoffa

for being such a successful labor leader. Still

thought that what

others, quite probably,

own

of the cheater

when

to the days

own

business.

was embraced. Hoffa

It

their leader did

did not

much

delivered, and that

on

his

matter which

was

the only

criterion that counted.

What was

so impressive about the delivery

was

reflected in either Hoffa's contracts or his popularity,

in

no way

however.

By

themselves, the gains attest to no particular sense of leadership responsibility.

who

And

it

is

a

matter of record that other labor leaders

have extracted significant improvements for the members have

often done so only to the severe detriment of the industry: the

concessions have far exceeded any long-term employer ability to

pay and have flown case, the

Chapter 16

industry

in the face

of competitive

realities. In

Hoffa's

— by many standards, America's most important 406

single industry

— was protected,

too.

The Teamster

leader, in the

opinion of the overwhelming employer majority, remained to the

end an ability-to-pay adherent. as well as

he could go

at the

It

by

was

understood the trucking sector

his

how

far

bargaining table, and would go no further. His

ability to exhibit this

easier

He

any trucking company executive, knew exactly degree of accommodation was

made much

high level of political security within his international.

also facilitated

by

his union's great institutional security

within the industry. In view of the unparalleled amount of bargaining a

power

that always supported his actions, he demonstrated

remarkable sense of statesmanship nonetheless.

By

the readily

acknowledged

if

sometimes embarrassed admis-

sion of the trucking companies, Hoffa represented

all

of their labor

cost interests better than these historically close-to-the-margin, mistrustful,

highly individualistic, and zealously competitive operators

could ever have done themselves. offering

without

economic it

relief to

He was responsive to the need for who could not have survived

employers

and freely granted dispensations based on geographic

handicaps, the handling of relatively unprofitable products and services,

and other pressing reasons. Ever the

that such innovations as sleeper cabs,

participation in piggybacking

growth trend was

were inevitable

if

the industry's rapid

and he was willing to allow these

to continue,

technological introductions, even though the

many

income or the very employment of Teamster

asked that

he recognized

realist,

double bottoms, and trucker

threatened either

drivers.

the displacement be minimized and

He

that the

merely

workers

share in whatever productivity gains might result.

Even Hoffa's grievance end" procedure, for

all

decisions under the controversial

of the dangers inherent

in the latter

"open and

its

unpopularity with the employers because of these dangers, gave evidence of generally being statesmanlike. At the very

"open end" was very probably

a far

more

efficient

the

least,

decisions consistently satisfied the majority of the industry.

And

means of area-

wide labor standard supervision than any that the mutually suspicious employers their

would have been

own.

The

overall performance

was so impressive

that the

almost without exception preferred to be at Hoffa's the

on

either willing or able to create

mercy of any other authority

Hoffa Evaluated

— most

particularly,

managers

mercy than

at

of each other.

407

He may have been a dictator, but he was an enlightened and benevolent one. He infused a once-chaotic industry with a great deal of and allowed

stability

ter off for there

As

it

to prosper.

having been

labor leader, then,

a

a

Trucking was undoubtedly bet-

Hoffa.

Jimmy Hoffa must

necessarily be given

As Warren Bennis has pointed out, commodity of leaders and power or the capacity to

the highest of grades. the

intention into reality and sustain

who

it

—

—

their currency,

is

vision

is

translate

man

and the

amply possessed both of these prerequisites. Hoffa knew exactly what he wanted to achieve in trucking. His goal was a nationwide contract that combined maximum membership gains with the greatest possible economic well-being for the ran the Teamsters

And

industry.

to a very large extent, in the face

of local government within

tradition

of both

a

strong

union and the abiding op-

his

many employers to either areawide or national barhe was able to make the vision a reality. The trucking

position of gaining,

contract that he negotiated in January 1964 and that covered

most

of the nation's four hundred thousand road and cartage drivers, dramatically symbolized the culmination of a project that he had

embarked upon twenty-four years

when he went

earlier.

That there was not, even

to prison three years later, either a total uniformity

of working conditions from coast to coast or the elimination of area

wage and

no way

benefit differentials should in

detract

all

from

the magnificence of his accomplishment. If the

Teamster truck drivers and the trucking industry were

both the beneficiaries of Hoffa's career, on the other hand, be

movement

difficult to erect a case that the labor

it

would

also gained.

On

the contrary, organized labor undoubtedly suffered and continues

from the connection

to suffer

in the

minds of millions of the crimi-

nalized Hoffa to unionism. Hoffa's far less

newsworthy

more

laudable but infinitely

industrial relations contributions are

vant to this connection than

is

the fact that

no more

rele-

most people would

today be hard pressed to provide accurate information on exactly

what the Teamster leader did wrong.

was

that he

Union this

is

imperfect understanding

the crime-prone leader of a crime-ridden Teamsters

Hoffa's sole legacy to most people, and the longevity of

understanding

is

one more, and not

today's problem-beset labor

An

An

movement

insignificant, cross that

has to bear.

evaluation of the controversial union chieftain, then, de-

Chapter 16

408

pends very

much on

the criteria applied. Proust

overly generous in estimating that "there are

a

may have been

thousand selves

in

each of us," but there were demonstrably several fully formed ones

within James Riddle Hoffa. That his substantial darker side better

remembered than

are his

many

entirely admirable

is

far

accom-

plishments for his unionists, his industry, his family, and others hardly negates the

latter.

Despite his reputation, he was no more a

study in black or white than anyone

else: as

of gray apply.

He was

powerful, and

more notorious than most

many

strengths and his

Hoffa Evaluated

stronger willed,

many

with

more hard

all

of

us,

charging,

shades

more

people. But he was, in his

weaknesses, no

less

human.

409

Notes

Chapter 1.

1

James R. Hoffa, as told to Donald I. Rogers, The Henry Regnery Company, 1970), p. 5.

Trials of Jimmy Hoffa

(Chicago:

Ibid., pp.

2.

3.

6-7.

James R. Hoffa, as told to Oscar and Day, 1975), p. 29.

Fraley, Hoffa:

The Real Story (New York:

Stein

Teamsters Joint Council

4.

1956)

,

5.

Rogers,

6.

Fraley, Hoffa, p. 29.

7.

13, St. Louis, Missouri,

The Name

Is

Hoffa (April,

p. 17.

Trials, p. 27.

Jim Clay, Hoffa! Ten Angels Swearing (Beaverdam, Va.: Beaverdam Books,

1965), p. 53. 8.

Fraley, Hoffa, p. 31.

9.

Clay, Hoffa!,

10.

Robert D.

1957)

,

p.

p. 59.

Leiter,

The Teamsters Union (New York: Bookman Associates,

19.

—

A Study 11. John Cummings. "The Chicago Teamsters' Strike Democracy," Journal of Political Economy (September, 1905): 568. 12. 13.

Clay, Hoffa!,

in Industrial

p. 67.

John Bartlow Martin, Jimmy Hoffa 's Hot (Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Pub-

lications, 1959), p. 29. 14.

The Name

15.

Newsweek, February

16.

Ibid.

Is

Hoffa, pp. 19-20. 25, 1957, p. 40.

17.

Paul Jacobs,

"The World ofjimmy Hoffa— II,"

Reporter,

February

7,

1957,

p. 14.

18.

Clay, Hoffa!,

19.

Rogers,

20.

Ibid.

21. p.

p. 66.

Trial, p. 85.

Paul Jacobs,

"The World ofjimmy Hoffa

—

I," Reporter,

January 24, 1957,

16.

22.

ABC

23.

Fraley, Hoffa, p. 59.

24.

Ibid., p. 49.

25.

ABC

26.

Ibid.

27.

Ralph C. and Estelle Dinerstein James, Hoffa and Van Nostrand Company, 1965), p. 107.

News, "Close-Up," November

30, 1974.

News, "Close-Up."

the Teamsters (Princeton,

N.J.: D. 28.

Dan

E. Moldea,

The Hoffa Wars (New York and London: Paddington

Press, 1978), p. 33. 29.

Ibid.

30.

Detroit Free Press,

31.

ABC

32.

Playboy,

September

13, 1941.

News, "Close-Up.

December

1975, p. 82.

Chapter 2 1.

Ralph C. and Estelle Dinerstein James, Hoffa and the Teamsters (Princeton, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1965), pp. 72-73.

N.J.: 2.

Time, April

9,

1956, p. 37.

Lester Velie, "The Riddle in the Middle of America's Most Powerful Union," Reader's Digest (December, 1955): 91.

3.

4.

Investigation of Racketeering in the Detroit Area, Joint

Subcommittee Report

of Special Subcommittees of the Committee on Education and Labor and the

Committee on Government Operations, 83d Cong., 2d 5.

the

Investigation of Racketeering, Joint

2-4.

Hearings before Special Subcommittees of

Committee on Government Operations and Education and Labor, House

of Representatives, 83d Cong., 6.

sess., 1954, pp.

Robert

F.

1st sess., 1953, pp.

312-14, 318.

Kennedy, The Enemy Within (New York: Harper

&

Brothers,

1960), p. 52. 7.

Ibid., p. 45.

8.

Ibid., p. 8.

Notes

to

Pages 16-50

412

9.

Jim Clay, Hojfa! Ten Angels Swearing (Beaverdam, Va.: Beaverdam Books,

1965), p. 94.

Chapter 3 1.

John Bartlow Martin, ''The Making of

a

Labor Boss," Saturday Evening

Post, July 4, 1959, p. 53. 2.

Jim Clay, Hojfa! Ten Angels Swearing (Beaverdam, Va.: Beaverdam Books,

1965), p. 83.

Chapter 4 Arthur M.

1.

Houghton

Schlesinger,

Jr.,

Robert

Kennedy

and His

Times

(Boston:

&

Brothers,

Mifflin, 1978), p. 152.

2.

Newsweek, July 29, 1957,

3.

Robert

F.

p. 22.

Kennedy, The Enemy Within (New York: Harper

1960), pp. 41-43. 4.

Schlesinger, Kennedy, p. 153.

5.

James R. Hoffa, as told to Donald I. Rogers, The Henry Regnery Company, 1970), p. 150.

Trials of Jimmy Hoffa

(Chicago: 6.

John Bartlow Martin, Jimmy Hoffa

's

Hot (Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publi-

cation, 1959), pp. 8-9.

James R. Hoffa, as told to Oscar Fraley, Hoffa: The Real Story (New York: Day, 1975), p. 94. Kennedy had, in fact, been a member of the Harvard Varsity football team a decade earlier.

7.

Stein and

August

8.

Business Week,

9.

Wall Street Journal, July 29, 1957, p.

3,

1957, p. 109. 3.

10.

Schlesinger, Kennedy, pp. 159-60.

11.

Hearings before the Select Committee on Improper Activities

Management

Field,

85th Cong.,

1st sess., pt. 13, 1957, pp.

12.

Ibid., p. 5267.

13.

Ibid., pp.

14.

Ibid., p. 5215.

15.

Wall Street Journal, September 27, 1957, p.

16.

Ibid.,

17.

Ibid.

18.

Fraley, Hoffa, p. 144.

19.

Martin, Hoffa's Hot,

Notes

to

in the

Labor or

5253-54.

4950-51.

October

3,

Pages 52-95

1957, p.

2.

1.

p. 65.

413

20.

Wall Street Journal, October 11, 1957, p.

21.

Ibid.,

22.

Lester Velie, "Six

October

6.

14, 1957, p. 4.

Days That Shaped

the Labor

World," Reader's Digest

(March, 1958): 119.

Chapter 5 1.

New

2.

Wall Street Journal,

3.

Clark R. Mollenhoff, Tentacles of Power (Cleveland and

York Times, February

6,

1958, p. 26.

August

7,

1958, p.

Publishing

Company,

New

York: World

1965), p. 298.

4.

Wall Street Journal, October

5.

Robert

F.

4.

1958, p.

8,

3.

Kennedy, The Enemy Within (New York: Harper

&

Brothers,

1960), pp. 41-62. 6.

Jim Clay, Hoffa! Ten Angels Swearing (Beaverdam, Va.: Beaverdam Books,

1965), p. 127. 7.

Hearings before the Select Committee on Improper Activities

agement Field, 85th Cong., 1st sess., 8.

Ibid., p. 13285.

9.

Ibid., pt. 37, 1958, pp.

pt. 36,

in the

Ibid., p. 14065.

11.

Kennedy, Enemy,

12.

Hearings before the Select Committee on Improper Activities

in

the

Labor or

Field, pt. 40, 1958, p. 15092.

13636-37.

Ibid., pt. 36, 1958, pp.

14.

Ibid., p. 13635.

15.

Kennedy, Enemy,

16.

Ibid., pp.

17.

Victor Lasky, Robert F. Kennedy: The Myth and the

p. 73.

74-75.

Man (New

York: Pocket

reprint, 1971), p. 119.

18.

Time, September 29, 1958, p. 17.

19.

New

20.

Hearings before the Select Committee on Improper Activities

York Times,

Management

November

International Teamster

22.

A. H. Raskin,

November

to

21, 1958, p. 21. in the

Labor or

Field, pt. 13, p. 5189.

21.

Notes

Man-

p. 90.

13.

Book

or

14061-62.

10.

Management

Labor

1958, pp. 13275-77.

9,

(September, 1960):

"Why They Cheer

16.

for Hoffa,"

New

York Times Magazine,

1958, p. 78.

Pages 98-128

414

23.

Ibid., p. 75.

24.

Ibid., p. 77.

Chapter 6 1.

New

2.

Time, January

3.

Walter Sheridan, The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hojfa

York Times, August 30, 1958,

Review

5,

p.

14.

1959, p. 22.

(New York:

4.

Time, January

5.

Hearings before the Select Committee on Improper Activities

5,

1959, p. 23.

agement Field, 86th Cong., 1st 6.

Ibid., p. 19432.

7.

Ibid., pp.

8.

Ibid., p. 19434.

9.

Ibid., p. 19439.

10.

Saturday

Press, 1972), p. 102.

Robert

sess., pt. 55, 1959, p.

in the

Labor or Man-

19437.

19432-33.

F.

Kennedy, The Enemy Within (New York: Harper

&

Brothers,

1960), p. 55. 11.

Ibid.

12.

Sam Romer, The International Brotherhood (New York: Wiley, 1962), p. 47.

of Teamsters:

Its

Government and

Structure

Louis Globe-Democrat,

13.

St.

14.

Steven

Brill,

August

26, 1956, p. 2F:3.

The Teamsters (New York: Simon and Schuster,

1978),

p. 370.

15.

Initial

Report of the Board of Monitors,

pK.

I,

Supplemental Report,

May

27,

1958, p. 189. 16.

Ralph C. and Estelle Dinerstein James, Hqffa and D. Van Nostrand Company, 1965), p. 43.

the Teamsters (Princeton,

N.J.: 17.

International Teamster (October, 1962): 2.

18.

Paul Jacobs, The State of the Unions

19.

Saga Magazine (March, 1959): 77.

20.

Newsweek, July

21.

Wall Street Journal,

22.

New

23.

Playboy (December, 1975): 74.

Notes

to

(New York: Atheneum,

1963), p. 56.

10, 1961, p. 59.

March

5,

1959, p. 10.

York Times, June 14, 1959, IV,

Pages 129-48

p. 3.

415

The statement, which originally appeared in the June 1959 issue of the Harvard Business School Bulletin, was picked up by Time, which included it on page 16 of an August 31, 1959, cover story on Hoffa and thereby gave it 24.

considerable publicity. 25.

Time, June

26.

Newsweek, July

27.

Wall Street Journal, June

28.

New

York Times,

29.

Ibid.,

June

30.

Hearings before the Select Committee on Improper Activities

Management

8,

1959, p. 59. 10, 1961.

May

1959, p. 3.

3,

21, 1959, p. 23.

28, 1959, p. 48.

Field,

86th Cong., 1st

31.

Ibid., p. 19804.

32.

Ibid., pp.

33.

Ibid., pt. 54, p.

34.

New

35.

Ibid.,

36.

Ibid.

37.

John Bartlow Martin, Jimmy

sess., pt. 56, 1959, p.

the

Labor or

19836-37. 18915.

York Times, July

August

5,

lications, 1959), pp.

8,

1959, p.

1959, p. 19. 1.

Hoffa's

Hot (Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Pub-

104-5.

Navasky, Kennedy Justice (New York: Atheneum, 1971),

38.

Victor

39.

Kennedy, Enemy,

40.

Martin, Hoffa's Hot,

41.

Ralph de Toledano, R.F.K., The

S.

in

19735.

p.

p. 454.

162. p.

104.

Man Who Would Be President (New

York:

G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1967), pp. 89-90. 42.

Kennedy, Enemy,

43.

George W. Taylor, "Public Responsibility of Unions

p.

320. in Collective

Bar-

gaining," in Labor's Public Responsibility (Madison, Wise: National Institute of

Labor Education, 1960),

p. 20.

Committee, Final

44.

Select

45.

Newsweek, August

Report, pt. 3,

10, 1959, pp.

March

28, 1960, p. 725.

20-21.

Chapter 7 1.

Wall Street Journal, October 2, 1959, p.

2.

Business Week,

3.

Ibid.

Notes

to

May

Pages 148-77

7,

4.

1960, p. 148.

416

Navasky, Kennedy Justice (New York: Atheneum, 1971),

4.

Victor

5.

Wall Street Journal, January 25, 1961, p.

6.

Newsweek, February

7.

New

8.

Newsweek, February

9.

New

10.

S.

6,

451.

4.

1961, p. 29.

York Times, January 26, 1961, 6,

p.

p.

17.

1961.

York Times, January 26, 1961.

International

Brotherhood of Teamsters, Proceedings of the

18th Convention,

1961, Third Day, p. 44. 11.

Ibid.,

Fourth Day, pp. 113-14. Actually, this official record corrected the statement to "Hoffa doesn't have any ma-

grammar and changed

Hoffa's chine."

Day,

12.

Ibid., Fifth

13.

Ibid., p. 52.

14.

Walter Sheridan, The Fall and Rise ofJimmy Hoffa

Review

p. 51.

(New York:

Saturday

Press, 1972), p. 181.

Brotherhood of Teamsters,

15.

International

16.

New

17.

Ralph C. and Estelle Dinerstein James, Hoffa and Van Nostrand Company, 1965), p. 62.

York Times, July

7,

Proceedings,

Fourth Day,

p. 85.

1961, p. 12. the Teamsters (Princeton,

N.J.: D.

Chapter 8 1.

Statistics cited in this section, unless

Trucking Associations, 2.

Interstate

Inc.,

otherwise noted, are from American

American Trucking Trends, 1961 edition.

Commerce Commission,

Interstate

Commerce Commission

1937-1962, Supplement to the 75th Annual Report,

May

3.

Forbes,

4.

Ibid.

5.

Paul Jacobs,

p.

Activities,

145.

15, 1962, p. 44.

"The World of Jimmy Hoffa— I,"

Reporter,

January 24, 1957,

p. 13. 6.

Ibid., p. 14.

Arthur A. Sloane, "Union-Employer Relations in the Over-the-Road Trucking Industry" (D.B.A. dissertation, Harvard University, 1963). 7.

8.

A. H. Raskin, "Hoffa'll Take Care of Hoffa,"

March 9.

New

York Times Magazine,

26, 1961, p. 9.

Transport Topics, April 24, 1961, p. 3.

Notes

to

Pages 178-212

417

Chapter 9 1.

Sumner H.

Slichter,

Collective Bargaining on

James J. Healy, and E. Robert Livernash, The Impact of Management (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution,

1960), pp. 750-51. 2.

Ibid., p. 751.

3.

American Trucking Associations, Inc., Proceedings of the Fourth Annual NaForum on Trucking Industrial Relations, 1953, p. 13.

tional 4.

Ralph C. and Estelle Dinerstein James, Hoffa and D. Van Nostrand Company, 1965), p. 168.

the Teamsters (Princeton,

N.J.: 5.

Arthur A. Sloane, Union-Employer Relations

in the

Over-the-Road Truck-

ing Industry" (D.B.A. dissertation, Harvard University, 1963).

Chapter 10 1.

American Trucking Associations,

Special,

February

1961, p.

5,

2.

Ibid., pp. 1-2.

3.

International Teamster

Trucking Labor Relations Information

Inc.,

2.

(March, 1961):

15.

Chapter 11 1.

Wall Street Journal, February 20, 1962, p.

2.

Newsweek,

3.

Walter Sheridan, The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hoffa

Review 4.

May

1.

28, 1962, p. 30.

(New York:

Saturday

Press, 1972), p. 222.

Clark R. Mollenhoff, Tentacles of Power (Cleveland and

Publishing

Company,

5.

Ibid., p. 363.

6.

Playboy (December, 1975): 94.

7.

New

8.

Time, January

9.

Ibid.

York Times, 4,

New

York: World

1965), p. 356.

December

6,

1962, p. 47.

1963, p. 16.

10.

Sheridan, Fall and Rise,

11.

Wall Street Journal, April 22, 1963, p.

12.

Ralph C. and Estelle Dinerstein James, Hoffa and Van Nostrand Company, 1965), p. 219.

p.

255. 1.

the Teamsters (Princeton,

N.J.: D.

Notes

to

Pages 211-14

418

13.

Hoffa was apparently both surprised and hurt by all five of these resignaand stonily refused to accept them. They became effective anyway.

tions 14.

Dan

E.

Moldea, The Hoffa Wars

(New York and London: Paddington

Press, 1978), p. 150. 15.

Gibbons, for example, had apparently overheard Hoffa discussing this posSee Steven Brill, The Teamsters (New York: Simon and Schuster,

sibility.

1978), p. 374. 16.

House Assassination Report,

17.

Moldea, Hoffa Wars, pp. 427-28.

18.

John H. Davis, Mafia Kingfish (New York: McGraw-Hill,

19.

Ibid., p.

20.

Perhaps the two best of the breed are Davis's book and David E. Scheim,

1989), p. 406.

112.

Contract on America 21.

pp. 176-77.

(New York: Shapolsky

Publishers, 1988).

Warren Commission Report, Exhibit 2980.

Chapter 12 1.

New

York Times, January 16, 1964,

p. 30.

John L. McClellan, "These Labor Abuses Must Be Curbed," Reader's Digest (December, 1962): 98.

2.

3. "Red" Medlin, the neighbor who had allegedly offered a bribe to juror James C. Tippens, requested and was granted a separate trial. The seven originally named defendants at Chattanooga thus became six.

4.

New

5.

Wall Street Journal, February

6.

New

7.

Walter Sheridan, The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hoffa

Review

York Times, February

York Times, February

1964, p. 36.

6,

6,

6,

1964, p.

6.

1964.

(New York:

Saturday

&

Brothers,

Press, 1972), p. 330.

8.

New

9.

Time,

York Times, February 26, 1964,

March

13, 1964, p. 25.

10.

Ibid., p. 26.

11.

Wall Street Journal,

12.

Ibid.

13.

Robert

F.

p. 36.

March

20, 1964, p. 12.

Kennedy, The Enemy Within (New York: Harper

1960), pp. 114-15. 14.

New

15.

Ibid.

Notes

to

York Times, October 24, 1965,

Pages 280-313

p. 68.

419

February

1966, p. 40.

16.

Ibid.,

17.

Ralph C. and Estelle Dinerstein James, Hojja and D. Van Nostrand Company, 1965), p. 375.

7,

the Teamsters (Princeton,

N.J.:

Time, July 15, 1966,

18.

p. 17.

19. Robert M. Cipes, "How They Got Jimmy Hoffa Monthly (November, 1966): 122.

20.

New

21.

Ibid.,

22.

Nation, January 2, 1967, p.

23.

Victor

24.

Wall Street Journal, January 25, 1967,

25.

Ibid.,

26.

Sheridan, Fall and Rise, p. 356.

27.

Dan

York Times, October 14, 1952,

December

January

Atlantic

p. 38.

14, 1966, p. 46. 6.

Navasky, Kennedy Justice

S.

— or Did They?"

(New York: Atheneum, p.

1971), p. 492.

12.

18, 1967, p. 4.

The Hoffa Wars

E. Moldea,

(New York and London: Paddington

Press, 1978), p. 428. See also Sheridan, Fall and Rise, pp. 406-8.

Chapter 13 1.

2.

Wall Street Journal,

March

8,

1967, p.

James R. Hoffa, as told to Oscar and Day, 1975), p. 182.

3.

Fraley, Hoffa:

The Real Story (New York:

Stein 3.

Ibid., p. 188.

4.

A. H. Raskin,

Counts,"

New

"What

5.

Fraley, Hoffa, p. 208.

6.

Ibid., pp.

7.

Raskin,

the 'Little Fellow' Says to the Teamsters

York Times Magazine,

May

Is

What

30, 1971, VI, p. 12.

208-9.

"What

the 'Little Fellow' Says."

Chapter 14 1.

The quotations

2.

Dan

E.

in this

paragraph are from Newsweek, April

Moldea, The Hoffa Wars

17, 1972, p. 31.

(New York and London: Paddington

Press,

1978), p. 279. 3.

Wall Street Journal, July 27, 1973, p. 10.

4.

New

5.

York Times,

November

10, 1974, p. 74.

James R. Hoffa, as told to Oscar Day, 1975), p. 233.

Fraley, Hoffa:

The Real Story (New York:

Stein and

Notes

to

Pages 316-60

420

13-14.

6.

Ibid., pp.

7.

Ibid., p. 15.

8.

Ibid., p. 24.

9.

Ibid., pp.

234-35.

10.

New

11.

Playboy (December, 1975): 83.

12.

Christopher Davis, "Lord Jimmy," Esquire (March, 1975): 145.

13.

Ibid., p. 146.

14.

Lester Velie, Desperate Bargain

York Times,

November

22, 1973, p. 26.

(New York:

Reader's Digest Press, 1977),

p. 32.

Chapter 15 1.

New

2.

Ibid.,

3.

Time, August 18, 1975,

4.

Charles

Hoffa

York Times, August

August

2,

1975, p.

6.

13, 1975, p. 14. p.

17.

Ashman and Rebecca (New York: Manor Books,

Sobel,

The Strange Disappearance of Jimmy

1976), p. 179.

178-79.

5.

Ibid., pp.

6.

New

7.

Steven

8.

Ibid., p. 72.

9.

Dan

York Times, September 29, 1975, Brill,

The Teamsters

p. 36.

(New York: Simon and

E. Moldea, The Hoffa Wars

Schuster, 1978), p. 42.

(New York and London: Paddington

Press,

1978), p. 418.

Chapter 16 1.

New

2.

Sam Romer, The

York Times, January 15, 1989,

p. 1.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

(New York:

Wiley,

1962), pp. 41-42.

Notes

to

Pages 360-403

421

Index

Bakery and Confectionery Workers,

Adelstein, Bernard, 119, 161

Adkinson,

F.

Keith, 386-387

Adlerman, Jerome

S., 176,

161

Baron, Samuel, 257-259

178

Beck, David D., 22-25, 28, 39-41, 49-54, 66, 72-73, 76, 78, 82,

Adonis, Joe, 118

AFL-CIO,

52, 66, 73, 79, 88, 90,

92-93, 96, 99-100, 102-104, 107-108, 126, 134-136, 147, 149150, 161, 181-182, 185, 201, 256,

86-87, 91, 95, 97-98, 101, 120, 137-139, 146, 159, 161, 163-164, 168, 180, 209, 215, 359

Beck, David D.,

269-270, 342, 353

52

Jr.,

Ahearn, Daniel, 306, 309 Aldnch, Noah L., 336

Bender, George H., 46-47, 110,

Alliance for Labor Action, 342

Ben-Gurion, David, 68

American Automobile Association (AAA), 239-240 American Federation of Labor

Bennett,

130-133

(AFL), 9-11, 29, 33, 35, 39, 41, 82

American Railway Union, 337 American Telephone and Telegraph, American Trucking Associations, 191, 197, 209,

21,

248-251

Andretta, Stephen, 389, 391, 397 Andretta,

Thomas, 389-390, 392-

394, 397

Associated Transport, 194

20-21, 31-32,

14,

Bennis, Warren, 408

Berke, Harry, 298-300 Bitonti, John, 90, 162

Bittman, William O., 310 Black,

191

Ray J.,

36

Hugo

L.,

323

Boling, H. L., 152

Bommarito, "Scarface Joe," 32, 118 Boudin, Leonard B., 367-370, 383 Brando, Marlon, 134 Brennan, Alice, 85, 108, 161, 259

Brennan,

Owen

Bert, 15, 18, 32, 35,

Austin, Richard B., 306, 308-309,

45, 55, 62-63, 85, 89, 95, 105,

312, 344 Avery, Sewell, 39-40

109-110, 122, 124-125, 151, 154, 161, 168, 258-260, 317

Backhus, John B., 311 Baker, Robert "Barney," 117, 119, 161, 166, 277, 284-286, 403

Brennan, Sidney, 101 Brennan, William J., Jr., 323 Brewster, Frank, 78-79, 92, 95, 101

Bngugho,

Gabriel,

389-394

Briguglio, Salvatore "Sally Bugs,"

Brill,

Steven, 142

Bufalino, Russell, 398

Bufalmo, William

E., 42, 44, 46, 172,

260, 262, 265, 267, 271, 324, 384,

390-392 Bureau of Narcotics, 159 Burke,

ees, 13

R., 11

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), 29, 31-32, 40-42

Burris, Herbert R., 309

Vaughn P., 308 Conrad, Robert, 359-360 Consolidated Freight ways, 193, 224, 228

Bushkin, Jack "Babe," 124 Butler, Joe, 118

Connelly,

Calhoun, Sam, 8-9 sion,

Commercial Carriers, Inc., 45, 85, 258-260, 311-312 Commission House Drivers, Warehouse, Produce, and Fish Employ-

Commons, John

Tom, 32

California Public Utilities

Colson, Charles W., 362-363, 368369, 396

388-394, 396-398

Commis-

207

Campbell, Larry, 263, 270, 293, 296, 301-302

Caponc, Al, 1, 33, 84, 120, 164, 283, 401, 403 Castellito, Anthony, 393, 396-397 Cayton, Nathan L., 107-108 Central States Agreement, 220 Central States Drivers Council, 19,

Cooper-Jarrett, 194

Coppola, Frank, 32 Coppola, "Trigger Mike," 118 Corallo,

Anthony "Tony Ducks,"

82, 86, 119, 156, 161, 177

Costello, Frank, 74

Crancer, Barbara Hoffa, 28, 54-61, 63, 67-69, 140, 301, 334-335,

337-338, 340, 345, 351, 374-375, 380-381, 384, 399 Crancer, Robert E., 58, 301, 345,

21-22, 31, 37, 406 Central States Employers Negotiating Committee, 21

Central States Health and Welfare

Fund, 157 Central States Joint Area Committee,

350-351, 366, 374, 384

Crow, William, 9 Crum, Bartlcy C, 153 Cunningham, John R., 112 Curtis, Carl T., 50

234 Central States Pension Fund (CSPF),

274-275, 324, 336, 343, 353, 364, 371, 392, 401, 403

Chavez, Frank, 327-328 Cheasty,John Cye, 72-78, 107, 158, 163, 165, 172, 267, 304, 330 Cheyfitz, Edward T., 74, 76-77,

Chodak, Murray, 380 Cipes, Robert M., 322

Tom C,

Democratic, Republican, Indepen146

Dewey, Thomas

323

Collins, Frank, 8, 62, 67, 277

Dean, John W., 368 Debs, Eugene V., 337 Decter, Aaron, 66

Denver-Chicago Trucking, 194

151,

156, 161, 165, 403-404, 406

Diviney, Joseph, 346

Dobbs,

Farrell,

18-20, 22, 25, 28-31,

68, 180, 192, 291, 406

Dodd, Thomas

Index

E., 81

Dioguardi, John Ignazio "Johnny Dio," 81-83, 86-87, 98, 119, 127,

Clay, James, 9

Cohen, Mickey, 381 Cohen, Raymond P., 109-110, 162, 166, 178, 186, 269-270 Cohn, Roy, 48

274-275

dent Voter Education (DRIVE),

107, 146, 159, 400

Clark,

Dalitz, Morris,

Davidson, Embrel, 124, 151, 162, 166

J.,

107

424

Dorfman,

Allen, 45, 156, 161, 164,

270, 283-284, 301, 329, 403

Dorfman, Paul "Red,"

45, 67, 120,

295-

156, 161, 164, 283-284, 293,

402-403 Dorfman, Rose, 296,

Dranow, Benjamin,

353

E., 313, 341,

337: 35, 62, 84

Ford, Henry, 13, 38

Ford Motor Company, 41, 66 Abe, 321 Fraley, Oscar, 360-362

260, 272,

Fortas,

306-311 Drucker, Peter, 337 F.,

Thomas

Food and Beverage Drivers Local Ford, Gerald R., 374, 393

156, 161, 164 Douglas, William O., 323-324

Duffy, Ryan

Fitzsimmons, Richard, 371 Flynn,

Frank

320

&

Cedar's Department Store,

6

Dunn, John "Cockeyed," 118 Dunne, Grant, 18, 28-29, 31, 68 Dunne, Miles, 18, 28-29, 31, 68 Dunne, Vincent, 18, 28-29. 31, 68, 219

Friends of James R. Hoffa tee,

Commit-

324, 326

Gallinaro, William B.,

385-387

General Accounting Office, 159 General Motors,

16, 66,

Eban, Abba, 66

General Tobacco

Company,

Eisenhower, Dwight D., 51, 100, 175, 339

General Truck Drivers, Local 299,

Ellsberg, Daniel, 367

Employers of Motor Carriers, 209 English, John F., 88, 93, 95, 99-101, 139, 147, 180, 305, 319

Ervin,

Sam J.,

Jr., 50,

Ethical Practices

126

Committee, 99

146 16

13-18, 25, 31, 35-37, 55, 60, 62,

69-70, 84, 90, 97-98, 114, 129, 137, 146, 168-169, 174, 184, 189, 263, 277, 281, 316, 318, 324, 346, 352, 356, 370-371, 373, 377, 380 Genovese, Vito, 388, 392 Get Hoffa Squad, 263, 311, 322,

325-326

Anthony "Tony Jack,"

Joseph A., 321-322 Faugno, Armand "Cookie," 389, 393 Fay, Joey, 318

Giacalone,

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Giacalone, Joey, 382-384, 391

Fanelli,

(FBI), 30, 49, 72-75, 159, 171, 173, 186-187, 245, 262, 266,

282-

286, 297-298, 300, 308, 310, 330, 375, 379, 381, 383, 385, 388, 391-

396-398 Giacalone, Vito, 371-372, 398

Giancana,

Momo

Salvatore

"Sam,"

164

Gibbons, Harold

J., 95,

140-144,

162-163, 214, 258, 279-281, 288,

393, 397 Feinsinger,

371-373, 375-379, 382, 384, 392,

Nathan

P.,

315, 317-318, 339, 346, 351, 354-

66

Feldman, Samuel "Shorty," 109-110 Fields, Carl, 263-264, 293 Fields, Gratin, 263-264, 266-267, 270, 293

Fischbach,

Hyman, 72

Fitzgerald,

George

S., 86,

91

355, 363

Ghmcojoey,

119, 132, 161, 164, 186

Goldblatt, Louis, 154

Goldstein, Sam, 132, 162 Gold water, Barry, 50, 76, 132-133 Gompers, Samuel, 11, 145-146

Fitzsimmons, Don, 361

Gould, Stanley, 383

Fitzsimmons, Frank, 62, 316-318, 320, 326, 329, 335-336, 339-341,

Green, Cindy, 375, 378, 383

343, 346-349, 352-353, 359-366,

Grihangne, Jean, 139 Grimsley, Frank, 295, 297, 299

369-371, 373-374, 377, 381-382, 384, 392, 394-396, 404

Index

425

Haggerty, James E., 260, 265, 271, 305-306, 309 Haggerty,

Thomas J.,

119-120, 123-124, 126-129, 131, 134, 136, 139-140, 143-145, 149,

93, 95

Hall, Dallas, 293

Harry (Harry Haller, Hary Helf385-387 Hansen, John, 139 Harlan, John M., 323 Hall,

got),

J.,

66

Healy, James

J.,

Hickey,

Thomas

152-153, 155-156, 159, 162-163, 167-169, 172-174, 179-181, 185, 192-193, 195, 198-199, 204, 206, 208, 210, 213-214, 218-221, 224225, 232, 237, 240-242, 245-247,

Hastings, Al, 7

Hayes, A.

65-66, 70, 78-79, 82, 87-89, 91, 96, 98-102, 104, 106-114, 117,

252-253, 257-259, 269-270, 272, 276-279, 284-285, 290, 294, 297,

148 L.

"Honest Tom,"

301, 304-305, 307, 310-316, 322323, 331, 335-337, 341-343, 346-

83, 87, 93, 95

Hobren Corporation, 260

348, 353, 356, 361-365, 369, 372,

Hoffa, Barbara. See Crancer, Barbara

374, 377, 382, 394, 396, 404

Team

Hoffa Hoffa, James P., 54-60, 70, 76, 285,

Drivers International Union,

10

301, 334-335, 340, 348, 351, 356,

Teamsters National Union, 10-11

361-362, 364, 373, 376-378, 381-

Western Conference of Teamsters, 22, 95, 363 International Laundry Workers Union, 26 International Longshoremen's Asso-

383, 385

Hoffa, James R. Children's

Home

of

Jerusalem, 66-68 Hoffa, Jenetta, 2-5,

7,

60

Hoffa, John Cleveland, 2-4 Hoffa, Josephine Poszywak, 25-28,

54-55, 57-61, 63-65, 70, 84-85, 95, 108, 142, 150, 180, 259, 301,

ciation, 39, 134,

154

International Teamster, 143, 146,

Interstate

(ICC), 188-189, 194, 196, 207, 325

329, 334-335, 338, 340, 345, 346,

Interstate

348, 351, 353, 359, 361, 363-365,

Iowa 75-Mile Rider, 202 Ives, Irving M., 50, 80, 82,

369-370, 374-375, 377, 398-399

340

Commerce Commission System, 194 122, 160

Hoffa, Viola Riddle, 2-6, 60-61, 383

Henry M., 386

Hoffa, William, 2-5, 16, 60, 90

Jackson,

Hoffman, Clare E., 42-46, 81, 172 Holmes, Alvin R., 209 Holmes, Robert, 8-9, 32, 36, 62-63,

Jackson, Joseph R., 170-171

65, 67, 346,

382

Holmes, Robert,

Jr.,

382

Holmes Transportation

Service, 209

Holtzman, Joseph, 115-116, 124,

Jacobs, Paul, 146

James, Ralph and Estelle, 30, 187, 273, 318 Jefferson, Martha, 75

Johnson, David E., 62, 370-371 Joint Western

Committee (JWC),

221-233

156-157, 161

Hooker, John J., 293 Hoover, Herbert, 91, 151 House Assassinations Committee, 284

Katz, Michael A., 369

Kavner, Richard, 144, 280 Keathley, Ferguson, 144, 280 Keathley, Yuki Kato, 144, 280

Revenue Service, 159 International Brotherhood of TeamInternal

sters (IBT), 9,

25,

Index

11-14, 19, 22-23,

28-30, 35, 40, 46, 58, 60, 62,

Kefauver, Estes, 42 Kelley, Clarence M., 379

Kennedy, John

F., 2, 50, 85, 122,

133, 154-158, 160, 163, 175, 214,

426

245, 279, 281-288, 294, 299, 327-

Lewis, Denny, 29-33, 42

328, 337, 367

Lewis, John

Kennedy, Robert

F., 1,

48-51,

72-75, 77-78, 80-81, 83, 87, 90, 94, 98, 114, 116-119, 120-123, 126, 129, 131, 133-134, 149-150,

L., 29, 129, 214, 337,

405

Lewisburg, Pennsylvania Federal Penitentiary, 2, 331-338, 342-348,

350-351, 364

154, 156-159, 161, 162-165, 175,

Linteau, Louis, 375-376, 378

178-180, 187, 214, 255, 257, 259260, 267-268, 271, 280-284, 294-

Louis, Joe, 75-76, 119

295, 297-299, 301, 307, 311, 313,

320-321, 327, 331, 337, 339, 365,

404-405 Kern, Father Clement, 70 Khrushchev, Nikita, 279 Kierdorf, Frank, 116-117, 119, 161,

403 King,

Herman,

Ewing

117, 403

T., 262, 270-271, 293,

296-297, 301-302 King, Martin Luther, Kissinger,

Henry

Jr.,

Milton

J.,

181,

183-184

Lowe, Frederick, 308, 310 Lower, Henry, 89-90, 174-175,

308,

310

367, 402,

Kierdorf,

Liss,

341

A., 355

McCarthy, McCarthy, 143-144 McCarthy, McCarthy,

Eugene, 339

Joseph R., 48, 74,

Robert E., Jr., 174 William J., 208

McClellan, John L., 48, 50, 72, 80, 83-85, 88-89, 97-98, 114-115, 121, 124-125, 134, 146, 150, 155-

Kleindienst, Richard G., 355

156, 161, 176-178, 269, 290-291,

Konigsberg, Harold, 397

345

Konowe, Joseph, 143-144, 149-150, 214, 341, 364

Kossman, Jacob, 170, 261, 265 Kovens, Calvin, 308, 310 Kroger Grocery and Baking Company, 7-9, 13, 25, 62, 67, 192

McClellan committee, 47, 49-52, 72-73, 77, 80-81, 83-84, 87-90, 94, 96-98, 103, 109, 114, 116-117, 126-127, 131, 147, 149, 151-153, 157-158, 160-161, 165-166, 168, 170, 172, 174-176, 186-187,

255-

256, 260, 284, 295, 306-308, 361,

Labor-Management Reporting and

367,

402-403

Lacey, Martin, 87

McCormack, John W., 279 McLean Trucking, 194

Landrum, Phillip, 160 Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959, 160,

McMaster, Rolland, 36, 126 McNamara, John J., 152

Disclosure Act, 160

163, 167, 171, 173, 182, 184, 213,

McNamara,

304, 343

Langley, James, 7-8

McShane, Terence Maher, Daniel B.,

Lansky, Meyer, 118

Marcello, Carlos, 281-282, 285, 355

Pat, 50 F., 171,

173

172, 261, 265

Lapham, Lewis, 387

Marshall, Thurgood, 327

Lawicki, Ernest, 383

Martel, Frank X., 41, 280

Lawrenson, C. Edward, 357-358

Martin, John Bartlow, 162

Leahy, Frank, 67

Matula, Frank, 119, 161, 186-187,

Lee, William A., 91, Letts, F.

93-95

Dickinson, 91, 98-99, 105-

106, 109, 111-113, 126, 135, 147,

151-152, 167-168, 170-171,

173-174 Edward, 374

Levi,

Index

404

Meany, George,

96, 100, 102, 104,

134-135, 182, 256, 353 Medlin, Clarence N., 387-388

Medlin, Lawrence "Red," 261,

270-271

427

O'Rourke, John

Meir, Golda, 68

Miller,

Murray W. "Dusty," 284-

285, 318, 341, 346 Miller, William E., 123-124,

261-

263, 265-271 Mitchell, Mitchell,

Mohn,

J.,

86-87, 95, 118,

166, 313

Meli, Angelo, 42

James P., 100, 150, 167 John N., 340, 350, 362

Einar, 86, 93, 95, 100, 315,

Orr, Ralph, 374

Osborn, Z. T., Jr., 260, 262, 265, 271, 292 Oswald, Lee Harvey, 281, 283, 286, 327-328 Oswald, Marina, 286 Ozer, Robert C, 388-391

318 Mollenhoff, Clark R., 49-50, 331

Pacific

Montgomery Ward,

Paris,

Moore, Cecil Moore, Luke

Motor

39, 66

B., 313

C,

Parks,

330

Intermountain Express, 194

John, 59

Thomas Ewing,

271, 293,

Carrier Act, 189

Partin,

Mundt, Karl E., 50, 87 Murphy, Walter, 6

263, 270-

301-302

Edward Grady, 282-283,

294-300, 315, 319, 321-324, 355,

402 Paschal, Betty, 262-263, 267, 270,

National Association for Justice,

357-358 National Maritime Union, 134-135 Navasky, Victor S., 324 Neal, James

260, 262-263, 268,

F.,

272, 293-294, 299-300, 307

New

England Freight Agreement,

Patrolmen's Benevolent Association,

135-136 Pearson,

Drew, 337

Perlman, Leo, 156 Perrone, Santo, 32 Picardo, Ralph, 389-390, 391, 393

208, 210, 220

New

England Motor Carriers' Council, Inc., 210 New England Negotiating Committee, 208 Nichols, David "Bud," 326-327 Nixon, Richard M., 340, 344-345, 347-350, 352, 355-356, 362-363, 367-369, 372, 395-396

North Central

293 Paschal, James, 262-263, 293

District Drivers

Piersante, Vincent, 393-395, 404

Pigano, Sylvia, 26, 59, 334

Poszywak, Angeline, 61 Poszywak, Ed, 61 Poszywak, Josephine. See Hoffa, Josephine

Poszywak

Poszywak, Sophie, 61 Pratt, John H., 368-370 Presser, William, 46-47, 125, 131, 153, 161, 166, 186-187, 274-275,

Council, 19

277, 341, 404

O'Brien, Charles "Chuckie," 59-60, 63, 264, 330,

334-335, 377-378,

381-383, 385, 392-393, 396, 398 O'Brien, John T. "Sandy," 79-80 O'Brien,

Mary Ann, 60

O'Donoghue, Martin 113, 167,

F.,

Previant, David, 146, 170

Provenzano, Anthony "Tony Pro," 167, 186, 277, 304, 313, 317, 342343, 364-365, 371, 373, 379, 384385, 388-393, 396-397,

108-111,

Prudential Insurance

403-404

Company, 273

171-173

O'Keefe, Patrick, 387

Quasarano, Raffaele, 384, 391, 393

O'Laughlin, Joseph "Red," 20-21, 31

Operating Engineers, 161

Index

Raskin, A. H., 129 Ratner, Payne, 45-46

428

Reeves, Elmer, 378, 383

Spindel, 105, 300

Reuther, Walter, 31, 40-41, 66, 146,

Spock, Benjamin, 367

200, 341, 405

Steinberg,

Abraham, 175 Paul "The Waiter,"

Ribicoff,

Ricca,

Lawrence N., 143-144,

214, 279-280, 288, 333, 337, 339, 84, 162,

403

341 Stewart, Potter, 323

Riddle, Steve, 61

Sullivan, Daniel, 364

Riesel, Victor, 81, 87

Swanson, Warren, 264 Swygert, Luther M., 320-321

Roadway

Express, 194

Rogers, Donald

I.,

Rogers, William

338

P.,

355

Taft, Robert, 133

Romer, Sam, 402

Taft-Hartley Act, 213, 258, 260, 265,

Roosevelt, Franklin D., 18, 29-30

313

Ruby, Jack, 283-286, 328 Ryder System, 194

Taylor, George W., 164

Teamsters Bar Association, 147, 179, 324

Morley, 387

Safer,

Teamsters Local 107, 109-110, 151, 178, 269-270 Teamsters Local 239, 176-177

Saffo, Peter, 144

Salinger, Pierre, 125

Sanson, Stanton D., 307-308

Sam "Frank O'Brien,"

Scaradino,

Schiffer, Jacques

59

M., 271, 295, 297,

300, 302

Schmidt, Godfrey

P., 107,

109-113,

135-136, 143, 152-153, 171 Schultz, Leonard, 379 Sears

Roebuck Company,

16,

66

Seigenthaler, John, 260

Senate Select

Committee on Im-

proper Activities in the Labor or

Management

Field,

50

Shaffer, Charles N., Jr., 260, 262

Shea, Cornelius P., 11

Sheeran, Frank, 393, 398 Shelley, John, 92

Shenker, Morris, 330, 350 Sheridan,

Andrew

"Squint," 118

Sheridan, Walter, 176, 258, 260-263,

295-298, 301, 322, 326-327 Bernard J., 66

Shiel,

Siegel, Silets,

"Bugsy," 118 Harvey, 300

Skoglund, Karl, 18, 29, 31 Smith, Glenn W., 119, 152, 161 Smith, Wint, 45-47, 84-85, 120, 260 Snyder, Zigmont, 90, 162 Sobell,

Morton, 337

Spector Freight System, 194

Index

Teamsters Local 245, 152 Teamsters Local 332, 116

Teamsters Local 500, 29 Teamsters Local 544, 29, 31 Teamsters Local 560, 167, 364-365, 379, 388-389, 391 Teamsters Local 574, 18, 22, 28-29 Teamsters Local 688, 140-141, 144,

363 Teamsters Local 705, 278 Teamsters Local 901, 327

Teamsters Local 929, 109 Teamsters Local 985, 42, 172 Teamsters Local 20467, |283 Test Fleet Corporation, 45, 84-85, 108, 259-260, 265, 272 Textile Workers, 161

Thomas, John W. Department

Store,

161, 307

Tippens, James

Tobin, Daniel

C,

J.,

261-262, 270

11-13, 18, 20,

23-25, 28-31, 34, 36-40, 168,

209 Trafficante, Santos, 282, 285

Triscaro, Louis

M. "Babe," 46-47,

404 Trotsky, Leon, 18 Trotskyites, 19, 29 131, 186,

Truman, Harry

S,

107

429

Tweel, Nicholas

J.,

270-271, 293,

295-296, 301

Union Controlled Casualty and Life Insurance Company, 156-157, 402 United Automobile Workers (UAW), 31, 40-41, 66, 82, 86-87, 146, 341, 347, 405 United Steelworkers, 41

Vinson, Fred M.,

Jr.,

322

Vitale, Joe, 118 Vitale, Peter, 384, 391,

393

Wagner, Robert F., 135 Walker, James T., 293 Walsh, Maurice, 306, 309 Warren, Earl, 281, 323-324 Warren Commission, 286 Weiner, Irwin S., 284 Weiss, Abraham, 291 Wells, L. N. D., 107, 110-111 West Coast Truckers, 251 Western States Agreement, 226 White, Byron R., 321 Williams,

Edward

Bennett, 74-75,

107, 110, 112, 122, 146-147, 157,

163, 168, 179, 187, 279, 304-305,

362 Williams, Paul W., 105

Wilson, Frank W., 292, 295-300,

302-303, 312, 314, 327-328 Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association, 248 Woehl, Martin and

Irene,

383

Woodcock, Leonard, 347-348 Zagri, Sidney, 144-146

Zapas, Gus, 119, 161

Anthony

Zerilli,

Ziebert,

Index

J.,

385

Duke, 279

430

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

3 9999 01117 536 9

—

m

I

w

u

Boston Public Library .

BRIGHT

BRANCH

HD6509 H6S56 i99i

Lll

91040237 BR in the pocket inbefore which or on date the dicates to the returned be should this book Library. Please do not remove cards from this pocket.

The Date Due Card

"Sloane has presented a well-documented and gracefully written book about a subject that could very well be into a movie, 'The Life

and

After-Life of

Jimmy

made

Hoffa.'

I

think

he has the interpretation right on a number of important subjects, such as

how

organized crime. All

Hoffa and the Teamsters dealt with

in all,

I

think

it is

a brilliantly written

book."

Robert B. McKersie, Sloan Fellows Professor of

Management Massachusetts

"This

is

Institute of

Technology

a well-documented, well-balanced read. The warts are

there, but so are Hoffa's

redeeming

qualities."

Ralph Orr, Retired Labor Writer, Detroit Free Press

"Art Sloane's Hoffa

is

sure to rekindle the fascination that the

legendary labor boss has long held for millions of Americans. Hoffa

may no

longer be alive, but he surely comes alive on

the pages of this book."

Rep.

Tom Carper,

(D)

Delaware,

The MIT Press

Member of Congress

ISBN 0-262-19309-

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142

SLOHH

9 '780262"193092'