James
Riddle Hoffa,
the son of a coal driller, was born on 14th February, 1913. His father
died when he was seven and in 1924, the family moved to Detroit.
Hoffa left school at fourteen and worked as a department-store stock
boy. An active trade unionist, in 1932, he
led a strike at a Detroit grocery store. By the age of 37 he was chairman
of the Central States Drivers Council in 1940 and two years was elected
president of the Michigan Conference of Teamsters.
In 1952 Hoffa became vice president of the Teamsters Union under Dave
Beck, the president. Allegations were made in 1956 that the leadership
of the union was involved in illegal activities. The Select Committee
on Labor, that included Joe McCarthy,
Barry Goldwater, Karl
Mundt and John F. Kennedy, decided
that these charges needed to be investigated.
Robert Kennedy, chief counsel of the
committee, was instructed to collect information and discovered several
financial irregularities. This included taking $85,119 between 1949
and 1953 from union funds to pay his own personal bill. The investigation
also revealled that a Seattle builder had received $196,516 out of
union funds to pay for work done on Beck's home. The investigations
were televised and Kennedy's questioning turned him into a national
political figure.
Beck was eventually imprisoned for five years and Hoffa became the
new president of the Teamsters Union. Robert
Kennedy now began investigating Hoffa and he was eventually charged
with corruption. Kennedy claimed that Hoffa had misappropriated $9.5
million in union funds and had corruptly done deals with employers.
Hoffa's lawyer, Edward
Bennett Williams,
managed to persuade the
jury to find him not guilty. George Meany,
president of the AFL-CIO, did not agree with
the verdict and Hoffa and the Teamsters Union were expelled from the
association.
Hoffa was popular with his members and in 1960 was re-elected as president
of the Teamsters Union. A long-term supporter of the Republican
Party, Hoffa was a generous supplier of funds to Richard
Nixon in his presidential struggle with John
F. Kennedy. During the campaign, Robert
Kennedy sent Hoffa a copy of his book, The
Enemy Within. Kennedy wrote inside: "To Jimmy. I'm
sending you this book so you won't have to use union funds to buy
one. Bobby."
After Kennedy's election victory in 1960 he appointed Robert
Kennedy as his attorney general. Once in office, Kennedy resumed
his investigations into Hoffa's activities. Hoffa was eventually charged
with taking money from the union's $300 Pension Fund.
J. Edgar Hoover, a long-term opponent of the Kennedys, passed
FBI files on the attorney general to Roy
Cohn, who in turn gave them to Hoffa. However, Hoffa, who disapproved
of the Kennedy's adulterous behaviour, declined to use this material
against his prosecutors.
A former official of the union, E. G. Partin,
was in prison facing charges of kidnapping, murder, robbery and rape,
agreed to do a deal with the authorities and provide evidence against
Hoffa. At the first trial at Nashville in October, 1962, the hung
jury voted 7-5 for acquittal. The judge, believing that Hoffa's team
were guilty of jury tampering, called a mistrial. At the second trial
at Chattanooga in January, 1964, Hoffa was found guilty and sentenced
to eight years in prison.
In December, 1971, President Richard Nixon
ordered Hoffa's release. Later, FBI records
revealed that Nixon had received illegal campaign donations from the
Teamsters Union in exchange for a presidential pardon.
After his release Hoffa travelled the country campaigning for prison
reform. He also attempted to return as leader of the Teamsters Union.
On 30th July, 1975, James Hoffa disappeared when travelling to a meeting
with the Detroit gangster, Anthony Giacalone. In 1982 Hoffa was legally
declared "presumed dead".
In 1989 Kenneth Walton,
the head of the FBI's Detroit office, told The
Detroit News he knew what happened to Hoffa. “I’m
comfortable I know who did it, but it’s never going to be prosecuted
because… we would have to divulge informants, confidential sources.”
On
14th January, 1992, the New York Post
claimed that Hoffa, Santos
Trafficante
and
Carlos
Marcello
had
all been involved in the assassination of President
John
F. Kennedy.
Frank
Ragano was quoted as saying that at the beginning of 1963 Hoffa
had told him to take a message to Trafficante and Marcello concerning
a plan to kill Kennedy. When the meeting took place at the Royal Orleans
Hotel, Ragano told the men: "You won't believe what Hoffa wants
me to tell you. Jimmy wants you to kill the president." He reported
that both men gave the impression that they intended to carry out
this order.
In
his autobiography, Mob Lawyer
(1994) (co-written with journalist Selwyn Raab) Frank
Ragano added
that in July, 1963, he was once again sent to New
Orleans
by Hoffa
to meet Santos
Trafficante
and Carlos
Marcello
concerning plans to kill
President John
F. Kennedy.
When
Kennedy was killed Hoffa apparently said to Ragano: "I told you
could do it. I'll never forget what Carlos and Santos did for me."
He added: "This means Bobby is out as Attorney General".
Marcello later told Ragano: "When you see Jimmy (Hoffa), you
tell him he owes me and he owes me big."
It
is possible that Hoffa was killed in 1975 to stop him from testifying
in front of the House
Select Committee on Assassinations.
Fellow Mafia suspect in the Kennedy assassination, Sam
Giancana,
was also murdered at the same time Hoffa disappeared.
In 1989 Kenneth Walton,
the head of the FBI's Detroit office, told The
Detroit News he knew what happened to Hoffa. “I’m
comfortable I know who did it, but it’s never going to be prosecuted
because… we would have to divulge informants, confidential sources.”
Just before he died, Frank
Sheeran, confessed to author Charles Brandt that he killed Hoffa.
According to Sheeran, Chuckie O'Brien drove Hoffa, Sheeran and another
mobster Sal Briguglio to a house in Detroit.
Hoffa and Sheeran went into the house and the other two men drove
off. Sheeran says he shot Hoffa twice behind the right ear. After
the murder, Sheeran says he left the house and was told Hoffa was
cremated. The full story appears in Brandt's book I
Heard You Paint Houses (2003).
(1) Joe Konowe, a close associate
of Jimmy Hoffa, interviewed by David Heyman for his book, A Candid
Biography of Robert F. Kennedy (1998)
Jimmy
delighted in showing people, particularly people with substantial
education, that he was their equal or better. And he was able to do
this because, notwithstanding his ninth-grade education, he was a
quick study. With the seriousness of the depression, the loss of his
father, the enormous workload that his mother undertook - doing washing
and houseleaning - and with the children helping out, Jimmy always
had a soft spot for the so-called underclass and a great disdain for
people who were not well educated but who came from wealthy families.
And that was the cause of the fight, the ongoing vendetta between
Kennedy and Hoffa.
(2) Robert
Kennedy, Look magazine (2nd September, 1958)
At birth, it is a Teamster
who drives the ambulance to the hospital. At death, a Teamster who
drives the hearse to the grave. Between birth and death, it is the
Teamsters who drive the trucks that bring you your meat, milk, clothing
and drugs, pick up your garbage and perform many other essential services.
The individual truck driver is honest, and so are the vast majority
of local Teamster officials - but they are completely under the control
and domination of certain corrupt officials at the top. Picture this
power, then, and the chaos that could result in these officials were
to gain control over sea and other transportation outlets. Such a
force could conceivably cause anyone - management and labor alike
- to capitulate to its every whim. With Hoffa at the controls of the
union that will dominate the transport alliance, this power would
certainly be in the wrong hands.
(3) Roy
Cohn, interviewed by David
Heyman for his book, A Candid Biography of Robert F. Kennedy
(1998)
Hoffa and I would occasionally dine together in New York. I asked
Hoover if I could give Hoffa the RFK files. "Go ahead,"
he said. When I presented them, Hoffa asked, "What do I do with
them?" "I don't know," I responded, "Save them
for a rainy day."
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