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The Hoffa Wars

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The Hoffa Wars r ce-t# gry speckil report: 1?70 THE HOFFA WARS an investigation of the violence and corruption surrounding the missing teamster leader whose influence extended to nearly every corner qf american public life including HOW JIMMY HOFFA BECAME INVOLVED WITH ORGANIZED CRIME HOW MOB MONEY WAS FUNNELED TO RICHARD NIXON HOFFA'S SECRET ROLE AS THE CIA'S LINK TO THE MOB THE HATRED BETWEEN HOFFA AND THE KENNEDY BROTHERS WHY HOFFA WAS KILLED AND WHO DID IT a rticle By DAN E. MOLDEA At presstime, the U. S. House Assassi- of the Hoffa murder. Hoffa's son, attor- the cargo I was hauling exploded and I nations Committee was about to reveal ney James P. Hoffer, Jr., who was the ad- was nearly killed. Eight truckers pulled come surprising details regarding t he assas- ministrator of the fund, simply told me over and probably sewed my life. "The sination of President John F. Kennedy. to do whatever I had to do, no matter Haifa Wars" is part payment on my debt Many of the same names that were to be how embarrassing to him, his family or to those eight men and to the dissident rank-and-file Teamsters who kept me I discussed by the committee are also major Iris father's memory, in order to help un- alive during my four-year investigation. diameters in my book "The Hoffa Wars." cover the truth about Hoffa's execution. In October 1974, as a free-lance writer, Meanwhile, I was hired part time by valuable contribu- The Detroit Free Press. We worked for JSMMY HOFFA'S most began investigating Jimmy Hoffa and tion to the American labor movement the next eight months on the extortion the Teamsters. Ten months later, I was came at the moment he stopped breath- plots I had uncovered, during which concentrating exclusively on the union's ing on July 30, 1975. The involuntary extortion schemes against trucking corn- time I severed my financial relationship act occurred in the midst of his dramatic :43watt and terrorist activities against with young Hoffa. Soon after, I began bid to recapture the general presidency Internal rank-and-file reform groups. In- receiving a series of grants from the of the International Brotherhood of vestigations of the Hoffa-Frank Fitzsint- Fund for Investigative Journalism in Teamsters, which he had lost during five nons power struggle and of Hoffa's Washington, D.0 which continued after years in prison. Still popular among re- disappearance were of only peripheral my story was published. Simultaneously, porters with short memories who insisted concern to me; and I had absolutely no 1 was doing some work on the same sub- upon portraying him as a working-class te, !.:Iclirtation to investigate the alleged ject for columnist Jack Anderson. With hero, and among rank-and-file admir- assination plots against either Fidel the help of money and contacts supplied ers who had forgiven him for stealing astro or John Kennedy. Ironically, how- by the F.I.J. and Anderson, my investi- from them, Hoffa nevertheless had a slim gations snowballed, forcing me into ver, my conclusions on labor terrorism, chance of a comeback. His release from bet movements and shakedowns led me those areas that I had thought to be unrelated to my work. prison in late 1971 led to a futile four- usto these areas, which I lied, at one year struggle for power; his execution time, considered distant and unrelated. I was not completely new to the Team- sters union and its problems when I opened the floodgates for investigations After a brief stint as a Teamsters into the Teamsters and the underworld, researcher with NBC, I continued my started my work on "The Hoffa Wars": 1 had worked on a loading platform and their illicit enterprises, their influence on :nelependent investigations. Then, in the Nixon White House and their role '`cute 1975 and early 1976, I received had even driven a small truck while in in /97/, in assassination plots against a foreign -$2100 from the Hoffa Reward Fund, college. On a hot summer day which had beers established in the wake while I was en route to Columbus, Ohio, leader—as well as a possible involvement 141 ILLUSTRATION BY KINUKO Y. CRAFT in the assassination of an American well documented by the McClellan com- later. he was unwilling and unable to President. mittee hearings of 1957-1960, its roots battle the underworld. So, instead; he Convicted in two separate trials of jury have been unclear until now. Haifa, I promptly decentralized the union autoc- tampering and of defrauding the union's found, was introduced to Detroit mob- racy Hoffa had used to build his empire, pension fund, Haifa had become an out- sters Frank Coppola and Santo Perrone hoping to insulate himself from direct sider to the Teamsters' high command in or about 1934 by his lover, Sylvia Pa- contact with organized crime. Among the when he entered Lewisburg Penitentiary gano. He asked for and received Mob immediate benefactors of Fitzsimmons' in Mardi 1967. His problems began less muscle seven years later, when the local policies were local and regional Team- than a month later, when he and his Teamsters in Detroit were being strongly ster leaders around the country, who ac- successor, Frank Fitzsimmons, disagreed challenged by a rival union. After the quired a considerable amount of new over a union appointment. The increas- Teamsters-underworld alliance had driv- power in the 2,000,000-member I.B.T. ingly bitter war between the two old en the opposing labor organization out Instead of clamoring for the attention friends lasted until Haifa died and was to of the city, Hoffa reciprocated the Mob's of one man, such as Haifa, mobsters be carried on by Hoffa's supporters even strong-arm work by giving it access to merely had to call their area Teamster after he was gone. Many would think union funds. With a new facade of le- representatives for favors. Teamster that this split with Fitzsimmons was the gitimacy, the Detroit underworld became bosses who cooperated became wealthy. .• key factor in his death. But there is evi- the center of the international narcotics Without the daily burden of defending dence that could lead to the possible con- traffic from 1947 to 1952, after Coppola his professional relationship with organ- clusion that he was murdered for other was deported to Italy and became a lieu- ized-crime figures to the press and the reasons: specifically, his alleged role in tenant to Charles Luciano, the New York rank and file—as Haifa had spent much the plots to murder Fidel Castro—plots mobster who had been released from jail of his career doing—Fitzsimmons uset54 that involve figures linked (or the first and deported. Because of his importance his free time to back up his union 61/)71','2''' time to events surrounding the assassina- in that drug connection, Hoffa was intro- ordinates and to make new friends in tion of President Kennedy. duced to other dope peddlers in Chicago, politics and big labor. Florida, Louisiana and New York. Those ROOTS oe rows/. THE NIXON CONNECTION associations were a major reason for his In 1967, Emit:curio& suddenly in- rise from a union organizer and business Things were going well for the I.B.T. herited the uncontrollable monster Hoffa agent to president of the Detroit local in under Fitzsimmons. Its first- and second- had created over the previous 25 years: an 1946 to I.B.T. vice-president in 1952 and level officials were happy, and so was the alliance between the union and organ- to I.B.T. general president in 1957. national crime syndicate. Then, in No- ized crime. While this alliance has been When Fitzsimmons took over ten years vember 1968, Richard Nixon was elected President of the United States. Becaus A HOFFA the Teamsters had gone with the rest of SCRAPBOOK organized labor and supported Hubert Jimmy Hoffa (left) and Frank Fitzsimmons (right) rose Attorney General Robert By 1961, the CIA was re- Chicago mobster Sam through union ranks together, starting in Detroit in Kennedy led the Govern- cruiting powerful crime- Gioncona was recruited the Thirties. Years later. Fitzsimmons succeeded Hoffa ment investigation of the syndicate figures to try to to help kill Castro. Before as Teamster president. Their power struggle began a Teamsters. Hoffa hated kill Castro. Hotta may he could talk to the month alter Haffa went to jail in 1967, when Fitzsim- Kennedy and their enmity have been an early Senate in 1975, he was mons began to undercut Hoffo's authority and support, made headlines for years. CIA-mobster go-between. murdered in his home. Cortes Marcello (left), Santos Tralficante (center) and Joseph Bononno farmed a Hoffa had supported Richard Nixon In 1960 and ex- powerful crime alliance in the Southern states. Bonanno underbass Carmine Ga- pected an early release from jail once Nixon was in lante (right) befriended Haifa in prison in 1967. Those four became Haifa's chief the White House. Attorney General John Mitchell had supporters when crime bosses In Northeastern slates backed the newly appointed pledged law and order for the country, but Investi- Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons' allies used the possibility of that spilt's erupting Into gations of Teamster officials and underworld figures nationwide Mob war to persuade the Nixon Administration to keep Hoffa in jail. were inexplicably dropped while he was in office. 192 -:.*Ttk.f:.. .Humphrey that year, Nixon's election money was half of a $1,000,000 contribu- murder two other New York crime-family was had news.
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