The Hoffa Wars
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special report: THE HOFFA WARS an investigation of the violence and corruption surrounding the missing teamster leader whose influence extended to nearly every corner of 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 article By DAN E. MOLDEA At presstime, the U. S. House Assassi- of the Hallo murder. Hoffa's son, attor- the cargo I was hauling exploded and I nations Committee was about to reveal ney James P. Hoffa, Jr., who was the ad- was nearly killed. Eight truckers pulled some surprising details regarding the assas- ministrator of the fund, simply told me over and probably saved 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 discussed by the committee are also major his father's memory, in order to help un- rank-and-file Teamsters who kept me characters in my book "The Hoff() Wars." cover the truth about Hoffa's execution. alive during my four-year investigation. In October 1974, as is free-lance writer, Meanwhile, I was hired part time by I began investigating Jimmy Hoffa and The Detroit Free Press. We worked for JIMMY HOFFA'S most valuable contribu- the Teamsters. Ten months later, I was the next eight months on the extortion tion to the American labor movement concentrating exclusively on the union's plots I had uncovered, during which came at the moment he stopped breath- extortion schemes against trucking com- time I severed my financial relationship ing on July 90, 1975. The involuntary panies and terrorist activities against with young Hoffa. Soon after, I began act occurred in the midst of his dramatic internal rank-and-file reform groups. In- receiving a series of grants from the bid to recapture the general presidency I vestigations of the Hoffa–Frank Fitzsim- Fund for Investigative Journalism in of the International Brotherhood of mons power struggle and of Hoffa's Washington, D.C., which continued after Teamsters, which he had lost during five disappearance were of only peripheral my story was published. Simultaneously, years in prison. Still popular among re- concern to me; and I had absolutely no I was doing some work on the same sub- porters with short memories who insisted inclination to investigate the alleged ject for columnist Jack Anderson. With upon portraying him as a working-class assassination plots against either Fidel the help of money and contacts supplied hero, and among rank-and-file admir- Castro or John Kennedy. Ironically, how- by the F.I.J. and Anderson, my investi- ers who had forgiven him for stealing ever, my conclusions on labor terrorism, gations snowballed, forcing me into from them, Hoffa nevertheless had a slim rebel movements and shakedowns led me those areas that I had thought to be chance of a comeback. His release from into these areas, which I had, at one unrelated to my work. prison in latd- 1971 led to a futile four- time, considered distant and unrelated. I was not completely new to the Team- year struggle for power; his execution After a brief stint as a Teamsters sters union and its problems when opened the floodgates for investigations researcher with NBC, 1 continued my started my work on "The Het: Wars": into the Teamsters and the underworld, independent investig«tions. Then, in I had worked on a loading platform and their illicit enterprises, their influence on late 1975 and early 1976, I received had even driven a small truck while in the Nixon White House and their role $2100 from the Hoffa Reward Fand, college. On a hot summer day in 1971, in assassination plots against a foreign which had been 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. Hoffa, 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, Hoffa 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 1994 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 March 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 Hoffa died and was to of the city, Haar reciprocated the Mob's of one man, such as Hoffa, 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 Hoffa had spent much the plots to murder Fidel Castro—plots mobster who had been released from jail of his career doing—Fitzsimmons used that involve figures linked for the first and deported. Because of his importance his free time to back up his union sub- 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 OF POWER associations were a major reason for his THE NIXON CONNECTION In 1967, Fitzsimmons 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. Because A HOFFA the Teamsters had gone with the rest of SCRAPBOOK organized labor and supported Hubert Jimmy Haifa (left) and Fronk Fitzsimmons (right) rose Attorney General Robert By 1961, the CIA was re- Chicago mobster Sam through union ranks together, starling in Detroit in Kennedy led the Govern- cruiting powerful crime- Gioncana 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. Hoffo hated kill Castro. Hafts may he could talk to the month after Hoffa went to jail in 1967, when Fitzsim- Kennedy and their enmity have been an early Senate in 1975, he was mons began to undercut Hoffa's authority and support. made headlines for years . CIA-mobster go-between. murdered in his home. Corks Marcell° (left), Santos Trafficante (center) and Joseph Bonanno formed a Hale had supported Richard Nixon in 1960 and ex- powerful crime alliance in the Southern states. Bonanno underboss Carmine Ga- pected an early release from jail once Nixon wos in lante (right) befriended Hoffa in prison in 1967. Those four became Hoffo's chief the White House. Attorney General John Mitchell hod supporters when crime bosses in Northeastern states backed the newly appointed pledged law and order for the country, but investi- Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons' allies used the possibility of that split's erupting into a 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. 142 Humphrey that year, Nixon's election money was half of a $1,000,000 contribu- murder two other New York crime-family was bad news. tion being given to the Nixon campaign.