William Hryb - Vanished. The Life and Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa

GANGLAND MYSTERIES

VANISHED:

THE LIFE & DISAPPEARANCE OF
JIMMY HOFFA

WILLIAM HRYB

Copyright 2013 by William Hryb
All Rights Reserved

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13-digit ISBN 978-0985-2440-8-8
10-digit ISBN 0-9852440-8-9
eISBN 9781939521347

This book would not have been possible without the support and encouragement from my amazing wife Lee Hryb thank you Lone.

My children, Kaiti, Christeann and David for their wonderful enthusiasm for this project. To my dear mother and aunt, and of course my brothers Mihail and Lajo who were eager for me to complete this journey.

Thank you to John Wewiora, who was responsible for fueling my ego in this effort and Jace Cella, for his genuine interest in Jimmy Hoffa.

A special thank you to Ron Chepesiuk for his assistance with the book and to Elle Andra-Warner for her advice and guidance.

My sincere gratitude to Barbara Casey for her exceptional help with this bookthank you

Last but not least, to my father, close friends Jake and Dave who are not here, but would have celebrated the books publication with gusto.

W hen James Riddle Hoffa was ordered to report to Lewisburg Federal Prison in March of 1967, his life was in tatters. A thirteen-year prison sentence awaited him. From 1957 to 1959, Robert Kennedy relentlessly pursued Jimmy Hoffa: a man reputed to be one of the most powerful figures in North America. Spearheaded by the young lawyer, Robert Kennedy, Hoffa became the target of congressional hearings into organized crime within the U.S. labor movement.

Watched by millions, the McClellan hearings exposed the public to a fascinating look at corruption in the Teamsters Union at its highest levels. Jimmy Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, was front and center to investigations that eventually brought him down.

Ten months into the extraordinary hearings, Americans awoke to sensational headlines. On November 14, 1957, in a small village in upstate New York, Mob bosses from all over the countryCarlo Gambino, Joe Bonanno, Vito Genovese, Joe Profaci, Cuba Mob boss Santo Trafficante, and future Gambino boss Paul Castellano, for examplewere nabbed by Sergeant Edgar D. Croswell as the Mafia elite gathered to organize and sort out a bloody war of succession. The meeting was held at the sprawling estate of Mobster Joseph Joe the Barber in Apalachin, New York, to discuss various topics including loan sharking, narcotics trafficking and gambling, along with dividing the illegal operations once controlled by the late Albert Anastasia. Over one hundred Mafioso from the United States, Canada and Italy were at the Mob conference adding credence to the Mafias strength in numbers. For decades, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover denied the existence of the Mafia, but after the sensational discovery at Apalachin, Hoover was forced to admit that the Mafia was real.

Thirty-one-year-old Robert Kennedy had no illusions about the revelations and recognized the importance of the Mob summit. When his brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy became the president, Robert Kennedy launched a campaign to break the back of the Mob, engaging Jimmy Hoffa in a boiling turf battle. The Mob summit not only confirmed the existence of the American Mafia, but it also reaffirmed the notion that John R. McClellan hearings overlapped the dramatic discovery, proving to authorities and the American public that organized crime was flourishing in the United States. The disclosure humiliated J. Edgar Hoover who finally had to admit that the Mafia was no fantasy.

W ith the McClellan hearings spearheaded by Robert Kennedy came a daily dose of shocking disclosures that organized crime had crept into the very inner circles of the labor movement. The hearings conducted between 1957 and 1959 had a carnival-like atmosphere, where prosecutors dissected every word of suspected persons who had ties to organized crime and the underworld. Jimmy Hoffa and Robert Kennedy would become bitter enemies. The blood feud remained until the day Robert Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded after he had won the California Democratic primary in 1968. At the time of Robert Kennedys death, Jimmy Hoffa was in prison for jury tampering, fraud and conspiracy.

When he learned of Kennedys death, condolences were not on his mind. Robert Kennedys brother, John F. Kennedy, his arch-enemy, had been assassinated in Dallas five years earlier.

Hoffa finally had the Kennedys off his back.

Just weeks after John F. Kennedy was inaugurated President of the United States in 1961, one of his first cabinet appointments was his brother, Robert Kennedy, as attorney general. During the McClellan hearings Bobby Kennedy went after Hoffa like a blood hound but with little tangible success in bringing down the Teamster leader.

Now Kennedy had the full power of his office to bring Hoffa down and put him away in prison for a very long time. We know that it is the law which enables men to live together, that creates order out of chaos. We know that the law is the glue that holds civilization together. And we know that if one mans rights are denied, the rights of the others are endangered, said Robert F. Kennedy in 1961, referring to one of the most powerful labor leaders in U.S. history.

Jimmy Hoffas life reads like a Shakespearean play.

Standing no more than 56, Hoffas stature belied his tenacity and determination. He would get his way by sometimes using brute force, and that character trait catapulted him onto the national scene as a fierce advocate for Teamsters rights. Accusations that Hoffa and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters were tied to organized crime eventually caught the attention of the US Department of Justice, which instigated a relentless pursuit. With the notoriety and undisputed power Jimmy Hoffa held, the perception that the Union was controlled by organized crime was gaining strength. As a result, the McClellan Committee opened senate hearings on February 26, 1957, to investigate corruption, criminal infiltration, and illegal activities in the nations labor unions, particularly the Teamsters.

Chaired by Democrat John McClellan, the committee included John F. Kennedy and Barry Goldwater, along with Robert Kennedy as chief counsel. The committees investigation focused on the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Teamsters president Dave Beck, and Becks successor Jimmy Hoffa. In televised hearings viewed by over 1.2 million households daily, the committee detailed the Teamsters misuse of Union funds and ties to labor racketeers and organized crime. The inquiry led to the conviction of over twenty individuals, including Beck, but failed to convict Hoffa, making him look invincible. As a result of Dave Becks conviction, the AFL/CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization) expelled the Teamsters from their ranks.

More than 1,500 witnesses were called to testify at the hearings, uncovering a stupefying account on how labor leaders, management, public officials, and the Mafia worked to swindle and threaten rank-and-file Union members. The efforts of the committee initiated the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, establishing for the first time close regulation of Unions by the federal government. The rigid law created requirements for Union elections and for the filing of annual financial reports to the Labor Department, banned convicted felons from holding Union office and instituted Union members rights against coercive labor practices. The days of unregulated Union practices were over.