Jimmy Hoffa was a criminal. There
are a lot of court cases that prove he was tried as a criminal in the United
States. In U.S. v. Hoffa: 1964, Hoffa had two trials for the crimes that he was
charged for: jury tampering, mail and wire fraud conspiracy (Smith1-6).
“Hoffa’s first trial was January 20 - March 12, 1964. Hoffa’s second trial was
May 11 – August 17, 1964. The verdict for both of Hoffa’s trials were guilty”.
“Hoffa’s sentence for the first trial was 8 years imprisonment and a $10,000
fine. Hoffa’s sentence for the second trial was four concurrent five- year
terms” (1).
By the time Hoffa finally went to
prison, numerous trials had cost both sides a great deal of money and arguments
over the ethics of the government’s pursuit of Hoffa, which commonplace (Smith
1-6). Hoffa was indicated for illegal possession of McClellan Committee
documents (2). Hoffa had “allegedly handed John Cye Cheasty, an attorney,
$1,000 and guaranteed thousands more if he could infiltrate the committee to
obtain information” (2). Attorney “Cheasty revealed the bribery attempt to
committee counsel Kennedy, who arranged to have Cheasty pass a list of
witnesses to Hoffa” (2). Hoffa spent lots of money on his legal defense.
The FBI filmed Hoffa, and Kennedy
was convinced that the filmed transaction gave the justice department a perfect
case (Smith 1-6). “Jimmy Hoffa was a high priority with the new attorney
general Robert Kennedy who claimed that Hoffa used extortion, bribery, and
physical violence to rule the teamsters” .... “Hoffa was also known for using
the threat of labor trouble to bully employers for his personal profit” (2).
The “Get-Hoffa Squad” was a small unit of lawyers and “investigators to uncover
and prosecute any unlawful activity with organized labor” .... “Civil libertarians
were concerned by Hoffa’s never proven but steady protests that he was a victim
of illegal surveillance and paid government perjurers” (3). The very first
major indictments against Hoffa was a Florida real estate development called
Sun Vally (3). Hoffa and others had secretly loaned union money to finance the
project and secured further loans from local banks by promising them large
union accounts (3).
Hoffa was specifying for mail fraud and conspiracy, but in
1961 his indictments were dismissed by a Florida judge, who ruled that the
grand jury issuing them had been improperly impaneled (Smith 1-6). The 1962
case ended with a mistrial, and juror could not end with a verdict; Hoffa
including five others were automatically indicated for tampering with the jury
(3). Hoffa’s attorney was arrested for trying to bribe a police officer into
offering a prospective juror $10,000 to insure another hung jury, so the new
case was moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, in early 1964 (3). Ed Partin secretly
told investigators that Hoffa had spoken about killing Robert Kennedy; Partin
was a teamster officer, and a government informant (3).
One of Hoffa’s other attorneys,
James Haggerty, called the case “A foul and filthy frame-up" designed by
the Get- Hoffa squad; In the old day’s all you needed was a handshake. Nowadays
you need forty lawyers (Smith1-6). Two months later Hoffa’s other trial took
place in Chicago, Illinois, for fraud and conspiracy (4). He and co-defendants
had 20 million dollars in loans from the teamster's pension fund to real-estate
developers (4). The Chicago trial also revealed that Hoffa and the others were
not repaying the union’s hidden lost in the Florida fiasco (4). After 13 weeks
of complex testimonies, Hoffa was found guilty on four of the twenty counts
against him which each count was 5 years imprisonment, after he finished the
eight years for fraud and jury tampering (4).
Jimmy Hoffa was also a mobster known
to associate with the Chicago mob. Sheeran’s story “I Heard You Paint Houses”
is about his life with Hoffa and in the mafia (Paff 1-2). Because Sheeran and
Hoffa were close in the book it gives an insider’s feel for the intimate
relationship of Hoffa and the Teamster leadership in the mob (1). Sheeran was
installed president at Delaware Local 326 was carved out of Philadelphia local
107 which was created by Hoffa (1).
Hoffa’s son, James P. Hoffa,
believes the mob killed his father (2). It’s half true, because Mobsters killed
Hoffa for sure, but Hoffa was part of the operation (2). They kill their own,
and Sheeran makes that very clear (2). They mainly kill mob insiders who they
fear that have information that may be used against them (2). Hoffa was too
eager to get back into office, so the government figured he would trade
information to lift the restrictions, so Hoffa could stay in the union when
Nixon pardoned him in December 1971 (2). Sheeran claims that Hoffa was a
changed man after he got out in 1971(2). Sheeran said he was more “Puffing”,
which scared top mobsters, because it made them think that Hoffa made a deal
with the Justice Department, which Russell Bufalino co-ordered the hit of Hoffa
(2). In 1972 book by Kennedy aide, Walter Sheridan played a role in Hoffa’s
murder, because the book revealed that Hoffa did snitch the FBI on teamsters
president Dave Beck to help send Beck to prison and Hoffa into the Marble
palace: “There is a time to be tough, a time to be adamant, a time to be open
to compromise, and a time to reach a agreement.”(2). Sheeran added a twist that
he himself not Salvatore “Sally Bugs” Bruguglio pulled the trigger on July 30,
1975 (2). Sheeran’s book implies that he killed a mafia member who was a part
of the San Francisco Mob, Jimmy Hoffa.
Rumors say that James Hoffa was
buried under the Giants stadium. James Hoffa was a labor union leader, and the
president of the international brotherhood of teamsters' union. He vanished in
late July and his body was never found. There are many conspiracy theories of
James Hoffa, did he just vanish, or was he murdered? Only one of these
conspiracy theories can be true, which one?
James Hoffa vanished in late July
and still to this day his deceased body was never found. In 1982, the FBI
pronounced that Hoffa was dead even without a body found, but there is a
conspiracy theory that he vanished and lived out his days in South America,
which would make him 102 today (Kellen Perry 1).
James Hoffa was a person who had a
rough childhood and accomplished many things when he got older. He was also
someone that did criminal activities and that disrespected the mob, “I may have
many faults but being wrong isn't one of them.”(James R. Hoffa 1).
In 1964, Hoffa was convicted of
union funds for personal purposes, corruption, and perjury. Hoffa was convicted
on three general counts of fraud and acquitted on seventeen other fraud counts:
“I do to others what they do to me, only worse” (Smith 1).
Hoffa refused to resign as president
of teamsters while he was in prison; he kept his position utill he was released
from prison in 1971. President Nixon stipulated that Hoffa could not engage in
union activity until 1980.The FBI has talked to Frank the “The Irishman”, which
was the last person that James Hoffa was with on July 30, 1975. The FBI got
Frank’s side of the story:
Sheeran, known as "The
Irishman," told me that he drove with Hoffa to a nearby house where he
shot him twice in the back of the head. Our investigation subsequently yielded
the corroboration, the suspected blood evidence on the hardwood floor and down
the hallway of that house, that supports Frank's story.
No one who has ever boasted about
knowing what really happened to Jimmy Hoffa has had their claims tested,
scrutinized, and then corroborated by independently discovered evidence...
except Frank. (Shawn 1).
Frank and other mobsters in the mafia were
ordered to kill Hoffa to prevent him from running for presidency for the union
again. Frank had picked up James at the restaurant to go to a meeting with the
mafia. When they had arrived at the meeting, Frank raised a pistol at a
point-blank range and fired. The body was then taken care of and was cremated
at the mob connected funeral home (Sloane, Hoffa 1).
Conclusion
James Hoffa was a labor union leader, and the president of
the international brotherhood of teamsters' union, and also had ties with the
mafia. There are many conspiracy theories of James Hoffa, Did he just vanish,
or was he murdered? Only one of these conspiracy theories can be true, which
one? With all the research and information given, the best conclusion about
James Hoffa would be that the mafia killed James Hoffa and hid his body.
Work Cited
S) Paff, Ken, Corruption And The
Fall Of Jimmy Hoffa: An Inside Story From The Man Who Claims He Killed Hoffa, http://www.tdu.org/news_corruption-and-fall-jimmy-hoffa-inside-story-man-who-claims-he-killed-hoffa
T) Smith, Thomas, U.S. v. Hoffa
1964, Oct. 14, 2018, https://www.encyclopedia.com/law/law-magazines/us-v-hoffa-1964
T)” James R. Hoffa” Encyclopaedia Britannica,
“Jimmy Hoffa investigation: Frank And The Blood Evidence We
Found In The Case” July 30
No comments:
Post a Comment