Presidents and Labor: The Kennedys, Nixon and Jimmy Hoffa
In November of 1951, Robert Kennedy had just turned 26 years old. He and his wife Ethel and their oldest daughter Kathleen moved to a townhouse in the Georgetown district of Washington, D.C. The future Attorney-General took a job as a lawyer in the Internal Security Section of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In February 1952, he was transferred to the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn to prosecute fraud cases, but four months later, on June 6, 1952, Robert Kennedy resigned to manage his brother John's successful 1952 U.S. Senate campaign in Massachusetts. John F. Kennedy's victory elevated the future president's profile to national prominence.
In December 1952, at the urging of his father Joe Kennedy, Robert was appointed by a family friend, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, to the position of assistant counsel for the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The Kennedy brothers did not approve of the McCarthy's aggressive methods of garnering intelligence on suspected communists, though not enough to publicly criticize McCarthy. Robert Kennedy resigned from this position in July 1953, but he rejoined the Senate committee staff as chief counsel for the Democratic minority in February of 1954. It was at this time that he first clashed with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. McCarthy's chief counsel, Roy Cohn, had subpoenaed Annie Lee Moss, accusing her of membership in the Communist party. Kennedy pointed out that Cohn had called the wrong Annie Lee Moss and he requested the file on Moss from the FBI. Hoover denied him access, calling Robert Kennedy "an arrogant whipper-snapper". When the Democrats gained a majority in the Senate in January 1955, Robert Kennedy became chief counsel for the committee. The Annie Lee Moss incident resulted in a conflict with Cohn, and it elevated Kennedy's profile.
In 1956, Robert Kennedy took a position as an aide to Adlai Stevenson during the 1956 presidential election. He learned how national campaigns worked, a skill he planned to use for a future presidential run by his brother, Jack. Robert Kennedy was unimpressed with Stevenson, and was rumored to have cast his ballot for incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower.
From 1957 to 1959 Robert Kennedy served as the chief counsel to Senate's McClellan Committee under chairman John L. McClellan. He was given responsibility for testimony scheduling, some areas of investigation, and witness questioning. McClellan hoped to use Kennedy as a target for any offense taken by labor leaders so as not to alienate their support.
In one of the most famous scenes in the hearings, Robert Kennedy squared off with Teamsters Union President Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa became president of the Teamsters Union in 1957, at the union's convention in Miami Beach, Florida. His predecessor, Dave Beck, had appeared before the McClellan Committee on Improper Activities in Labor or Management Field in March 1957, and took the Fifth Amendment 140 times in response to questions. Beck was convicted on fraud charges later that year at a trial held in Seattle, and imprisoned.
The 1957 AFL–CIO convention, held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, voted by a ratio of nearly 5-1 to expel the Teamsters from the larger union group. President George Meany called for the removal of the Teamsters, stating that he could only agree to further affiliation of the Teamsters if they would dismiss Hoffa as their president. During the hearings, Kennedy made statements questioning the innocence of those who invoked the Fifth Amendment. Senators Barry Goldwater and Karl Mundt complained about how "the Kennedy boys" hijacked the McClellan Committee by their focus on Hoffa and the Teamsters. They accused the Kennedy brothers for using their attacks on Hoffa as a cover for overlooking offenses committed by Walter Reuther and the United Auto Workers, a union which supported the Democratic Party. Robert Kennedy criticized the two Republican senators as having "no guts" because they never addressed him directly, only through the press.
Hoffa was investigated following the McClellan Committee hearings, but was not charged at that time. Robert Kennedy left the committee in late 1959 in order to run his brother's presidential campaign. When John F. Kennedy won the presidency in November of 1960, he surprised many by selecting his younger brother as the Attorney-General of the United States. Robert Kennedy was just 35 years old at the time. The New York Times and The New Republic criticized the appointment in editorials, calling Robert Kennedy inexperienced and unqualified. President Kennedy famously replied, "I can't see that it's wrong to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law."
As Attorney General, Kennedy pursued a relentless crusade against organized crime and the Mafia. It was a direction that FBI Director Hoover was unenthusiastic about. Hoover preferred to focus on the influence of communists, especially within the civil rights movement. But convictions against organized crime figures rose by 800 percent during Kennedy's time as Attorney-General.
Robert Kennedy used his position of authority to continue his pursuit of Jimmy Hoffa, who was still President of the Teamsters Union. Hoffa was investigated for corruption in financial and union electoral matters, both personally and organizationally. The prosecution of Hoffa was personal for Kennedy, and Hoffa called their conflict a "blood feud". On July 7, 1961, after Hoffa was reelected to the Teamsters presidency, Robert Kennedy told reporters that the government's case against Hoffa had not been changed by what he called "a small group of teamsters" supporting him. In 1962 Hoffa claimed to a Teamster local that Kennedy had been "bodily" removed from his office. Kennedy organized what was known as a "Get Hoffa Squad" within his department.
In a 1963 trial in Nashville, Tennessee,. Hoffa was implicated by one of his close associates, Edward Grady Partin, a Louisiana teamster, who went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with the information that led to Hoffa's conviction. John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963, while the Hoffa investigation was ongoing. But in 1964, Hoffa was convicted in Chattanooga, Tennessee, of attempted bribery of a grand juror, and was sentenced to eight years. Hoffa was also convicted of fraud for improper use of the Teamsters' pension fund, in a trial held in Chicago later in 1964. Hoffa had illegally arranged several large pension fund loans to leading organized crime figures. He received a five-year sentence to run consecutively to his bribery sentence.
Robert F. Kennedy, who had pursued Hoffa for many years, resigned as Attorney General on September 3, 1964, after the second Hoffa conviction, to run successfully for the New York seat in the November 1964 United States Senate election. After learning of Hoffa's conviction by telephone, Kennedy sent congratulatory messages to the three prosecutors. In June of 1968, Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles, California, while campaigning for the presidency.
Jimmy Hoffa was released from prison on December 23, 1971, less than five years into his 13-year sentence, when President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence to time served. The Teamsters Union endorsed Nixon, the Republican Party's candidate, in his presidential reelection bid in 1972, after having previously supported Democratic Party nominees. Allegations were made that a deal for Hoffa's release was connected with the Teamster's support of Nixon in 1972. It was alleged that a large sum of money, estimated to be as high as $1 million, was paid secretly to Nixon. A condition imposed by President Nixon, was that Hoffa could not engage in union activities until March 1980. Hoffa sued, unsuccessfully, to have this condition revoked.
Jimmy Hoffa disappeared sometime after 2:45 p.m. on July 30, 1975, from the parking lot of a restaurant in Bloomfield Township, a suburb of Detroit. He was going there to meet with two Mafia leaders: Anthony Giacalone and Anthony Provenzano. Provenzano was also a Teamster leader in New Jersey and was a national vice-president with the Teamsters during Hoffa's second term as Teamsters' president. Hoffa arrived at around 2:00, and after waiting nearly 30 minutes he called his wife and told her he would wait a few more minutes. A truck driver claimed to have recognized Hoffa in the back seat of a car that almost hit his truck as it left the restaurant parking lot.
Hoffa's wife reported him missing that evening. Police found his car at the restaurant, unlocked, but there was no indication of what happened to him. Hoffa was declared legally dead on July 30, 1982. The case of what happened to Jimmy Hoffa remains unsolved.
In December 1952, at the urging of his father Joe Kennedy, Robert was appointed by a family friend, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, to the position of assistant counsel for the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The Kennedy brothers did not approve of the McCarthy's aggressive methods of garnering intelligence on suspected communists, though not enough to publicly criticize McCarthy. Robert Kennedy resigned from this position in July 1953, but he rejoined the Senate committee staff as chief counsel for the Democratic minority in February of 1954. It was at this time that he first clashed with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. McCarthy's chief counsel, Roy Cohn, had subpoenaed Annie Lee Moss, accusing her of membership in the Communist party. Kennedy pointed out that Cohn had called the wrong Annie Lee Moss and he requested the file on Moss from the FBI. Hoover denied him access, calling Robert Kennedy "an arrogant whipper-snapper". When the Democrats gained a majority in the Senate in January 1955, Robert Kennedy became chief counsel for the committee. The Annie Lee Moss incident resulted in a conflict with Cohn, and it elevated Kennedy's profile.
In 1956, Robert Kennedy took a position as an aide to Adlai Stevenson during the 1956 presidential election. He learned how national campaigns worked, a skill he planned to use for a future presidential run by his brother, Jack. Robert Kennedy was unimpressed with Stevenson, and was rumored to have cast his ballot for incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower.
From 1957 to 1959 Robert Kennedy served as the chief counsel to Senate's McClellan Committee under chairman John L. McClellan. He was given responsibility for testimony scheduling, some areas of investigation, and witness questioning. McClellan hoped to use Kennedy as a target for any offense taken by labor leaders so as not to alienate their support.
In one of the most famous scenes in the hearings, Robert Kennedy squared off with Teamsters Union President Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa became president of the Teamsters Union in 1957, at the union's convention in Miami Beach, Florida. His predecessor, Dave Beck, had appeared before the McClellan Committee on Improper Activities in Labor or Management Field in March 1957, and took the Fifth Amendment 140 times in response to questions. Beck was convicted on fraud charges later that year at a trial held in Seattle, and imprisoned.
The 1957 AFL–CIO convention, held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, voted by a ratio of nearly 5-1 to expel the Teamsters from the larger union group. President George Meany called for the removal of the Teamsters, stating that he could only agree to further affiliation of the Teamsters if they would dismiss Hoffa as their president. During the hearings, Kennedy made statements questioning the innocence of those who invoked the Fifth Amendment. Senators Barry Goldwater and Karl Mundt complained about how "the Kennedy boys" hijacked the McClellan Committee by their focus on Hoffa and the Teamsters. They accused the Kennedy brothers for using their attacks on Hoffa as a cover for overlooking offenses committed by Walter Reuther and the United Auto Workers, a union which supported the Democratic Party. Robert Kennedy criticized the two Republican senators as having "no guts" because they never addressed him directly, only through the press.
Hoffa was investigated following the McClellan Committee hearings, but was not charged at that time. Robert Kennedy left the committee in late 1959 in order to run his brother's presidential campaign. When John F. Kennedy won the presidency in November of 1960, he surprised many by selecting his younger brother as the Attorney-General of the United States. Robert Kennedy was just 35 years old at the time. The New York Times and The New Republic criticized the appointment in editorials, calling Robert Kennedy inexperienced and unqualified. President Kennedy famously replied, "I can't see that it's wrong to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law."
As Attorney General, Kennedy pursued a relentless crusade against organized crime and the Mafia. It was a direction that FBI Director Hoover was unenthusiastic about. Hoover preferred to focus on the influence of communists, especially within the civil rights movement. But convictions against organized crime figures rose by 800 percent during Kennedy's time as Attorney-General.
Robert Kennedy used his position of authority to continue his pursuit of Jimmy Hoffa, who was still President of the Teamsters Union. Hoffa was investigated for corruption in financial and union electoral matters, both personally and organizationally. The prosecution of Hoffa was personal for Kennedy, and Hoffa called their conflict a "blood feud". On July 7, 1961, after Hoffa was reelected to the Teamsters presidency, Robert Kennedy told reporters that the government's case against Hoffa had not been changed by what he called "a small group of teamsters" supporting him. In 1962 Hoffa claimed to a Teamster local that Kennedy had been "bodily" removed from his office. Kennedy organized what was known as a "Get Hoffa Squad" within his department.
In a 1963 trial in Nashville, Tennessee,. Hoffa was implicated by one of his close associates, Edward Grady Partin, a Louisiana teamster, who went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with the information that led to Hoffa's conviction. John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963, while the Hoffa investigation was ongoing. But in 1964, Hoffa was convicted in Chattanooga, Tennessee, of attempted bribery of a grand juror, and was sentenced to eight years. Hoffa was also convicted of fraud for improper use of the Teamsters' pension fund, in a trial held in Chicago later in 1964. Hoffa had illegally arranged several large pension fund loans to leading organized crime figures. He received a five-year sentence to run consecutively to his bribery sentence.
Robert F. Kennedy, who had pursued Hoffa for many years, resigned as Attorney General on September 3, 1964, after the second Hoffa conviction, to run successfully for the New York seat in the November 1964 United States Senate election. After learning of Hoffa's conviction by telephone, Kennedy sent congratulatory messages to the three prosecutors. In June of 1968, Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles, California, while campaigning for the presidency.
Jimmy Hoffa was released from prison on December 23, 1971, less than five years into his 13-year sentence, when President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence to time served. The Teamsters Union endorsed Nixon, the Republican Party's candidate, in his presidential reelection bid in 1972, after having previously supported Democratic Party nominees. Allegations were made that a deal for Hoffa's release was connected with the Teamster's support of Nixon in 1972. It was alleged that a large sum of money, estimated to be as high as $1 million, was paid secretly to Nixon. A condition imposed by President Nixon, was that Hoffa could not engage in union activities until March 1980. Hoffa sued, unsuccessfully, to have this condition revoked.
Jimmy Hoffa disappeared sometime after 2:45 p.m. on July 30, 1975, from the parking lot of a restaurant in Bloomfield Township, a suburb of Detroit. He was going there to meet with two Mafia leaders: Anthony Giacalone and Anthony Provenzano. Provenzano was also a Teamster leader in New Jersey and was a national vice-president with the Teamsters during Hoffa's second term as Teamsters' president. Hoffa arrived at around 2:00, and after waiting nearly 30 minutes he called his wife and told her he would wait a few more minutes. A truck driver claimed to have recognized Hoffa in the back seat of a car that almost hit his truck as it left the restaurant parking lot.
Hoffa's wife reported him missing that evening. Police found his car at the restaurant, unlocked, but there was no indication of what happened to him. Hoffa was declared legally dead on July 30, 1982. The case of what happened to Jimmy Hoffa remains unsolved.