Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (36 page)

At his trial, the FBI showed a film of the men conversing and Hoffa
being arrested right after the money was exchanged. However, the jury of
eight blacks and four whites was more impressed with former World
Heavyweight Champion boxer Joe Louis, who embraced Hoffa in court,
and with Hoffa's defense attorney, Edward Bennett Williams (owner of the
Washington Redskins).

Hoffa went free to testify before the McClellan Committee. But Hoffa
said he had a faulty memory when it came to most questions concerning
his association with underworld characters, such as Paul Dorfman. Dorfman
was described by the McClellan Committee as "an associate of Chicago
mobsters and the head of a local of the Waste Material Handlers Union."
Dorfman also was connected to Jack Ruby, the man who silenced Lee
Harvey Oswald.

Dorfman's stepson, Allen Dorfman, was to play a major role in Hoffa
loans to the underworld using the Teamster's Central States Health and
Welfare Fund.

In 1951, shortly after setting up the Michigan Conference of Teamsters
Welfare Fund, Hoffa persuaded the fund's two trustees-one of whom
was Hoffa's successor, Frank Fitzsimmons-to place the fund with a
newly formed branch of Union Casualty Agency. Union Casualty was
owned by Paul Dorfman's stepson, Allen, and the elder Dorfman's wife,
Rose.

Later Hoffa also sent the Central States fund to the Dorfman-controlled
agency. These two funds made up 90 percent of the branch company's
contracts, according to author Dan Moldea.

Veteran mob observers have established the close ties between Hoffa
and two of the underworld's most powerful men-Carlos Marcello and
Santos Trafficante, Jr.

During the mid-1950s, with gunfire punctuating internal mob leadership
disputes in New York and the various government panels revealing the
extent of organized crime in the United States, crime bosses began to look
south for relief.

As early as 1933, the mob's financial wizard, Meyer Lansky, had
obtained gambling concessions in Cuba, located just ninety miles off the
Florida coast. Lansky had originally visited Cuba seeking molasses to
make rum but discovered a suitable climate for gambling operations.
Befriending the self-proclaimed dictator of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista, Lansky
soon opened several gambling casinos. But World War lI brought a halt to
his plans for turning the island into a haven for gamblers. There simply
weren't enough planes and boats available to make the project profitable.

In 1944, the Cuban economy was sagging and Batista was forced to
make concessions to his political opponents, who included procommunists.
According to investigative reporter Howard Kohn, the Office of Naval
Intelligence-already in contact with Lucky Luciano through Lansky-
asked Lansky to pressure Batista into stepping down. On Lansky's urging,
Batista called an election, was defeated, and left Cuba for an eight-year
exile in Florida.

On March 10, 1952, Batista returned to Cuba and seized power in a
bloodless military coup. Reportedly, it was large amounts of money placed
in numbered Swiss bank accounts by Lansky that convinced Cuban President Carlos Prio Socarras not to resist Batista's comeback.

Under Lansky's manipulation, Batista's government agreed to match
investments in Cuba dollar for dollar plus grant a gambling license to any
establishment worth more than $1 million. Soon the island's economy was
booming as hotels and gambling casinos were quickly built. Lansky built
the Hotel Nacional, whose pit boss was his brother, Jake. He and other
associates had interest in the Sevilla Biltmore and the Havana Hilton.
Lansky himself built the $14 million Hotel Havana Riviera, which was run
by Dino and Eddie Cellini, organized-crime figures from Ohio.

But Lansky, a Jew, was still not considered an official member of the
Mafia-dominated American crime syndicate. Organized-crime authority G.
Robert Blakey wrote: ". . . the undisputed Mafia gambling boss in
Havana was Santos Trafficante, Jr."

When Trafficante, Sr., died in 1954, his family crime business-mostly
narcotics trafficking and gambling-went to his namesake. By the late
1950s, Trafficante, Jr., was well situated in Cuba, owning substantial
interest in the Sans Souci, a renowed night spot partly managed by a
Trafficante associate, John Roselli, later a central figure in the CIA-Mafia
plots against Castro.

Both Trafficante and Lansky also were part owners of the Tropicana Casino in Havana, which was managed by former Dallas gambler Lewis
McWillie, the "idol" of Jack Ruby.

In Cuba, Meyer Lansky and associate Bugsy Siegel used the same
tactics they had used successfully in 1945 when they turned a dusty strip of
Nevada desert into the Las Vegas strip-flying in high-rollers to stay at
their hotel-casinos. In reviewing the Havana operations during those years,
Blakey wrote: "Havana, in short, was a full-service vice capital, owned
and operated by the Mob."

Others who had gambling interests in Cuba during this time were men
connected to Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. Two New York underworld
figures allied with the Tommy Lucchese family, Salvatore Granello and
James Plumeri, were part owners of a Havana race track and a large
gambling casino. Granello and Plumeri also helped Teamster officials get
Miami Local 320 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters started,
according to The Hoffa Wars author, Dan Moldea. Moldea also wrote that
Granello and Plumeri at the time were splitting kickbacks with Hoffa on
loans made through the Central States Pension Fund.

One high-placed guest in Cuba at the time was Congressman Richard
Nixon, who made frequent trips to the island, visiting both President
Batista and the gambling casinos. According to Nixon biographer Earl
Mazo, Nixon visited Cuba as early as 1940 to consider "the possibilities of
establishing law or business connections in Havana."

But the glamorous nightlife of Havana came to an abrupt end on New
Year's Day, 1959, when Fidel Castro entered the city and proclaimed a
new Cuban revolution. Both Batista and Lansky fled Cuba that same day.
Lansky later lamented that he caught one of the last planes leaving Havana
and was forced to leave behind $17 million in cash that had been earmarked for his various partners via Swiss bank accounts.

Jake Lansky, left behind to hold together his brother's gambling and
narcotics operations, was jailed by Castro along with Santos Trafficante.
Castro loudly proclaimed:

"I'm going to run all these fascist mobsters, all these American gangsters, out of Cuba. I'm going to nationalize everything. Cuba for Cubans!"

By 1960, Castro had made good on his threat to expel organized crime.
He had deported all syndicate members, closed the whorehouses and
casinos, and shut down the drug labs.

Both the crime syndicate and some American government officials were
appalled at this turn of events. The CIA particularly wanted something done
since, according to Agency sources quoted by journalist Howard Kohn, the
Agency had used the underworld's Havana casinos to hide payments to the
crime figures it sometimes employed. Thus the idea of an invasion of Cuba
may have been born. A murky alliance developed between the CIA, the
crime syndicate, the U.S. military, and anti-Castro Cuban exiles, and this
alliance produced the ill-fated Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Four ex-casino bosses-including Hoffa associates Salvatore Granello and James Plumeri-even supplied the CIA with intelligence reports gathered from trusted Cuban contacts.

Along with the plans to invade Cuba, there were concurrent schemes to
eliminate Castro by assassination. Involved in these plots were Trafficante,
Frank Sturgis, Robert Maheu (the ex-FBI man who was liaison between
the CIA and the Mafia and later became manager of the Howard Hughes
empire), and two Mafia chiefs, John Roselli and Sam (Momo) Giancana.

With the failure of the invasion, the mob joined with the CIA, the
military, and the Cuban exiles in putting the blame squarely on President
John F. Kennedy.

Although mob gambling activity quickly shifted to Las Vegas and the
Bahamas, crime leaders did not forget who cost them their Havana "vice
capital. "

According to evidence gathered by House Select Committee on Assassinations, Trafficante was in touch with a wealthy Cuban exile living in
Miami named Jose Aleman. Trafficante had offered to arrange a milliondollar loan for Aleman which was coming from the Teamsters Union and
had "already been cleared by Jimmy Hoffa himself." Aleman said he met
with Trafficante at Miami's Scott-Bryant Hotel in September 1962, and the
talk turned to Hoffa. According to Aleman, Trafficante brought the conversation around to President Kennedy, saying:

Have you seen how his brother is hitting Hoffa, a man who is a worker,
who is not a millionaire, a friend of the blue collars? He doesn't know
that this kind of encounter is very delicate . . . It is not right what they
are doing to Hoffa . . . Hoffa is a hard-working man and does not
deserve it . . . Mark my words, this man Kennedy is in trouble and he
will get what is coming to him.

Aleman said when he disagreed, saying Kennedy was doing a good job
and probably would be reelected, Trafficante replied: "You don't understand me. Kennedy's not going to make it to the election. He's going to be
hit." Later Aleman said Trafficante "made it clear" he was not guessing
and even gave "the distinct impression that Hoffa was to be principally
involved in the elimination of Kennedy."

Unknown to Trafficante, Aleman was an informant for the FBI at the
time of this alleged conversation. He promptly reported what he had
heard to the Bureau, but said FBI officials would not listen or take
him seriously. In 1978, when Aleman testified before the House Select
Committee on Assassinations, his story became vague. He said perhaps
Trafficante meant Kennedy was going to be "hit" by a lot of Republican
votes in 1964. Aleman also admitted he was "very much concerned about
my safety ... "

Jimmy Hoffa survived the McClellan Committee hearings. But it was
the start of a personal war between two of the nation's most powerful
men-Bobby Kennedy and Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa.

James Riddle Hoffa was born on February 14, 1913, in Brazil, Indiana.
After the death of his father when he was seven, young Hoffa moved to
Detroit with his mother, brother, and two sisters.

By 1932, Hoffa was already involved in the union movement. Angered
over low pay and working conditions at the Kroger Food Company, Hoffa
helped organize a work stoppage. After several days of negotiation, the
company signed a one-page contract. It was the start of a one-company
union and was affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. By the
mid-1930s, Hoffa's fledgling union was absorbed by bigger organizations.
After being fired by Kroger, he joined Detroit Teamsters Joint Council 43
as an organizer and negotiator.

In the early 1930s, Hoffa had a love affair with Sylvia Pigano, a woman
with family connections to organized crime figures. This was Hoffa's
introduction to the underworld, which over the years became an invaluable
source of support. From that point on Hoffa's rise to the presidency of the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters continued unabated. He walked a
thin line, maintaining contacts with mobsters on one hand and presenting
the image of a respectable labor leader on the other.

Vincent Piersante, head of the Organized Crime Unit of the Michigan
Attorney General's Office, told author Dan Moldea:

There is little doubt about the fact that Hoffa, consciously and willingly,
protected the rackets in Detroit by protecting their legitimate fronts with
the Teamsters Union. And that included those gangsters who were
deeply involved in the drug traffic.

In 1957, fresh from his victory in exposing Teamster president Dave
Beck's embezzlement of union money, McClellan Committee chief counsel Robert Kennedy turned his sights on Beck's successor, Jimmy Hoffa.
After the committee hearings, Hoffa was acquitted on charges of wiretapping and perjury. He was living a charmed life, but his hatred for Kennedy
was increasing.

The McClellan Committee, in its first interim report, stated:

The power of the Teamsters Union president is so extraordinary that the
committee finds the fact this power is now lodged in the hands of a man
such as Hoffa tragic for the Teamsters Union and dangerous for the
country at large.

Kennedy elaborated in his book:

The Teamsters Union is the most powerful institution in this countryaside from the United States Government itself. In many Metropolitan
areas the Teamsters control all transportation . . . between birth and
burial the Teamsters drive the trucks that clothe and feed us and provide
the vital necessities of life . . . Quite literally, your life-the life of
every person in the United States-is in the hands of Hoffa and his
Teamsters . . . But though the great majority of Teamsters officials and
Teamster members are honest, the Teamsters Union under Hoffa is
often not run as a bona fide union. As Mr. Hoffa operates it, this is a
conspiracy of evil.