Word: hoffa
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...battle lines began forming at Local 299, old friends of both Hoffa and Fitzsimmons tried to smooth things over last year by putting together a coalition. David Johnson, a longtime Hoffa ally, was allowed to continue as president of the 17,500-member local, and the vice presidency went to Richard Fitzsimmons, 45, the Teamster president...
Then the violence started against Hoffa's men. In August 1974 an explosion wrecked Johnson's 45-ft. cabin cruiser, on which he and Hoffa had spent many pleasant hours fishing and talking union politics. George Roxburghy, a trustee of the local, was blinded in one eye by a shotgun blast. Otto Wendel, the local's secretary-treasurer, had his barn burned to the ground. A bomb exploded outside the house of an organizer for the local...
...late June, the feuding became more vicious still. Another organizer who also favored Hoffa was beaten unmercifully in the parking lot of a suburban restaurant. President Johnson ruled that union officials should not go out alone. Then, on July 10, Dick Fitzsimmons was having a drink with friends at Nemo's Bar on Michigan Avenue, not far from the local's headquarters, when his Lincoln Continental was blown to smithereens outside in the street...
...next incident was the disappearance of Hoffa himself. Police prepared to question one of his old friends, Anthony ("Tony Jack") Giacalone, 56, who has been identified as a top henchman of Joseph Zerilli, the godfather of the Detroit Mafia. Hoffa had reportedly gone to Machus Red Fox Restaurant last Wednesday to have lunch with Giacalone, although Giacalone denied any such plan. In Hoffa's heyday, the Teamsters were so often linked to the Mob that a Senate committee once concluded that a criminal record was a "prerequisite" for "advancement in the Teamsters firmament." Police were also interested in Giacalone...
While the police hunted for clues, Hoffa's family said they felt he had been kidnaped, but federal investigators feared that he might have been killed. Officials were proceeding on the assumption that Hoffa had gone off with someone he considered to be a friend. There were no signs of any struggle in the car or in the parking lot, and Hoffa was no man to give in to anyone without a fight. Even at 62, he worked out with heavy weights and did 75 pushups...