Word: hoffa
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...they started to hunt for Hoffa, the police made the traditional observation that they suspected "foul play." They had every reason to do so, considering Hoffa's criminal record, which he once boasted was "as long as your arm," and his activities in recent months. As usual, Hoffa was again in the middle of a Teamster battle, only this time he was starting as the underdog. His eventual goal was to regain the presidency of the Teamsters union, which he had first won in 1957. Jailed in 1967 on a 13-year sentence for jury tampering, fraud and conspiracy...
Scratch and Bite. Confident that the courts would eventually grant his suit to end that ban, Hoffa was trying to lay the groundwork for his return to power by becoming the dominant (but unofficial) force in his old Local 299 in Detroit. Opposing Hoffa's campaign was none other than Teamsters President Frank Fitzsimmons, who had once been his loyal underling and the man he picked to keep his chair warm while he was away in prison. But once installed as the head of the Teamsters, Fitzsimmons had grown to like the heady feeling of power...
...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...