Robert Kennedy Vs. Jimmy Hoffa

Robert Kennedy's work hunting communists revealed a talent for such crusades. In 1957, Kennedy found a new target: corrupt trade unions.

Kennedy claimed that Hoffa had misappropriated $9.5 million in union funds and had corruptly done deals with employers. Hoffa's lawyer, Edward Bennett Williams, managed to persuade the jury to find him not guilty. George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO, did not agree with the verdict and Hoffa and the Teamsters Union were expelled from the association.

Hoffa was popular with his members and in 1960 was re-elected as president of the Teamsters Union. A long-term supporter of the Republican Party, Hoffa was a generous supplier of funds to Richard Nixon in his presidential struggle with John F. Kennedy. During the campaign, Robert Kennedy sent Hoffa a copy of his book, The Enemy Within. Kennedy wrote inside: "To Jimmy. I'm sending you this book so you won't have to use union funds to buy one. Bobby."

After Kennedy's election victory in 1960 he appointed Robert Kennedy as his attorney general. Once in office, Kennedy resumed his investigations into Hoffa's activities. Hoffa was eventually charged with taking money from the union's $300 Pension Fund. J. Edgar Hoover, a long-term opponent of the Kennedys, passed FBI files on the attorney general to Roy Cohn, who in turn gave them to Hoffa. However, Hoffa, who disapproved of the Kennedy's adulterous behaviour, declined to use this material against his prosecutors.

Hoffa undoubtedly made sweetheart deals with mob figures, but mob control over the union was exaggerated by the Kennedys and Life Magazine. Hoffa fiercely defended his control over the union. Teamster money was used to build several Las Vegas casinos, and was repaid with interest.