Vendetta: Bobby Kennedy Versus Jimmy Hoffa

by James Neff

Overview

One of America's greatest investigative reporters brings to life the gripping, no-holds-barred clash of two American titans: Robert Kennedy and his nemesis Jimmy Hoffa.

From 1957 to 1964, Robert Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa channeled nearly all of their considerable powers into destroying each other. Kennedy's battle with Hoffa burst into the public consciousness with the 1957 Senate Rackets Committee hearings and intensified when his brother named him attorney general in 1961. RFK put together a "Get Hoffa" squad within the Justice Department, devoted to destroying one man. But Hoffa, with nearly unlimited Teamster funds, was not about to roll over.

Drawing upon a treasure trove of previously secret and undisclosed documents, James Neff has crafted a brilliant, heart-pounding epic of crime and punishment, a saga of venom and relentlessness and two men willing to do anything to demolish each other.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316251112
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	07/07/2015
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	395,961
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

James Neff has overseen multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning series as investigations editor at the Seattle Times. The author of The Wrong Man, Unfinished Murder, and Mobbed Up, he lives in the Seattle area.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Dark Forces 9

Chapter 1 The Blinding 17

Chapter 2 Life Is a Jungle 38

Chapter 3 Jump Off the Capitol 92

Chapter 4 Lucky Bastard 112

Chapter 5 The First Face-Off 141

Chapter 6 Hoffa for President 161

Chapter 7 Mafia Conclave 175

Chapter 8 Keep the Pressure On 194

Chapter 9 Promising Leads 221

Chapter 10 Primary Opponent 239

Chapter 11 Nixon's Favor 277

Chapter 12 Get Hoffa Squad 322

Chapter 13 A Brazen Girl 354

Chapter 14 Planting a Snitch 368

Chapter 15 Trouble at Home 418

Chapter 16 Get to the Jury 456

Epilogue: In Love With Night 497

Acknowledgments 517

A Note on Sources 523

Notes 527

What People are Saying About This

Erik Larson

From the violence of its gripping opening to the sorrow of its close, this is an astonishing and eye-opening account of the vendetta—obsessive, intrigue-filled, hatred-tinged—that pitted Robert F. Kennedy against Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa, and nearly consumed both. Amazing stuff, really—a triumph of investigation and revelation. --Erik Larson, author of DEAD WAKE

Editorial Reviews

05/04/2015
Robert Kennedy knew nothing of Jimmy Hoffa until 1956, when his investigations into organized crime as chief counsel for the U.S. Senate’s investigations subcommittee revealed that one of the mob’s many tendrils reached to the Teamsters union. Once Kennedy learned the extent of Hoffa’s influence (not to mention his power), he became obsessed with snaring his quarry. Neff (The Wrong Man) covers the ensuing cat-and-mouse game with aplomb and panache, detailing meetings with informants, exposing double agents, and sniffing out subterfuge. He sprinkles the book with colorful language that artfully evokes Hoffa, the swaggering tough guy, and Kennedy, the laser-focused lawman eager to make his mark, without turning them into caricatures. Hoffa comes across as a smart thug with a gift for intimidation, both in person and by proxy, while Kennedy, particularly after his brother’s assassination, is portrayed as a driven but exhausted runner determined to make it across the finish line. In lesser hands this could have devolved into a cheap pulp thriller, but Neff’s terrific incorporation of a multitude of personalities from both sides of the courtroom results in a page-turner that adds greater nuance and depth to both men’s legends. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"From the violence of its gripping opening to the sorrow of its close, this is an astonishing and eye-opening account of the vendetta—obsessive, intrigue-filled, hatred-tinged—that pitted Robert F. Kennedy against Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa, and nearly consumed both. Amazing stuff, really—a triumph of investigation and revelation."—Erik Larson, author of Dead Wake

"If you think you know it all, you don't. James Neff has turned Bobby Kennedy's headline-making clash with Jimmy Hoffa into a psychological thriller about two tough, powerful and vengeful men who fought with all they had, exhausting both. This is not a book about a good bobby versus a bad hoffa. It is a study of two men who always got what they wanted staging a shootout on the streets of Laredo. And, as Neff tells it, there were no winners."—Seymour M. Hersh, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

"Vendetta is an exciting and compelling account of the titanic struggle between Robert Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa, one of the most extraordinary battles between the forces of good and evil in recent American history. With a master investigator's eye and a novelist's flair, James Neff makes the Kennedy-Hoffa duel come alive with many new historical insights and with all the blood and muscle of these two unforgettable men. If you ever wondered what it would be like to work with Robert Kennedy, the young hard-driving idealistic investigator of corruption, this book is for you."—Thomas Maier, author of When Lions Roar: The Churchills and the Kennedys

"Neff...captures the tension and hatred between [Hoffa and Kennedy] in this impressively researched page-turner....This enthralling account, based mostly on archival research, will appeal to Kennedy followers, true crime fans, and students and scholars of modern American history."—Library Journal (starred review)

"Neff brilliantly weaves this fascinating narrative with newly released material.... As riveting as any courtroom thriller, except this is real.... Neff's masterly study of this intensely personal conflict is as engrossing as it is irresistible."—Kevin J. Hamilton, The Seattle Times

"Neff's staccato writing style — short declarative sentences — reflects a skilled newspaper journalist. It's probably wrong to feel nostalgic about an era of raw corruption and violence in the labor movement. But the story of Kennedy and Hoffa, in Neff's telling, makes a compelling read."—Bill Barnhart, Chicago Tribune

"Neff covers the ensuing cat-and-mouse game with aplomb and panache.... He sprinkles the book with colorful language that artfully evokes Hoffa, the swaggering tough guy, and Kennedy, the laser-focused lawman eager to make his mark, without turning them into caricatures.... Neff's terrific incorporation of a multitude of personalities from both sides of the courtroom results in a page-turner that adds greater nuance and depth to both men's legends."—Publishers Weekly

"Neff succeeds in shinning a light on one of the darker corners of American history.... Reads like a spy novel.... The sordid, sweeping history of what Kennedy insider Pierre Salinger dubbed ' a blood feud.'"—Kirkus

"Neff's account of Kennedy's and Hoffa's vengeful crimes and strategies is unexpectedly thrilling, but he deftly avoids caricaturing the two men."
—Christian Science Monitor

"Vendetta is full of fascinating depictions of corruption and political pressure, but its real draw lies in the titanic personal struggle at its center. That struggle acquires a cinematic flair as each man's fortunes rise and fall dramatically, with each of their lives ending in such a way as to fuel retroactive mythmaking. Neff tells a compelling real-life story about men who have acquired the patina of legends."
—Hank Stephenson, Shelf Awareness

An "engrossing account of this epic showdown.... Mr. Neff's book succeeds partly because he avoids casting the battle in black and white."—James P. Kelly, Wall Street Journal

"A gripping, no-holds-barred examination of two titanic American legends.... Reading like a spy thriller, this slice of Americana is a true page turner."—Susanne Jaffe, The Columbus Dispatch

"Highly revealing and detailed... Vendetta is a gritty, intense drama that sharply illuminates one of the darker episodes of American history."
—Chris Patsilelis, Tampa Bay Times

"Neff's reportage is impressive; he digs into the history on a granular level, often tracking Kennedy and Hoffa down to the minute, and his writing is propulsive enough to make even the driest courtroom passages flow like a thriller."—Paul Constant, Seattle Review of Books

"An epic tale of ambition and the struggle for power... Neff has imbued what could have been an arid account of courtroom and hearing room proceedings with the vivid human drama that brings these characters and their titanic battle back to life."—Harvey Freedenberg, Book Reporter

"Vendetta makes it clear that crime sometimes pays very well, and that justice can be anything but swift. It can also make for highly entertaining reading."—Heather Seggel, BookPage

From the Publisher

★ 06/01/2015
The white-hot courtroom battles between Jimmy Hoffa, president of the Teamsters—"the biggest, baddest, most powerful labor union in American history"—and Robert F. Kennedy, chief counsel for the 1957 Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management and later as John F. Kennedy's attorney general, gripped the United States during some of the bleakest days of the Cold War. Neff (investigations editor, The Seattle Times; The Wrong Man) captures the tension and hatred between the men in this impressively researched page-turner. The mobbed-up, charismatic Hoffa was able to avoid Kennedy's charges of bribery, perjury, and wiretapping until 1964 when Hoffa's streak of luck ended with his convictions for another wiretapping incident, and for robbing the Teamster pension fund. Interestingly, Neff concludes that Kennedy could not enjoy the fruits of his vendetta because he lost the will to hate after the assassination of his brother. VERDICT This enthralling account, based mostly on archival research, will appeal to Kennedy followers, true crime fans, and students and scholars of modern American history. Consider Evan Thomas's Robert Kennedy for an earlier narrative of this feud and Jeff Shesol's Mutual Contempt, which shows that Robert Kennedy's abhorrence of Lyndon Johnson matched or surpassed his loathing of Hoffa. [See Q&A with Neff on p. 114; Prepub Alert, 1/25/15.]—Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Library Journal

2015-04-01
Seattle Times investigations editor Neff (The Wrong Man: The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case, 2001, etc.) turns his attention to the visceral war of wills between Bobby Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa. This account of Kennedy's crusade against corrupt union officials and organized crime may not be as cinematic as Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies or as darkly subversive as the fiction of James Ellroy, although it does share a kindred spirit with them. However, by transposing these two larger-than-life characters and utilizing his own considerable investigative skills, Neff succeeds in shining a light on one of the darker corners of American history. The book opens on a critical moment, as Kennedy learns of the assassination of his brother in Dallas and Hoffa coldly observes, "Bobby Kennedy is just another lawyer now." From there, the story jumps back to 1956, when Kennedy was chief counsel for the Senate investigations committee and Hoffa was vice president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, using intimidation, threats, fraud, and violence to control his sphere of influence. Their conflict was inevitable, as Kennedy saw Hoffa as "weak, unbalanced, crooked and greedy," while Hoffa considered the Kennedy brothers to be " ‘spoiled brats,' soft-handed Ivy League types who had little understanding of the working man." Neff deftly portrays their volatile relationship through the McClellan Committee hearings in the Senate, where Hoffa displayed an intuitive ability to avoid telling the truth, all the way through the Kennedy presidency, when the younger Kennedy used his startling appointment as Attorney General to form the "Get Hoffa" squad to dig deep into the labor leader's taxes and finances. At times, the book reads like a spy novel, as both camps used double agents, secret recordings, tails, and blackmail to keep track of their opponents. Ultimately, Kennedy is something of an enigma, while Neff paints Hoffa as having a grudging affection for his nemesis. The sordid, sweeping history of what Kennedy insider Pierre Salinger dubbed "a blood feud."

Kirkus Reviews