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| Date/Report
Number …..0801111.LC-UR872 Item:s1957 JIMMY HOFFA TEAMSTER PRESIDENT WATCH |
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| Description of item VINTAGE
1957 GOLD PLATED AND STAINLESS STEEL JIMMY HOFFA TEAMSTERS PRESIDENT WALTHAM WRIST WATCH
WITH NEW CRYSTAL WITH WALTHAM 17 JEWEL MANUAL SUB-SECONDS AS 1696 BASED MOVEMENT WITH
ORIGINAL GOLD FILLED & STAINLESS STEEL SPRING BAR LESS COFFIN STYLE EXPANDO
BRACELET. 33.8 X 43 W/O CROWN THIS RARE JIMMY HOFFA TEAMSTER PRESIDENT WATCH HAS A WATER
DAMAGE TO DIAL BUT THE JIMMY HOFFA'S PICTURE THE TEAMSTERS LOGO AND OTHER IMPORTANT
WRITING ARE IN EXCELLENT CONDITION AND ORIGINAL TO THE PERIOD OF 1957. THIS WATCHD HAS A
12 KARAT GOLD FILLED AND STAINLESS STEEL STRETCH/FLEX BRACELET IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION
AND ALSO DATES TO 1957. THIS 12KT GOLD FILLED AND STAINLESS STEEL BRACELET IS A RARE
SPRING BAR-LESS STYLE WHERE NO SPRING BARS ARE NECCESSARY AND IS SIGNED APEX PAT PEND
1/10TH 12KT GOLD FILLED TOP STAINLESS STEEL BACK. ORIGINAL RARE BIG "W" WALTHAM
CROWN AND THE DIAL HAS NEW BAGUATTES. CLEANED ORIGINAL HANDS. NEW CRYSTAL.CASE STEEL BEZEL
POLISHED. CASE & LUG POLISHED. STEEL CASE BACK BUFFED CASE AND BRACELET ARE IN
EXCELENT CONDITION. CASE BACK WITH RESTORED FINISH IS SIGNED STAINLESS STEEL BACK
UNBREAKABLE MAINSPRING WALTHAM SHOCKRESISTANT. THIS JIMMY HOFFA TEAMSTER PRESIDENT WATCH
DIAL HAS A ORIGINAL DATED WALTHAM 1955-1957 AS 1696 BASED Features manual wind sub second
Data 10.5''', Dm= 23.3mm H= 2.8mm 17 jewels f = 18000 A/h power reserve 45h Estimated
Retail Replacement Value $599.00 |
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including fully corrected triplet loupe, binocular microscope, master color comparison
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measuring device, and ancillary instruments necessary at the time of Exam |
JIMMY HOFFA
FOR COMPLETE HISTORY, PLEASE SCROLL TO BOTTOM OF
PAGE
James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa (born February
14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975, declared legally dead July 30, 1982- was an
American labor union leader and author.
Hoffa was involved with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, as an organizer
from 1932 to 1975. He served as the union's General President from 1958 to 1971. He
secured the first national agreement for teamsters' rates in 1964, and played a major role
in the growth and development of the union, which eventually became the largest single
union in the United States, with over 1.5 million members during his terms as its leader.
Hoffa, who had been convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery, and fraud in 1964, was
imprisoned in 1967, sentenced to 13 years, after exhausting the appeal process. It was not
until mid-1971 that he officially resigned the Teamsters' presidency, an action that was
part of a pardon agreement with U.S. president Richard Nixon, in order to facilitate his
release later that year. Nixon blocked Hoffa from union activities until 1980; Hoffa was
attempting to overturn this order and to regain support.
Hoffa was last seen in late July 1975, outside the Machus Red Fox, a suburban Detroit
restaurant.
CASE FINISH
IS
EXCELLENT
JIMMY HOFFA HISTORY
Hoffa was born in Brazil, Indiana, on February 14,
1913. His paternal ancestors were partially "Pennsylvania Dutch" (German).[4]
His father, a coal miner, died in 1920 when Hoffa was seven years old, and the family
moved to Detroit in 1924, where Hoffa was raised and lived the rest of his life. Hoffa
left school at age 14, and began full-time manual labor to help support his family.
Hoffa began union organizational work at the grassroots level through his employment as a
teenager with a grocery chain, which paid substandard wages and offered poor working
conditions with minimal job security. The workers were displeased with this situation and
tried to organize a union to better their lot. Although Hoffa was young, his bravery and
approachability in this role impressed fellow workers, and he rose to a leadership
position. By 1932, after being dismissed from the grocery chain—in part because of
his union activities—Hoffa joined and became involved with Local 299 of the Teamsters
in Detroit.
He married Josephine Poszywak in 1936, and bought a modest home in Detroit.The couple had
two children: a daughter, Barbara Ann, and a son, James. The Hoffa family later had a
summer property at Lake Orion, Michigan, north of Detroit.
The Teamsters union, founded in 1903, had only 75,000 members in 1933. As a result of
Hoffa's work with other union leaders to consolidate local union trucker groups into
regional sections and then into one gigantic national body—work that Hoffa ultimately
completed over a period of two decades—membership grew to 170,000 members by 1936.
Three years later, there were 420,000; and the number grew steadily during World War II
and through the post-war boom to top a million members by 1951.
The Teamsters organized truck drivers and warehousemen first throughout the Midwest, and
then nationwide. Hoffa played a major role in the union's skillful use of "quickie
strikes", secondary boycotts, and other means of leveraging union strength at one
company, to then move to organize workers, and finally to win contract demands at other
companies. This process, which took several years from the early 1930s, eventually brought
the Teamsters to a position of being one of the most powerful unions in the United States.
Hoffa worked to defend the Teamsters unions from raids by other unions, including the CIO,
and extended the Teamsters' influence in the Midwestern states, from the late 1930s to the
late 1940s. Although he never actually worked as a truck driver, he became president of
Local 299 in December 1946.[8] He then rose to lead the combined group of Detroit-area
locals shortly afterwards, and advanced to become head of the Michigan Teamsters groups
sometime later. During this time, Hoffa obtained a deferment from military service in
World War II, by successfully making a case for his union leadership skills being of more
value to the nation, by keeping freight running smoothly to assist the war effort.
By 1952, Hoffa rose to national vice-president of the Teamsters' IBT union, which was on
its way to becoming the largest and most powerful single union in the United States. At
the IBT convention in Los Angeles, he was selected by incoming president Dave Beck,
successor to Daniel J. Tobin, who had been president since 1907. Hoffa quelled an internal
revolt against Beck by securing Central States region support for Beck at the convention.
In exchange, Beck made Hoffa a vice-president.
The IBT moved its headquarters from Indianapolis to Washington, DC, taking over a large
office building in the US capital in 1955. IBT staff was also enlarged during this period,
with many lawyers hired to assist with contract negotiations. Following his 1952 election
as vice-president, Hoffa began spending more of his time away from Detroit; either in
Washington or traveling around the US for his expanded responsibilities.
Hoffa took over the presidency of the Teamsters in 1957, at the convention in Miami Beach,
Florida. His predecessor, Dave Beck, had appeared before the John Little McClellan-led US
Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor or Management Field in March 1957,
and took the Fifth Amendment 140 times in response to questions. Beck was under indictment
when the IBT convention took place, and was convicted on fraud charges later that year at
a trial held in Seattle, and imprisoned.
[edit] Teamsters union expelled
The 1957 AFL-CIO convention, held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, voted by a ratio of nearly
5-1 to expel the IBT from the larger union group. President George Meany gave an emotional
speech, advocating removal of the IBT, and stating that he could only agree to further
affiliation of the Teamsters if they would dismiss Hoffa as their president. Meany
demanded a response from Hoffa, who replied through the press, "We'll see." At
the time, IBT was bringing in over $750,000 annually to the AFL-CIO.
Following his re-election as president in 1961, Hoffa worked to expand the union. In 1964,
he succeeded in bringing virtually all over-the-road truck drivers in North America under
a single national master-freight agreement, in what may have been his finest achievement
in a lifetime of union activity.[12] He then tried to bring the airline workers and other
transport employees into the union, with limited success. During this period, he was
facing immense personal strain as he was under investigation, on trial, launching appeals
of convictions, or imprisoned for virtually all of the 1960s.
In 1964, Hoffa was convicted in Chattanooga, Tennessee, of attempted bribery of a grand
juror and was sentenced to eight years. This case resulted from an earlier matter, the
Test Fleet case, which had been held in Nashville, Tennessee. Hoffa was implicated by one
of his close associates, Edward Grady Partin, a Louisiana teamster, who went to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with the information that led to Hoffa's conviction.
Hoffa was also convicted of fraud later that same year for improper use of the Teamsters'
pension fund, in a trial held in Chicago. He received a five-year sentence to run
consecutively to his bribery sentence. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who had pursued
Hoffa for years—since the John Little McClellan-led U.S. Senate Labor industry
hearings of 1957—stepped down as Attorney General in 1964, after the second Hoffa
conviction, to run successfully for the New York seat in the November 1964 United States
Senate election.
Hoffa spent the next three years unsuccessfully appealing his 1964 convictions. Appeals
filed by his chief counsel, St. Louis defense attorney Morris Shenker, reached the U.S.
Supreme Court. He began serving his sentences in March 1967 at the Lewisburg Federal
Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. Just before he entered prison, Hoffa appointed Frank
Fitzsimmons as acting Teamsters president. Fitzsimmons was a Hoffa loyalist, fellow
Detroit resident, and a longtime member (since the 1930s) of Teamsters Local 299 in
Detroit, who owed his own high position in large part to Hoffa's influence. Despite this,
Fitzsimmons distanced himself from Hoffa's influence and control after 1967, to Hoffa's
displeasure. Fitzsimmons also decentralized power somewhat within the Teamsters' union
administration structure. During the Hoffa era, Hoffa had kept most power in his own
hands.
On December 23, 1971, less than five years into his 13-year sentence, Hoffa was released
from the Lewisburg, Pennsylvania prison, when President Richard Nixon commuted his
sentence to time served. Hoffa had served nearly 58 months, or just over one-third of his
original sentence. Following his release from prison, Hoffa was awarded a Teamsters'
pension of $1.7 million, delivered in a one-time lump sum payment. This type of pension
settlement had not occurred before with the Teamsters.
The IBT endorsed Richard Nixon, the Republican Party's candidate, in his presidential
re-election bid in 1972; in prior elections, the IBT union had supported Democratic Party
nominees. Suspicions were soon raised of a deal for Hoffa's release being connected with
the IBT's support of Nixon in 1972.[16] Following Nixon's resignation as president in
disgrace over the Watergate scandal in August, 1974, Nixon avoided public life for over a
year; his first public event was a charity fundraising golf tournament in California on
October 9, 1975, at the La Costa Resort and Spa, which was heavily attended by Teamsters'
leaders and associates, including IBT President Frank Fitzsimmons and Allen Dorfman; Hoffa
had disappeared ten weeks earlier.
While glad to regain his freedom, Hoffa was displeased with the condition imposed on his
release by President Nixon that restricted Hoffa from participating in union activities
until 1980.He accused the Nixon administration senior figures, including Attorney General
John N. Mitchell and White House Counsel Charles W. Colson, of depriving him of his rights
by initiating this clause; though both Mitchell and Colson denied this. It was likely
imposed upon Hoffa as the result of requests from senior Teamsters' leadership, although
IBT President Frank Fitzsimmons also denied this.
Hoffa was planning to sue to invalidate the non-participation restriction, in order to
reassert his power over the Teamsters; but he faced immense resistance to this course of
action from many quarters, and had lost much of his earlier support, even in the Detroit
area. As a result, he intended to begin his comeback at the local level, with Local 299 in
Detroit, where he retained some influence.
In 1975, Hoffa was working on an autobiography titled Hoffa: The Real Story, which was
published a few months after his disappearance. He had earlier published a 1970 book
titled The Trials of Jimmy Hoffa.
Hoffa disappeared at, or sometime after, 2:45 pm on July 30, 1975, from the parking lot of
the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Township, a suburb of Detroit. According to
what he had told others, he believed he was to meet there with two Mafia leaders—Anthony
Giacolone from Detroit, and Anthony Provenzano from Union City, New Jersey and New York
City. Provenzano was also a union leader with the Teamsters in New Jersey, and had earlier
been quite close to Hoffa. Provenzano was a national vice-president with IBT from 1961,
Hoffa's second term as Teamsters' president.
Upon Hoffa's failure to return home from the restaurant by late that evening, his wife
called police to report him missing. When police arrived at the restaurant, they found
Hoffa's car, but no sign of Hoffa himself, nor any indication of what had happened to him.
Extensive investigations into the disappearance began immediately, and continued over the
next several years by several law enforcement groups, including the FBI. However, the
investigations failed to conclusively determine Hoffa's fate. For their part, Giacolone
and Provenzano were each found not to have been in the vicinity of the restaurant that
afternoon, and each of them denied that they had scheduled any meeting with Hoffa.
Hoffa was declared legally dead in 1982, on the seventh anniversary of his disappearance.
Hoffa's son, James P. Hoffa, is the Teamsters' current leader, serving since 1999 in that
position. His daughter, Barbara Ann Crancer, currently serves as an associate circuit
court judge in St. Louis, Missouri.
On May 17, 2006, acting on a tip, the FBI searched a farm in Milford Township, Michigan,
for Hoffa's remains. Nothing was found.[20] The farm had previously belonged to former
Hoffa associate Rolland McMaster.
On June 16, 2006, the Detroit Free Press published in its entirety the so-called
"Hoffex Memo", a 56-page report the FBI prepared for a January 1976 briefing on
the case at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Although not claiming to conclusively
establish the specifics of his disappearance, the memo indicates that law enforcement's
belief is that Hoffa was murdered at the behest of organized crime figures who deemed his
efforts to regain power within the Teamsters to be a threat to their control of the
union's pension fund.The FBI has called the report the definitive account of what agents
believe happened to Hoffa.
