Vendetta

May 4, 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.

April 15, 2015
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."

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February 15, 2015

As investigations editor at the Seattle Times, Neff has managed several Pulitzer Prize-winning series, so expect some deep reporting on the fight-to-the-finish confrontation between Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa, president of America's largest union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Neff had unprecedented access to unexpurgated files from both Hoffa's years as Teamsters president and the Justice Department's "Get Hoffa" squad.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 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

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 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

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.