Vendetta Lib/E: Bobby Kennedy Versus Jimmy Hoffa

by James Neff

One of America's greatest investigative reporters brings to life the gripping, no-holds-barred clash of two American 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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, True Crime, American History, Crime, Biography

Audio CD

First published July 7, 2015

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew they hated each other but I didn't realize how much and how it had really started. Well researched.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all I would like to say that I bought this hardback book at The Dollar Tree!

Vendetta is about the over a decade long battle of wills between Bobby Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa. I obviously knew a lot more about Bobby Kennedy then I did about Jimmy Hoffa. The only things I knew about Hoffa going into this book was that he had been the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters which is a labor union and I knew that he had disappeared sometime in the 70's.

Vendetta did a lot in not a very long book. Its a duel biography of both men and it gave a brief history of labor unions in America. Jimmy Hoffa was a tough guy who loved his family but who loved power more. Hoffa painted himself as a defender of working class (white) people but all the time he was stealing from those same people's pension funds. Hoffa was a bad guy. He was a violent bully, a thief and a racist. He was a criminal who deserved to go to jail but....

Bobby Kennedy's pursuit of him seemed a bit much. It seemed like Bobby Kennedy wanted to punish Hoffa for some snide remarks he made about the Kennedy family. As I said before Hoffa was a criminal but so were a lot of labor union leaders. Some were doing way worse things but Kennedy wasn't interested in them. Kennedy's vendetta seemed petty and even Bobby towards the end of his life thought so too.

James Neff did a great job of giving both men's point of view and he never seemed to choose sides. The picture Neff paints is of two vastly different men who shared the same ruthlessness. At times Vendetta read like a thriller novel. The clash of two bigger than life characters who both met(probably) violent ends.

History buffs will love this book!

[Steven Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title VENDETTA of James Neff’s new book that deals with Robert F. Kennedy’s quest to bring Jimmy Hoffa to justice is chilling from the perspective of how unions, organized crime, and businesses colluded to defraud union members, the government, and the general public. Neff begins his story with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 that provoked a reaction from his brother Bobby, “there’s so much bitterness, and I thought they’d get one of us….I thought it would be me.” (6) At the time Robert Kennedy was the Attorney General and was in the midst of his Justice Department’s prosecution of Hoffa for witness tampering, real estate, and pension fraud. This would culminate in Hoffa’s conviction in early 1964 that ended a seven year journey for Robert Kennedy to bring the corrupt Teamster President to justice. Despite the conviction, Kennedy remained unsettled because he could never be sure that Hoffa, who danced on his desk and shouted with glee when learning of the president’s assassination, was not behind his brother’s death.

Neff, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigations editor at the Seattle Times has written a comprehensive and engrossing history of the relationship between the Kennedy brothers and Jimmy Hoffa. He explores all the major characters who were involved in that relationship and presents an objective and well written account of a very important aspect of American labor history. Neff introduces both protagonists with short biographies of each and we learn that Robert Kennedy saw himself as a crusader against what he perceived to be labor injustice, and Jimmy Hoffa, who believed he was a victim of a class war by the rich Kennedy’s as he was convinced that he was unjustly persecuted for seven years until they finally nailed him. During that time the author leads the reader through RFK’s appointment to the staff of the Senate Sub-Committee on Organized Crime headed by Alabama Senator John L. McClellan. RFK’s brother was also a member of the committee and wanted to use it as a stepping stone to enhance his presidential credentials. RFK zeroed in on the influence of organized crime and their infiltration of labor unions, and made Jimmy Hoffa his target as the epitome of what he was trying to prove that would hopefully lead to strong congressional legislation to weaken the criminal hold on American labor. Neff describes an obsessed Robert Kennedy over a seven year period trying to prosecute Hoffa and put him behind bars. Their conflict was epic and after a few committee hearings Hoffa was convinced he was being unjustly targeted which was the source of their personal vendetta.

Neff provides the reader with intricate details employing committee transcripts and analysis as the McClellan hearings evolve. The reader is present in the Senate chambers and can easily grasp the hatred between the two men. Neff discusses each character that is mentioned in detail whether it is Edward Bennett Williams, the suave and sophisticated Capitol Hill lawyer who defended Hoffa; Bernard Spindel, a New York veteran from World War II trained in electronics who developed advanced eavesdropping devices for Hoffa; Walter Sheridan, RFK’s alter ego at the Justice Department who led the prosecution of the union leader; to David Beck, the crooked Teamster President who preceded Hoffa. These are just a few of the important players in the narrative, and Neff is able to weave many more into the story. As you read on it appears that Neff has left no stone unturned in his research. He explores legal strategy, mob participation, intimidation tactics, and the stretching of constitutional guarantees by the Justice Department. Neff takes us into strategy sessions, Hoffa’s labor meetings, and Kennedy’s office as we learn how each component of the overall story will unfold.

Kennedy’s obsession led to the “Hoffa Strike Force” once his brother convinced him to become Attorney General. It is here that Neff recounts conversations and other details as the hatred between Kennedy and Hoffa comes to a head. We witness how slippery Hoffa was to prosecute and convict and for seven years Kennedy was almost at a loss as to his failure. Hoffa was elected Teamster president and his overall influence and popularity among union members could not be broken. One of the most interesting aspects of the book was the 1960 Presidential election. Recounting Hoffa strategy to block John F. Kennedy’s nomination the underside of politics is in full view. The use of union funds, members, and other assets were fully employed by Hoffa first in the Democratic primaries and then in the general election as the teamsters were deployed in full to bring about the election of Richard Nixon, who in true Nixonian fashion promised Hoffa to protect him from the Justice Department once he was elected. Another fascinating part of the book is the limited role FBI Director Herbert Hoover played in RFK’s quest. Hoover was more interested in his own agenda who was not averse to using his own intelligence against the Kennedy’s, particularly their sexual escapades.

Perhaps the most important section of the book involves how the Justice Department finally is able to convict Hoffa of jury tampering and pension fraud in 1964. Using a former Hoffa ally as a plant in return for a plea deal, RFK’s people are able to surprise Hoffa during the first trial for witness tampering and destroy his defense. Once convicted his next trial for pension fraud was easier to prosecute. Attempts to appeal failed as the Supreme Court ruled against him and Hoffa would be imprisoned until pardoned by Nixon in 1971. Hoffa would suffer the same fate as Robert Kennedy as he is murdered in a Detroit suburb in 1975, probably a mob hit, but to this day we are not sure since a body has never been found.

Neff’s skill as a narrative historian allows the reader to immerse themselves in the story and I will admit it was difficult to put down. The book reads like a crime novel, but in reality it is the sordid history of the Teamsters Union over decades culminating in the reign of Jimmy Hoffa. The book is an excellent read and numerous interesting and surprising things will emerge in what really can be categorized as a courtroom thriller.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly well about two characters that I had no love for. Should have been 5 stars but I removed two because of two glaring omissions that were relative to his story.
1) the deal that The Kennedys made with big labor to deliver the state Illinois into the JFK electoral column. The payback was signing legislation to allow government employees to collective bargaining.

2) A few weeks before JFK was assassinated, JFK's CIA played a major part in the assassination of the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Nhu, and the coup d'etat.
Both of these are very significant to our present situation domestically and internationally.

"Karma's a B*tch"

[Peoria Public Library]

Beth rates this 3.5 stars out of 5 stars.

Having little to no knowledge of this original "beef," I found this book to be very well put together and easy to follow. There were only a few times that I felt the narrative slowed down a little; but it quickly came back up to speed.

And, as someone who doesn't generally care about mafia history, Hoffa was a fascinating "character" throughout the whole narrative.

[Debra Jeakins · Rating 5 out of 5]

BRAVO!! JAMES NEFF IN VANDETTA:BOBBY KENNEDY VS JIMMY HOFFA has taken pages out of history, known and unknown facts and put together a book that tells the tale of a Senator Bobby Kennedy going after one of the US most infamous figures and leader of the Teamsters Union Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa and Kennedy square off in the 50's and 60s. This factual account of the war between the Kennedys and Hoffa is told brilliantly and without bias. Just how far would the Kennedy's go to bring down Hoffa? Just far would Hoffa go to bring down the Kennedy's? Read this book and find out. In it you will also discover just how Hoover felt about the Kennedy's and vice versa. It was a fantastic read & I recommend it to anyone who loves reading on Hoffa, the Kennedys' or just loves history.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was nice to read this after Moldea's Hoffa Wars book. This has more recent scholarship and a different point of view. This underscores how RFK had been after Hoffa since before the JFK administration. Also there are intriguing tie ins suggesting linking Hoffa's Chicago mob cronies with the JFK assassination. Despite the political, legal, and investigatory minutiae germane to the telling, the works reads briskly and even can be exciting.

[Philip White · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is historical writing at its pinnacle. Neff shares new insights into the character of Bobby Kennedy and builds tension between the should-have-been-President and his nemesis. I breezed through this book in three evenings, but still felt like I'd been informed and challenged along the way. If you like history, get this book right now.

[Sylvia Snowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The real reason why unions died in the US--the utter corruption and criminality of its leaders. A detailed examination of the untold story of Bobby Kennedy and Hoffa, compelling and horrifying. Bernie Sanders is pretending this never happened with unions. The Dems would like us to forget the details of JFK's presidential campaign, and who and what the Kennedys really were. If you are a fan of politics, organizational management, history, unions, and leadership, read it. I listened to the audiobook, well done with a crisp narration delivered by an older man, an actor who could make us feel the gritty world of the 1950s.

[Bert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won an unedited copy of this book in a "Goodreads First Reads" contest, but I was not compensated to write this review. This author has a history of producing well-researched and thoughtful documentary histories, and his roots and experiences as investigations editor of the Seattle Times are likely where he has cultivated his skills. The Kennedy family has had thousands of books and research papers written about them, this one ranks as one of the cream of the crop. A real page-turner, not boring or stuffy. My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclosure: I purchased this book. Having grown up in the JFK and RFK era, I enjoy reading books from this time. Many that are written are over critical of the Kennedy's or "saint" them. This book however is different as it is written by a non contemporary and has been deeply researched. Also, my dad was a teamster and told me many times that their leadership were always dipping into the trough. This book moves fast and recalls a time when Washington stood up for the common man and pursued evil. Today, Washington has a different focus, job preservation for its elected and elites!

[Craig Werner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written more as a true crime story than history, Vendetta follows the exhaustive story of Bobby Kennedy's quest to jail Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa. The outline of the story's familiar, so the primary reason to read this is if you want detail after detail of who talked to to when, the legal maneuverings, etc.

[J.D. Frailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

All I knew about Jimmy Hoffa is that he disappeared and his body was never found, almost certainly victim of a mob hit. What I learned in this book is that he was brilliant, tough, ruthless, a thief, and willing to do whatever it took to win.
I also knew little about Bobby Kennedy other than he was JFK’s brother and was assassinated.
RFK loathed Hoffa, became driven to the point of obsession, charged him with jury tampering, tax evasion, racketeering, stealing from the Teamsters’ pension fund, on and on, multiple times, until finally sending him to prison.
Fascinating to look back at US politics in the 1950’s and early ‘60s, at the inside workings of organized labor, gains made for workers and efforts to keep organized crime out.
My only ding on the book was it sometimes jumped around chronologically, and with all the different trials and grand jury episodes it got a little confusing. But still a really good book, highly recommend.

[John Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This simple, fast reading book was worth reading, although some portions drifted to more about the Kennedy family than Jimmy Hoffa. Clearly Bobby Kennedy was driven to take Hoffa out of the labor movement and ‘win’ a case against him, especially after losing some high stakes court cases. What was lacking in this book is more about Hoffa the person, interviews with people who knew him, more about how he had the historical win of bringing together the long-haul trucking contracts to one single expiration date, how he improved the standards of truck drivers, what kind of father he was, whether he was faithful to his wife, etc. This book was nearly a charactered view of the two men.

It was interesting how Hoffa first became involved as a Kroger employee who was treated poorly. But it didn’t seem to take long before Hoffa was on the take, taking whatever, he wanted to supplement his income. While some of the allegations against Hoffa might not have been true, others were clear. Was he always corrupt or did he fall into the mold set by IBT national president Beck in the 1950’s, stealing money from their own members. It was sick to read how certain Teamster officials sold out their own members for pocket money when agreeing to sweetheart deals with Sears, Roebuck and Company.

Unlike some officials, Hoffa had his sight on higher union office and knew he had to look like he cleaned up his act. It was amazing how they held mammoth fund-raising dinners bringing in the who’s who of each major Teamster city, bringing his wife in a mink coat to show they cared and raise money for charity, including a hospital in Israel. The author repeatedly shared how Hoffa tried to set himself up to be the community guy.

This book was interesting in that the author spells out many of the ways teamster “officials” robbed their own members then protected themselves using bugged phones and people. It indicates how Hoffa was a different man in private than in public, especially when it came to the civil rights of his own members. While he used Blacks often, especially when trying to get favorable rulings from Black jurors. Especially disgusting was how Hoffa used famous boxing camp, Joe Louis to get him off of the hot seat in court. Hoffa used his union members’ funds, delay tactics, fear, and good luck to keep from being convicted. He had unbelievable guts in that he named the delegates to the convention in perhaps an illegal manner and dealt with being investigated and followed repeatedly.

The book doesn’t really explain how Kennedy got so wrapped up in prosecuting Hoffa. Kennedy was not a labor guy and didn’t understand mob activities when he started. He wasn’t from Michigan and evidently did not know how to run a good investigation. But Kennedy did know how to pull together a team from the campaigns he ran and did just that as Attorney General. The author did a good job painting a picture of a bunch of guys – all white, probably – who would gather in RFK’s amazing wood paneled office, drinking beer and munching on pretzels while sharing their work to get Hoffa. Discussion focused on using IRS records and the book details how they went about gathering those records, including handwriting the files since they couldn’t copy them according to regulations.

The book did do a good job in sharing how Bobby Kennedy focused on Hoffa once he started the campaign to get the labor official in prison. In addition to looking for issues including use of pension funds, land deals, double dealing with employers using his wife’s company (in his wife’s madden name despite it starting after they were long married), utilizing IRS filings, and even pushing for changes in the law that were not aligned in the true democratic views of the Kennedy clan. In 1962, Attorney General Kennedy promoted a law that would strip labor officials and businesspeople dealing with unions of their Fifth Amendment rights. In addition to being an anti-union tactic, it caught the AFL-CIO legislative director by surprise and that embarrassment made him work that much harder to defeat the anti-union measure. While catching the support of anti-union politicians, AFL-CIO President George Meany was unwilling to take that step, even though he knew the direct focus was his foe Hoffa and after Kennedy personally sat down with him to convince him to support the measure.

A side story in the book was the Teamster’s relationship with the national AFL-CIO, an organization they belonged to as part of the labor movement. Hoffa’s style was despised by AFL-CIO Chief Meaney and other union leaders running clean union organizations. By 1957, the Teamsters were expelled from the AFL-CIO – an action that didn’t get reversed until another two generations. The decision impacted the labor movement in so many ways, including allowing the Teamsters to raid other unions. This forced unions to spend resources to organize the organized instead of bringing new workers into the movement and increasing the working conditions of others. The book mentioned that after being expelled, the Teamsters gained a half million workers within four years. Still, Hoffa was re-elected as president of the Teamsters, this time in a fair election since he knew others were watching over the election process.

Upon re-election, Hoffa took more control with the delegates authorizing a new legal aid service to leaders up on criminal charges, increasing his salary from $50,000 to $75,000, and gave Hoffa more funds to play with by increasing union dues so the national union had a full budget of $20 million, up $12 million.

Neff pointed out that not everyone in the Teamster’s Ivory Tower were part of a corrupt machine. He singles out Harold Gibbons, a Hoffa top lieutenant who was a true trade unionist, a strong progressive democrat and a big supporter of racial equality.

There were some interesting stories that dealt with JFK’s campaign that were not pertinent to Hoffa. For example, the author reported that repeatedly Ohio Governor Mike DiSalle, a conservative Democrat, told Kennedy he was going to support his bid for president only to back away when it became a public statement. He claimed that since they were both Catholics, it would be best if another big state governor went first. Finally, threatened with RBK running for governor of Ohio, he announced his public support for JFK. It was also interesting to read how Kennedy’s father wanted Bobby to be the Attorney General and it seemed the boys couldn’t turn him down. The reaction was strong – all against a guy who had no court experience and being the president’s close brother selected for such a sensitive assignment.

The author did speak about how Hoffa played in the race against JFK, including having a role in placing two columns wide and four-inch-deep political ad in 256 weekly papers across Wisconsin to fuel anti-Catholic sentiment. Hoffa tried to get his locals to engage but nothing he did stopped the future president from winning the state, with 56% of the vote.

Hoffa came back to fight John Kennedy at the convention, paying for a Stevenson campaign in an attempt to keeping Kennedy from winning on the first ballot. It failed.

Most importantly, Hoffa tried to use his one and three-quarter million-member union to turn against the Democrat. Hoffa called Kennedy anti-union and a spoiled millionaire. He raised the question about legislation that Kennedy supported bringing new restrictions to labor, although Kennedy shifted his views when the worse of the labor provisions were added onto the bill. Hoffa had the union’s educational department feature Democratic Oregon senator Wayne Morse attack Kennedy in one video that was then shown to their members from throughout the country. Morse labeled Kennedy as the person “most responsible” for “one of the most antilabor bills” in history – the 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act.

The tension between FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Robert Kennedy also played out slightly in this book. Much as it was what we have learned in so many books, but this book specifically mentioned that of the 32,000 Justice Department employees, move than 13,000 were FBI employees; they were people who thought that Hoover was the leader.

The ending of the book was interesting, although seemingly rushed. Conflicting civil rights were colliding with a trial in Nashville and Chattanooga. The various players were busy pushing for opposite decisions – local Teamsters trying to help with people they knew on the jury and showing support for their union boss, Kennedy and his men working to get people to testify, the local newspaper covering a story they became a part of (it became known that the Hoffa side had someone saying they were a reporter was knocking at doors of jury members to learn more about them), a former Hoffa guy who was trying to save his own butt and playing both sides, the FBI doing their thing, and an administration and judge worried about jury fixing. It was interesting to read that Hoffa had the discipline to keep to his own routine including going to the WMCA to work out and run the union from a run-down hotel.

In the end, Hoffa was finally found guilty – and sentenced to eight years in prison. He served most of that time despite his attempts to overturn his conviction then using political muscle to be freed. His hand-picked successor, Frank Fitzsimmons, turned on his old boss and placed a provision in his pardon that kept him from returning to union office until 1980. That didn’t stop Hoffa from campaigning for the job, a decision that most likely led to his disappearance on July 30, 1975.

The author also threw in allegations that possibly Hoffa had something to do with the assassination of President Kennedy, almost as an afterthought. He pointed out that immediately prior to the assassination, Jack Ruby placed number of calls to criminals connected with Hoffa.

This book is worth the read with considerable information and interesting stories in a relatively short period of time. Anyone reading this book should see the movie Hoffa, covering much of the same material in a compelling manner. Having read two of Neff’s other four books – The Wrong Man, Mobbed Up, this was my least favorite of his books.

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

The day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Attorney General Bobby Kennedy asked his aide, Walter Sheridan, if he thought Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa might have something to do with the shooting. After all, they had word that Hoffa speculated about getting a long-range rifle and killing Bobby when he was riding in a convertible. When Sheridan told Bobby that it was a possibility, Bobby told him to get on a flight to Dallas and learn everything he could about a possible Hoffa connection. Sheridan later became a Kennedy "plant" in the Warren Commission investigating the assassination, relaying all possible Hoffa info back to Bobby. Jimmy Hoffa's reaction to the assassination was more succinct. In a restaurant in Miami, he stood up and his chair and cheered. He then called a Florida mob boss and said "Have you heard the goods news? They killed the son of a bitch. This means Bobby is out as attorney general. Lyndon will get rid of him." He was happy that "Bobby's just another lawyer now."

The Bobby Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa vendetta was truly one for the ages, one that not only shaped both men's lives but shaped the political life of the nation. Author James Neff brings out all the intricacies of their battle in vivid, if at times overlong, detail, and shows that even if Hoffa was a fundamentally amoral man, this was no battle of black and white.

When John F. Kennedy entered the nation's first television debate, he mentioned the name of only one domestic opponent, Jimmy Hoffa, and claimed that the Eisenhower administration's inability to put this criminal in jail was a moral failing. This was questionable legal ground (as we learned in the 2016 election) for a potential president who would have to supervise a supposedly impartial investigation. Yet when JFK appointed Bobby Attorney General, Bobby too made few bones about his desire to jail Hoffa, telling everyone he knew that he wanted him taken down. Bobby first restaffed the Organized Crime section of the Justice Department, but then formed a special 20-member Get Hoffa squad under Walter Sheridan that reported directly to him. The squad made legally indefensible decisions like combing through all of Hoffa's associates IRS filings, insinuating informants into Hoffa's legal teams and reporting back their legal strategy, and surrounding Hoffa with blatantly illegal bugging devices. They filed dozens of cases against him, even on questionable misdemeanor charges that rarely attracted federal attention. Every since Bobby Kennedy faced off against Hoffa in the Senate's 1957 McClellan Racketeer hearings, however, (where, in a private meeting, the two had challenged each other as to who could do the most push-ups), he harbored an intense animosity for the union president, whom he saw as the greatest single domestic threat to the nation.

Hoffa, of course, reciprocated these feelings and these herculean efforts. He put spies in the Justice Department, paid off staffers in the congressional investigations, had his associates wear wires to grand jury testimonies to make sure they didn't squeal, printed anti-Catholic anti-Kennedy ads in newspapers, tried to get prostitutes to sleep with the Kennedys while they wearing wires, and so on. Finally, however, in 1964, his efforts to bribe several Nashville jury members got him a felony conviction (of course, he also tried to bribe the jury hearing the jury-bribing case), followed by another conviction for stealing from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. Bobby won the battle, but at what a cost.

These two men were unbelievably driven, haughty, ascetic, and obsessed with their own toughness. Hoffa, however, was a cynic who cared about nothing but himself. Bobby Kennedy was a tortured idealist who managed to convince himself that every selfish action he took was only for the greater good of the country. They were bound to come into conflict. Their clash damaged both of their lives, however, and that of the nation, bringing into question the impartial administration of justice. But one leaves the book glad that Jimmy Hoffa, the corrupt and autocratic president of the nation's largest and most powerful union, got what was coming to him.

[John McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Kennedy, always in his brother Jack's shadow as a young lawyer, was aggressive, cunning, and willing to skirt the rules to get the result he desired. He was not an experienced trial lawyer as most on the Senate committees and the Justice Department were, and his absence of trial lawyering skills embarrassed his colleagues investigating organized crime in labor unions in the Senate and the Justice Department.

Kennedy was a son of privilege. Jimmy Hoffa was not, growing up on the streets in a poor, largely dysfunctional family. He didn't care whether his tactics violated any laws and it never bothered him that his ties to the mob were open and well known. He was thought to have put Johnny Dio up to throwing acid in labor reporter Victor Reisl's face in the 1950s. Hoffa was a Republican with strong Republican confidantes, Barry Goldwater being one. Hoffa was mobbed up and everyone knew but few, besides RFK, wanted to prove it. The Teamsters, at one time with 1.5 million dues paying members, were the largest industrial union in the field and its influence was sought. Hoffa centralized union power in himself as much as he was able, although his final effort to consolidate all the local unions into a single nationwide collective bargaining unit mostly failed.

Kennedy was so aggressive in his pursuit of Hoffa, that Hoffa was tried multiple times for racketeering, jury tampering before Kennedy was able to get a conviction, long after JFK had been assassinated. RFK often made the comment that he thought Hoffa would kill me, but he didn't think he'd kill Jack. Efforts were made to tie JFK's death to Hoffa, an effort that produced no positive result.

Hoffa was a bad pony, a ruthless and double crossing thief who stole from the union members and their pension funds, set up private companies in his wife's name to benefit from profits from hidden investments made from Teamster funds.

But Kennedy overstepped his legal authority whenever he could in pursuit of Hoffa. More than a Vendetta, it was a crusade with Bobby and the lesson from it has to be that simply because your cause is just does not give license to trample on civil liberties.

By the end of this book, one gets the sense that the two of them deserved each other. Both met tragic and unplanned ends: Kennedy assassinated, some believing that Hoffa was behind it. Hoffa was "disappeared", given what some speculate was a Joe Pesche Goodfellas death--a mob murder followed by burial of dismembered parts.

The book compels the reader's attention. It is well written and the subject matter is fascinating. People are still trying to find Hoffa's corpse or, by now, his bones.

[Jerry Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jimmy Hoffa is an interesting, albeit somewhat repellent historical figure and one that I am minded to read more about in the future as a result of this book. This work very much follows the subtitle here and covers the specifics of the feud between Hoffa and Kennedy, obviously in the context of the history.

It is quite detailed and concentrates on the relationship between the two but there are a ton of additional players that run through the Kennedy family and administration as well as the Teamsters. I knew little about Hoffa other than his reputation and I was unclear whether that reputation was simply built around his position as a union activist with a fiery temper. Clearly he was a racketeer and there were many who wanted to see him brought down. RFK seemed to see that as his duty.

I probably need to go through this again as I missed some of how these two developed such a loathing for each other. The story is detailed and gives the impression that Hoffa was pretty much always on trial for some felony or misdemeanor, much of it related to racketeering. Kennedy obviously was out to get him (he had a "get Hoffa" team) but there was more to the story than that. There are some interesting sub-plots that largely go unexplored (the relationship with Hoover for example) and I would have found that interesting, although ultimately outside the scope of this work I guess.

With such a large cast of characters this book takes some following. It is worth reading but ultimately it fizzles a little at the end and ends rather abruptly with, I felt, a few loose ends untied.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a lot of new insight into the machinations of Jimmy Hoffa. However, we have a solid, Camelot-free overview on the often-petty, often-personalized, often ignorant of actual lawyering personality of Bobby Kennedy in pursuing Jimmy Hoffa in a way that was indeed a vendetta.

Indeed, reading the book made me think that Bobby probably hadn't lost all of that mindset even at the time of his 1968 Presidential run. It's also interesting why Jack named him to his cabinet. Yes, the old man wanted him, but why Jack didn't try to tell Joe that Bobby would be better as a White House counselor or similar, I don't know.

In light of that, although I'm 5-starring the book, I wish Neff would have told us what Jack was saying about Bobby's actions, if there's something available on that.

On Hoffa, a nice side note on him besides his Mafia-related thuggery is Neff showing that he was some kind of a racist.

[Alan Fusco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating look into the Vendetta between Bobby Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa and Bobby's 7 year effort to put Hoffa behind bars. It also goes into Hoffa's attempts to thwart JFK presidential campaign and some of tactics JFK used to counter that and get elected. Let's just say politics seems to be a "dirty" business. I was in grammar school during most of the timeline of the book, but do remember JFK's assassination and RFK's shooting by Sirhan Sirhan in 1968. Hoffa was an interesting person. At times you felt sorry for him and at other times was disgusted by him. There is no doubt that he did much for the Teamsters (a union I was required to join when I worked for UPS in college) but at a huge price and at great personal benefit to himself. The back and forth between these two men was riveting. If you are interested in this time period, this is a must read.

[Cc April · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as part of a Goodreads First reads promotion.
"To tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world"
“I may have many faults, but being wrong ain’t one of them.”
This was a highly informational, well researched book about two notable, powerful men of the twentieth century: Jimmy Hoffa and Bobby Kennedy. To say these two were at war with each other would be an understatement. Jimmy Hoffa as the leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters,the largest in the U.S., wasn't afraid to play dirty. Bobby Kennedy, as part of the Senate Rackets Committee hearings and later as Attorney General, made it one of his top goals to dethrone Hoffa. Neff does himself proud in the retelling of this epic piece of our history.

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

James Neff’s Vendetta: Bobby Kennedy Versus Jimmy Hoffa examines the paths of Bobby Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa, emphasizing how they intersected and conflicted. One of the more striking features of this book is the level of animosity Kennedy and Hoffa towards each other, as well as the extent to which both maintained informants to monitor the other. Although both were killed while they were both influential—Hoffa was arguably at the peak of his career and Kennedy was a rising star—Kennedy may have ultimately emerged as the victor: he succeed in prosecuting Hoffa, whereas Hoffa struggled to regain his influence and died under circumstances that remain a mystery to this day.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story concerning the "war" between Jimmy Hoffa and Bobby Kennedy. The story line was convoluted and involved. I found that Kennedy really didn't seem to have any prosecutorial experience. His eagerness to bring Hoffa down, made him act in an irrational way. I found the book difficult to follow and it was slow reading. Interesting topic but I felt that the book was a poor execution of what could have been a good read. If Kennedy had taken the time to build a solid case against Hoffa and stopped leaking to the press, he might have been able to take Hoffa down. I received this as a review copy

[Leigh Hurd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really glad I read this. I read this after the recently released story about Rosemary Kennedy. There was very little overlap, aside from some retelling of the family background but it was a good transition. And certainly confirmed the view about how controlling joe Kennedy was with his children. I learned a ton about both main characters and was horrified about the union practices and their clout --- Nixon?! Lots more detail than I could keep up with so it took me awhile to get through but well worth it.

[Delta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I'm not terribly familiar with American political history in the 60s despite it being a major part of my parent's generation. I can't say for sure if the book accurately reflects the political climate of the time, but it does seem to be very well researched. The most interesting thing to me was how it didn't necessarily feel pro-Kennedy. Granted, it did feel slightly biased against Hoffa, but not aggressively so.

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

[natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks again to Goodreads for allowing me to win this uncorrected advanced proof of Vendetta which will be published in July.

Like many people, I think the Hoffa/Bobby Kennedy story has fascinated me for a long time, as well as President John Kennedy's murder.

Vendetta is a well-researched true story of corruption among the unions and its leaders - most of all Hoffa. Anyone who has an interest in these subjects will really enjoy this well-written book.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Neff has masterfully retold the story of the battle between two 20th century icons. This could have been a boring and tedious read, full of dry courtroom testimony and simple facts. Fortunately, Neff has avoided that and provided a well flowing and intriguing slice of history. Fans of Hoffa might not enjoy this book, but fans of RFK will not want to miss this chapter of Kennedy history.

[David Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a real page turner that will hook you from the start. Such a complex story that will both startle you with an amazing level of investigative journalism and leave you with a heavy heart. RFK's battle with Jimmy Hoffa definitely helped shape him into the man we lost to Sirhan Sirhan.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very well written, but it is narrowly focused. The personalities of both men come across clearly. I was struck with RFK"s desire to be a public servant fighting the good fight. Also struck by his competitiveness. The idea that Hoffa could escape justice was a personal defeat.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read.

A clean, sharp, well-documented summary of events including a note about the former president Nixon's role, just prior to Hoffa's convictins and disappearance. Many questions obviously not answered, but many strong suggested answers. Book title is most fitting.

[Meihan Liu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well-chosen perspective, using RFK's personal feud with Jimmy Hoffa as a starting point to unfold the stories of one important (early) period of his professional career and American history in the late 50s.