A time capsule episode and a recent history of last month.

We discuss the motives and means of near-miss assassin Thomas Mathew Crooks and the strange coincidence of an elder care worker trying to kill the heads of a gerontocratic political class. We also talk about the rarity of sniper assassins, the reality of secret service protection, and most of all the greatest of all Assassin Groups: IMRO.

Music: Opening is "to hunt and gather" by Survival Spheres, Interlude music is "Vibrant" by Survival Spheres. As always thank you to Komakino for our main opening and closing theme.

The Final Part,

Into the Maw

Where is the body.

Who did it.

In this final part to the final chapter of our Hoffa and the Teamsters series, we hope to answer to the entangled questions of where Hoffa's body is, who ultimately commissioned his death, and finally, what force derailed this entire investigation? Why, to this day, do FBI excavation teams fruitlessly dig hole after hole in suburban Michigan, New Jersey and Florida?

The answer, we find quickly has to do with the government-protected status of one individual, the class-collaborator himself: Frank Fitzsimmons, and his relationship with a mob-owned sanitation company. One already known to informants as a part-time body disposal plant.

In our final look back however, we look at the words of Pete Camarata for what Hoffa's death meant to teamster dissidents and socialists trying to take control of their own union.

MORE ON OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/105393549

THE FINAL CHAPTER, THEY DISAPPEARED HIM:

TIMELINES.

WITNESSES.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE.

On the cusp of retaking the presidency of the largest and most powerful union in the continent, and with an angry rank and file sweeping him forward, Jimmy Hoffa was abducted and murdered. The shipping company owners, white house staffers and collaborationist teamster regional chieftains could rest easy and look forward to a new and lucrative era where the highways are free of barricades and loads are plodded over by immiserated low-wage drivers. So why is the Hoffa abduction and murder thought of as a gangster story, rather than one of labor violence, a story used to put a note of mystery into the memoirs of dying mafia men?

In this 2-part final chapter to our Hoffa and the Teamsters saga we talk about the final hours of Jimmy Hoffa's life and the competing alibis given by his abductors. Along the way we discuss mid-70s luxury sedans, DNA analysis, and the maximum size of a Coho salmon.

MORE ON OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/105059752

As the economic order falls apart, the conspiracy to get rid of the Hoffa problem and the Teamster problem begins to take shape.

Music: Thanks as always to Komakino for our opening and closing theme. Opening and Interlude background music were "Soothing Gloom" (opening), and "Not meant to be" (interlude) provided by the artist Survival Spheres, more of their work here: https://www.youtube.com/@SurvivalSpheres

huge thank you to Survival Spheres for permitting the use of their work.

On this penultimate 2 part Hoffa series episode we begin with Hoffa at his lowest point: in prison stuffing mattresses on the orders of Robert F Kennedy. As Hoffa is removed from the seat of power the control of the Teamsters apparatus returns to to Frank Fitzsimmons and the local barons: blood soaked and ready for siphon money cutting deals with employers as the economic crisis of the 1970s dawned.

Under the Fitzismmons regime, the teamster's leadership became a crucial ally of President Nixon in holding down wages, prices and economic rebellion.

But in this section of this Penultimate Hoffa episode we detail how Hoffa's departure led to a revolt of the petty officers in the teamsters union, and a wave of pressure from below to free Hoffa and put the union on a war footing, cul

We introduce the new character of future Teamsters for a Democratic Union Leader Pete Camerata, who in a similar way to Hoffa himself, began as a rebellious warehouse worker in Local 299, seeing himself as a 'Hoffaist' hoping to purge the "crooked gangster element" from the union's empire.

MORE ON OUR PATREON (INCLUDING FOR THIS EPISODE): https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-40-hoffa-100701588

MORE ON OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/extended-preview-97903649

This is an extended preview of a Patron-Only episode. For more, including the second half of this episode extra pictures and documents, sign up for a Patreon subscription today.

In this solo episode, Isaac showcases some of the most interesting pieces of evidence he has collected over time in researching the April 4, 1968 murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and the work of the sadly departed Professor Philip Melanson, one of the saner heads on this case.

The King case has always been the lesser case for conspiracy-heads behind JFK and RFK: a political murder of a socialistic leader in the midst of both a strike and a mass campaign for economic redistribution is for most of these hobbyists too grimy, too dirty, too "material" to imagine into a rorschach blot of 'what went wrong with america'. But the case is truly as fascinating as any, and Isaac provides the overview.

After laying the basics out for our listeners we turn to a long-forgotten fragment of stark evidence: a sworn affidavit by Pentagon Paper leaker Daniel Ellsberg, about detailed information leaked to him from the fractious House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978, declaring that the congressional investigators "solved" the case: a team reporting directly to J Edgar Hoover carried out the assassination and the circumstantial evidence  (which was described to Ellsberg) had already been assembled to prove it.

Above: A Map of the Memphis Crime Scene, as used by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)

MUSIC/SOUNDS:  Special thanks as always to Komakino for our opening and closing theme: https://www.youtube.com/@komakinojoydivisiontribute4531.

The intro music is "Formlessness" by the artist Survival Spheres, their work can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@SurvivalSpheres. The interlude music is a slowed and reverb heavy mix of the Silent Hill 3 save theme.

The opening is an interview of King in 1968 by Harry Belafonte detailing his plans for the Poor People's Campaign, and saved and preserved by The Nation Magazine. The second is a mix of clips found on youtube of King's speeches from 1968, including fromt he Memphis Sanitation Strike, and interviews with Phil Melanson on the stripping away of security from King on the day of the assassination.

MORE ON OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/aPeoplesHistoryofViolence

This is an extended preview of a Patron-Only episode. For more, including the second half of this episode extra pictures and documents, sign up for a Patreon subscription today.

In this solo episode, Isaac showcases some of the most interesting pieces of evidence he has collected over time in researching the April 4, 1968 murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and the work of the sadly departed Professor Philip Melanson, one of the saner heads on this case.

The King case has always been the lesser case for conspiracy-heads behind JFK and RFK: a political murder of a socialistic leader in the midst of both a strike and a mass campaign for economic redistribution is for most of these hobbyists too grimy, too dirty, too "material" to imagine into a rorschach blot of 'what went wrong with america'. But the case is truly as fascinating as any, and Isaac provides the overview.

After laying the basics out for our listeners we turn to a long-forgotten fragment of stark evidence: a sworn affidavit by Pentagon Paper leaker Daniel Ellsberg, about detailed information leaked to him from the fractious House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978, declaring that the congressional investigators "solved" the case: a team reporting directly to J Edgar Hoover carried out the assassination and the circumstantial evidence  (which was described to Ellsberg) had already been assembled to prove it.

MUSIC/SOUNDS:  Special thanks as always to Komakino for our opening and closing theme: https://www.youtube.com/@komakinojoydivisiontribute4531.

The intro music is "Formlessness" by the artist Survival Spheres, their work can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@SurvivalSpheres. The interlude music is a slowed and reverb heavy mix of the Silent Hill 3 save theme.

The opening is an interview of King in 1968 by Harry Belafonte detailing his plans for the Poor People's Campaign, and saved and preserved by The Nation Magazine. The second is a mix of clips found on youtube of King's speeches from 1968, including fromt he Memphis Sanitation Strike, and interviews with Phil Melanson on the stripping away of security from King on the day of the assassination.

MORE ON OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-38-hit-97064811

We're a bit late in commemorating the death of Class A War Criminal Kissinger, but, we hope you see it was worth the wait.

In this episode, Isaac and Peter lay out the case for Kissinger's direct guilt in the 1970 mob-hit-style murder of Chilean General Rene Schneider.; a man who simply got in the way of Kissinger's plan to overthrow elected Socialist President Salvador Allende.

It is a story of payoff cash stuffed in boots, machine gun handoffs, crash cars, and scumbag ex-detective hit men (an APHoV favorite), with the lying-to-grave Harvard-trained gangster running the whole show. We'll talk about why Kissinger's many defenses to the Schneider murder don't pass muster, and why the power elite love Kissinger more, not less, as his crimes became a matter of documentary record.

Music: Thanks always to Komakino for our opening and closing. The interlude music is "Far Below" by Ephraim Lovelace. The opening audio is a segment from Nixon's oval office tapes of Kissinger, Nixon and Bob Haldeman from June 11, 1971 talking about a recent assassination of a Christian Democrat, but then making reference to (and effectively admitting guilt in) General Schneider's own assassination. The background is "Cuba and Track 2" from the Nixon OST by John Williams.

References and Sources: Anyone interested in this topic should take a look at the National Security Archive (NOT a government website), especially: "The CIA and Chile, Anatomy of an Assassination" found here:

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2020-10-22/cia-chile-anatomy-assassination

...as well as Peter Kornbluh's The Pinochet File. Other details, though not all of them accurate, can be found in the Sy Hersh classic The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House.

Happy Hoffa Holidays Listeners.

Here we have the legal offensive that took down Hoffa, and along the way rats, spies, crooked lawyers, and a cowardly supreme court. Your loyal not-spy co-hosts continue the story of Jimmy Hoffa's trials where red-hunter Walter Sheridan employs the slippery Ellroyan thug Edward Grady Partin to infiltrate Hoffa's camp and come up with extremely convenient stories to corroborate the stings Sheridan himself has set up. But was he guilty? Kinda guilty? Was the government guilty? (Yes.)

We turn also to the Hoffa's failed attempt to fight against the use of 'human wiretaps' at the Supreme Court, and how in the midst of this legal offensive, the IBT and Hoffa were still such a force that the Teamsters secured the National Master Freight Agreement and the capability of a "national trucking strike."

Sounds and Noises: Thanks to Komakino for our opening and closing theme. The sample from the opening is an actual recording of President Richard Nixon in 1971 talking on the phone about the Hoffa cases. The interlude segment is of Hoffa's speech at the 1964 convention of the Transportation Workers of America. The first speaker is communist fellow-traveller President Mike Quill and the second speaker is, of course, James Riddle Hoffa himself.

MORE ON OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/95235234

Welcome back listeners.

Hoffa is on top, and the Wire Men are coming for him.

As the 1950's come to a close, Jimmy Hoffa, Harold Gibbons, and the Teamsters are at the height of their power. They are within an arm's reach of what Hoffa described as labor's "Atom Bomb": an alliance between the Teamsters and the the most militant communist and socialist-led unions in the country, with the aim to control every part of the American transportation system and deliver historic gains for workers.

But not if Robert Kennedy, his counter-espionage trained henchman Walter Sheridan, and an army of attorneys, feds, wire men, and (oddly) state troopers can help it. In this two-parter (it was long), we break down the details of every trumped up charge, and some real ones too, laid against Hoffa to bring him down, but even in the courtroom big H and the Teamsters Union still have a lot of cards to play.

Muzak: Special thanks as always to Komakino for our opening/closing theme. And credit to Obsidian Soundfields for the background ambience of "The Mourning Hall" in the interlude segment. Sound clips borrowed from the 1955 noir film "The Wiretapper" for the interlude.

BONUS EPS AND MORE ON OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-35-hoffa-94337586