In this 3rd and final episode, Gary and Cam take the Teamsters and the Mob to its conclusion through the transfer of power after Hoffa to the last mob influenced president, Kansas City Teamster boss Roy Lee Williams

The Big Skim with Roy Lee Williams and Frank Ranney

Dorfman and Presser’s legacy is a loan made to a young real estate developer named Allen Glick in 1974. Glick had known Bill Presser for some time when he was introduced to Milwaukee boss Frank Balistrieri as someone who could help him with a Teamster loan. Balestrieri went to his Teamster affiliate Frank Ranney who reached out to Roy Lee Williams. Williams got direction from Nick Civella, who reached out to Maishe Rockman and the Cleveland mob and Bill Presser for the pension fund loan to buy four casinos for $64,000,000.

The loans were signed, the casinos purchased, and the Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Kansas City mobs began to receive skim money from the Fremont, the Hacienda, the Stardust, and the Marina casinos. The casinos were insured by Allen Dorfman’s insurance agency.

Angelo Lonardo testified that shortly after the skim began, the three families began fighting amongst themselves regarding profit share. They went to Joey Aiuppa and Tony Accardo (Jackie Cerone was in prison) to mediate the dispute, and in return, they received a 25% share of the skim, cutting the total take into four equal pieces going to each family.

New York families were not receiving any benefit from these loans—they lost a great deal of control of the National Teamsters when Tony “Pro” Provenzano went to prison from 1966-1970. Nationally, all mob families held tight control of their area and regional Teamsters locals and Joint Councils (the Provenzanos kept running Local 560), but without a presence on the Pension Board, the Chicago Outfit had de facto control of the union.

Hoffa Makes Trouble

Hoffa had been fighting furiously to undo the Justice Department ruling blocking him from accessing the union. Jimmy still had tremendous power in the Teamsters, and was able to make things happen from the outside—he could even delay Pension loans. He had crisscrossed the country meeting with mob figures looking for help with politicians who could get him re-instated. As incentive, Jimmy offered to stop Hoffa loyalists from gumming up the works…they all turned him down.

The mob knew Jimmy didn’t like sharing power, and they never could have gained so much control if Hoffa had been running the union. Hoffa began speaking to the press about taking back his union. He went on talk shows and gave interviews. He showed up at Teamsters headquarters badmouthing Fitz. As time went by and Hoffa watched other people change the union, he got desperate.

Jimmy began challenging mob bosses. Through his lawyer Frank Ragano, he reached out to Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante demanding their support. Normally, other families would have to go through Detroit to speak to Hoffa, but Jimmy did his own thing—he was his own boss, but he was also not protected.

Part of Jimmy’s problem was his on-going war with Anthony Provenzano. Hoffa felt he might have a chance to return to labor if he was able to win the Teamster Presidency outright, member or not, but he needed Provenzano’s support as a Vice President to do it.  Hoffa and Provenzano were unable to make peace at several meetings, and Hoffa became more and more desperate.

Hoffa began threatening to have his loyalists call in all of the Pension loans made to mob front men. This would likely send control of the pensions into receivership and outside mediation. The mob didn’t want any extra eyes on their business.

In addition, Hoffa’s public war against Fitz was getting out of hand. He was constantly drawing attention to Fitz playing golf with the President and creating bad will. Hoffa had been meeting with Charles Allen, a thug who worked under Frank Sheeran, to discuss murdering several members of the Teamsters Board of Trustees.