Edward Partin
American business agent
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edward Grady Partin Sr. (February 27, 1924 – March 11, 1990), was an American business agent for the Teamsters Union, and is best known for his 1964 testimony against Jimmy Hoffa, which helped Robert F. Kennedy convict Hoffa of jury tampering in 1964.[1]
Teamster Union and mob activities
Partin was the business manager of the five local IBT branches in Baton Rouge for 30 years. In 1961, he was charged by the union with embezzlement as union money was stolen from a safe. Two key witnesses in the grand jury died. He was indicted on June 27, 1962, for 26 counts of embezzlement and falsification and released on bail.
On August 14, 1962, Partin was sued for his role in a traffic accident injuring two passengers and killing a third. He was also indicted for first-degree manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident. He also surrendered himself for aggravated kidnapping.
Partin was secretary-treasurer of Local 5 in Baton Rouge.[2]
In June 1969 Partin was indicted by a grand jury on five counts of conspiracy and extortion, with bond set at $25,000.[3] He was eventually convicted on the third try in February 1973 after two mistrials.[4]
He was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice through witness tampering and perjury in March 1979.[5] Partin pled no contest to numerous other corruption charges in the union, including embezzlement, and was released to a halfway house in 1986.[6][1] Partin was paid a Teamsters salary for a period while in prison, until he was formally removed from office in 1981.[1]
Testimony against Hoffa
In 1963, Jimmy Hoffa, the president of the Teamsters, was arrested for attempted jury tampering in attempted bribery of a grand juror of a previous 1962 case in Nashville involving payments from a trucking company. Partin testified that he was offered $20,000 to rig the jury in Hoffa's favor. The testimony was the primary evidence of the Justice Department that led to Hoffa being sentenced to eight years in prison.[7] Hoffa was surprised and reportedly unnerved when Partin took to the stand, "My God, it's Partin" he said.[2] Partin had been recruited by the government as an informant after he was arrested on charges of kidnapping and manslaughter. He struck a deal with the government that he would visit Hoffa during his Nashville trial and report what he said.[8]
Partin denied under oath that he was compensated by the Justice Department, but it was revealed that his ex-wife had her alimony payments given to her by the department. He originally denied that he would receive immunity or retroactive immunity for his testimony but it was later altered when he was under oath at a grand jury trial.[citation needed]
In 1966 New Orleans District Attorney, Jim Garrison, who believed there was a conspiracy involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, began his own investigation into the assassination. On 23 June 1967 Garrison told WJBO that "We know that Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald were here in New Orleans several times....there was a third man driving them and we are checking the possibility it was Partin".[9] There was talk that Garrison intended to subpoena Partin.[10] Partin later told the journalist Dan E. Moldea that as Hoffa was appealing the verdict in his bribery trial, Garrison was investigating him. He stated to Moldea that Hoffa's lawyer, Frank Ragano, called him and informed him that he could get Garrison to back off if he signed an affidavit recanting his testimony. Partin refused. Ultimately, Partin was never subpoenaed nor indicted by Garrison.[11]
Assassination plot
In September 1962 Partin told the authorities that Hoffa had discussed with him an assassination plot against Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. According to Partin, he travelled to Washington to see Hoffa at the Teamsters headquarters and while in his office he asked Partin if he knew anything about plastic explosives. Partin quoted Hoffa as asserting "I've got to do something about that son of a bitch Bobby Kennedy. He's got to go". The plan he said they discussed was to throw a plastic bomb at his car or at his house in Virginia. Partin underwent an FBI-administered polygraph test two days later, which he passed.[12] When the allegation was released to the public in 1964, Hoffa called it "nonsense", stating "I may not like him very much, but I certainly would not plot to kill him."[13]
After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, Partin's allegation received renewed attention. In the days after the assassination, Bobby Kennedy and White House Chief of Staff Kenneth O'Donnell made contact with associates to discuss the possibility of Teamsters or organized crime involvement. Charles Shaffer, an attorney in the Justice Department, was arranged to be appointed to the staff of the Warren Commission so that the possibility of Teamsters involvement could be watched.[14]
In the latter half of the 1970s the House Select Committee on Assassinations was set up to re-investigate Kennedy's assassination. Partin was interviewed by committee staff on 20 July 1978.[15] He told them the same thing as he had said to the FBI in 1962. Partin believed that Hoffa had approached him because of his belief that Partin was close to figures in the New Orleans crime family. The Committee concluded with regard to the Bobby Kennedy plot that it was real, but added that it "did not uncover evidence that the proposed Hoffa assassination plan ever went beyond its discussion".[16] In the end, with regard to the assassination of President Kennedy, the committee "uncovered no direct evidence that Hoffa was involved in a plot" and expressed that it "strongly doubted" that Hoffa was involved in any such plot to kill President Kennedy.[17]
Later life
In March 1990 Partin died aged 66 in a nursing home in Baton Rouge. He suffered from heart disease and diabetes.[1]
Partin is portrayed by actor Brian Dennehy in the 1983 television film Blood Feud,[18] and by Ben Fuhrman in the 1985 miniseries Robert Kennedy and His Times.[19]
See also
- J. Minos Simon, a Partin attorney
- Blood Feud (1983 film)
