Evening star., 1961-08-27
Conviction Record
OF Hoffo Aides
BY MIRIAM GUTENBERG
star STAFF Writer

Star Staff Writer
While TeamSter Boss James
Hoffa leads charmed life in the
courts, his friends and associates
are winding up in Jail.
Latest Hoffa associate to be
convicted is Benjamin Dranow.
former Minneapolis department
store owner who drew seven
year sentence and a $4,000 fine
last week on 18 counts of mail and
bankruptcy fraud.
Dranow has been in and out of
a series of financial deals with
Hoffa ranging from Florida real
estate to jackets for the Team
Sters.
He was one of many whose deal
ingS with Hoffa were spotlighted
by the Senate Rackets Committee
when Attorney General Robert
Kennedy was its counsel.
Dranow, according to commit
tee testimony, received two large
loans from the Teamsters for his
department store. The committee
reported that a 5000, 900 loan was
made to the store by the Team
sterS while it was being struck by
a fellow union, the retail clerks.
The committee also reported that
the TeamSters lent the store a
million dollars later despite its
shaky financial condition. The
stores subsequent bankruptcy and
Dranow's removal Of $4,000 fig
ured in the Dranow indictment.
The List Is Long
Here is box score of some Of
Hoffa's unlucky associates:
Robert (Barney) Baker, $50
pound ex-convict and strong-arm
man who became an organizer
for the Central Conference Of
TeamsterS, was convicted in April,
1860, of labor law violations for
taking money from a trucking
firm to settle a strike. Baker
claimed that Hoffa had sent him
to settle the strike. Hoffa denied
it and Baker was sentenced to
spend two years in prison and pay
a $1,000 fine.
Benjamin Frank Collins, Secre-
tary-treasurer of Hoffa'S home
local in Detroit, was convicted OF
perjury in 1859 and sentenced to
three years. The perjury convic-
ton grew out of Collins denial
before a grand jury that he had
changed the minutes Of meetings
Of Hoffa'S local. The grand jury
at the time was looking into wire
tapping and racketeering by
Hoffa. Hoffa went on trial on the
wiretapping charge and was ac-
quilted.
Stoy Decker, top Teamster Of
ficial in Kentucky, was convicted
of extortion in April, 1861, and
sentenced to serve nine years and
pay a $4,000 fine. Decker had
been convicted in 1860 on a Fed
eral firearms violation and drew
a. five-year sentence on that one
so he faces IA years in prison.
William Presser, chairman Of
the Ohio Conference of Team
sters, was convicted of contempt
of Congress in February, 1860, and
convicted again in June, 1860, on
a charge of obstructing justice for
destroying document under Con-
gressional Committee subpoena.
The document showed Teamsters
gifts to Ohio officials. PreSser was
sentenced to two months on the
earlier conviction and eight
months on the later one.
Income Tox Conviction
Harold Gross, former president
of Miami Beach Teamsters local,
was convicted of income tax
evasion in June, 1860, for falling
to pay taxes on payments he
allegedly received for shaking
down the printing company sup
plying supplements to New York
newspapers. Gross drew a three
year sentence on the tax convic-
ton and is still under indictment
on the extortion charge. While he
was running the 33-member
Florida local, Hoffa's interna-
tional union was subSidizing him
at the rate of $4,000 a month.
Harold Thirion, general organ
izer for the Teamsters. was con-
victed last March for income tax
evasion in a case arising from
payoffs to union officials by IL
linois road contractors. He was
put on probation for five years
and fined $4,000.
Meyer (Mike) Singer, business
agent of a Los Angeles Teamsters
local and Hoffas personal repre-
sentative on an excursion to Ho-
nolulu, was convicted in 1860 of
conspiring to create a monopoly
in the grease industry. He was
given a six months suspended
sentence, put on probation for
three years and fined $1,000.
w. A. Smith, also known as