Breaking the devil's pact
Subtitle: the battle to free the Teamsters from the mob
By: James B. Jacobs, Kerry T. Cooperman
Contributors: Cooperman, Kerry T.
Publisher: NYU Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 310
ISBN-13: 9780814743089; 9780814743669; 9780814743676
Subjects: LAW / Criminal Law / General; Trials, litigation; Corrupt practices; United States; United States. Dept. of Justice; Mafia trials; Labor unions; Organized crime investigation; Racketeering; International Brotherhood of Teamsters; LAW / General; History
Description: "In 1988, despite powerful Congressional opposition, U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani brought a massive civil racketeering (RICO) suit against the leaders of the behemoth International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and more than two dozen Cosa Nostra (LCN) leaders. Intending to land a fatal blow to the mafia, Giuliani asserted that the union and organized-crime defendants had formed a devil's pact. He charged the IBT leaders with allowing their organized-crime cronies to use the union as a profit center in exchange for the mobsters' political support and a share of the spoils of corruption. On the eve of what would have been one of the most explosive trials in organized-crime and labor history, the Department of Justice and the Teamsters settled.   <strong>Breaking the Devil's Pact</strong> traces the fascinating history of U.S. v. IBT, beginning with Giuliani's controversial lawsuit and continuing with in-depth analysis of the ups and downs of an unprecedented remedial effort involving the Department of Justice, the federal courts, the court-appointed officers (including former FBI and CIA director William Webster and former U.S. attorney general Benjamin Civiletti), and the IBT itself. Now more than 22 years old and spanning over 5 election cycles, U.S. v. IBT is the most important labor case in the last half century, one of the most significant organized crime cases of all time, and one of the most ambitious judicial organizational reform efforts in U.S. history. <strong>Breaking the Devil's Pact</strong> is a penetrating examination of the potential and limits of court-supervised organizational reform in the context of systemic corruption and racketeering"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introducing the litigants and the judge; title: The civil RICO complaint and settlement; title: IBT resistance and Judge Edelstein's resolve: July 1989; title: September 1992; title: Establishing new disciplinary machinery: July 1989; title: An insurgent's triumph: the IBT's 1991 election; title: General President Carey and the IRB: 1992; title: 1997; title: The 1996 election scandal; title: The emergence of James P. Hoffa; title: The 2001 election, the demise of project rise and the IRB's third term; title: The 2006 election, the IRB's fourth term and the lead up to the 2011; title: Election; title: Lessons, reflections and speculations.