-Caveat Lector- Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.moldea.com/Three-10.html";>Three-10</A> ----- The New York Times weighs in Copyright © 2000 by Dan E. Moldea After Mary Heathcote finished her massive editing job on my 900-plus-page manuscript, a prominent New York libel attorney, David Lubell, and one of his associates vetted The Hoffa Wars, driving me crazy for two full days as they made me jump for every piece of documentation. But, after Lubell's legal review, he wrote to Paddington Press, saying: "We must note that rarely have we encountered an investigative reporter, or any non-fiction writer, who had as great a command of his source material, both primary and secondary, as did Mr. Moldea." On June 22, I received a telephone call from Herbert Mitgang, the literary editor at the New York Times, who wanted to discuss the publishing controversy between Brill and me, concentrating on Simon & Schuster's actions against New Republic Book Company, which forced me to break my original book contract and to sign up with Paddington. I agreed to cooperate with Mitgang and told him what I knew. One week later, on Thursday, June 29, Mitgang's article appeared in the Times. And it was just fabulous, saying: Two forthcoming books on the same controversial subjects--James R. Hoffa and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' covert role in American political and criminal life--have pitted their authors and publishers in a behind-the-scenes contest, with possible broad implications for publishing independence or suppression. . . . At issue is not censorship, but a growing trend to contractual arrangements in which smaller publishers use larger ones to sell their books. The Hoffa books, according to the publishing community, point up the difficulties involved for independent houses in today's marketplace. The first book is The Hoffa Wars: Teamsters, Rebels, Politicians and the Mob by Dan E. Moldea, to be published by Paddington, a small but vigorous independent house with offices in New York and London. . . . The second is The Teamsters by Steven Brill, to be published by Simon & Schuster, which is owned by the Gulf and Western Industries conglomerate. The story included praise for The Hoffa Wars by Marty Peretz, the publisher of The New Republic, who had lost the book during the earlier dispute. Peretz told Mitgang: "I very much regret it because it's a powerful book." Mitgang was extremely critical of Richard Snyder, the president of Simon & Schuster, who told the Times reporter: "I was surprised when I heard that New Republic was selling its book to Paddington. We requested them to postpone it, not to sell it." Also, after discussing my interview with Hoffa's alleged killers and reporting details from the tape of the November 1976 threat to my life, Mitgang quoted Brill about his alleged taped conversation with Frank Sheeran, writing: Mr. Brill also says he has been threatened--by an official of the Federal Bureau of Investigation--for supposedly not sharing a taped "confession" about the Hoffa murder. "Please stress that I have no such tape--it's just not true," Mr. Brill said. That was totally contrary to what Brill had told me during our breakfast meeting at the Capitol Hilton. Mitgang concluded in his Times article: Publishing lawyers . . . said that the attempted delay of the Moldea book was one of the first examples of [a] possible loss of independence--with implicit censorship--where there is a conflict on a controversial nonfiction book. That same day, inspired by the article in the New York Times, Playboy magazine purchased the first-serial rights to The Hoffa Wars for nearly twice as much as my original advance. Also, the Book-of-the-Month Club, which had both my book and Brill's to choose from, purchased The Hoffa Wars. Soon after, The Observer of London bought the worldwide syndication rights for another huge chunk of change, and, to everyone's delight, the New York Times Syndication Service bought the U. S. rights. At the same time, Paddington announced a $50,000 advertising budget for the book and a 50,000-copy first printing. Cris and I went out to celebrate that night--after she finished scraping me off the ceiling. I had just experienced the greatest day of my life--the day the New York Times recognized and, thus, legitimized me as a new American author. Inspired by the market power of the New York Times, publications all over the country suddenly began writing about the pending release of The Hoffa Wars--written by a completely unknown journalist and published by a little company no one had ever heard of before. Riding the wave, I went to New York on Monday, July 24 to work on the excerpt for Playboy. The story concentrated on the violence in Local 299 and the politics behind the Hoffa murder, as well as the possible Marcello-Trafficante-Hoffa scenario in the murder of President Kennedy. During an early morning breakfast with Barry Golson, Playboy's executive editor, on Saturday, July 29, I felt exhausted after the week's work. It was 2:30 A.M., and we had just put the story to bed. Golson--who had edited the article along with his assistant, Tom Passavant--offhandedly remarked, "It's too bad that we don't have anyone saying that Hoffa personally knew Jack Ruby." "Yeah," I replied. "The only thing I ever heard was . . . " and I told Golson about my meeting with Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. the previous December--during which he said he believed his father knew Ruby. Astonished, Golson exclaimed, "Why isn't that in the story?" "Barry, it's my word against both Hoffa and Murray Chodak." "Did he say it?" "Yeah, of course, he said it." "Did you write it down? " "Yes, as I left Hoffa's office." Golson paid the check and said we were going back to the office to add Hoffa's quote to the story. He assured me, "Our attorneys will back you up if Hoffa comes after us." Emboldened by Golson's confidence, I added the Hoffa quote as a last-minute endnote to my book. I had also told Golson--and gave him a written statement--about the circumstances around my acceptance of the money from the Hoffa Reward Fund, administered by Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. Golson suggested that I defuse any potential criticism by writing a brief preface to my article about receiving the reward money, which I did. * * * On Tuesday, August 15, I played golf in Washington with Rafe Sagalyn of New Republic Books. He told me that--during a meeting he attended in New York at Simon & Schuster--Dick Snyder had exploded over Mitgang's article in the New York Times. Sagalyn warned me that the S & S chief would "pull out all the stops" in his promotion of Brill's book. Soon after, the Village Voice published what appeared to be an S & S flack's story, saying: "There's little doubt that The Teamsters will be the next 'big' book. Brill is scheduled for, not one, but three consecutive interviews on the Today Show, beginning September 11." While promoting Brill's work, Snyder clearly wanted to bury Paddington, my book, and me. And, frankly, Paddington and I were up for this fight. ===== Yes, we have no Central Sanitation Copyright © 2000 by Dan E. Moldea On Wednesday, August 23, Cris and I drove to a huge printing plant in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where The Hoffa Wars had just been completed. Paddington's sales manager had asked me to sign 800 copies, purchased by Hudson's, a Michigan-based department store chain, in the wake of Mitgang's article in the New York Times . When we arrived, a plant executive gave us a tour of his impressive facility, showing us hundreds of newly-bound books. Then they placed us in a small room. Cris had walked out momentarily to get something out of the car when another executive of the company came in and handed me the first copy of the book. Knowing that this was a big moment for me, he smiled and left the room, shutting the door behind him--as if I was going to do something weird with it. I did stare at it, though, cupping it in both hands and treating it as an icon. Then, I gently ran my fingers along the smooth and shiny dust cover as I looked at it front and back. I opened the book and slowly removed its jacket, feeling its hard cover and the raised print on its spine. And then I did what every nonfiction author does when he or she first sees his or her finished book: I went to the index. Other than the text itself, there is nothing more important than a good index. And, "This," I said out loud to myself, "is a great index!" By the time Cris returned, she found me sitting alone in the room, just reading my own book. * * * In early September, both books, The Hoffa Wars and The Teamsters, were released. The following day, I bought a copy of Brill's book when I saw it on display next to mine in a bookstore. Although I had real problems with the manner in which he had depicted Hoffa as a working-class hero and Robert Kennedy as a malicious wiretapper who had violated Hoffa's civil rights, Brill organized his book masterfully and written it well. Still, because of the participation of his consultants, especially Drinkhall, much of the research in the book remained suspect. As predicted, Brill's material about the Hoffa murder contained no surprises, and I was absolutely joyful when I saw that he had featured the Central Sanitation theory about the disposal of Hoffa's body. Although his most interesting chapter was a profile of Ron Carey, the maverick president of Teamsters Local 804 in New York, my biggest complaint about his book was his portrayal of the corrupt Ohio Teamsters boss Jackie Presser as a quasi reformer. Meantime, he gave a backhanded treatment to the contemporary rank-and-file reform movements, like the Teamsters for a Democratic Union and PROD. Bill Wallace of the Berkeley Barb later wrote, "Moldea gives a much fairer view of the Teamster rebel movement," while Convoy, the voice of TDU, which actively promoted my book, said in its review by Mike Friedman, "Moldea explains the rank and file tradition for today's reform movements. He understands that tradition, because he's no outsider to it." But public interest in the rank-and-file reform movement paled by comparison with their fascination with Hoffa's disappearance. Right off the bat, it was Brill who took the early advantage, and, to my chagrin, my former employers, NBC News and the Detroit Free Press, gave it to him. On Saturday night, September 9, correspondent Brian Ross of NBC's Nightly News led the program with an exclusive report about Brill's book, claiming that, according to Brill, the FBI believed that Hoffa's body was disposed of at Central Sanitation in Detroit. Ross added that the FBI had no comment. As Ross's accurate report about Brill's erroneous theory went off the wire services that night, Ralph Orr at the Detroit Free Press published a huge banner-headline story, "Hoffa slain by 2 N.J. men, author says," on Sunday, September 10. In his article, Orr wrote: Brill pinpoints Central Sanitation at 8215 Moran in Hamtramck as the place when Hoffa's body was taken. . . . "Hoffa's body was destroyed at the premises . . . by means of a shredder, compactor and/or incinerator located on the premises." Once again, the FBI had no comment on Brill theory. I knew that Brill's Central Sanitation theory was wrong--based on what the FBI had told me--and was furious that the FBI hadn't said so to either Brian Ross or Ralph Orr. I immediately called one of my FBI sources, saying, "What's wrong with you guys? You've been telling me for years that the Central Sanitation theory is wrong! And now you're saying, 'no comment?' Is this what you believe or not? If not, you have a responsibility to correct what's being said!" The FBI agent replied, "I told you, we don't believe it." "Then, damn it, say so! Please issue a statement!" Within hours, the FBI issued a joint statement from its Washington headquarters and Detroit field office, saying: The theory that Mr. Hoffa's remains were disposed of at a private suburban sanitation facility [Central Sanitation] was explored at the outset of the case. It was subsequently determined that the source of the information was not reliable. No search warrant was ever requested, issued or executed by the FBI, concerning the sanitation company. Nevertheless, despite the FBI's denial, Brian Ross returned to NBC's Nightly News and stood by his report. And, even though the Free Press had trumpeted Brill's allegations on Sunday front page, the newspaper played the FBI's denial of Ralph Orr's story in a short piece on page three the following day, September 11. In its no-byline story, the Free Press reported: The FBI Sunday said author Steven Brill's claim that the bureau searched a Hamtramck incinerating company [Central Sanitation] for James R. Hoffa's body was wrong and that his theory on how Hoffa disappeared and was killed is not the agency's "subscribed solution to the case." The FBI added that the source for Brill's scenario was deemed "not reliable." The following day, Tuesday, September 12, Helen Fogel, another reporter at the Free Press wrote a second, front-page story, "TV story on Hoffa called lie," in the wake of the FBI's denials. The newspaper quoted a very embarrassed Brill: I was told by the highest possible sources in the Hoffa investigation that the theory advanced in the book was the investigators' leading explanation of Hoffa's disappearance. . . . If they are now denying it, well, I can't speak for the FBI. Any other book by any other author would have been destroyed by this news--yet, Brill continued to survive. And I felt the power of Dick Snyder and Simon & Schuster hovering over this entire fiasco. In fact, Rafe Sagalyn at New Republic, who attended meetings with Simon & Schuster executives, including Snyder, wrote me letter on September 12, saying: Remember one thing: whatever perfidious efforts are/will be made against you--and S & S machinations notwithstanding--The Hoffa Wars will be read. The word about The Teamsters will get out. Your accomplishments have been significant, against formidable odds. Still, I had some explaining to do to my own people. Why did NBC and the Free Press, two places where I had worked, take the lead on Brill's book and ignore mine? In short, both NBC and the Free Press believed that I was flying off walls with my suggestion that Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante, and Jimmy Hoffa had arranged and executed the murder of President Kennedy. Even Brill chimed into this matter, describing my Marcello-Trafficante-Hoffa theory as "total garbage," and adding, "I would be embarrassed to put that in the book." However, the U. S. House Select Committee on Assassations, which would come to the same conclusion I did a year after the publication of my book, disagreed. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER =========CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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