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Unions, Crime LinkedWASHINGTON (UPI) — Fed-, era I rackets investigator Hen-j ry Petersen claims the Cosa’ Nostra crime syndicate is allied with the leadership of the Teamsters Union and the I n t emational Longshoremens Association.The charge is slanderous,” the Teamsters General Vice President, Frank E. Fitzsimmons, said, demanding that Petersen recant or produce proof of the allegation in court.Fitzsimmons is running the Teamsters, whose president, James R, Hoffa, is in Lewis-burg, Pa., federal penitentiary on an eight year sentence for jury tampering.I LA President Thomas T. (Teddy) Gleason, whose union was orice troubled with racketeers., said if I read between the lines, he’s talking about something that happened many years ago . . . we’re in good shape now.”Gleason, reached at an TLA convention in Buffalo, N.Y.,5-Year Term Is SuspendedA 23-year-old Mala m o r a s, Mexico mail was assessed a five-year suspended sentence after admitting he attempted toft*1 a -1 f/IVA A.I ___I _ 1 - . . 1 m■; Charges Deniedsaid Petersen was making “wild accusations.”HE*S IRISH“Pm an Irishman,” Gleason said. They wouldn't let me in the Cosa Nostra—if there is one/'Petersen, who heads the Justice Department’s organized crime section, declined to elaborate on what he told a National Crime Conference pan-e. Wednesday,“I know to a moral certainty that in the upper echelons there is an amalgamation betweeh the International Longshoremen, Teamsters and Cosa Nostra.” Petersen said the Senate rackets committee of the late 1950s and a New York-New Jersey waterfront watchdog commission had established that organized crime has made inroads into the ILA,He said also that such inquires had shown “serious infiltration” of both unions by Cosa Nostra figures but* when pressed for details, said the sources of his information were “confidential.”Fitzsimmons said in a telegram to Peiersen and A tty. Geti. Ramsey Clark that such slanderous statements shouldcertainly be based upon reliable evidence and not on a ‘moral crtainity.1 11“If you have any evidence which supports your charges, it should be presented in court, If not, we urge that you address the same or an appropriate forum and deny the remarks in fairness to more than 1.8 million Teamsters and fheir families across this nation and Canada.”ILA KICKED OUTThe ILA was kicked out of the old AtnericaVi Federation of Labor (AFL) by President George Meany in 1953 for what Mcany termed racketeering, crime, corruption and other practices.”It was allowed to reaffiliate witb the AFL, however, in August, 1959 after a series of internal shakeups in the union, whose stronghold reaches along the Hudson River docks of New York'and New Jersey.Petersen said five weeks ago that part of a government drive against 16 of the 24 families that reputedly control the Cosa Nostra was under way in the northern New Jersey -New York area.Six of the 24 families are in this area, one in New Jersey and five in New York City. Teams of federal investigators were known to be operating in these locations.
Newspaper Details
San Antonio Light
San Antonio, Texas, US
Thu, Mar 30, 1967
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Madison H.
NA, 25 May 2023
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