Jackie Presser

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Jackie Presser (born August 6, 1926 in Cleveland , Ohio , † July 9, 1988 in Lakewood , Ohio) was President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1983 to 1988 .

biography

Jackie Presser was the son of the notorious “Teamster” Bill Presser , who had been convicted of labor racketeering three times and died two years before his son was appointed President of the Teamsters.

Already Bill Presser maintained close relations with the former union boss Frank Fitzsimmons and Charles Colson , an employee of US President Richard Nixon , who also like this because of Watergate had to give up his office.

Bill surely enjoyed seeing his son Jackie follow in his footsteps with the union, but of course it took more than being the son of a notorious Teamster thug to even become its president. Jackie also acted as an FBI informant on Cosa Nostra activities in Cleveland. In return, the FBI protected him from a few attacks with a bomb placed in his car - a method that was very popular in Mafia circles in Cleveland - by, for example, equipping his car with a special detector .

In October 1975, his presidency as a union leader was probably initiated when he played golf at the LaCosta Country Club with Richard Nixon, Frank Fitzsimmons, Anthony Provenzano and Allen M. Dorfman . In 1983 Roy Williams was convicted of bribery ; Presser succeeded him and was re-elected for another five years in 1986.

"On Wednesday, May 21, 1986, Jackie Presser will be re-elected for five years. "Despite the judicial indictments, Presser is treated like a ruling sultan and not like a potential prisoner at Congress" ( LA Times May 22, 1986) while the guests enjoy caviar and lobster, Presser, at 136 kilograms, becomes like the Pope carried into the hall by four weightlifters, who are costumed as Roman warriors. [...] The bonze is praised by several speakers for increasing the political influence of the union through donations for candidates and for charitable organizations. "

- Dagobert Lindlau

As early as 1984 the FBI had recorded a conversation between him, Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno , John Trolone ("Peanuts") and the "Teamsters" officials William J. McCarthy and Roy Williams. McCarthy said in this conversation that he needed the decision of a Mafia boss before he could move forward in the "Teamsters". And although the New York Times reported on the conversation in 1988, McCarthy became the union's new president in 1989.

As the boss of the Teamsters, Jackie Presser maintained close ties to the White House under Ronald Reagan , who continued to hold a protective hand over him (again with the help of the FBI).

The times of high, disreputable sums under Jimmy Hoffa or Frank Fitzsimmons , where the mafia could practically draw on the pension fund in the Central States Pension Fund , were now over, but even under President Presser, not everything ran within the legal framework.

In 1985, for example, a "ghost worker" at Presser's home office "Local 507" in Cleveland was exposed by the judiciary, where Presser had previously been treasurer. Dave Allen was imprisoned for eleven months for embezzlement or embezzlement, as he was rewarded with $ 165,000 in union money - without having given anything in return - and felt himself to be a pawn of the Teamsters president after his conviction .

Jackie Presser died of cancer in 1988 at the age of 61.

reception

literature

  • James Neff: Mobbed Up: Jackie Presser's High-Wire Life in the Teamsters, the Mafia, and the FBI . Atlantic Monthly Press, New York 1989, ISBN 0-87113-344-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dagobert Lindlau : The Mob. Research on organized crime , dtv , Munich 1989, p. 299f., ISBN 3-455-08659-4
predecessor Office successor
Roy Williams President of the " Teamsters " Union
1983 - 1988 		Weldin Mathis (as interim president ), then
William J. McCarthy
personal data
SURNAME Presser, Jackie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American union leader
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 1988
Place of death Lakewood , Ohio