from a U.S. correspondent
Hoffa, leader of the giant Teamsters' Union, has been the target pera, narceamnartt ever since he er wma po deere Pele
d the Kennedy family s legen ° i trots Ge saint, and his methods of keeping control of mee ey 5% dubious - too say the least! - but of two things one can be cer ae ee that he has incurred the wrath of the U.S. ruling class because ve —_ success in winning victories for his members; and (2) that the b ° we membership of the union ~ by the far the fastest growing union in the U.S. - regard him as a very effective fighter on their behalf, After several attempts it appeared last year that the administration had been successful in getting him behind bars for a considerable period, The following union conference took measures to enable Hoffa to lead the union from prison. But now a development has taken place which may mean that Hoffa has a chance to avoid imprisonment, The Wall Street Journal of January 26th reported: ",.eBy stroke of fortune, or perhaps by a proffered reward, a man said to be an FBI 'special employee' wise in the ways of wiretapping has dropped into the Teamster Union laps....The purported ‘special employee', meaning a paid Federal Bureau of Investigation informant, goes by the name of Bud Nichols...He claims that the Justice Department paid him $1,684 to eavesdrop, not only on Mr, Hoffa and his lawyers, but also on the Chattanooga federal jury that found Mr, Hoffa guilty in 1964 of tampering with jurors in an earlier case, "Any day now, Teamster attorneys intend to file papers petitioning the Supreme Court to hear what they will contend is new evidence bearing on Mr. Hoffa's conviction, -The papers will include an affidavit in which Mr, Nichols swears that Walter Sheridan, former head of the Justice Department's special 'Hoffa squad', instructed him to slip tiny transmitters under the mattresses of the Chattanooga jurors when they were sequestered.,..Moreover, - Nichols is preparing to swear that he placed four microphone ‘bugs! and tapped six telephone lines leading to rooms in the Patten Hotel, which were occupied during the trial by Mr, Hoffa and his lawyers..." Mr, Walter Sheridan, now a chief of the giant National Broadcasting Company, has denied this of course, However, as the paper continues: ",,some Justice Department officials seem concerned that Mr. Nichols'story may sound sufficiently impressive to win Mr, Hoffa a reprieve,..." One doesn't have to support Hoffa as a union leader to wish him luck!