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Paying a man his price—and Hoffa was sure that every man has one—finally led to his downfall. He was given his eight-year sentence in 1964 for tampering with a jury hearing charges that Hoffa had accepted more than $1,000,000 in illegal payments from a Detroit trucking firm—a Taft-Hartley violation that carried a maximum one-year sentence. Later in the same year, a federal jury convicted Hoffa of fraudulently diverting at least $1,000,000 in union funds and gave him the five-year sentence that is still under appeal.
Peanut-Butter Sandwich. Though his term as Teamsters' president runs until 1971, prison authorities have stated flatly that Hoffa will not be permitted to operate the union from the Lewisburg penitentiary—where he made the uncharacteristically delicate gesture of using his raincoat to hide the handcuffs on his wrists. Like any other prisoner, he will be allowed only seven letters a week—all of which will be read by the warden and returned if they contain business matters—and three hours monthly for visits by his family or attorneys working on his appeal.
While he is in prison, Hoffa's $100,000 salary will be reduced to a $48,000 living allowance for his wife, and the union will be headed by his Detroit crony, Frank E. Fitzsimmons, under the title of general vice president. Chubby and smiling, Fitzsimmons will have his hands full trying to keep the Teamsters' regional rivalry from re-emerging. "He's just a peanut-butter sandwich," said one union official. "He'll melt in no time."
Fitzsimmons' first test will come later this month when he heads negotiations with 12,000 trucking firms employing 450,000 workers. The current contract expires March 31, and the Teamsters want a package increase of 5% to 7%, a proposal that may run into stiff opposition from the industry.