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Federal officials theorize that the Mafia grew nervous as Hoffa, released from jail in 1971, tried to regain the Teamster leadership from Fitzsimmons, who by then did not want to give up the job. Not that Hoffa had been above working with the Mafia when he was in power, but he was no man to push around. "The Mafia clans had smooth sailing with Fitzsimmons," explains one Justice Department official. "They didn't want Hoffa rocking the boat."
First Steps. About six months ago, federal officials have learned, the Mob took the first steps to protect its Teamster operations from Hoffa. The alleged organizers of the scheme were Giacalone, 56, reportedly the Mafia's overseer of rackets in Detroit, and Anthony ("Tony Pro") Provenzano, 58, the unofficial boss of the Teamsters in New Jersey and a man of national influence in the union. Both men have known Hoffa for years, Giacalone as a friend and Provenzano as a rival.
Provenzano, federal sources say, has long been closely associated with the Mafia. The son of Sicilian immigrants, he was born on New York's Lower East Side. At 15 he was a trucker's helper and at 18 he was driving. Tough and shrewd, he rose rapidly to become president of the New Jersey Teamsters Joint Council 73, a job that gave him control of the organization's affairs in the state. One of his more harmless interests was to keep racing pigeons in a coop on the roof of Local 560 in Hoboken. During his reign as council president, the state union was racked by violence, and two of Provenzano's enemies disappeared just as abruptly as Hoffa: John Serratelli, a Teamster business manager who got into a business squabble with Tony Pro, and Mike Ardis, a Teamster organizer who challenged Provenzano's authority. Serratelli disappeared in 1959 and Ardis in 1971; neither has ever been found.
In the mid-'60s, International Vice President Provenzano was high in the power structure of the Teamsters. Provenzano made much of his supposed friendship with Hoffa. At a testimonial banquet for the Teamster chief in 1965, Tony Pro rose to declare: "May he and his family live as long as they want, and never want as long as they live."
Big Egos. Inevitably, despite those protestations of affection, Provenzano clashed with Hoffa. "Each of them had an ego as big as a six-axle truck," says one federal agent. "For a time, they tolerated each other. But when Hoffa began to slip from power during the long trials that led up to his jailing, Tony Pro reviled him."
In 1966 Provenzano was sent to the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa., for extorting $17,100 from a trucking firm in Rensselaer, N.Y. While in prison and since, Provenzano continued ruling the New Jersey council through his brother Salvatore ("Sammy") Provenzano, who took over his post as president. In 1967 Tony Pro was joined in Lewisburg by Hoffa, and their feud worsened. Provenzano was angry because Hoffa refused to reinstate his Teamsters pension, which he had lost by being jailed. (Hoffa, however, managed to get himself a $1.7 million pension settlement from the union.)