The Blood Feud

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Six months after Wendy died, I was on the phone with Craig Vincent, the big actor who had portrayed Big Daddy in the 2019 big box blockbuster, the Scorcese film The Irishman, about Hoffa’s disappearance at the hands of mafia hitman Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheenan, according to his testimony in his 2005 book. Cristi and I had seen it in a theater recently, and I had been waiting to see Craig perform the role and was happy to finally see it after gradually feeling more and more social again. He had never mastered my grandfather’s accent despite talking with us over the phone to research the role, he told me, laughing and saying it great that Scorcese changed the role to an Irish guy named Big Eddie Partin.

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JIP

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My grandfather was famous as the Baton Rouge Teamster leader who helped Bobby Kennedy send Jimmy Hoffa to prison in 1964, and he may have also been involved with the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He was Edward Grady Partin Senior, a rapist, murderer, thief, and adulterer who Hoffa described as “a big, rough man who could charm a snake off a rock.” U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy forgave my grandfather’s transgressions in exchange for him committing perjury against Jimmy Hoffa, and Hoffa was sent to prison based on my grandfather’s testimony. Ed Partin was portrayed by Brian Dennehy in the 1983 film about Kennedy and Hoffa, “Blood Feud,” and by Craig Vincent in Martin Scorsese’s 2019 film about Hoffa’s disappearance, “The Irismhan.” Both actors were huge men who accurately portrayed my grandfather as Hoffa’s confidant, but neither of the films disclosed our family history.

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Prelude

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I was very high and sitting cross legged and looking through the campfire flames at my friends holding their beer bottles. One of their daughters, my goddaughter, was sitting cross legged beside me.

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Rumors

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She stirred the eggs a cast iron skillet slowly, being careful not splash the thin layer of hot olive oil. She was standing on a small four legged stool to reach the stove, and knew where to find a fire extinguisher. I was standing behind her, just in case.

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Introduction

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I’ve had a remarkable life. I’m not famous, nor have I overcome obstacles forced upon many people based on where they were born or their race or gender. I was born a hale white male in America, and I have multiple college engineering degrees, easy access to healthcare, a respectable individual retirement account, diverse and upbeat friends, a loving family, a beautiful home with several raised bed gardens and a refrigerator full of food, and no worries that I don’t impose upon myself. I’m aware that almost half of the 7.7 billion people on Earth will go to bed hungry tonight, and I’m in the top 0.001% of what most people consider privileged. That’s so rare it’s remarkable.

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Wendy’s Angel

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I was strolling near my home in San Diego when I answered my phone and learned that my mother was dying in a hospital 3,000 miles away. I hung up and purchased the next plane ticket to Baton Rouge.

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A Partin History

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My grandfather, Edward Grady Partin, was a big man with a small part in history.

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Wendy’s Angel

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I was strolling near my home in San Diego when I answered my phone and learned that my mother was dying in a hospital 3,000 miles away. I hung up and purchased the next airplane ticket to Baton Rouge. Two days later, my plane began its decent and I stared out the window, worried and fatigued and lost in thoughts.

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JIP

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A 1976 court record easily found online summarizes the first few years of my life concisely and accurately. The plaintiff was my biologic father, Edward Grady Partin Jr., and the defendant was my biologic mother, Wendy Anne Rothdram Partin. I was and still am Jason Ian Partin. Judge JJ Lottingger, the family court judge for the Louisiana 19th judicial district in East Baton Rouge Parish, had this to say about my family history in Partin vs Partin:

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Rocky shot up a small town during the war on drugs

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I don’t know if my dad, Ed Partin Junior, saw his father portrayed by Brian Dennehey in “Blood Feud,” the 1983 film about Jimmy Hoffa and Bobby Kennedy, but if he did he never mentioned it to me.

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