Preface to Killing President Kennedy: A Memoir
But then came the killing shot that was to nail me to the cross.
Edward Grady Partin.
And Life magazine once again was Robert Kenedy’s tool. He figured that, at long last, he was going to dust my ass and he wanted to set the public up to see what a great man he was in getting Hoffa.
Life quoted Walter Sheridan, head of the Get-Hoffa Squad, that Partin was virtually the all-American boy even though he had been in jail “because of a minor domestic problem.”
– Jimmy Hoffa in “Hoffa: The Real Story,” 19751
As of 31 December 2024, this is mostly true.
My grandfather was Edward Grady Partin Senior, the Baton Rouge Teamster leader famous for testifying against International Brotherhood of Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa and sending him to prison.2 He was portrayed by the big and handsome Brian Denehy in 1983’s “Blood Feud,” and by the burly Craig Vincent in 2019’s “The Irishman.” We called him Big Daddy, and this is his story.
In 1926, Big Daddy was born in Woodville, Mississippi, to Grady and Bessie Partin. Great-grandpa Grady ran out on them during the Great Depression, and my eventual-grandfather began looking after Grandma Foster (Bessie later remarried) and his two little brothers, men I’d know to be as big as Big Daddy, Doug and Joe. In 1943, a 17 year old Ed Partin and a 12 year old Doug stole all of the guns in Woodville and sold them to crime bosses in New Orleans, two hours downriver from Woodville. They were arrested soon after.
Doug was set free because he was a minor, but the judge gave Ed a choice: join the marines or go to jail. He joined, punched his commanding officer, and became a dishonorably discharged marine but a free man within two weeks. With all young men away in World Warr II, Ed easily took over the Woodville sawmill union. Soon he ran the teamsters who drove horse wagons to and from the sawmill, and when trucks and gas were in supply again, he ran the trucker’s union, too. Big Daddy was ruthless and effective. In the 1950’s, he and his young wife, my Mamma Jean, moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Big Daddy began to run Teamsters Local #5 under Jimmy Hoffa, a relatively diminutive man, physically, because he surrounded himself by big, rugged, ostensibly loyal men.
By the early 1960’s, after President Kennedy’s embargo had all-but strangled trade with Cuba, Big Daddy was meeting with Fidel Castro and shipping arms and boats from New Orleans to Cuba; allegedly, he also trained Castro’s generals and a handful of what would have been their special ops soldiers before Kennedy’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had a few FBI agents monitor Big Daddy, and Hoover’s records show that in 1962 Big Daddy and Jimmy Hoffa plotted to kill the president’s little brother, Harvard graduate and U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, by either tossing plastic explosives Big Daddy could get from either Castro or New Orleans mafia boss Carlos Marcello into Bobby’s family home, killing him and potentially his wife and children; alternatively, because Big Daddy was adverse to killing kids, Hoffa said they could recruit a sniper with a high powered rifle outfitted with a scope to shoot Bobby as he rode through a southern town in one of the convertibles “that spoiled brat Booby” likes to ride around in and show off (Hoffa had been calling Bobby “Booby” and “spoiled brat” in public for many years). If they used a gunman, Hoffa said, they’d have to ensure he couldn’t be traced to the Teamsters.
A few months later, after a disputed child custody ruling, Big Daddy helped 23 year old Baton Rouge Teamster Billy Simpson kidnap his two young children (though he was averse to killing kids, my grandfather seemed okay with kidnapping them). He was arrested and put in a Baton Rogue jail; coincidentally, he was also charged with manslaughter in Mississippi that same day, saving Mississippi police from searching for him. Other charges began to roll in, and Big Daddy was facing life in prison. He made a phone call, and 48 hours later Bobby Kennedy sprung him from jail and offered immunity in exchange for infiltrating Hoffa’s inner circle and finding “something” or “anything” to remove Hoffa from power, something Bobby and Hoover and 500 agents on Hoover’s Get Hoffa task force had been trying to do for almost ten years. Journalists called their Blood Feud the longest, most expensive, and fruitless pursuit of one man in any government’s history, and Bobby had a black eye in the face of his big brother; he would do anything to get Hoffa, including granting immunity to a person like my grandfather, and bending the Bill of Rights to his will.
On 22 November 1963, a few months after Big Daddy was sprung from jail, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed by at least one gunman as he rode through downtown Dallas in his open convertible. Less than an hour later, New Orleans native and Castro sympathizer Lee Harvey Oswald, a former marine who trained in the Baton Rouge civil air force under the alias Harvey Lee, was arrested for shooting and killing Dallas police officer, WWII army veteran and bronze star recipient J.D. Tippit, with a .38 revolver outside of a downtown movie theater. Oswald was arrested, and police immediately found his 6.5mm Italian army surplus carbine, outfitted with a hunting rifle scope by a Dallas gunsmith a few months before, perched beside the 6th floor window of a book repository overlooking where Kennedy was shot. Oswald was charged with killing President Kennedy; his words, spoken before being read his Miranda Rights, were: “I am only a patsy!” Hoffa, upon hearing the news, told his entourage, “Bobby’s just another lawyer now,” and ordered all Teamster halls to keep American flags at full mast.
Two days later, Oswald was being escorted out of a Dallas police station in handcuffs and on international live television when Jack Ruby, Dallas nightclub owner, air force veteran, low-level mafia runner, and associate of Hoffa and my grandfather, walked past a few dozen police offers and shot Oswald in the stomach with a Colt .38 “detective’s special” handgun that he carried in his pocket and fired using his middle finger; an old mafia method for accurate close-up kills. A few hours later, Oswald was pronounced dead, coincidentally in the same hospital that had pronounced President Kennedy dead two days before.
Ten months later, in Jimmy Hoffa’s 1964 jury tampering trial monitored by Bobby and a massive team of federal marshals, my grandfather stood up as the surprise witness, and the otherwise stoic and calculating face of Hoffa went blank, and he exclaimed “Oh God! It’s Partin” in front of the jury, probably sealing his fate before Big Daddy gave his testimony that Hoffa had suggested he bribe a juror in the 1962 Test Fleet case. The jurors deliberated less than four hours, believed my grandfather’s word over Hoffa’s, and found Jimmy Hoffa guilty of jury tampering, a felony. The judge sentenced Hoffa to eight years in prison based solely on Big Daddy’s word.3
Immediately after Hoffa’s trial, Hoover announced that he’d assign extra federal marshals to protect the Partin family from inevitable retribution for his testimony. Hoffa began an extensive appeal process, and to protect the image of their only witness, Bobby and Hoover plastered Big Daddy and the Partin family – by then Mamma Jean had five children, my dad, Edward Grady Partin Junior, Janice, Keith, Cynthia, and Theresa – across national media, and dubbed Edward Partin an all-American hero for standing up to Hoffa and the mafia. All of his criminal records vanished, and he returned to running Local #5 with federal immunity as long as Hoffa remained in prison.
Around the time of Hoffa’s trial, Chief Justice Earl Warren, with influence from Bobby and Hoover, concluded the hastily assembled 1964 Warren report on President Kennedy’s assassination. In it, the committee headed by Warren mistakenly – or intentionally – concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he shot and killed President Kennedy, and that Jack Ruby acted alone when he shot and killed Oswald.
Over the next two years, Hoffa’s army of attorney’s attacked Ed Partin’s credibility in national media, but no one could find records of all his crimes or dealings with Castro. It wasn’t a lack of resources: Hoffa had $1.1 Billion in untraceable cash from monthly dues of almost 3 Million Teamsters, money he had lent to the mafia to build casinos and hotels, and to Hollywood for films that used Teamster trucks to ship sets and Teamster trailers to house actors. Hoffa shared attorneys with lawyers like Frank Ragano, now known as a “lawyer for the mob” who’s only clients were Hoffa, New Orleans mafia boss Carlos Marcello, and Miami mafia boss and Cuban exile Santos Trafficante Junior, men known for their ruthless tactics and debts to Hoffa (Marcello alone owned $21 Million). Hoffa used all of his resources to discredit Big Daddy or intimidate him into recanting his testimony, spreading word that all mafia debt – around $121 Million – would be forgiven if “someone” could do “something” to get Edward Partin to change his testimony.
Hoffa failed, and in 1966 he lost his final appeal in the U.S. supreme court in a landmark case that challenged the fourth amendment against unlawful search and seizure, Hoffa vs. The United States, overseen by Chief Justice Earl Warren. Big Daddy’s testimony was upheld, and Hoffa began his prison sentence, now a total of eleven years. Jimmy Hoffa spent the next six years pounding prison mattresses for his work detail, pondering how to become free; President Nixon pardoned him in 1971, and he famously vanished on 22 July 1975.
In 1979, the U.S. congressional committee on assassinations completed the JFK and Martin Luther King Junior Assassination Report, but President Carter kept it classified, and so did Presidents Bush Sr. and Reagan. President Bill Clinton released the first part in 1992, but only after 10 million people saw Oliver Stone’s film, JFK – based on New Orleans district attorney’s memoir, “On the Trail of Assassins” – and demanded that the report be made public. It reversed The Warren Report, and said that, though they didn’t have proof and therefore it’s inconclusive, the three leading suspects with the means and motivation to kill President Kennedy were International Brotherhood of Magicians president Jimmy Hoffa, New Orleans mafia boss Carlos Marcello, and Miami mafia boss and Cuban exile Santos Trafficante Junior. A deluge of books and films followed: most were crap, written by partially informed and self-serving people hoping to cash in on a lucrative movie deal.
In the summer of 2019, film producing legend Martin Scorcese had spent around $257 Million to make and market his opus about Hoffa’s demise, The Irishman, based on a 2004 memoir by Teamster leader and mafia hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran entitled “I Heard You Paint Houses.” The Irishman claimed to have painted the wall of a Detroit suburb home red with Hoffa’s splattered blood. Craig Vincent’s portrayal of “Big Eddie Partin” lasted five minutes. Scorcese’s film opened in theaters with critical acclaim and box office success, but Covid shuttered theaters and Netflix picked up rights to The Irishman; it set global streaming records.
Despite the success of Scorcese’s film, the cases on Hoffa and Kennedy remain open. As of this preface, president’s Bush Jr., Obama, Trump, Biden, and Trump (again) haven’t released the final part in the JFK Assassination Report. Jimmy Hoffa’s body still hasn’t been found, and though the FBI pronounced him dead in 1985, the case is still open, despite all of the books, television specials, and films claiming insider information on what happened, football fields unearthed looking for Hoffa’s remains, and a Wikipedia-esque army of amateur investigators digging through all of facts and opinions for more than sixty years.
Covid was a remarkable two years in humanity that we have yet to understand and simplify; given that Kennedy’s death is still ongoing, I probably won’t live to see the long-term effects. I, like billions of people, sheltered in place and worked on project that had been lurking in the back of my mind, but that I never seemed to make time to coax out. Truth is based on information and perception, and I began to crave sharing the bigger picture of my grandfather with a larger audience, coalescing facts and sharing my perspective as one of the few surviving people who knew Big Daddy. I began the slow process of searching the nooks and crannies of my memories to gleam something I may have overheard that would shed light on a sixty year old mystery. This website is that Covid project. Like me, it’s a few years older, and still a work in progress.
I’m Jason Ian Partin. I can’t provide facts any more useful to you than I already have for understanding who killed Kennedy and why, but I can write a memoir about my perspective of a man whose footprint continues to shape our world. Not only about killing President Kennedy and sending Hoffa to prison, but, because of how much Bobby Kennedy bent the fourth amendment, Big Daddy’s word in Hoffa vs The United States whispers in daily trials across America, torturing people in Guantanamo without a trial, and a division in America that, in the long-term, may be our demise.
But a memoir is based on the root word for memory, and therefore anything I write is inherently flawed. A lot has happened in half a century, and my memory isn’t what it used to be. And to prevent writing how most of us talk in daily chatter, full things like “um,” “hmm,” “what’s for dinner,” and “Dude,” I compress conversations into dialogue, “so that what’s said moves the story along.” But I cite quotes in media whenever I can, and try to weave a story that’s as true as possible given our ignorance of what happens behind the scenes. And sometimes, to keep the number of voices palatable for a reader, I blend a few childhood friends and old army buddies – people who’ve heard bits and pieces of the story over many years – into single characters; otherwise, it would be like trying to give you a sip of water from a fire hydrant. The JFK Assassination Report is a massive document that fills a medium sized government library, and the deluge of information mixed with opinions is why the story about Edward Grady Partin’s part in history hasn’t changed how we view the world yet.
Given those disclaimers, this story is true.
Go to the Table of Contents
- “Hoffa: The Real Story,” by James R. Hoffa and Oscar Fraley (Editor), was first published on 01 January 2019, and then re-published by Stein and Day on 01 October 1971, coincidentally when my mom met my dad and around the time I was conceived; like most kids in high school, they didn’t read many memoirs about Hoffa. I was born on 05 October 1971, and Hoffa vanished on 30 July 1975. My mom and I had almost half a century to ponder nuances from Hoffa’s autobiography, and they’re sprinkled throughout this work.
↩︎ - This is copied from Wikipedia, 27 December 2024:
Edward Partin
Edward Grady Partin Sr. (February 27, 1924 – March 11, 1990), was an American business agent for the Teamsters Union, and is best known for his 1964 testimony against Jimmy Hoffa, which helped Robert F. Kennedy convict Hoffa of jury tampering in 1964.[1]
Teamster Union and mob activities
Partin was the business manager of the five local IBTbranches in Baton Rouge for 30 years. In 1961, he was charged by the union with embezzlement as union money was stolen from a safe. Two key witnesses in the grand jury died. He was indicted on June 27, 1962, for 26 counts of embezzlement and falsification and released on bail.
On August 14, 1962, Partin was sued for his role in a traffic accident injuring two passengers and killing a third. He was also indicted for first-degree manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident. He also surrendered himself for aggravated kidnapping.
He was finally convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice through witness tampering and perjury in March 1979.[2] Partin pled no contest to numerous other corruption charges in the union, including embezzlement, and was released in 1986.[3]
Testimony against Hoffa
In 1963, Jimmy Hoffa, the president of the Teamsters, was arrested for attempted jury tampering in attempted bribery of a grand juror of a previous 1962 case involving payments from a trucking company. Partin testified that he was offered $20,000 to rig the jury in Hoffa’s favor. The testimony was the primary evidence of the Justice Department that led to Hoffa being sentenced to eight years in prison.[4] The entire case rested on his testimony and he was considered the lone witness.
Partin denied under oath that he was compensated by the Justice Department, but it was revealed that his ex-wife had her alimony payments given to her by the department. He originally denied that he would receive immunity or retroactive immunity for his testimony but it was later altered when he was under oath at a grand jury trial.[citation needed]
See also
J. Minos Simon, a Partin attorney
Blood Feud (1983 film)
References
“Edward Partin, 66; Union Aide Became Anti-Hoffa Witness”. The New York Times, March 12, 1990. March 13, 1990. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
Ap (1990-03-13). “Edward Partin, 66; Union Aide Became Anti-Hoffa Witness”. The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
“Reading Eagle – Google News Archive Search”. news.google.com. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
“Reading Eagle – Google News Archive Search”. news.google.com. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
↩︎ - In 1966, Chief Justice Earl Warren’s was he only justice who dissented against using my grandfather’s testimony. In Hoffa vs. The United States, Warren referenced Big Daddy 147 times. His missive takes up three screens on my laptop; here’s an excerpt that sums up his opinion:
“This type of informer and the uses to which he was put in this case evidence a serious potential for undermining the integrity of the truthfinding process in the federal courts. Given the incentives and background of Partin, no conviction should be allowed to stand when based heavily on his testimony. And that is exactly the quicksand upon which these convictions rest, because, without Partin, who was the principal government witness, there would probably have been no convictions here. Thus, although petitioners make their main arguments on constitutional grounds and raise serious Fourth and Sixth Amendment questions, it should not even be necessary for the Court to reach those questions. For the affront to the quality and fairness of federal law enforcement which this case presents is sufficient to require an exercise of our supervisory powers.
From the United States Library of Congress “Hoffa vs. The United States”
Title: U.S. Reports: Hoffa v. United States, 385 U.S. 293 (1966)
Names: Stewart, Potter (Judge); Supreme Court of the United States (Author)
Created / Published: 1966:
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