Quick Facts
Intro | American labor leader |
Was | Activist Trade unionist |
From | United States of America |
Field | Activism |
Gender | male |
Birth | 27 February 1924, Woodville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi, USA |
Death | 11 March 1990, Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, USA (aged 66 years) |
Star sign | Pisces |
Politics | Democratic Party |
Biography
Edward Grady Partin, Sr. (February 27, 1924 – March 11, 1990), was an American business agent for the Teamsters Union, best known for his 1964 testimony against Jimmy Hoffa.
Teamster Union and Mob Activities
Partin was the manager of the Local 5 IBT branch in Baton Rouge for 30 years.
In 1961, he was charged in the union with embezzlement as part of a stolen safe of union money. This would lead to the death of two key witnesses in the grand jury. He would be indicted on June 27, 1962 for 26 counts of embezzlement and falsification and released on bail.
On August 14, 1962 would be sued for his role in the wreck of a car injuring 2 and killing a third passenger. He would also be indicted for first-degree manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident. He would then also surrender himself for aggravated kidnapping.
In the late 1960s, he would finally be convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice through witness tampering and perjury in March 1979.
He would then plead no-contest to numerous other corruption charges in the union, including embezzlement and would finally be released in 1986.
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. Ed Partin testified that he was offered $20,000 to rig the jury in Hoffa's favor. The testimony would be the primary evidence of the Justice Department and would lead to him being sentenced to eight years. The entire case was 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.
