Vendetta

Bobby Kennedy Versus Jimmy Hoffa

By: James Neff

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

One of America's greatest investigative reporters brings to life the gripping, no-holds-barred clash of two American titans: Robert Kennedy and his nemesis, Jimmy Hoffa.

From 1957 to 1964, Robert Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa channeled nearly all of their considerable powers into destroying each other. Kennedy's battle with Hoffa burst into the public consciousness with the 1957 Senate Rackets Committee hearings and intensified when his brother named him attorney general in 1961. RFK put together a "Get Hoffa" squad within the Justice Department, devoted to destroying one man. But Hoffa, with nearly unlimited Teamster funds, was not about to roll over.

Drawing upon a treasure trove of previously secret and undisclosed documents, James Neff has crafted a brilliant, heart-pounding epic of crime and punishment, a saga of venom and relentlessness and two men willing to do anything to demolish each other.

©2015 James Neff (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Detailed, but quite narrow in scope

The book does very much focus on the two men, and in particular the mutual hatred they shared. A lot of the events in the story relate to the reactions and counterpunches each man had for the other. For what it is, it's quite informative. Having long ago read about this story, and of both men individually, nothing really came as a surprise. However, I would have liked it if the author had delved a bit more deeply into independent lives of each man, and not feeling that it needed to justify episodes by stating how they were perceived by the other. A lot seems to be skimmed over if one or the other, at the particular time, is not fully engaged. Similarly, though understandably as history as its guide, the story kind of ends abruptly, and little time is spent, for example, on Hoffa's prison time and parole after RFK's assassination, and his disappearance is offered as essentially a footnote. No complaint, as that was not promised, but I think it would have made for a more comprehensive story.

Awesome and highly recommended!

Tremendous book and a must read/listen for those interested in James Riddle Hoffa at a key point in head of the Teamsters life!

Another in the hundreds of gushing Kennedy Lovefes

Assuming that there may be a volume finally written objectively, and deeply in the fued between these two men, I gave it a read /listen. After two chapters I had to force myself to finish. Here,over fifty years later, we still have supposedly intelligent, grown men, continuously gushing in their writing with revisionist zeal. Hoffa was no angel, but neither were the Kennedy's. It's difficult to not believe that this battle was at least waged in part , to dilute the power of american labor and it succeeded.
This book is well written, and carries some nice anecdotes about the political climate at the time. But the gushing over the moral value of RFK is nauseating. It was amusing to hear the author snidely jab at Harold Gibbons lavish spending on female companions, while never mentioning a single tryst or the countless disturbing orgies of the Kennedy brothers. I mention this only to highlight the obvious bias of the author.
Alas I am still waiting for that objective volume.