Joseph Franco

A sprawling yet occasionally insightful look into the expedited evolution of the Teamsters as told by Jimmy Hoffa henchman Joe Franco. The biography begins in typical fashion, illustrating a young Franco (then using the surname Valenti) as a natural sociopath fit for the flexible morality his future profession as a union organizer would demand. The main detraction of the book is the glaring liberties Franco takes in an attempt to rationalize and glorify his own "crusade" for the working man. His credibility is lost in that unending barrage of simply unbelievable events, such as his claim to have witnessed Jimmy Hoffa being detained by federal agents on the day of his disappearance, punting the otherwise intriguing tale directly into the "fiction" section of the book store.… (mehr)