Paul Dorfman

Paul "Red" Dorfman (1901 – 1971) was an American mobster associated with the Chicago Outfit and a close associate of Jimmy Hoffa.

In his youth Dorfman was a prizefighter managed by Sam Pian, he fought under the name "Red Dorfman".^[1] He began to do enforcer work for the mafia, becoming favored by Murray Humphreys.^[2] Although he was never convicted of any crime, he was arrested in 1928 in connection to electoral fraud in a local election and in 1942 for the beating of a trade union official with knuckle-dusters.^[3][4]

He became involved with the Chicago Outfit while it was under the control of Al Capone. His associates included Capone men like Tony Accardo and other mobsters like Abner Zwillman.^[5][6][7] The FBI considered Dorfman as one of the six people closest to Accardo.^[4] In 1939, after the previous union president Leon Cooke was murdered, Dorfman rose to become the new president of the Chicago Waste Handlers Union.^[8][9] Dorfman had an "association and acquaintance" with Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald. After Dorfman took over the Waste Handlers Union, Ruby worked under Dorfman as an organizer for a period of two months. He was later interviewed by the FBI about his relationship with Ruby, whom he told that he had not seen Ruby since 1940, with the exception of a few unplanned encounters on the street.^[10]

At some point in the late 1940s he became friends with Jimmy Hoffa. According to the McClellan Committee, Dorfman was "the contact man between dishonest union leaders and members of the Chicago Underworld".^[11] Frank Ragano, Hoffa and Santo Trafficante Jr.'s lawyer, described Dorfman as a man with a reputation as a "throwback to the old-style Chicago gangland thug. His penetrating gaze was chilling, almost terrifying".^[12] In his book, The Enemy Within (1960), Senator Bobby Kennedy who had sat on the McClellan Committee, described Dorfman as "a big operator" and a "major figure in the Chicago underworld who also knew his way around in certain labor and political circles".^[5] He added that Dorfman and Hoffa "are now as one. Everywhere Hoffa goes, Dorfman is close by. Most important decisions by Hoffa are made only after consultation with Paul Dorfman".^[13] Besides Hoffa, Dorfman was a friend of Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante Jr.^[14]

It was through Dorfman that Hoffa began to establish relationships with Chicago organized crime. He introduced Hoffa to former Capone associates like Joseph Glimco and Paul Ricca.^[15][16] He helped Hoffa make in-roads into New York City, convincing his associate Anthony Doria of the UAW-AFL union to charter a new union local to be run by Sam Zachman. It was organized by a friend of Dorfman and Hoffa, Johnny Dio.^[17] He obtained a Teamsters charter for Local 805 in New York, to be run by Abe Gordon, and for Local 447 in St. Louis, to be run by Harry Karsh.^[18]

In 1949 Dorfman introduced Hoffa to his stepson Allen Dorfman, who became heavily involved in Teamsters corruption.^[19] According to FBI files, Dorfman agreed to introduce Hoffa to mob figures in exchange for Allen's entry into the Teamsters' insurance business. Allen and his mother set up Union Insurance Agency, and in 1950, would receive their first contract with the Teamsters. Allen was a millionaire within five years.^[20] Dorfman had a close association with Theodore Shulman, President of the Sanatex Corporation and Executive Director of the Waste Trade Industry of Chicago. These two organizations were employers of the men in Dorfman's union. In Autumn 1951 the employers were faced with the prospect of increased wages for their workers. Dorfman ensured that a compromise agreement was reached. In return Shulman helped the insurance company ran by the Dorfmans. Two individuals on Shulman's payroll had the sole job of selling insurance for the Dorfmans.^[21]

Hoffa was brought to trial for bribery in 1957. Given that the jury was composed of eight blacks and four whites, Hoffa made overtures to the black jurors. Dorfman and Barney Baker arranged for the black boxer Joe Louis to walk up and hug Hoffa in view of the jurors. Hoffa was found not guilty.^[22] Dorfman approached the International Boxing Club, ran by a friend of his Truman Gibson, to make this arrangement.^[23]

In 1953 Dorfman and his son were called before a Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor that was tasked with investigating abuses of welfare funds. They pled the Fifth Amendment 135 times.^[24] The subcommittee voted to cite both for contempt of congress.^[25] In 1957 he was expelled from the AFL-CIO for corrupt practices.^[7] Later he was called to testify before the McClellan committee on 30 January 1959.^[26] The committee was probing the Dorfman family's insurance business and its relationship to Hoffa and the Teamsters. Dorfman took the Fifth amendment, even when asked if Allen Dorfman was his son.^[27] The public disclosure of activities by Dorfman and others influenced Congress to pass the Landrum–Griffin Act in 1959.^[17] In 1964 Dorfman and his son Allen, were indicted by a San Francisco grand jury on charges of extorting $100,000 from a San Franciscan insurance executive. They were acquitted.^[17]

He died in Chicago on 12 March 1971.^[17]

• The Hoffa Wars: Teamsters, Rebels, Politicians and the Mob, 1993, second edition, by Dan Moldea, SPI, New York.
• The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hoffa by Walter Sheridan. New York: Saturday Review Press, 1972.