Vendetta

Bobby Kennedy Versus Jimmy Hoffa

Contributors

By James Neff

Formats and Prices

Price

$11.99

Price

$15.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around July 7, 2015. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

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.

Genre:

  • "From the violence of its gripping opening to the sorrow of its close, this is an astonishing and eye-opening account of the vendetta--obsessive, intrigue-filled, hatred-tinged--that pitted Robert F. Kennedy against Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa, and nearly consumed both. Amazing stuff, really--a triumph of investigation and revelation."
    Erik Larson, author of Dead Wake
  • "If you think you know it all, you don't. James Neff has turned Bobby Kennedy's headline-making clash with Jimmy Hoffa into a psychological thriller about two tough, powerful and vengeful men who fought with all they had, exhausting both. This is not a book about a good bobby versus a bad hoffa. It is a study of two men who always got what they wanted staging a shootout on the streets of Laredo. And, as Neff tells it, there were no winners."
    Seymour M. Hersh, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
  • "Vendetta is an exciting and compelling account of the titanic struggle between Robert Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa, one of the most extraordinary battles between the forces of good and evil in recent American history. With a master investigator's eye and a novelist's flair, James Neff makes the Kennedy-Hoffa duel come alive with many new historical insights and with all the blood and muscle of these two unforgettable men. If you ever wondered what it would be like to work with Robert Kennedy, the young hard-driving idealistic investigator of corruption, this book is for you."
    Thomas Maier, author of When Lions Roar: The Churchills and the Kennedys
  • "Neff...captures the tension and hatred between [Hoffa and Kennedy] in this impressively researched page-turner....This enthralling account, based mostly on archival research, will appeal to Kennedy followers, true crime fans, and students and scholars of modern American history."
    Library Journal (starred review)
  • "Neff brilliantly weaves this fascinating narrative with newly released material.... As riveting as any courtroom thriller, except this is real.... Neff's masterly study of this intensely personal conflict is as engrossing as it is irresistible."
    Kevin J. Hamilton, The Seattle Times
  • "Neff covers the ensuing cat-and-mouse game with aplomb and panache.... He sprinkles the book with colorful language that artfully evokes Hoffa, the swaggering tough guy, and Kennedy, the laser-focused lawman eager to make his mark, without turning them into caricatures.... Neff's terrific incorporation of a multitude of personalities from both sides of the courtroom results in a page-turner that adds greater nuance and depth to both men's legends."
    Publishers Weekly
  • "Neff succeeds in shinning a light on one of the darker corners of American history.... Reads like a spy novel.... The sordid, sweeping history of what Kennedy insider Pierre Salinger dubbed ' a blood feud.'"
    Kirkus
  • "Neff's account of Kennedy's and Hoffa's vengeful crimes and strategies is unexpectedly thrilling, but he deftly avoids caricaturing the two men."
    Christian Science Monitor
  • "Vendetta is full of fascinating depictions of corruption and political pressure, but its real draw lies in the titanic personal struggle at its center. That struggle acquires a cinematic flair as each man's fortunes rise and fall dramatically, with each of their lives ending in such a way as to fuel retroactive mythmaking. Neff tells a compelling real-life story about men who have acquired the patina of legends."
    Hank Stephenson, Shelf Awareness
  • "Highly revealing and detailed... Vendetta is a gritty, intense drama that sharply illuminates one of the darker episodes of American history."
    Chris Patsilelis, Tampa Bay Times

On Sale
Jul 7, 2015
Page Count
384 pages
ISBN-13
9780316251112

James Neff

About the Author

James Neff has overseen multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning series as investigations editor at the Seattle Times. The author of The Wrong Man, Unfinished Murder, and Mobbed Up, he lives in the Seattle area.

Learn more about this author