10. The New York Times weighs in
Copyright © 2000 by Dan E. Moldea
After Mary Heathcote finished her massive editing job on my 900-plus-page manuscript, a prominent New York libel attorney, David Lubell, and one of his associates vetted The Hoffa Wars, driving me crazy for two full days as they made me jump for every piece of documentation. But, after Lubell's legal review, he wrote to Paddington Press, saying: "We must note that rarely have we encountered an investigative reporter, or any non-fiction writer, who had as great a command of his source material, both primary and secondary, as did Mr. Moldea."
On June 22, I received a telephone call from Herbert Mitgang, the literary editor at the New York Times, who wanted to discuss the publishing controversy between Brill and me, concentrating on Simon & Schuster's actions against New Republic Book Company, which forced me to break my original book contract and to sign up with Paddington. I agreed to cooperate with Mitgang and told him what I knew.
One week later, on Thursday, June 29, Mitgang's article appeared in the Times. And it was just fabulous, saying:
Two forthcoming books on the same controversial subjects--James R. Hoffa and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' covert role in American political and criminal life--have pitted their authors and publishers in a behind-the-scenes contest, with possible broad implications for publishing independence or suppression. . . .
At issue is not censorship, but a growing trend to contractual arrangements in which smaller publishers use larger ones to sell their books. The Hoffa books, according to the publishing community, point up the difficulties involved for independent houses in today's marketplace.The story included praise for The Hoffa Wars by Marty Peretz, the publisher of The New Republic, who had lost the book during the earlier dispute. Peretz told Mitgang: "I very much regret it because it's a powerful book."The first book is The Hoffa Wars: Teamsters, Rebels, Politicians and the Mob by Dan E. Moldea, to be published by Paddington, a small but vigorous independent house with offices in New York and London. . . . The second is The Teamsters by Steven Brill, to be published by Simon & Schuster, which is owned by the Gulf and Western Industries conglomerate.
Mitgang was extremely critical of Richard Snyder, the president of Simon & Schuster, who told the Times reporter: "I was surprised when I heard that New Republic was selling its book to Paddington. We requested them to postpone it, not to sell it."
Also, after discussing my interview with Hoffa's alleged killers and reporting details from the tape of the November 1976 threat to my life, Mitgang quoted Brill about his alleged taped conversation with Frank Sheeran, writing:
Mr. Brill also says he has been threatened--by an official of the Federal Bureau of Investigation--for supposedly not sharing a taped "confession" about the Hoffa murder. "Please stress that I have no such tape--it's just not true," Mr. Brill said.That was totally contrary to what Brill had told me during our breakfast meeting at the Capitol Hilton.Mitgang concluded in his Times article:
Publishing lawyers . . . said that the attempted delay of the Moldea book was one of the first examples of [a] possible loss of independence--with implicit censorship--where there is a conflict on a controversial nonfiction book.That same day, inspired by the article in the New York Times, Playboy magazine purchased the first-serial rights to The Hoffa Wars for nearly twice as much as my original advance. Also, the Book-of-the-Month Club, which had both my book and Brill's to choose from, purchased The Hoffa Wars. Soon after, The Observer of London bought the worldwide syndication rights for another huge chunk of change, and, to everyone's delight, the New York Times Syndication Service bought the U. S. rights.At the same time, Paddington announced a $50,000 advertising budget for the book and a 50,000-copy first printing.
Cris and I went out to celebrate that night--after she finished scraping me off the ceiling. I had just experienced the greatest day of my life--the day the New York Times recognized and, thus, legitimized me as a new American author.
Inspired by the market power of the New York Times, publications all over the country suddenly began writing about the pending release of The Hoffa Wars--written by a completely unknown journalist and published by a little company no one had ever heard of before.
Riding the wave, I went to New York on Monday, July 24 to work on the excerpt for Playboy. The story concentrated on the violence in Local 299 and the politics behind the Hoffa murder, as well as the possible Marcello-Trafficante-Hoffa scenario in the murder of President Kennedy.
During an early morning breakfast with Barry Golson, Playboy's executive editor, on Saturday, July 29, I felt exhausted after the week's work. It was 2:30 A.M., and we had just put the story to bed.
Golson--who had edited the article along with his assistant, Tom Passavant--offhandedly remarked, "It's too bad that we don't have anyone saying that Hoffa personally knew Jack Ruby."
"Yeah," I replied. "The only thing I ever heard was . . . " and I told Golson about my meeting with Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. the previous December--during which he said he believed his father knew Ruby.
Astonished, Golson exclaimed, "Why isn't that in the story?"
"Barry, it's my word against both Hoffa and Murray Chodak."
"Did he say it?"
"Yeah, of course, he said it."
"Did you write it down?"
"Yes, as I left Hoffa's office."
Golson paid the check and said we were going back to the office to add Hoffa's quote to the story. He assured me, "Our attorneys will back you up if Hoffa comes after us."
Emboldened by Golson's confidence, I added the Hoffa quote as a last-minute endnote to my book.
I had also told Golson--and gave him a written statement--about the circumstances around my acceptance of the money from the Hoffa Reward Fund, administered by Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. Golson suggested that I defuse any potential criticism by writing a brief preface to my article about receiving the reward money, which I did.
* * *
On Tuesday, August 15, I played golf in Washington with Rafe Sagalyn of New Republic Books. He told me that--during a meeting he attended in New York at Simon & Schuster--Dick Snyder had exploded over Mitgang's article in the New York Times. Sagalyn warned me that the S & S chief would "pull out all the stops" in his promotion of Brill's book.
Soon after, the Village Voice published what appeared to be an S & S flack's story, saying: "There's little doubt that The Teamsters will be the next 'big' book. Brill is scheduled for, not one, but three consecutive interviews on the Today Show, beginning September 11."
While promoting Brill's work, Snyder clearly wanted to bury Paddington, my book, and me. And, frankly, Paddington and I were up for this fight.