"Hoffa" - The History of the Teamsters and the Man Quiz

Answer: "You cost me my job, Jim"

Back when they met, Bobby Charro was a lone truck driver scratching a living out of driving rigs and making deliveries. Sometimes while driving, he kept himself awake by letting his cigarette burn down to his finger. One winter night, as he slept in the cab of his truck at the side of a dark road, a young Jimmy Hoffa approached him and startled him awake.

As soon as Bobby heard the word union, he told him to get lost. If he was caught talking to anyone about a union, he would lose his job. Jimmy refused to leave and the next thing Bobby knew, Jimmy was sitting beside him in the cab of his truck. Over Bobby's protests, Hoffa began explaining the benefits of a union for the working man.

After riding with Bobby for miles, Jimmy told Bobby to drop him off before they reached the truck stop so others wouldn't know they had spoken.

At a demonstration, shortly after, Bobby's boss found out anyway and fired him. Bobby was furious.

Answer: "Give this man whatever he needs". James R. Hoffa

Both Jimmy and Bobby were apprehensive about this meeting with D'Alli. Bobby used the phone at the Road House several times to check out if D'Alli was on his way. He was very late and Hoffa was becoming agitated. He felt his old friends had turned on him.

As he was building the Teamsters, he made lots of money for them by giving them loans from the pension fund at very good rates. When Nixon pardoned Hoffa, after he served five years in jail, he was never told that it was on the provision that he give up his position as union president.

He would have come up for parole in six more months. He was lied to and manipulated by Fitz, who took over as president of the union. Hoffa demanded that D'Alli get him back in, that the Mob owed him. Most of all, he wanted Fitz out and to be president of the Teamsters, once again.

Answer: Billy Flynn

Billy Flynn was Jimmy Hoffa's partner. They entered Jimmy's makeshift office where Jimmy apologized for causing Bobby to lose his job. Both Jimmy and Billy went on to explain to him that he was better off without that job. With no union in place, he and his fellow drivers were being taken advantage of.

They had no benefits. The strength of collective bargaining helped the working man. So it was that night that Bobby Charro became Jimmy Hoffa's right hand man. Both in mind and in heart, what the Teamsters stood for, was born in Bobby Charro on that fateful night.

Answer: Riddle

Jimmy Hoffa used his middle name many times in his life. It was unusual so there was cause to remember it. He fought to be remembered, always.

Answer: "Remember, all life's a negotiation"

When Hoffa was demonstrating outside Bobby Charro's job site, Bobby's bosses were ignoring the Teamster demonstration and telling the men to get to work. As Bobby walked along the platform, Jimmy called out to him "You, I rode with you and you smoked my cigarettes." One of Bobby's bosses heard Hoffa and he looked at Bobby. Bobby knew then that his job was gone for speaking to a Teamster rep.

He hid in the shadows that night, stalking Hoffa and attempted to cut his throat for causing him to lose his job.

Answer: "He's dying in there"

After Bobby was prevented from ambushing Jimmy by Billy Flynn, the three walked to the building that was serving as an office. They went on to explain to Bobby the benefits of unionized labor. From that moment on, Bobby Charro became Jimmy's shadow. That night they were visiting a laundry that had so far refused to sign on.

As the three of then sat in the front seat of the truck Bobby drove, Flynn lit a cigarette and prepared to enter the secluded laundry with a bomb. Something went terribly wrong and in front of Bobby's eyes there was a huge explosion, Jimmy was running toward the explosion and Bobby saw Flynn emerge converged in flames. Jimmy struggled to extinguish the flaming body of Billy Flynn.

Answer: "Tell him if he gives me a cup of coffee, I'll explain"

Jimmy asked that D'Alli (Alessandro), who stood in the background, join the discussion, so that he would better understand the plan. Hoffa realized that without the help of the Mafia what good he was trying to do for the workers would never come to fruition.

He was trying to balance the benefits of having them on the Teamsters side, rather than opposing them. His desire was to protect the working men and their families.

Answer: "I just want to President of the Teamsters"

Bobby Charro couldn't help being amazed by Hoffa. He realized how deeply Jimmy Hoffa believed in the union and his dedication to his cause to help the working man. A lifelong admiration was beginning in Bobby, for Jimmy and the union. Jimmy hired Bobby Charro that night. He stood beside Jimmy through thick and thin from that day forward.

Answer: Remodelling his kitchen

During this hunting trip, business talk was simply unavoidable. Jimmy and D'Alli walked through the woods and D'Alli was trying to explain that if loans were made from the Teamster Pension Fund, the money would be paid back at an interest rate that would benefit the Pension plan.

It would benefit them both. Jimmy didn't quite get it and they had no pencil or paper, so they used a hunting license to write their figures on.

Answer: Goldblatt

On his way into this meeting, Jimmy was joking about the hunting trip. Bobby shot a deer, on that trip, with his pistol and skinned it with a pocket knife. All the guards were laughing. Jimmy was wearing the new suit his wife "Jo" had bought him. Jimmy was not concerned with the meeting and the investigation.

He felt it was nonsense and that Robert Kennedy had nothing better to do with his time. In Jimmy's view, Robert F. Kennedy was just a rich boy who was given an influential job because his brother was elected President.