In Hoffa's shadow A stepfather, a disappearance in Detroit, and my search for the truth

In this intriguing account, Goldsmith (Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11) probes the circumstances surrounding the fate of powerful union leader Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared in 1975 and is presumed to have been killed by the Mafia. Goldsmith is best known for being an assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel during the second Bush administration, and for dissenting from some of the approaches of the war on terror, including warrantless surveillance. But most readers will be surprised to learn that Goldsmith's stepfather was Chuckie O'Brien, a Teamsters official who was Hoffa's "most intimate aide for more than two decades," and who was widely believed to have driven Hoffa from a Detroit parking lot to his fatal rendezvous and has been implicated in the plot against Hoffa. As a teenager, Goldsmith regarded O'Brien as "a great father, despite his lack of education," but a lengthy period of estrangement followed during which Goldsmith legally changed his last name from O'Brien. Ultimately, Goldsmith reconciled with O'Brien and worked with him, unsuccessfully, after Goldsmith left the government to teach at Harvard Law, to try to get him publicly exonerated of any role in Hoffa's disappearance. Goldsmith's linking of the investigative tactics used against Hoffa in the early 1960s and those deployed after 9/11 in the "war on terror" exposed him to the potential for abuses in government surveillance. It's that concern that gives this impassioned account resonance beyond exploring a notorious unsolved case. (Sept.)

Goldsmith (Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Law, Harvard) writes about his attempt to absolve his stepfather of involvement in Teamster union leader Jimmy Hoffa's 1975 disappearance. Chuckie O'Brien was married to Goldsmith's mother for 12 years, from the author's ages 12 to 24. After disavowing him and changing his last name, Goldsmith reconciled with O'Brien, who was like a son to Hoffa and treated the author well. Goldsmith describes how O'Brien was a labor organizer, tough, and a helper for Hoffa. This clearly written, sympathetic portrayal of Hoffa as a user of the Mafia in order to help workers describes treachery on both sides of the law. Acknowledging his stepfather's "adversarial relationship with the truth," Goldsmith claims that O'Brien was not present when Hoffa went missing. Part memoir, part labor history, and part investigation, this book ultimately leaves unanswered questions. VERDICT Charles Brandt's I Heard You Paint Houses is the basis for the Martin Scorsese film The Irishman, which depicts O'Brien as an unwitting helper in a hired killer's murder of Hoffa for the Mafia. Goldsmith's work may be an attempt to counter that seamless, powerful narrative. Both books should be read together to review the murky story; a treat for true crime readers.--Harry Charles, St. Louis

A dramatic reexamination of Jimmy Hoffa's life and disappearance, presented by a legal scholar with a beguiling personal connection.Goldsmith (Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11, 2012, etc.), who weathered his own controversies as assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel in the George W. Bush-era Justice Department, delivers a complex narrative focusing on his stepfather, Chuckie O'Brien, Hoffa's right-hand man and eventual suspect in the gangster's 1975 disappearance. The author agonizes over his relationship with Chuckie (how he refers to him throughout), both a wonderful stepfather and mob-connected scofflaw, from whom the author estranged himself for many years as he established his legal career. Their reconciliation informs the book's structure, as Goldsmith chronicles how he urged Chuckie to relinquish the criminal code of silence. "I came to understand how much Omert ordered his life," he writes. Beyond Chuckie's mysterious revelations, the author constructs a sprawling narrative, capturing how Hoffaand an impressively rendered cast of gangsters and political figuresunwittingly oversaw labor's decline. Initially, "Hoffa succeeded because he learned to deploy violent force successfully." As Hoffa rose in the Teamster ranks, he combined strategic intelligence, personal loyalty to the rank and file of the brutal trucking industry, and an openness to the influence of organized crime. "Hoffa's lifelong indifference to the taboos associated with organized crime," writes Goldsmith, "was shaped by his early experiences fighting thugs hired by employers." Eventually, Hoffa came to embody malfeasance, especially due to Bobby Kennedy's hounding of him, first as congressman, then as attorney general. "RFK pulled out the stops to demolish Hoffa," writes the author. All these factors contributed to Hoffa's decline and disappearance, which is notoriously unsolved. Goldsmith argues that in zeroing in on the hapless Chuckie, "the FBI focused on facts that fit its theory." The author adeptly synthesizes his personal involvement with the tale of politics, mobsters, and working-class decline that Hoffa represents, though he, too, finds the mystery unsolvable.A darkly engaging account of an important, misunderstood epoch. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.