FBI Memo Says Teamster Chief Related Mafia Ties

William J. McCarthy, the newly chosen president of the Teamsters Union, said in a 1984 conversation that he needed permission from a reputed New England Mafia boss before he could take a higher post at the labor organization, according to a secret FBI memorandum.

In the conversation, with then-Teamsters President Jackie Presser, McCarthy was allegedly seeking Presser’s support to become general secretary-treasurer of the union, according to the internal FBI memo. Presser told the FBI that McCarthy said he first “must obtain the approval and backing” of the late Raymond L. S. Patriarca, the reputed head of the New England mob.

The memo, dated April 19, 1984, was addressed to Oliver B. Revell, then assistant director in charge of the FBI’s criminal investigative division. It said Presser, a confidential informant on organized crime matters for more than 10 years, had told FBI agents that McCarthy mentioned his ties to the Mafia in a private conversation with him two weeks earlier.

In addition, The Times has learned that a month after Presser reported these remarks to the FBI, McCarthy’s name was mentioned at a meeting between New York mobster Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno and Cleveland mob figure John (Peanuts) Tronolone. The discussion was monitored by the FBI through electronic surveillance.

McCarthy has declined repeated requests to be interviewed. A spokesman, Duke Zeller, said he would attempt to get a response to the allegations from McCarthy but later replied that he was unable to do so. On Wednesday, Zeller said McCarthy may have a statement in the next day or two.

The disclosures provide the first public indication of any links between organized crime and McCarthy, who is widely regarded by other labor leaders as a “tough” but “decent” unionist who rose through the ranks. A member of the Teamsters’ general executive board since 1969, McCarthy dates his career with the union to 1947, when he was elected as the youngest business agent of Local 25 in Boston, which he has served as president since 1955.

McCarthy Succeeds Presser

Presser died earlier this month while under indictment on payroll-padding charges. The union’s executive board chose the 69-year-old McCarthy to succeed him as Teamsters president until the next general election in 1991.

An FBI transcript of the electronically monitored meeting held in May, 1984, quotes Tronolone as telling Salerno that McCarthy might be worthy of Salerno’s support for the union’s secretary-treasurer position, which is regarded as the second most powerful post in the Teamsters.

“You’re going to name whoever you want to (as secretary-treasurer),” Tronolone tells Salerno, the reputed boss of the Genovese crime family, alluding to his alleged power over Teamster leaders.

Salerno, according to the transcript, said he considers McCarthy, who is from Boston, to be “the head boss of the East Coast.” He adds that McCarthy is “very friendly” with Jimmy Cashin, a former officer of the International Longshoremen’s Assn. and a close associate of Salerno. Cashin, who once served 11 months in prison on assault charges, was often used as a courier of Las Vegas skim money to Salerno, according to 1981 Senate testimony.

Transcripts Put in Record

FBI transcripts of the Salerno discussions that mentioned McCarthy were among hundreds of pages of overheard conversations that were placed in the federal court record in Manhattan last year during a yearlong trial in which Salerno and eight others were convicted of racketeering activities in the New York construction industry.

However, Salerno and two associates were acquitted of charges that they had tampered with national Teamster elections. The transcripts attracted little attention outside the courtroom because of their length and the diversity of subjects they covered.

In the meeting with Tronolone in Salerno’s Manhattan headquarters--and in a subsequent session in June, 1984, which the FBI also overheard--Salerno listens to brief talk about McCarthy but does not indicate that he has reached any conclusion or will back anyone specific for the post.

FBI Reviews Selection

Several months later, Presser selected Weldon L. Mathis of Atlanta as secretary-treasurer after personally clearing the appointment with James E. Moody, an FBI official to whom Presser sometimes reported in his informant role, according to knowledgeable sources. The sources, who declined to be named, said the FBI encouraged Presser to clear top appointments through the bureau to help ensure that such choices were free from organized crime influence.

It is difficult to assess the accuracy and reliability of the information that Presser provided the FBI during the decade that he served as an informant. However, it is known that FBI officials regarded him as an extremely valuable source, even to the extent of believing that they could clean up the scandal-plagued union through Presser.

In a 1985 FBI memo disclosed in federal court in Cleveland last year, the FBI said of Presser: “Source is in a position to provide quality information of illegal activities of the highest echelon of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. In addition, source has provided information detailing the connections between the most influential families of La Cosa Nostra and several international vice presidents.”

Memorandum Kept Secret

The internal FBI memorandum on the McCarthy-Presser conversation has remained secret since it was drafted four years ago but is expected to be introduced soon in federal court by government lawyers to help support a massive lawsuit that the Justice Department filed last month in an effort to oust top leaders of the Teamsters on grounds of corruption.

Sean McWeeney, then chief of the FBI’s organized crime section, told Revell in the memo that Presser had reported to Moody and to Robert Friedrick, then an FBI supervisor in Cleveland, that some of the Teamsters’ 16 international vice presidents “are supported by various LCN families throughout the United States.” LCN is an abbreviation used by the FBI for “La Cosa Nostra,” or the Mafia.

The memo said Presser “reports to the Genovese LCN family (headed by Salerno) through the Cleveland LCN.”

Plans for Retirement

According to the memo, Ray Schoessling of Chicago, who held the position of general secretary-treasurer at the time, was planning to retire but “to date . . . has not advised the Chicago LCN of his desire to retire.”

McCarthy wanted to succeed Schoessling, the memo said, but informed Presser that he first “must obtain the approval and backing of Raymond Patriarca for his promotion.” Presser told the FBI that McCarthy wanted the job so badly that he offered to provide “a signed, undated memorandum of resignation” for Presser to use if he ever became unhappy with McCarthy, the memo said.

Patriarca, once regarded by federal law enforcement officers as one of the most powerful Mafia leaders in the country, died of natural causes in July, 1984, at the age of 76. The FBI said in an affidavit filed in court three months later that much of his power had been assumed by his son, Raymond J. Patriarca.