Michael Rudolph Tham (May 30, 1923 – October 5, 1998), sometimes known as Rudy Michael Tham or Rudy Tham, was a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the ...

Union leader with alleged mafia connections.

Early life

Tham was born in May 1923. He was a native of California, and an accomplished boxer who won an amateur

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

title in 1941. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Tham sailed the world as a merchant marine, before returning to the Bay area to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 1946.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Tham began life in the Teamsters as an organiser of wholesale grocery sales workers, going on to found the Freight Checkers, Clerical Employees and Helpers Local 856 in San Francisco in 1949.Leagle
''U.S. v. Tham''. 948 F2d. 1107 (1991).
/ref> Local 856 went on to become, under Tham, the first San Francisco Union since the 1930s to sign contracts in Chinatown, and went on to have thousands of members.

San Francisco Fire Commission

In 1966, Mayor John Shelley appointed Tham to the San Francisco Fire Commission. He was reappointed to this position in 1970 by Mayor

Joseph Alioto Joseph Lawrence Alioto (February 12, 1916 – January 29, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 36th mayor of San Francisco, California, from 1968 to 1976. Biography Alioto was born in San Francisco in 1916. His father, Giuseppe ...

and, again, in 1974.

Allegations of organised crime influence

Throughout his career, Tham was dogged by allegations of misconduct. Numerous accounts also say that he was associated with James Fratianno, a known Mafia member. Fratianno claimed that he had an interest in a union dental plan being organised by Tham and himself. If successful, Fratianno said, he would collect $10,000 a month from dentists' kickbacks and "phony" medical claims.

1972

In 1972, Tham was charged with conspiring with "convicted labor racketeer Anthony DiLorenzo to extort a $190,000 contract from a national air freight company by calling a Teamsters Union strike." However, the case was dismissed due to the Justice Department's delay in bringing the case to trial.

1979

Tham was indicted in 1979 on federal charges of "embezzling $2,790 in union funds and causing false entries to be made in union records." He was convicted and sentenced for 6 months prison, and fined $50,000.Justia US Law (16 December 1981)
''665 F.2d 855: United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Michael Rudy Tham, Defendant-appellant.''
/ref> Tham appealed, but lost.

1989

In 1989, Tham was indicted, along with Abe Chalupowitz (also known as Abe Chapman), a self-described "mob assassin of the 1930s" and convicted drug dealer, and Federal District Court Judge,

Robert Aguilar Robert Peter Aguilar (April 15, 1931 – December 2, 2020) was a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Education and career Born in Madera, California, Aguilar received ...

, on racketeering charges.Katherine Bishop. "Racketeer Charges Filed in California Against U.S. Judge"
''New York Times'' (14 June 1989).
/ref> It was alleged that, on behalf of Mr. Tham, Judge Aguilar attempted to influence another Federal District Court Judge, Judge Stanley A. Weigel, "who was hearing the probation violation case against Mr. Tham" the prior year concerning a 1980 embezzlement conviction. Tham appealed, but again, lost.

International connections

Tham was also known to have dealings with overseas criminals. In a 1979 Australian news article, for example, it was found that Tham had dealings with Australian underworld figures such as

Murray Riley Murray Stewart Riley (5 October 1925 – 2020) was an Australian Olympic rowing athlete, who, after leaving a career as a police officer, gained notoriety as a criminal. Riley represented Australia at the 1952 and 1956 Summer Olympics in double ...

and businessman, and convicted drug producer, Bela Csidei. In 1975, Mr. Tham, it is alleged, was helping Australians, including Riley, with negotiating a take-over of the Howard Johnson casino in Las Vegas. On another occasion, Tham was photographed in San Francisco with Csidei together with Jimmy Fratianno. Prior to this, Tham visited Australia in 1974 and, according to the National Times, "contacted

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

organised crime figures."John Pilger (1992). "A Secret Country" (p. 257). NSW, Australia: Vintage. In the case of ''US v Mangano and Gavarenti'' (July 1982), Fratianno gave evidence stating that Tham had introduced him to the Australian, Sir Peter Abeles, director of

Thomas Nationwide Transport Thomas Nationwide Transport, commonly known by its TNT acronym, and in its later years as TNT Limited, was an Australian logistics and transport company. Founded in 1946, it was taken over by KPN in 1996 and in 1998 became part of the TNT Pos ...

. In the 1970s TNTs US operations were besieged by a number of "strikes, shootings and bombings." Once Tham intervened, these stopped. Former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke acknowledged that in 1978, through Tham, he met with Sal Amarena, a mafia associate, in what Mr Hawke described as an incidental meeting. Mr Hawke, then President of the

Australian Council of Trade Unions The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions and eight trades and l ...

, was en route to Vancouver to attend a conference of the

Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisations ...

congress and had a stop-over in San Francisco."One Halloween in San Francisco"
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (17 November 1983).
/ref>

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tham, Michael Rudy 1923 births 1998 deaths Boxers from San Francisco International Brotherhood of Teamsters people People convicted of embezzlement Trade unionists from California Welterweight boxers United States Merchant Mariners of World War II