Working the Edge

About the Book

From 1978 to 1998, the United States Justice Department took on the mafia and corrupt unions using all available tools and even enhanced some old laws—a new agency and new laws. It was open season on organized crime and labor racketeers. A letter to the president of the United States effectively launched the Office of Labor Racketeering and Organized Crime with a bag of tools, which included the RICO statute, the Inspector General Act, organized crime bill, Presidential Commission on Organized Crime . . . and a hundred agents. After James Rydal Hoffa, president of Teamsters International, disappeared in 1975, there were no definitive answers as to what happened for years. Still today, there are unanswered questions to the mystery, like, where is the body? I was put into an unrelenting position to find out. Everybody has a story. This is my story—a true story.

About the Author

Melvin Ross Gudknecht was born in Philadelphia, Pa. and raised in and around the city. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from LaSalle College. Melvin was commissioned as a Special Agent, Intelligence Division, IRS, US Treasury Department, Philadelphia District Office. He attended the Treasury Department’s Criminal Investigator School, Special Agent Basic School of IRS Intelligence Division, and Basic Income Tax Law. He was the recipient of Special Achievement Awards and Commendations for outstanding performance in his career of twenty-six years. Awards were presented by the Inspector General, US Department of Labor; Director of the FBI; US Justice Department; US attorneys in Philadelphia and Delaware; Chief, Intelligence Division IRS; Special Agents in Charge of US Customs, Postal Inspectors; Organized Crime Strike Force, the President’s Commission on Organized Crime, et al. Former member of the distinguished Vidocq Society, MAGLOCLEN, the Association of Former Special Agents of IRS, and Vice President of Federal Criminal Investigator Association. He spent 26 years in law enforcement and attained the rank of Assistant Regional Inspector General for Investigations. Ater his career, he worked as a Burlington County Prosecutor’s Agent and Investigator for NJ Consumer Affairs.