If you're looking at early in Carter's presidency, and if you're looking at the Mafia, then you might want to look at Paul Castellano and Aniello Delacroce. In 1976, Carlo Gambino passed on the mantle of heading up his organisation to Castellano, which annoyed Gambino's No 2, Delacroce. Delacroce accepted the decision, for all of a year or so, and things went downhill.

The details of how it went downhill are not particularly important, but Castellano had gained the backing of both the Westies (an Irish-American mob outfit) and the Cherry Hill Gambinos (a Sicilian American ditto); these were notorious groups, noted for being "wild cowboys", even among the various branches of the Casa Nostra.

Now Castellano was only one capo, but that grouping does have the potential to get out of hand. I don't know if it's what you want, but these guys were not especially concerned about collateral damage. On one occasion, there was a shoot-out in a crowded diner involving them and another group, in which 500-1000 shots were fired. Astonishingly, no-one was injured in this (I am not sure how this happened; by the laws of chance, that many bullets in that small a space with that many people must have resulted in someone getting hit. Apparently not, so score one for the stormtrooper school of marksmanship). Assuming a turf dispute gets out of hand, with that degree of marksmanship, and if Jimmy Carter happens to be in the vicinity, and his Close Protection is a bit sleepy (it happens. Close Protection is boring), then you could end up with Carter dead as a result of collateral damage, which would somehow feel appropriate for him.

You'd need a reason for Carter to be in New York, which shouldn't be difficult. You'd need a dispute between Castellano and another Capo, which is almost a given. You'd need a location that both could conveniently be at; the Giants Stadium to watch a game might be strangely appropriate.

However, there are a few problems. Hoffa had been imprisoned in 1967. His imprisonment might make his becoming Vice President tricky. His being pardoned and on good terms with Nixon, and - in as much as political parties bothered him - owed a huge debt to the Republicans, might make it difficult for a Democrat who'd promised to clean out the corruption left by Nixon to appoint him. But these pale into insignificance with the problem posed by the fact that he disappeared in July 1975, and was undoubtedly killed then. Being both missing and dead are generally significant obstacles to becoming Vice President.

This is incredibly interesting actually, and I think it would work well with the story i'm writing. As far as Hoffa goes, in this TL he doesn't follow quite the same career path, and doesn't wind up in prison (although he does face a similar demise as IOTL). Thank you for the information on the mob though, it's very useful!
 
For all those curious, Hoffa becoming Vice President plays into a larger alteration of history in regards to the American mob. In my timeline, the mob ultimately becomes united under a single, massively powerful (fictitious) mafioso, who quickly realizes that in order to maintain his power and avoid any extra attention towards his activities, he needs influence everywhere. Said mafioso begins recruiting several different individuals throughout the nation that he sees as malleable, and quietly funds campaigns of both Democrats and Republicans in order to gain said influence. This includes actual politicians from our own timeline, as well as other mob-associated figures, including Hoffa, Bugsy Siegel, and others.
I won't go into too much detail about it here, but most of the major incidents that began to bring down the mob never happened ITTL. The Apalachin meeting, the Kefauver Hearings and Valachi Hearings, and the RICO Act are all butterflied away, in addition to Hoffa becoming a Congressman, then Senator from Michigan, and ultimately being more or less forced upon Carter in 1976. It's a huge project in the works, to say the least.
 
So even if he isn't dead, how does convicted felon James R. Hoffa become vice-president? Even if he had been acquitted, he was so notorious that his bring on a presidential ticket would be ASB territory. (For one thing, it would be an incredible affront to the AFL-CIO which had kicked out the Teamsters for corruption.)

Carter barely got elected as it was. If he were crazy enough to choose Hoffa as running mate and the Democratic National Convention was crazy enough to go along, there wouldn't be the slightest chance of his getting elected.

I would have to agree with that, his mob ties were well known. Somehow I don't think "Vote for me and the mobster" is a winning slogan!:biggrin:
 
I would have to agree with that, his mob ties were well known. Somehow I don't think "Vote for me and the mobster" is a winning slogan!:biggrin:

"If you know what's good for you, you'll vote for the Mobster. Understand? You do like your kneecaps, don't you? Mr Baseball Bat will be very unhappy if the Mobster doesn't win."
 
"If you know what's good for you, you'll vote for the Mobster. Understand? You do like your kneecaps, don't you? Mr Baseball Bat will be very unhappy if the Mobster doesn't win."

To be fair, in this timeline, those rumors about JFK's father being a bootlegger turn out to be more than just rumors. And while the mob didn't exactly orchestrate Kennedy's Presidency the way they do Hoffa's, you could certainly argue that John F. Kennedy preceded Hoffa as our first mobster President!;)
 
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