Peter Connelly

Peter "Pete" Connelly was a secondary antagonist in the 1992 film Hoffa.

The nephew of Frank Fitzsimmons, Pete was a young man when he was first introduced to the Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa by his uncle in the 1930s after the conclusion of a successful strike against Kreger Trucking.

Pete helped his uncle and Hoffa during subsequent strikes in the 1930s. As Hoffa rose in power and influence Pete became an important official in the Teamsters union. In the early 1950s Pete went with his uncle, Hoffa, Bobby Ciaro, and mobster Carlo "Dally" D'Allesandro on a hunting trip. During that trip Hoffa and Dally began planning how to use the Teamsters pension fund to fund mob activities. Lacking paper and pen the two used Pete's license to write out the basics of their plan.

After Hoffa became the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Pete became a highly placed official. By then Hoffa's higher profile led to questions of whether he was working with organized crime. A young Senator named Robert Kennedy began working hard to root out corruption in organized labor and targeted Hoffa as a prime example of labor corruption.

A government investigation eventually led to Hoffa being indicted, along with Bobby and Peter. Bobby tried to reassure Peter that the union's lawyers would be able to take care of the indictments, that they just had to say what the lawyers told them to. However Peter was still shaken by the news that he had been indicted.

Peter eventually made a deal with the government for immunity and betrayed Jimmy Hoffa to them. One of the pieces of evidence he provided was the copy of the hunting license Hoffa and Dally used to sketch out their plans for the Teamsters pension fund. This was enough to prove the links between Hoffa and the mob. Hoffa and Bobby were subsequently convicted of several serious crimes. The two men were sent to prison.

Peter's fate was not revealed in the film. Peter was not seen after the courtroom scenes where he had testified against Hoffa. Before Hoffa went to prison Peter's uncle Fitz mentioned his name to Hoffa, who told Fitz if he didn't know how to handle things - perhaps referring to Peter - it wouldn't do any good for Hoffa to tell him what to do.

Trivia

 * Peter Connelly was played by John C. Reilly.