Michael Rudy Tham

Michael Rudy Tham (sometimes known as Rudy Michael Tham or Rudy Tham) (1923? – 5 October 1998) was a San Francisco Teamsters Union leader with alleged mafia connections.

Not much is known about his early life. He was a native of California, USA, and an accomplished boxer who won an amateur welterweight title in 1941.

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

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. 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. Rudy grew up in Five Points New York during his early years.

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 and, again, in 1974.

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.

In 1972 Mr. 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.

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. Tham appealed, but lost.

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 P. Aguilar, on racketeering charges. 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.

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