James Foster Neal (September 7, 1928 – October 21, 2010) was an American trial lawyer who was best known for prosecuting labor leader Jimmy Hoffa and later top Nixon administration officials in connection with the Watergate scandal.
[1] Neal was born on September 7, 1928, in Oak Grove, Tennessee, and grew up on a small tobacco and strawberry farm.
Neal attended Sumner County High School in Portland, Tennessee, and played running back on the football team.
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy selected Neal in 1961 to lead a Justice Department investigation of Jimmy Hoffa, who was President of the Teamsters Union and a powerful political figure.
Neal later won an acquittal of Elvis Presley's doctor, George Nichopoulos, who had been tried for improperly dispensing drugs that contributed to the singer's death in 1977.
Following this success, John Landis cast Neal (and his law partner James F. Sanders) as extras[7] in the 1988 movie Coming to America.