Soon to be a NETFLIX film directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel, and written by Steven Zaillian.Updated with a 57-page Conclusion by the author that features new, independent corroboration of Frank Sheeran’s revelations about the killing of Jimmy Hoffa, the killing of Joey Gallo and the murder of JFK, along with stories that could not be told … that could not be told before.
“I heard you paint houses” are he first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran. To paint a house is to kill a man. The paint is the blood that splatters on the walls and floors. In the course of nearly five years of recorded interviews Frank Sheeran confessed to Charles Brandt that he handled more than twenty-five hits for the mob, and for his friend Hoffa.
Sheeran learned to kill in the U.S. Army, where he saw an astonishing 411 days of active combat duty in Italy during World War II. After returning home he became a hustler and hit man, working for legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino. Eventually Sheeran would rise to a position of such prominence that in a RICO suit then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani would name him as one of only two non-Italians on a list of 26 top mob figures.
When Bufalino ordered Sheeran to kill Hoffa, the Irishman did the deed, knowing that if he had refused he would have been killed himself.
Sheeran’s important and fascinating story includes new information on other famous murders including those of Joey Gallo and JFK, and provides rare insight to a chapter in American history. Charles Brandt has written a page-turner that has become a true crime classic.
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Charles Brandt, an attorney from Delaware, spent years interviewing Mafia hit man Frank Sheeran. Sheeran was one of the prime suspects in the disappearance of Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, but because of all of the suspects refusal to talk, neither the local police nor the FBI could ever gather enough evidence for a conviction.
After decades of investigation, the FBI closed the case and left it unsolved. Brandt, who had extensive experience in criminal law and who helped win Sheeran’s release from prison on medical grounds, thought he could draw a confession from the elderly Sheeran who had begun to reconsider his life as he approached death.
Sheeran had grown up poor in Philadelphia during the Depression. His father used to throw him into fights against bigger, older kids, betting on him to win. The family needed the money, and Sheeran didn’t want to disappoint his father, who would give him a beating if he failed.
In World War II, Sheeran had an unusually long tour of duty, surviving 411 days in combat under some of the war’s worst conditions. His commanders often called on him to execute captured soldiers, a task he dispatched with cool efficiency.
His home life and his military service conditioned him to be an effective killer. By the time he left the army, he was six-foot-four, powerfully built, and highly skilled with firearms. He returned to Philadelphia with no job prospects, but he was outgoing and easily made friends with the Italians in South Philly who could supply him with odd jobs. All in all, this was the perfect recipe of the right man being in the right place at the right time: the perfect conditions for a life to go wrong.
Sheeran’s life really took a turn after a chance meeting in a small town in New York State. An older man helped him fix his truck when it broke down, and the two struck up a friendship. Sheeran didn’t even know at the time that there was such a thing as the Mafia, or that he was already a part of it. Nor did he know that the man he’d befriended by chance was the not only the head of the regional organization, but also the boss that all the other bosses turned to when they had sticky problems to work out.
The boss put Sheeran in touch with Jimmy Hoffa, who was looking for help organizing workers in Detroit and Philadelphia. Over the course of more than fifteen years, Hoffa and Sheeran became close friends. And then one day Jimmy Hoffa became one of those sticky problems that had to be dealt with…
This book is fascinating from beginning to end because Sheeran himself is a fascinating character, and because he provides a clear, detailed description of a violent culture in which he is at once and insider and an outsider, a feared master of the game who might at any moment become a victim himself.
The book also sheds some light on the rampant and astonishingly flagrant corruption of local and national politics. Sheeran and his Mafia friends had some more than shady dealings with the Kennedy administration, with Richard Nixon and his Attorney General John Mitchell, and with the early career of the up-and-coming Joe Biden.
Whether you’re interested in crime, politics, or the social history of mid-twentieth-century America, I can’t recommend this book highly enough. Brandt did a brilliant job with a once-in-a-lifetime subject.
Interesting book. The Scorsese film is a very good version of it…
I just finished this book about ten minutes ago and man is it gooooood. I love true crime books so I picked this one to read and I have never read a better book. its got an amazing story, characters I can relate to and on top of that all its a true story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. so to end this i want to say if you’re looking for a true crime book or a book about the mafia or you just want something new, read this and you wont regret it.
Interesting but too much detail in places.
I love books on Hoffa and the mob, and this one is a true gem. I was stunned by the revelations, though I should have seen them coming. Some critics have tried to discredit Sheeran’s story, but it seems very believable. I enjoyed it.
Charles Brandt is the author of this book, but to me he’s just the means to Frank Shereen getting his story told. Frank is a great storyteller. He takes you through his life as well as days in the Mafia.
I learned quite a bit from this book. I never knew just how influential the Mob was in different things. From unions, politics, movies and murders. Frank tells you why Hoffa got killed and who done it. The conspiracy of JFK and why. How JFK’s dad made his money. Who the big time bosses were during his days.
A very interesting book. The conclusion was a little long and repeated a lot of stuff already told in the book. That was a draw back for me. Overall though, the book is worth a read if you are interested in this subject.
this book was sold to me as this guy finally telling the truth about the Jimmy Hoffa disappearance. It isn’t. It’s interesting and a page turner, but pure bunk.
The year is 1974. Jimmy Hoffa goes missing. everybody wonders where. did he go what happened to him? “I heard you paint houses”. was the question Jimmy Hoffa asked Frank Sheeran. Frank replied yes and “I do carpentry work as well. I heard you paint houses translates I heard you kill people? “I also do carpentry work” translates I clean up my mess.” That should be enough to convince you to read the book.
A revision with updated material of interviews with Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran about connections between Unions and the Mob and ultimately the death of Jimmy Hoffa. Corruption abounds.
I reluctantly picked up this book after having it recommended several times. To my surprise, I could not stop reading it. I’ve read it multiple times and just picked up the new edition with added info. Phenomenal writing, descriptive, and I could feel the author immersed himself in this world