I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa (Updated Edition)

by Charles Brandt

Overview

New York Times Bestseller  —  #1 True Crime Bestseller

The inspiration for the major motion picture, THE IRISHMAN.

“The best Mafia book I ever read, and believe me, I read them all.” — Steven Van Zandt

“Charles Brandt has solved the Hoffa mystery.” — Professor Arthur Sloane, author of Hoffa

“Sheeran’s confession that he killed Hoffa in the manner described in the book is supported by the forensic evidence, is entirely credible, and solves the Hoffa mystery.”  — Michael Baden M.D., former Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York

“It’s all true.” — New York Police Department organized crime homicide detective Joe Coffey

“Gives new meaning to the term ‘guilty pleasure.’’’ — The New York Times Book Review

**Includes an Epilogue and a Conclusion that detail substantial post-publication corroboration of Frank Sheeran's confessions to the killings of Jimmy Hoffa and Joey Gallo.

"I heard you paint houses" are the 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. He also provided intriguing information about the Mafia's role in the murder of JFK.

Sheeran learned to kill in the US 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 the US government would name him as one of only two non-Italians in conspiracy with the Commission of La Cosa Nostra, alongside the likes of Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano and Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno. 

When Bufalino ordered Sheeran to kill Hoffa, the Irishman did the deed, knowing that if he had refused he would have been killed himself. Charles Brandt's page-turner has become a true crime classic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781586422387
Publisher:	Steerforth Press
Publication date:	06/29/2016
Edition description:	Updated Edition
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	33,647
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Born and raised in New York City, Charles Brandt is a former homicide prosecutor and Chief Deputy Attorney General of the State of Delaware. As a prosecutor, he handled more than 50 homicide proceedings, and he is the author of a novel based on cases he solved through interrogation, The Right to Remain Silent. In private practice since 1976, Brandt was a criminal defense attorney specializing in homicide for a decade, and has been president of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association and the Delaware Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. He has been named by his peers to both Best Lawyers in America and Best Lawyers in Delaware. He is also the co-author of Joe Pistone's Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business and of Lin DeVecchio's We're Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-Up of a Mafia Crime Buster.

Read an Excerpt

“They Wouldn’t Dare”
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "I Heard You Paint Houses"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Charles Brandt.
Excerpted by permission of Steerforth Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Chapter One: “They Wouldn’t Dare”
Chapter Two: What It Is
Chapter Three: Get Yourself Another Punching Bag
Chapter Four: Little Egypt University
Chapter Five: 411 Days
Chapter Six: Doing What I Had to Do
Chapter Seven: Waking Up in America
Chapter Eight: Russell Bufalino
Chapter Nine: Prosciutto Bread and Homemade Wine
Chapter Ten: All the Way Downtown
Chapter Eleven: Jimmy
Chapter Twelve: “I Heard You Paint Houses”
Chapter Thirteen: They Didn’t Make a Parachute Big Enough
Chapter Fourteen: The Gunman Had No Mask
Chapter Fifteen: Respect with an Envelope
Chapter Sixteen: Give Them a Little Message
Chapter Seventeen: Nothing More Than a Mockery
Chapter Eighteen: Just Another Lawyer Now
Chapter Nineteen: Tampering with the Very Soul of the Nation
Chapter Twenty: Hoffa’s Comedy Troupe
Chapter Twenty-One: All He Did for Me Was to Hang Up
Chapter Twenty-Two: Pacing in His Cage
Chapter Twenty-Three: Nothing Comes Cheap
Chapter Twenty-Four: He Needed a Favor and That Was That
Chapter Twenty-Five: That Wasn’t Jimmy’s Way
Chapter Twenty-Six: All Hell Will Break Loose
Chapter Twenty-Seven: July 30, 1975
Chapter Twenty-Eight: To Paint a House
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Everybody Bleeds
Chapter Thirty: “Those Responsible Have Not Gotten Off Scot-Free”
Chapter Thirty-One: Under a Vow of Secrecy

Editorial Reviews

'The Irishman' named Best Film By National Board Of Review and New York Film Critics Circle

“Sheeran’s confession that he killed Hoffa in the manner described in the book is supported by the forensic evidence, is entirely credible, and solves the Hoffa mystery.”  — Michael Baden M.D., former Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York

“I’m fully convinced – now – that Sheeran was in fact the man who did the deed. And I’m impressed, too, by the book’s readability and by its factual accuracy in all areas on which I’m qualified to pass judgment. Charles Brandt has solved the Hoffa mystery.” —Professor Arthur Sloane, author of Hoffa

“Sometimes you can believe everything you read.” — William “Big Billy” D’Elia, successor to Russell Bufalino as godfather of the Bufalino crime family

“My source in the Bufalino family . . . read I Heard You Paint Houses. All the Bufalino guys read it. This old-time Bufalino guy told me he was shocked. He couldn’t believe Sheeran confessed all that stuff to [Brandt]. It’s all true.” — New York Police Department organized crime homicide detective Joseph Coffey

“If the made men Brandt rubbed up against during his five years with Sheeran suspected what Sheeran was confessing to him on tape, they’d both have been promptly whacked.” — Joe Pistone, retired FBI deep undercover agent and the author of Donnie Brasco

I Heard You Paint Houses “gives new meaning to the term ‘guilty pleasure.’ It promises to clear up the mystery of Hoffa’s demise, and appears to do so. Sheeran not only admits he was in on the hit, he says it was he who actually pulled the trigger — and not just on Hoffa but on dozens of other victims, including many, he alleges, dispatched on Hoffa’s orders. This last seems likely to spur a reappraisal of Hoffa’s career. . . . Sheeran is Old School, and his tale is admirably free of self-pity and self-aggrandize­ment. Without getting all Oprah about it, he admits he was an alcoholic and a lousy father. His business was killing people, and . . . he did it with little muss, fuss or introspection.’’ — Bryan Burrough, author of Public Enemies, in The New York Times Book Review

“One of Sheeran’s virtues was his gift as a storyteller; one of his flaws was his tendency to murder, in mobster jargon, ‘to paint houses.’ . . . Although he professed his loyalty to Hoffa – he said on one occasion, ‘I’ll be a Hoffa man ‘til they pat my face with a shovel and steal my cufflinks’ − Sheeran acknowledged that he was the one who killed the Teamsters boss. . . . On July 30, 1975, Hoffa disappeared. Sheeran explains how he did it, in prose reminiscent of the best gangster films.”  — Associated Press

“I Heard You Paint Houses is the best Mafia book I ever read, and believe me, I read them all. It’s so authentic.” — Steven Van Zandt, featured actor, “Silvio Dante,” in The Sopranos and musician in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band 

“Told with such economy and chilling force as to make The Sopranos suddenly seem overwrought and theatrical.” —New York Daily News

“Is Sheeran believable? Very . . . and ‘I Heard You Paint Houses’ is a very enjoyable book.” —Trial Magazine

“A page-turning account of one man’s descent into the mob.” —Delaware News Journal

“A terrific read.” —Kansas City Star

From the Publisher