I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa Kindle Edition

If you think your work is killing you, what would you think if killing was your work? Nothing, if you were Frank Sheeran and had sent 25 to 30 men "to Australia".I Heard You Paint Houses is a taped narration by 83-year-old Frank Sheeran of his life as a hit man, thief, thug, bagman, and corrupt Teamster official, to all of which he had taken like a fish to water. Against daunting evidence of his having a conscience, he asks from his grave that we believe his narrative. Still, one warms to him, a 6 foot 4 good-looking "stand up" guy known as "The Irishman", who looks like a crooked, friendly cop on the take, likable for his rough candour, boozing, and ball room dancing, noted for his cold eyed stare above a half smile look, and his stammer under stress. Hearing him in one's mind is like listening to the voice heard in darkness by a priest in a confessional box, the face of the speaker unseen. The irony that Sheeran is speaking in an assisted living facility does not escape you. Sheeran, an aged, much-used assassin, optimistically speaks of a "shot" at heaven by confessing to a priest who will grant him absolution. If Sheeran can make it, the whole neighborhood can make it. Who can say that Sheeran the pentitent did not shake hands with Sheeran the predator who was waiting outside the confessional, sniffing the air for money for his estate? If Sheeran were the reader, would Sheeran believe someone with his history? Is Mayor Bloomberg 6 feet four?The book is the work of Charles Brandt, former Chief Deputy Attorney General of Delaware, who oversaw the tapings after dogging Sheeran for several years to make them. The narrations are enhanced by Brandt's factual commentaries that provide useful contexts of time, people, and events. When shown the book, Sheeran, hunched over, appraised it. "The title sucks", he said. Indeed, the title does "suck", but don't let the title fool you. The book is an artful work crafted by Brandt so intensely that one is not surprised that Brandt as pall bearer carried Sheeran to the very lip of his grave, perhaps out of an impulse to learn at the last moment whether Sheeran had conned heaven out of God.As one closes the book, one imagines its array of characters and events. Sheeran in front and center, and around him, the warriors Jimmy Hoffa and Robert Kennedy, Russell Bufalino, the most powerful godfather in the United States who had a hand in the Bay of Pigs tragedy ("These Kennedys could louse up a one-car funeral", said Sheeran.), Sam Giancana, who sent his mistress to a grateful President in Camelot, Crazy Joe Gallo, whacked by Sheeran in Umberto's Clam House, Frank Fitzsimmons, the Teamsters president annointed by the imprisoned Hoffa and corrupted by the mob, the liberation of Dachau by US soldiers, Sheeran among them, Sam Giancana's associate, Jack Ruby (remember him?), known socially to Hoffa and Sheeran, Joe Colombo whacked by a "cowboy" who was promptly shot, "Bugs" Briguglio, a hit man shot twice in the head by Sheeran while greeting him heartily, prison guards who for years watched Sheeran, more mean in prison than on the street, the men Sheeran had whacked all of whom presumably had a last roll call in Sheeran's confession, the Cosa Nostra commission of which Sheeran was one of the only two non-Italian members, Attorney General John Mitchell as bagman to whom Sheeran delivered large sums of green stamps, Nixon signing the commutation of Hoffa's sentence, the Teamster Pension Fund used by Hoffa and Cosa Nostra as a private bank, crooked Teamster officials, goons and hit men of competing unions, even E. Howard Hunt accepting a truckload of weapons from Sheeran in Florida. All these and many more from central casting loiter in your memory. No stumble bum hitman this Sheeran who speaks of the killing of President Kennedy to whom the mob gave Illinois as an electoral gift after a chat with Kennedy's former bootlegger father, a Sheeran who speaks with ease of the mob's attempt to poison Castro, the mob who with the warrior Hoffa hated Robert Kennedy for his drive against organized crime. What did Bufalino mean when, having trouble with a recalcitrant Hoffa, he said to Hoffa that Hoffa was not showing "appreciation for Dallas"?Sheeran was born in 1920 in Philadelphia in a poor Irish-Catholic family that solved its rent problems by flights from one to another unsuspecting landlord. Grey was the color of his childhood, his father an unloving, feisty, common type, bitter in occasional jobs during the Depression. He took little Sheeran to farms where they would steal vegetables, flee steps ahead of gunshot pellets, and spread their takings on the table for the family's meal. His father, however, showed a spark of economic promise. He would enter bars and wage a quarter matching the 10 year old Sheeran against the 15 year old son of any customer. If Sheeran lost, his head would feel the cuff of his father's hand. In his first and last year at high school, an incautious principal unjustly cuffed Sheeran's 16 year old head and promptly received Sheeran's personal broken jaw award. Years of drifting in the bottomlands of Depression work followed: carnival work as a laborer, sex lessons from carnie dancers remembered by the aged but still grateful Sheeran as " Little Egypt" and "Neptune", work as a logger and talented dance instructor, winding it all up in August 1941 in his Army enlistment at 20.World War II drew Sheeran into an horrific 411 days in unrelenting combat in which he learned to kill the enemy and especially the captured enemy. "The lieutenant gave me a lot of prisoners to handle and I did what I had to do". He killed them routinely, the way you and I comb our hair. He particpated in the massacre of more than 500 German army prisoners of war at Dachau after it had been liberated. "And no body batted an eye when it was done", he said. "Somewhere overseas", Sheeran said in an unusual reflective mood, " I had tightened up inside, and I never loosened up again. You get used to death. You get used to killing."Discharged at 25, he did hard labor, was a bouncer, taught dancing, married, had children, worked and repeatedly stole from his employer, drove trucks, and then "at some point, I just joined that other culture" in which he met the godfather, Russell [Rosario] Bufalino, who "changed my life". He became Bufalino's driver. Sheeran loved, revered and respected Bufalino, a lowkeyed, quiet man. Even the reader develops a liking for Bufalino's equanimity. "Russell", said Sheeran, "treated me like a son." Sheeran handled "certain matters" for him. One day, Bufalino handed the phone to Sheeran. It was Hoffa. He said, "I heard you paint houses", an oblique reference to blood that strikes the wall or floor where someone has been shot. Sheeran answered, "I do carpentry work, too", meaning that he disposed of bodies as well. Hoffa thereupon employed Sheeran at the International Teamsters office where Sheeran handled "certain matters" for Hoffa the way "I did for [Bufalino]." Indeed, Sheeran performed well. For example, in a 24 hour period Sheeran at Hoffa's order flew to Puerto Rico, whacked two, emplaned for Chicago, whacked one, and then flew to San Francisco to report to Hoffa who complained that Sheeran was late.Hoffa became the president of the Teamsters in 1957. By 1969 he had been sentenced to terms totalling 13 years. After the green stamps were delivered to Attorney General Mitchell, the terms were commuted in 1971 by a thoughtful "I am not a crook" President Nixon. Hoffa immediately went into high gear to regain the Teamster presidency. In 1974, Bufalino told Hoffa that the mob leaders were content with Fitzsimmons, Hoffa's successor. Fitzsimmons was weak and from him the mob leaders could obtain favorable loans from the Teamsters Pension Fund. Hoffa, however, refused to stop his campaign. Bufalino told Sheeran to tell Hoffa that if he did not stop, Hoffa would be killed. Hoffa said, "They wouldn't dare", a sign that Hoffa wasn't playing with a full deck. The mob would dare anything and he was only a 5 foot 5 tough talker who could be snuffed out like a cigarette.On July 27, 1975, following Hoffa's public threats to drive the mob from the Teamsters, Sheeran told Hoffa that Bufalino was agreeable to a settlement meeting on July 30th. Like a starved lion, Hoffa went for the meat, so much so that he asked Sheeran to be his back up man at the meeting and to be sure to take his gun with him. In the afternoon of July 30th, Sheeran, Hoffa, and others, drove to a one-family ordinary home in Michigan. There were two "cleaners" hiding in the kitchen as Hoffa, with Sheeran behind him, walked into the hallway. Hoffa, seeing no one, panicked and went for the door knob. Sheeran immediately pointed his gun under Hoffa's right ear and blasted him twice. Sheeran, knowing that a hit man sometimes has his own house painted on the spot, dropped his gun, drove to a waiting private plane, and flew out of Michigan. "My friend didn't suffer", saidsentimental Sheeran into the recorder.As for those vexed with the question of the location of Hoffa's body, Sheeran states that it was taken to a Detroit funeral parlor for cremation. "Anybody who says they know more than this - except for the cleaner who is still alive - is making a sick joke", said Sheeran. I like that, a touch of class at the end.

My review contains spoilers about this non-fiction title. BEWARE.I read this book for two reasons: The first is because I'm always drawn to mafia-related tales, especially true ones, and secondly, since Martin Scorsese is turning it into a Netflix film with Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino all starring in the three main roles.The story of Frank Sheeran is an interesting, dark, and sometimes brutal thing. This man killed everything from Nazis to gangsters, and in large quantities. The book starts with a riveting chapter that sets Frank up the night before Jimmy Hoffa is killed. It had me thinking that Frank knew who did it, but had nothing to do with the actual murder, and boy was I wrong.The book cuts away from Hoffa's murder, and takes us into Frank's childhood, and then into his 411 days of combat service during World War II. The days Frank learned how to carry out the order to murder without hesitation, and the days where Frank learned how to outlive everyone around him. I found Frank's tour of duty to be some of the most thought-provoking stuff, but I can understand why it was hard for him to discuss, especially since he was in combat for longer than the majority of humans ever in war.There's a lot of Teamsters Union talk, and while some of it would boil down to violence, it was mostly just a bunch of names being thrown around, and elections of local unions being discussed. These parts of the book are probably the least interesting, but Frank Sheeran loved The Teamsters, and was a proud member. It was probably the thing he was most proud of in his entire life.Hoffa's trials against Bobby Kennedy take up a large portion of the book, but Frank didn't have much of a perspective other than repeating some of Jimmy Hoffa's quotes from that time. It's a shame we'll never get to read a new book with interviews from Jimmy on this subject. His rivalry with Bobby Kennedy was an epic American tale in itself.Things started to get truly griping around the time Jimmy Hoffa went to "school", as Frank Sheeran referred to prison. Hoffa's hatred for being inside, and how he lost his grip on The Teamsters, which eventually led to him losing his grip on reality setup the climax, as Frank finally returned to his story from the start of the book. Frank made it to Detroit the day Jimmy Hoffa was killed...I think I was pulling for Frank more before I knew about him being in on Jimmy Hoffa's death, despite knowing he'd killed dozens of other people. Something about killing the man he claims to have respected so much, and been such close friends with, makes it hard to relate to the man. You always hear things about the mafia sending your closest friend to whack you, and in Frank's version of the Hoffa hit, that's how it went down.Frank mentioned Giants' Stadium, which was a place you'd always hear rumored to be Hoffa's burial ground when you grew up a Giants fan. He squashed that rumor, like a few others over the years, but the details of Jimmy Hoffa's last moments were a lot less extravagant. There's stuff to be taken away from those moments, but "I Heard You Paint Houses" really left an impression on me concerning Russell Buffalino.You hear a lot of old gangster names thrown around over the years, but I don't think I've ever had a conversation with a person that involved them dropping Russell Buffalino's name. According to the book, he was the closest living representation of Vito Corleone from "The Godfather", and Russell had final say on "The Godfather" film's script all the way back in the 70's. Another tidbit from this book about Godfather, Al Martino, who plays Johnny Fontane in the film, was actually the basis for the character, and not Frank Sinatra. Not only that, but Francis Ford Coppola didn't want Al Martino for the role, but Russell Buffalino made some calls, and it was so.Frank Sheeran went out by starving himself to death in a nursing home. Robert De Niro is going to be playing him in the movie, and while I hear there's going to be a lot of de-aging going on, I honestly think this flick would've worked better as a Marty/Leo team-up, but what do I know?Charles Brandt goes on to talk about how his book was well received, and most of Frank's tales were proven true, despite common beliefs before the book was published in the early 2000's (I.E.: Crazy Joey Gallo hit). Apparently, he even became friends with the actual "Donnie Brasco", and they have worked together on other stuff.If you're interested in the true crimes of the American Mafia than "I Heard You Paint Houses" is the exact book you need to add to your reading list. Frank Sheeran interacted with everyone who was anyone during the beginning of the end of "This Thing of Ours", and all as an outsider, so it's a rare perspective.VERDICT: READ

great read, well written and just flows. whether it's all true or not .... doesn't matter to me... as a book it was worth the time. good companion to the movie

I was disappointed with this book which I found to be too repetitive and slow. I understand the necessity for including information about The Teamsters and other union work in which Hoffa was involved but again, for me at least there was just too much of it. Sheeran came across as a good soldier where he learned his 'trade' but was not a good family man. I think he was the right man to despatch Hoffa, being a close friend and didn't seem particularly put out by it - business as usual seems to have been the name of the game and of course he could NOT say no either. Hoffa was no shrinking violet by any means but he is depicted here as an 'okay sort of a guy' which from my knowledge of him from other books and docu's he wasn't. He had a hatred of the Kennedy Political dynasty, saving his most poisonous invective for Bobby Kennedy who as Attorney General made it his 'life-work' to bring Hoffa down, so he couldn't have been ALL bad? I honestly cannot see that there is enough interest for a film to be made about Sheeran who if he hadn't topped Hoffa would just be 'another hoodlum'.

"I heard you paint houses" is the first thing that Jimmy Hoffa says to Frank (the Irishman) Sheeran after being introduced by Russell (McGee) Bufalino, the boss of a mafia family in Pennsylvania,New York state,New Jersey and Florida (rather than one of the more notorious 5 families in New York City) and this is the essence of the book. Although it is sort of a 'death bed confession' from Frank Sheeran about his life to Brandt, it becomes more tied in to Hoffa's disappearance and activities with regards to the Teamsters union and their links to organised crime (Russell Bufalino) in the US at that time.Frank Sheeran's story is very interesting. He was brought up through a very tough period during the Depression, became an infantry rifleman in the Second World War with the 45th Infantry Division, where he saw 411 days of active combat before coming back to the US and working in logistics (trucking & deliveries) running a few scams here and there to earn some extra money when he has a chance meeting with Russell Bufalino one day when his truck breaks down. One thing leads to another resulting in Sheeran murdering another gangster which in turn results in Bufalino introducing Sheeran (who was also a member of the Teamsters) to Hoffa (the Teamsters union president). Sheeran then effectively becomes Hoffa's friend/bodyguard and hit man (although it is organised crime that is pulling the strings in most cases) before Hoffa's eventual disappearance.I have not seen the new Irishman film directed by Scorsese starring Pacino, De Niro and Pesci but I can see why this subject matter has been chosen as a film. Organised crime, politics,murder and conspiracies are all linked together in this book and, I assume, in the film too.The book itself is very interesting and I'm sure that those who are wholly consumed with the disappearance of Hoffa will probably be able to pick holes in it but for readers who are intrigued generally about organised crime/mafia in the US and its links to politics and labour racketeering this will be an adequate read. I do not think it is as good a book as Wiseguy and Donnie Brasco (which are, in my opinion, 2 of the best organised crime/mafia books I have read to date) but it is not bad.Sometimes though, I got the feeling that Brandt was trying to pad the book out with Hoffa's court dialogue and union regulations and also trying to show that he has solved Hoffa's disappearance and discrediting other stories (as the 40 pages in the epilogue and afterword show) which will probably appeal more to the minority of readers that are interested in this rather than the majority who are interested in Sheeran's and Bufalino's mob activities (although the argument can be made that they are all linked). There is also a sources section at the back of the book should anyone be interested in further reading on this subject.This book will probably appeal to those who enjoyed the film but I would be cautious in recommending it without seeing the film first. This book is good in most parts but not great.

Boring. I couldn't finish reading it. Didn't go into depth about the crimes and hits he did but page after page of boring union details.If your interested in what was happening in the unions back then you'll like it, but if you want crime stories don't bother.

A book that reflects a life lived by different standards and morality. His war experiences not gone into in any great detail but that must have had an impact on his regard for human life. He seemed to be able to kill without hesitation or regret while maintaining a respect for the mafia hierarchy. You will have to learn a different vocabulary to read this e.g. the title refers to the ability to kill and the paint is the blood splatter left on the walls. A phrase such as “ I do my own carpentry “ means, I dispose of the bodies as well e.g. I make their coffins. Chilling.

I don't really read true crime,apart from the classic In Cold Blood, but I saw that Scorcese is doing the film with probably the finest character actors around especially in this genre. Pacino,Pesci,etc. So I got it - it's a fascinating snapshot of the time and an uncomfortable read to boot but this is about the darker sides of life so it was not unexpected. Grim,gritty and haunting. But ultimately,compulsive reading.