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    Unavailable
    I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa
    Unavailable
    I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa
    Unavailable
    I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa
    Audiobook15 hours

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

    Written by Charles Brandt

    Narrated by Scott Brick

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Updated with a 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 before.

    Plans have been announced to turn "I Heard You Paint Houses" into a major motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese. The working title for the movie is "The Irishman".

    The first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran were, "I heard you paint houses." 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 he 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, he 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 pause-resister that has become a true crime classic.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateNov 11, 2008
    ISBN9780739384459
    Unavailable
    I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa
    Author

    Charles Brandt

    Charles Brandt was raised Italian in New York City. His grandparents spoke broken English and had a farm and eleven children in Staten Island. Brandt attended Stuyvesant High School on 15th Street in Manhattan. His uncle, Professor Frank Zozzora of Sassano, Italy, helped him make it through the University of Delaware. Upon graduation, Brandt taught English in Queens, then worked as an investigator for the Welfare Department in East Harlem near Fat Tony Salerno’s Mafia headquarters. He graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1969 and became a prosecutor and homicide investigator in Delaware. He was promoted in 1974 to the chief deputy attorney general, in charge of all homicides. In 1976, he became a medical malpractice lawyer. By 2000, with the help of his cousin Carmine Zozzora, he had become a professional writer in Ketchum, Idaho, where he resides.

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    Reviews for I Heard You Paint Houses

    4/5

    119 ratings8 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Interesting, very plausible... seemed it could have been edited to be more clear and concise and shorter, it read as if it had been padded to make it longer.
    • 4/5
      Really liked it - interesting read - awesome pictures!
    • 5/5
      great book the narrator made the book so interesting and easy to picture in my mind
    • 5/5
      Stunning confessions told as only the Mafia can. Tremendous insight into the reason and thought process behind every move they made. RIP Jimmy R. Hoffa.
    • 3/5
      This book was the basis for Martin Scorsese's movie of the same name, and perports to solve the mystery of what happened to Jimmy Hoffa as well as the assassination of John F. Kennedy. One man was responsible - Frank SheerhanThe author spins a good gangster story as anyone who has seen Scorsese's movie can attest to. however, despite going into voluminous explanations for his claims, most of them have been debunked since the publication of the book.My advice is to read the first half of the book which is a great mob story, and then ignore the last half where Brundt tries to convince you of his tale's authenticity.
    • 5/5
      I'm a sucker for mobster stories - especially ones that turn out to be true! When I saw a preview for the Netflix movie - The Irishman - I was hooked. I immediately went online to find out more about it and I discovered it was a book. So naturally I had to read the book. It did not disappoint! I learned more about Jimmy Hoffa, organized crime, the Teamsters, and Bobby Kennedy then I had in any other book. It was dark, fascinating, twisted and impossible to put down! Charles Brandt listened to Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran for the the final years of his life and got him to discuss his time working for the mafia and his involvement in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. This book was told orally to the author and the gaps were filled in with historical facts, anecdotes, and pictures. It was freaking awesome. Dense at times, but never boring; this mob tale is a definite winner!
    • 4/5
      3.5***Subtitle: Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran & the Inside Story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, & the Last Ride of Jimmy HoffaWell, that pretty much covers it. Brandt, a former prosecutor, managed to get Frank Sheeran to tell the true story of what happened. This virtual death-bed confession is sometimes fascinating, but I could not reconcile the violent behavior of this man (and that of his “friends”). He may have made a full confession and gotten absolution from a priest, but to me Sheeran was a thug and sociopath who was making excuses for his behavior. Still, the story of how Hoffa came to power and succumbed to his own ego is fascinating.
    • 4/5
      A few years ago a friend from the States visited me and told me an incredible story about his father meeting Tony “Pro” Provenzano, a Genovese capo and then international vice president of the (Brotherhoofd of) Teamsters, the big blue collar labor union. Tony Pro had asked him to help him get some cargo out of the country to Canada without the proper paperwork. The cargo consisted of a few oil drums - just as speculation flooded the streets of what had happened to Jimmy Hoffa, who had disappeared mysteriously. One of the theories was - no surprise - that the body was shipped out of the country in empty oil drums.Based on the dry and factual account of Frank Sheeran, trusted man of Jimmy Hoffa, it’s highly unlikely it happened that way, but you never know. In “I heard you paint houses“, a euphemisms for a professional hit man, Sheeran confesses he killed his boss, mentor and best friend, and he suspected that the body was taken to a mafia crematorium and “processed”.Why did Sheeran kill his mentor and friend? Because he was his mentor and friend. No one in the mob trusts a stranger in his vicinity, so the hit had to be done by someone close to you. It also involved some kinky code of honor. you didn’t make a hit when family or kids were in the vicinity. No Pacino-esque “meet my little friend”, but “Hi” and the kill was done.The book gives a unique insight in a world so utterly strange to the most of us it has become a world of weird fantasy and nonsensical speculation for most people. Sheeran does a fine job telling his own story, interrupted every now and then by Brandt for some background. No heroism, just business as usual. For the inattentive reader it could well be that you’re halfway the book and start to realize Sheeran is talking about killing dozens of people. No theater, no spectacle, just goold old business pals taking care of business of a different kind.The Hoffa kill is just a small part of the book describing the road Sheeran walked to become as casual killing people as he describes it to us. His youth and wartime experience were a big factor, but it’s also clear that Sheeran was drawn into the business to get away from a lousy existence as bad father and husband, drunk and dozens missed opportunities. It’s Russel Bufalino, the Pennsylvania boss, who discovers Sheeran, standing over 6 foot is a sturdy bodyguard and extremely loyal executive right hand. He remains his godfather till the very end.Large parts of the book gives us insight in the shared hatred for the Kennedy family, especially Robert Kennedy. One of the reasons is not so much the fact that Bobby Kennedy tried to eradicate the mafia, but because his family broke the rules of the game. In the Mafia’s opinion father Kennedy had become rich due to illegal activities during the Probation, but now he betrayed the people who had made him rich by allowing his sons to go after them. There’s also a hint that Hoffa was responsible for the murder on JFK, but the evidence is hardly convincing. Sheeran also tells the story about transferring large sums of money to Attorney General John Mitchell to make Nixon pardon Hoffa. I wonder if that’s true, although Richard Nixon did pardon Hoffa..As said before, Sheeran’s account is about “business as usual”. How “usual” was the “business”? The closing chapters containing the Hoffa hit gives us a view of how usual. Sheeran explains that a hit is no sloppy job. It’s always a detailed and preplanned actioon with dozens of people involved who often don’t know each other. the same goes for the murder on Hoffa. Russel Bufalino calls Sheeran about Hoffa. No words are spilled, and nothing explicit is said. Sheeran knwos what he has to do, telling the story without a hint of drama. Bufalino drives Sheeran in his limo to an Ohio airstrip where a plane is waiting. When Sheeran gets on the plane, Bufalino dozes off. Upon returning Sheeran finds him still asleep. Waking up, Bufalino tells Sheeran, my Irish Friend, that he hoped Sheeran had a pleasant flight. On which Sheeran answers “And I hope you had a good sleep.”