I read that director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro, who teamed up  to make the classic crime films Goodfellas, Casino and Mean Streets, are returning to the scene of organized crime in an upcoming film.

Scorsese and De Niro are planning to make a film based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses (Steerforth Press). The book, written by former prosecutor Charles Brant, is based on four years of taped interviews of Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, a Philadelphia native, Teamster union official and self-confessed hit man for La Cosa Nostra.

With the urging of his daughters, the elderly and ill Sheeran visited a Monsignor in Philadelphia and received absolution, which allowed him to be buried in a Catholic church when he died. After visiting the Monsignor, Sheeran agreed to make another “confession” by talking to Brant. Sheeran admitted to committing several murders, including the murder and dismembering of his close friend, former Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa.

“I heard you paint houses,” was the first thing Hoffa said to Sheeran when they met. “Painting houses” is a criminal euphemism for murder, suggesting the blood that is sprayed on walls when a man is shot and killed.

Some of the story takes place in South Philadelphia, where I live, and according to Sheeran, his first “hit” was ordered in a South Philly restaurant by Philadelphia mob boss Angelo Bruno. Bruno simply told Sheeran, “You gotta do what you gotta do.”

Sheeran was a World War II veteran, truck driver and a small-time crook, who went on to work alongside Hoffa in the International Teamsters. He also committed murder for his Padrone, Russell Bufalino, the mob boss of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Sheeran offers an inside-story of Hoffa’s battles with the union, the mob and the law. The law won and Hoffa was sent to prison. After Hoffa was pardoned he tried to regain control of the union, which ultimately led to his murder by mob bosses who controlled the union. According to Sheeran, Bufalino ordered the murder.

Sheeran told Brant he regretted killing his friend and resorted to drinking heavily afterwards. Although he was long a suspect, he was never arrested for Hoffa’s murder. He died in 2003.

Hoffa’s murder has been a mystery that has fueled conspiracy buffs for decades. This book answers many questions, but the problem with I Heard You Paint Houses, and many other true crime books, is they are based primarily on the word of a criminal.

And considering that criminals steal, cheat, kill, and lie for a living, one should be skeptical. Sheeran may very well have killed Hoffa, but he only offers scant hearsay evidence that Hoffa paid off President Nixon for his pardon, and that the mob killed President Kennedy.

But having said that, I found the book to be a good crime story and a compelling tale of betrayal and redemption. These are themes that interest Scorsese, so I’m looking forward to the film.

Paul Davis also writes an espionage blog for GreatHistory.com. Davis’ web site is http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/site/. He can be reached at daviswrite@aol.com.

About the Author: Paul Davis has been a student of crime and espionage since he was a 12-year-old aspiring writer growing up in South Philadelphia. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was 17 in 1970 and served on an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. He performed security work as a young sailor and later as a Defense Department civilian employee. As a writer he has covered crime, espionage, terrorism and the military for newspapers, magazines and Internet publications.

Related Articles Philly Mob Files: Mobsters, Molls and Murder, Part III Philly Mob Files: Mobsters, Molls and Murder, Part I Philly Mob Files: Mobsters, Molls and Murder, Part II Widow of Slain Policeman Fights On Depression-Era Public Enemies vs. the FBI, Part II

Find similar posts tagged with: america, crime, movies
1 Comment »