'I Heard You Paint Houses': Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran and the Inside Story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, and the Last Ride of Jimmy Hoffa.

'I Heard You Paint Houses': Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran and the Inside Story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, and the Last Ride of Jimmy Hoffa 

Charles Brandt Steerforth Press www.steerforth.com 304 pp., $25

To paint someone's house, in Mob-speak, is to kill them: The blood splatters on the walls. "I heard you paint houses" were the first words Jimmy Hoffa ever said to Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran. Charles Brandt, a former prosecutor and trial lawyer, spent five years interviewing Sheeran. These transcripts make up the lion's share of the book and include his "confession" to Hoffa's murder. Nearing the end of his life and after numerous requests by Hoffa's family to reveal all that he knew about his disappearance, Sheeran finally agreed to talk about these events in an effort to clear his conscience.

In post-World War II Philadelphia, Sheeran was a wise guy on the rise, working for legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino. Having recently returned from the war, Sheeran drove a truck for a grocery store chain, between doing "favors" for Bufalino.

Hoffa was already a prominent national figure who had rapidly worked his way up in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to become its president, and Sheeran wanted to be a part of that. He had just lost his truck-driving job after running one scam too many off the back of his rig, and he needed to find something new.

So when Sheeran found himself on the phone with Hoffa, who was making a very pointed statement, Sheeran replied, "I do my own carpentry work, too." That is, he nailed together the coffins, or disposed of the bodies.

Hoffa told Sheeran to report to Detroit the next day and provide muscle for a picket line against a local cab company. From there, the book takes you on a wild ride of murder, crime, Mob relationships, labor unions, and finally, betrayal on a grand scale.

Early in the movie The Godfather, Corleone family consigliere Tom Hagen says to Don Corleone, "Now we have the unions, we have the gambling; and they're the best things to have." The wisdom of that statement comes shining through in Sheeran's story.

Bufalino and other Mafia figures had staggering influence on labor onions. One Genovese crime family member, Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano, held a seat on the Teamsters' executive committee for many years. Sheeran's main duty was to "paint houses" for Hoffa, with the orders coming from Bufalino, Tony Pro, or a host of others with equally colorful nicknames as they exerted violent and bloody control over organized labor.

Perhaps the biggest--but only--disappointment in the book is that Sheeran's story of what happened to Hoffa is not new. Instead, it merely confirms what we suspected all along and shatters a couple of urban myths in the process.

Hoffa's body wasn't crammed into an oil drum and dumped somewhere in New Jersey, and he certainly wasn't buried in the end zone at the Meadow-lands, the home football stadium for both the New York Giants and Jets. Sheeran says he killed Hoffa on July 30, 1975, in a lake house well outside of Detroit. His body was placed in a body bag and loaded into the trunk of a car, to be cremated. Sheeran maintains he has no idea what actually happened to Hoffa's body after he pulled the trigger, ending the legendary union boss's life.

But the book is not without surprises. Rumors have long circulated about the Mob, the CIA, and the Bay of Pigs invasion. Sheeran eliminates any doubts and states it flat out: After Sam "Momo" Giancana delivered Illinois to Kennedy in 1960, the Mob wanted Castro out of Cuba so it could reclaim its Havana casinos, and Kennedy tried to deliver. The author leaves it up to the reader to decide whether the invasion failed because of poor planning or because the Kennedys double-crossed the Mafia.

Sheeran also tells of a duffel bag containing three high-powered rifles that he delivered to a concrete factory outside Baltimore. The guns ultimately found their way to a certain Texas book depository.

This tale is easy to dismiss until much later in the book, when Sheeran and Bufalino are discussing Hoffa's campaign to reclaim the Teamsters presidency after being sent to jail for jury tampering. Ridding the Teamsters of the Mob was the sole plank of Hoffa's platform, and Bufalino expresses concern that Hoffa is not showing the proper appreciation for a favor he received, then mouths the words "in Dallas."

After this revelation, Sheeran's description of delivering suitcases of cash to Attorney General John Mitchell to arrange for Nixon's presidential pardon of Hoffa barely registers surprise.

But is Sheeran believable? Very.

Perhaps that is because his story is told almost entirely in his own words. Brandt did the background reporting, but on the whole the words are Sheeran's. Rather than romanticizing his life and deeds, Sheeran is blunt about his failings as a father and husband, and candid about his alcoholism.

Finally, it is Sheeran's lack of remorse for killing Hoffa--whom he once described as one of the two greatest people he had ever known--that makes his story credible. Returning from the murder, Sheeran finds Bufalino waiting for him, napping in his car. He greets Sheeran by saying, "I hope you had a pleasant flight, my Irish friend."

To which Sheeran replies, "I hope you had a good sleep."

True or not, if you are looking for an escape from trials, depositions, and expert witnesses, or even if you just like a good Mobstory, I Heard You Paint Houses is a very enjoyable book.

NICK JACOBS is media coordinator in ATLA's Media Relations department.