2012 mafia movie, "I Heard You Paint Houses"
doctorw
By TONY EVANS
Express Staff Writer
Organized crime has long been a staple of the Hollywood film industry.
Ketchum resident and author Charles Brandt, 68, knows more than most
about the inner workings of the Mafia.
One of his four books, "I Heard You Paint Houses," will be made into a
movie in 2012, featuring Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and
Harvey Keitel. The book, published in 2004, was a New York Times
nonfiction bestseller. To "paint a house" is a euphemism for murder—
the paint is the blood that spatters on the walls.
The book is a true-crime biography of Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, a
Teamsters official and Mafia associate who on orders from his powerful
godfather, Russell Bufalino, killed his friend and mentor Jimmy Hoffa,
and 25 to 30 others, including Crazy Joey Gallo.
While interviewing Sheeran for the book, Brandt said, he uncovered key
information implicating the Mafia in the assassination of President
John F. Kennedy.
"I am absolutely 100 percent convinced that the Mafia killed JFK,"
Brandt said in an interview. "I theorize that Lee Harvey Oswald was
expecting to meet up with cops who would help him get out of the
country."
Brandt says Oswald's killer, Jack Ruby, was deeply involved with the
Mafia. During interviews in 1999, Sheeran told Brandt that rifles he
transported to an airport in 1963 were used in the JFK assassination.
The film is in production at Paramount Studios under the working title
"The Irishman," and will be directed by Martin Scorsese, based on a
screenplay by Oscar winner Steve Zaillian.
Born and raised in New York City, Brandt is a former junior high
school English teacher and East Harlem welfare investigator. Upon
graduating from Brooklyn Law School in 1969, he moved to crime-plagued
Wilmington, Del., and became a homicide investigator, prosecutor and
chief deputy attorney general. Brandt is a past president of the
Delaware Trial Lawyers Association and the Delaware Board of Trial
Advocates.
"I put four men on death row in Delaware," he said. "I've spent a lot
of time around murderers."
In 1976, Brandt left the attorney general's office and entered into
private practice, defending many high-profile murder cases for a
decade until he was able to build his own firm restricted to medical
malpractice. He is an expert and frequent speaker on cross-examination
and interrogation techniques for reluctant witnesses, skills that
allowed him to uncover the secret of Jimmy Hoffa's murder and shed
light on Kennedy's assassination.
"A person who wants to confess oftentimes wants you to drag it out of
them," said Brandt.
Brandt represented Sheeran in a racketeering case in 1980.
"He was arrogant, a killer. We all knew that about him. Several books
had identified him in the conspiracy to kill Hoffa. He was given 32
years instead of five, in order to squeeze him on Hoffa."
In 1991, Sheeran, in deteriorating health, hired Brandt as a medical
lawyer. After being released from jail, he contacted Brandt in 1999 to
"tell his side of the story," which signaled to Brandt that he wanted
to confess. Brandt met him for lunch.
"We knew he'd killed a guy who spilled wine on him, so my partner was
worried about me," Brandt recalled.
Brandt said Sheeran came to him after reading Brandt's 1988 novel "The
Right To Remain Silent," in which Brandt describes confession as "a
basic human need, like food and shelter."
It took five years of interviewing and to reach a point that Sheeran
was willing to unburden his soul of the killing of his friend and
mentor Hoffa.
"He told me that if he hadn't killed Hoffa, he would have gone to
Australia, too, which means to go down under, to be killed."
When Brandt mentioned Kennedy's assassination in passing, Sheeran
said, "I'm not going anywhere near Dallas."
"It meant he knew something about the JFK assassination," Brandt
said.
Brandt said his feelings toward Sheeran changed toward the end of the
mobster's life. He said he grew fond of him after Sheeran returned to
his Catholic faith in 1999, and confessed to killing Hoffa, his
longtime friend.
Brandt said Sheeran was recruited into the Mafia in the 1950s, 10
years after serving 411 days of combat in World War II. Brandt served
as a pall bearer at Sheeran's funeral in 2003.
"I had a personal relationship with him. He was doing the best he
could. He was genuinely remorseful in the end, but not uniformly
so. ... He did care about killing Hoffa."
On Wednesday, Feb. 23, Brandt will give a lecture at The Community
Library in Ketchum titled "Writing About the Mafia." The lecture
coincides with the release of the true-crime book "We're Going To Win
This Thing," which Brandt co-authored.
Calvin
Just one more tall tale with nothing going for it but the word of
somebody who has died. Glad to hear the movie is still in the works,
though. I'm sure it will be great.
bigdog
This guy lost me when he claimed Ruby transported the rifles used to
kill JFK. We know which rifle was used to kill JFK. It was Oswald's
MC. JFK was hit twice and both bullets came from that rifle. Anybody
who deviates from that known fact is writing a fairy tale.
Mixe...@verizon.net
for Joe Biden!
