Bookstore Find – I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt

Ok, so as soon as I found out that there was a book that inspired The Irishman, I knew that I NEEDED it. I’m a huge fan of all the mafia films and the true crime books. Give me all of it. My favorite film to this day is still Goodfellas (The Irishman is definitely a contender in the top 5 now) and that’s the first movie my now-husband and I watched, at my request.

We went to Barnes and Noble and I think this is a fitting choice for my first book purchase of the year and new decade!

Without going into too much detail about the film (I’ll give my full thoughts on that when I give my book review), I will say that I loved it. That cast. The director. How could someone not like this film? I didn’t need to hear anything about the film after I saw the line up of DeNiro, Pesci, Pacino, and Scorsese. I was sold.

I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES: FRANK “THE IRISHMAN” SHEERAN & CLOSING THE CASE ON JIMMY HOFFA – Charles Brandt (Originally Released in 2004)

Here’s the synopsis:

“I heard you paint houses” are the first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran. 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, and provides rare insight to a chapter in American history. Charles Brandt has written a page-turner that is destined to become a true crime classic.