Charles Brandt, of Lewes, is a former chief deputy attorney general of Delaware and the author of I Heard You Paint Houses [1], a biography of Wilmington Teamsters official and mobster Frank Sheeran.
In the course of nearly five years of recorded interviews Frank Sheeran confessed to Charles Brandt that he handled more than 25 hits for the mob and the Teamsters. The title of Brandt's book, 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, comes from the first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran. This book details Brandt’s investigation of the legendary Hoffa murder.
Born and raised in New York City, Brandt is a former junior high English teacher; welfare investigator in East Harlem; homicide investigator, prosecutor and Chief Deputy Attorney General of the State of Delaware. In private practice since 1976, Brandt was elected president of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association and the Delaware Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. He has been named by his peers as one of the "Best Lawyers in America" and one of the "Best Lawyers in Delaware." He is a frequent speaker on cross-examination and interrogation techniques for reluctant witnesses. Brandt is the author of a novel based on major crimes he solved through interrogation, The Right to Remain Silent (1988); and the true crime books: I Heard You Paint Houses (2004); and Donnie Brasco – Unfinished Business (2007, with Joe Pistone, the real life Donnie Brasco). Charles Brandt lives in Lewes, Delaware and Sun Valley, Idaho with his wife, Nancy, and has three grown children and two grandchildren.
"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 spatters on the walls and floors. In the course of nearly five years of recorded interviews, long-time Hoffa suspect, Frank Sheeran - nearing the end of his life and seeking redemption in the Catholicism of his Depression Era youth - confessed to Charles Brandt that he handled more than twenty-five hits for the powerful Mafia boss Russell Bufalino, and for his friend and Teamsters mentor Jimmy Hoffa. Sheeran learned to kill in Europe during World War II, where he waded ashore in three amphibious invasions and marched from Sicily to Dachau, compiling an incredible 411 days of active combat in General Patton's "killer division." After returning home he married, had four daughters, became a truck driver, and met Mafia boss Russell Bufalino by chance at a truck stop in 1955. At age 35 Frank Sheeran's life changed forever. He began doing odd jobs for Bufalino to earn a few bucks, getting deeper into the Mafia way of life. Sheeran soon was killing on orders again. Eventually he would rise to a position of such prominence in the Teamsters and the Bufalino family 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 his friend and mentor, Jimmy Hoffa, Sheeran followed the order, knowing that if he ever said no to Russell Bufalino about anything he would have gone to Australia - been killed himself. Sheeran's gripping, historically important, yet in many ways, tragic confession includes new information on other infamous murders, including that of Crazy Joey Gallo. Sheeran's life story provides rare insight into the Depression, World War II, the post-war era, the Teamsters and Jimmy Hoffa, the JFK assassination, corruption in the White House, and the Mafia and one of its most powerful and secretive bosses, Russell Bufalino. Charles Brandt has written a best-selling page-turner that has already become a true crime classic.
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