PhillyMafiaHistory.com - I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran:

One of Angelo Bruno’s friends who knew Frank Sheeran said that this book was full of lies and that Sheeran was a drunk. Sheeran reminds the reader throughout the book on how much he loves his wine and that may be one excuse for why he said that he killed Jimmy Hoffa. Because there is no proof, other than his word, that he killed Hoffa, the Teamsters boss in 1975. That’s his story. It’s not history. And it doesn’t help that there were too many things that Sheeran said that people in Philadelphia know are plain wrong. Like “Villa d’Roma” for Villa di Roma. And “Moko” the prison at “Tenth and Moyamensing,: (it’s Moyamensing Prison at Tenth and Passyunk.), and the Friendly Lounge at “Tenth and Washington” (It’s on 8th). Yeah, maybe it’s the wine. But all of this could have been fact-checked.

So let’s then move on to the author, lawyer Charles Brandt who put his own “filler” to Sheeran’s rants. He should have known better than write “Woody Weisman” for Willie Weisberg and the “police” when “state troopers” were at Apalachin. By 2004, when this book was published, there were enough books, publications and other places to look for information (like newspapers, too) for Brandt NOT to write “In 1957 the mob came out of the closet” and that “…The Bruno crime family was not permitted to deal in drugs.” He didn’t read Frank Friel’s Breaking the Mob or the George Anastasia books either to get a feel on how Philadelphians would react to a book by another Philadelphian who just didn’t see and hear what they did. The Kefauver hearings in Philadelphia in 1950 were televised and made headlines here about the Philly Mafia. Newspapers in the city reported on many mobsters in the 1950s like Angelo Bruno, Marco Reginelli, Peter Casella, and Jewish mobsters like Willie Weisberg. Brandt wrote that he “researched” cross-checked and illuminated what Sheeran told him…”then why are there so many holes in this wine-soaked tale of self-aggrandizement? Sheeran used Hoffa’s mysterious death and Brandt used Sheeran, so what do the readers get? More of the same crying from an otherwise nobody.

	One of Angelo Bruno’s friends who knew Frank Sheeran said that this book was full of lies and that Sheeran was a drunk. Sheeran reminds the reader throughout the book on how much he loves his wine and that may be one excuse for why he said that he killed Jimmy Hoffa. Because there is no proof, other than his word, that he killed Hoffa, the Teamsters boss in 1975. That’s his story. It’s not history. And it doesn’t help that there were too many things that Sheeran said that people in Philadelphia know are plain wrong. Like “Villa d’Roma” for Villa di Roma. And “Moko” the prison at “Tenth and Moyamensing,: (it’s Moyamensing Prison at Tenth and Passyunk.), and the Friendly Lounge at “Tenth and Washington” (It’s on 8th). Yeah, maybe it’s the wine. But all of this could have been fact-checked. So let’s then move on to the author, lawyer Charles Brandt who put his own “filler” to Sheeran’s rants. He should have known better than write “Woody Weisman” for Willie Weisberg and the “police” when “state troopers” were at Apalachin. By 2004, when this book was published, there were enough books, publications and other places to look for information (like newspapers, too) for Brandt NOT to write “In 1957 the mob came out of the closet” and that “…The Bruno crime family was not permitted to deal in drugs.” He didn’t read Frank Friel’s Breaking the Mob or the George Anastasia books either to get a feel on how Philadelphians would react to a book by another Philadelphian who just didn’t see and hear what they did. The Kefauver hearings in Philadelphia in 1950 were televised and made headlines here about the Philly Mafia. Newspapers in the city reported on many mobsters in the 1950s like Angelo Bruno, Marco Reginelli, Peter Casella, and Jewish mobsters like Willie Weisberg. Brandt wrote that he “researched” cross-checked and illuminated what Sheeran told him…”then why are there so many holes in this wine-soaked tale of self-aggrandizement? Sheeran used Hoffa’s mysterious death and Brandt used Sheeran, so what do the readers get? More of the same crying from an otherwise nobody.








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