"The Irishman", nominated for best film of the year by National Board of Review
Read the full story: Free Path to Oscar: "The Irishman", nominated for National Board of Review's Best Movie of the Year
The events reported in "The Irishman", Martin Scorsese's latest film, are inspired by a bestseller. "I Heard You Paint Houses" by Charles Brandt is based on the confessions of a Detroit mobster named Frank Sheeran related to his role in the assassination of Jimmy Hoffa, the former president of the largest American union, the International Union of Carriers (International Brotherhood of Teamsters, IBT). The murder of Jimmy Hoffa, which remains unresolved to this day, is a famous case.
Portrait of a mobster
Frank "Irish" Sheeran was born in 1920 to a poor family, descendants of Irish immigrants. In World War II, he fought in the Italian campaign. According to him, the experience of the war has transformed him into a person capable of killing without hesitation. Then he accidentally met Russell Bufalino, the father of a Mafia family. Later, Sheeran became his trusted man. Being Irish and not Italian, Frank couldn't hope to join the family, but he had the chance to become a so-called "associate". The same Russell Bufalino introduced him to Jimmy Hoffa. Sheeran - a solid guy of 1.93 m and 120 kg - was perfect for the kind of jobs Hoffa needed. The Irishman said that in the years he worked for Bufalino and Hoffa he would have committed between 25 and 30 commissioned crimes.
The murder of Jimmy Hoffa
On July 30, 1975, at 2:30 pm, Hoffa was to meet at a restaurant in a suburb of Detroit with two mob bosses. The last time he was seen alive, he was in the parking lot of the restaurant, on the back seat of a car, along with three other strangers. In the version of Frank Sheeran, the one featured in the movie, the crime was a commissioned one and it happened in an empty house in Detroit. The body was later raised by a second Mafia team.
How true is this story?
There are many voices saying that the Irishman was involved in the assassination, in one form or another. The problem is that he has changed his statements several times. Although Frank Sheeran was a controversial man, no one in his life could prove that he was guilty of the crimes he later confessed to in his book. No informant has ever identified him as a participant in any crime, and his only conviction was for fraud. He could not commit 20-30 murders without going to prison or being killed. What is certainly known was that Sheeran was never removed from the list of suspects.