Frank Sheeran | |
|---|---|
 Sheeran's 1980 mugshot | |
| Born | Francis Joseph Sheeran[2] (1920-10-25)October 25, 1920 Darby, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | December 14, 2003(2003-12-14) (aged 83) |
| Resting place | Holy Cross Cemetery,Yeadon, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Other names | The Irishman |
| Occupation | Teamsters union official |
| Organization | Local 326,International Brotherhood of Teamsters |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4 |
| Allegiance | Bufalino crime family |
| Conviction | Labor racketeering (1980)[1] |
| Criminal penalty | 32 years imprisonment[1] |
Frank Sheeran | |
|---|---|
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | US Army |
| Service years | 1941–1945 |
| Unit | Military Police Corps 45th Infantry Division |
| Conflicts | World War II |
Francis Joseph Sheeran (October 25, 1920 – December 14, 2003), also known as "The Irishman", was an American labor union official and enforcer forJimmy Hoffa andRussell Bufalino. He was accused of having links to theBufalino crime family in his capacity as a high-ranking official in theInternational Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), the president of Local 326.
Sheeran was a leading figure involved in the infiltration of unions by organized crime in the 1960s and ‘70s. In 1980, he was convicted of laborracketeering and sentenced to 32 years in prison, of which he served 13 years. Shortly before his death in 2003, he said he had killed Teamster leaderJimmy Hoffa in 1975. AuthorCharles Brandt detailed what Sheeran told him about Hoffa in the narrative nonfiction workI Heard You Paint Houses (2004). The truthfulness of the book, including Sheeran's confessions to killing Hoffa andJoe Gallo, has been disputed by some.[3][4] The book is the basis for the 2019 filmThe Irishman directed byMartin Scorsese which starredRobert De Niro as Sheeran,Al Pacino as Hoffa, andJoe Pesci as Bufalino.
Sheeran was born and raised inDarby, Pennsylvania, a small working-class borough on the outskirts ofPhiladelphia. He was the son of Thomas Francis Sheeran Jr. and Mary Agnes Hanson, he was the oldest of three siblings, having a brother named Tom and a sister named Margaret.[2][5][6] His father was ofIrish descent, while his mother was ofSwedish descent. Duringthe great depression Frank would sometimes help his father steal food from farms near their home to feed the family.[7]
Sheeran's childhood lacked affection and he quickly started working odd jobs to support his family, his first was when we was seven cleaning ash from cellars.[8] His father would often take a young Frank into bars and make Frank fight other mens sons to win money forbeer, other times his father would force his son to box against him without hitting back.[8] When not fighting against his father he would also box against neighborhood kids.
When he was a teenager Frank attended Upper Darby High School (then known asDarby High School) in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. He was later expelled after insulting and attacking the principal of the school.
Time spent with the carnival
After getting expelled, Frank joined a traveling carnival as a laborer which Frank described as:
...No Ringling Brothers; it was a honky-tonk carnival.[9]
This carnival would take Frank up and down theEastern Seaboard until they reached Maine where he joined a logging company where he would find himself boxing his coworkers again. He worked other odd jobs and made his way back to Philadelphia where Frank would discover another one of his passions in dancing.
Sheeran enlisted in theUnited States Army in August 1941, completed basic training nearBiloxi, Mississippi, and was assigned to themilitary police. Following theattack on Pearl Harbor, he volunteered for training in theAirborne atFort Benning,Georgia, but he dislocated his shoulder and was transferred to the45th Infantry Division, known as "The Thunderbirds" and "The Killer Division".[10][11] On July 14, 1943, he set sail forNorth Africa.
Sheeran served 411 days of combat duty—a significant length of time, as the average was around 100 days.[10] His first combat experience was during theItalian Campaign, including theinvasion of Sicily, theSalerno landings, and theAnzio Campaign. He then served in thelandings in southern France and theinvasion of Germany.[8]
Sheeran said:
All in all, I had fifty days lost under AWOL—absent without leave—mostly spent drinking red wine and chasing Italian, French, and German women. However, I was never AWOL when my outfit was going back to the front lines. If you were AWOL when your unit was going back into combat you might as well keep going because one of your own officers would blow you away and they didn't even have to say it was the Germans. That's desertion in the face of the enemy.[9]
Sheeran recalled his war service as the time when he developed a callousness to taking human life. He claimed to have participated in numerous massacres andsummary executions ofGermanPOWs, acts which violated theHague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the1929 Geneva Convention on POWs. In interviews with Charles Brandt, he divided such massacres into four categories:
Sheeran was discharged from the army on October 24, 1945. He later recalled that it was "a day before my twenty-fifth birthday, but only according to the calendar."[8] Upon returning from his army service, Sheeran married Mary Leddy, an Irish immigrant. The couple had three daughters, MaryAnne, Dolores, and Peggy, but divorced in 1968.[13] Sheeran then married Irene Gray, with whom he had one daughter, Connie. Irene died in December 1995.[14]
When he left the service, Sheeran became a driver forFood Fair and he metRussell Bufalino in 1955 when Bufalino offered to help him fix his truck, and later worked jobs driving him around and making deliveries.[15] Sheeran also operated out of a bar located inSharon Hill, Pennsylvania, which was run by Bill Distanisloa, a soldier under the then powerfulPhiladelphia crime familycaptain and futureacting bossAngelo Bruno.[16]
According to his biography, Sheeran's first murder was killing Whispers DiTullio, a gangster who had hired him to destroy the Cadillac Linen Service in Delaware for $10,000. However, Sheeran did not know that Angelo Bruno had a large stake in the linen service.[7] Sheeran was spotted outside the business and was brought in for questioning. Bufalino had convinced Bruno to spare Sheeran but he ordered Sheeran to kill DiTullio as retribution.[7] Sheeran was also suspected of the murder ofJoe Gallo atUmberto's Clam House on April 7, 1972.[7][16]
Bufalino introduced Sheeran toTeamsters International PresidentJimmy Hoffa. According to Sheeran, Hoffa became a close friend and used Sheeran for muscle, including the assassination of disloyal union members and members of rival unions threatening the Teamsters' turf.[17][7] Sheeran claimed that in the first conversation he had with Hoffa over the phone, Hoffa started by saying, "I heard you paint houses" — mob code for "I heard you kill people" (the "paint" being spattered blood).[3] Sheeran later became acting president of Local 326 of the Teamsters Union inWilmington, Delaware.[7]
Operation Mongoose
According to Sheeran's biography, one of the highlights of his criminal career involved him taking a truck from Baltimore to Florida, reportedly the cargo on this truck was the weapons that would be used in theBay of Pigs invasion in 1961.[18] In this biography Sheeran claims that he handed the trailer full of weapons off toE. Howard Hunt in a large-scale conspiracy involvingSanto Trafficante,Russell Bufalino, andJohn F. Kennedy. In 1975, the CIA admitted to theChurch Committee they had involved themafia in theBay of Pigs invasion. The same biography alleges that Sheeran was also involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy though with less evidence.
Sheeran was charged in 1972 with the 1967 murder of Robert DeGeorge, who was killed in a shootout in front of Local 107 headquarters. However, the case was dismissed on the grounds that Sheeran had been denied a speedy trial. He was also alleged to have conspired to murder Francis J. Marino, a Philadelphia labor organizer, in 1976, and Frederick John Gawronski, who was killed the same year in a tavern inNew Castle, Delaware.[19]
Sheeran was indicted along with six others in July 1980, on charges involving his links to the labor leasing businesses controlled by Eugene Boffa Sr. ofHackensack, New Jersey. On October 31, 1980, Sheeran was found guilty of 11 charges of labor racketeering.[20] He was sentenced to a 32-year prison term and served 13 years.[1]
Sheeran died of cancer on December 14, 2003, at the age of 83, in anursing home inWest Chester, Pennsylvania.[17] He was buried atHoly Cross Cemetery inYeadon, Pennsylvania.[21][22]
In the years leading up to Hoffa’s death, he had been in a feud with mobsterAnthony Provenzano about union leadership.[23]
Charles Brandt writes inI Heard You Paint Houses (2004) that Sheeran confessed to killing Hoffa on July 30, 1975.[7] According to Brandt's account,Chuckie O'Brien drove Sheeran, Hoffa, and fellow mobsterSalvatore Briguglio to a house in Metro Detroit. Upon entering, Sheeran claims that he shot Hoffa twice in the back of the head. Sheeran says that he was told that Hoffa was cremated after the murder. Sheeran also confessed to reporters that he murdered Hoffa, as well as Gallo.[24] Bill Tonelli disputes the book's truthfulness in aSlate article, as doesHarvard Law School professorJack Goldsmith inThe New York Review of Books.[3][4]
The FBI has examined evidence which could connect Sheeran to the murder of Hoffa, including using the latest advances in forensic technology to test remnants of blood and floorboards from the house where Hoffa was reputedly killed.[25][26][27][28] Although bloodstains were found in the Detroit house where Sheeran claimed that the murder had happened,[24] they were determined not to match Hoffa's DNA.[29][30]
The book "I Heard You Paint Houses" by Charles Brandt is the basis for the 2019 filmThe Irishman directed byMartin Scorsese. Scorsese was long interested in directing a film about Sheeran's life and his alleged involvement in the slaying of Hoffa.Steven Zaillian is the screenwriter, and producerRobert De Niro portrays Sheeran,Al Pacino plays Hoffa, andJoe Pesci plays Bufalino.[31][32] The film premiered at theNew York Film Festival on September 27, 2019, and was released on November 1, 2019. Digital streaming started on November 27, 2019, viaNetflix.[33]
