After more than 20 years, director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro teamed up once again to create the impressive gangster flick The Irishman. The last time the two frequent collaborators worked on a major Hollywood project together was way back in 1995 in the film Casino. After that, Scorsese had turned to Leonardo Di Caprio as his favorite muse.
We are glad Scorsese and De Niro reunited to make their 9th film together. And we're glad they begged Joe Pesci to come out of retirement too. The Irishman is great entertainment. It follows self-proclaimed mob hitman Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) as he rises up the ranks in the Bufalino crime family and eventually becomes friends with the country's most popular union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).
However, the film based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, has drawn plenty of controversy for being inaccurate. This is because most of the story is told from Sheeran's recollection. Sheeran is said to have told Brandt the whole story before his death. However, many scholars believe Sheeran fabricated things. So what's factual and what's fiction?
10 Fact: Sheeran Served In World War II
Records prove that Sheeran did indeed serve 411 days of combat in World War II as depicted in The Irishman. Reports claim that Sheeran and his team always executed German soldiers that they captured during battle instead of keeping them as POWs (Prisoners Of War). This experience prepared him for his later career as a mob hitman.
As per his own confession, Sheeran also recounted that the orders he received from his unit commanders during the war were quite similar to the orders he got from mob bosses. A line from the book, I Heard You Paint Houses reads: "It was just like when an officer would tell you to take a couple of German prisoners back behind the line and for you to 'hurry back'. You did what you had to do."
9 Fiction: Sheeran Killed Crazy Joe Gallo
In the movie, Sheeran is shown following Profaci crime family member Crazy Joe Gallo into a restaurant called the Umberto's Clam House before firing several bullets at him. Sheeran takes out Gallo because he had earlier disrespected his boss Bufalino (Joe Pesci). However, Gallo, who had many enemies, is said to have been murdered by four Italian hitmen from the Colombo crime family.
A Colombo member called Joseph Luparelli was even at Umberto's Clam House before Gallo arrived. He then alerted the other members who stormed in and killed Gallo. His widow who was present during the shooting told Slate that the hitmen were "little, short, fat Italians." Not a nice way to describe people but maybe a perfect way to describe your husband's killers. Also, Gallo's henchman, Pete "the Greek" Diapoulas, who was injured during the shooting, told the New York Times that Colombo hitman Di Biase did the shooting. No witness recalls seeing Frank at the scene.
8 Fact: Bufalino Linked Hoffa With Sheeran
In the film, Frank Sheeran becomes a truck driver after leaving the army. However, this job doesn't make him enough money so he commits petty crimes on the side for an extra buck. He thus catches the attention of Mafia boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) who takes him under this wing.
Later on, Bufalino hooks Frank up with Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The two become very close before Sheeran eventually kills him after receiving orders from above. All this has been certified as accurate.
7 Fiction: Sheeran Killed Hoffa Inside A House
Whether Sheeran really killed Hoffa or not is an issue that's up for debate. Many argue he never did it. Around 14 other people have come out to claim responsibility for Hoffa's death. It appears everyone wants to go down in history as the person who killed Hoffa.
While Sheeran's claims are debatable, his claims that he shot Hoffa inside a house have been proven false. In the final moments of The Irishman, Sheeran tricks Hoffa into entering a house. Seeing nobody inside, Hoffa gets suspicious and says, "Let's get out of here." But before he can leave, Sheeran shoots him twice in the back. In reality, this never happened. The blood found by the forensics team on the address where Sheeran claimed to have done the killing didn't match Hoffa's.
6 Fact: Sheeran Was Religous
Like the Italian-Americans that he was associated with, Frank was a strict Roman Catholic. This is a fact that hasn't been disputed. During the final scenes of The Irishman, a priest comes to pray for him. They have a brief conversation and while the priest is leaving, Frank asks him to not close the door.
Records show that Frank's dad even tried to be a priest. His mum was also strictly religious and went to pray in the nearby cathedral every single day. And before he went to war, Frank was a well-behaved kid. According to his own account, his time on the battlefield was what changed him from good to evil.
5 Fiction: Hoffa Said "I Heard You Paint Houses"
The Irishman is based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt. The paint being talked about here isn't the normal wall paint, it's blood. "Painting houses" is presumed to be mafia lingo for shooting someone inside a house and letting their blood splatter all over the walls and floor.
In the movie, the first words that Jimmy Hoffa says to Frank Sheeran in their phone conversation are "I heard you paint houses." However, except on Charles Brandt's book, there's no known record of this phrase ever being said anywhere. Even the FBI, notorious for tapping phone calls, has no record of this phrase being used.
4 Fact: Frank Sheeran Married Twice
In The Irishman's storyline, Frank married twice. The mob hitman first married Mary (Aleksa Palladino), an Irish immigrant after being discharged from the army. The couple settled in Pennsylvania and were blessed with three children.
Frank and Mary divorced in 1968. Frank then got married to Irene (Stephanie Kurtzuba)with whom he stayed the rest of his life. All this was accurate. The film altered nothing about Frank's married life.
3 Fiction: Sheeran Was In The Mob's Inner Circle
The Irishman portrayed Sheeran as a central figure in the mob. But was he? At the height of organized crime in America, the inner circles of mafia families were made up of members of the same heritage. Italian-American families never let an outsider get close to the top.
Sheeran was Irish so its highly unlikely that he would have had so much influence in the Bufalino family. He also lived in Scranton, Pennsylvania, an area that had no mafia activity at all. If he was a central figure, he'd be in one of the major cities.
2 Fact: Sheeran Served Time Behind Bars
Most mob members usually get killed or serve time behind bars. Sheeran's case was no different. After avoiding the long arm of the law for a long time, Sheeran was eventually charged with Labor Racketeering and sentenced to 32 years in prison.
Nine years later, lawyer Charles Brandt who became the eventual author of the book secured Sheeran's release on medical grounds. The gangster was 71 at the time. As a result, Brandt and Sheeran became friends. Eventually, Sheeran opened up about his life and that's how the book was born.
1 Fiction: The Visit By FBI Agents
Both in the book and in the film, two fairly young FBI agents visit and old Sheeran at his home on October 25th, 2001 to get more information from him. According to Detroit FBI agent Andrew Sluss, this never happened. Sluss was the only FBI agent assigned to the Hoffa case at the time and he was 46-years-old.
Any other agents seeking to look into the case would have to get approval from Sluss first. No one did and so it never happened. The FBI’s Automated Case Support system also showed that between 1993 and 2008, no one else looked into the case except Sluss. So, this confirms that Sheeran made that up as well.
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