Here's The True Story Behind The Irishman

The Irishman was adapted from the book I Heard You Paint Houses, based on interviews with Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran. But there's a problem, he's not a reliable narrator. Are you getting the real story of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance? It's complicated.

Frank Sheeran is the title character at the center of The Irishman, and events in the film were based on the claims he made in Charles Brandt's I Heard You Paint Houses. Essentially, Sheeran said he was coming clean, he knew he was nearing the end of his life, and he wanted to confess the secrets he'd been carrying around for decades. So what's the real story?

While there's no real way to definitively prove or disprove many of his claims, they did find that he was, by most accounts, a minor player in the South Philadelphia mafia who really did hang with the likes of Russell Bufalino. But those who knew him said he was a far cry from the version brought to the screen. One of his contemporaries in the Irish mafia, John Carlyle Berkery, described him like this:

"Frank Sheeran never killed a fly. The only things he ever killed were countless jugs of wine. You could tell how drunk he was by the color of his teeth: pink, just started; dark purple, stiff."

Slate interviewed FBI agents, law enforcement, prosecutors, and reporters, and found that no one had ever even suspected Sheeran of killing anyone. He really was a World War 2 veteran, and he really did get law enforcement's attention a few times: he once beat up a non-union truck driver, and he was also indicted two times for his alleged involvement in the slaying of union rivals...but even in those cases, he was only accused of hiring other people to do the actual killing.

Watch the video for more about the true story behind the Irishman!

#TheIrishman #FrankSheeran #JimmyHoffa

Who was Frank Sheeran…really? | 0:14
Did the mob get JFK elected? | 1:28
Crazy Joe Gallo's murder | 2:23
Did Sheeran help kill JFK? | 3:23
Jimmy Hoffa, the mob, and Las Vegas | 4:28
The mysterious disappearance | 5:04
The fish was a salmon | 5:53
What are the theories? | 6:34
Sheeran's previous denials | 7:24
Chuckie O'Brien's innocence | 8:33
Robert De Niro was cautioned | 9:36

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