About the Author

Born and raised in New York City, Charles Brandt is a former homicide prosecutor and Chief Deputy Attorney General of the State of Delaware. As a prosecutor, he handled more than 50 homicide proceedings, and he is the author of a novel based on cases he solved through interrogation, The Right to Remain Silent. In private practice since 1976, Brandt was a criminal defense attorney specializing in homicide for a decade, and has been president of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association and the Delaware Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. He has been named by his peers to both Best Lawyers in America and Best Lawyers in Delaware. He is also the co-author of Joe Pistone's Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business and of Lin DeVecchio's We're Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-Up of a Mafia Crime Buster.

Reviews

'The Irishman' named Best Film By National Board Of Review and New York Film Critics Circle

“Sheeran’s confession that he killed Hoffa in the manner described in the book is supported by the forensic evidence, is entirely credible, and solves the Hoffa mystery.”  — Michael Baden M.D., former Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York

“I’m fully convinced – now – that Sheeran was in fact the man who did the deed. And I’m impressed, too, by the book’s readability and by its factual accuracy in all areas on which I’m qualified to pass judgment. Charles Brandt has solved the Hoffa mystery.” —Professor Arthur Sloane, author of Hoffa

“Sometimes you can believe everything you read.” — William “Big Billy” D’Elia, successor to Russell Bufalino as godfather of the Bufalino crime family

“My source in the Bufalino family . . . read I Heard You Paint Houses. All the Bufalino guys read it. This old-time Bufalino guy told me he was shocked. He couldn’t believe Sheeran confessed all that stuff to [Brandt]. It’s all true.” — New York Police Department organized crime homicide detective Joseph Coffey

“If the made men Brandt rubbed up against during his five years with Sheeran suspected what Sheeran was confessing to him on tape, they’d both have been promptly whacked.” — Joe Pistone, retired FBI deep undercover agent and the author of Donnie Brasco

I Heard You Paint Houses “gives new meaning to the term ‘guilty pleasure.’ It promises to clear up the mystery of Hoffa’s demise, and appears to do so. Sheeran not only admits he was in on the hit, he says it was he who actually pulled the trigger — and not just on Hoffa but on dozens of other victims, including many, he alleges, dispatched on Hoffa’s orders. This last seems likely to spur a reappraisal of Hoffa’s career. . . . Sheeran is Old School, and his tale is admirably free of self-pity and self-aggrandize­ment. Without getting all Oprah about it, he admits he was an alcoholic and a lousy father. His business was killing people, and . . . he did it with little muss, fuss or introspection.’’ — Bryan Burrough, author of Public Enemies, in The New York Times Book Review

“One of Sheeran’s virtues was his gift as a storyteller; one of his flaws was his tendency to murder, in mobster jargon, ‘to paint houses.’ . . . Although he professed his loyalty to Hoffa – he said on one occasion, ‘I’ll be a Hoffa man ‘til they pat my face with a shovel and steal my cufflinks’ − Sheeran acknowledged that he was the one who killed the Teamsters boss. . . . On July 30, 1975, Hoffa disappeared. Sheeran explains how he did it, in prose reminiscent of the best gangster films.”  — Associated Press

“I Heard You Paint Houses is the best Mafia book I ever read, and believe me, I read them all. It’s so authentic.” — Steven Van Zandt, featured actor, “Silvio Dante,” in The Sopranos and musician in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band 

“Told with such economy and chilling force as to make The Sopranos suddenly seem overwrought and theatrical.” —New York Daily News

“Is Sheeran believable? Very . . . and ‘I Heard You Paint Houses’ is a very enjoyable book.” —Trial Magazine

“A page-turning account of one man’s descent into the mob.” —Delaware News Journal

“A terrific read.” —Kansas City Star