Corroboration that emerged following publication of the hardcover edition of this fascinating account of a dark side of American history confirms that Charles Brandt has finally solved one of the greatest and most enduring mysteries of our time, the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, and created a real-page turner that is sure to become a true-crime classic.

The book’s title comes from the first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran. To paint a house is to kill a man; the paint is the blood that splatters on the walls and floors. In the course of nearly five years of recorded interviews Frank Sheeran confessed to Charles Brandt that, among the twenty-five to thirty other hits he handled for the mob and the Teamsters, Sheeran shot Hoffa behind the right ear in the vestibule of a house in Detroit. Just prior to the book’s release a forensic lab team went into the house. Luminal sprayed on the floorboards revealed eight separate spots where blood had been, the pattern and location an exact match of Sheeran’s confession. Over the years the public’s most-asked question about the Hoffa disappearance has been: “Where’s the body?” Thirty years of outlandish speculation has included burial in the end zone at Giants Stadium. Sheeran revealed that after he killed Hoffa, mob boss Russell Bufalino, the man who ordered the hit, told Sheeran that Hoffa’s body was cremated at a funeral parlor in Detroit within an hour of his death. Sheeran also provides stunning new information – information that has been corroborated since the book was published – on two other notorious mob hits: Joseph “Crazy Joey” Gallo, blown away as he celebrated his forty-third birthday in New York’s Little Italy, and Salvatore “Sally Bugs” Briguglio, long suspected of being a player in the kill-Hoffa plot. And Sheeran explicitly implicates Hoffa, for the first time, in personally ordering murders in order to retain his own hold on the Teamsters Union while serving as its president.

“A terrific read.”

Kansas City Star

“Told with such economy and chilling force as to make The Sopranos suddenly seem overwrought and theatrical.”

New York Daily News

“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

“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.’ . . . 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

“Brandt’s book gives new meaning to the term ‘guilty pleasure.’”

Bryan Burrough in the New York Times Book Review

"I heard you paint houses" are the first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran. To paint a house is to kill a man. The paint is the blood that splatters on the walls and floors. In the course of nearly five years of recorded interviews Frank Sheeran confessed to Charles Brandt that he handled more than twenty-five hits for the mob, and for his friend Hoffa. Sheeran learned to kill in the U.S. Army, where he saw an astonishing 411 days of active combat duty in Italy during World War II. After returning home he became a hustler and hit man, working for legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino. Eventually he would rise to a position of such prominence that in a RICO suit then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani would name him as one of only two non-Italians on a list of 26 top mob figures. When Bufalino ordered Sheeran to kill Hoffa, he did the deed, knowing that if he had refused he would have been killed himself. Sheeran's important and fascinating story includes new information on other famous murders, and provides rare insight to a chapter in American history. Charles Brandt has written a page-turner that is destined to become a true crime classic.

This #1 true crime bestseller covers more than forty years of Mafia-Teamsters history through the eyes of Sheeran, a top-ranking mob boss and Teamsters official. Most notably it solves one of the most enduring mysteries in American history: the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. National author tour and Major TV publicity tied to the 30th anniversary of Hoffa's disappearance.

Charles Brandt is a former prosecutor and Chief Deputy Attorney General of the State of Delaware. A past president of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association, Brandt has also been listed numerous times in Best Lawyers in America. He is a frequent speaker on cross-examination and interrogation techniques for reluctant witnesses. He lives in Lewes, Delaware, with his wife and has three grown children.