"I Heard You Paint Houses": Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa Read Online Free PDF Page A

Detroit in the first place. As soon as he asked me when I was getting in, I knew what he wanted. “How about you take a little ride and meet me there on Wednesday at 2:00? They’re coming at 2:30.”
    “Precautionary. But however, you can rest assured, I’ll bring my little brother. He’s a real good negotiator.”
    I called Russ right away and told him the encouraging news about Jimmy’s meeting with Jack and Pro, and that I was going to be with Jimmy for backup.
    I’ve thought a lot about it since, but I can’t recall Russell saying anything. ”

 
     
      chapter two  
     
     
    What It Is
     
    “ When my wife, Irene, and I got to Kingston in upstate Pennsylvania near Wilkes-Barre that Monday night, our plan was to have dinner with Russ and his wife, Carrie, and her older widowed sister, Mary. Irene and I would spend the night at the Howard Johnson that Russ owned a piece of. Then early Tuesday the five of us would start off for Detroit in my new black Lincoln Continental. (It was a car they said I got under the table. When they were trying to get the eight of us Hoffa suspects on anything they could, they used the car to send me to jail in 1981 on labor racketeering.)
    The drive would take us about twelve hours because Russell didn’t allow smoking in the car. Russ quit smoking on a bet with Jimmy Blue Eyes, who was with Meyer Lansky, on a boat they took out of Cuba in 1960 when Castro kicked them all out and took away their casinos. They lost a million dollars a day on account of Castro. They were all mad as hell at Castro, especially Russell and his two very close friends, Carlos Marcello, the New Orleans boss, and Santo Trafficante, the Florida boss. Castro had the nerve to actually put Trafficante in jail. I heard that Sam “Momo” Giancana had to send Jack Ruby to Cuba to spread some green stamps around to get Trafficante out of jail and out of Cuba.
    Being so fuming mad, Russell smoked cigarette after cigarette and softly cursed Castro on that boat. So Jimmy Blue Eyes saw an opportunity to bet Russ twenty-five Gs Russ couldn’t go a year without smoking. Russ threw his cigarette overboard and never picked up a cigarette again, even a year later after the bet was over and Jimmy Blue Eyes had paid up.
    But the ladies in the car made no such bet with anybody. We’d be stopping along the way for their smoke breaks, and that would slow us down. (Smoking is one vice I never had to confess to the priest when I was a kid. I never got started on tobacco, not even in the war, not even pinned down at Anzio with nothing else to do in a dugout for four months but play cards, pray to God, and smoke. You need your wind in this life.)
    Another reason it would take so long is that Russell always had business stops to make along the way whenever or wherever we went together—instructions to give about certain matters, cash to pick up, stuff like that.
    On Monday night Irene and I had dinner with Russell, Carrie, and her sister Mary at Brutico’s in Old Forge, Pennsylvania. Russ had special restaurants that met his standards. Otherwise, if he didn’t cook it himself, most of the time he didn’t eat it.
    If it weren’t for Russ’s gray hair there’s no way you would know he was in his seventies. He was very spry. He was born in Sicily, but he spoke perfect English. He and Carrie never had any children. Many a time Russ reached up and pinched my cheek and said, “You should’ve been Italian.” He’s the one named me “The Irishman.” Before that they used to call me “Cheech,” which is short for Frank in Italian—Francesco.
    After we had our meal, which was something like veal and peppers with spaghetti marinara, a side dish of broccoli rabe, and a nice salad with dressing Russell made in the back, we sat and relaxed with our coffee laced with Sambuca.
    Then the owner came over and whispered to Russ. This was before portable phones. Russ had to leave the table to take the call. He came back business-like.