Charles Brandt, author of the book that inspired the film The Irishman, died on October 24 at the age of 82.
His bestselling true crime book, I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa (Steerforth), was adapted by Martin Scorcese into The Irishman, starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci. He also wrote the detective novel The Right to Remain Silent. His final book, Suppressing the Truth in Dallas: Conspiracy, Cover-Up, and International Complications in the JFK Assassination Case, concluded that the Mafia played a role in the assassination of President Kennedy. In addition, Brandt co-authored Joe Pistone's Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business and Lin DeVecchio's We're Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-Up of a Mafia Crime Buster.
Brandt was a former junior high school English teacher who worked his way through Brooklyn Law School as a welfare investigator in East Harlem. After graduating law school, he became a homicide detective and prosecutor in Wilmington, Del., and served as the state's chief deputy attorney general. During his years in law enforcement, he handled more than 50 murder cases. In private practice since 1976, he was a president of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association and the Delaware Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.