Charles Brandt
American investigator and writer (1942–2024)
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Charles Peter Brandt (March 13, 1942 – October 22, 2024) was an American investigator, lawyer, writer, and speaker. He wrote the narrative non-fiction Frank Sheeran memoir I Heard You Paint Houses, the basis for the 2019 film The Irishman, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci.[1]
- Author
- attorney
- investigator
Charles Brandt | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 13, 1942 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | October 22, 2024 (aged 82) Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupations |
|
| Notable work | I Heard You Paint Houses |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | 1 (2 stepchildren) |
Background
Charles Peter Brandt was born in the Staten Island borough of New York City on March 13, 1942, and grew up there and in Queens.[2] After attending Stuyvesant High School, he was educated at the University of Delaware as an undergraduate before going on to earn a law degree from Brooklyn Law School.[2][3] During law school, he also worked as a welfare investigator in East Harlem, which he said was heavy with organized crime activity at the time.[2] In 1969, he began his legal career in the office of the attorney general of Delaware, prosecuting homicides, before becoming a defense lawyer.[2]
Writing
Brandt's first book, the novel The Right to Remain Silent, was published in 1988.[2] Shortly thereafter, he was hired as a lawyer for Frank Sheeran, and they had early conversations developing the project that would one day become I Heard You Paint Houses.[2] However, they did not undertake serious work on it for years, as they did not want the book to be released while many of its subjects were still alive.[2] The book was not published until 2004, one year after Sheeran himself had died.[2]
Afterward, Brandt published three more books, the last of which was Suppressing the Truth in Dallas: Conspiracy, Cover-Up, and International Complications in the JFK Assassination Case (2022), which forwards the conspiracy theory that the mafia was involved with the assassination of John F. Kennedy.[2]
Personal life and death
In 1963, Brandt married Kathleen McGaw; they later divorced.[2] In 1976, he married Nancy Poole; they had a daughter, and he became a stepfather to two children.[2] He lived in the cities of Wilmington and Lewes in Delaware, and in Sun Valley, Idaho.[3]
Brandt died at a hospice in Wilmington on October 22, 2024, at the age of 82.[4]
Books
- Brandt, Charles (1988). The Right to Remain Silent. Bodley Head. ISBN 978-0370312132.
- Brandt, Charles (2004). I Heard You Paint Houses. Pushkin Press. ISBN 978-1586422387.
- Brandt, Charles & Pistone, Joseph D. (2008). Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business. Running Press. ISBN 9780762432288.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Brandt, Charles (2012). We're Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-up of a Mafia Crime Buster. National Geographic Books. ISBN 978-0425246092.
- Suppressing the Truth in Dallas: Conspiracy, Cover-Up, and International Complications in the JFK Assassination Case (2022)[2]