Charles Brandt

Not to be confused with Charlie Brandt.

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]

Charles Brandt
Born	(1942-03-13)March 13, 1942 New York City, U.S.
Died	October 22, 2024(2024-10-22) (aged 82) Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Delaware Brooklyn Law School
Occupations	Author attorney investigator
Notable work	I Heard You Paint Houses
Spouses	Kathleen McGaw ​ ​ (m. 1963, divorced)​ Nancy Poole ​ (m. 1976)​
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, 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]