1. Frank Sheeran was accused of having links to the Bufalino crime family in his capacity as a high-ranking official in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the president of Local 326.
29 Facts About Frank Sheeran
1. 2.
Frank Sheeran was a leading figure involved in the infiltration of unions by organized crime in the 1960s and 70s.
3.
Author Charles Brandt detailed what Frank Sheeran told him about Hoffa in the narrative nonfiction work I Heard You Paint Houses.
4.
Frank Sheeran was born and raised in Darby, Pennsylvania, a small working-class borough on the outskirts of Philadelphia.
5.
Frank Sheeran was the son of Thomas Francis Sheeran Jr.
6.
Frank Sheeran's father was of Irish descent, while his mother was of Swedish descent.
7.
Frank Sheeran enlisted in the United States Army in August 1941, completed basic training near Biloxi, Mississippi, and was assigned to the military police.
8.
Frank Sheeran then served in the landings in southern France and the invasion of Germany.
9.
Frank Sheeran recalled his war service as the time when he developed a callousness to taking human life.
10.
Frank Sheeran claimed to have participated in numerous massacres and summary executions of German POWs, acts which violated the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the 1929 Geneva Convention on POWs.
11.
Frank Sheeran was discharged from the army on October 24,1945.
12.
Frank Sheeran then married Irene Gray, with whom he had one daughter, Connie.
13.
When he left the service, Frank Sheeran became a driver for Food Fair and he met Russell Bufalino in 1955 when Bufalino offered to help him fix his truck, and later worked jobs driving him around and making deliveries.
14.
Frank Sheeran operated out of a bar located in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania which was run by Bill Distanisloa, a soldier under the then powerful Philadelphia crime family captain and future acting boss Angelo Bruno.
15.
However, Frank Sheeran did not know that Angelo Bruno had a large stake in the linen service.
16.
Frank Sheeran was spotted outside the business and was brought in for questioning.
17.
Frank Sheeran was suspected of the murder of Joe Gallo at Umberto's Clam House on April 7,1972.
18.
Frank Sheeran later became acting president of Local 326 of the Teamsters Union in Wilmington, Delaware.
19.
Frank Sheeran was charged in 1972 with the 1967 murder of Robert DeGeorge, who was killed in a shootout in front of Local 107 headquarters.
20.
However, the case was dismissed on the grounds that Frank Sheeran had been denied a speedy trial.
21.
Frank Sheeran was alleged to have conspired to murder Francis J Marino, a Philadelphia labor organizer, in 1976, and Frederick John Gawronski, who was killed the same year in a tavern in New Castle, Delaware.
22.
Frank Sheeran was indicted along with six others in July 1980, on charges involving his links to the labor leasing businesses controlled by Eugene Boffa Sr.
23.
On October 31,1980, Frank Sheeran was found guilty of 11 charges of labor racketeering.
24.
Frank Sheeran was sentenced to a 32-year prison term and served 13 years.
25.
Frank Sheeran died of cancer on December 14,2003, aged 83, in a nursing home in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
26.
Frank Sheeran was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania.
27.
Charles Brandt writes in I Heard You Paint Houses that Frank Sheeran confessed to killing Hoffa.
28.
Frank Sheeran says that he was told that Hoffa was cremated after the murder.
29.
Frank Sheeran confessed to reporters that he murdered Hoffa, as well as Gallo.