Frank Sheeran

{{short description|American mobster and labor union official (1920–2003)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}} {{Infobox criminal | name = Frank Sheeran | image = Franksheeran.jpg | caption = Sheeran's 1980 mugshot | birth_name = Francis Joseph Sheeran<ref name="ssa">''U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936–2007''</ref> | birth_date = {{birth date|1920|10|25|mf=y}} | birth_place = Darby, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|2003|12|14|1920|10|25}} | death_place = West Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S. | resting_place = Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon, Pennsylvania, U.S. | occupation = Teamsters union official | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Mary Leddy|1946|1968|reason=divorced}} * {{marriage|Irene Gray|1968|1995|reason=her death}} }} | children = 4 | conviction = Labor racketeering (1980)<ref name="kaplan" /> | organization = Local 326, International Brotherhood of Teamsters | allegiance = Bufalino crime family | conviction_penalty = 32 years imprisonment<ref name="kaplan">{{cite news |last1=Kaplan |first1=Michael |title=The 'real' story of the man who murdered Jimmy Hoffa |url=https://nypost.com/2017/11/19/the-real-story-of-the-man-who-murdered-jimmy-hoffa/ |access-date=November 18, 2019 |work=New York Post |date=November 19, 2017 |language=en}}</ref> | other_names = The Irishman }} {{Infobox military person | allegiance = United States | branch = US Army | service_years = 1941–1945 | unit = Military Police Corps<br/>45th Infantry Division | battles = World War II * North African Campaign *Italian Campaign * Invasion of Germany }}

'''Francis Joseph Sheeran''' (October 25, 1920 – December 14, 2003), also known as "'''The Irishman'''", was an American labor union official and enforcer for Jimmy Hoffa and Russell Bufalino. Raised in a devoutly Catholic Irish-American family in Darby, Pennsylvania, a working-class town near Philadelphia, he grew up poor during the Great Depression and enlisted in the US Army after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 served with the 45th Infantry Division during the Italian Campaign in the Mediterannean Theater as both an infantryman and in the Military Police Corps. After returning to Pennsylvania, he did various odd jobs before becoming involved with the Teamsters and its president, Jimmy Hoffa.

Sheeran was a leading figure involved in the infiltration of unions by organized crime in the 1960s and ‘70s, and allegedly helped the Teamsters assist the CIA with the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. In 1980, he was convicted of labor racketeering and sentenced to 32 years in prison, of which he served 13 years. He was accused of having links to the Bufalino crime family, including its boss, Russell Bufalino, in his capacity as a high-ranking official in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), the president of Local 326 in New Castle, Delaware. After being indicted on federal charges by the FBI and the Philadelphia PD, he was sentenced to three decades in prison, of which he would spend 13 and was released due to his old age. He then went to live at a nursing home in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Shortly before his death in 2003, he said he had killed Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa in 1975. Author Charles Brandt detailed what Sheeran told him about Hoffa in the alleged confession in the narrative nonfiction work ''I Heard You Paint Houses'' (2004). The truthfulness of the book, including Sheeran's confessions to killing Hoffa and Joe Gallo, has been disputed by some.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="gold" /> The book is the basis for the 2019 film ''The Irishman'' directed by Martin Scorsese which starred Robert De Niro as Sheeran, Al Pacino as Hoffa, Harvey Keitel as Angelo Bruno and Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino.

==Early life== Sheeran was born and raised in Darby, Pennsylvania, a small working-class borough on the outskirts of Philadelphia. He was the son of Thomas Francis Sheeran Jr. and Mary Agnes Hanson, he was the oldest of three siblings, having a brother named Tom and a sister named Margaret.<ref name="ssa"/><ref name="1940census">''1940 United States Federal Census''</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=English|first=T.J.|title=Paddy whacked: the untold story of the Irish American gangster|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2005|page=438|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uvDN9yBVBF8C&q=%22frank%20sheeran%22%20darby&pg=PA438|isbn=978-0-06-059002-4}}</ref> His father was of Irish descent, while his mother was of Swedish descent. During the great depression Frank would sometimes help his father steal food from farms near their home to feed the family.<ref name="paint"/>

Sheeran's childhood lacked affection and he quickly started working odd jobs to support his family, his first was when we was seven cleaning ash from cellars. <ref name="Brandt_pg_50-52" /> His father would often take a young Frank into bars and make Frank fight other mens sons to win money for beer, other times his father would force his son to box against him without hitting back.<ref name="Brandt_pg_50-52" /> When not fighting against his father he would also box against neighborhood kids. When he was a teenager Frank attended Upper Darby High School (then known as Darby High School) in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. He was later expelled after insulting and attacking the principal of the school.

'''Time spent with the carnival'''

After getting expelled, Frank joined a traveling carnival as a laborer which Frank described as:<blockquote>...No Ringling Brothers; it was a honky-tonk carnival.<ref name="Brandt_pg_40" /></blockquote>This carnival would take Frank up and down the Eastern Seaboard until they reached Maine where he joined a logging company where he would find himself boxing his coworkers again. He worked other odd jobs and made his way back to Philadelphia where Frank would discover another one of his passions in dancing.

==World War II== Sheeran enlisted in the United States Army in August 1941, completed basic training near Biloxi, Mississippi, and was assigned to the military police. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he volunteered for training in the Airborne at Fort Benning, Georgia, but he dislocated his shoulder and was transferred to the 45th Infantry Division, known as "The Thunderbirds" and "The Killer Division".<ref name="Brandt_pg_38-39">Brandt (2004), pp.[https://archive.org/details/iheardyoupaintho00bran/page/38/mode/2up 38-39].</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bookscool.com/en/The-Day-of-Battle-The-War-in-Sicily-and-Italy-1943-1944-The-Liberation-Trilogy-963193/17|title=The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1944 (The Liberation Trilogy)|website=www.bookscool.com|page=17|access-date=November 26, 2019|archive-date=March 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308143558/https://www.bookscool.com/en/The-Day-of-Battle-The-War-in-Sicily-and-Italy-1943-1944-The-Liberation-Trilogy-963193/17|url-status=dead}}</ref> On July 14, 1943, he set sail for North Africa.

Sheeran served 411 days of combat duty—a significant length of time, as the average was around 100 days.<ref name="Brandt_pg_38-39"/> His first combat experience was during the Italian Campaign, including the invasion of Sicily, the Salerno landings, and the Anzio Campaign. He then served in the landings in southern France and the invasion of Germany.<ref name="Brandt_pg_50-52">Brandt (2004), pp.27-28.</ref>

Sheeran said: <blockquote>All in all, I had fifty days lost under AWOL—absent without leave—mostly spent drinking red wine and chasing Italian, French, and German women. However, I was never AWOL when my outfit was going back to the front lines. If you were AWOL when your unit was going back into combat you might as well keep going because one of your own officers would blow you away and they didn't even have to say it was the Germans. That's desertion in the face of the enemy.<ref name="Brandt_pg_40">Brandt (2004), p.32.</ref>

</blockquote>

===War crimes=== Sheeran recalled his war service as the time when he developed a callousness to taking human life. He 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. In interviews with Charles Brandt, he divided such massacres into four categories: # Revenge killings in the heat of battle. Sheeran told Brandt that a German soldier had just killed his close friends and then tried to surrender, but he chose to "send him to hell, too". He described often witnessing similar behavior by fellow G.I.s.<ref name="Brandt_pg_50-52"/> # Orders from unit commanders during a mission. Sheeran described his first murder for organized crime: "It was just like when an officer would tell you to take a couple of German prisoners back behind the line and for you to 'hurry back'. You did what you had to do."<ref name="Brandt_pg_84">Brandt (2004), p.[https://archive.org/details/iheardyoupaintho00bran/page/84/mode/2up 84].</ref> # The Dachau reprisals and other reprisal killings of Nazi concentration camp guards and trustee inmates.<ref name="Brandt_pg_50-52"/> # Calculated attempts to dehumanize and degrade German POWs. Sheeran's unit was climbing the Harz Mountains when they came upon a Wehrmacht mule train carrying food and drink up the mountainside. The female cooks were allowed to leave unmolested, then Sheeran and his fellow GIs "ate what we wanted and soiled the rest with our waste". Then the Wehrmacht mule drivers were given shovels and ordered to "dig their own shallow graves". Sheeran joked that they did so without complaint, likely hoping that he and his buddies would change their minds. The mule drivers were shot and buried in the holes they had dug. Sheeran explained that by then, he "had no hesitation in doing what I had to do."<ref name="Brandt_pg_50-52"/>

===Discharge and post-war=== Sheeran was discharged from the army on October 24, 1945. He later recalled that it was "a day before my twenty-fifth birthday, but only according to the calendar."<ref name="Brandt_pg_50-52"/> Upon returning from his army service, Sheeran married Mary Leddy, an Irish immigrant. The couple had three daughters, MaryAnne, Dolores, and Peggy, but divorced in 1968.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://heavy.com/news/2019/11/mary-leddy-frank-sheeran-wife/|title=Mary Leddy, Frank Sheeran's First Wife: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know|first=Caroline|last=Burke|date=November 27, 2019}}</ref> Sheeran then married Irene Gray, with whom he had one daughter, Connie. Irene died in December 1995.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brandt |first=Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4RG_DwAAQBAJ&dq=irene+sheeran+frank+1995&pg=PA278 |title=The Irishman (Movie Tie-In): Frank Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa |date=October 15, 2019 |publisher=Steerforth Press |isbn=978-1-58642-247-9 |language=en}}</ref>

==Organized crime and the Teamsters Union== When he left the service, 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/frank-sheeran|title=Frank Sheeran|website=Biography|language=en-us|access-date=December 4, 2019}}</ref> Sheeran also 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.<ref name=amp>{{cite web|url=https://amp-clickondetroit-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.clickondetroit.com/news/interview-charles-brandt-author-i-heard-you-paint-houses?usqp=mq331AQA&amp_js_v=0.1|title=Interview: Charles Brandt, author 'I Heard You Paint Houses'|website=amp-clickondetroit-com.cdn.ampproject.org|access-date=November 16, 2019|archive-date=October 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018102526/https://amp-clickondetroit-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.clickondetroit.com/news/interview-charles-brandt-author-i-heard-you-paint-houses?usqp=mq331AQA&amp_js_v=0.1|url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to his biography, Sheeran's first murder was killing Whispers DiTullio, a gangster who had hired him to destroy the Cadillac Linen Service in Delaware for $10,000. However, Sheeran did not know that Angelo Bruno had a large stake in the linen service.<ref name="paint"/> Sheeran was spotted outside the business and was brought in for questioning. Bufalino had convinced Bruno to spare Sheeran but he ordered Sheeran to kill DiTullio as retribution.<ref name="paint"/> Sheeran was also suspected of the murder of Joe Gallo at Umberto's Clam House on April 7, 1972.<ref name="paint">{{cite book|title="I Heard You Paint Houses": Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran and the Inside Story of the Mafia, the Teamsters and the Last Ride of Jimmy Hoffa|last=Brandt|first=Charles|year=2004|publisher=Steerforth Press|location=Hanover, New Hampshire|isbn=978-1-58642-077-2|oclc=54897800|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/iheardyoupaintho00bran | ref=refBrandt2004}}</ref><ref name=amp/>

Bufalino introduced Sheeran to Teamsters International President Jimmy Hoffa. According to Sheeran, Hoffa became a close friend and used Sheeran for muscle, including the assassination of disloyal union members and members of rival unions threatening the Teamsters' turf.<ref name="Where is Hoffa">{{cite news|work=8 HD I-Team|date=November 13, 2006|title=Where is Hoffa?}}</ref><ref name="paint"/> Sheeran claimed that in the first conversation he had with Hoffa over the phone, Hoffa started by saying, "I heard you paint houses" — mob code for "I heard you kill people" (the "paint" being spattered blood).<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last1=Tonelli |first1=Bill |title=The Lies of "The Irishman" |url=https://slate.com/culture/2019/08/the-irishman-scorsese-netflix-movie-true-story-lies.html |website=Slate |access-date=August 7, 2019|date=August 7, 2019 }}</ref> Sheeran later became acting president of Local 326 of the Teamsters Union in Wilmington, Delaware.<ref name="paint"/>

===Gunrunning claims=== Sheeran claimed to his biographer Charles Brandt that on the orders of Jimmy Hoffa and Russell Bufalino he drove a truck from Baltimore to Florida containing weapons that would be used in the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. He stated that he was involved with David Ferrie in this endeavor who he met at Baltimore, there Ferrie informed him that he was to drop a trailer full of weapons, which had come from the Maryland National Guard, off to E. Howard Hunt of the CIA in Florida.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brandt |first1=Charles |title="I heard you paint houses": Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa |pages=128-30 |date=2016 |publisher=Steerforth Press}}</ref>

==Prison and death== Sheeran was charged in 1972 with the 1967 murder of Robert DeGeorge, who was killed in a shootout in front of Local 107 headquarters. However, the case was dismissed on the grounds that Sheeran had been denied a speedy trial. He was also 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/28/archives/tapes-provide-rare-glimpse-of-unioncrime-dealings-charge-in-1967.html |title=Tapes Provide Rare Glimpse of Union-Crime Dealings |work=The New York Times |date=October 28, 1979}}</ref>

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. of Hackensack, New Jersey. On October 31, 1980, Sheeran was found guilty of 11 charges of labor racketeering.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/31/us/teamster-leader-in-delaware-guilty-of-labor-racketeering.html|title=Teamster Leader in Delaware Guilty of Labor Racketeering|work=The New York Times|date=October 31, 1980}}</ref> He was sentenced to a 32-year prison term and served 13 years.<ref name="kaplan" />

Sheeran died of cancer on December 14, 2003, at the age of 83, in a nursing home in West Chester, Pennsylvania.<ref name="Where is Hoffa"/> He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://heavy.com/entertainment/2019/11/peggy-sheeran/|title=Peggy Sheeran, Frank's Daughter: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know|first=Jessica|last=McBride|date=November 27, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Frank Sheeran |url=https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/frank-sheeran |website=biography.com |date=June 17, 2020 |access-date=August 2, 2020}}</ref>

== Hoffa death == In the years leading up to Hoffa’s death, he had been in a feud with mobster Anthony Provenzano about union leadership.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-13-mn-295-story.html |title=Anthony Provenzano, Linked to Disappearance of Hoffa, Dies |date=December 13, 1988 |website=Los Angeles Times |access-date=December 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191208032351/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-13-mn-295-story.html |archive-date=December 8, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Charles Brandt writes in ''I Heard You Paint Houses'' (2004) that Sheeran confessed to killing Hoffa on July 30, 1975.<ref name="paint" /> According to Brandt's account, Chuckie O'Brien drove Sheeran, Hoffa, and fellow mobster Salvatore Briguglio to a house in Metro Detroit. Upon entering, Sheeran claims that he shot Hoffa twice in the back of the head. Sheeran says that he was told that Hoffa was cremated after the murder. Sheeran also confessed to reporters that he murdered Hoffa, as well as Gallo.<ref name="iuqoybv">{{cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/detroit-house-searched-for-clues-in-hoffa-case|title=Detroit House Searched for Clues in Hoffa Case|website=Fox News|date=June 13, 2004|access-date=May 30, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120627133823/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,121237,00.html|archive-date=June 27, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Bill Tonelli disputes the book's truthfulness in a ''Slate'' article, as does Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith in ''The New York Review of Books''.<ref name=":0"/><ref name=gold>{{cite magazine |last1=Goldsmith |first1=Jack |title=Jimmy Hoffa and The Irishman: A True Crime Story? |url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/09/26/jimmy-hoffa-and-the-irishman-a-true-crime-story/ |magazine=New York Review of Books |access-date=September 26, 2019|date=September 26, 2019 }}</ref>

The FBI has examined evidence which could connect Sheeran to the murder of Hoffa, including using the latest advances in forensic technology to test remnants of blood and floorboards from the house where Hoffa was reputedly killed.<ref>{{cite web |title=Riddle documentary Fox |url=https://www.google.com/search?q=Riddle+documentary+fox |access-date=October 18, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Riddle: The Search for James R. Hoffa |url=https://video.foxnews.com/v/5986353167001 |website=Fox News |date=January 5, 2019 |access-date=October 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190105230815/https://video.foxnews.com/v/5986353167001/ |archive-date=January 5, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=History Detectives|website=PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigation/who-killed-jimmy-hoffa/|access-date=May 11, 2016}} ([http://www-tc.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/static/media/transcripts/2014-07-24/HDSI_WHO_KILLED_JIMMY_HOFFA_Final_Transcript_1.pdf transcript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018090903/http://www-tc.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/static/media/transcripts/2014-07-24/HDSI_WHO_KILLED_JIMMY_HOFFA_Final_Transcript_1.pdf |date=October 18, 2016 }})</ref><ref name="DNA">{{cite news|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-105402906.html|title=Police: Blood found in Detroit home did not come from Hoffa|date=February 14, 2005|author=Karush, Sarah |publisher=Associated Press|access-date=September 9, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911081531/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-105402906.html|archive-date=September 11, 2016}}</ref> Although bloodstains were found in the Detroit house where Sheeran claimed that the murder had happened,<ref name=iuqoybv /> they were determined not to match Hoffa's DNA.<ref>{{cite web|title=History Detectives|website=PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigation/who-killed-jimmy-hoffa/|access-date=May 11, 2016}} ([http://www-tc.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/static/media/transcripts/2014-07-24/HDSI_WHO_KILLED_JIMMY_HOFFA_Final_Transcript_1.pdf transcript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018090903/http://www-tc.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/static/media/transcripts/2014-07-24/HDSI_WHO_KILLED_JIMMY_HOFFA_Final_Transcript_1.pdf |date=October 18, 2016 }})</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-02-15-hoffa_x.htm|title=Police: Blood found in Detroit home did not come from Hoffa|agency=Associated Press|newspaper=USA Today|date=February 15, 2005}}</ref>

==Biographical film== The book "''I Heard You Paint Houses"'' by Charles Brandt is the basis for the 2019 film ''The Irishman'' directed by Martin Scorsese. Scorsese was long interested in directing a film about Sheeran's life and his alleged involvement in the slaying of Hoffa. Steven Zaillian is the screenwriter, and producer Robert De Niro portrays Sheeran, Al Pacino plays Hoffa, and Joe Pesci plays Bufalino.<ref>{{cite web |last=Bell |first=Breanna |url=https://variety.com/2019/film/news/the-irishman-trailer-martin-scorsese-al-pacino-robert-de-niro-1203285418/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731144615/https://variety.com/2019/film/news/the-irishman-trailer-martin-scorsese-al-pacino-robert-de-niro-1203285418/ |title=Martin Scorsese's 'The Irishman' Trailer Teams Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci |website=Variety |date=July 31, 2019 |access-date=July 31, 2019 |archive-date=July 31, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Jacob |last=Stolworthy |title=The Irishman: Joe Pesci officially joins Robert De Niro in new Martin Scorsese film making Goodfellas reunion official |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/the-irishman-joe-pesci-martin-scorsese-robert-de-niro-goodfellas-reunion-netflix-release-date-a7838556.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170714013656/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/the-irishman-joe-pesci-martin-scorsese-robert-de-niro-goodfellas-reunion-netflix-release-date-a7838556.html |website=The Independent |date=July 13, 2017 |access-date=August 27, 2019 |archive-date=July 14, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on September 27, 2019, and was released on November 1, 2019. Digital streaming started on November 27, 2019, via Netflix.<ref>{{cite web |first=Mike Jr. |last=Fleming |title=Netflix Sets November 1 Theatrical Bow For Martin Scorsese-Directed 'The Irishman:' 27 Day US & UK Rollout Comes Before Pic Streams For Thanksgiving Holiday |url=https://deadline.com/2019/08/the-irishman-netflix-november-1-theatrical-bow-martin-scorsese-robert-deniro-27-day-us-uk-rollout-stream-thanksgiving-holiday-1202704994/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190827140928/https://deadline.com/2019/08/the-irishman-netflix-november-1-theatrical-bow-martin-scorsese-robert-deniro-27-day-us-uk-rollout-stream-thanksgiving-holiday-1202704994/ |website=Deadline |date=August 27, 2019 |access-date=August 27, 2019 |archive-date=August 27, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kipLDAAAQBAJ |title=I Heard You Paint Houses |isbn=978-1586422387 |last=Brandt |first=Charles |date=2004|publisher=Steerforth Press}}

{{Bufalino crime family}} {{American Mafia}} {{Organized crime in philadelphia}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheeran, Frank}} Category:1920 births Category:2003 deaths Category:20th-century people from Pennsylvania Category:21st-century people from Pennsylvania Category:American gangsters of Irish descent Category:American people of Swedish descent Category:American people convicted of mail and wire fraud Category:American people convicted of obstruction of justice Category:American perpetrators of prisoner-of-war massacres in World War II Category:American prisoners and detainees Category:American trade union officials convicted of crimes Category:20th-century American trade unionists Category:American trade unionists of Irish descent Category:American truck drivers Category:Bufalino crime family Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery (Yeadon, Pennsylvania) Category:Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania Category:Gangsters from Philadelphia Category:International Brotherhood of Teamsters people Category:Mafia hitmen Category:Military personnel from Pennsylvania Category:Organized crime memoirists Category:People from Darby, Pennsylvania Category:People from West Chester, Pennsylvania Category:Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government Category:Trade unionists from Pennsylvania Category:United States Army personnel of World War II Category:United States Army soldiers