THE golden age of mobsters is over, according to author Charles Brandt who wrote the definitive tome on Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran.

For decades now the Italian-American mob has been immortalised by movies such as The Godfather, Goodfellas, and telly show The Sopranos.

6 De Niro and Pesci, who starred alongside Ray Liotta and Paul Cervino in cult mafia flick Goodfellas will reunite for The Irishman

And while the exploits of Al Capone and Lucky Luciano will go down in history, mob expert Brandt believes we’ll never see a repeat of their heyday of the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Frank Sheeran was a hustler and hitman, working for legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino.

Nicknamed ‘The Irishman’ because of his Dublin roots, in the course of five years of interviews with Brandt, the contract killer confessed to more than 25 murders including the slaying of union boss Jimmy Hoffa and the shooting of ‘Crazy Joe’ Gallo.

The circles Sheeran moved in are consigned to history now, says Brandt, and modern gangs have nothing on the organised crime syndicates of the past.

He explained: “One of the questions I asked the FBI agents I was getting to know and hang out with was, ‘What about these mafias we have in New York now? The Albanian Mafia, and the Russian Mafia?’

“They said they don’t have the organisational capability of the Italian Mafia. And so they end up feuding with each other.

6

“They end up having their own little private wars that puts them out of business and makes them careless so when they’re yelling on a telephone they’re easier to wiretap, and to get information from.”

He continued: “Whereas the Italian-American Mafia had a very structured society and that included never talking about things, and it went for a long time in America.

6 Sheeran, circled, with fellow union organisers in his first job in Detroit Credit: Splash News

“It was created in 1931 by Lucky Luciano. All the rules were laid down then and it wasn’t until 1986 that something material was able to be gotten, as a result of new laws in America.

“They then created the witness protection programme, they created legal wiretaps, tapping had been illegal before that.

6 Killer Sheeran and author Brandt grew very close during interviews for the book Credit: Splash News

“And they created the RICO statute (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) that made it a crime to be a member of organised crime. In 1986 Rudolph Giuliani — a US attorney in New York — put together something called the Mafia Commission case.

Most watched in Showbiz ant stop himself Ant McPartlin beams as he holds hand with Anne-Marie on date night acting out Young Offenders' Jennifer Barry on 'feeling ashamed' for not acting full time telly space Gogglebox's Cabra Girls to lose member as show adapts to Dublin Covid measures Dating Doireann Doireann Garrihy opens up about keeping beau Paddy away from public eye GREG'S GIRL Love Island star Greg O'Shea reveals what he finds most attractive in women fairly odd Viewers feel like they're 'hallucinating' as characters 'teleport' on Fair City

“He targeted the Mafia Commission. It took the leadership away from the mafia, there no longer was a governing body and then anarchy broke out. Then they were just common gangs like the Russian gang and the Albanian gang. They no longer had structure at the top.

“These guys got 100-year jail sentences, and now no one of any sense wanted to be a boss.

“The FBI had all these new tools, and you were walking around with a bullseye on your back.

6 Martin Scorsese Credit: Getty

“So you got a much lesser calibre of mafia figure.”

Brandt’s book I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran, Jimmy Hoffa, and the Biggest Hit in Mob History alludes to the first words labour union leader Hoffa ever spoke to The Irishman.

To paint a house is to kill a man. The paint is the blood that splatters on the walls and floors. In the course of nearly five years of recorded interviews, Sheeran confessed to Brandt that he handled more than 25 hits for the mob, including killing his friend Hoffa.

The hit book is now being made into a movie by Martin Scorsese.

6 Author Charles Brandt

In 2009, Brandt was contacted by Robert De Niro’s company Tribeca to see if the rights were available for the trailblazing novel.

He flew to meet Robert De Niro, Scorsese and Steve Zaillian and recalled: “It was 2009 and it was supposed to be a one-hour meeting.

“The meeting lasted four hours. I had a lot of material I hadn’t put in the book out of concern for the mobsters who were then alive.

“Over the years these mobsters died, or went to jail. One prominent case became cooperators. I was free then to talk about some things.

“We had a great meeting and then they had other movies to make, we were in line. Now we’re front and centre.”

Brandt met with De Niro, Scorsese and Zaillian again recently. He said: “They sent me again to New York, about a month ago. Again for a meeting.

Who was Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran? FRANCIS Sheeran was born in Philadelphia in 1920 to Tom and Mary Sheeran. He the eldest of three children. Mary was Swedish and Tom hailed from Dublin.

The family were strict Catholics. Tom had studied to be a priest for five years, and his two sisters were nuns. Mary went to mass every morning.

Sheeran even spent some time as an altar boy at Mother of Sorrows Church until he eventually got kicked out for trying out the sacramental wine.

As a young man, he learned to kill in the US Army, where he endured a life-changing 411 days of active combat duty as a rifleman in the Thunderbird Division during World War Two.

The average term of active combat duty was 81.

After returning home he became a hustler and hitman, working for legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino.

Frank likened being a hitman to being a solider, saying: “It was 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.”

Eventually he would rise to a position of such prominence that in a RICO suit then-US Attorney Rudy Giuliani would name him as one of only two non-Italians on a list of 26 top mob figures.

When Sheeran was ordered to kill Hoffa, he did the deed, knowing that if he had refused, he would have been killed himself.

Sheeran confessed to Brandt he lured Hoffa to an empty house and shot him in the back of the head and then left. Hoffa’s body has never been found.

Another of Sheeran’s victims is said to be Crazy Joe Gallo, a prominent member of the Profaci crime family.

Brandt first interviewed Sheeran in 1991 but it wasn’t until 1999 the interviews started in earnest.

Sheeran read and approved each chapter. He then re-read and approved the entire manuscript.

On December 14, 2003, aged 83, he died.

The new film, based on Brandt’s bestselling book, is due to be released next year and stars Robert De Niro, alongside Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, Bobby Canavale and Harvey Keitel.

Schindler’s List screenwriter Steve Zaillian is behind the script.

“They’re working on polishing the scripts and they wanted my input, which is very flattering.

But also, I’m the expert on Frank ‘The Irishman’ so . . . ”

Brandt said he’s over the moon Robert De Niro is playing the famed mobster.

He said: “Oh my god yes. I’m thrilled he’s playing my dear friend. He is very bright, and very intense. And he’s an excellent interrogator.

“You don’t get to where he’s gotten to in life by being shy.

“He was a gentleman throughout, I was impressed with all of them, I have to say. In the very first meeting we had De Niro seemed to be the most intense.

“He would be playing Sheeran and he wanted to make sure he got it right, got it accurately. These people are artists.”

Brandt said he didn’t warm to Sheeran at first but in the end he carried Frank’s coffin as pallbearer at his funeral.

He explained: “In the beginning I didn’t like him, as time went on his remorse started to show through, his Catholic background started to show through.

“We stopped meeting on purpose after the final confession on video tape. He told his son in law, ‘I’m going to check out.’

“He was dead in six weeks.” Sheeran was always the number one suspect in the killing of Hoffa. But despite pleas from the family and investigations, nothing was ever proved.

Brandt said he always believed a confession was forthcoming saying: “I thought what he wanted to confess was killing Hoffa, he was the number one suspect, he was Hoffa’s dear friend.

“It would be the kind of thing that would weigh on a man who had been raised a very strict Catholic.

“I believe there is a human need to confess. The Catholic religion is built around it. Psychiatry is built around it. The 12-step AA program is built around that need.

“I used to teach interrogation to cops, and cross examination to other lawyers. I first got interested in the subject at the local police department in Delaware, they had a terrific interrogator, his name was Charlie Burke, an Irishman, and I asked Charlie how he had just got a confession from a heroin addict. ‘How do you do that Charlie?’

“He said to me, ‘They want to tell you, Charles.’ The more I thought about it, I realised, he truly believed it.

“And I believed it, and it was the basis of my teaching of interrogation. If you go into the interrogation believing that they want to tell you.

“You’re going to get it. You’re going to get that confession.”

@IrishSunOnline