Eleven reasons to think that Frank Sheeran (played by DeNiro in the new film, #TheIrishman) did *not* kill Jimmy Hoffa on July 30, 1975, as the film portrays. (Factual support for statements below are in articles at end of thread.)
1/ There is no direct evidence, none, to place Sheeran in Detroit on 7/30, or to support other elements of his confession, including that he killed Hoffa. And there is lots of evidence that undermines the confession.
2/ The FBI has Sheeran on tape in 1978 telling a close criminal associate that he didn’t kill Hoffa & was not even in Detroit on July 30, 1975. Sheeran discussed alibi evidence on the tape (gas receipts and witnesses at dinner, all in another state), which he later gave to FBI.
3/ More evidence that Sheeran was not in Detroit on 7/30: FBI records indicate that he was in his Detroit area hotel from 7/31-8/3 and did not make any calls from there until 8/1.
4/ Sheeran claims that on 7/30 he picked up Hoffa at 2:45 pm at the Machus Red Fox restaurant in a car driven by my stepfather, Chuckie O’Brien. But four witnesses testified that Hoffa was alive in that parking lot well after 3 pm and almost certainly closer to 3:30 pm.
5/ Sheeran claims that Hoffa called him on 7/28 to ask him to join the meeting at Machus red Fox on 7/30. But the FBI did a comprehensive phone record analysis, and found no call from Hoffa to Sheeran that day.
6/ Sheeran claims Hoffa said the meet was to take place inside the Machus Red Fox restaurant. The restaurant had a coat and tie policy. Hoffa was wearing a short sleeve shirt with no tie or coat that day. Witnesses say he never entered the restaurant.
7/ Four FBI agents who worked the Hoffa case—three at the outset in 1975, and one who led the case from 1993-2008—told me on the record that they know of no evidence to support Sheeran’s confession and do not believe it.
8/ The agent on the case 1993-2008, Andrew Sluss, saw the “confession” video in 2008. His reaction: “Seeing is believing, except in this case, then seeing becomes disbelieving. The video I saw of Sheeran was a laughable, sad, desperate attempt to create a record.”
9/ From 1975-1995, Sheeran denied involvement in the Hoffa disappearance in private and public. In 1995, to get a book contract, he started telling different tales—first, that Nixon had Hoffa killed, and then 3-4 v. different versions of his involvement.
10/ It’s highly implausible that the mob, at 11th hour, would order Sheeran, a known Hoffa loyalist, to kill Hoffa, w/uncertainty about how he might behave, especially via airplane in and out of Detroit, with conspirators who had not previously met or coordinated.
11/ It’s just as implausible that mob boss Bufalino would travel w/Sheeran before and after hit. A former FBI mob expert told me it “would be the first time that a La Cosa Nostra boss drove the ‘shooter’ en route to a hit—and the boss even took his wife along for the ride!”
As Peggy Noonan said: “‘The Irishman’ is great art…[b]ut it is not…great history… Sheeran… didn’t kill Hoffa… For some of the real story, and for a great American tale in itself, … go to Jack Goldsmith’s book, ‘In Hoffa’s Shadow.” :) wsj.com/articles/in-a-…
Sources for the above can be found in these articles: nybooks.com/daily/2019/09/… and lawfareblog.com/are-claims-new…
