Ex-wiseguy and former Gambino family underboss Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano has watched The Irishman – and it seems he wasn’t too impressed by it.
In an interview with Vulture, Gravano has plenty to say about the recently released epic, which is based on the book ‘I Heard You Paint Houses’ by Charles Brandt. The movie looks into the life of Frank Sheeran, and the disappearance of Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa. Sheeran made a deathbed confession, in which he claims to have murdered Hoffa in Detroit, Michigan.
When asked his thoughts on The Irishman, Gravano replied
It was not as well done as I thought would be, with everybody who was in it. They could’ve did a much better job. You know, they’re all big actors when it comes to Mafia movies, stuff like that. So I really actually thought it would be a lot better.
It was very long. That’s number one. Number two, a lot of the stuff in the actual movie was wrong. The Irishman did not do the shooting. He’s not the guy who killed Jimmy Hoffa. From what I understood it was given to Tony Provenzano, who was a very powerful captain of the Genovese family, and his man, his guy Sally-something-or-other, whatever the fuck his name was — I can’t think of it. Sally Bugs. From what I understood, he was the guy who actually killed Hoffa. So the story was wrong. It was all done wrong! Matter of fact, Joe Pesci, the guy he played? They exaggerated Russell Bufalino’s part in this thing. There’s times in the movie when they are talking about getting back to ‘the real boss,’ like it’s Bufalino. Angelo Bruno was the boss of the Philadelphia mob, not Russell Bufalino. So they got this whole fucking thing twisted and turned around. I don’t know who told them what.
Gravano goes on to talk about the Joe Gallo hit, dismissing Sheeran’s claims on that one too. And his thoughts on the classic 1990 movie, Goodfellas?
Yeah, I was a fan of Goodfellas, and I knew some of the people that were involved in that whole thing. And that was fairly accurate. You know when they went through the basement to get into the Copacabana? That’s the way I used to get in. Me and my friends, we’d go right down there — boom, right in, sitting at somebody’s table. That’s the way we lived.
Sammy Gravano was released from prison in September, 2017 after being convicted on drug charges in 2002. He is best-known for being the government witness who brought down Gambino boss John Gotti.
The full interview can be found HERE
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