Charles P. Brandt

Charles Brandt –- prominent attorney and best-selling author whose true crime classic, I Heard You Paint Houses, was the basis for Martin Scorsese’s 2019 film, The Irishman –- passed away of natural causes on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, at Delaware Hospice in Wilmington. A longtime resident of Wilmington and Lewes, Delaware, as well as Sun Valley, Idaho, Charlie was 82.

Born and raised in New York City, Charlie attended Stuyvesant High School. An avid reader and devotee of hard-boiled fiction, as a teenager he steeped himself in the novels of Dashiell Hamett, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain. Inspired by their tough, terse, unsentimental style, Charlie began writing his own short stories, featuring heroes he referred to as “Sons of Sam Spade.”

After graduating from The University of Delaware, Charlie became a New York City junior high school English teacher. But his fascination with the art of investigation got the best of him, and he landed a job working as an investigator for the welfare department in East Harlem while attending Brooklyn Law School.

Law degree in hand, he moved back to Delaware, where he built a reputation as a homicide investigator and prosecutor for the Attorney General’s office, eventually becoming Chief Deputy Attorney General for the State of Delaware. In 1976, he entered the private sector as a defense attorney before establishing one of Delaware’s preeminent medical malpractice firms.

A high success rate and continual accolades marked Charlie Brandt’s legal career. Named one of the “Best Lawyers in America” by his peers, he also served as president of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association.

He began writing professionally while still practicing law in the 1980s. His first book, The Right to Remain Silent, a novel based on cases he worked as a homicide investigator, was optioned by Bruce Willis’s production company. Though never produced as a film, Steerforth Press recently re-released the book with a new forward by the writer.

He co-authored Joe Pistone’s Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business and Lin DeVecchio’s We’re Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-Up of a Mafia Crime Buster.

A few years after working on a case involving Frank Sheeran, the hit man who eventually confessed to the murder of Jimmy Hoffa, Charlie began work on what would become one of the most talked about true crime books of the last 25 years, I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa. The book so impressed Robert DeNiro that he brought it to Mr. Scorsese, who brought it to the screen as The Irishman. The film, starring DeNiro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and a supporting cast of Hollywood heavyweights, was chosen to open The New York Film Festival and garnered rave reviews, often described as a masterpiece.

In his final book, Suppressing the Truth in Dallas: Conspiracy, Cover-Up, and International Complications in the JFK Assassination Case, published in 2022, Charlie presented a preponderance of evidence supporting the conclusion that the mafia played a significant role in the assassination of President Kennedy.

Even though his writing dug deep into the mob-infested underside of American society, Charles Brandt was regarded by all who knew him as a highly upbeat and charismatic character with a wild sense of humor and as loyal a friend as you could ever have. A jazz aficionado with an encyclopedic knowledge of the genre and a vinyl record collection that covered miles of wall, he counted jazz great Benny Golson among his lifelong friends. Charlie’s wit, wisdom, and warmth, along with his story-telling prowess, made him a joy to spend time with and a highly sought-after public speaker.

More than anything, Charlie Brandt was dedicated to his friends and family. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Brandt; his children, Tripp Wier, Mimi (John) Royer, and Jenny Rose Brandt; grandchildren Maggie Royer, Jackson Royer, Libby Wier, and Alexander McCausland; his sister and brother-in-law Barbara and Gary Goldsmith; niece Laura (Daniel) Marcktell; nephew Denis Penna; great nephews Pacal Marcktell and Lucas Marcktell; and great niece, Rose Marcktell.

While well-known for his generosity, Charlie took pride in pointing out that he always sported a Timex watch and drove the same beat-up old white Caddy, with carpets covering holes in the floorboards for 20 years.

Ultimately, looking back on all he achieved in life, it’s safe to say that nothing he accomplished meant more to Charlie Brandt than the unconditional love he felt and received from his family.