After the raided mobster party known as the Apalachin Meeting, Sicilian-born Bufalino was facing deportation back to Italy, but he got a little help from his newest hired muscle. In “I Heard You Paint Houses,” Sheeran said that he helped Bufalino evade deportation by getting him a crooked lawyer who bribed Italian officials to get the government of that country to refuse to accept the mobster. “America had to keep him,” Sheeran said.

Bufalino apparently appreciated the favor and changed Sheeran’s job description from driver to hitman, or, in their mobster parlance, house painter. He also connected the Irishman with a particular employer that same year. According to All That Is Interesting, Bufalino introduced him to labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, and Sheeran said he killed dozens of people for the president of the Teamsters Union. However, as these things tend to go, a couple decades later, when the Mafia no longer needed Hoffa, Bufalino reportedly ordered Sheeran to take the union leader out. Sheeran claims to have whacked Hoffa, but no hard evidence has ever been found to corroborate the claim. So the truth about Russell Bufalino and Frank Sheeran’s relationship may never be known for sure.