Variety reports that Martin Scorsese has signed on to direct an adaptation of the 2005 book I Heard You Paint Houses, about the mob assassin who supposedly killed Jimmy Hoffa.  Robert DeNiro is attached to play the lead, Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran, whom the book’s author befriended before his death in 2003. Official book description:

I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES is a fascinating account of a dark side of American history. The book’s title comes from the first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran. To paint a house is to kill a man. The paint is the blood that splatters on the walls and floors. Frank Sheeran lived a long, violent, passionate life. As a boy he took on older kids in bar fights so his dad could win free beer. During World War II he was a highly decorated infantryman with 411 days of active combat duty and a willingness to follow orders. “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.” He became a hustler and hit man, working for legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino and eventually becoming one of only two non-Italians on the FBI’s famous La Cosa Nostra list.

Long story short, according to Frank Sheeran, Frank Sheeran was a real hardass.  In the meantime, the author is hard at work on his follow up novel, It Smells Like Someone Shit His Pants in Here: The Brett Ratner Story.