Warning! Contains SPOILERS for The Irishman.
Martin Scorsese's The Irishman features the death of union boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), but while the film is based on supposedly true events, those depicted in this particular scene aren't necessarily accurate - so who really killed Hoffa? The Irishman, which has been made by Netflix (but given a limited theatrical release), is a getting the band back together kind of film, featuring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Pacino under the direction of Scorsese.
The Irishman mostly centers on De Niro's Frank Sheeran, a truck driver turned hitman for the mob, whose nickname gives the movie its title. He builds a close relationship with Hoffa over the years, working with him while Hoffa ran the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union. However, when Hoffa's attempts to reclaim control of the union after some time in prison run counter to the plans of the local Mafia, he has to be taken out. Despite their friendship, Sheeran is the one to do it, shooting Hoffa in his home in 1975 and then disposing of the body, which was never found. Or at least, this is the story The Irishman is telling, which is based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran and the Closing of the Case on Jimmy Hoffa. Written by Charles Brandt, it claims that Sheeran took responsibility for killing Hoffa shortly before his own death.
Officially, however, no one has been convicted for the death of Hoffa, and Sheeran's own claim has been discredited by many with knowledge of the case. The house where Sheeran claims he murdered Hoffa did have blood splatters in it, but none of these matched Hoffa's DNA, and nor was there anything connecting Hoffa to the house itself. The FBI conducted a thorough investigation into the Hoffa case, which at the time was a major missing persons case given how well known Hoffa was, but while Sheeran was a person of interest in the incident because of his relationship to Hoffa, the investigators on the case did not believe he was the person responsible.
In The Irishman, we see escalating hostilities between Hoffa and Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano (Stephen Graham), which then becomes the key to his murder, with the final decision to have Hoffa killed coming from the top, Pesci's Russell Bufalino. This part does fit with what the authorities believe happened, but again, Sheeran is not connected to it. As per The Daily Beast, Robert Ozer, head of the Detroit federal Organized Crime Strike Force, told a judge of a reliable informant who had three names believed to be directly involved in the disappearance (and likely murder) of Hoffa, but Sheeran was not among them. A later line-up, while proving inconclusive, featured Salvatore Briguglio, his brother Gabriel (Gabe) and Thomas Andretta, with "Sal" believed to be the killer, according to information provided by Ralph Picardo, a close associate of Provenzano. The three men were all known to be close to Tony Pro, and involved in organized crime.
Robert Garrity, the FBI case agent leading the investigation into Hoffa's disappearance, said of Sheeran's involvement: "Was he there that day? I have no indication he was there." Sheeran was known to have been in Detroit at the time, and his own relationship with Hoffa isn't in doubt, but there are holes in his story. Throughout the FBI's research into the Hoffa case, which, again, was one of the biggest missing person cases of the time, Sheeran was not considered a likely suspect for the crime. It remains the case that the FBI don't truly know what happened to Jimmy Hoffa, despite various theories and suspects about how he disappeared and what happened to the body. The person(s) who killed him, though, is more likely to be from the names mentioned above than they are Frank Sheeran, no matter what The Irishman says.