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Westies
The Westies were a New York City-based Irish American organized crime gang, responsible for racketeering, drug trafficking, and contract killing. They were partnered with the Italian-American Mafia and operated out of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan.English, T. J. ''The Westies: Inside New York's Irish Mob'' (1991); St. Martins Press; /. According to crime author T.J. English, "Although never more than twelve to twenty members—depending on who was in or out of jail at any given time— the Westies became synonymous with the last generation of Irish in the birthplace of the Irish Mob." According to the NYPD Organized Crime Squad and the FBI, the Westies were responsible for 60–100 murders between 1968 and 1986. History Spillane years In the early 1960s, Mickey Spillane stepped into a power vacuum that had existed in Hell's Kitchen since gang leaders fled the area in the early 1950s to avoid prosecution. A mobster from Queens, named Hughie Mulligan, had be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Coonan
James Michael Coonan (born December 21, 1946), nicknamed "Jimmy C", is an Irish-American mobster and racketeer from Manhattan, New York who, from approximately 1977 to 1988, served as the boss of the Westies gang, an Irish mob group based in Hell's Kitchen. Coonan was incarcerated and began serving a 75-year prison term in 1988. Biography James Coonan was born on December 21, 1946 into a middle class Irish-American family in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan, the second of four children of John Coonan, an accountant who ran a tax office on West 50th Street, and his wife Anna, who was of partial German descent and who worked at John Coonan's office. He was raised in a five-room walk-up apartment on West 49th Street. By his teenage years, Coonan stood five feet, seven inches tall and had a stocky build, with broad shoulders and a thick neck. An amateur boxer and street fighter, he dropped out of school aged seventeen and embarked on a career in organized crime. When Coonan wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gambino Crime Family
The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the " Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. The group, which went through five bosses between 1910 and 1957, is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963, when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group's operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing. The family was one of the five families that were founded in New York after the Castellammarese War of 1931. For most of the next quarter-century, it was a minor player in organized crime. Its most prominent member during this time was its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James McElroy
James "Jimmy Mac" McElroy (1945 - 2011) was an Irish American mobster and racketeer from Manhattan, New York who was an enforcer for The Westies, a criminal organization that operated out of Hell's Kitchen. Biography Jimmy McElroy was born in 1945 in the Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan area of New York City. He played hockey with many future Westies-aligned criminals at Hell's Kitchen Park and boxed at Boys & Girls Clubs of America with Eddie Cummiskey and eventually started burglarizing commercial buildings in Lower East Side, Manhattan and cargo from warehouses in West Side, Manhattan. He rose through the ranks of a group known for counterfeiting, extortion and murder during the 70's and 80's. A former boxer turned drug dealer, McElroy was known for being the driver of the infamous "meat wagon" (a large van used by the mob to transport dismembered body parts). Under control of Jimmy Coonan he became the third highest-ranking member of the Westies during that time. In 1990 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mickey Featherstone
Francis T. "Mickey" Featherstone (born September 2, 1948) is a former Irish American mobster and member of the Westies, an organized crime syndicate from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in New York City, led by James Coonan. Featherstone committed several mob killings before he was convicted in 1986 of a murder he had not committed. Facing almost 25 years in jail, he became an informant and brought down Coonan's gang. Early life Featherstone was born on West 43rd St., one of nine children. His mother helped with the Veterans of Foreign Wars and his father was a United States Customs Service officer. He had blond hair and was often said to be baby-faced. He served in the Vietnam War as member of the Green Berets aged just 17 after lying about his age. He served in heavy combat and then as a stock clerk. To his disappointment, he was pulled from combat duty, he was involved in criminal mischief with his friends and was disciplined for many drunken pranks. He received a medical dischar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Cummiskey
Edward "Eddie The Butcher" Cummiskey Jr. (1934 Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan to August 20, 1976 Chelsea, Manhattan) was a New York mobster who served as a mentor to Jimmy Coonan, leader of the Westies. Cummiskey is reputed to have shown Coonan how to dismember and dispose of murder victims by scattering their remains into the waters around the sewage treatment plant operated by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection at Randalls and Wards Islands, notably in the Hudson River. Cummiskey was murdered by hitman Joseph Sullivan on August 20, 1976, in a bar. Early life Edward was born in 1934. The '' New York Daily News'' August 23, 1976 death notice for Cummiskey reports "Edward was the son of Edward Cummiskey Sr. and Mary Cummiskey nee Hyndes. He was the brother of Margaret Kagabines, Elaine McCue, Joan Ferrick, Patricia Baeza, Bernard, Robert, Lawrence and Paul. Growing up in Hell's Kitchen he played hockey with many future Westies-aligned criminals at Hell's Kitchen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irish Mob
The Irish Mob (also known as the Irish mafia or Irish organized crime) is a collective of organized crime syndicates composed of ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia, and have been in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish-American street gangsfamously first depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1927 book, '' The Gangs of New York''the Irish Mob has appeared in most major U.S. and Canadian cities, especially in the Northeast and the urban industrial Midwest, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, and Chicago. Organized crime also exists in Ireland, predominantly Dublin and Limerick, but only became of any significance in recent decades. The groups are not related to the American Irish Mob and most often consist of families focusing on the drug trade. United States New York Pre-prohibition Irish-American street gangs, such as the Dead Rabbits (led by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mickey Spillane (mobster)
Michael J. Spillane (July 13, 1933 – May 13, 1977) was an Irish-American mobster who controlled Hell's Kitchen in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. Spillane, the so-called “Gentleman Gangster", was a marked contrast to the violent Westies mob members who succeeded him in Hell's Kitchen. Life Spillane was born on July 13, 1933, to Michael Anthony Spillane and Margaret Curran. At 16 or 17, he attempted to rob a movie theater, but was shot by a police officer. He spent four years in prison. After his release from prison, Spillane started as a numbers runner for various organized crime figures in Hell's Kitchen. In 1960, Mickey took over the rackets left to him by his predecessor Hughie Mulligan Hughie Mulligan (died 1973) was a New York mobster and bookmaker who headed criminal activities of the "Irish Mob" in Hell's Kitchen during the 1950s. His protégés included Jimmy Burke, an associate of the Lucchese crime family, and his eventua .... He married Maureen McManus, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boško Radonjić
Boško "The Yugo" Radonjić (, ; 17 May 1943 – 31 March 2011) was a Serbian criminal, former leader of the Westies, a predominantly Irish-American gang based in New York's Hell's Kitchen. Early life Radonjić was born in 1943 in Užice. Bosko's father, Dragomir, a teacher, was captured and executed during World War II by the Partisans for belonging to the Chetniks led by general Draža Mihailović. Stigmatized as a son of a royalist Chetnik soldier, Radonjić grew up in communist Yugoslavia under Tito. In his late twenties, Radonjić fled the country and immigrated to the United States in 1970. He used his friendship with Red Star Belgrade footballer Milovan Đorić to sneak onto the team bus headed for Graz, which allowed him to get across the border. After some time in Austria, Radonjić went to Italy before immigrating to the United States. Bosko Radonjić mentored venture capitalist Dusan Langura and financially backed him up for his first business ventures. Ame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the east, and the Hudson River to the west. Until the 1970s, Hell's Kitchen was a bastion of poor and working-class Irish Americans. Though its gritty reputation had long held real-estate prices below those of most other areas of Manhattan, by 1969, the City Planning Commission's ''Plan for New York City'' reported that development pressures related to its Midtown location were driving people of modest means from the area. Since the early 1980s, the area has been gentrifying, and rents have risen rapidly. Home of the Actors Studio training school, and adjacent to Broadway theatres, Hell's Kitchen has long been a home to fledgling and working actors. Today, the area has a large LGBTQ population and is home to a large number of LGBTQ bars an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the east, and the Hudson River to the west. Until the 1970s, Hell's Kitchen was a bastion of poor and working-class Irish Americans. Though its gritty reputation had long held real-estate prices below those of most other areas of Manhattan, by 1969, the City Planning Commission's ''Plan for New York City'' reported that development pressures related to its Midtown location were driving people of modest means from the area. Since the early 1980s, the area has been gentrifying, and rents have risen rapidly. Home of the Actors Studio training school, and adjacent to Broadway theatres, Hell's Kitchen has long been a home to fledgling and working actors. Today, the area has a large LGBTQ population and is home to a large number of LGBTQ bars and b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hughie Mulligan
Hughie Mulligan (died 1973) was a New York mobster and bookmaker who headed criminal activities of the "Irish Mob" in Hell's Kitchen during the 1950s. His protégés included Jimmy Burke, an associate of the Lucchese crime family, and his eventual successor Mickey Spillane Frank Morrison Spillane (; March 9, 1918July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, whose stories often feature his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have .... Further reading *Clark, Neil G. ''Dock Boss: Eddie McGrath and the West Side Waterfront''. New Jersey: Barricade Books, 2017. . *English, T.J. ''Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster''. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. *English, T.J. ''The Westies: Inside the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob''. St Martin's Paperbacks, 1991. Year of birth missing 1973 deaths American gangsters of Irish descent American gangsters American crime bosses West ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italian-American Mafia
The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its members as Cosa Nostra (, "our thing" or "this thing of ours") and by the American government as La Cosa Nostra (LCN). The organization's name is derived from the original ''Mafia'' or ''Cosa nostra'', the Sicilian Mafia, with "American Mafia" originally referring simply to Mafia (or ''Cosa nostra'') groups from Sicily operating in the United States, as the organization initially emerged as an offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia (known also as ''Cosa nostra'' by its members) formed by Italian immigrants in the United States. However, the organization gradually evolved into a separate entity partially independent of the original Mafia in Sicily, and it eventually encompassed or absorbed other Italian immigrant and Italian-American gangsters and Ita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
