Westies
This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2017) |
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States[1] | |
Years active | Mid-1960s–1988 |
---|---|
Territory | Manhattan and New Jersey[2] |
Ethnicity | Irish American[2] |
Membership (est.) | 15 members and 100 associates[2] |
Activities | Racketeering, assault, burglary, kidnapping, illegal gambling, fraud, extortion, drug trafficking, counterfeiting, robbery, murder[1] |
Allies | Gambino crime family[1] |
Rivals | Mickey Spillane's gang[1] |
Notable members | James Coonan Edward Cummiskey Mickey Featherstone James McElroy Boško Radonjić |
The Westies were a
According to crime author
History
Spillane years
In the early 1960s,
Spillane sent flowers to neighbors in the hospital and provided turkeys to needy families during
He was able to add to his neighborhood prominence by marrying Maureen McManus, a daughter of the prestigious McManus family which had run the Midtown Democratic Club since 1905. The union of political power with criminal activity enhanced the gang's ability to control union jobs and labor racketeering, moving away from the declining waterfront and more strongly into construction jobs and service work at the
Irish–Italian war of the 1970s
In the 1970s, the Irish mob saw an increased threat from the Italian Mafia as the
In 1977, Spillane was assassinated by
Spillane–Coonan wars
The war began when an 18-year old Coonan swore revenge against Spillane, following the Spillane-initiated kidnapping and pistol whipping of Coonan's father. In 1966, Coonan fired a machine gun at Spillane and his associates from atop a Hell's Kitchen tenement building. Although Coonan wounded no one, Spillane understood that the younger hoodlum was not to be taken lightly. Spillane went to Coonan's father, slapped him around and told him to get his son under control. Coonan was imprisoned for a short period for murder and kidnapping charges that were pleaded down to Class C Manslaughter. He was released in late 1971 and continued his war with the Westside Gang.
Trouble with the Genovese family
Hell's Kitchen was no longer safe for Spillane and his family, and he moved to the then-Irish working-class neighborhood of
Salerno then reached out to Buffalo Crime Family associate and freelance
Coonan and Featherstone
During the late 1970s, Coonan tightened the alliance between the Westies and the Gambinos, then run by Paul Castellano. Coonan's main contact was Roy DeMeo. In 1979 both Coonan and Featherstone were acquitted of the murder of a bartender, Harold Whitehead. Another Westie (and top enforcer), James McElroy, was acquitted of the murder of a Teamster in 1980.
Although both Westies leaders were imprisoned in 1980 — Coonan on gun possession charges, Featherstone on a federal counterfeiting rap — the gambling, loansharking, and union shakedowns continued on the West Side. After DeMeo himself was murdered, Coonan's Gambino connection became Daniel Marino, a capo from Brooklyn. Coonan eventually interacted directly with John Gotti, who took over the Gambinos after Castellano's murder in December 1985. Gotti appointed Joe Watts as the liaison to the Westies. From time to time, the Westies worked for the Gambinos as a contract killer squad.
Featherstone was convicted of murder in early 1986 and began cooperating with the government in hopes of getting the conviction overturned, and because he believed the rest of the Westies had framed him for the murder. The information he and his wife Sissy provided, and the recordings they helped make, achieved this aim. In September 1986 the prosecutor who oversaw Featherstone's conviction told the presiding judge that post-conviction investigation had revealed that Featherstone was innocent. The judge overturned the verdict. At that point the information provided by the Featherstones resulted in the arrest of Coonan and several other Westies on state charges of murder and other crimes.
Shortly afterward, federal prosecutor
The Yugo era
By the early 1990s, the old demographic of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood was disappearing. The
Around 1992, Radonjich fled the country to avoid
21st Century
For nearly two decades following the end of the "Yugo Era", there was little mention of the activities or even continued existence of The Westies. But in 2012, the New York Post reported that the Westies resurfaced under the leadership of John Bokun, who was caught, along with accomplices, smuggling marijuana into the US.[10] The New York Times noted that, aside from being the nephew of former Westies, Bokun had no connection to any group using that name.[11] However, "The Westies" is a title created by members of the press in the mid-1980s to refer to the gang; as pointed out by English, at no point did members of "The Westies" ever adopt the label or refer to themselves as such.[12]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f United States of America v. James Coonan, Kevin Kelly, James McElroy, Kenneth Shannon, William Bokun, John Halo, Edna Coonan, Richard Ritter, Thomas Collins, Florence Collins Justia (February 4, 1991) Archived October 26, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c The Westies: Last of the Irish-American Mobsters Rick Hampson, Associated Press (December 17, 1986) Archived January 20, 2022, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ ISBN 978-0312362843.
- ISBN 978-0-06-059002-4. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
- ISBN 0-06-059002-5.
- ^ Capeci, Gerry. Murder Machine. Penguin Publishing, 1993.
- ^ Hevesi, Dennis (9 April 2011). "Bosko Radonjich, Gambino Family Ally, Dies at 67". The New York Times.
- ^ a b Jaccarino, Mike (10 April 2011). "Bosko Radonjich, former John Gotti henchman & ex-Westies crime boss known as 'Yugo', dies in Belgrade". Daily News. New York. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
- ^ Pérez-Peña, Richard (14 November 1992). "3 Arrests Hit Burglary Ring In Manhattan". The New York Times.
- ^ Maddux, Mitchel (20 February 2012). "Westies fly high: gang re-emerges moving weed in jets". New York Post. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
- ^ Goldstein, Joseph (3 December 2012). "Gang Said to Have Been Vanquished in '80s Makes Cameo in Extortion Case". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
- ^ "The Westies: Inside New York's Irish Mob by T.J. English".
Further reading
- Traub, James (5 April 1987). "The Lord's of Hell's Kitchen". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 July 2012.