Two of Coonan's hoods were Dennis "Rhinestone Cowboy" Curley and Patrick (Padd)y Dugan, both lifelong best friends. He received a medical discharge in 1967 after just a year, claiming to have hallucinations. Even former gang members testifying for the prosecution said the name Westies was created by the police and the news media to describe Irish- American hoodlums on Manhattans West Side. The following day, Coonan and Cummiskey went out for a drink with Billie Beattie at the Sunbrite Bar. Wall was from a wealthy family, his father was a respected physician and his mother was the daughter of the former mayor of Tampa. Dash cam tour of Hells Kitchen Manhattan, taking you to the murder site of infamous New York City mob loanshark Ruby Stein and headquarters of the westies Irish mob that rivaled the Italian mafia, While explaining the gruesome details of the murder and dismemberment. It was not long before the feared Cummiskey favored working for Coonan over Spillane. The Westies is a riveting true crime saga and also one of the great untold stories of the 20th century Irish-American experience, McCarthy said. Proud father of a son that went into military and served in Afghanistan/Iraq. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. The Irish-American gang led by Jimmy Coonan and Francis (Mickey) Featherstone aligned itself with the Gambino crime family and enforced its racketeering schemes with a campaign of murder and dismemberment until the NYPDs Intelligence Division brought them down. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Android | RSS | More, Jimmy Coonan brought the Westies into the 20th Century and presided over the most bloody and violent gang in New York City history. After refusing to acquiesce to Nicodemo Scarfos order to pay up a street tax to the family in order to keep operating, a move that would essentially absorb Phillys Greek mob into the Scarfo crime empire, Bouras was gunned down at the citys Meletis Greek Restaurant in 1981, where he was dining with his acquaintance Jeanette Curro, Raymond Martorano and radio host Jerry Blavat. After his death, Cleveland went on to suffer many more bombings in the wake of Birns assassination, getting dubbed Bomb City, USA in the press, with 36 bombings in 1976 alone.[1]. Here is one of the recent photos of Westie's boss Jimmy Coonan, taken in 2015 in prison. Coonan, looking for a more feared and respected gangster like Cummiskey on his side, decided to use Dugan to lure in Cummiskey. His wife Edna was given 15 years. One of these new recruits was 24-year-old Vietnam Vet by the name of Mickey Featherstone. His wake was held at the former Buckley Funeral Home at 445 West 43rd Street (now Crestwood Funeral Home and Cremation Services) in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan and the funeral was held at Holy Cross Church (Manhattan) and he was buried in Saint Raymond's Cemetery (Bronx). He was the brother of Margaret Kagabines, Elaine McCue, Joan Ferrick, Patricia Baeza, Bernard, Robert, Lawrence and Paul. He drove up and shot and killed Michel Holly on the street in front of witnesses. But that simply is not the whole story. In this case, he was found not guilty due to insanity. reddit. he was slain during the wild 1970s, blown up along with his fancy Lincoln Continental by a bomb planted (purportedly) by the Hells Angels, contacted by his former enforcer Danny Greene. One could make the argument that entering the Marine core during the turbulent Vietnam War at the age of 17 essentially sealed his fate: the impressionable young man, possible harbouring underlying schizophrenia, engaged in violent combat in the green hell and white heat hat was the conflict in Vietnam. His son Clifford was charged and later found not guilty of being involved in a drunken bar brawl on September 21, 2009, in Hell's Kitchen. He became known as Jimmy C. As we said last week, Jimmy C. took over the Hells Kitchen Irish mob after he made a deal with Gambino member Roy Demeo to kill the previous boss, Mickey Spillane, in 1977. However, Cummiskey was part of the Spillane crew and Dugan was part of the Coonan crew, and Spillane forbade violence against the Coonan gang unless they struck against his men first. A year after his release in 2010, Engs wife Lori was murdered by another Flying Dragon member, David Chea, who killed himself (probably in order to avoid Johnny Engs retribution).[9]. Coonan and Cummiskey soon became known associates, as Cummiskey taught Coonan the "tricks of the trade". 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Engs brutal reign came to an end in 1993 when he was sentenced to 24 years in jail, having to pony up $3.5 million in fines and giving up his massive Pennsylvania estate as further punishment. He is a little obsessed with lists. 2023 Variety Media, LLC. At thirty-nine years old, he had already been convicted of assault and robbery and had been sent to Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York and at 37 was witness to the Attica Prison riot September 9, 1971 during his incarceration. He would usually tell neighborhood youths about his criminal escapades from his violent past interjected with humor that left his audience laughing. Beattie was then instructed to go over to Dugan's apartment and bring down the carton of milk from the refrigerator. Jimmy Coonan, John Moe, Robert Herman, Kevin Kelly, Sean Ryan, and who else? Out of all the things he did, cutting hands off and saving body parts etc. They do things for the Elders who all mostly live in Jersey! He was discharged on medical grounds in 1967, claiming to be experiencing hallucinations. The 1990 film State of Grace starred Sean Penn as an undercover officer who infiltrates the Westies. From the 1930s until his explosive death in 1975, Shondor Birns rose through the ranks in Clevelands underworld, becoming the towns most feared and extroverted mobster, constantly investigated, arrested and released, gaining a reputation as a numbers king and as a mediator between feuding gangsters. Jimmie Grayson Coan. There was also testimony by several witnesses that the Westies had forged an alliance with the Gambino organized crime family, said to be the largest and most powerful Mafia group in the country. Mickey Spillane, known as "the last of the gentleman gangsters,' and Jimmy Coonan, who led the much-feared Westies. 1991)", "7 Westies Given Sentences Of Up to 75 Years in Prison", "Prosecutor Says Gang Terrorized Hell's Kitchen", James and Edna Coonan's 1989 appeal brief, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Coonan&oldid=1151269070, 75 years' imprisonment and a $1 million fine, This page was last edited on 22 April 2023, at 23:47. For more information, please see our Im a long time citizen of Hells Kitchen and Ive seen the Westies still do their thing!! Famous for his part in the 1971 robbery at the Villa Vizacaya in Florida that saw an estimated $1.5 million worth of art and silver objects, including a priceless silver bowl once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte, Stanimirovic paid his dues to society and went on to write for a living. On Feb. 11, 1984, two Westies drove Leone to New Jersey, pulled over to offer him a hit of cocaine, and shot him in the head. T.J. English described Cummiskey as, "curly black hair, piercing blue eyes, and the cockiness of a bantam rooster, Cummiskey looked and sounded like a gangster from the 1920s". Those who chose Coonan were immune from these harsh activities because Spillanes gang was on the run and unable to retaliate. Cummiskey, the so-called "Butcher of Hell's Kitchen" taught young Coonan the "art" of body dismemberment, using Paddy Dugan as the textbook. They are reputed to have said that "Although he fucked up, he was still a good Irishman". He put the hands in bags in a freezer with the intention of using them to put those fingerprints on a gun he would use later. To be convicted of racketeering, each defendant had to be found to have committed at least two of the 28 racketeering acts cited. But the defense attacked the credibility of Featherstone, an admitted three-time killer, and other informants who testified for the government in return for leniency. Coonan authorized the hit of Michael Holly while Billy Bokun was dressed as Mickey Featherstone. During the early 1970s, Coonan recruited a gang of young Irish hoods and they began kidnapping, beating, and murdering any Spillane loyalists. 3.0 out of 5 . But the key verdict was the jurys decision that the Westies did exist, that it constituted a racketeering enterprise and that the convicted defendants had participated in its activities to further the gangs criminal goals. At least 30 of Spillanes gang were killed by bombings. The Irish-American gang led by Jimmy Coonan and Francis (Mickey) Featherstone aligned itself with the Gambino crime family and enforced its racketeering schemes with a campaign of murder and. Paul Castellano, who was the Godfather of the Gambinos, requested a meeting in an Italian restaurant with the leader of the Westies, Jimmy Coonan, in an attempt to reel in the gang's worst excesses. Roy DeMeo was a close friend of James Coonan and as a favor to Coonan he found Spillane and murdered him. Organised Crime is a dangerous game. By 1976, Coonan and Featherstone were engaged in taking over Spillane's territory, culminating in the 1977 shooting of Spillane, for which Featherstone was arrested and acquitted, and the death of Stein. His gang soon outgrew the old Irish mob led by Spillane. Unlike most crime figures of the age, Holstein slowly stepped away from the criminal life, eventually retiring in 1937 after he was arrested for his involvement in gambling, spending just 1 year in jail.[3]. 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. The son of an accountant for famous mobsters, Coonan was no stranger to the criminal lifestyle. this awesome character was inspired by one of the most fascinating men in 20th century African American history: Casper Holstein. Spillane went to Coonan's father, slapped him around and told him to get his son under control. He was born on the upper West Side and his mother worked with the VFW and his father was a U. S. Customs officer. His wife, Edna, 44, was convicted of loansharking and tax charges. Johnny Eng, AKA Onionhead or Machinegun Johnny, was the leader of the Flying Dragons street gang in the 1980s, controlling heroin in the Chinatown area of New York. He turned states witness in 1987, his testimony helping to bring down the Westies, seeing many members, including Coonan himself, sent to prison. Along with Bouras, Curro was also killed whilst Martonaro and Blavat escaped with minor injuries. He passed the money to a girl who remembered seeing his name tattooed on his forearm. Dugan took the jest as a personal insult and stormed out on his friend. He was allegedly involved in the kidnapping of Genovese crime family bookmaker Paul (Eli) Ziccardi as well as later participating in the gang war between Spillane and Coonan during the mid-1960s. The younger Bokun, 30, of Manhattan, who was convicted of drug dealing as well as racketeering, tried to comfort his weeping, cursing father. (completely optional)Chad's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Razor-Wire-Prison-Memoir/dp/B08NJR548L/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1\u0026keywords=blood+on+the+razor+wire\u0026qid=1625283431\u0026sr=8-1Check out our website:www.myfreedomfighters.comPaypal.me/ChadMarks2020Cashapp: $ChadMarks102 Coonan had a following amongst the younger Irish in the neighborhood (including Billy Beattie, Billy Bokun, Kevin Kelly, Jackie Coonan, Eddie Coonan, Mickey Featherstone, James McElroy, Joey Schultz, Richie Ryan and Tommy Hess) as well as earning the respect of some old timers such as Tommy Collins, who shifted their allegiance to Coonan from Spillane. . This dismembering method of disposing of his victims was used by Coonan many times. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Tools 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. The latest Tweets from Jimmy Coonan (@jimmy_coonan): ""The acid test of materialism is not how much I have or don't have, but my preoccupation and concern over it." Chip Ingram" he learned that he had been set up and framed by his own gang. https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/49257984/download.mp3, Crooked: Interview about a Corrupt 1920s Attorney General. Eddie Cummiskey was among those unhappy about this killing. Hell's Kitchen ~ West Manhatten Mickey Spillane, known as "the last of the gentleman gangsters," and Jimmy Coonan, who led the much-feared Westies.The Westie. Westie Eddie "The Butcher" Kaminsky and Jimmy Coonan murdered a druggie who killed one of their fellow members and carried the man's body across the rooftops from one tenement building to the. Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2008. What prison is he in? Coonan now was getting national attention. Thats when the Westies, a ruthless gang of Irish American extortionists, racketeers and contract killers, took in the violent young Featherstone and put him to work. Coonan soon continued his criminal career by creating the Westies gang. Among other members of the Westies arrested were Jimmy McElroy, a top enforcer, who was sentenced to 60 years and Richard Ritter, a loan shark and drug dealer, who was sentenced to 40 years. Biography [ edit] He was raised in a five-room walk-up apartment on West 49th Street. After being released from jail in 1970, he started building up his own Irish gang so he could take over the rackets from Mickey Spillane. I hope you enjoyed, please subscribe if you did! Featherstones wife, Sissy, wore a wire and engaged other Westies in incriminating conversations to help her husband get out of jail. He and the others dismember Steins corpse and dumped it in the Hudson River. After Coonan took over as boss of the Westies, he had Stein murdered to gain control of his gambling and loansharking customers. After his release he resumed power, but in 1988 was convicted of racketeering under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and sentenced to 75 years in prison with the judge's recommendation of denying parole. He took aim and fired a whole 30 round magazine in one long burst at Spillane and some men with him. Holstein lived it largehe owned many luxury cars, had two swanky apartments in New Yorks Harlem area, a house on Long Island and thousands of acres of land in the state of Virginia. James Michael Coonan (born December 21, 1946), nicknamed "Jimmy C", is an Irish-American mobster and racketeer from Manhattan, New York who, served as the boss of the Westies gang, an Irish mob group based in Hell's Kitchen, from approximately 1977 to 1988. Product Details. Jimmy on the left & Larry Sessa, a Colombo Crime Family mobster. The son of an accountant for famous mobsters, Coonan was no stranger to the criminal lifestyle. When he was . 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. Bad blood between Coonan and Featherstone, in part due to Featherstones distaste for Coonans Italian Mafia connections, eventually led to Featherstone being framed for the murder of Michael Holly, a construction worker and neighborhood bar owner who refused to give the Westies protection money. Cummiskey was murdered by hitman Joseph Sullivan on August 20, 1976, in a bar. He passed out and when he awoke, he found they had given him a circumcision. Defense lawyers had contended that there was no such organization as the Westies. Convicted hitman Donald Frankos claimed that Irish mob boss Jimmy Coonan shot Hoffa in Michigan before dismembering his body with a power saw and meat cleaver, according to a 1989 Detroit Free press story. Top 10 Movies About Italians That Dont Involve The Mafia. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures. Featherstone became upset with the direction the Westies were headed and confronted Coonan about his problems. To subscribe on iTunesclick here,give me a review and I will send you a link to see the film for free. [8][9] Coonan was first eligible for parole in 1998. Coonan joined with the Italiansbecause Spillane had refused the Mafias efforts to control criminal activities in and around the Jacob Javits convention center. Coonan established ties to the Gambino family when he took control of Hells Kitchen. One of the most compelling characters in HBOs prohibition-era drama Boardwalk Empire was Dr. Valentin Narcisse, a Marcus Garvey-supporting pillar of his community that also indulges in some nefarious gangster behaviour, portrayed by the amazing Jeffrey Wright . He went on trial with Coonan for the killing of Harold Whitehead, and they were acquitted in December 1979 after one witness killed himself and another refused to testify. He was released from the mental hospital 4 years later. In another bar room fight in 1971, he shot and killed a guy named Linwood Willi. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Jimmy was ashamed that his father was treated like this and he swore revenge against Mickey Spillane. In May 1977, Jimmy Coonan owed a substantial amount of money to loan shark Ruby Stein and decided to forgive his own debt by murdering Stein. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. He opened up the gang to the lucrative drug dealing rackets as well as continuing extortion, numbers, loansharking and counterfeiting rackets in the area. The police and FBI suspected him of a series of mob contract killings. In Japanese, the word is nezumi but that also means mouse in English. One month after his birth, Birns family emigrated to New York city. Instead of a cross, she hid an inverted pentagram in a flower engraved into the stone. Jimmy Coonan brought the Westies into the 20th Century and presided over the most bloody and violent gang in New York City history. After many years on the run in Peru, Battle was indicted back in the US on racketeering charges, having amassed more than $1 billion from drug trafficking, illegal gambling and loan sharking. Turn on post notifications so you dont miss a video! Its just a matter of the government, piling it all together. The association between Italian Americans and the Mafia is as strong as the association between Italian Americans and pizza. Today. Although Coonan wounded no one, Spillane understood that the younger hoodlum was not to be taken lightly. In the 1970s Coonan worked as an enforcer and bodyguard for loanshark named Ruby Stein. Almost three months after the Curley murder on November 17, 1975, Coonan and Cummiskey called Paddy Dugan in under the pretense of a hit against the Spillane crew, claiming they needed Dugan to be the wheelman in the murder. Murrays family emigrated to the US from the small rural village of Llandinam in Powys, Wales in the late 1800s. He got a sweet deal in a pea bargain and was released in late 1971 and continued his war on Mickey Spillane. During this incarceration Featherstone was injected with Thorazine. He got involved with the Milano family out there, and Jimmy Caci, and was huge into the cocaine and porn business in the late 80's and early 90's. Wore a wire during the Colombo wars against Teddy Persico Jr and Luchese capo John Baudanza. years back I had read.I read one of Featherstone's kids joined military.There is an youtube video of Eddie Cummiskey's son in a street fight in New York.He beat the hell out of some guy that was . Upon his return, Coonan and Cummiskey instructed him to leave the bar and get rid of the contents of the carton. By his teenage years, Coonan stood five feet, seven inches tall and had a stocky build, with broad shoulders and a thick neck. From time to time, the Westies worked for the Gambino crime family as a contract killer squad. James Coonan was born on December 21, 1946 into a working class/lower 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. Jimmy Coonan (1977-1986)- Jimmy Coonan led the most violent Irish gang Hell's Kitchen and New York has ever seen. He now lives under an assumed name somewhere in the USA.[2]. [6][7], In 1979, Coonan was tried and acquitted for the murder of Harold Whitehead, but convicted on weapons charges and sentenced to four years in federal prison. [11][a], "The last few years had been good to Jimmy Coonan. Curley was like a younger brother to Cummiskey, as both had started out as small-time Irish hoods in Hell's Kitchen. After four weeks of testimony Coonan was found guilty of racketeering and was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Featherstone committed several mob killings before he was convicted in 1986 of a murder he had not committed. Wall could not win his second mob warin 1955, Wall was killed by getting beaten to a bloody pulp with a baseball bat and having his throat slit at his home. Learn how your comment data is processed. During the 70s and 80s, he became the leader of The Corporationa sprawling crime/business empire that consisted of bolita games across the US eastern seaboard as well as holdings in Peruvian casinos and a host of investments in legitimate businesses. He was blond haired and baby-faced. They are also the actions of a dirty, low-down career criminal like Vojislav Stanimirovic. He formed an alliance with a man named Mickey Featherstone and a few former members of Hells Kitchen who were afraid of Coonan. The story is that the Genovese crime family sent a team of heavily-armed hitmen to kill off Spillanes gang. Coonan reportedly killed a loan shark victim who could not pay his debt, dismembered him and cut off his hands. James Michael Coonan (born December 21, 1946), nicknamed "Jimmy C", is an Irish-American mobster and racketeer from Manhattan, New York who, served as the boss of the Westies gang, an Irish mob group based in Hell's Kitchen, from approximately 1977 to 1988. James Coonan was a baby boomer born December 21, 1946. Shady doings, ambitious heists and international political skulduggery are elements covered by great journalists like Vojislav Stanimirovic. John Gotti began running the Gambino Crime Family after Roy DeMeo had died and he used Coonans Westies as a killer squad for the family. When Coonan was 18 his father was kidnapped by local mobster Mickey Spillane. He instead told prosecutors that Bokun had committed the murder, and he became an informant. Featherstones violence caught the eye of Coonan. Crime, of course. Several Westies owed money to Stein and were looking to escape these debts. Coonan and Ryan will never see the light of day (Sean Ryan wasn't a Westies anyways). Humphries had fallen in with a small-time hood named Fred Evans who wanted to grow his bootlegging operation but was confounded by the size and ease with violence displayed by members of Capones gang. Coonan, 41, was found guilty of attempted murder, murder conspiracy, loansharking, extortion and income tax evasion among other crimes. Apr 01, 2003 #15. Watch. Related Posts: Richie Ryan; Rudy Giulliani Quote; Cadillac Frank; A Rare Photo of Egan's Rats Leaders; Two, he made his money via illegal gambling. Coonan and a number of the Westies gang owed money to a popular Jewish loan shark named Ruby Stein. Humphreys is also rumoured to be the inspiration for Tom Hagen, the Corleone Familys consigliere played by Robert Duvall in the Godfather movies.[4]. The Westies went on to kidnap, torture, and murder members of Hells Kitchen until Spillane had to go into hiding and turn over power of Hells Kitchen to Coonan. Coonan was incarcerated and began serving a 75-year prison term in 1988. 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. Feb 9, 2019 - Rare pic of Club 596 / Jimmy Coonan (The Westies) headquarters. Thats my son there.. Allegedly, they brought the head of Dugan with them, set it down on the bar stool, ordered his favorite whiskey, lit one of his cigarettes and put it in his mouth. Growing up in Hell's Kitchen he played hockey with many future Westies-aligned criminals at Hell's Kitchen Park and boxed at Boys & Girls Clubs of America and eventually started burglarizing commercial buildings in Lower East Side, Manhattan and cargo from warehouses in West Side, Manhattan. Mickey Featherstone was a complete nut case. McCarthy, Adler and Baldwin are also collaborating on an adaptation of Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Colemans Tower that Baldwin is penning. Then, it was finally time to begin building the Jacob Javits Center in Hell's Kitchen, which would turn into a tremendous money maker. The racketeering charges alleged eight murders, four murder conspiracies and three attempted murders. All Rights Reserved. Humphries quickly falling into to the favourite pastimes of early twentieth century kids in Chicagofist fighting and burglary. Pinterest. Mickey Spillane or someone in his gang kidnapped Mr. Coonan for ransom and someone pistol whipped Coonans father. Coonan wanted to restore his fathers pride so he went to a tenement ran by Hells Kitchen and purchased a fully automatic machine gun before firing an entire clip at Spillane and his crew.

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