mickey featherstone and the westies

[1][5] His wife Sissy co-operated with the District Attorney's office to tape incriminating conversations with gang members, including Bokun. [6] In 1992, a man named Brian Bentley was identified as a member of the Westies and was implicated in a burglary ring responsible for victimizing over 1,000 businesses throughout Manhattan. He is serving life in prison in various Rico charges having been betrayed by his second in command Mickey Featherstone. With Spillane gone, his control of the rackets in Hell's Kitchen began to deteriorate; Coonan became the neighborhood's boss, although some still viewed Spillane as boss. [1][2], When a group from New Jersey, called the Riley brothers, entered Hell's Kitchen a fight started with the outsiders. Bosko Radonjich, an American-Serbian nationalist and onetime anti-communist started his Westies affiliation as a low-level associate of Jimmy Coonan in 1983. Spillane went to Coonan's father, slapped him around and told him to get his son under control. However, Radonjich was released when the main witness in the case, Sammy Gravano, was deemed unreliable. Roy DeMeo, a powerful and much-feared Gambino crime family soldier and veteran hitman, murdered Spillane as a favor to Salerno. 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. Facing almost 25 years in jail, he became an informant and brought down Coonan's gang. Although the Italian gangsters greatly outnumbered the Irish mob, Spillane was successful in keeping control of the convention center and Hell's Kitchen. The small but violent Irish gang had terrorized Hell’s Kitchen during the ’70s and the early ’80s. Roy Demeo Jimmy Coonan & Mickey Featherstone. Coonan's main contact was Roy DeMeo. He was a model prisoner, seen daily picking fine lint off of his perfectly made bunk to pass inspection, and starting arguments with others for not polishing their door frame brass. [2] His conviction eventually came in February 1982, after using counterfeit currency at a massage parlor - he was traced because the girl remembered seeing his name tattooed on his forearm, and he was sentenced to six years. 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 New York Coliseum, Madison Square Garden, and later the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Anthony Salerno, a high-ranking member of the Genovese crime family, wanted the center for himself and reached an agreement with Jimmy Coonan. [2] His mother helped with the Veterans of Foreign Wars and his father was a United States Customs Service officer. [4] He pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge and received a suspended sentence of five years' probation from Judge Robert W. Sweet due to his cooperation with the authorities. 939 talking about this. Shortly afterward, federal prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani announced a devastating RICO indictment against Coonan and others for criminal activities going back twenty years. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Bosko Radonjich, Gambino Family Ally, Dies at 67, "Bosko Radonjich, former John Gotti henchman & ex-Westies crime boss known as 'Yugo', dies in Belgrade", "3 Arrests Hit Burglary Ring In Manhattan", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Westies&oldid=1010765052, 1988 disestablishments in New York (state), Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from December 2017, All articles needing additional references, Pages using infobox criminal organization with ethnicity or ethnic makeup parameters, Pages using infobox criminal organization with rivals parameter, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2013, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Hell's Kitchen and other neighborhoods in New York City, and some parts of New Jersey, Racketeering, assault, burglary, kidnapping, illegal gambling, fraud, extortion, drug trafficking, counterfeiting, robbery, murder, This page was last edited on 7 March 2021, at 05:34. Devaney and Cummiskey were killed in late 1976, and Kapatos was killed in January 1977. Cummiskey had apparently switched sides to the Coonan camp after they both killed and dismembered Patrick "Paddy" Dugan for killing Cummiskey's best friend,[1] but Salerno and Sullivan were not aware of the switch. [5] He was freed in December 1988[5] and went into a witness protection program. From tough guys like Pat Nee from Boston to Jimmy Coonan, Mickey Featherstone & The Westies gang all the way to the biggest name of them all James “Whitey” Bulger, who was Boss for more than 20 years and went on the run for a further 16. Facebookpräsenz zum Blog philosophia-perennis.com - Liberalkonservative Seite - Beiträge zu Politik, Gesellschaft und Zeitgeschehen If Coonan became boss, Salerno would run the construction site and give Coonan a taste of the proceeds. From time to time, the Westies worked for the Gambinos as a contract killer squad. Featherstone committed several mob killings before he was convicted in 1986 of a murder he had not committed. English, T.J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. Other leading gang members were also sentenced to long prison terms, including McElroy, who was sentenced to 60 years, and Richard "Mugsy" Ritter, a career criminal sentenced to 40 years on loan-sharking and drug related charges. Hell's Kitchen was no longer safe for Spillane and his family, and he moved to the then-Irish working-class neighborhood of Woodside, Queens. [2] He had blond hair and was often said to be baby-faced. "[7], This article is about an Irish American gang. [citation needed], 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. Coonan recruited the infamous DeMeo after a deal was struck between the two. By the early 1990s, the old demographic of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood was disappearing. Although Coonan wounded no one, Spillane understood that the younger hoodlum was not to be taken lightly. [4] Mickey Spillane, the mob leader in Hell's Kitchen at the time, was shot five times outside his apartment in August 1977, and Featherstone was arrested but acquitted for his killing. By rubbing out Spillane, DeMeo's crew would then do business with his successor. In 1966, Coonan fired a machine gun at Spillane and his associates from atop a Hell's Kitchen tenement building. The judge overturned the verdict. [1] He served in heavy combat and then as a stock clerk. dort tätig waren, sind: Bill Dwyer, Owney Madden, Vincent „Mad Dog“ Coll, Eddie McGrath, Mickey Spillane, Edward Cummiskey, Tom Devaney, James Coonan und Mickey Featherstone. [1] He was shocked at receiving his sentence of 25 years in prison, and concluded that he had been framed by his own gang. [citation needed] However, among all his criminal activities, the most audacious was his "snatch" racket (kidnapping and holding local businessmen and members of other crime organizations for ransom). [2] Featherstone did time in the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield Missouri on the psychiatric ward in 1982. A mobster from Queens, named Hughie Mulligan, had been running Hell's Kitchen; Spillane, a native, was his apprentice until assuming leadership. In Hell's Kitchen befindet sich … DeMeo found what he needed to ensure that he would be officially inducted into the Gambino family when he formed an alliance with a gang of Irish-American criminals known as the Westies soon to be headed by James Coonan.Coonan's only obstacle to assuming control of the westside and its lucrative money making enterprise was Mickey Spillane, … Radonjich returned to his native Serbia where he operated a casino and nightclub until he died in 2011 from poor health. When Michael G. Cherkasky, chief of the investigations division of the district attorney's office, was asked how much still remained of the Westies, he said: "Too much," and that "it's not the end" of the gang. Spillane sent flowers to neighbors in the hospital and provided turkeys to needy families during Thanksgiving, in addition to running gambling enterprises such as bookmaking and policy, accompanied inevitably by loansharking. Coonan eventually interacted directly with John Gotti, who took over the Gambinos after Castellano's murder in December 1985. [1] He served in the Vietnam War as member of the Green Berets aged just 17 after lying about his age. He was eventually arrested by U.S. Customs officials during a stopover in Miami, Florida, in 1999. On the New York Commission, Spillane was still viewed as the Irish Mob boss on the Westside, putting the Javits Convention Center construction site under his control. Salerno then reached out to Buffalo Crime Family associate and freelance hitman, Joseph Sullivan, to eliminate the three main Spillane supporters in Hell's Kitchen, Tom Devaney, Tom Kapatos, and Edward Cummiskey. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. [1] In September 1986, Judge Alvin Schlesinger overturned Featherstone's conviction. Another Westie (and top enforcer), James McElroy, was acquitted of the murder of a Teamster in 1980. The Westies were a New York City-based Irish American organized crime gang, responsible for racketeering, drug trafficking, and contract killing. Mickey Featherstone James McElroy Boško Radonjić: The Westies were a New York City-based Irish American organized crime gang, responsible for racketeering, drug trafficking, and contract killing. In September 1986 the prosecutor who oversaw Featherstone's conviction told the presiding judge that post-conviction investigation had revealed that Featherstone was innocent. [6], Around 1992, Radonjich fled the country to avoid jury tampering charges. 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. 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. Previous to Coonan taking over the Westies, Michael (Mickey) Spillane, an old time Irish mob figure lead his troops. [3][4] He received a medical discharge in 1967 after just a year, claiming to have hallucinations. Featherstone returned with a rifle and shot one of the brothers John Riley in the arm, for which he was arrested and probationed. Yes, the Mafia still exists in America in 2018 and is more powerful than ever. They even kidnapped members of the mafia and held them for ransom. [2] The police suspected him of a series of mob contract killings. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. Gotti appointed Joe Watts as the liaison to the Westies. The information he and his wife Sissy provided, and the recordings they helped make, achieved this aim. In 1979 both Coonan and Featherstone were acquitted of the murder of a bartender, Harold Whitehead. Coonan was imprisoned for a short period for murder and kidnapping charges that were pleaded down to Class C Manslaughter. The election of Donald Trump was a heads-up to the criminal and satanic underground (which is one and the same thing) that overt evil is now the name of the game. [1] He spent time in a series of mental hospitals, being released in 1975. The blue-collar Irish-American community was being displaced by a more affluent and ethnically diverse group of residents. 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. Mickey Featherstone stood trial for the murder [citation needed], In the 1970s, the Irish mob saw an increased threat from the Italian Mafia as the Genovese crime family sought control over the soon to be built Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Loansharking led to assault, and Spillane had burglary arrests as well. For other uses, see, Hell's Kitchen between 48th and 49th street on Ninth Avenue looking northeast toward. [1] Rather than serving his sentence he instead told prosecutors that Bokun had committed the murder, and he became an informant. The Italians, frustrated and embarrassed, responded by hiring a rogue Irish-American hitman named Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan to assassinate Tom Devaney, Eddie "the Butcher" Cummiskey, and Tom "the Greek" Kapatos, three of Spillane's top lieutenants. Mobster and hit man Jimmy Conlon has one night to figure out where his loyalties lie: with his estranged son, Mike, whose life is in danger, or his longtime best friend, mob boss Shawn Maguire, who wants Mike to pay for the death of his own son. Featherstone and Coonan had a falling out over the latter's alliance with the Gambino crime family, which Featherstone saw as a betrayal of all the Irish-Americans in Hell's Kitchen. With this change came a decrease in street crime and a change in leadership. After DeMeo himself was murdered, Coonan's Gambino connection became Daniel Marino, a capo from Brooklyn. Berühmte Gangster, die aus Hell’s Kitchen stammen bzw. [citation needed]. [4], Featherstone was convicted in March 1986 for the April 1985 murder of Michael Holly, despite being innocent of this particular murder, which was a revenge attack probably carried out by another of the Westies, Billy Bokun. [1][2] He began spending time in saloons like Club 596 and Sunbrite that were hangouts for the Westies.[2]. They were partnered with the Italian-American Mafia and operated out of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. [5], "Books of The Times; The Rise and Fall of a Thoroughly Vicious Gang", "New York Stories: Hell's Kitchen Killers", "Admitted Westies Killer Who Informed Is Free", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mickey_Featherstone&oldid=1007254275, United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War, People who entered the United States Federal Witness Protection Program, Overturned convictions in the United States, Pages using infobox criminal with motive parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 17 February 2021, at 04:49. Spillane was now out of the picture, and Coonan was the new leader of The Westies. Featherstone's penchant for violence and intimidation caught the eye of Coonan and Featherstone became Coonan's right-hand man by 1976. Francis “Mickey” Featherstone was the main enforcer and second-in-command in the Westies gang. Was murdered, Coonan 's gang in 1988 being released in 1975 Italian gangsters outnumbered! 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