The West Side of Manhattan, in New York City, had been associated with Irish gangsters long before Mickey Spillane, Jimmy Coonan, and Mickey Featherstone came along. Hell's Kitchen, an apt nickname for the Irish neighborhood during the 19th and 20th Centuries, was known to be a typical immigrant haven, that's residents were fiercely loyal to one another.
Hell's Kitchen photo above from WikiMedia Commons, courtesy of Jim Henderson. In the 1960s, the West Side of Manhattan was dying, and many believe the Westies gang, and other criminals, suffered the end of their enterprising when Hell's Kitchen was modernized.
For years, criminals used intimidation to extract money from the working people of the neighborhood. Their shakedowns expanded to the docks along the Hudson river, and they pressured labor unions to give them a fair share of dues - all for "protection". What was never said aloud was the Irish gangs offered protection from themselves, as well as the small-timers that might try shake downs of their own.
Mickey Spillane was the last big-shot gangster in Hell's Kitchen. He was running numbers rackets, loan sharking, and financing other criminals, but he walked around the neighborhood like a popular politician. Most of his time spent as boss of the Westies was lucrative and quiet. That's probably why his gang didn't draw the attention of law enforcement the way the gang that came after did.
The new guys, particularly Jimmy Coonan, were throwbacks, too. Unfortunately for their victims, they emulated the Irish gangs of yore that used violence to get what they wanted out of Hell's Kitchen, and they used it often and loudly. Guys from Coonan's Westies were bold, reckless, and merciless. They were just as likely to kill one of their own on the street as they were an outsider. Much blood was spilled during Coonan's reign, and his enforcer, Mickey Featherstone, was perhaps the coldest of them all.
Source: Public Domain
Jimmy Coonan, left, is incarcerated on RICO charges, and Mickey Featherstone, right, is in the US Government's Witness Protection Program.
Mickey Spillane's star in Manhattan began to fade as Coonan's group started to move in on his rackets. Spillane probably would have taken a peaceful road to retirement, if he hadn't been murdered on May 13, 1977. No one was convicted of Spillane's murder, but most believe it wasn't Coonan himself that did it.
What Coonan had that Spillane did not was an Italian connection. The Italian mobsters that operated in New York allowed the Irish Hell's Kitchen during Spillane's time. When Coonan started to woo over some of Spillane's gang to his own, the Italians reached out to him. In exchange for Gambino family sanction, Coonan would cut the Italians in on some of the Hell's Kitchen's extortion and other criminal rackets. The resulting alliance between Coonan and Gambino leader Big Paul Castellano is probably the biggest reason Spillane was murdered. He was the odd man out, and the only person standing in Jimmy Coonan's path to total criminal domination of Hell's Kitchen.
I am sure you've read it but on this subject I recomend The Westies by TJ English. I personnaly think that Spilanne had a connection with the Italians (the Genovese), but more as a loose independent associate but Coonan had a stronger association and with a killer's crew.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, taratata. TJ English's work is exhaustive, and yes, I've read the Westies. Spillane's relationship with the Italian mob isn't clear, but many think it wasn't a working relationship but one of tolerance by the Mafia. Note that when Spillane was out as boss and Coogan was preying on his own people openly, the Italians stepped in and said, 'Hey, you're going to keep it quiet around here, right?" There's where the working relationship between Coonan and Castellano started.
ReplyDeleteHi guys, I never did research like TJ English, but - I am an eyewitness. I lived on Coonan´s turf in the early 80´s (455 W 47th), and one thing´s for sure: For non-gang affiliated residents like myself, the neighborhood was extremely safe. Back in those days, that was not a matter of course for many areas of Manhattan. I am German-American, could easily pass as Irish-American from the way I look and sound and was often thought of as being a gang member for sure (probably because I filled the stereotypes so easily). However, the idea of becoming a gang member never seemed alluring to me. I knew Coonan, Featherstone and a few others from seeing them here and there in the neighborhood - they never bothered people who weren´t associated with their "business". In fact, Hell´s Kitchen underwent a clean up process when some bold real estate people like Milton Davis came in, renovated buildings and began to clean up yards and basements. I still have pictures of myself, sitting by the kitchen window at 455 W 47th with the other side of the street in complete ruins - just burned walls and broken windows. Unthinkable today.
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