Westies

This article is about an Irish American gang based in New York City. For the Irish criminal gang based in Dublin, Ireland, see The Westies (Irish gang). For other uses, see Westie.

Westies
Hell's Kitchen between 48th and 49th street on Ninth Avenue looking northeast toward Time Warner Center and Hearst Tower
FoundedMid-1960s[1]
FounderJames Coonan[1]
Founding locationHell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States[1]
Years activeMid-1960s–1988
TerritoryManhattan and New Jersey[2]
EthnicityIrish American[2]
Membership (est.)15 members and 100 associates[2]
ActivitiesRacketeering, assault, burglary, kidnapping, illegal gambling, fraud, extortion, drug trafficking, counterfeiting, robbery, murder[1]
AlliesGambino crime family[1]
RivalsMickey Spillane's gang[1]
Notable membersJames Coonan
Edward Cummiskey
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. They were partnered with the Italian-American Mafia and operated out of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan.[3]

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."[4] According to the NYPD Organized Crime Squad and the FBI, the Westies were responsible for 60–100 murders between 1968 and 1986.[citation needed] They also had little union influence except for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and Sheet Metal Workers' International Association that Tom Devaney and Dominick Montiglio had belonged to.

  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ English, T. J. The Westies: Inside New York's Irish Mob (1991); St. Martins Press; ISBN 0312362846/ISBN 978-0312362843.
  4. ^ English, T.J. (2 March 2005). "13: Mickey's Monkey". Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster (Illustrated ed.). New York: HarperCollins. p. 385. ISBN 978-0-06-059002-4. Retrieved 1 December 2011.