Spillane years 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. A mobster from Queens, named
Hughie Mulligan, had been running Hell's Kitchen; Spillane, a native, was his apprentice until assuming leadership. 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. Loansharking led to assault, and Spillane had burglary arrests as well. 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). 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
New York Coliseum,
Madison Square Garden, and later the
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
Irish–Italian war of the 1970s 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. Since the convention center was in his Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, Spillane refused to allow any involvement by the Italians. Although the Italian gangsters greatly outnumbered the Irish mob, Spillane successfully kept control of both the convention center and Hell's Kitchen. 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. In 1977, Spillane was assassinated by
Roy DeMeo in a hit set up by
Jimmy Coonan, who wanted to take over from Spillane. Coonan recruited the infamous DeMeo after the pair struck a deal. By eliminating Spillane, DeMeo's crew could then do business with his successor. DeMeo initially came into contact with Coonan after the latter murdered and dismembered loan shark Ruby Stein.
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
Woodside, Queens. 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. 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.
Anthony Salerno, a high-ranking member of the
Genovese crime family, wanted the center for himself and reached an agreement with Jimmy Coonan. If Coonan became boss, Salerno would run the construction site and give Coonan a taste of the proceeds. 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. Cummiskey had apparently switched sides to the Coonan camp after they both killed and dismembered Patrick "Paddy" Dugan for killing Cummiskey's best friend, He became the boss of the Westies when Kelly went on the lam and was instrumental in the "fixing" of John Gotti's 1986 racketeering trial. Around 1992, Radonjić fled the country to avoid
jury tampering charges. He was eventually arrested by
U.S. Customs officials during a stopover in Miami, Florida, in 1999. However, Radonjić was released when the main witness in the case,
Sammy Gravano, was deemed unreliable. Radonjić returned to his native Serbia where he operated a casino and nightclub until he died in 2011 from poor health.
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.
The New York Times noted that, aside from being the nephew of former Westies, Bokun had no connection to any group using that name. 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. == Former members and associates ==