We hope you enjoy the video!We also have new memberships! He became known as "Jimmy C." As we said last week, Jimmy C. took over the Hell's Kitchen Irish mob after he made a deal with Gambino member Roy Demeo to . McCarthys also producing When Corruption Was King, set up at Paramount with Temple Hill Entertainment and based on a screenplay by Baldwin that made the 2009 Blacklist; and Havana Nocturne, for Eric Eisners L + E Pictures. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Tony the Greek claims he told the FBI in 1986 that Hoffa was killed by alleged Irish mob boss Jimmy Coonan in a house near the Detroit suburb of Mount Clemens. Learn how your comment data is processed. Defense lawyers had contended that there was no such organization as the Westies. Biography [ edit] To be convicted of racketeering, each defendant had to be found to have committed at least two of the 28 racketeering acts cited. He had also spent almost a year on the FBI most wanted fugitive list after being a stowaway on an International Longshoremen's Association freighter to Itagua, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to avoid a murder charge. Featherstone, who said he had been Coonans right-hand man, admitted that he had lied under oath in other cases, had been in and out of mental institutions, suffered delusions and was a former abuser of alcohol and drugs. 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. Adlers producing credits include Valkyrie, Superman Returns, Constantine and Starsky and Hutch. Baldwin also wrote an untitled Gregory Hoblit project, set up at Castle Rock, and an untitled Pierre Morel Tokyo thriller for Paramount. The Peter Pan wiseguy they killed in NJ taught them that move. He volunteered for combat in Vietnam and would claim he spent time killing with the Special Forces. One of these new recruits was 24-year-old Vietnam Vet by the name of Mickey Featherstone. When Benicio Del Toro has been cast to play a real-life figure, you know that person is bound to be a badass. DB Dec 15, 2006 #6 Is Jimmy Coonan still alive? 2 Westie Francis Mickey Featherstone, said the gang had even shot a union leader as a favor to reputed Gambino boss John Gotti. He received a medical discharge in 1967 after just a year, claiming to have hallucinations. 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. Helpful. Although Coonan wounded no one, Spillane understood that the younger hoodlum was not to be taken lightly. With Robert Spillane, Jim McManus, T.J. English, Joseph Coffey. 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. Then, it was finally time to begin building the Jacob Javits Center in Hell's Kitchen, which would turn into a tremendous money maker. 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. Coonan and Featherstone dragged a guy out of a bar and forced him into a van and masturbated on him as a form of intimidation. He now lives under an assumed name somewhere in the USA.[2]. Home Crime Library Organized Crime James Coonan James Coonan was born December 21, 1946 in Manhattan, New York. 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. McCarthy, Adler and Baldwin are also collaborating on an adaptation of Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Colemans Tower that Baldwin is penning. Jimmy Coonan's nephew, John "Jackie" Coonan jr. runs things in the Kitchen. Your email address will not be published. All Rights Reserved. Facebook. Coonan used these gang members to lure Stein to the 596 Club bar where he was shot to death. However, the two soon proceeded with their real plan by brutally murdering and butchering Dugan. After Coonan took over as boss of the Westies, he had Stein murdered to gain control of his gambling and loansharking customers. NEW YORK (AP) _ Seven people were convicted Wednesday on federal racketeering charges for taking part in the violent activities of a murderous gang known as the Westies, which terrorized Manhattans Hells Kitchen neighborhood for 20 years. 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. Shondor Birns managed to survive the 'golden age' of gangster historythe 20s and 30sand succeeded in the equally violent 50s and 60s. Read Next: Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Saweetie and More Honored on Gold Houses 2023 A100 List, Adele Lim Directing Ashley Park in Untitled R-Rated Comedy for Lionsgate, Point Grey (EXCLUSIVE), Netflix Delaying The Gray Man Production Amid Surging California COVID-19 Cases, Millie Bobby Brown to Star in the Russo Brothers Sci-Fi Film The Electric State, Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Premiere Date Revealed by Steve Martin and Martin Short at Comedy Show (EXCLUSIVE), Jock Zonfrillo, MasterChef Australia Judge, Dies at 46, Matthew Lawrence: 'My Agency Fired Me' After I Refused to Take My Clothes Off for an Award-Winning Director, Willie Nelsons 90th Birthday Is Smoking, With Snoop Dogg, George Strait and Neil Young Among the Party Favorites at the Hollywood Bowl, Super Mario Bros. Movie Officially Smashes $1 Billion Globally, COVER STORY | How a Sex Scandal, Big Egos and Putin Led to Jeff Shells Sudden, No Payout Exit From NBCU, Ryan Goslings Greta Gerwig Barbie Tee and Margot Robbies Pink Two Piece Embrace Barbiecore, The Brilliance of Harry Belafonte in 12 Songs, Bob Odenkirk Joins The Bear Season 2 (EXCLUSIVE), Is This 'Beau Is Afraid' Character a De-Aged Joaquin Phoenix? He took aim and fired a whole 30 round magazine in one long burst at Spillane and some men with him. In 1969, Police arrested Coonan on kidnapping and murder beefs. [3] Author T.J. English has credited this event in several books as Coonan's motivating factor in the takeover of the Westies. Because the construction site was in Hell's Kitchen that made it Mickey Spillane's territory, but, the Genovese family front boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno did not like that, so, he sent a freelance Irish hit man from Queens by name of Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan to get rid of some of Spillane's main men. (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 Thanks to a long history of films, books and TV shows focussed on mob families like the Corleones and the Sopranos, as well as a host of real stories covered in films like The Untouchables, Goodfellas and, of course, the ultimate classic gangster flick Gotti starring John Travolta, when we think about American organised crime, we think Italian. His death would be one of many ordered by Salerno seeking to eliminate high ranking and veteran members of Spillane's organization. Islam Comes to Britain. In Japanese, the word is nezumi but that also means mouse in English. The story is that the Genovese crime family sent a team of heavily-armed hitmen to kill off Spillanes gang. Westie members murdered and dismembered him in the back of Coonan's bar, then threw his remains in the Hudson River. Featherstone, if still alive is in the Wit Sec. This story of Jimmy Hoffa's death first entered the public consciousness in 1989 when Donald Frankos gave an interview to Playboy Magazine where he claimed that Hoffa was killed by a New York Irish mafia boss by the name of Jimmy Coonan and buried at the home field of the New York Giants and New York Jets football teams. Coonan established ties to the Gambino family when he took control of Hells Kitchen. 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]. He was released from the mental hospital 4 years later. Since his death, and the slaying of other prominent Greek mobsters in the 80s, the Greek mob has struggled to regain any foothold in the American underworld.[6]. In this case, he was found not guilty due to insanity. In order to clear his name Featherstone recorded conversations between the Westies and Coonan so that he would be cleared of the murder charge and he could use the evidence he had to put Coonan behind bars. In retaliation and to set Mickey Featherstone up to take the fall, Billy Bokun, Johns brother got a car identical to Mickey Featherstones and put on a long haired wig and fake mustache to look like Featherstone. Required fields are marked *. His wife Edna was given 15 years. The Genovese crime family took over Spillanes construction business, and all of his organized crime businesses, and from that point on the Genovese crime family also ruled all of Hells Kitchen with an iron fist. An off-duty policeman in the bar saw John Bokun shoot Michael Holly, then he shot and killed John Bokun. Edna put out a family memorial, about their family being chained together in hell in the afterlife. he is the son of the notorious gangster Jimmy Coonan of the Westies, the Irish Mob in New York. 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". An eighth defendant was acquitted of all charges as the five-month trial ended. He opened up the gang to the lucrative drug dealing rackets as well as continuing extortion, numbers, loansharking and counterfeiting rackets in the area. Featherstone committed several mob killings before he was convicted in 1986 of a murder he had not committed. 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. Roy DeMeo was a close friend of James Coonan and as a favor to Coonan he found Spillane and murdered him. Jimmy Coonan brought the Westies into the 20th Century and presided over the most bloody and violent gang in New York City history. Follow my Instagram @MOONEYDashCamhttps://www.instagram.com/mooneydashcam/Follow me on tiktok @mooneydashcamhttps://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJ5EQm4A/For business inquiries you can get in touch at mooneydashcam@gmail.comAlso dont forget to leave me some suggestions for future videos in the comments. Phillips is a storyteller, actor and writer living in rural West Wales. Privacy Policy. Murray Humphries somehow managed to impress Capone enough to get himself recruited into the organization he had just robbed blind. When Coonan was 18 his father was kidnapped by local mobster Mickey Spillane. On August 25, 1975, Curley jokingly pulled a gun on Dugan while the two were drinking in a local pub. This was a broken man. Related Posts: Richie Ryan; Rudy Giulliani Quote; Cadillac Frank; A Rare Photo of Egan's Rats Leaders; Humphries decided that fighting fire with fire was the best plan, hijacking a Capone truck at gunpoint. Cummiskey, the so-called "Butcher of Hell's Kitchen" taught young Coonan the "art" of body dismemberment, using Paddy Dugan as the textbook. Although reportedly on good relations with both Spillane and Coonan (despite rumors of Cummiskey defecting to the Westies), he was shot at point blank range and killed by Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan while drinking at the Sunbrite bar on August 20, 1976. Spillane was the mob boss who ran Hells Kitchen and was said to have pistol whipped Coonans father before kidnapping and beating him. You can contact the show to be a guest or to interview me!For general business inquiries: bloodontherazorwire@gmail.comIn today's video, I talk about the exp. [5] Coonan wanted more, and several West Side neighborhood thugs gathered around him, including Francis "Mickey" Featherstone. 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. Dugan took the jest as a personal insult and stormed out on his friend.