Book summary “The Westies”: summary

Introduction

You want to understand how an isolated neighborhood gang grew into a feared criminal empire. You look for the mechanics of urban underworlds and the forces that finally shatter them.

The Westies chronicle the brutal rise, ruthless operations, and eventual federal dismantling of Hell's Kitchen's most savage street gang.

T. J. English traces this descent through the history of New York City Irish organized crime. The narrative moves from street-level enforcers to high-level partnerships with the Italian mafia and the ultimate deployment of federal RICO laws.

• How did a neighborhood code of silence protect violent criminals for decades?
• What drove ordinary street soldiers to extremes of torture and dismemberment?
• How did federal prosecutors finally dismantle an untouchable syndicate from within?

1. Roots of Hell's Kitchen

The West Side Code

You find that criminal and noncriminal residents of Hell's Kitchen adhered to a strict regional code of silence. This unwritten law protected local gangsters from law enforcement.

The West Side Code originated as solidarity against outside transient forces, but local mobsters successfully leveraged it to prevent victims from cooperating with the police under threat of severe community castigation.

Mickey Spillane previously kidnapped John Coonan, a neighborhood accountant and Jimmy Coonan's father. The elder Coonan was pistol-whipped at the White House Bar but remained silent due to neighborhood codes.

Early Gangs and Prohibition

Hell's Kitchen has a deep-rooted tradition of organized gangsterism stretching back to turn-of-the-century street gangs like the Gophers. Operating primarily out of tenement basements, these early groups engaged in burglaries, dock raids, and railway thefts before being systematically targeted and weakened by railroad security forces.

In 1907, the Gophers reached a peak of approximately 500 members ruling the saloons and pool halls along the gaslit streets.

During Prohibition, Owney Madden transformed Hell's Kitchen racketeering into a profitable business empire spanning bootlegging, nightclubs, and national syndicate alliances. Madden amassed power through the liquor trade and high-society venues, later becoming a representative of the Irish Mob on Charles Luciano's newly formed national organized crime commission. Owney Madden operated the Cotton Club in Harlem and held a financial interest in heavyweight prizefighter Primo Carnera.

Vincent 'Mad Dog' Coll operated as a ruthless, erratic freelance assassin whose violent spree against Dutch Schultz and Owney Madden destabilized the West Side underworld. Coll's willingness to engage in indiscriminate violence—culminating in a shooting that killed a young child—led rival bosses to place a massive bounty on his head. On February 8, 1932, Vincent Coll was shot and killed inside a phone booth on West 23rd Street after Owney Madden allegedly kept him talking on the line until gunmen arrived.

2. Rise of Jimmy Coonan

James Coonan and Mickey Featherstone emerged by challenging older neighborhood leaders through loansharking, numbers rackets, and extreme violence.

James Coonan and Mickey Featherstone dominated Hell's Kitchen in the 1970s and 1980s. Coonan started his feud when he was 19 years old. By 1972, he was 25 years old and facing a kidnapping indictment.

The Coonan-Spillane Feud

A 1966 double shooting in Queens exposed an escalating and violent gang war between James Coonan and neighborhood leader Mickey Spillane. Charles Canelstein and Jerry Morales were kidnapped from a Manhattan lounge by Eddie Sullivan and Jimmy Coonan, who mistakenly believed Morales and Canelstein were hit men sent from Texas.

On April 3, 1966, Charles Canelstein and Jerry Morales were driven to a dark lot near Calvary Cemetery in Queens, where Morales was killed and Canelstein was severely wounded. The shakedown demanded 2,000 dollars, but Canelstein offered only 40 or 50 dollars from his locker.

Coonan bought into the 596 Club through his brother-in-law, turning it into the rival headquarters to Spillane's White House Bar. Younger criminals that formed the nucleus of the Westies followed core behavioral maxims at the 596 Club on 10th Avenue:

• Do not rat
• Do not kill a cop
• Do not smack your woman in public

Loansbanking and Operations

Jimmy Coonan established a stable criminal base by partnering with older experienced operators in loansharking. Coonan partnered with veteran loanshark Tony Lucich, combining Lucich's financial capital and wisdom with Coonan's violent reputation for debt collection.

Coonan, Lucich, and bartender Charlie Krueger initially kicked in 1000 dollars each to start their loansharking venture operating out of the 596 Club. You can follow their operating methods to understand how the crew generated revenue:

• Lend money in small increments starting at 50, 150, or 250 dollars
• Charge interest from 2 to 5 points a week
• Allow customers to pay either the full sum or just the vigorish without touching the principal
• Pool and reinvest cash weekly to keep the funds flowing

3. Mickey Featherstone's Descent

Military service in Vietnam and institutional mistreatment profoundly destabilized Mickey Featherstone, transforming him from a quiet neighborhood kid into a paranoid and violent individual.

Vietnam Aftermath

Featherstone spent 12 months of duty tour in Vietnam relegated to menial supply and clerical duties. Constant humiliation from superiors caused deep resentment, severe PTSD, blackouts, and violent delusions. These psychological fractures persisted long after his honorable discharge.

Mickey received 500 milligrams of Thorazine pumped daily at the Bronx V.A. Doctors diagnosed him with Traumatic War Neurosis. The heavy medication operated as a liquid straitjacket on his erratic nervous system.

Mickey's mother Dorothy found him crawling on his stomach like a snake during a Vietnam flashback. His brother Joseph witnessed him suffering severe physical pain and torn surgical incisions after a drunken circumcision prank in the base hootch.

The Linwood Willis Homicide

On September 30, 1970, Featherstone engaged in a fatal confrontation after a night of mutual escalation and harassment. At 3 A.M. time of night, Mickey went looking for a gun because Milton the bouncer and Linwood Willis taunted him inside the Leprechaun Bar.

Mickey retrieved a Beretta from Jimmy Coonan to use as an equalizer. When Willis stepped outside and reached inside his jacket, Featherstone fired twice. Mickey discovered only after the shooting that Willis was entirely unarmed.

Mickey shot Willis twice outside the Leprechaun Bar on 9th Avenue, then fled. Sergeant John Hanno and Patrolman Robert Erben intercepted and arrested him shortly after.

Attorney Larry Hochheiser successfully mounted a rare and difficult insanity defense for Featherstone. He utilized Mickey's psychological history and family testimony to prove a mental defect.

It had been 15 years since a murder rap had been beaten on an insanity defense in New York County. On October 28, 1972 date of the jury verdict, Dorothy Boyle took the stand and tearfully described Mickey crawling on the floor like a snake during a Vietnam flashback.

Veteran defense attorney Jack Evseroff provided unconventional guidance on how to cross-examine prosecution psychiatrist Dr. Stanley Portnow. Evseroff spent 40 dollars on grooming items before sharing his method with Hochheiser.

• Do not ask an opposing expert psychiatrist anything about psychiatry during cross-examination.

4. Methods and Alliances

The gang adopted a gruesome doctrine of body dismemberment to eliminate police investigations while forging ties with Italian organized crime.

You find that James Coonan and Eddie Cummiskey relied on a simple rule. No corpus delicti meant no murder investigation could take place. Cummiskey used his training as a butcher at Attica to cut up victims and dispose of the pieces.

On November 17, 1975, Patrick Dugan disappeared after unauthorized kidnapping and extortion. Coonan and Cummiskey cut up his body in a kitchen bathtub, severed his head, and disposed of the remains.

No Corpus Delicti

Jimmy Coonan forged strategic alliances with the Gambino crime family to expand his criminal enterprise. You saw him arrange meetings with Gambino soldier Danny Grillo and capo Roy Demeo at a sewage treatment plant on Ward's Island.

In May 1977, Coonan and Billy Beattie visited a sewage treatment plant trailer on Ward's Island where a man named Louie demonstrated firearm silencers. Grillo commanded a fee of $20,000 and up for a professional killing.

The Ruby Stein Hit

Coonan orchestrated the murder of major East Coast loanshark Ruby Stein to wipe out a $70,000 debt and seize control of the loanshark network. On May 5, 1977, Danny Grillo ambushed Stein with six gunshots inside the 596 Club. You watched Coonan's crew execute secondary shots and systematically dismember the body.

To handle the corpse, you follow a precise procedure:

• Buy jumbo-sized plastic garbage bags.
• Purchase assorted kitchen knives including a butcher knife, an 18-inch serrated steak knife, and a filet knife for removing identifying marks like tattoos.
• Ambush the target inside a locked and shaded establishment.
• Shoot the target multiple times in the chest, arms, and legs.
• Have accomplices fire silenced secondary bullets into the corpse to bind them as accomplices.
• Split plastic garbage bags open and lay the body flat.
• Strip the body naked in the restroom and copy records from the victim's black book.
• Cut off the head and limbs using a serrated knife.
• Cut open the stomach and lungs to prevent the torso from floating.
• Dispose of the body parts in the strong river currents at Ward's Island.

About a grand in cash was recovered from Stein's shoe and split five ways. Detective Sergeant Joe Coffey later used the term the Westies during a press conference at the West 50th Street underpass excavation site.

5. The Gambino Partnership

Paul Castellano integrated the Westies into the Gambino crime family under strict profit-sharing and operational conditions.

The Tommaso's Sitdown

In February 1978, Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone were summoned to a critical sit-down in Brooklyn to answer for the murder of Ruby Stein. Fearing retribution, they attended the meeting at Tommaso's Restaurant located at 1464 86th Street with leaders of New York's five families, arranged by Roy Demeo. You can picture the tension as they deployed a scout team and left armed backup at a nearby social club with orders to attack if they did not return within two hours.

Alberta Sachs and Dick Maher acted as the scout team at Tommaso's, where Alberta accidentally bumped heads with Paul Castellano outside the restroom. Big Paulie agreed to let Coonan's crew use the Gambino family name for protection and legitimacy on the West Side. In exchange, you had to follow strict rules:

• Halt independent wild behavior.
• Get every killing authorized through Nino Gaggi or Roy Demeo.
• Share 10 percent of your profits with the Gambino family.

Imitating the Mob

Jimmy Coonan adopted the superficial behavior, protocol, and brutality of traditional mafia wiseguys after partnering with them. Coonan genuinely enjoyed spending time with Italian mobsters, copying their fancy clothing, elaborate protocols, and methods of threatening anyone who failed to show respect. Mickey Featherstone experienced an epiphany while watching The Godfather on TV at Sonny's Cafe while Coonan berated and humiliated Spider Tassiello over old grudges involving 1,250 dollars.

An impulsive murder committed over trivial insults demonstrates a dangerous descent into reckless violence. At the Plaka Bar, Coonan brutally murdered Harold 'Whitey' Whitehead in the Opera Hotel men's room simply because Whitehead insulted Coonan's brother Jackie during a conversation. Coonan shot Whitehead in the back of the skull with a .25-caliber Beretta while John Crowell offered him marijuana, leaving the body with pants down to fake a robbery.

6. Federal Scrutiny and Raids

Federal agencies and the NYPD Intelligence Division broke open the syndicate through undercover counter-surveillance and simultaneous raids.

Undercover operations can leverage low-level, talkative associates who are eager to exaggerate their status and connections.

Undercover agent Ron Malfi posed as a Brooklyn-connected tough guy to buy counterfeit bills and stolen traveler's checks from Raymond Steen. Malfi recorded extensive conversations via hidden transmitters in a van parked outside 520 West 56th Street.

Raymond Steen boasted to undercover agents about Coonan and Featherstone's immense power in union and neighborhood control while driving in the surveillance van. They scheduled a counterfeit purchase for 6,900 dollars on January 15, 1979.

The Van Tapes

Coordinated multi-location raids combine local police intelligence with federal resources to execute search warrants and arrest networks simultaneously.

On February 9, 1979, NYPD Intelligence officers, Secret Service agents, and Emergency Service units executed simultaneous raids on the Westway Candy Store, Featherstone's apartment, and Steen's vehicle.

Agents and cops stormed the Westway Candy Store where Mickey Featherstone tossed a .25-caliber Beretta to the floor before being ordered to the ground. Steen carried 48,000 dollars in counterfeit money during the raid, falling short of the 50,000 dollars scheduled for sale.

February Raids and Pleas

When confronted with severe potential prison sentences and undercover evidence, low-level operatives and veteran criminals often agree to cooperate.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ira Block confronted Raymond Steen with potential fifty to sixty-year sentences. This pressure led Steen, his girlfriend Alberta Sachs, and supplier Billy Comas to agree to cooperate.

After Agent Ron Malfi revealed himself to Raymond Steen at the Secret Service World Trade Center office, a terrified Steen broke down and agreed to cooperate with his girlfriend Alberta. Billy Comas had paid Nick Daratsakis 6 points for the 100-dollar notes before charging Mickey Featherstone 12 points.

Despite facing severe charges, Featherstone and Coonan were acquitted in multiple murder trials due to discredited government witnesses, though they still served prison time on earlier plea deals. Defense attorney Larry Hochheiser successfully attacked the credibility of government informants like Raymond Steen, Alberta Sachs, and Robert Paulstein.

The jury took less than three hours to acquit Mickey of the Mickey Spillane murder in June 1980, and Jimmy McElroy was exonerated of the Billy Walker murder after Hochheiser cross-examined Paulstein. On December 21, 1979, the jury returned not guilty verdicts for Featherstone and Coonan in the Whitehead trial after six hours of deliberations.

Judge Lawrence Pierce sentenced Jimmy Coonan to four years and 6 months on January 15, 1980. Judge Pierce sentenced Mickey Featherstone to 6 years on February 14, 1980.

7. Labor Rackets and Betrayal

While leaders served prison time, subordinates exploited theatrical truckers unions and waterfront jobs, setting the stage for internal betrayal.

Teamsters Local 817

As movie and commercial filming surged in New York in the early 1980s, Teamsters Local 817 drivers became among the highest-paid in the city. When union president Tommy O'Donnell attempted to purge gangsters by turning to Italian mobsters, Westies Jimmy McElroy and Kevin Kelly retaliated with brutal physical assaults.

Jimmy McElroy and Kevin Kelly pistol-whipped Tommy O'Donnell in his Long Island office and threatened to kill one union member a week until West Side applicants received preferential treatment and union cards.

Local 817 controlled roughly 700 union books. Approximate weekly earnings reached:

• 2000 dollars for a field boss on a five-day week;
• 1800 dollars for a driver;
• 1700 dollars for a helper.

The Michael Holly Murder Framing

Mickey Featherstone was framed for the murder of Michael Holly due to a combination of suspicious circumstances, eyewitness misidentifications, and a disguise worn by the actual killer.

Michael Holly was shot multiple times on West 35th Street near the Jacob Javits Convention Center by an assailant using a silenced pistol. The murder was driven by an eight-year-old grudge held by Billy Bokun for the death of his brother John Bokun in 1977.

On a drizzly April morning in 1985, Michael Holly was shot to death while walking to lunch near the Convention Center. The 40-year-old victim was shot from a distance of 10 feet at 11:45 A.M.

Because Featherstone had borrowed a beige Ford station wagon from Lifestyle's Transportation and was in the vicinity, and because Billy Bokun wore a sandy-blond wig, makeup over his birthmark, and a painter's cap during the crime, eyewitnesses mistakenly identified Featherstone in police lineups. Eyewitnesses and construction workers placed Featherstone at the scene, and one witness wearing a paper bag with eyeholes positively identified Mickey in a police lineup.

Following a three-week trial in March 1986 featuring testimony from eyewitnesses and Raymond Steen, Mickey Featherstone was found guilty of murder on March 29, 1986.

8. The Fall of the Westies

Mickey Featherstone's cooperation with federal prosecutors demolished the gang's code of silence, culminating in devastating RICO convictions.

Sissy's Undercover Work

Sissy Featherstone acted as an undercover operative for the FBI by wearing hidden recording devices during meetings and conversations with Westies members to gather evidence clearing her husband. Instructed by FBI agent Marilyn Lucht, Sissy recorded interactions with gang members who visited her home or called her. Operating alone and under high stress without tactical backup, she elicited admissions regarding the Michael Holly murder and loansharking payments.

On May 6, 1986, Sissy wore an FBI-issue recorder hidden in her pocketbook while Kevin Kelly and Kenny Shannon visited her Teaneck home, where they dropped off $2,600 in loansharking money and discussed details of the Holly shooting. Kelly, Shannon, and Bokun agreed to put up $11,000 for an appeals lawyer. You can follow specific investigative methods to collect evidence:

• conceal a small six-by-six-inch recorder or audio device in a purse or nearby location during visits from suspects;
• engage associates in conversations about past crimes and disputed details without arousing their suspicion;
• report recorded interactions and hand over tapes to assigned FBI agents after the sessions.

Based on the recorded confessions of the actual perpetrators, the Manhattan District Attorney's office joined the defense motion to vacate Mickey Featherstone's murder conviction. Assistant D.A. Jeffrey Schlanger reviewed the covert tape recordings of Kelly, Shannon, and Bokun and concluded that the state was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that William Bokun, not Featherstone, shot Michael Holly. Judge Alvin Schlessinger formally overturned the conviction.

On September 5, 1986, Francis Thomas Featherstone appeared before Judge Alvin Schlessinger, who banged his gavel and declared the conviction overturned in the interest of justice. Only five months elapsed between Featherstone's original wrongful conviction and the overturning of the verdict.

RICO Trials and Verdicts

Federal and local authorities executed a coordinated sweep to dismantle the Westies, arresting key leadership and members across New York and neighboring states. Beginning in late November and December of 1986, law enforcement apprehended Jimmy Coonan, Edna Coonan, Billy Bokun, Mugsy Ritter, Johnny Halo, Florence Collins, and Tommy Collins. Jimmy McElroy fled to Mesa, Arizona, but was tracked down and captured by federal authorities. Rudolph Giuliani announced the superseding indictment on March 26th.

Edna Coonan was arrested right in front of her family Christmas tree at their home in Hazlet, New Jersey.

The jury found nearly all defendants guilty on all counts, leading to exceptionally harsh prison sentences handed down by Judge Whitman Knapp. On February 24, 1988, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all fourteen counts for every defendant except Johnny Halo. Judge Whitman Knapp subsequently sentenced Jimmy Coonan to seventy-five years without parole, effectively imprisoning him for the rest of his natural life, along with a one million dollar fine.

Jimmy McElroy received sixty years, Billy Bokun received fifty years, Mugsy Ritter received forty years, and Tommy Collins received forty years. Edna Coonan received fifteen years and a $200,000 fine following the thirteen-page verdict that ended the reign of terror.

10 Key Ideas

1. The Westies evolved from an isolated Hell's Kitchen street gang into a feared criminal empire protected by a strict regional code of silence that prevented victims from cooperating with law enforcement.
2. Early Hell's Kitchen racketeering flourished through turn-of-the-century street gangs and Prohibition bootlegging empires before volatile assassins like Vincent Coll destabilized the West Side underworld.
3. James Coonan and Mickey Featherstone established their dominance in the 1970s by challenging older neighborhood leaders through loansharking operations and extreme violence.
4. Military service in Vietnam and heavy medical treatments profoundly destabilized Mickey Featherstone, transforming him into a paranoid individual who later committed a fatal shooting outside the Leprechaun Bar.
5. To eliminate police investigations, the gang adopted a gruesome doctrine of body dismemberment executed by trained butchers like Eddie Cummiskey so that no murder investigation could take place without a body.
6. Jimmy Coonan forged strategic alliances with the Gambino crime family, culminating in a critical sit-down at Tommaso's Restaurant where Paul Castellano integrated the Westies under strict profit-sharing rules.
7. After partnering with Italian mobsters, Jimmy Coonan adopted their superficial protocols and committed impulsive murders over trivial insults, signaling a dangerous descent into reckless violence.
8. Federal agencies and the NYPD Intelligence Division broke open the syndicate by recording extensive conversations through hidden transmitters in an undercover surveillance van.
9. While leaders served prison time, subordinates exploited theatrical truckers unions and waterfront jobs through brutal physical assaults before internal betrayal shattered the gang.
10. Sissy Featherstone acted as an undercover FBI operative by recording incriminating conversations that eventually proved Mickey's innocence in a murder frame-up, paving the way for devastating RICO convictions that ended the syndicate.