He was discharged on medical grounds in 1967, claiming to be experiencing hallucinations. We will always appreciate any support or donation that would help keep the lights on and the website running.

James Coonan was a baby boomer born December 21, 1946. Featherstone and Coonan were tried for the murder of a Hell’s Kitchen barman in 1979 but were acquitted, not for want of evidence; one juror perjured himself at trial and a key witness just so happen to take his own life… riiiight. In 1920, the still blew up as Birns’ mother was near it and killed her, leaving young Shondor to first have to live in a Jewish orphanage before eventually being taken in by his grandmother. In 1986, the police arrested Mickey Featherstone for the murder of Michael Holly.

Coonan reportedly killed a loan shark victim who could not pay his debt, dismembered him and cut off his hands. His speciality?

The police and FBI  suspected him of a series of mob contract killings. About The Author: C.J. 630 videos; LIVE BRAVELY. He was born on the upper West Side and his mother worked with the VFW and his father was a U. S. Customs officer. If you like what we do and would like to support our work, please consider donating, we understand that times are hard at the minute and there are far more pressing matters for you to worry about. Here’s a list of hitmen, buttonmen and bagmen who are most certainly not Italian. Bad blood between Coonan and Featherstone, in part due to Featherstone’s distaste for Coonan’s Italian Mafia connections, eventually led to Featherstone being framed for the murder of Michael Holly, a construction worker and neighborhood bar owner who refused to give the Westies protection money. When Benicio Del Toro has been cast to play a real-life figure, you know that person is bound to be a badass. Gmail. Eto survived three gunshots to the head due to the bullets being hand-loaded with an insufficient amount of gunpowder (a method designed to stop investigators tracking the shooters via the spent ammo), the underpowered round grazing Eto’s skull as opposed to blowing off his head. 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 kill the previous boss, Mickey Spillane, in 1977. After many years on the run in Peru, Battle was indicted back in the US on racketeering charges, having amassed more than $1 billion from drug trafficking, illegal gambling and loan sharking. and pick the featured episodes for your show. He was taken under the wing by a reformist judge named Jack Murray who tried to get the intelligent young Humphries to consider a life within the law profession. Afraid that Eto would turn state’s witness, the mob decided to take him out.

His son, Pavle (pictured), followed in his fathers’ criminal and journalistic footsteps, spending 16 years in jail over two stints and now covering criminal stories for publications such as ‘The Washington Post’ and online work with ‘The Daily Beast’.[7]. Any resident of Hell’s Kitchen who who took Spillane’s side were subject to beatings, kidnappings, store vandalism, and robberies.

Featherstone’s wife, Sissy, wore a wire and engaged other Westies in incriminating conversations to help her husband get out of jail.

Humphries quickly falling into to the favourite pastimes of early twentieth century kids in Chicago—fist fighting and burglary. During the early 1970s, Coonan recruited a gang of young Irish hoods and they began kidnapping, beating, and murdering any Spillane loyalists. Humphries didn’t follow that path, but certainly made use of many lessons in how the judicial system worked, becoming an arch manipulator of law enforcement and gatherer of political influence. Jimmy Coonan brought the Westies into the 20th Century and presided over the most bloody and violent gang in New York City history James Coonan was a baby boomer born December 21, 1946. He drove up and shot and killed Michel Holly on the street in front of witnesses. Very few mobsters live a long, stress-free life and die of old age. He testified against Jimmy Coonan and other gang members. Phillips is a storyteller, actor and writer living in rural West Wales. Despite being innocent of this particular murder, he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In the 1970’s Coonan worked as an enforcer and bodyguard for loanshark named Ruby Stein. There is a story that he was uncircumcised and he got drunk with a bunch of medics.

He passed out and when he awoke, he found they had given him a circumcision. 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. Twitter. From time to time, the Westies worked for the Gambino crime family as a contract killer squad.

Is Jimmy Coonan still alive?

Mickey Spillane or someone in his gang kidnapped Mr. Coonan for ransom and someone pistol whipped Coonan’s father. The address was 596 10th Ave so it was simply named the 596 Club. He died whilst awaiting a prison transfer in 2007 at the age of 77.[8]. His father was an accountant and not involved in criminal activity. This WASP (white, anglo-saxon, protestant) who became the ‘Dean of the underworld’ in Tampa, Forida didn’t have the usual rough upbringing associated with American mobsters. Organised Crime is a dangerous game.

Famous for his part in the 1971 robbery at the Villa Vizacaya in Florida that saw an estimated $1.5 million worth of art and silver objects, including a priceless silver bowl once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte, Stanimirovic paid his dues to society and went on to write for a living. One month after his birth, Birns’ family emigrated to New York city.

When Mickey returned to the notoriously violent, Irish dominated Hell’s Kitchen area of New York, his violent tendencies continued.

The association between Italian Americans and the Mafia is as strong as the association between Italian Americans and pizza. His numbers racket was very popular during the 1920s amongst the residents of Harlem and he was a pillar of African American society—he paid for young black men to attend college, gave out food parcels to the needy and even financed dormitories in southern black universities. He passed the money to a girl who remembered seeing his name tattooed on his forearm. He was operating under the blessing of the Chicago Outfit for decades until, in 1983, the FBI uncovered Eto’s illegal ‘bolito’ game.

In Japanese, the word is nezumi… but that also means ‘mouse’ in English. Podcasters use the RadioPublic listener relationship platform to build lasting connections with fans, A free podcast app for iPhone and Android, Download episodes while on WiFi to listen without using mobile data, Stream podcast episodes without waiting for a download, Queue episodes to create a personal continuous playlist, Web embed players designed to convert visitors to listeners in the RadioPublic apps for iPhone and Android, Capture listener activity with affinity scores, Measure your promotional campaigns and integrate with Google and Facebook analytics, Deliver timely Calls To Action, including email acquistion for your mailing list, Share exactly the right moment in an episode via text, email, and social media, Tip and transfer funds directly to podcastsers, Earn money for qualified plays in the RadioPublic apps with Paid Listens. Born December 21, 1946 (age 73) Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.

Wall was from a wealthy family, his father was a respected physician and his mother was the daughter of the former mayor of Tampa. Post Dec 15, 2006 #6 2006-12-15T02:47. Unlike most crime figures of the age, Holstein slowly stepped away from the criminal life, eventually retiring in 1937 after he was arrested for his involvement in gambling, spending just 1 year in jail.[3]. he was slain during the wild 1970s, blown up along with his fancy Lincoln Continental by a bomb planted (purportedly) by the Hells Angels, contacted by his former enforcer Danny Greene. Jimmy Coonan Recent Photo New York, Westside. Billy Bokun, was convicted of the murder of James Holly and was given 50 years, Jimmy McElroy was sentenced to 60 years and three other members received prison sentences between 6 months and a few years.

© Copyright 2020 | All Rights Reserved | The Irish Mob |, The Dunnes – Dublin’s Original Crime Family, The Horseshoe Section – Jersey City, New Jersey, Jimmy Hoffa & The Irishman – The Real People. That’s when the ‘Westies’, a ruthless gang of Irish American extortionists, racketeers and contract killers, took in the violent young Featherstone and put him to work.

Roy DeMeo, his Gambino contact, was murdered and Coonan’s Gambino family connection became Daniel Marino, a capo from Brooklyn.

Coonan used these gang members to lure Stein to the 596 Club bar where he was shot to death. “Nobody hustles like the Hump” Capone said. Featherstone became a valued contract killer for the Westies, working under the direct order of gang leader Jimmy Coonan.

Don’t forget to listen to Aaron on the Big Dumb Fun Show, live on Monday nights. But that simply is not the whole story. He volunteered for combat in Vietnam and would claim he spent time killing with the Special Forces. Coonan failed to murder Spillane and his followers, not even wounding one man, but Spillane got the message.

He opened up the gang to the lucrative drug dealing rackets as well as continuing extortion, numbers, loansharking and counterfeiting rackets in the area. During this incarceration Featherstone was injected with Thorazine.

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