Monday, December 15, 2014

The Foundations of Organized Crime (Documentary)

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The Irish Mob is the oldest organized crime group in the United States, in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish American street gangs of the 19th century—depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1928 book The Gangs of New York—the Irish Mob has appeared in most major American cities, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Twin Cities, and New Orleans. rish-American street gangs such as the Dead Rabbits and Whyos dominated New York's underworld for well over a century before facing competition from other, primarily recently arrived Italian and Jewish gangs, during the 1880s and 1890s. Although gang leaders such as Paul Kelly of the Five Points Gang would rise to prominence during the early 1900s, gangs such as the Hudson Dusters and the Gopher Gang would remain formidable rivals during the period.

In the early 1900s, with Italian criminal organisations, such as the Morello crime family, encroaching on the waterfront, various Irish gangs united to form the White Hand Gang. Although initially successful in keeping their Italian rivals at bay, unstable leadership and infighting would prove their downfall. The murders of Dinny Meehan, Bill Lovett, and Richard Lonergan led to the gang's disappearance by 1925, and the waterfront was taken over by Italian mobsters Vincent Mangano, Albert Anastasia, and Joe Adonis. The Winter Hill Gang, a loose confederation of Boston-area organised crime figures, was one of the most successful organised crime groups in American history. It controlled the Boston underworld from the early 1960s until the mid-1990s. It derives its name from the Winter Hill neighbourhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, north of Boston, and was founded by first boss James "Buddy" McLean.

While Winter Hill Gang members were alleged to have been involved with most typical organised crime related activities, they are perhaps best known for fixing horse races in the northeastern United States. Twenty-one members and associates, including Howie Winter and his right-hand man and bookkeeper, Salvatore Sperlinga, were indicted by federal prosecutors in 1979. The gang was then taken over by James J. "Whitey" Bulger and hitman Stephen Flemmi. Decades after the disappearance of James J. "Whitey" Bulger, a rise in recruitment and strong family ties prompted the return of the Irish Mob under the supervision of Bob Hogan and the Winter Hill Gang. New faces were recruited from as far south as New York in places like Hell Kitchen; and as far north as Maine. The Westies are an Irish American gang hailing from Hell's Kitchen on the West Side of Manhattan.

The most prominent members have included Mickey Spillane, Eddie McGrath, James Coonan, Mickey Featherstone, and Edward Cummiskey.

In the Irish/Italian Mob War of 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 located in Spillane's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, Spillane refused to allow any involvement by the Italians. Although the Italian gangsters greatly outnumbered the members of the Irish mob, Spillane was successful in keeping control of the convention center and Hell's Kitchen. The Italians, frustrated and embarrassed by their defeat to Spillane, 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.

Also around this time, a power struggle between Mickey Spillane and James Coonan a younger upstart from Hell's Kitchen emerged. In 1977 Spillane was murdered in a hail of bullets by assassins from the Genovese crime family. This prompted Coonan to form an alliance with Roy DeMeo of the Gambino crime family. The Genoveses decided that the Westies were too violent and well led to go to war with and mediated a truce via the Gambinos.

Coonan was imprisoned in 1986 under the RICO act. Featherstone became an informant after his arrest in the early 1980s.




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