Eddie "the Butcher" Cummiskey

Edward "Eddie The Butcher" Cummiskey (died August 20, 1976) was a New York mobster who served as a mentor to Jimmy Coonan, leader of the Westies. Cummiskey is reputed to have shown Coonan how to dismember and dispose of murder victims by scattering their remains into New York's waterfronts, notably in the Hudson River. Cummiskey was murdered by hitman Joseph Sullivan on August 20, 1976 in a bar.

A longtime gangster of the Manhattan's Westside ghetto known as Hell's Kitchen, Cummiskey served under Mickey Spillane following his release from prison. He was allegedly involved in the kidnapping of Genovese bookmaker Eli Zicardi as well as later participating in the gang war between Spillane and Coonan during the mid-1960s. While serving time in an upstate New York prison, Cummiskey learned the trade of butchery, allowing him to take advantage of his sentence to perfect a new and gruesome murder method.

During the early 1970s, Cummiskey took on a young protégé by the name of James "Jimmy C" Coonan, a violent younger generation Irish hoodlum who wanted to take out the old-timer Mickey Spillane.

Coonan had a following amongst the younger Irish in the neighborhood (including Billie Beattie, Billy Bokun, Kevin Kelly, Jackie Coonan, Eddie Coonan, Mickey Featherstone, Jimmy 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. It was not long before the feared Cummiskey favored working for Coonan over Spillane.

Two of Coonan's hoods were Dennis Curley and Paddy Dugan, both lifelong best friends. On August 25, 1975, Curley jokingly pulled a gun on Dugan while the two were drinking in a local pub. Dugan took the jest as a personal insult and stormed out on his friend. Later that evening, Paddy Dugan came across Dennis Curley walking around the streets of Hell's Kitchen and shot Curley twice in the head, killing him instantly. This murder between friends rocked the entire neighborhood, violent as it was known for being. Eddie Cummiskey was among those unhappy about this killing. Curley was like a younger brother to Cummiskey, as both had started out as small-time Irish hoods in Hell's Kitchen. However, Cummiskey was part of the Spillane crew and Dugan was part of the Coonan crew, and Spillane forbade violence against the Coonan gang unless they struck against his men first.

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