James McLean (mobster)

James Joseph "Buddy" McLean (January 26, 1930 – October 31, 1965) was an Irish-American mobster and the original boss of the Somerville, Massachusetts-based Winter Hill Gang during the 1960s. McLean was well known throughout the Greater Boston area as an unstoppable street fighter. He accumulated injuries including several scars on his neck and face as well as a damaged left eye. A friend of McLean once said, "He looks like a choir boy, but fights like the devil".

James McLean was orphaned at a young age and adopted by an immigrant Portuguese-American family in Somerville, Massachusetts. Working as a longshoreman during his teenage years on the docks of Charlestown and East Boston, he would become close friends with future president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 25,William J. McCarthy. His best friend however, was Joseph Maurice "Joe Mac" McDonald, a very tough and feared Somerville man who was the first to organize crime on Winter Hill.

McLean began to slowly amass a formidable criminal organization due to the admiration of his ability to fight along with a strong sense of street smarts. He would eventually dominate the local underworld in northern Boston which included running numbers, loansharking and truck hijackings.

In early September 1961, two Winter Hill associates of McLean, and their friend, Charlestown mobster George McLaughlin rented a cottage on Salisbury Beach for a Labor Day party. Drinking with his friends throughout the day and into the late evening, McLaughlin attempted to grope one of the gangster girlfriends. Confronted by the two men, McLaughlin received a savage beating until losing consciousness. Unsure whether or not he was still alive, they dumped him at a nearby hospital and went to tell McLean what had happened.

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