The Westies

The Westies

Hell's Kitchen between 48th and 49th street on Ninth Avenue looking northeast toward Time Warner Center and Hearst Tower
Founded by	James Coonan
Founding location	Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City
Years active	1960s–1988
Territory	Hell's Kitchen and other neighborhoods in NYC, some parts of New Jersey
Ethnicity	Irish American
Membership (est.)	Fewer than 20 members
Criminal activities	Racketeering, drug trafficking, murder
Allies	Gambino crime family

The Westies were a New York City-based Irish American organized crime gang, responsible for racketeering, loan sharking, bookmaking, number writing, contract killing, drug trafficking, murder, illegal gambling, and extortion. They were partnered with the Italian-American Mafia, and operated out of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. According to crime author T. J. English, "Although never more than twelve to twenty members—depending on who was in or out of jail at any given time—the Westies became synonymous with the last generation of Irish in the birthplace of the Irish Mob...." According to the NYPD Organized Crime Squad and the FBI, the Westies were responsible for 60–100 murders between 1968 and 1986.

In the early 1960s, Mickey Spillane stepped into a power vacuum that had existed in Hell's Kitchen since gang leaders fled the area in the early 1950s to avoid prosecution. A mobster from Queens, named Hughie Mulligan, had been running Hell's Kitchen; Spillane, a native, was his apprentice until inheriting the throne. Spillane sent flowers to neighbors in the hospital and provided turkeys to needy families during Thanksgiving, in addition to running gambling enterprises such as bookmaking and policy, accompanied inevitably by loansharking. Loansharking led to assault, and Spillane had burglary arrests as well. However, among all his criminal activities, the most audacious was his "snatch" racket (kidnapping and holding local businessmen and members of other crime organizations for ransom).