The Winter Hill Gang
| Founded by | James "Buddy" McLean |
|---|---|
| Founding location | Somerville, Massachusetts |
| Years active | 1950–present |
| Territory | New England, Somerville, Massachusetts, South Boston and Miami |
| Ethnicity | Irish American and Italian American |
| Membership (est.) | 40–50 |
| Criminal activities | Racketeering, loan sharking, Skimming, contract killing, race fixing, bribery, bookmaking, truck hijacking, robbery, illegal gambling, drug trafficking, money laundering, murder, extortion, prostitution, weapons trafficking, and police corruption |
| Allies | Mullen Gang |
| Rivals | Charlestown Mob and Patriarca crime family |
The Winter Hill Gang is a structured confederation of Boston, Massachusetts–area organized crime figures, who are predominantly of Irish and Italian descent. It derives its name from the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts north of Boston. Its members have included notorious Boston gangsters Buddy McLean, Whitey Bulger, Howie Winter, Joe McDonald, Johnny Martorano, and Stephen Flemmi. They were most influential from 1965 under the rule of McLean and Winter until the takeover led by Bulger in 1979.
The Winter Hill Mafia was given its name in the 1970s by journalists at the Boston Herald, although the name was hardly ever openly used as a reference to them. While Winter Hill Gang members are alleged to have been involved with most typical organized-crime-related activities, they are perhaps most known for fixing horse races in the northeastern United States and shipping weapons to the IRA. Twenty-one members and associates, including Winter, were indicted by federal prosecutors in 1979.
The Boston Irish Gang War started in 1961 and lasted until 1967. It was fought between the McLaughlin Gang of the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown, led by Bernie McLaughlin and the Winter Hill Gang of Somerville, led by James "Buddy" McLean.
The two gangs had co-existed in relative peace for a number of years until an incident at Salisbury Beach on Labor Day weekend 1961. While at a party, Georgie McLaughlin made an advance on the girlfriend of Winter Hill Gang member Alexander Petricone, Jr. (who fled the Boston area during the war and became an actor under the name Alex Rocco). McLaughlin was subsequently beaten unconscious by members of the Winter Hill Gang and was dumped outside the local hospital. Bernie McLaughlin went to see "Buddy" McLean and demanded that he hand over the members of the gang who beat his brother. McLean refused. The McLaughlins took this refusal as an insult and attempted to wire a bomb to McLean's wife's car. In retaliation, McLean shot and killed McLaughlin coming out of the "Morning Glory" bar in Charlestown in October 1961. This was the start of Boston's Irish Gang War.
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