The Westies
Inside New York's Irish Mob
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ISBN10: 0312362846
ISBN13: 9780312362843
Trade Paperback
432 Pages
$21.00
CA$28.00
Even among the Mob, the Westies were feared. Starting with a partnership between two sadistic thugs, Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone, the gang rose out of the inferno of Hell's Kitchen, a decaying tenderloin slice of New York City's West Side. They became the most notorious gang in the history of organized crime, excelling in extortion, numbers running, loan sharking, and drug peddling. Upping the ante on depravity, their specialty was execution by dismemberment. Though never numbering more than a dozen members, their reign lasted for almost twenty years—until their own violent natures got the best of them, precipitating a downfall that would become as infamous as their notorious ascension into the annals of crime.
Reviews
Praise for The Westies
"Sterling social history . . . the author's skillful reporting makes the most of his subject."—The New Yorker
"Raw, earthy and heavily flavored with New York vernacular . . . [T.J. English] knows the people he writes about and never sets himself above them."—San Francisco Chronicle
"A fascinating look into an Irish American criminal enterprise that may not have rivaled the Mafia in sophistication, but certainly surpassed it in terror."—The Wall Street Journal
"A fast-moving tale of criminal corruption in which, for a change, the good guys win . . . English pulls no punches."—L.A. Daily News
"English has . . . taken organized crime as it really evolves and occurs on a human scale and then built it back into an engrossing narrative."—Irish America Magazine
"Reminiscent of Poe and Dostoyevsky in subject and character . . . at times as jolting as running on concrete on a cold winter morning."—New York Newsday
