Yea its crazy in boston colorful for every organized or un organized group and uea drugs played a big part in fuckinf shit up

Wow I missed your response. A while ago lol...
Yeah I find them to be an enigma due to lack of information on them. It's true they weren't a very hierarchial bunch, especially in the early days. Leadership was a much more horizontal, and it was more of a network of "crew chiefs" involved in mostly burglaries in Northeast Philly which was predominantly Irish at the time (50's & 60s).

They did achieve notoriety though as the perpetrators of the Pottsville Heist and in North Carolina as the Hallmark gang. Didn't really become an organized enterprise until John C. Berkery rose up from the gang to start a meth enterprise with Ray Martorano. Berkery was also schooled by Angelo Bruno, was sort of like a mentor or father figure, from what I read.

Alas, what could be definitively called the K&A Gang died with Berkery's arrest. Altho there's been speculation over the year on who (if anyone) actually run's the Northeast rackets. Here's a thread if any of you are so inclined.
Philadelphia's Irish Mob

wow great

It actually is a very interesting coincidence, that he has the same name and nickname. My guess is they either gave the guy his nickname after the show or the show named the guy that after the mobster.

did you know whitey smith

Wow that chart for the Westies is off like a prom dress. Weather it's the Irish Pugs, West side Irish, Spillane gang, Irish Mob or the Westies, that Was a horrible attempt. I'll give you some food for thought though, if you ever read this (or anybody else for that matter) that will see the hells kitchen Irish a little different. Spillane had a big gang, let's say 100 guys (no less) across this country or Ireland he could go on if he had to. The 5 families during these times had between 500+ guys to the big families and 200+ a small family with 1000's of associates for each family. Costra Nostra was a force during the time of prohibition to the early 80's that no other criminal group will ever come close to achieving in this country again. Bigger then U.S steep, connected and deadly.

My point is, Spillane used to kidnap italian slippers for $100's of grand, plus other Irish gangs. Spillane in the hells kitchen was God politically and forcedfully. So Spillane 100 guys compared to 1000s of guys had to be really, I mean really fucking tough bastard. He crew was mean and feared. Conans crew, monkey see monkey do, his crew from the same streets, even worse than Spillanes crew. Italians feared crazy, bar fighting and playing Russian roulette for fun, killers. You see the shows and they tell in favor the Italians ofcourse because they are a well oiled machine. They stood the test of time, they earned it. But while Salerno fought fire with fire against Spillane by turning to his irish associate and irish gang boss (Sullivan) to handle his people. Sullivan as we all know hired mad dog to do what he did best. Spillane errored, finally misjudged Salerno who would always opt out of clashing with the crazy. He would say fuck it, let them have there area. We got the whole country. But with the J.J.C, Salerno wanted that cash cow and history changed. But while killing one boss in hells kitchen, he thought he eradicated his hells kitchen problem, he was wrong. Coonan and the boys wacked Salernos main cash cow (ruby) to take took over his million dollar country wide loan sharking operation. Coonan now had his arch rival, Spillanes guys coming to work for him and now he wants what hes he sees is owed to him, the Javits center. It's in hells kitchen, it's the Irishs neighborhood and he's now boss. Mad dog even begged to work for coonan, these new generations of kitchen boys put the shakes in hardened ruthless criminals. the butcher jumped sides to coonans as fast as he could. another point and I'll stop and finish this scribble. Do your research and you will see the coonan hunted for Salerno all day and night. coonan started to wack Salernos close personal friends. Naturally the genovese and the Westies split it and remain co -existing till this day. there were so called westies all over the city, you didn't know them, not flashy, you only know the dead ones and flashy ones. the ones you dont hear about or see are where they have always been. the coonans westies fait has been sealed. nobody makes money when there's violence and headlines. I can only speak for new york and what I know and there were other Irish crews in the city and irish guys comnected guys that they wouldn't fuck with. the Irish congregate and they all did work for each other and favors. people say loosely connected but it was more then that. favors, honor, comfortability. I know coonan and the boys loved and respected the fuck out of Burke. They would do anything for him at anytime. when he would go to the kitchen to have a drink with the boys or do business they would call him the godfather. But the were other older Irish guys (rockaways, Brooklyn, hells kitchen) that they feared and respected and would never touch. heavy respect and as you know coonan would kill just about anybody at any time. Not the Irish old timers, brutal dudes as was the Westies. alright, sorry for spelling, sorry if its hard to read. it's to long and my fingers hurt, I wont fix it. slainte

I know I’m late to the party but I did some time with Jimmy Murphy when I was at Fairton. He had a huge book collection and that’s how I did my time was reading a lot so him and I traded books all the time. Him and I were sitting at a table when it came across the TV that they caught Whitey. It was a pretty surreal moment. He just stared and then went in his cell. When I asked him about it the next day he just simply said “it’s just not good” and we never spoke about it again. He was as stand up as they come and embarrassed to be associated with scum like Whitey. Fucking guy represented himself and told me he had a hard on when he questioned numerous FBI agents on the stand. Fucking beautiful to see the smile on his face when he told the story. Sorry for the rant but seeing this post made me think of him.

that's a real emotion. I don't even watch boston Irish Mob docs because of the 20 different sides to a story. But correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Nee say when he heard of whitey' s cooperating, "he just finished the Irish"? . I mean, talk about microphone drop. If Nee didn't know that was huge blow, who would. I'm sure he's loves in N.Y.

I read the book rogue mobster by mark silverman who claimed to be a winterhill gang somerville faction associate through his fathers connections to joe and leo mcdonald. In the book he says winterhill split into 2 fractions (somerville/southie) and joe donahue became boss/acting boss of the somerville faction, replacing joe mcdonald when he went into semi retirement. He even says while whitey was around the two factions had an uneasy relationship and were operating as seperate entities. The writer makes joe donahue out to be a very dangerous and feared. Having zero fear of whitey. More of a cautious, not to be trusted opinion of whitey. Saying the somerville factions policy towards southie and whitey was not to interact with him unless absolutely necessary.