Westies

Westies

Hell's Kitchen along Ninth Avenue in 2006; this contextual image does not depict gang members
Also Known As	Coonan's Crew Westside Guys Westside Irish Mob
Origins
Founder	James Coonan and associates
Founding Location	Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City
Territory	Hell's Kitchen Manhattan's West Side piers
Lineage
Predecessor(s)	Mickey Spillane's gang
Profile
Structure	Small Irish-American organized-crime crew
Ethnicity	Irish American
Membership	About 12–20 core members (historical estimate)
Activities	Loansharking Labor racketeering Narcotics trafficking Extortion Murder
Politics
Leader	James Coonan Mickey Featherstone (second-in-command)
Notable Members	Kevin Kelly James McElroy William Bokun Richard Ritter
Allies	Gambino crime family
Rivals	Mickey Spillane's gang
Activity
Status	Defunct
Years Active	Mid-1960s–late 1980s
Founded Date	Mid-1960s
Dissolved Date	1988
Dissolution Cause	Federal racketeering convictions

The Westies were an Irish-American organized-crime group based in Hell's Kitchen on Manhattan's West Side. Led principally by James Coonan, with Mickey Featherstone as his second-in-command, the group operated from the mid-1960s until federal racketeering convictions dismantled its core in the late 1980s.

Name

The federal appellate record also calls the organization “Coonan's Crew,” the “Westside Guys” and the “Westside Irish Mob.” Crime writer T. J. English has noted that “Westies” was a press label rather than a name the members used for themselves.

History

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit traced the group's formation to the mid-1960s, when Coonan and his associates challenged Mickey Spillane for control of criminal activity in Hell's Kitchen. Coonan's faction prevailed and became the neighborhood's dominant organized-crime group during the 1970s and early 1980s. Featherstone had become Coonan's principal lieutenant by the middle of the 1970s.

The group's income came chiefly from loansharking, narcotics distribution, extortion of labor unions and control of rackets on the West Side piers. In the late 1970s it formed an alliance with the Gambino crime family. According to the appellate court, the Gambinos financed Westies loansharking and allowed the group to trade on the family's reputation; the Westies paid a share of proceeds from several rackets in return.

The court record attributed repeated violence to the organization, including murders committed to collect debts, discipline associates and protect waterfront income. The gang also distributed cocaine during the 1980s and extorted payments connected to the International Longshoremen's Association and theatrical Teamsters locals.

Prosecution and collapse

After being convicted in a murder that investigators later concluded he had not committed, Featherstone and his wife cooperated with law enforcement. Featherstone became an important government witness in the federal prosecution of Coonan and other members.

On February 24, 1988, a federal jury convicted seven defendants associated with the Westies after a four-month trial. The convictions covered a racketeering enterprise involving murder, kidnapping, loansharking, gambling, narcotics, fraud and counterfeiting; Coonan was among those convicted. The convictions and resulting prison terms ended the Coonan-era organization as a significant neighborhood gang. Later criminals were occasionally described as Westies, but reporting did not establish organizational continuity with Coonan's crew.