The Westies: Inside New York's Irish Mob

Historical read about Irish hooligan gangsters in hells kitchen through the ages. It was alright, I ultimately stopped reading about halfway through because I had a more interesting book to read. It's not so much written as first person fiction as almost like a third person historical text. I'm actually not sure what the breakdown of history/fiction is in this book.

Well researched and written.Reading this book makes you wonder why anyone could think this is a great way to live your life.I do have to agree with the Italian faction of organized crime.The Irish gang had no discipline of any kind.

I found this title to be extremely interesting and quite easy to read. Indirectly, it conveys a message that NYC is a horrifying place to live and I believe this is correct. This, in itself, is a shame, but the truth of the matter is that the criminal element reigns.

I thought this book was very well written. While the story focuses on the Hells Kitchen Irish Mob in the 70s and 80s, it reviews the history of racketeering on the west side of Manhattan going back to the earlier part of the 20th century. A story spanning that much time and history seems difficult to organize, but English did a great job. Also, the sheer amount of characters could be baffling, but English does a good job of reminding you who is who throughout the book.

Aside from the technical way the book was written, the story that is actually told is absolutely fascinating to me. It is difficult to imagine how people like Jimmy Coonan and Eddie Cummiskey could actually exist in real life. I would often read this book on the NYC subway and would regularly find myself wincing in disgust or gasping in horror at the violence these guys committed without batting an eyelash. One problem I had was that I think English paints Mickey Featherstone too much as an innocent victim of his surroundings and own psychological issues. That dude was a cold-blooded murderer.

As a lawyer, I also found the parts of the book covering the Westies' various trials and the defense lawyers' and government's approaches to those trials to be particularly interesting. The descriptions of the investigations of the New York police and various federal agencies is also interesting.

I had an unbelievably hard time getting into this book. I was really excited when I saw that it was about mobs during Prohibition and that is why I bought it. In the first 20 pages you are slapped in the face with about 100 different characters... sometimes they die, sometimes they kill, sometimes I am not entirely sure what happens to them because I cant remember who is who. I feel bad giving this book a bad review since I couldnt get through the first couple of chapters. I plan on retrying this book some time when I have more patience. Perhaps in 50 years when I retire!

I was intrigued since a good part of my childhood was spent in the NewYork area along with "Irish roots". I haven't finished this particular book, unusual for me; however
I was not enjoying the violence and so found myself feeling more upset than intrigued, perhaps someday I'll give it another try!

As a former member of the notorious Irish Winter Hill Gang turned author, I can certainly relate to Irish Organized Crime. TJ English weaves an intoxicating tale of extreme violence and savage slayings. As with most small organized crime crews, the Westies were looking for respect from the New York five. English pulls no punches as he explains how the partnership of Coonan and Featherstone blossomed into one of the most feared duos in the history of organized crime. Two young kids from Hell's Kitchen who did whatever was necessary to acquire money and power. And they almost got there...

I have read many books on criminal gangs in Australia, but have not come across anything like this mob called the Westies. This book is about a group of violent, ruthless criminals who threatened, bashed, robbed, shot, stabbed and chopped their way to the top of the underworld in the west side of Manhattan in an area known as Hell's Kitchen during the 1970's and 1980's.

The author has done a great deal of research and he freely admits that some trial testimony and interviews have conflicting views, faced with this he chose what he thinks is the most plausible view, fair enough. Even though a lot of the action is based on the memory of Mickey Featherstone it is an informative and engrossing read and l found it hard to put down. Jimmy Coonan's view of events unfortunately is not in this book, so l took some of this book with a grain of salt.

One part of the book that sticks in my mind is when Jimmy Coonan in a bar, about 2 hours after killing Whitey Whitehead, produces the money he stole from poor Whitey's wallet and states " the bastard only had $5 but lets have a drink on Whitey" he then downs a whisky. This part sent shivers down my spine.

English mentions all the Westies rackets, but he could have provided more detail of how the rackets worked and where all the money they made went. He also provides some details about other criminal gangs they dealt with, even a short lived attempt to link up with a Boston Irish gang. I hope now to find a book which can give me a history of the Irish gangs in the USA.

Thanks to Hollywood, organized crime groups are seen as independent and generally antagonistic toward one another. As author T.J. English shows, that's hardly the case. Crime groups often form loose alliances when there's money to be made, and in the 1970s and '80s the Mafia found it beneficial to outsource murders to Manhattan's Irish-American gang, known in the press as the Westies. While the Gambino family had their own in-house butchers (Brooklyn's DeMeo crew), there was plenty of work to go around, and the Westies relished their calling, often dismembering their victims to make them "disappear." The Westies had the guts but they didn't have the brains, and ultimately they were undone by their lack of discipline. When their chief assassin turned state's witness, the gang was decimated. English does a stellar job with this jaw-dropping tale of violence, brotherhood and betrayal.

Mickey Featherstone is fresh out of Vietnam and back into the old neighborhood "Hells Kitchen". After meeting up with old friends and making new ones he became one of the leaders in the feared Irish mob. Then he is put into a position no gangster want to be to decide between him and his family or loyalty to the neighborhood.

The Book is called the Westies by T.J English. If you didn't know the term "westie" is a slang term for the Irish mob the controlled the west side of Manhattan for more than twenty years. The book follows a guy named Francis "Mickey" Featherstone he's a tuff but intelligent guy. After coming back from Vietnam he gets involved with the wrong crowed and is forced to make a decision between spending the rest of his life in jail or rating out his buddies which is a big "no no" in Hells Kitchen.

The Westies addresses the whole idea of doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. All throughout the book he is committing horrible crimes because he likes to put food on the table for his wife.

My favorite part in the whole book is when they are cutting up Ruby Stein. Now I know what you must be thinking, but Mickey starts throwing up and all the guys make fun of him, which brightens a very dark book.

Westies is a very interesting book about the so-called Hell's Kitchen "Irish Mob." As true crime and mob books go, it's good. English does a nice job of holding the reader's attention with lots of (often gory) details seemingly gleened from first-hand accounts. Although violent, the book is entertaining -- much like mob movies -- and a quick read.

English's narrative style lacks depth or is missing an element of professionalism. Understandably, when reciting dialog between the various characters, English adeptly uses the language of the street. But the book has a pulp feel to it when he incorporates that street language into his own narrative, a device used quite often.

Westies would be a little easier to read in spots if it were more linear in time. English, for instance, may describe in one chapter an event that took place in November 1978; in the next chapter he might jump back to September 1978 to give the background to previously-described event.

All in all, Westies is a good book, a must-read for any mob book fan. Just enjoy it for what it is, a not-to-challenging true crime tale.

Being the daughter of one of the characters in the book, I can honestly say that save for a very few technical errors and omissions, the book is totally in sync with the facts. An easy and fast read, I especially appreciated the inclusion of a broad overview of the history of Manhattan's West Side Mafia. T.J. English is to be praised for his thorough research and accuracy. I also laud him for an objectivity rare to be seen anywhere in journalism, written or otherwise. I take this opportunity to thank him for a job well done, as well as reconfirming to me some positive traits about my father, which are a comfort to me now that he's passed on.

Many people think of mobsters as only Italians or Sicilians. In the book you will learn that their are other who are just as cruel that live in the same structured element as the Italian crews. They are just as brutal if not more because they have more to prove. The Westies you will see were so brutal they they killed in some cases on the least amount of information just to make sure people got the idea not to say a word. Very brutal in your face action and all of it true. Not for the faint of heart this is this is what happened before they were all taken down by one of their own.

Although quite revealing, well-researched, thoroughly readable and entirely compelling, "The Westies" (which was an excellent book based upon the bloody history---and the savage and gruesome exploits---of one of the most wild, vicious and sadistic gangs in American history!) was rather incomplete as the overall level of horrific violence attributable to that notoriously crazy and fearsome Irish mob was never fully detailed nor expanded upon.

Any such further detailed accounts would have given the reader this more accurate and vivid picture of that gang's visceral bloodlust and legendary ruthlessness that led to that prodigious murder spree in the mid to late 70's.

For the Westies gang was no doubt extremely brutal and bloodthirsty---and throughout the annals of American crime scarcely anyone, anywhere, at any time spread and inflicted as much violence, fear and terror as those modern day cocaine cowboys---yet TJ English's otherwise eye-opening and eloquent book omits and avoids mentioning in any great detail many of the killings and gory dismemberments that Coonan and Co. were guilty of (between 1975-1985 the Westies gang was believed to have been responsible for committing around 100 homicides, where as was their specialty many of the victims were chopped up into little pieces before being discarded into the East River!).

Also, English tends to sanitize and downplay the overall brutality and homicidal tendencies of Mickey Featherstone, this unstable, fearless psychopath who was Coonan's right hand man and most fiercely dedicated subordinate throughout "that orgy of sadistic bloodletting" during the late 70's (Featherstone was also responsible for bringing much of that gang down, including Coonan, later on in the late 80's), which was this explosion of unbridled murder and mayhem that was mainly responsible for accentuating that gang's deadly and ferocious reputation that sent shock waves throughout NYC and brought them to the attention of the Mafia (who wanted to rein them in!).

Yes, Jimmy Coonan (whom English should have more deeply delved into and further elaborated upon, especially concerning the genesis of Coonan's relentless lust for power, murderous impulses, instinctive sadism and childhood experience), Jackie Coonan, Featherstone, Cummiskey, McElroy, Ryan, Kelly and Shannon were some very bad dudes indeed, and although they weren't as prolific as the infamous Demeo crew in their murderous rampage the Westies (from everything that I've gathered from reading other sources and material) were in many ways worse, more unpredictable, more brazen, more savage and more impulsive than the ruthless and homicidal Roy Demeo crew of the Gambino Crime Family (who may have killed up to 200 people between 1975-1983, also cutting many of them up!), and the grisly and macabre legacy of the West Side Irish Mob remains nearly peerless and unmatched in American history!

Though he should have included more sources, victims, names, anecdotes, facts, figures and background personality profiles, TJ English has done a splendid and somewhat thorough job in shedding light on this sordid and bloodstained subject that has gripped the attention of millions of readers across the globe, for the ultra-violent Westies gang were at the cutting edge (no pun intended!) when it came to making the bodies of the people they killed just simply vanish.

English also provides this interesting and gritty historical background description of Hell's Kitchen from the late 19th century to right before the fierce emergence of Coonan's trigger happy crew, which in turn serves to enhance and broaden the historical context from which the Westies arose.

The Westies is this well-written, illuminating and chilling account of some very bad Irish-American boys who feared no one, would kill anybody at any time, who gleefully indulged in their shameless depravity, and who brutally ruled over and terrorized this slice of 1970's-early 80's NYC in this manner that very few gangs before or since have emulated or rivaled in the history of American crime.

Even the Italian Mafia were afraid and scared of the Westies, eventually bringing them into the Gambino fold so in order to tame and discipline them (and use them as contract killers!). Buy it and enjoy, for in the end the good guys, and justice, prevail.

Recently I have come to know that relatives of mine associated with "The Westies." I wanted to read more about them so picked up this book. I loved it. It gave exact details and that is important to the reader. It made me realize that people aren't always who they seem to be. They lived normal lives, but had a secret. You can never know everything about a person. There are always skeletons in the closet as they say. T.J. English has written this book vey well. Maybe he can write a second part.

The story behind this book was phenomenal. The writing, however, could have been better. For instance, Jimmy Coonan, by far the most interesting character of this account was never really given a detailed profile of his life. Also, the book was first written ten years ago. Later editions should have included what has become of those men since then. Are they still in prison? Are they dead? Is Mickey Featherstone still in the witness protection program with his family? An added epilogue would have been of great help. The end of the book just left the reader wondering what happened? Also, a little too much focus was placed on the numerous murders, and not enough attention was given to their (Coonan's Crew) day to day life. Their lives, as sick and perverse as they appeared, would have been nonetheless entertaining (think Goodfellas!) Still I would recommend the book. It gives a vivid account of a fascinating criminal enterprise that has received little attention outside of the metro New York area. While these men are hardly a beacon of Irishness in America, Irish-Americans should definately take time to read this. Actually anyone who has a fascination with gang life should pick this book up. One more note; if anyone has seen the movie Sleepers and can recall actor Ron Eldard's portrayal of John Reilly will flip when they see the insert picture of gang leader Jimmy Coonan. Eldard is a dead ringer for Coonan. Hopefully someone in Hollywood has their finger in the pot and is whipping up a screenplay. A movie about these boys would be awesome, and it would be too trippy to see Eldard portray Coonan.

This book held my attention at times, but overall as a fan of the true crime genre I was a bit disappointed. It was interesting from a historical perspective of how the Irish mob shaped the character of Hell's Kitchen, especially in the 70's and 80's. However, there were so many characters that it was hard to keep track of them, and a couple of murders that were mentioned earlier in the book were not explained until the very end. These things combined to make the book somewhat confusing and eroded my interest. It turned out to be one of those books that I liked enough to keep reading because I felt I would get cheated out of something interesting if I quit, but I felt a sense of freedom and relief when I finally finished it.

The Westies is by T.J. English, an acclaimed author who spends most of his time doing books on the Irish culture. The book is about a gang of Irish-American thugs that make their way up and down the underworld ladder. It is done in a suspenseful way, much like the Film-Noir genre of today's movies. The opening section of the book is the best part of the novel. It describes one of the degenerate gamblers that the gang deals with. He is just on a routine day, and then he is catapulted into a heap of troubles with enforcers. It was one of the most intense sections in the whole book. It was so exciting; it was almost worth reading the book to get this well written event. Unfortunately, this cannot be said for the rest of the book. T.J. English begins his next chapter with some very dull introduction. After that, he continues with what seemed to be endless amount of pages filled with meaningless descriptions of the setting around the characters. It was one of the hardest books to finish. There was one part in particular that illustrates my point very well. Jimmy is just talking to his friends about some of his daily [illegal] activities. The next paragraph says the F.B.I. is listening in on a tap. It was excellent delivery, but the next thing I was expecting was to read more of what the F.B.I. had caught him saying. I was thoroughly disappointed, as it was describing the van the feds were in, and where Jimmy was located. Also, it was very wimpy. The Irish gangsters are brutal, and T.J. English seemed to try to cover this up. It was very weak. So you're asking yourself if you should read this book. I hate to say that this book is definitely one you should pick up at the library or bookstore. Just read the first chapter, and be done with it. The rest of the book isn't worth your time or your money...