Westies

The Westies are an Irish American gang operating from Hell's Kitchen on Manhattan's West Side. According to crime author T. J. English, "Although never more than twelve to twenty members—depending on who was in or out of jail at any given time—the Westies became synonymous with the last generation of Irish in the birthplace of the Irish Mob...." According to the NYPD Organized Crime Squad and the FBI, the Westies were responsible for 60–100 murders between 1968 and 1986.

History

Spillane years

In the early 1960s Mickey Spillane stepped into a power vacuum that had existed in Hell's Kitchen since gang leaders fled the area in the early 1950s to avoid prosecution. A mobster from Queens named Hughie Mulligan had been running Hell's Kitchen; Spillane, a native, was his apprentice until inheriting the throne.

Spillane sent flowers to neighbors in the hospital and provided turkeys to needy families during Thanksgiving, in addition to running gambling enterprises such as bookmaking and policy, accompanied inevitably by loansharking. Loansharking led to assault, and Spillane had burglary arrests as well. However, among all his criminal activities, the most audacious was his "snatch" racket (kidnapping and holding local businessmen and members of other crime organizations for ransom).

The Westies (Irish gang)

The Westies was the name given by the Irish media to a criminal gang based in Blanchardstown, west Dublin, Ireland.

They controlled the heroin trade in west Dublin in the late 90s and early 2000s and were known for their extreme violence against drug addicts and rival drug dealers. The gang, who were also involved in armed robberies and extortion, imploded after the murders of all of its leaders.

Bernard 'Verb' Sugg (23) was shot dead by two masked men in a pub in Blanchardstown in August 2003. Shane Coates (31) and Stephen Sugg (27) went missing in Spain in 2004. Their bodies were found buried under concrete in a warehouse near Alicante in July 2006. Both had been shot in the head. Spanish police suspect they were killed after crossing another group of Irish gangsters based in Spain. Coates had fled to Spain after being injured in a shoot-out with Gardai in Cavan in 2003. In April 2005, Andrew Glennon (30) was shot dead after being ambushed by at least four gunmen near his home in Clonee. His brother Mark (32) was shot dead outside his home in Blanchardstown by a lone gunman five months later.