American Gangsters by T. J. English

Author:T. J. English
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 2017-07-27T00:00:00+00:00

PART III

13

BAD BLOOD

By January 1981, Coonan and Featherstone may have been safely tucked away in federal prisons—Coonan in Pennsylvania and Featherstone in Missouri and then Wisconsin—but the publicity surrounding the Whitehead trial helped elevate Jimmy and Mickey’s reputations to unprecedented heights. The Hell’s Kitchen Mob had always been known within the city’s criminal underworld. But now, with blaring headlines about dismemberment murders, suicidal witnesses, and stunning courtroom victories, the Westies were known and feared in virtually every saloon and union hall west of 5th Avenue.

Coonan’s and Featherstone’s incarceration also marked the departure of full-time police surveillance on the West Side. Even though it had not been as conclusive as the cops had hoped, the investigation, which lasted over two years, was considered a success. Richie Egan, who along with Sergeant Tom McCabe had spearheaded WEST SIDE STORY from its inception, was relocated to Brooklyn, where he immediately went to work on a case involving Colombian drug traffickers. Sergeant Joe Coffey and his Homicide Task Force also moved on, turning their attention back to the Italians. Soon they would become enmeshed in a massive racketeering investigation involving, among others, Paul Castellano and the Gambino family.

The cops may have moved on, but the rackets remained the same. There was still loansharking, gambling, narcotics, tribute from the piers, extortion of the ILA and the Teamsters.

And even from prison, Jimmy Coonan still controlled the purse strings. Given that his four-and-a-half-year sentence was likely to be shortened with parole, it would have been fatally shortsighted for anyone to try and move in on Coonan’s territory simply because he was gone from the neighborhood for awhile. Consequently, the proper respect was accorded Jimmy’s wife, Edna, who now made the rounds in Hell’s Kitchen collecting Jimmy’s weekly payments. Just in case, she sometimes took along Richie Ryan or Jimmy McElroy for protection.

In Coonan’s absence, one of the Westies’ most lucrative rackets continued to stem from their relationship with Vincent “Vinnie” Leone, business manager of ILA Local 1909 and a long-time shill for the Gambino family. Leone had gone into business with the Irish Mob following Coonan and Featherstone’s meeting with Paul Castellano at Tommaso’s Restaurant. A loud and gregarious old-time union official, the silver-haired Leone helped lead the Westies into new areas of extortion.

First, there was the outdoor concert season on Pier 82, sponsored every summer by the Miller Brewing Company. Leone saw to it that every stagehand and carpenter who worked the concerts kicked back a portion of his or her wages to the Local, part of which was passed on to Edna Coonan when she made her weekly rounds. She also picked up a portion of the proceeds from the concerts, which were almost always sellouts involving top name acts such as Elton John, Miles Davis, and Diana Ross.

Then there was the USS Intrepid, docked directly across from the Local 1909 offices at West 48th Street. A massive aircraft carrier that had seen distinguished service in World War II and in Vietnam, the ship was opened as a museum in early 1982.

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