The Westies
- Episode aired Dec 11, 2009
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
14
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A 'West Side Story' That Is Really Brutal
Everybody knows about the Mafia but how many people, outside New York City, have ever heard of the "Westies?"
Well, back in the 1970s this small group of gangsters made a big impact on the West Side of Manhattan in an area called "Hell's Kitchen." Yes, this is a "West Side Story" of sorts except these guys were really brutal. They didn't come much worse than Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone, and this small Irish Mob which included Eddie "The Butcher" Cummiskey and others.
These guys battled entrenched Irish mob leader Mickey Spillane and battled each other and anyone else who got in their way. It even involved the Italian mobsters, although they usually kept out of each other's way, according to this program.
All of these people, along with Bill Beattie who is seen "live" talking about those days, are all fascinating people and I'm not glorifying them. These are the kind of people who chopped a guy's head off one time and brought it around to a lot of bars on the West Side to get a message across. It worked; the neighborhood was terrified of "The Westies."
"You see," as one law enforcement guy explains early on in this episode, "The Italians kill for a reason; the Irish, they kill for nothing!"
The rise and fall of the Irish mob in New York is detailed on this program and it's an interesting one with some surprises.
Well, back in the 1970s this small group of gangsters made a big impact on the West Side of Manhattan in an area called "Hell's Kitchen." Yes, this is a "West Side Story" of sorts except these guys were really brutal. They didn't come much worse than Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone, and this small Irish Mob which included Eddie "The Butcher" Cummiskey and others.
These guys battled entrenched Irish mob leader Mickey Spillane and battled each other and anyone else who got in their way. It even involved the Italian mobsters, although they usually kept out of each other's way, according to this program.
All of these people, along with Bill Beattie who is seen "live" talking about those days, are all fascinating people and I'm not glorifying them. These are the kind of people who chopped a guy's head off one time and brought it around to a lot of bars on the West Side to get a message across. It worked; the neighborhood was terrified of "The Westies."
"You see," as one law enforcement guy explains early on in this episode, "The Italians kill for a reason; the Irish, they kill for nothing!"
The rise and fall of the Irish mob in New York is detailed on this program and it's an interesting one with some surprises.
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- ccthemovieman-1
- Mar 3, 2010
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