In this case, he was found not guilty due to insanity. ", Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, "Ex-Westies Member Says Gang Boss Cut Off Murder Victim's Head", "Westies Trial: Gruesome Testimony Not For The Squeamish", "United States of America, Appellee, v. James Coonan, Kevin Kelly, James Mcelroy, Kenneth Shannon,william Bokun, John Halo, Edna Coonan, Richardritter, Thomas Collins, Florencecollins, Defendants,kevin Kelly, Defendant-appellant, 938 F.2d 1553 (2d Cir.
Coonan forged a strong alliance with the Gambino crime family in the late 70s, and became their hit-squad and enforcement arm for the next 10 years. Featherstone, if still alive is in the Wit Sec. Required fields are marked *. After Coonan took over as boss of the Westies, he had Stein murdered to gain control of his gambling and loansharking customers. The judge sentenced Featherstone to 6 years and he did time in the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield Missouri in the psychiatric ward.
Coonan failed to murder Spillane and his followers, not even wounding one man, but Spillane got the message. [3] Coonan wanted more, and several West Side neighborhood thugs gathered around him, including Francis "Mickey" Featherstone. He instead told prosecutors that Bokun had committed the murder, and he became an informant. Coonan's criminal career began to take of at the age of eighteen, when he swore to seek revenge against Mickey Spillane, the boss of Hell's Kitchen because Spillane had kidnapped and pistol whipped Coonan's father who was an accountant not involved in criminal activity.
Duing this time, Jimmy Coonan was in jail on gun possession charges. After DeMeo himself was murdered, Coonan's Gambino family connection became Daniel Marino, a capo from Brooklyn. At that point the information provided by the Featherstone's resulted in the arrest of Coonan and several other Westies on state charges of murder and other crimes. He was born on the upper West Side and his mother worked with the VFW and his father was a U. S. Customs officer. Featherstone’s wife, Sissy, wore a wire and engaged other Westies in incriminating conversations to help her husband get out of jail. Another Westie, Jimmy McElroy, was acquitted of the murder of a Teamster in 1980. Featherstone testified in open court for four weeks in the trial that began in September 1987 and concluded with major convictions in 1988. West Bureau. Jimmy Coonan was sentenced to sixty years in prison on assorted charges. Bad blood between Coonan and Featherstone, in part due to Featherstone's distaste for Coonan's Italian mob connections, eventually led to Featherstone being framed for the murder of Michael Holly, a construction worker and neighborhood bar owner who refused to give the Westies "protection money." During his time as boss of the Westies, they gained a reputation as a vicious crew of murderers. Coonan is considered one of the most violent Irish gangsters of all time. West Bureau. Featherstone was convicted in early 1986 and began cooperating with the government in hopes of getting the murder conviction overturned.
Shortly afterward, federal prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani announced a devastating Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) indictment against Coonan and the Westies for criminal activities going back twenty years. He took over the Hell's Kitchen Irish mob after Mickey Spillane's 1977 murder. It is from Gallo's site. An off-duty policeman in the bar saw John Bokun shoot Michael Holly, then he shot and killed John Bokun. Coonan's whole purpose was to restore his father's honor. Due to his strong alliance with the Gambino crime family it was rapidly strengthening his own power. By 1976, Coonan and Featherstone were engaged in taking over Spillane's territory, culminating in the 1977 shooting of Spillane, for which Featherstone was arrested and acquitted, and the death of Stein. In retaliation and to set Mickey Featherstone up to take the fall, Billy Bokun, John’s brother got a car identical to Mickey Featherstones and put on a long haired wig and fake mustache to look like Featherstone. James Coonan was a baby boomer born December 21, 1946. [4][5], In 1979, Coonan was tried and acquitted for the murder of Harold Whitehead, but convicted on weapons charges and sentenced to four years in federal prison. Spillane eventually went into hiding and was killed by the Gambino crime family (rumored to have been at the hands of Roy DeMeo) as a favor to Coonan. Jimmy Coonan’s criminal career started in his teens. He passed out and when he awoke, he found they had given him a circumcision. James Michael "Jimmy C" Coonan (born December 21, 1946) is an Irish-American mobster and racketeer from Manhattan, New York who began serving a 75-year prison term in 1988. James Coonan was born in 1946 in the Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan area of New York City. Coonan had forgotten to puncture the lungs and Stein's torso was found washed ashore.
he learned that he had been set up and framed by his own gang. Seeing a pic of Coonan is pretty rare. Coonan and his men forgot to puncture the lungs and Stein’s torso washed ashore. Coonan is serving his time at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. Jimmy was ashamed that his father was treated like this and he swore revenge against Mickey Spillane. Instead of a cross, she hid an inverted pentagram in a flower engraved into the stone. In 1986, the police arrested Mickey Featherstone for the murder of Michael Holly. The house in Hazlet, New Jersey is the last small cottage at the end of a dead end street. He took aim and fired a whole 30 round magazine in one long burst at Spillane and some men with him.
The judge immediately overturned the verdict. https://mafia.wikia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Coonan?oldid=37234. He received a medical discharge in 1967 after just a year, claiming to have hallucinations. Featherstone achieved neighborhood fame for single-handedly running a group of toughs from New Jersey out of a Hell’s Kitchen bar with a rifle. This was a racket that Spillane ran to collect a ransom from the victim's family. Although Coonan failed to murder Spillane and his followers, not even wounding one man, Spillane received the word that the younger hoodlum was not to be taken lightly. Any resident of Hell’s Kitchen who who took Spillane’s side were subject to beatings, kidnappings, store vandalism, and robberies. He drove up and shot and killed Michel Holly on the street in front of witnesses. Stein was lured to the 596 Club bar where he was shot to death.
Coonan reportedly killed a loan shark victim who could not pay his debt, dismembered him and cut off his hands. Coonan learned how to dismember murder victims from Edward Cummiskey, a fellow Westies member, prison-trained as a butcher.. During the late 1970s, Coonan and his Westies allied themselves with the Gambino family and his main contact was Roy DeMeo. Those who chose Coonan's side were immune from these harsh activities because Spillane's gang was much older and more respectable. Coonan also hoped to pocket Stein's 'Black Book' that contained all of the information on his loanshark operation and collect on the debts for himself. Coonan eventually interacted directly with John Gotti, who took over the Gambino crime family after the murder of Castellano in December 1985. During the late 1970s, Coonan tightened his alliance between the Westies and the Gambino organization, then run by Paul Castellano. Featherstone plead guilty to one racketeering charge and was soon released for his cooperation.
A number of the Westies owed large amounts of money to Stein and were looking to escape these obligations. The police and FBI suspected him of a series of mob contract killings. He put the hands in bags in a freezer with the intention of using them to put those fingerprints on a gun he would use later.
[3] According to testimony given in 1987 by ex-Westies member turned informant William Beattie, Stein was killed and beheaded in 1977 in a move to erase Coonan's debt and prove the Westies power through viciousness. This dismembering method of disposing of his victims was used by Coonan many times. In the latest indictment, Julia Coonan, 44, wife … From time to time, the Westies worked for the Gambino family as a contract killer squad. Don’t forget to listen to Aaron on the Big Dumb Fun Show, live on Monday nights. He volunteered for combat in Vietnam and would claim he spent time killing with the Special Forces. The Genovese crime family wanted to run all mob activity associated with the convention center. This is a placeholder for your sticky navigation bar.
His father was an accountant and not involved in criminal activity.
Mickey Featherstone was a complete nut case. This was a method of disposing of his victims that Coonan would repeat many times. The policeman shot and killed John Bokun and the Westies blamed Holly for the death. Coonan was imprisoned for a short period of time because of murder and kidnapping charges that were pleaded down to a class E disorderly conduct felony charge and a class C manslaughter felony charge. He testified against Jimmy Coonan and other gang members. The gang then tipped the cops that Featherstone killed Holly. He was blond haired and baby-faced. Morgethau said the gang began as gamblers and loansharks but have committed 28 murders, five of which have been solved. After his release he resumed power, but in 1988 was convicted of racketeering under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and sentenced to 75 years in prison with the judge's recommendation of denying parole. I thought the lads on her would appreciate it.