Mickey Spillane (mobster)
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Police photograph of Mickey Spillane |
Michael Spillane, much better known as Mickey Spillane (July 13, 1934 – May 13, 1977), was an Irish-American mobster from Hell's Kitchen, New York City. Spillane, who was called the "last of the gentleman gangsters," was a marked contrast to the violent Westies gang members who succeeded him in Hell's Kitchen.
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[edit] life
As a young boy in Hell's Kitchen, Spillane started as a numbers runner for various organized crime figures in his neighborhood. In 1960, Mickey took over the rackets left to him by his predecessor Eddie McGrath, the waterfront racketeer and longshoremen's union leader. He married Maureen McManus, the daughter of the Democratic district leader Eugene McManus.
Though Italian mobsters dominated organized crime in the city, the Italian mob stayed out of Hell's Kitchen while Spillane was the boss. Oftentimes, Spillane would kidnap members of the Italian Mafia and hold them for ransom to raise money for his operations. Although he ran the rackets such as gambling and loan sharking he never allowed the sale of drugs.
It was Spillane's refusal to allow the Italian mobsters to participate in the Hell Kitchen rackets that led to his downfall.
The Javits Convention Center was being built on Spillane's Westside and the Italians were desperate for a piece of the action. Spillane was successful in keeping the Italians at bay so the Italians cut a deal with some of the younger members on the Westside who had less concern for the neighborhood.
[edit] Spillane–Coonan rivalry and the Gambino crime family
In 1966, a young upstart named Jimmy Coonan attempted to take the neighborhood from Spillane, muscling in on his territory and murdering a Spillane underling. Ultimately, Coonan was sent to prison in 1967. When he was released from prison, Coonan sought to align himself with the Gambino crime family through an up-and-coming mobster from Brooklyn, named Roy DeMeo. This would mark the begining of the end for the Irish mob as Coonan would eventually work for the Gambinos.
The 1970s saw an increased threat from the Genovese crime family, as Fat Tony Salerno sought control over the soon to be built Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Since the convention center was located on the West Side, Spillane stood his ground against the takeover by the Italians. Salerno responded by hiring an Irish-American hitman named Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan to assassinate Tom Devaney, Eddie "the Butcher" Cummiskey and Tom "the Greek" Kapatos, three of Spillane's chief lieutenants. By the mid-1970s, Spillane had moved his family out of Hell's Kitchen to [[Woodside, Queens]because of the violence that was erupting.
On May 13, 1977, Spillane was killed outside his apartment in Queens. It has long been rumored that DeMeo murdered Spillane as a favor to Coonan, who subsequently took over as the boss of the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob.[citation needed]
Spillane was no relation to the author Mickey Spillane, or to the wrestler Michael Spillane.
[edit] Family
Spillane had three children. Michael, Robert and Denise.
Robert, an actor, fell six stories to his death on July 10, 2010 in Manhattan, New York, when he leaned against his apartment window screen. The screen gave way while Robert may have been calling to his brother.
[edit] References
- English, T.J. The Westies. St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1991. ISBN 0-312-92429-1
- English, T.J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0-06-059002-5
