From a New York Times-bestselling author: A true story of Irish gangsters in Manhattan"A harrowing account of big city crime" (Library Journal). For those of you who were too St. Paddy's Day wasted to make it, don't you worry, there will be more! Mickey Featherstone, a short, slight 38-year-old with a blond mop and an almost-adolescent expression, had been charged with at least three other murders during the previous 17 years, but he was . Micky and His Wife Missy are very happy living in a 2.5 millon home in Southwestern section of America where it seldom rains and almost never snows. Dose anyone know what Micky looks like now? James Coonan is awaiting trial for an alleged revenge killing against a gang member. Chastising them for murdering two important Mafia loan sharks in Manhattan, Castellano told Coonan the Westies should pay the family 10 percent from all of their illegal proceeds and in turn, the Gambinos would finance the Westies loansharking operation. Prior to the murder of Michael Holly, Featherstone had been charged with at least three other murders, but each time he had entered pleas of insanity and was acquitted. Billy Bokuns attorney was Kenneth Aronson, the same attorney who had represented Featherstone in Hollys murder trial. Featherstone excelled in training and joined the special forces, but was disappointed to serve as a stock clerk while other recruits saw combat. He was a house mom for his first couple of yrs in the WPP and he is now a day trader investing only personal funds. His parents divorced and mother remarried. After all, Featherstone had killed men in neighborhood bars in front of witnesses multiple times and beat the charges. There where a series of gruesome murders taking place in the neighborhood and Jimmy Coonan and, This week we are starting a multi-part series with Justin Rimmel of the Mysterious Circumstances Podcast to talk about one of the most violent, brutal crime organizations in New York City from the 60's-80's The Westies. She was able to record Bokun describing the shooting of Michael Holly while wearing a wig as Featherstone. Featherstone's penchant for violence and intimidation caught the eye of Coonan and Featherstone became Coonan's right-hand man by 1976. New York law enforcement attributed at least thirty unsolved murders to the Westies in the 1970s and 1980s, and they were known as an extremely violent group, even by gang standards. Featherstone was linked by two eyewitnesses, as well as circumstantial evidence, as the car driven by the shooter was traced to the trucking company where Featherstone was employed. According to our records, Mickey Featherstone is possibly single. [5] He was freed in December 1988[5] and went into a witness protection program. Facing almost 25 years in jail, he became an informant and brought down Coonan's gang. McElroy and Bokun are in jail charged with other killings. Increasingly drunk on a regular basis, Featherstone was disciplined by the armed forces for various acts of criminal mischief, and after only a year, claiming to suffer from hallucinations, was medically discharged in 1967. Despite a notably sweet and boyish face, Mickey Featherstone, a Vietnam veteran who had talked his way into the Green Berets at just seventeen years old, was known as one of the most vicious and ruthless members of the gang. Jimmy, a charismatic sociopath, is the leader. The became hired killers in the 1970s, authorities said. Mickey Featherstone: The Dangerous Hitman Currently Free In Witness Protection. April 28 (UPI) -- Animal services officers in South Carolina responded to a home where a resident was shocked to find an alligator in his garage. Facing almost 25 years in jail, he became an informant and brought down Coonan's gang. Francis "Mickey" Featherstone, a leader of New York City's Irish organized crime gang known as the Westies, was set up by other members of the gang to take the fall for the 1985 murder of Michael Holly. In April 1986, Featherstone was convicted of Hollys murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Jimmy on the left & Larry Sessa, alleged Colombo Crime Family mobster. Public DomainJimmy Coonan (right) in a prison photo circa 1990. Re: (Video) Mickey Featherstone - 60 Minutes Interview [ Re: ronnie_little ] #681434. ''These conditions are imposed to protect you from a psychiatric breakdown and any resulting harm to the community in which you will live. We start getting into the deep water on talking about the Westies and their activities in the late 1970's early 1980's. And now, in April 2023, Carlson is gone too, even more abruptly than his predecessor, though perhaps under a similar cloud.Once again, the ouster is being crowed about by liberals who really . Who is he dating right now? By the mid 1980s, Featherstone was convinced that Coonan, living in New Jersey, had sold the neighborhood out to the Mafia, and bad blood festered. On Dec. 21, he received a suspended sentence with five years of probation after Federal and state authorities sent letters commending his cooperation to Judge Robert W. Sweet, who sentenced him in Federal District Court in Manhattan. More than 150 beverages delivered to woman's home without explanation. Julia Coonan pleaded innocent to conspiracy charges in state Supreme Court in Manhattan and Judge Peter McQuillan set $50,000 bail. Brisman Craigslist Murder Phillip Markoff was born 1986. They pulled over, either to do cocaine or because one of them asked him to. Meet Mickey Featherstone, The Deranged Hitman Who Turned Informant And Helped Bring Down The Westies. The DEA ranks him as one of the top 10 drug traffickers in US history. As they were interviewing employees, Mickey Featherstone walked right into their midst - short, slight and light-haired. Until his release last week, Mr. Featherstone had been held in custody on his racketeering charge and for a parole violation involving his earlier conviction in a counterfeiting case. One day you're a made man, the next, you're sleeping with the fishes. No one couldve predicted that Featherstone, perhaps the gangs most violent and dedicated member, would be the one to put an end to the Westies, and perhaps the Irish mob in Manhattan, once and for all. [5], "Books of The Times; The Rise and Fall of a Thoroughly Vicious Gang", "New York Stories: Hell's Kitchen Killers", "Admitted Westies Killer Who Informed Is Free", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mickey_Featherstone&oldid=1082198232, This page was last edited on 11 April 2022, at 21:33. '', See the article in its original context from. The Westies, now officially on record with the Italian American mob, were allowed to use the Gambino name and reputation, and construction profits would be shared, including those from the forthcoming Jacob Javits Convention Center. Yet to those closest to him, Mickey was kind, devoted and generous to a fault. According to The National Registry of Exonerations, Francis "Mickey" Featherstone was a member of the violent Irish organized crime gang known as the Westies, who sought power in the underworld of New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood from the 1960s to the late '80s. April 28 (UPI) -- A South Carolina woman won a $300,000 prize from a scratch-off lottery ticket just three years after winning a $250,000 lottery jackpot. Contract murders are a relatively new enterprise, they said. Back in Hells Kitchen, Featherstone soon found himself involved in more serious forms of criminal mischief. Francis T. Mickey Featherstone was a member of the Irish mob until he was framed for a murder he didnt commit and turned informant. [2] His conviction eventually came in February 1982, after using counterfeit currency at a massage parlor - he was traced because the girl remembered seeing his name tattooed on his forearm, and he was sentenced to six years. Those who knew him in the neighborhood often crossed the street when they saw him coming their way. Federal officials said Friday that Mr. Featherstone was released from custody on Dec. 23, two days after he was given probation on a racketeering charge involving the Westies, a gang that terrorized an area of Manhattan west of Eighth Avenue between 42d and 57th Streets. Featherstone and the other Westies became known as ruthless killers who enjoyed near complete impunity due to the fear they struck in potential witnesses. [1] In September 1986, Judge Alvin Schlesinger overturned Featherstone's conviction. In late November, McElroy and Kelly also paid a visit to their leader, Morgenthau said. Dog missing for 26 days walked 40 miles to his former home. At first, it appeared that he had won. Register Log In Home Forums Organized Crime - Real Life How feared was Mickey Featherstone . 'Fog of bees' briefly interrupts PGA Tour's Mexico Open. Francis (Mickey) Featherstone, an admitted killer who turned informer, has won his freedom, largely in return for testifying against his former associates in a violent gang called the Westies. Facing almost 25 years in jail, he became an . American military personnel of the Vietnam War. 1 killed in shooting at Massachusetts house party, Heavy shelling in Kherson, Kharkiv destroys residences, Cuba postpones International Workers' Day parade over fuel shortages, Democrats, Republicans remain split on debt ceiling plan, SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches following aborted mission, delays. Featherstone and Coonan had a falling out over the latter's alliance with the Gambino crime family, which Featherstone saw as a betrayal of all the Irish-Americans in Hell's Kitchen. They said that over the years it has been steeped in gambling and loansharking. On April 25, 1985, 41-year-old Holly was walking down a New York street when a man stepped out of a car and shot him five times, using a gun with a silencer. Mickey looks like a piece of shit, as always. They not only kill people they dismember them,' he said. Outside the courtroom, Coonan's lawyer Lawrence Hochheiser said, 'She's a housewife her only crime is being his wife.' Jimmy, a charismatic sociopath, is the leader. At 17, Featherstone lied about his age and joined the army with dreams of becoming a Green Beret. Jimmy Coonan (right) in a prison photo circa 1990. Defense Lawyers' Complaints. Featherstone committed several mob killings before he was convicted in 1986 of a murder he had not committed. He disappeared without a trace in 1973 at the age of 29 and has not been seen in 49 years. He was charged with three murders over the years, but was always able to get acquitted after pleading insanity. Facing almost 25 years in jail, he became an informant and brought down Coonan's gang. We have no records . This dichotomy was Mickey in essence. April 28 (UPI) -- A Nebraska high school said it broke a Guinness World Record when more than 1,000 students participated in a water balloon toss event. ''At least for the time being,'' the judge said, ''the Westies have been broken as an organization, largely as a result of your cooperation.''. [4] Mickey Spillane, the mob leader in Hell's Kitchen at the time, was shot five times outside his apartment in August 1977, and Featherstone was arrested but acquitted for his killing. He was blond haired and baby-faced. After deciding to cooperate with the authorities, Mr. Featherstone pleaded guilty to a Federal racketeering charge, admitting his participation in four murders, five murder conspiracies and additional acts of loan-sharking, drug dealing and other crimes. 44. r/Mafia. Put this image on your website to promote the show -, Report inappropriate content or request to remove this page. He also said he'd been ordered to carry out the murder in a wig, which he believed was meant to make him look like Mickey. Mickey, whose memories of Vietnam torture him daily, is his enforcer. Mickey knew he'd been framed, and was able to convince the police to let him prove it. With the new information provided by Featherstone in 1986, prosecutors were able to obtain indictments against eight members of the Westies, including leader Jimmy Coonan, and all but one were convicted. His sole wound occurred during a drunken orgy when his buddies, as a joke, circumcised him. The Westies reign of terror was largely built on the back of, The Westies, a gang long known to law enforcement officials, if not to the public, as one of the most savage organizations in the long history of New York gangs. Featherstone committed several mob killings before he was convicted in 1986 of a murder he had not committed. Featherstone was convicted in 1986, but his conviction was reversed later that year when the actual shooter was identified. The Westies reign of terror was largely built on the back of Featherstones ferocious reputation. The Walt Disney Co. on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in federal court against Florida Gov. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. 'That's the way they get the message out.'. The car driven by the shooter had been abandoned on the street, and it was traced to the trucking company where Featherstone was employed at that time. Some of the loons that the boards attract never cease to amaze me. Nevertheless, his temper was infamous and if alcohol was involved, he was especially prone to violence. Initially the job was given to Mickey Featherstone but he refused, the job was then given to Jimmy McElroy and Kevin Kelly. Francis T. "Mickey" Featherstone (born September 2, 1948) is a former Irish American mobster and member of the Westies, an organized crime syndicate from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in New York City, led by James Coonan. Morgenthau said they were among the top hitmen in the gang. NEW YORK -- The wife of a reputed West Side mobster and three members of his Irish gang were indicted Wednesday in the killing of a loanshark, and the Manhattan prosecutor said the gang was responsible for 28 murders. Login For example, Featherstone got probation for shooting a man in the arm, and when he killed a man outside a bar in 1971, Featherstone beat the rap with an insanity plea. In the latest indictment, Julia Coonan, 44, wife of imprisoned Westies leader James Coonan, was charged with scheming to murder the loanshark, he said. [2] His mother helped with the Veterans of Foreign Wars and his father was a United States Customs Service officer. That's when the 'Westies', a ruthless gang of Irish American extortionists, racketeers and contract killers, took in the violent young Featherstone and put him to work. A Federal prosecutor, Mary Lee Warren, said Friday that the Government had fulfilled its obligation to bring Mr. Featherstone's cooperation to the judge's attention but made no recommendation about the sentence. Mickey nolonger has bad nightmares and is FULLY RECOVERED and states his past is a blur. Free Podcast Hosting with custom domain. Mickey Featherstone is a member of the following lists: People from Manhattan, 1947 births and American military personnel of the Vietnam War. Please enable scripts and reload this page. Featherstone committed several mob killings before he was convicted in 1986 of a murder he had not committed. On April 25, 1985, Billy Bokun (John Bokuns brother), wearing a wig to look like Featherstone, approached Holly on a crowded street and killed him, firing five bullets into his back. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. This book is a lot more focused on one man's role (Mickey Featherstone) in the Westies, rather than the Westies as a whole. Mr. Featherstone and his family are now in the Government's witness protection program, which provides for relocating them under a new name. This Featherstone is littlebit like leonetti - talks clearly, calmy, but what a psycho! Featherstone was stunned to finally be convicted of a murder, and not just because he had dodged so many guilty verdicts in the past. She was arrested Wednesday in her home in Hazlet, N.J. Three other members of the Irish gang were charged with carrying out the killing of Vincent Leone, 47, the recording secretary of Local 1909 of the International Longshoremen's Association. Who is Mickey Featherstone dating? April 28 (UPI) -- The PGA Tour's Mexico Open was briefly interrupted when a swarm of bees sent a group of golfers ducking in the grass. Then in April 1985, he was shot and killed on a New York City street by a man using a silencer. The institution kept Featherstone working on the ward, out of General Population, for his own safety. Cookie Notice Morgenthau said in their heyday there were 30 Westies, but that number has been reduced to 10 or 15 as many of them have been jailed or killed. He had his wife Sissy record some conversations with Westie Billy Bokun, brother of John, in which he admitted to killing Holly. Jimmy Coonan, the ruthless leader of the Westies in the 1970s. [3] To his disappointment, he was pulled from combat duty, he was involved in criminal mischief with his friends and was disciplined for many drunken pranks. In 1988, because of Featherstones testimony, eight of the gangs members were ultimately convicted of racketeering and other offenses related to their participation in a RICO criminal enterprise with Coonan himself getting 75 years in prison. He had been discharged from the army in 1967, suffering from hallucinations, and spent years in and out of a mental hospital. It finally happened folks and it was a blast! In the mid-1970s, these two longtime friends take the reins of New York's Irish mob, using brute force to give it hitherto unthinkable power. ''This sentence is an act of trust which you have earned,'' the judge told Mr. Featherstone. [1] He was shocked at receiving his sentence of 25 years in prison, and concluded that he had been framed by his own gang. It was very difficult for police and prosecutors to convict men associated with this group because witnesses were terrified of the members and their willingness to quickly kill anyone who crossed them. Francis Mickey Featherstone, a leader of New York Citys Irish organized crime gang known as the Westies, was set up by other members of the gang to take the fall for the 1985 murder of Michael Holly. An unhinged man with a hot temper and a hair trigger, Mickey Featherstone was known to kill for little to no reason at all. The ruthless reputation of the gang came to the notice of the Gambino family, and boss Paul Castellano, who summoned Coonan and Featherstone to a meeting in a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn restaurant in 1978. His maniacal behavior also saw Featherstone spending parts of the early 1970s in various mental hospitals. ago. In May 1977, Jimmy Coonan owed a substantial amount of money to loan shark Ruby Stein and decided to forgive his own debt by murdering Stein. He never saw combat. This pic is of edna. When Mickey returned to the notoriously violent, Irish dominated Hell's Kitchen area of New York, his violent tendencies continued. Updated: Nov. 17, 2021 Francis T. "Mickey" Featherstone (born September 2, 1948) is a former Irish American mobster and member of the Westies, an organized crime syndicate from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in New York City, led by James Coonan. . Francis T. "Mickey" Featherstone is a former Irish American mobster and member of the Westies, an organized crime syndicate from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in New York City, led by James Coonan. Other Westies had indeed cooked up the frame job to eliminate Mickey as a threat to their power in the organization. Shes the 2nd from the right, looks just like him. The Registry also maintains a more limited database of known exonerations prior to 1989. Courtroom. [4], Featherstone was convicted in March 1986 for the April 1985 murder of Michael Holly, despite being innocent of this particular murder, which was a revenge attack probably carried out by another of the Westies, Billy Bokun. With this evidence in hand showing that Featherstones fellow gang members had turned on him and set him up, his conviction was overturned in September 1986, and Featherstone agreed to become an informant. Privacy Policy. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. There were witnesses to the shooting, all of whom described the shooter as a man fitting Featherstones description. April 27 (UPI) -- A Sydney, Australia, woman is trying to solve a mystery after hundreds of dollars' worth of drinks, including Gatorade, Powerade, Coke and Fanta started showing up at her home. But the Westies now had an enemy in Featherstone. He volunteered for combat in Vietnam and would claim he spent time killing with the Special Forces. Featherstone committed several mob killings before he was convicted in 1986 of a murder he had not committed. Mickey Featherstones Oldest Son Was in Kuwait before 9/11 and is now married to a School Teacher, His 2nd son Just received a Medal of Bravery from the armey his oldest daughter is married and has her own business and his youngest daughter is in college on a Athletic Schollarship. DeSantis amid feud over self-governing privileges. It's men like Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone who gave Hell's Kitchen its name. Mickey Featherstones Oldest Son Was in Kuwait before 9/11 and is now married to a School Teacher, His 2nd son Just received a Medal of Bravery from the armey his oldest daughter is married and has her own business and his youngest daughter is in college on a Athletic Schollarship. After learning about Mickey Featherstone, read how Irish mobster Danny Greene took on the Cleveland Mafia or learn about mobster Frank The Irishman Sheeran. and our It's men like Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone who gave Hell's Kitchen its name. The National Registry of Exonerations is a project of the Newkirk Center for Science & Society at University of California Irvine, the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University College of Law. Mickey, whose memories of Vietnam torture him daily, is his enforcer. Ron DeSantis for assailing Disney, which employees tens of thousands of their constituents, just to court MAGA voters. 2 mo. [4] He pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge and received a suspended sentence of five years' probation from Judge Robert W. Sweet due to his cooperation with the authorities. On March 25, 1977, Westie John Bokun was shot dead by police after an argument with another Hells Kitchen resident, Michael Holly. Join. However, Holly returned to New York City several years later. He is also working with Movie Director Sheridan on a movie about the Westies called Emerald City that will be out in 2008 He expects to make some fierce funds from this. Francis T. "Mickey" Featherstone (born September 2, 1948) is a former Irish American mobster and member of the Westies, an organized crime syndicate from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in New York City, led by James Coonan. Defense lawyers have complained in Federal District Court that Mr. Featherstone and other informers received highly beneficial deals from the Government to obtain their testimony in the Gambino trial and that the jury was not told that the informers were being freed. Mickey Featherstone was second-in-command to Jimmy Coonan, leader of the Westies, an extremely violent Irish mob that operated in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, in the 1970s and 1980s. He had been informed by Westies member Kevin Kelly the night before Hollys murder that Holly was going to be killed. Mickey Featherstone is a former Irish American mobster and member of the Westies, an organized crime syndicate from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in New York City, led by James Coonan. Featherstone, despite standing 57 with wide blue eyes, shaggy blonde hair, and a boyish face, soon developed a killers reputation that might not have been apparent from his appearance alone. Morgenthau said the gang thought Leone 'manipulated the reporting of sports bets and deprived the Westies and the Gambinos of their share in the proceeds.'. Nebraska students toss water balloons for Guinness World Record. Mickey's trouble started in 1977 with the murder of a member of the Westies named John Bokun. Shout Box: Site Links >Help Page >More Smilies >GBB on Facebook >Job Saver >Godfather Website >Scarface Website In the mid-1970s, these two longtime friends take the reins of New York's Irish mob, using brute force to give it hitherto unthinkable power. ''And he's in a pickle now where he has to lie.'' Mr. Moresco's own life is deeply enmeshed in that of the Hell's Kitchen where he grew up in. Relationships. Scottish Island for sale with asking price of $188,000. The three, James McElroy, 36, William Bokun, 29, and Kevin Kelly, 31, allegedly killed Leone in Guttenberg, N.J., on Feb. 11, 1984. Mr. Featherstone also provided information in other investigations, and testified in the continuing trial of several men accused of committing murders and other racketeering acts as part of the Gambino crime family. Law enforcement attributed at least 30 unsolved murders to the gang and the innocuous-looking Mickey Featherstone was recognized as one of their most vicious members. After providing the necessary information about the crimes of his fellow Westies, 38-year-old Francis Mickey Featherstone entered the federal witness protection program. But the Westies eventual downfall would come thanks to Mickey Featherstone himself, after he was framed for the murder of Michael Holly by Coonan in 1985. on our list, Other It's men like Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone who gave Hell's Kitchen its name. Featherstone was born on West 43rd St.,[1] one of nine children. The Westies would also carry out some of the Gambino familys most gruesome dirty work. Those who knew Featherstone in the neighborhood often crossed the street when they saw him coming their way. The man the gang judged responsible for the murder, Michael Holly, skipped town to escape the heat, but returned a few years later. Witnesses described a man who looked a lot like Featherstone. Kelly is a fugitive who has been indicted for the attempted murder of a carpenter's union official. In 1977, a Westies member named John Bokun was shot and killed, and the Westies attributed this killing to Michael Holly, who moved out of town immediately after Bokuns death. Mickey Featherstones Oldest Son Was in Kuwait before 9/11 and is now married to a School Teacher, His 2nd son Just received a Medal of Bravery from the armey his oldest daughter is married and has her own business and his youngest daughter is in college on a Athletic Schollarship. His biological father is Jewish and mother Catholic. Morgenthau said that in November 1983 Julia Coonan visited her husband, who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator, in the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., and the two hatched the plot to kill the victim. For more information, please see our In March 1986, Featherstone was found guilty, and faced a sentence of 25 years to life. He has to be up there in age, 58 maybe, 60 maybe? By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. In 1984 Vincent Leone, Jimmy McElroy and Kevin Kelly were travelling in Leone's car in New Jersey. Francis Mickey Featherstone was born on West 43rd Street on Sept. 2, 1948. This is legendary NYC drug kingpin Frank Mathews.