We all have ideas about criminal activities in the decades of the fifties, sixties and seventies. We have read news stories, books, and seen great movies depicting the times and activities. I believed in the reports and books that I read until I began to dig deeper. As I dug, I discovered huge falsehoods. I…
Author: mtc9393
Boston Gang Wars: The FBI and the Mafia
The word around Boston among the Mafia was that the FBI wanted to protect the Irish so the FBI could go after the Mafia. The FBI did go after the Mafia rather than the Irish. The FBI pursued the Mafia because of one reason: the Mafia embarrassed its leader J. Edgar Hoover. For many years…
The Gustin Gang Meets the Mafia
Around noon on a bleak December 22, 1931, Gustin leader, Frank Wallace , his henchman Bernard “Dodo” Walsh and Tim Coffey went to 317 Hanover Street in the North End for a meeting. They climbed the stairs to the third floor in a building known as the Testa Building to the offices of the C.F….
Introduction: Origins of the Irish-Italian Gang Wars
Boston was a city that welcomed European immigrants throughout the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century. Large numbers of Italian immigrants settled in Boston’s North End in the late 19th century. Equally great numbers of Irish immigrants settled in South Boston, “Southie” during the same period. Both sections border the Boston Harbor, separated…
Background to Boston Gang Wars: Getting to the Truth
Two major difficulties exist in trying to recapture the true past among gangsters: 1) gangsters act in secret and 2) they are inveterate liars. Kevin Weeks, who became the third member of Whitey Bulger’s gang, described the need for secrecy well when he said: “the idea of committing a crime is getting away with it.”…
Background to the Boston Gang Wars: Mythmaking
To understand the Boston Gang Wars of the 1960’s and 1970’s, you have to understand Boston. Boston is a city of myths. Its people thrive in its mystique. Boston calls itself the “hub of the universe.” This statement was first made by Oliver Wendel Holmes in 1858 in an essay he was writing for The…