Ronald Dermody is often grouped in as a victim of the “Irish Gang Wars.”was not a member of either the McLean or the McLaughlin gang. He was not involved in their dispute. He was an armed robber from Cambridge. Dermody was sixteen, halfway through his short, delinquent life when he was arrested in October 1948…
Category: Boston Gang Wars
Boston Gang Wars- Murdered by McLaughlins- James “Buddy” McLean
Buddy McLean was the leader of a Somerville gang. Around a month before the Salisbury Beach incident on Labor Day in 1961, McLean was confronted by David Gearty, 35. David Gearty was described as a dapper fellow and “not an easy man to forget. A broad-shouldered six-footer with a deep tan, he is often mistaken…
Boston Gang Wars- Murdered by the McLaughlins: Russell Nicholson
In early November 1961, Russell Nicholson, a Metropolitan District Commission police officer, was suspended and later dismissed from that police force for “being in the company of persons of ill repute, with whom he admitted having been friendly.” The persons of ill repute were Buddy McLean and Alexander Petricone. Rumor had it that he drove…
Boston Gang Wars- Murdered by the McLeans: Bernard McLaughlin
On Tuesday, October 31, 1961, shortly after noon and thirty-six hours after Buddy McLean fired shots near his car at night, Bernie McLaughlin walked down Chelsea Street, in City Square Charlestown. He walked past Lynda Lee. She said she knew him. He said to her, “hello beautiful.” Moments later, a “man about 6 feet tall,…
Boston Gang Wars- THE FIRST IRISH GANG WAR: McLaughlin v. McLean Introduction
The supposed Irish gang war is commonly proposed to have started Labor Day weekend, 1961. That weekend, members of two Irish gangs – one, the Somerville Gang from the City of Somerville under the leadership of James “Buddy” McLean; the other the McLaughlin Gang from Charlestown under the leadership of the McLaughlin brothers- partied at…
Boston Gang Wars-Loan Sharks and Bookies: Anthony Sasso
ANTHONY SASSO, 36 October 14, 1960 When the body of an unidentified person (later identified as George Joynt) was found on July 8, 1962, under…