The Mullens vs the Killeens: DONALD KILLEEN

May 13, 1972

People suggest different times of the year when Whitey moved to join up with Howie Winter and to settle the dispute with the Mullens. The ever-unreliable John Martorano has it in the spring of 1972 which would have been after the murder of O’Sullivan and while Donald Killeen was still alive. It is hard to accept the idea that Whitey would be talking of splitting the gambling proceeds when Killeen had control of them.

The book Gaga has Whitey going off to murder Donald so that he could make peace with the Mullens. That would eliminate the sit-down meeting at Chandler’s which almost everyone agrees happened. Also, you do not weaken yourself by killing one of your assets to make peace with your enemies.

While the cat and mouse game escalated between the Killeens and the Mullens, the latter group made the decision to go after the boss of the Killeen gang, Donald Killeen. Donald owned the Tunnel Café and the Transit Café on West Broadway in South Boston, the Transit being the headquarters of his organized crime operation. He lived in Framingham which was one of the largest towns in Massachusetts.

His home was in the Nobscot section of Framingham, a little less than 25 miles from his base of operations. He had three children, Gary 12, Cissy 5, and Gregory 4. Along with his wife, Donna Mae, her father, Frank McMullen, and the children, they were celebrating the birthday of Gregory. Sometime, shortly after 9:00 p.m., Donald told Donna Mae he had to go to his car in his driveway to check something. He left the house and climbed into the driver’s seat.

Minutes later his daughter Cissy said to her mother: “Why is daddy shooting off fireworks out by his car.” What Cissy heard was the firing of fifteen bullets from a .45 caliber Thompson machine gun into the left side of Donald as he sat in the car. It was reported the gun was held so close to him that powder burns scarred his clothes.  He died immediately. It appeared that he saw his assailants coming because he had reached into his glove compartment and taken out his .38 caliber.  That gun was found under his body.  It had not been fired. Police found the submachine gun and a .22 caliber automatic weapon in an aqueduct nearby.  The weapons were wiped clean.

No one took credit for his murder. The list of suspects to whom a motive can be attached are the Mullen gang – eliminating him meant taking out the leader of the rival faction; Whitey Bulger – eliminating him puts him in a position to take over the Killeen gang; and the Mafia – eliminating him opens up the South Boston rackets to it. The latter is easy to eliminate. The Mafia would never have gained a foothold in Southie because of the long-term animosity between the Italians and the Irish.

Eliminating the Mafia theory leaves Whitey or the Mullens. Whitey had never murdered anyone up to this point. Looking at Whitey’s subsequent history, we see he never was involved in a murder outside of South Boston or the adjacent section of Dorchester to South Boston. In all the murders, he is alleged to have committed, he is rarely the trigger man.

Whitey had no one he was allied with whom he would have trusted to go with him. Killing Donald Killeen was at least a two-person job, one to be in the vehicle for the getaway and the other, or others, to do the shooting.  Two guns were involved in his murder so at least three people made the drive to Framingham.  Further, as Pat Nee noted: “You don’t shoot your boss in the middle of a gang war.” Nee would dismiss the idea Whitey murdered him saying: “[it] was a story Whitey could have started to elevate his own stature.” Whitey, as noted, liked the idea he made into something he really was not.

It is important to understand that none of those who have offered theories on the murder were present other than, perhaps Pat Nee, who might have been one of the gunmen. As we saw with the O’Sullivan murder, he tells a story that completely differs from the known facts.

Pat Nee said the Mullens were tired of the combat and never knowing whether gunmen in the car coming down the street were ready to open fire. He wrote that Jimmy Mantville and Tommy King – both dead at the time he wrote this account and consistent with Nee’s inkling to pin things on the deceased – drove to Donald’s house to scout out the place. They waited until daybreak.  Donald came out of the house at 6:15 a.m. They ran up an embankment and both fired into his car.

The story is a far cry from what happened. It indicates it was a deliberate attempt by Nee to move the suspicion away from himself. We are to think that if he were involved, he would not be mistaken on such a basic fact as changing the time of day of the murder to the early morning when it actually occurred a little after nine in the evening. It is an old gangster trick one that usually comes a cropper.

The Mafia theory claimed they wanted Donald murdered because the war in South Boston was making things more difficult for them. That makes no sense. Things happening in South Boston rarely affected the North End. They weren’t involved with the Killeens or the Mullens.  Plus, with the amounts of murder the Mafia was doing, one or two in South Boston would hardly be noticed by them.

Martorano has it that Donald got a telephone call, told his wife he had to buy a newspaper, and went outside to his 1971 Chevrolet Nova. Neither the wife or father-in-law mentioned anything about a telephone call. Who leaves a party Saturday night after 9:00 p.m. to buy a newspaper? Martorano then has the Mullens charging the car.

Steve Flemmi, in his debriefing, said that he learned from his partner, Whitey Bulger, that Tommy King, Paul McGonagle, Jimmy “the Weasel” Mantville, and a name redacted, most likely that of Pat Nee, murdered Donald. I would suggest that is probably right. These guys like to travel in packs. It was probably the same crew that murdered Billy O’Sullivan.

Let us set the scene. Donald is in his house with his wife, father-in-law and three young kids a little after 9:00 p.m. They had a birthday party for Greg who turned four. He went out of the house at that time telling his wife he had to go to the car. What was it that made it so critical to go to the car at that moment?

I suggest he was going to the car to get his .38 caliber gun which he felt he had to do right away. It must have been that he noticed something outside the house which spooked him. He needed his gun for protection. There is no other reason that makes sense. He had the time to get into his car, reach into the glove compartment, and take the gun out. He did not have enough time to use it. Whoever he noticed outside moved in on him as he was bringing the gun into his possession.

John Martorano wrote that Whitey came to him in the spring of 1972 at Duffy’s Tavern in the South End as I mentioned earlier. It was more likely in the fall as Pat Nee remembers. The loss of Donald Killeen’s backing had to make Whitey feel more vulnerable. A report by the Boston Globe’s John F. Cullen indicate that weeks after the slaying of Donald Killeen, the North End forced the two sides into negotiating a truce but it seems unlikely that the Mafia cared as I said.

Martorano said he did not know Whitey prior to this meeting. He knew he was from South Boston but said: “I hadn’t really been following what was going over there in Southie, none of us had.” That sort of eliminates the theory that the Mafia was worried about it. He said Whitey was looking for him to set up a meeting with Howie Winter, the head of the Winter Hill gang. Martorano said he “must have thought things weren’t going well” which was probably one of the few true statements Martorano has made.

Much of what Martorano suggests should be taken with a grain of salt. Others have it that Whitey went to Joe Russo a Mafia guy to arrange to meet Howie Winter. Martorano picked up most of his talk about other people from strangers who make up their own stories.

Donald Killeen’s murder was instrumental in bringing an end to the Killeen operation. Kevin Killeen would get out of the business in September 1973 a short time after shots were fired at him. The Globe’s John F. Cullin reported on July 5, 1973, that “the Mullens (sic) and Killeen gangs, warring openly for more than 18 months, accepted a compromise four weeks ago calling for an immediate consolidation of all their illegal activities.” The organized crime groups after 1973 in South Boston were the Winter Hill/Whitey Bulger group on one side and the Mullens on the other.

This brought an end to any Irish gang wars. The Killeen/Mullen battles caused two deaths. Those were Billy O’Sullivan and Donald Killeen. Hardly was it a significant gang war. It took place in a small section of the city.  One less death occurred in it than the number of deaths as the Somerville gang/McLaughlin gang wars. The total deaths from the Irish fighting against the Irish was five. It is plainly wrong to suggest that these hundred or so deaths were an Irish gang war.