Hey guys!
Thanks for the questions and the support!
Thanks for posting. If you're still on here how about a little info on the nuts and bolts of putting a book like this together?
I have always been a pretty frequent Freedom of Information requester. A little more than five years ago, I received a bunch of files on the old waterfront gangs. I was amazed by some of the information they contained, especially about Eddie McGrath and John “Cockeye” Dunn. For example, there was a large gang war that I have never seen documented; dozens of unsolved murders; and a bunch of gangsters, with really interesting back stories, who I had never heard of.
It occurred to me that despite there being a lot of information about Owney Madden and the Westies, there was nothing written about the time between those forty years. I started requesting more specific documents, gathering information from the archives, searching old newspapers, and ordering various trial transcripts. One thing leads to another and you keep digging. After half a decade, I realized that I had so much information that I should do something more meaningful with it. I wrote the book, started submitting it to publishers, and now here we are!
Eddie McGrath weaves the narrative together, as he was in charge for so many years, but the book is really a history of the West Side waterfront and the Irish Mob. I tried to make it as comprehensive as possible, so the book also includes charts, maps etc.
I was just looking at this book.
I never heard of McGrath before. I was researching him a little and his date of death seems to be unknown.
Can you tell me when he wound up dying in Florida?
McGrath and Dunn were really the top gangsters in the Irish areas of the West Side (ie. West Greenwich, Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen). The book traces their rise to power, their control over the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), and their eventual downfall.
The majority of the story takes place between 1935 and 1955, but McGrath actually held on to power for a very long time. After his “retirement” to Florida, he left various associates in charge of his New York rackets (ie. Hughie Mulligan, Henry “Buster” Bell and Connie Noonan). He was heavily involved in union matters and bookmaking, and he remained the de facto boss of the Irish Mob until he started to withdraw himself in the late 1960s.
Despite attempting to remove himself from the picture, he was still consulted on many matters concerning the waterfront because of the ties that he had to the leadership of the ILA (particularly Teddy Gleason). Another reason for his continued involvement was due to his extremely close friendship with Jimmy Alo, whom he had met while working for Joey Rao during Prohibition. McGrath had a lot of interactions with the mafia (especially the Genovese), and these are all covered in the book.
McGrath died in 1994 in Miami. He and Alo reportedly remained golfing buddies well into their old age, which given the world that they operated in I think that it is about as successful as you can get.
If there are any other questions, feel free!
Take care!
