In the bars of Hell's Kitchen you will often hear old timers talk with real affection for Mickey Spillane.

Eddie McGrath had real pull and back in the day an iron grip on the ILA before fleeing to Florida in 1959 due to the heat coming down on him after two of his close associates were executed for murders committed to enforce their grip on the waterfront.

Mickey Spillane was a numbers man, nightclub ownwer and of course the west side of Manhattan was a lucrative turf, always has been and still is. Pushing coke on the Upper East side is still big business and still done by guys with connections to the west side, everyone knows that.

Now back to the 70's. We know Mickey Spillane knew Fat Tony Salerno well. We also know that Mickey Spillane filled his breadbasket with cabbage made from kidnappings from time to time and even organised a few himself. The main reason the Ginnies put up with this is cos they could never pin it to him but they tolerated him and Mickey Spillane had a good relationship with John Sullivan and Fat Tony at one time. The biggest mistake was pissing Coonan off by kidnapping his old man and throwing him a beating.

But I don't want to dwell on that. Something went wrong between Mickey Spillane and John Sullivan. Certainly the Javits Convention Centre became a big bone of contention and Mickey Spillane flat out refused to allow Fat Tony to intrude upon turf which Mickey Spillane felt belonged to him. I mean, his marriage into the McManus family sealed his grip on the west side and boosted his status in Hell's Kitchen.

But why did Mickey Spillane in the middle of a turf war with Coonan during which Eddie Cummiskey was playing both sides decide to piss Fat Tony off and in the process practically wage an open turf war with the biggest crime family in New York?

We all know what happened after and Mickey Spillane over-estimated his right to control what he considered his territory.

Mickey Spillane was willing to go to war with Fat Tony if necessary even though he already had a big slice of the New York Coliseum and Madison Square Garden projects.

Mickey Spillane could have come to an agreement with Fat Tony surely? Was it Tom Devaney who persuaded him to stand his ground? And why was Mickey Spillane so willing to have such a confrontation when he already had the Coonan faction to contend with?

Instead Mickey Spillane and Tom Devaney decided to piss off the Genovese family big time and as we all know this paved the way for Coonan to eventually come to an agreement with the Gambinos despite the fact that he was once a target for Fat Tony himself. And as a result Fat Tony was a target for Coonan. Both were lucky to come through that era alive.

The big question is why did Mickey Spillane make the choice to go to war with Fat Tony or is there any truth in the rumour that John Sullivan gave him full assurance that Fat Tony had decided to back off?

Either way Mickey Spillane was a monumental figure and a real old school gangster. Perhaps even one of the last. Any thoughts or memories of this era would be much appreciated especially from the more informed posters on this forum. Thanks.

I dont think he planned on goin to war with the mafia.he prolly thought theyd respect his choice take tgere little kickback n leave him be.i dont think coonan woulda hit fat tony either.he wanted to be hooked up with the mob

Eddie Maloney was the guy who was shot by Philly cestaro in the cozy corner , the gambino hangout . He was shot 8 times and survived , he wrote a book called tough guy

Yeah I know about Eddie but focused on Mickey Spillane in my original post. I just wondered why he got shot. Was it cos of his role in the grabs? Cos he felt Gotti and his crew never had him down as part of that crew so I just wondered if Eddie just pissed too many guys off cos the way I hear it he was a brash and surly kinda guy.

He was close pals to James McBratney who was a very tough guy and pretty smart for an Irish shmuck. He knew he was waiting for that final deliberation of a trigger pull but like most Irish crooks he couldn't give two fecks.

Downfall of the Irish is they can never stay away from a bar for too long so unlike the Ginnies we ain't exactly the hardest guys to track down

He was a drinking buddy of my Uncle actually when he first moved from Ireland and briefly lived on west 46th street near McHales which was owned by a family with a long history on the west side.

Great bar, was used for that scene in Sleepers where that creep got shot by that character who was based on Richie Ryan who died young due to hard living in HK as did Jackie Coonan who had a great sense of humour according to those that knew him.

Remember a story about some Irish muscle accompanying some Ginnies on a haul that was all set up for them. All they had to do was wait outside and act as muscle if the guy who owned the joint returned with his crew but when the Italians came out the Irish guys had five guys pinned to the wall and swagged each one of their wallets.

Why the fuck you do that? the Italian guy says. The Irish guy replied "We got bored, we're in it for the action, you guys are boring, everything just comes to you on a plate .".

That's probably why the Irish were so into the kidnappings and bank scores. They loved the action. The Canadians were the same the West End crew were the most professional bank robbers in Canada even the Cops respected them for their expertise.

In the 20th Century most of the biggest bank scores were done by the Irish. First thing the IRA done when they brokered the peace was the northern bank robbery which had been planned for years.

I often laugh when people underestimate the Irish as small time. Whitey, scumbag as he may have been used this to his advantage. Reality is the Irish were much more organised than many on this forum will ever really know. I mean, I know a second story guy who became a millionaire through investing in property and none of the connections, sons, cousins or whatever you wanna call em they ain't the Westies but the're making one hell of a living and still have a big role in construction (as do the Italians).

He knew Fat Tony and he knew John Sullivan. But like you say Tommy he must have over-estimated his weight cos when it came down to the showdown the most vicious killer in his own crew had switched to Coonan and when Tom DeVaney got popped he was left with no choice but to reach out to Eddie who either flat out refused to help or genuinely didn't know why the Ginnies had decided to encroach on Mickey's terrain.

Basically Mickey misjudged Fat Tony just as he underestimated Coonan. But he certainly had balls and is fondly remembered by the old timers. Bring Coonan, Sullivan and Featherstone into the mix and you may even end up with a good old Irish brawl as those wounds run deep, even to this day. but that's a whole other topic .

did you know whitey smith

When coonan shot at him with a machine gun from a rooftop, I thought coonan was still just an up and coming street hood, but still basically a nobody?

I never got why spillane didn't just have him hit?