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.