The Westies and the Body Count: Five Murders That Defined the Gang

Every criminal organization leaves behind a body count.

Some murders are committed for revenge. Others eliminate witnesses, settle debts, or send a message. In the underworld, a killing is rarely just a killing. It is communication. Every bullet tells a story. Every victim represents a decision. Every body leaves behind a lesson for those still breathing.

No gang understood that better than the Westies.

Operating from Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen during the 1970s and 1980s, the Westies earned a reputation that far exceeded their relatively small numbers. They lacked the vast hierarchy of New York’s Five Families, but they compensated with something equally effective—an image of ruthless unpredictability. Their willingness to commit spectacular acts of violence made rivals hesitate, witnesses remain silent, and even seasoned Mafia figures treat them with caution.

Yet the murders that built the Westies also destroyed them.

Each killing exposed another weakness inside the organization. Every successful hit created new witnesses, new investigations, and new resentments. By the time federal prosecutors dismantled Jimmy Coonan’s empire, the gang’s greatest weapon had become its greatest liability.

Five murders, in particular, reveal how the Westies operated—and why their reign could never last.

1. Eddie Cummiskey: The Murder That Started a Civil War

Before Jimmy Coonan ruled Hell’s Kitchen, another Irish gangster held considerable influence.

Eddie “The Butcher” Cummiskey controlled gambling, loansharking, and protection rackets throughout much of the neighborhood during the early 1970s. Unlike Coonan, Cummiskey generally preferred making money over attracting unnecessary attention. Violence remained part of his business, but it was usually calculated rather than theatrical.

Jimmy Coonan saw things differently.

Young, ambitious, and eager to dominate Hell’s Kitchen, Coonan viewed Cummiskey not as a mentor but as an obstacle. According to testimony presented during later federal prosecutions, Coonan arranged for Cummiskey’s murder in 1977 with assistance from Roy DeMeo’s Gambino crew.  The assassination fundamentally changed the balance of power.

Coonan immediately emerged as the dominant Irish gangster in Hell’s Kitchen, while the alliance with Roy DeMeo strengthened the relationship between the Westies and the Gambino crime family.

The murder revealed one of the Westies’ defining characteristics.  They were willing to eliminate their own if profit demanded it.  Neighborhood loyalty meant very little when power was available.

2. George Geres: No Informant Was Safe

Few people terrified organized crime more than an informant.  George Geres had become exactly that.

After serving time for narcotics offenses, Geres agreed to cooperate with federal authorities. His information threatened multiple criminal enterprises, making him one of the most dangerous men in New York—not because he carried a gun, but because he carried knowledge.

That knowledge became a death sentence.

In 1978, Geres was murdered after being lured into what he believed was a routine meeting. Federal investigators later concluded that members of Roy DeMeo’s crew, working in concert with Westies associates, carried out the execution.

The message reached every corner of New York’s underworld.  Talking to law enforcement carried consequences.

The Geres murder demonstrated another hallmark of the Westies’ operating philosophy. Their violence extended beyond neighborhood disputes. They willingly participated in Mafia-directed killings when those murders strengthened valuable alliances.

Business outweighed geography.  If Brooklyn needed help eliminating a problem, Hell’s Kitchen could provide it.

3. Thomas Devaney: Violence Without Discipline

Unlike many Mafia organizations, the Westies often struggled to control their own internal conflicts.  Thomas “Tommy” Devaney represented that instability.

A longtime Westies associate, Devaney became entangled in the gang’s growing culture of paranoia and shifting loyalties. By the early 1980s, accusations, personal grudges, and suspicion poisoned relationships throughout the organization.

In criminal enterprises built upon fear, suspicion rarely ends peacefully.

Devaney was ultimately murdered by fellow gang members who viewed him as either unreliable or expendable. Like many organized crime executions, the precise motivations remain debated, but the broader lesson is unmistakable.

The Westies increasingly directed violence inward.  Instead of focusing exclusively on rivals, they began eliminating their own associates.

History repeatedly demonstrates that criminal organizations collapse shortly after internal murders become routine. Trust disappears. Members become preoccupied with self-preservation rather than earning money.  Once paranoia replaces discipline, the organization begins consuming itself.

4. The Pius Family Murders: When Innocence Didn’t Matter

Not every victim in Hell’s Kitchen lived a criminal life.  One of the darkest episodes connected to the Westies involved the murders of members of the Pius family, illustrating how organized crime frequently devastates people with little or no involvement in the underworld.

Although the circumstances surrounding the case remain complex and have been examined through multiple investigations, the tragedy underscored a disturbing reality. Criminal violence rarely remains neatly contained within criminal circles.

Families suffer.  Children lose parents.  Entire neighborhoods inherit fear.

For the Westies, collateral damage became increasingly acceptable as maintaining control grew more important than maintaining public support. Earlier Irish gangs often depended upon neighborhood loyalty and informal protection from local residents. The Westies gradually abandoned that balance.  Fear replaced respect.

Once that transformation occurred, community members became more willing to cooperate with investigators than shield local gangsters.

The organization had begun losing the very neighborhood that once protected it.

5. The Murders That Destroyed Jimmy Coonan

Ironically, the killings that ultimately doomed the Westies were not necessarily their most famous.  They were the cumulative effect of dozens of murders committed over years.  Every homicide produced evidence.  A witness noticed a suspicious vehicle.  Someone remembered an argument.  A bartender overheard the wrong conversation.  A girlfriend learned too much.  A criminal associate began questioning whether loyalty remained worthwhile.

Federal prosecutors excelled at connecting those seemingly unrelated details.

Using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act—better known as RICO—they transformed individual murders into evidence of a continuing criminal enterprise. What once appeared to be isolated acts of violence suddenly revealed a coordinated pattern directed by gang leadership.

Then Mickey Featherstone cooperated.  His testimony connected names to faces, meetings to murders, and rumors to facts.  The wall protecting Jimmy Coonan collapsed because the body count had become impossible to conceal.

Murder as Management

Examining these murders together reveals something important about the Westies.

They did not kill randomly.  Every execution served a purpose.  Some eliminated rivals. `Some rewarded loyalty.  Others punished betrayal.

Still others strengthened relationships with more powerful criminal organizations such as the Gambino family.  Violence became management.

Rather than resolving disputes through negotiation, the Westies frequently relied upon murder to solve nearly every organizational problem. Debt collection, territorial disagreements, suspected informants, leadership challenges, and personal conflicts all received the same solution.

That strategy worked remarkably well—until it didn’t.  The more murders committed, the larger the investigative trail became.

The Difference Between the Mafia and the Westies

The Westies are often compared to the Italian Mafia, but one critical distinction separated the two.  The Mafia generally viewed murder as a business tool.  The Westies often treated it as a business strategy.  That difference mattered enormously.

Traditional Mafia leadership usually understood that excessive violence attracted unwanted law enforcement attention. Although Mafia families committed hundreds of murders throughout the twentieth century, senior bosses frequently preferred bribery, extortion, or intimidation whenever possible.

The Westies embraced a more direct approach.

If someone became a problem, killing him frequently appeared to be the first option rather than the last.  That philosophy built a terrifying reputation but proved disastrous over time.  Federal investigators found it easier to prosecute murder than extortion.

Witnesses were more likely to cooperate after violent crimes than financial crimes.  Every corpse generated another homicide investigation.  Eventually, mathematics replaced mythology.  There were simply too many murders.

The Legacy Written in Blood

Popular culture often remembers the Westies through colorful personalities like Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone. Films, documentaries, and television series frequently portray them as fearless neighborhood gangsters who challenged the Italian Mafia on equal terms.

The truth is considerably darker.  Their legacy is measured less by power than by funerals.

The murders of Eddie Cummiskey, George Geres, Thomas Devaney, innocent victims touched by organized crime, and countless others illustrate how criminal organizations inevitably become prisoners of their own violence. Each killing solved one immediate problem while creating several new ones. Every execution deepened federal investigations, encouraged future informants, and weakened the trust necessary for criminal enterprises to survive.

In the end, the Westies did not collapse because they lacked courage.  They collapsed because they believed murder could solve every problem.  For a few years, it almost did.

Then the bodies became too numerous to ignore, the witnesses too valuable to silence, and the gang too fractured to save itself. The streets of Hell’s Kitchen eventually forgot the gunfire.

The court records never did.

References:

Capeci, Jerry, and Gene Mustain. Murder Machine: A True Story of Murder, Madness, and the Mafia. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

English, T. J. The Westies: Inside New York’s Irish Mob. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990.

Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Vault: Westies. Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Jacobs, James B., Coleen Friel, and Robert Radick. Gotham Unbound: How New York City Was Liberated from the Grip of Organized Crime. New York: New York University Press, 1999.

Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005.

Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. 3rd ed. New York: Facts On File, 2005.

United States v. James Coonan, et al., 938 F.2d 1553 (2d Cir. 1991).