Cookie Notice After DeSantis pushed a last-minute repeal of the company's prized status through the legislature, he romped to . April 28 (UPI) -- A bear stuck in a Nevada tree was rescued by wildlife officials and firefighters who tranquilized the bruin and then caught the large animal in a tarp. He also said he'd been ordered to carry out the murder in a wig, which he believed was meant to make him look like Mickey. Public DomainJimmy Coonan, the ruthless leader of the Westies in the 1970s. He spent periods of time back in a mental hospital, but always returned to involvement with the Westies. The Westies by T. J. English - Audiobook - Audible.com Grasping defeat from the jaws of victory. [4] He pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge and received a suspended sentence of five years' probation from Judge Robert W. Sweet due to his cooperation with the authorities. Federal officials said Friday that Mr. Featherstone was released from custody on Dec. 23, two days after he was given probation on a racketeering charge involving the Westies, a gang that. Neil Patmore is a former police officer, and private investigator. The District Attorneys office agreed to work with Featherstones wife, Sissy Featherstone, to see if they could obtain evidence confirming Featherstones claims. According to The National Registry of Exonerations, Francis "Mickey" Featherstone was a member of the violent Irish organized crime gang known as the Westies, who sought power in the underworld of New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood from the 1960s to the late '80s. Mr. Featherstone also provided information in other investigations, and testified in the continuing trial of several men accused of committing murders and other racketeering acts as part of the Gambino crime family. Mickey Featherstone : r/Mafia - Reddit Authorities said Leone was a loanshark and a bookie who created no-show jobs and took kickbacks from dockworkers on the Hudson River piers that border the Irish gang's territory in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan's West Side. It was founded in 2012 in conjunction with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. April 28 (UPI) -- Animal services officers in South Carolina responded to a home where a resident was shocked to find an alligator in his garage. After deciding to cooperate with the authorities, Mr. Featherstone pleaded guilty to a Federal racketeering charge, admitting his participation in four murders, five murder conspiracies and additional acts of loan-sharking, drug dealing and other crimes. Morgenthau said they were among the top hitmen in the gang. They not only kill people they dismember them,' he said. Shes the 2nd from the right, looks just like him. Author T.J.. April 28 (UPI) -- A South Carolina woman won a $300,000 prize from a scratch-off lottery ticket just three years after winning a $250,000 lottery jackpot. Sissy Featherstone had regular interactions with Billy Bokun, and she was able to record Bokun describing the shooting of Michael Holly while wearing a wig, as well as expressing his belief that Kevin Kelly had asked him to wear the wig in order to eliminate Featherstone as a competitor for power within the Westies. Featherstone committed several mob killings before he was convicted in 1986 of a murder he had not committed. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Mickey nolonger has bad nightmares and is FULLY RECOVERED and states his past is a blur. The Westies: Inside the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob - amazon.com 501 1/2 43rd St. Mickey Featherstone, one of the most-feared Westies who had committed multiple murders before he even got into the gang, was raised in this building with nine brothers and sisters. In the mid-1970s, these two longtime friends take the reins of New York's Irish mob, using brute force to give it hitherto unthinkable power. [1] He spent time in a series of mental hospitals, being released in 1975. [1] He served in the Vietnam War as member of the Green Berets aged just 17 after lying about his age. Judge Sweet, noting that Mr. Featherstone had already served the equivalent of a five-year sentence on a murder charge that was later dismissed, said the probation on the racketeering charge included conditions that the defendant take part in counseling and rehabilitation programs. ''These conditions are imposed to protect you from a psychiatric breakdown and any resulting harm to the community in which you will live. Mickey looks like a piece of shit, as always. . Mickey Featherstone was second-in-command to Jimmy Coonan, leader of the Westies, an extremely violent Irish mob that operated in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, in the 1970s and 1980s. Mickey knew he'd been framed, and was able to convince the police to let him prove it. He would act out frequently while in the hospitals, leading to him being restrained and injected with thorazine. DeSantis may have overreached when he went to war with Disney, and Until his release last week, Mr. Featherstone had been held in custody on his racketeering charge and for a parole violation involving his earlier conviction in a counterfeiting case. In the criminal underworld, trust is a slippery commodity. TwitterFrancis T. Mickey Featherstone was a member of the Irish mob until he was framed for a murder he didnt commit and turned informant. Francis T. Featherstone - National Registry of Exonerations Pre 1989 Wrongfully convicted of murder, Featherstone sought to clear his name by becoming a government witness. Featherstone's penchant for violence and intimidation caught the eye of Coonan and Featherstone became Coonan's right-hand man by 1976. That isnt her daughter, its her neice. The Walt Disney Co. on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in federal court against Florida Gov. He was charged with three murders over the years, but was always able to get acquitted after pleading insanity. Led by Jimmy Coonan and, From an introduction made by his long time friend Tom Sheer, Joe Poletto was introduced to Art Ruffles, special agent in charge of the FBIs organized crime unit in charge of the Gambino, DeMeo and Westies cases. In 1977, a Westies member named John Bokun was shot and killed, and the Westies attributed this killing to Michael Holly, who moved out of town immediately after Bokuns death. The title should be changed to 'The True Crime Classic About Mickey Featherstone's Time As Part Of New York's Notorious Irish Mob'. At first, it appeared that he had won. and our As a freelance writer, he spends his time writing about true crime. Yet to those closest to him, Mickey was kind, devoted and generous to a fault. Featherstone and Coonan had a falling out over the latter's alliance with the Gambino crime family, which Featherstone saw as a betrayal of all the Irish-Americans in Hell's Kitchen. Some of the loons that the boards attract never cease to amaze me. Ron DeSantis for assailing Disney, which employees tens of thousands of their constituents, just to court MAGA voters. Back in Hells Kitchen, Featherstone soon found himself involved in more serious forms of criminal mischief. 'They shared in the proceeds of gambling and loansharking on the West Side and they also have been used as hired guns for the Gambino family,' he said. [2] Featherstone did time in the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield Missouri on the psychiatric ward in 1982. THE LORD'S OF HELL'S KITCHEN - The New York Times It's men like Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone who gave Hell's Kitchen its name. After his conviction was overturned, he struck a deal with the authorities to inform on his own organization. His maniacal behavior also saw Featherstone spending parts of the early 1970s in various mental hospitals. District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said the gang was linked with the Gambino crime family, New York's strongest Mafia group, and served as 'hired guns' for the Gambinos, whose reputed leader, John Gotti, is standing trial in Brooklyn. Anonymous. It finally happened folks and it was a blast! The following day, Featherstone was arrested and eventually charged with Hollys murder one of the few murders he, ironically, didnt commit. us about an exoneration that we may have missed, Correct an error or add information about an exoneration
Mr. Featherstone indeed served in Vietnam - as a stock clerk. The End of The Westies - The Irish Mob McElroy and Bokun are in jail charged with other killings. There were witnesses to the shooting, all of whom described the shooter as a man fitting Featherstones description. The ruthless reputation of the gang came to the notice of the Gambino family, and boss Paul Castellano, who summoned Coonan and Featherstone to a meeting in a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn restaurant in 1978. /r/Mafia features stories, interviews, documentary and news articles about organized crime around the world. [5], "Books of The Times; The Rise and Fall of a Thoroughly Vicious Gang", "New York Stories: Hell's Kitchen Killers", "Admitted Westies Killer Who Informed Is Free", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mickey_Featherstone&oldid=1082198232, This page was last edited on 11 April 2022, at 21:33. Thanks to everyone who came out, we had a fantastic time. She said the Government explained the scope and value of his cooperation, along with the severity of his offense. Mickey Featherstone, a short, slight 38-year-old with a blond mop and an almost-adolescent expression, had been charged with at least three other murders during the previous 17 years, but he was . Mickey Featherstones Oldest Son Was in Kuwait before 9/11 and is now married to a School Teacher, His 2nd son Just received a Medal of Bravery from the armey his oldest daughter is married and has her own business and his youngest daughter is in college on a Athletic Schollarship. An unhinged man with a hot temper and a hair trigger, Mickey Featherstone was known to kill for little to no reason at all. The Westies : Inside New York's Irish Mob - Google Books Nevertheless, his temper was infamous and if alcohol was involved, he was especially prone to violence. The three, James McElroy, 36, William Bokun, 29, and Kevin Kelly, 31, allegedly killed Leone in Guttenberg, N.J., on Feb. 11, 1984. 2 mo. [4] Mickey Spillane, the mob leader in Hell's Kitchen at the time, was shot five times outside his apartment in August 1977, and Featherstone was arrested but acquitted for his killing. Disney sues Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over control of Reedy Creek The evidence seemed overwhelming, and the next day Featherstone was booked. Facing almost 25 years in jail, he became an informant and brought down Coonan's gang. Anyone can read what you share. He has to be up there in age, 58 maybe, 60 maybe? In the mid-1970s, Coonans Westies seized control of organized crime from predominant West Side gang leader, Mickey Spillane. Featherstone returned with a rifle and shot one of the brothers John Riley in the arm, for which he was arrested and probationed. I would say unlikely. The became hired killers in the 1970s, authorities said. How feared was Mickey Featherstonereally? Thank you for helping to keep the podcast database up to date. Joey and Friend David Rafeli Owner/CEO at Rafaeli's Cigars. Asked if she was a member of the Westies, he responded, 'She's hardly a member of anything at all.'. Then in April 1985, he was shot and killed on a New York City street by a man using a silencer. Judge Sweet said at the sentencing of Mr. Featherstone that the sentence involved an effort to balance ''a violent past, a redemptive present and an uncertain future. Any word on Mickey Featherstone? : r/Mafia - Reddit Law enforcement attributed at least 30 unsolved murders to the gang and the innocuous-looking Mickey Featherstone was recognized as one of their most vicious members. [2] He had blond hair and was often said to be baby-faced. Chastising them for murdering two important Mafia loan sharks in Manhattan, Castellano told Coonan the Westies should pay the family 10 percent from all of their illegal proceeds and in turn, the Gambinos would finance the Westies loansharking operation. It's men like Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone who gave Hell's Kitchen its name. When someone laid eyes on him in person the reaction was usually disbelief, with his violent notoriety disproportionate to his small physical stature. on our list, Other
Join. British man breaks world record with 17 flesh tunnels on his face. Admitted Westies Killer Who Informed Is Free, https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/01/nyregion/admitted-westies-killer-who-informed-is-free.html. On April 25, 1985, Billy Bokun (John Bokuns brother), wearing a wig to look like Featherstone, approached Holly on a crowded street and killed him, firing five bullets into his back. The DEA ranks him as one of the top 10 drug traffickers in US history. The Registry also maintains a more limited database of known exonerations prior to 1989. Well never sell your personal information. The website is updated daily, frequently with exonerations that occurred in the past. Relationships. Increasingly drunk on a regular basis, Featherstone was disciplined by the armed forces for various acts of criminal mischief, and after only a year, claiming to suffer from hallucinations, was medically discharged in 1967. [2] The police suspected him of a series of mob contract killings. [1] He was shocked at receiving his sentence of 25 years in prison, and concluded that he had been framed by his own gang. No one couldve predicted that Featherstone, perhaps the gangs most violent and dedicated member, would be the one to put an end to the Westies, and perhaps the Irish mob in Manhattan, once and for all. Updated: Nov. 17, 2021 Francis T. "Mickey" Featherstone (born September 2, 1948) is a former Irish American mobster and member of the Westies, an organized crime syndicate from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in New York City, led by James Coonan. Because of men like Featherstone, convictions of Westies members became increasingly difficult to secure because potential witnesses were terrified of them and their willingness to swiftly kill anyone who crossed them. After providing the necessary information about the crimes of his fellow Westies, 38-year-old Francis Mickey Featherstone entered the federal witness protection program. Francis T. "Mickey" Featherstone (born September 2, 1948) is a former Irish American mobster and member of the Westies, an organized crime syndicate from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in New York City, led by James Coonan.