The Blood-Soaked Story Of Mickey Featherstone, The Irish Mob Hitman Who Would Kill At The Drop Of A Hat

Functioning in Hell’s Kitchen area in the 1970s and ’80s, Francis “Mickey” Featherstone was 1 of the most feared hitmen in the Irish American mob.

Mickey Featherstone was second-in-command to Jimmy Coonan chief of the Westies, an really violent Irish mob that operated in Hell’s Kitchen area, Manhattan, in the 1970s and 1980s. Legislation enforcement attributed at the very least 30 unsolved murders to the gang — and the innocuous-on the lookout Mickey Featherstone was recognized as one of their most vicious and unhinged customers.

Investigations and convictions of Westies members turned more and more difficult due to the fact prospective witnesses were terrified of the crew and their willingness to swiftly destroy any one who crossed them. By the late 1970s, the Westies experienced grow to be an enforcement arm of the Gambino loved ones carrying out assigned executions and sharing in weekly earnings.

But the Westies’ downfall would arrive from their internal sanctum when Featherstone was framed for the murder of Michael Holly by Coonan in 1985. Wrongfully convicted of murder, Featherstone sought to clear his name getting a governing administration witness. No a single could’ve predicted that Featherstone, perhaps the gang’s most violent and dedicated member, would be the one to put an conclude to the Irish mob in Manhattan when and for all.

Youthful Mickey Featherstone Raises Hell In Hell’s Kitchen area

Francis “Mickey” Featherstone was born on West 43rd avenue on Sept. 2, 1948. At 17, Featherstone lied about his age, and joined the military with goals of turning into a Environmentally friendly Beret according to The New York Moments. Featherstone excelled in coaching and joined the special forces, but was unhappy to provide as a stock clerk though other recruits noticed fight.

Significantly drunk, Featherstone was disciplined by the armed forces for various functions of prison mischief, and just after only a year, saying to experience from hallucinations, was medically discharged in 1967.

Featherstone, again in Hell’s Kitchen, quickly located himself associated in extra major types of felony mischief. In community saloons, Featherstone’s paranoia and violence retained tempo with his degree of inebriation, but he largely managed to evade repercussions for his violent escapades.

For illustration, Featherstone received probation for shooting a guy in the arm, and when he killed a male outside the house a bar in 1971, Featherstone defeat the rap with an madness plea. His maniacal conduct also saw Featherstone spending components of the early 1970s in various psychological hospitals.

Produced to the streets of Hell’s Kitchen area in 1975, Featherstone, shaped an association with a different feared gangster, Jimmy Coonan, a stone-cold killer with a fierce popularity. Featherstone, inspite of standing 5’7 with huge blue eyes, shaggy blonde hair, and a boyish deal with, shortly formulated a killer’s track record.

His mood was infamous — and if alcoholic beverages was concerned it ordinarily finished in violence. Lots of individuals mistakenly underestimated Featherstone, producing him even more perilous. People who knew Featherstone in the community normally crossed the street when they saw him coming their way. After all, Featherstone had killed adult males in neighborhood bars in front of witnesses multiple instances and beat the prices.

Featherstone’s Rise In The Westies

In the mid 1970s, Coonan’s Westies seized command of organized criminal offense from predominant West Facet gang leader, Mickey Spillane. The Westies only numbered all over 15 Irish American psychopaths, nonetheless grew to become the dominant felony force in Hell’s Kitchen. Coonan favored what he experienced observed from Featherstone, and recruited him as second in command, all when the Westies upped the violence, leaving at the rear of a string of frequently dismembered corpses.

In Could 1977, Jimmy Coonan owed a sizeable sum of revenue to bank loan shark Ruby Stein — and made the decision to forgive his individual financial debt by murdering Stein. Westie members murdered and dismembered him in the back again of Coonans bar, then threw his remains in the Hudson River. When Stein’s torso washed up a couple times later on, a member of the gang was overheard indicating “we really should have slice the lungs open” according to the Connected Push.

The Westies reign of terror was largely built on the again of Featherstone’s ferocious standing. When an individual laid eyes on him in man or woman the reaction was ordinarily disbelief, with his violent notoriety disproportionate to his compact actual physical stature.

The Westies’ Bloody Alliance With The Gambino Family

The ruthless reputation of the gang came to the detect of the Gambino family members, and boss Paul Castellano, who summoned Coonan and Featherstone to a sit down in a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn restaurant in 1978.

Chastising them for murdering two crucial Mafia mortgage sharks in Manhattan, Castellano advised Coonan the Westies should pay out the relatives 10 percent from all illegal proceeds — and in convert, the Gambinos would finance the Westies’ loansharking procedure. The Westies, now officially “on record” with the Italian American mob, had been permitted to use the Gambino title and name, and construction income would be shared, such as the forthcoming Jacob Javits Convention Middle. The Westies would also carry out some of the Gambino family’s most grotesque filthy operate.

In the early 1980s, Featherstone spent intervals of time in psychological hospitals, before returning to the Westies. By the mid 1980’s, Featherstone was persuaded that Coonan, living in New Jersey, had bought the community out to the Mafia, and lousy blood festered. Then in 1985, Coonan, fearing a energy seize by Featherstone, set him up to consider a tumble for murder.

Mickey Featherstone Is Framed For Murder

On March 25, 1977, Westie John Bokun was shot dead by law enforcement soon after an argument with one more Hell’s Kitchen area resident, Michael Holly. Coonan held Holly dependable for Bokun’s death, but his murder was consistently set off above the many years. But now, Coonan realized he could get rid of two birds with 1 stone. On April 25, 1985, Billy Bokun (John Bokun’s brother), donning a wig to search like Featherstone, approached Holly on a crowded avenue and killed him, firing five bullets into his back.

The adhering to working day, Featherstone was arrested and sooner or later charged with Holly’s murder — one of the number of murders he, ironically, didn’t commit. Featherstone was joined by two eyewitnesses, as very well as circumstantial proof, as the car or truck driven by the shooter was traced to the trucking company wherever Featherstone was utilized. In April 1986, Featherstone was convicted of Holly’s murder and sentenced to 25 a long time to daily life in prison.

Featherstone concluded that Coonan and other Westies customers experienced set him up for Holly’s murder. The shooter, Featherstone figured out, was Billy Bokun. In the meantime, the District Attorney’s workplace agreed to do the job with Featherstone’s wife to get hold of evidence confirming Featherstone’s claims. She was equipped to file Bokun describing the shooting of Michael Holly when donning a wig as Featherstone.

With this proof, Featherstone’s conviction was overturned in September 1986 according to The Countrywide Registry Of Exonerations, and Featherstone agreed to turn into an informant.

In 1988, simply because of Featherstone’s testimony, 8 of the gang’s customers were being in the long run convicted of racketeering and other offenses associated to their participation in a RICO felony company — with Coonan himself obtaining 75 many years in jail.

Following properly destroying the Irish mob in Manhattan, 38-calendar year-previous Mickey Featherstone entered the witness security method, and has lived entirely underneath the radar at any time considering that.

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Right after understanding about Mickey Featherstone, read how Irish mobster Danny Greene took on the Cleveland Mafia. Then learn about Jewish mob manager Mickey Cohen.