The Hell’s Kitchen Irish mob has been the subject of several books and movies throughout the years. In the 1960’s the crew, known as The Westies, grew under gangster Mickey Spillane and was taken over by Jimmy Coogan in 1977. When Paul and I were cops in Midtown North, the legendary gangsters were mostly gone, but a few vestiges of the old crew were still around causing trouble.
Coogan had formed an alliance with the Gambino Crime Family, and used their muscle to take over the Westies, ultimately killing Mickey Spillane and his lieutenants. Coogan bit off a bit more than he could chew in his association with the powerful Italian mob, and eventually the partnership became more of a subservient relationship. But Coogan and his associate Mickey Featherstone were a legendary force in Hell’s Kitchen, and everyone feared them.
The newest portrayal of the Irish Mob is the series, The Westies (2026) from creators Chris Brancato (Narcos) and Michael Panes (Godfather of Harlem). The show takes place in the early 1980’s as the Jacob Javits Convention Center is being built and the Irish and Italian mob are muscling in on the union jobs and contracts that are creating a gangster’s gold mine on the west side.
The show focuses on the tenuous relationship between the Irish and Italian crews, with the Italians looking for Irish connections to the Javits Center, and the Irish just trying to get a piece of the pie and stay alive.
In this series, the names of the Irish hoodlums who ran the Westies have been mostly changed. Gang leader Eamon Sweeney and his lieutenant Jimmy Roarke are composites of Mickey Spillane and Jimmy Coogan, and Mickey Flanagan is a stand in for the unhinged enforcer, Mickey Featherstone. On the Italian side, the names have not been changed, with Paul Castelano and John Gotti running the Gambino’s and ruling over their Irish counterparts.
J.K. Simmons (Whiplash, Juno) is surprisingly good as Eamon Sweeny. It takes a minute to forget his role as the Farmers Insurance spokesman, but he sells the character well. Jimmy Roarke is played by Tom Brittany, who gives the best performance in the series. Mickey Flanagan is played by Stanley Morgan. Titus Welliver plays Police Officer Glenn Keenan, a corrupt cop who has close ties to the Westies. Jessica Frances Dukes plays an FBI Agent heading the investigation into the Westies and has recruited Keenan.
The show tries to bring the audience back to 1980’s Manhattan but fails in this regard. The series was filmed in Toronto, as Hell’s Kitchen has changed so much over the past few decades as to be unrecognizable to the gritty Irish ghetto of the 80’s. The dirty tenements and dilapidated elevated West Side Highway are long gone, replaced by luxury skyscrapers and the new park-lined West Side Drive.
But the series gets most of the rest of the story right. Solid character development, the history of the Gambino’s and Westies, and the rampant corruption surrounding the Javits Center construction are on target.
The show does a great job of portraying the business of organized crime. The Westies were never powerful enough to dominate New York; they were just trying to hold on to their west side outpost. They survived by making themselves useful to La Costa Nostra. This constant balancing act between independence and subservience creates a fascinating strategic chess match. The Irish crew must show enough brutality to command respect but can’t step on the toes of their Italian masters. The Italians know this and often insult the Irish. Sweeney fights to keep his men and their famous Irish tempers in line to keep his alliance alive.
The Westies is three episodes into its run as a series. There is a total of eight episodes in the first season, but whether the show will be renewed for a second season is still up in the air.
Each episode runs about 50 minutes. It is a drama interspersed with scenes of action and violence. The Westies is a political drama set in New York organized crime. You can catch the first episode for free on Amazon Prime and additional episodes can be purchased or watched for free with a subscription to MGM+. Enjoy this look back on the wild west side of Manhattan where bodies were dropping, and the Irish mob ruled the streets.
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