Summary

Aquí está la saga verdadera e impactante de los irlandeses americanos, desde mediados del siglo 19 hasta el día de hoy. La historia demuestra que la herencia del gángster americano irlandés fue establecida en América mucho antes que del mafioso americano italiano más extensamente retratado. De hecho, la lista histórica del crimen organizado, no la encabeza un rey latino, o un jefe de una banda sangrienta, sino un jefe al viejo estilo americano irlandés de esos inmigrantes en el sur de Boston. El autor y experto en crimen organizado, recupera casi dos siglos de gangsterismo americano irlandés que forjaron caracteres como Mike "rey Mike" McDonald, padrino de Chicago; Big Bill Dwyer, mafioso de Nueva York durante la prohibición; Mickey Featherstone, y James "Whitey" Bulger.

Introduction	p. 1
Birth of the Underwords
Blood at the Root	p. 13
Old Smoke Riseth
The First Irish Mob Boss
Gangs, Gangsters, and the Women Who Love Them
"Hurrah for Big Tim!"
A Perfect Hell on Earth	p. 43
Shamrocks, Shillelaghs, and Yellow Fever
Gambling Men, Wharf Rats, and Ladies of Ill Repute
The Policeman as "Gangster"
"Who Killa de Chief?"
Up from Mud City	p. 71
See Mike
The Man Behind the Man
Dawn of the Irish Political Boss
The First Ward Ball
Chicago Gambling Wars
Delirium Tremens Or New Clothes on an Old Dame	p. 105
King of the Rum Runners
Owney the Killer
When New York Was Really Irish
Diamond in the Rough
The Dagos vs. The Micks	p. 137
The Merry Prankster
Kingdom of the Gangs
Big Al's Better Half
Who Killed McSwiggin and Why?
Gunning for Bugs
Requiem for A Mad Dog	p. 171
"Come and Get Me, Coppers!"
Happy Days and Lonely Nights
With Friends like These...
Playing at a Theater Near You
The Smoke-Filled Room and Other Tales of Political Malfeasance	p. 199
Revenge of the Goo Goos
Kansas City Stomp
Fall of the House of Pendergast
Reform
A Long Way from Eipperary
Hard Hats & Hard Men	p. 229
King of the Dock Wallopers
You Push, We Shove
Cockeye and Squint Get the Chair
The Waterfront Commission
Corridan's Legacy
The Patriarch	p. 259
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Whiskey Baron
The Friends of Joe Kennedy
All the Way with J.F.K.
The Kennedy Double Cross
Death to Giovanni
Irish vs. Irish	p. 291
Running with the Mullin Gang
Boston Gang Wars, Part I
Boston Gang Wars, Part II
Whitey Makes His Move
I Left My Heart in Hell's Kitchen	p. 325
Death and Taxes
Back from Vietnam
Mad Dog Redux
The Wild, Wild Westies
Last of the Gentleman Gangsters
Last Call at the Celtic Club	p. 357
The Legend of Danny Greene
Live by the Bomb, Die by the Bomb
The Informer
Mickey's Monkey	p. 385
Sissy and Edna
In the Realm of the Westies
The Return of Jimmy C.
Settling Old Scores
Southie Serenade: Whitey on the Run	p. 411
Shadow of the Shamrock
The Bulger Mystique
The Last Hurrah
Old Bones and Shallow Graves
Epilogue	p. 437
Sources	p. 443
Acknowledgments	p. 453
Index	p. 455
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Excerpts

Paddy Whacked
The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster

Chapter One

Blood at the Root

John Morrissey was a young ruffian -- a teenage, Irish punk with no job, no money, and few possessions other than the clothes on his back. The year was 1849, and Morrissey had just arrived in New York City from the upstate town of Troy, where he had been raised after moving from Ireland with his parents at the age of three. In Troy, Morrissey developed a reputation as a brawler and a troublemaker. He'd been indicted for burglary, assault, and assault with intent to kill; served a sixty-day stint in the county jail; and was under constant harassment from local authorities. They said eighteen-year-old Morrissey was a gangster, but the young man knew in his heart that his ambitions were too great for that two-horse town. And so, possessing a restless energy that could not be contained in the placid, confined roads of small-town America, he set out for the great metropolis 160 miles to the south, where pilgrims, immigrants, and refugees were presently arriving in droves.

Morrissey knew exactly where he needed to go: the Empire Club, a gambling parlor and political clubhouse that was famous throughout the state. Located on Park Row in lower Manhattan, the club was the home base of Captain Isaiah Rynders, legendary sporting man, gambling impresario, and political fixer for the Democratic party. Rynders was the employer of hundreds of political operatives, gambling club workers, saloon keepers, and gangsters; his organization was at the heart of a political machine that made the great city hum. Morrissey -- hungry, hard-headed, and propelled by the desires of youth -- was determined to harness the power of Rynders's organization to raise himself out of the ghetto and make his mark in the world.

He arrived at the Empire Club on one June afternoon, stood overlooking the gaming tables and declared, "I'm here to say I can lick any man in this place."

Captain Rynders himself, presiding at a gaming table, looked up at the intrepid young man -- five-foot-eleven inches tall, maybe 175 pounds, with a barrel chest and hands the size of meat hooks; impressive, yes, but not so imposing that he could intimidate with sheer physical presence alone.

"And who might you be?" Rynders asked the young Irishman.

"My name is John Morrissey, and I'm the toughest pugilist on the eastern seaboard. I'm here to prove it."

Rynders pursed his lips in an enigmatic Mona Lisa-smile for which he was famous and glanced around at his fellow club members. He assessed the brash youngster, looking him over from head to toe, then nodded for his underlings to advance. They descended upon the young punk with fists, bottles, chairs, slung shots, and other weapons. Morrissey more than held his own until Big Tom Burns smacked him behind the ear with a spittoon, knocking the young hooligan unconscious.

When Morrissey awoke he was laying on a cot in the back of the Empire Club with a knot the size of an acorn on the crown of his skull. Captain Rynders, dressed in finery the likes of which Morrissey had never seen before, stood over the bruiser and said, "You're a bold, young bastard."

Morrissey felt the lump on his head and said nothing.

"I want you to come work for me. You'll make a fine shoulder-hitter for the organization. You can stay at my boarding house and work the docks."

And so began the political career of young John Morrissey.

He was put to work as an immigrant runner, one of hundreds who worked Castle Garden wharf in lower Manhattan, where the immigrant ships disgorged their human cargo. Each day he watched the arrival of his countrymen, and his heart ached at what he saw.

Having been born in Templemore, County Tipperary in 1831 and raised in an Irish slum in America, Morrissey knew a thing or two about poverty. In Troy, whenever his father was able to find work, it had been at the local wallpaper factory or on the docks alongside other Irish laborers. Young John had grown up believing his family was dirt poor, but what he saw at Castle Garden made him reassess his circumstances. Gaunt, haunted Irish peasants arrived by the boatload, weak from dropsy and gout, clinging to satchels that contained all that they owned. They told shocking tales of the Great Famine that had ravaged the Old Country over the last few years and of the horrific, disease-ridden journey across the ocean in hopes of a better future.

It was Morrissey's job to greet these new arrivals and direct them to soup kitchens and boarding houses controlled by the Rynders organization. Mixed in among the many legitimate immigrant runners were dozens of con artists and "land sharks," men who preyed upon the ignorant new arrivals. Later accounts of the era often characterized the job of the immigrant runner as that of a parasite, which may have been a bit harsh. Certainly the position straddled the line between charity and exploitation. Among runners, Morrissey developed a reputation as a tough though fair man who directed hundreds of desperate immigrants to food and lodging. In exchange, they signed voter cards and pledged their support to the political organization that Morrissey represented. On election day, it was Morrissey's job to see that these people delivered on their pledge -- under the threat of violence, if necessary.

Along with tens of thousands of other Irish immigrants arriving in New York City on a monthly basis, Morrissey found lodging in Five Points, the infamous slum neighborhood that dominated the Sixth Ward at the lower tip of Manhattan island. For a time, he lived in a boarding house on Cherry Street and frequented a grog shop, or speakeasy, on lower Broadway known as the Gem Saloon.

Five Points was a lively area though the physical conditions of the district were awful. Laid out on top of what had once been a sewage pond known as the Collect, Five Points had evolved ...

Paddy Whacked
The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. Copyright © by T. English. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Excerpted from Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster by T. J. English
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