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    Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster
    Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster
    Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster
    Audiobook21 hours

    Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster

    Written by T. J. English

    Narrated by David Colacci

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    About this audiobook

    Here is the shocking true saga of the Irish American mob. In Paddy Whacked, bestselling author and organized crime expert T. J. English brings to life nearly two centuries of Irish American gangsterism, which spawned such unforgettable characters as Mike "King Mike" McDonald, Chicago's subterranean godfather; Big Bill Dwyer, New York's most notorious rumrunner during Prohibition; Mickey Featherstone, troubled Vietnam vet turned Westies gang leader; and James "Whitey" Bulger, the ruthless and seemingly untouchable Southie legend. Stretching from the earliest New York and New Orleans street wars through decades of bootlegging scams, union strikes, gang wars, and FBI investigations, Paddy Whacked is a riveting tour de force that restores the Irish American gangster to his rightful preeminent place in our criminal history and penetrates to the heart of the American experience.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMay 24, 2016
    ISBN9781515977179
    Author

    T. J. English

    T. J. English is a noted journalist and author of the New York Times bestsellers Havana Nocturne, Paddy Whacked, The Savage City, and Where the Bodies Were Buried. He also authored The Westies, a national bestseller; Born to Kill, which was nominated for an Edgar Award; and The Corporation. His journalism has appeared in Esquire, Vanity Fair, Playboy, and New York magazine, among other publications. He lives in New York City.

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    Reviews for Paddy Whacked

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      I may as well quit denying that I am not a gangster book groupie – looking through my library I just have so many different books on various aspects of the underworld that I have to throw my hands up and say I am all in when it comes to a good non-fiction book about the underworld.Paddy Whacked did not disappoint. While so many of the books focus on the Italian’s and the Sicilian’s, there are many, many aspects of the underworld that go by the wayside but whose stories are either closely intertwined with or run parallel to La Cosa Nostra.The Irish are as entrenched in the American underworld as the Italian’s but their story is unique and completely different. The book is laid out in a very interesting way: it covers the period from when the greatest influx of Irish came to New York and then covers the growth of the gangs regionally which changed every few decades. The book was written prior to Whitey Bulger being captured and so ends with Whitey still on the run.The earliest period starts in New York with the 5 point gangs as depicted in Gangs of New York. The Irish gangs at that time, and through other periods in other cities, were always an integral part of the political game. In New York, they were definitely part of the Tammany Hall crowd and were frequently used as enforcers to get the votes swinging the right way for ward bosses.Quite surprisingly, the next city to fall sway to the Irish was New Orleans. I was taken aback as that is not a city frequently associated with the Irish mob but the proliferation of Irish longshoreman and New Orleans role as a seaport on the Gulf and the mouth of the Mississippi made it fertile ground for the Irish mob.Following that, the book looked at Kansas City and the political machine there who were entrenched with Irish politicians using Irish muscle to control the rackets and the votes. It did not surprise me, in fact I thought the city would make an earlier appearance, but from Kansas City, the story swung north to Chicago.Chicago really came into the underworld/organized crime game in the 1920’s. Capone, seeing fertile ground with boats coming in from Canada using Lake Michigan, was successful in seizing the city and making it familiar as a bootlegging capital. But the Irish were not far behind. Like many other immigrant groups, they moved west. The Stockyards were full of Irishmen doing the heavy, dirty work of slaughtering and the Irish underworld, like Capone, was able to seize wards politically and use Irish muscle to ensure votes. The Irish even today still dominate ward politics in Chicago.The book then delves into Joseph P. Kennedy’s run as a bootlegger and how he used underworld connections as well as his wealth, to help secure political strength in Massachusetts. He was able to unseat some long standing politicos in order to get John Kennedy seats in the state senate and ultimately into the White House. It was interesting to note that he and Robert Kennedy had a long standing feud due to RFK’s stance against organized crime – the very same people he father had dealt with to secure wealth and votes.The book then moves to the more modern era. The Irish gangs that dominated Hell’s Kitchen in New York in the 1960’s and 70’s and their running battle with the Irish Westies. Cleveland was next up with Danny Greene and finally, Boston and the Winter Hill gang and Whitey Bulger’s domination until he went on the run.The Irish, unlike the Italian’s, organized themselves largely by neighborhood and did not seek to corporatize in the way the Italian’s did by forming a syndicate or commission. Each neighborhood was dominated by either one gang or one boss and the rackets were run by the Irish and for the Irish.There were certainly times when the Italian’s and Irish would work together to carve up certain business interests but by and large, until the 1970’s and beyond, the Irish were left to their own devices. As the rackets were smaller and centered on their own neighborhoods they were free to terrorize their own at will. The book is long but holds your interest. In fact, I found it hard to put down and ended up reading well into the early morning hours a few times. A really great addition to the organized crime genre. I had actually looked at the book several times to purchase but a friend had bought it and I snagged in out of the box that was on the way to be traded in – I know a bargain when I see one! Five stars. No reservations!
    • 5/5
      Well written and fascinating. Highly recomended.
    • 3/5
      This book is an interesting conglomeration of the history of Irish American gangsterism in the United States. English (such an unfortunate name for an author writing on Irish Americans) presents a quirky argument that the root of the Irish American gangster lies in the clan system of ancient Ireland. He doesn't provide the most solid evidence to support this argument, but it's interesting nonetheless. Something about this book just drove me CRAZY, however. Throughout the work there are a large number of grammatical and spelling errors. Really? In a published work? Couldn't the publishing house afford a proofreader? These errors stopped me in my tracks, often causing me to lose the entire story line in the process. If readers are interested in an easy true crime read, this is for them. If, however, you are searching for historical writing you would best be served to keep searching.
    • 4/5
      A kind of history of the Irish American gangster in the United States going all the way back in time to the 1850's and the Five Points district in Manhattan--and forward to the 1980's and 90's and Hell's Kitchen own Westies and Boston's Winter Hill gang led by the FBI supported Whitey Bulger. English who previously wrote a book exclusively on the Westies gang here explains why the Irish banded together against a native descrimination and formed their own networks social, criminal and political to create new kinds of power through the corruption of the already existing society and as a means to rise upwards from the bottom of that society. In time new immigrants particularly Italian and Jewish will displace them and take over the gangs but not without a whole lot of bloodshed. In between we will have the political machines--the graft--the bootleggers, the lone wolves, the betrayers--the power mad, the corrupt union leaders--a kind of real life background to any number of Hollywood movies from On the Waterfront to Goodfellas. The story here particularly of Whitey Bulger who with the assistance and protection of his FBI handler John Connolly and the help of his brother Billy the president of the Massachusetts state senate knocked off countless numbers of his adversaries before disappearing with a pile of cash and leaving his former friends to take the heat--not that they didn't deserve it--is particularly rivetings.In any case it's a good book and well written and I would recommend it for those interested in true crime stories.