Sweeney - Gangland Boston: a tour through the deadly streets of organized crime

Emily Sweeney is an award-winning journalist who has written for the Boston Globe since 2001. Her work has been featured on the Howard Stern Show , Beat the Press , the Howie Carr Show , New England Cable News, WBZ News Radio, WRKO, WMEX, WEMF, and other media outlets. Born and raised in Dorchester, she appeared in Stranger Than Fiction: The True Story of Whitey Bulger, Southie, and The Departed , a documentary film that is featured on the DVD of the Oscar-winning movie The Departed . She served for many years as president of the New England chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and she currently serves on the board of directors for the New England First Amendment Coalition and the board of governors for the New England Society of News Editors.

An imprint of Globe Pequot

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright 2018 Emily Sweeney
Maps by Sue Murray Rowman & Littlefield

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Sweeney, Emily, author.

Title: Gangland Boston : a tour through the deadly streets of organized crime / Emily Sweeney.

Description: Guilford, Connecticut : Lyons Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017035226 (print) | LCCN 2017036513 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493030378 (e-book) | ISBN 9781493030361 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Organized crimeMassachusettsBostonHistory. | GangstersMassachusettsBostonHistory. | CriminalsMassachusettsBostonHistory.

Classification: LCC HV6452.M4 (ebook) | LCC HV6452.M4 S844 2018 (print) | DDC 364.10609744/61dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017035226

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Organized crime has long held a grip on New England, and the city of Boston has historically been a central hub for criminal activity. Bookies, loan sharks, and hitmen have operated within our midst, staying one step ahead of law enforcement. There have been unsolved murders, sensational robberies, and drawn-out gang wars. Drug deals. Extortion. Prostitution. Money laundering. Crooked cops. Car bombs. Prison escapes.

Back in the days of Prohibition, a group of Irish hoodlums known as the Gustin Gang ruled South Boston, and Sicilian mobsters reigned over the North End. Years later, the Winter Hill gang rose to prominence and James Whitey Bulger became the most feared crime boss throughout the region.

Throughout all of this, another force has been at work, as countless police officers and federal agents have risked their lives trying to pursue suspects and bring criminals to justice. As a result, fugitives have been captured, killers have been convicted, and long-held secrets have come to light.

Gangland Boston provides a guided tour of Bostons underworld, showing readers the places where deals were made, people were killed, and bodies were unearthed. It reveals the hidden histories that lurk behind houses and storefronts in the Greater Boston area and gives a rare, personal glimpse into the lives of mobsters and crime bosses who once lived here.

Gangland Boston is not meant to be a comprehensive history of organized crime. Rather, its a travel guide that highlights certain locations and brings readers back in time to experience moments that occurred in the pastmoments that might otherwise be forgotten.

CHAPTER ONE

On the evening of August 1, 1903, reserve police officer Stephen K. Higgins was on patrol in South Boston. A bachelor in his early twenties, Higgins was a rookie cop, and one of one hundred reserve men on the Boston police force. His dark hair, which he wore short and combed back, baring a slight widows peak, was hidden beneath his gray bobby hat. His face was thin and clean shaven, and his eyes were big and round, with slightly drooping eyelids that made him look a bit sleepy, even when he was wide awake. He looked more like a college student or a poet than a cop. He had immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1894 and took his job as a police officer seriously. Hed been doing it for almost two months, earning $2 a day for each day he worked. He had already made one big bust at a social club on Broadway. Afterward, his colleagues at Station 6 warned him to be careful, and watch out for retribution on the streets.

On that mildly warm Saturday night in August, just before 9:00 p.m., it was a comfortable 72F. Higgins was walking his beat on West Broadway when he heard shouting on the block between D and E Streets . A heated argument in a saloon at 342 West Broadway had turned physical, and two pub patrons were now fighting outside. They were on the sidewalk, throwing punches and pummeling each other, surrounded by a throng of onlookers. Higgins stepped in and made his way through the horde of spectators and put himself between the two combatants, effectively ending the fight, much to the crowds dismay. They began shouting at the young officer.

Go home!

When we want you, well send for you!

Higgins ignored their taunts, grabbed the two brawlers, and headed toward the police box on the corner of D Street and West Broadway . Along the way, he encountered a wall of men blocking his way and not letting him through. They started gathering around him.

Now Higgins was surrounded.

Let em go! the men demanded.

Higgins refused to comply.

Suddenly, Higgins felt a bolt of pain at the back of his skull. Then a shoe struck him in his side. One fist hit his face. Then another. He held onto his two prisoners for as long as he could. Eventually he had to let go of one. Using his free hand, the young officer began swinging his club wildly to defend himself. But he continued to be attacked from all directions. He fell to the ground, and tried to reach for his revolver. Higgins got booted in the side again, and again, and again. He felt the crushing weight of a man stomping on his ankle. Then Higgins got kicked in the headhard. His body went limp. The mob of angry miscreants kicked and punched and hooted and hollered. They dragged Higgins from the sidewalk into the street.

One little boy who saw Higgins getting beaten quickly turned away and ran to the police station and told the lieutenant what was happening. The patrolmen at Station No. 6located at 194 West Broadway scrambled into the back of the horse-drawn patrol wagon and took off, with the horses hooves pounding against the cobblestones. Other officers ran directly to the scene. Patrolman James M. Breen was one of the first to show up, and immediately jumped into the fray. As more officers began to arrive, the assailants began to flee. Higgins, completely dazed and wincing in pain, saw one of his attackers run off down a narrow alley. Higgins wanted so badly to catch him. But all he could do was watch as the silhouettes of his assailants disappeared into the night.