M(a)cLaughlin is the most common Anglicized form of Mac Lochlainn, a masculine surname of Irish origin. The feminine form of the surname is Nic Lochlainn. The literal meaning of the name is "son of Lochlann". Note that Mc is simply a contraction of Mac, which is also truncated to M' . Thus, MacLaughlin, McLaughlin and M'Laughlin are the same Anglicism, the latter two merely contractions of the first.
The Winter Hill Gang was a loose confederation of organized crime figures in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. It was generally considered an Irish Mob organization, with most gang members and the leadership consisting predominantly of Irish-Americans, though some notable members, such as Johnny Martorano, are of Italian-American descent.
Stephen Joseph Flemmi is an American gangster and convicted murderer and was a close associate of Winter Hill Gang boss Whitey Bulger. Beginning in 1975, Flemmi was a top echelon informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The Irish Mob is a usually crime family–based ethnic collective of organized crime syndicates composed of primarily ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and have been in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish-American street gangs – famously first depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1927 book, The Gangs of New York – the Irish Mob has appeared in most major U.S. and Canadian cities, especially in the Northeast and the urban industrial Midwest, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Chicago.
Frank Peter "Dunie" Ryan Jr. was a Canadian gangster and the leader of the West End Gang, a Montreal-based criminal organization.
James Joseph McLean was an American mobster boss, who was the original boss of the Somerville, Massachusetts-based Winter Hill Gang during the 1960s. McLean was well known throughout the Greater Boston area as an unstoppable street fighter. He accumulated injuries including several scars on his neck and face as well as a damaged left eye. A friend of McLean once said, "He looks like a choir boy, but fights like the devil."
Bernard McLaughlin was an American gangster from Charlestown, Massachusetts, and leader of "The McLaughlin Brothers" gang.
Alex Rocco was an American actor. Known for his distinctive, gravelly voice, he was often cast as villains, including Moe Greene in The Godfather (1972) and his Primetime Emmy Award–winning role in The Famous Teddy Z. Rocco did a significant amount of voice-over work later in his career.
Francis Patrick Salemme, sometimes spelled Salemmi, also known as "Cadillac Frank" and "Julian Daniel Selig", was an American mobster from Boston, Massachusetts who became a hitman and eventually the boss of the Patriarca crime family of New England before turning government witness.
Edward J. McLaughlin was an American boxer and a member of "The McLaughlin Brothers" gang of Charlestown, Massachusetts. Vincent Teresa, former mobster described Edward in his biography "My Life in the Mafia" as, "Punchy was just as crazy as George... a legbreaker for the longshoreman's union. Punchy was a cuckoo and as hotheaded as they came." After his brother Bernard McLaughlin was murdered in October 1961 by their former friend, "Winter Hill Gang" leader James "Buddy" McLean, Punchy and brother George McLaughlin murdered Russell Nicholson who was rumored to be McLean's driver in the shooting. After surviving many assassination attempts, one where he lost a hand and another where he lost half his jaw, Punchy was on his way to Boston's Suffolk Superior Courthouse for his brother Georgie's murder trial, and was shot dead at the Spring Street Metropolitan Transit Authority Loop in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.
James "Spike" O'Toole was an Irish-American criminal from Dorchester, Massachusetts.
The Angiulo brothers, were the leading Italian-American crime group from Boston's North End, from the 1960s until the mid 1980s. Also, the street crew extended into East Boston, Roxbury, Waltham, Newton, Watertown, parts of Revere, and all other predominantly Italian American neighborhoods in Eastern Massachusetts. Their criminal organization was dubbed "In-Town", because one had to go in to town to visit the Angiulo Brothers.
Joseph Barboza Jr., nicknamed "the Animal", was an American mobster and notorious mob hitman for the Patriarca crime family of New England during the 1960s. A prominent enforcer and contract killer in Boston's underworld, Barboza became a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant in 1967 and later entered the Witness Protection Program. He was a star witness in the trial of six men convicted in the 1965 murder of Edward Deegan; four of the accused were sentenced to death and another two were sentenced to life imprisonment. It later emerged that Barboza had helped frame the six defendants in a case of wrongful conviction for the Deegan killing, which was allegedly actually committed by Barboza and Vincent Flemmi. He was shot dead in San Francisco in 1976 after his whereabouts became known to Patriarca underboss Gennaro Angiulo.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle, published in 1970, is the debut novel of George V. Higgins, then an Assistant United States Attorney in Boston. The novel is a realistic depiction of the Irish-American underworld in Boston. Its central character is the title character Eddie Coyle, a small-time criminal and informant.
Raymond Loreda Salvatore Patriarca was an American mobster from Providence, Rhode Island, who became the long-time boss of the Patriarca crime family, whose control extended throughout New England for more than three decades. Patriarca died on July 11, 1984.
Patrick Joseph Nee is an Irish-American former mobster and Irish republican sympathizer. A former member of the Mullen Gang and the Winter Hill Gang, he is a Vietnam War veteran, and author of A Criminal and an Irishman; The Inside Story of the Boston Mob-IRA Connection.
Donald Killeen was an American mob boss who controlled criminal activity, primarily bookmaking, loansharking, and numbers in South Boston, during the late 1940s to the early 1970s.
The Mullen Gang was an Irish-American gang operating in Boston.
Thomas Sullivan, also known as "Tommy", and "Irish Tommy" was an American professional light heavyweight boxer whose murder remains unsolved.
