Tom Devaney (died July 20, 1976) was a New York mobster and an enforcer to Mickey Spillane[1] during the 1960s and 70s. As Spillane's chief lieutenant, Devaney played a leading role in the growing animosity between Spillane and the Genovese crime family as well as the gang war against James Coonan.
Devaney was an exhibition worker on the West Side who was murdered by Joe "Mad Dog" Sullivan on the orders of Genovese mobster George Barone because "he was interfering with us", as Barone told prosecutor in court. Sullivan observed Devaney for eight weeks, then disguised himself with an Afro wig and skin dye, followed Devaney into a bar-and-grill in Midtown Manhattan, and shot him in the head.
Devaney's death marked the beginning of the end for Spillane's operation. Spillane was murdered the following year.
Notes and references
↑ "Tom Devaney". La Mafia siciliana. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
Further reading
English, T.J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN0-06-059002-5
English, T.J. The Westies: Inside the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob. St Martin's Paperbacks, 1991. ISBN0-312-92429-1
Related Research Articles
Frank Costello was an Italian-American crime boss of the Luciano crime family.
Vito Genovese was an Italian-born American mobster involved with the American Mafia. A long-time associate and childhood friend of Lucky Luciano, Genovese took part in the Castellammarese War and helped shape the rise of the Mafia as a major force in organized crime in the United States. He would later lead Luciano's crime family, which was later renamed the Genovese crime family in his honor.
The Genovese crime family, also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American Mafia. They have generally maintained a varying degree of influence over many of the smaller mob families outside New York, including ties with the Philadelphia, Patriarca, and Buffalo crime families.
The Westies were a New York City-based Irish American organized crime gang, responsible for racketeering, drug trafficking, and contract killing. They were partnered with the Italian-American Mafia and operated out of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan.
James Michael Coonan is an American mobster and racketeer from Manhattan, New York who served as the boss of the Westies gang, an Irish mob group based in Hell's Kitchen, from approximately 1977 to 1988. Coonan was incarcerated and began serving a 75-year prison term in 1988.
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.
Michael J. Spillane was an Irish-American mobster who controlled Hell's Kitchen in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. Spillane, the so-called “Gentleman Gangster", was a marked contrast to the violent Westies mob members who succeeded him in Hell's Kitchen.
Ernest "The Hawk" Rupolo was a New York mobster and hitman for the Luciano crime family, now the Genovese crime family. He would later turn informant and testify against then-capo and future boss Vito Genovese.
Rosario "Ross" Gangi is a New York City mobster and former captain in the Genovese crime family who became involved in labor Racketeering and white collar crime.
Tino "T" Fiumara, also known as "The Greek," was a major figure in the Genovese crime family and was acting boss. Since the 1980s, he had been the leader of the Genovese New Jersey faction in northern New Jersey. After his final release from prison Fiumara lived on Long Island.
Edward "Eddie The Butcher" Cummiskey Jr. was a New York mobster who served as a mentor to Jimmy Coonan, leader of the Westies. Cummiskey is reputed to have shown Coonan how to dismember and dispose of murder victims by scattering their remains into the waters around the sewage treatment plant operated by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection at Randalls and Wards Islands, notably in the Hudson River. Cummiskey was murdered by hitman Joseph Sullivan on August 20, 1976, in a bar.
Thomas Kapatos, nicknamed as "Tommy the Greek", was a Greek-American gangster who was associated with the Irish mob in New York City. A convicted armed robber, Kapatos was an enforcer for Hell's Kitchen crime boss Mickey Spillane during his war against Jimmy Coonan in the 1970s. He was murdered in 1977 as a result of a conflict between Spillane's gang and the Genovese crime family.
Hughie Mulligan was a New York mobster and bookmaker who headed criminal activities of the "Irish Mob" in Hell's Kitchen during the 1950s. His protégés included Jimmy Burke, an associate of the Lucchese crime family, and his eventual successor Mickey Spillane.
Daniel Pagano is a New York mobster and a caporegime in the Genovese crime family who was involved in a famous gasoline bootlegging racket of the 1980s.
Angelo Prisco also known as "The Horn", was an American mobster in New Jersey who became a caporegime in the Genovese crime family. Relatives include Michael Prisco and Angelique Prisco
Michael J. Coppola, also known as "Mikey Cigars", is an American mobster and captain in the Genovese crime family active in their New Jersey faction. He made national headlines when he went into hiding for 11 years to avoid a possible murder conviction. He should not be confused with Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola (1900–1966), also a member of the Genovese family.
The Genovese crime family's New Jersey faction is a group of Italian-American mobsters within the Genovese crime family who control organized crime activities within the state of New Jersey. The New Jersey faction is divided into multiple crews each led by a different caporegime who oversees illegal criminal activities in labor racketeering, illegal gambling, loansharking and extortion. The Genovese crime family's New Jersey faction has maintained a strong presence in the Northern Jersey area since the early prohibition era. A number of powerful mobsters within the New Jersey faction such as Guarino "Willie" Moretti, Gerardo "Jerry" Catena and Louis "Bobby" Manna have each held positions within the Genovese family's administration. From the 1990s until his death in 2010, Tino "the Greek" Fiumara was one of the most powerful caporegimes in the New Jersey faction.
Thompson Street is a street in the Lower Manhattan neighborhoods of Greenwich Village and SoHo in New York City, which runs north–south, from Washington Square Park at Washington Square South to the Avenue of the Americas below Grand Street, where the street turns right to Sixth Avenue; it thus does not connect with Canal Street just a half block south of the turning point. It runs parallel to and between Sullivan Street, and LaGuardia Place which becomes West Broadway. Vehicular traffic goes southbound.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
