Is The Westies a true story? Here's the real history behind the Ronald Reagan-era gangster drama

Is The Westies a true story? Here's the real history behind the Ronald Reagan-era gangster drama

As big and brash as its New York setting, MGM+ action-drama The Westies stars JK Simmons as an Irish-American gang leader, Eamon Sweeney, managing both his own men and a fraught working relationship with the Mafia. Jonathan Wright looks at the history behind the series

In 1975, New York City was synonymous with violence and deprivation. It was also on the verge of bankruptcy. President Gerald Ford was so loathe to extract the city from its fiscal crisis that he inspired a famous headline in the New York Daily News: “Ford to City: Drop Dead.”

But the new decade brought a new sense of optimism and the beginning of a long era of gentrification. Big projects helped to drive the change in mood, such as the construction of the vast Jacob K Javits Convention Center in Hell’s Kitchen, a neighbourhood long associated with working-class Irish-Americans, between 1979 and 1986.

- Read more | “They caused a great deal of mayhem”: The Westies creators on bringing the drama to life

It’s this project that forms the backdrop to The Westies, named for a real-life gang active in the area, and which moves with the percussive energy of Peaky Blinders, not least in the way loud music punctuates the action and, from the moment The Dropkick Murphys’ raucous ‘Dropped on My Head’ kicks in, sets the mood. But how much of what we see on screen is based on the historical record?

Does The Westies tell a true story?

The Westies certainly existed, although there’s not much evidence they adopted this name themselves. Many of the show’s main plot-lines are fictional and major characters have been invented. That said, the series draws heavily on the historical record as it explores life in Manhattan at the beginning of Ronald Reagan’s first presidency.

This was a time when there was moolah to be made in the Big Apple, including for those running rackets and taking backhanders. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest developers paid off mobsters to ensure their projects went ahead without disruption.

Who were the real-life Westies?

While not as famous as the Italian-American Mafia, the Irish Mob has its own violent history. It’s a story that underpinned, via a 1927 non-fiction book by journalist Herbert Asbury, Martin Scorsese’s 2002 epic Gangs of New York – starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the terrifying Bill the Butcher, a figure based on the real-life William Poole (1821–55).

- Read more | The relentless rise of the mafia: a grisly tale of extortion, execution and Don Corleone

As for the Westies specifically, the gang emerged in the early 1960s. Their leader from around 1977 is said to have been James Coonan (b1946), who was convicted of racketeering – among other charges – in 1988 and sentenced to 75 years in jail. Today, he resides at Federal Correctional Institution, Schuylkill, a medium-security prison in Pennsylvania.

There’s an underlying truth in JK Simmons’ portrayal of gang leader Eamon Sweeney as a man capable of terrible violence, yet who projects the image of an affable community leader. Mickey Spillane (1933-77), Coonan’s predecessor as the kingpin of Hell’s Kitchen, was a “gentleman gangster” who supposedly gave turkeys to needy families at Thanksgiving.

Did the Westies clash with Italian-American mobsters?

In the series, the Westies have an uneasy truce with the Gambino family, but there’s an undercurrent of suppressed violence in the relationship. The real-life Westies certainly partnered with Italian-American crime families and carried out contract killings on their behalf.

However, there was also tension. In May 1977, Mickey Spillane was murdered, shot five times, likely by Roy DeMeo (1940–83), though this has never been confirmed. It’s widely assumed the killing came about after, as part of manoeuvrings to take over leadership of the Westies, Jimmy Coonan made a deal with Gambino leader Paul Castellano (1915–85).

- Read more | Who were the real Peaky Blinders?

How much did the construction of the Jacob K Javits Convention Center change Hell's Kitchen?

Today, Manhattan is a place where the purchase price of single-family homes and townhouses averages between $9 and $12.4mn. It’s an island for the rich, but this follows years when money has poured into Manhattan.

Things were very different in December 1979, when detailed plans for the Javits Center were revealed. It was a vast project and its announcement alone led to a surge in real estate prices in the area. However, the build was beset with issues and plans for it to open in 1984 had to be cancelled because of difficulties in manufacturing custom parts. It finally opened on 3 April 1986 and cost many millions more than expected.

Throughout its construction, there were stories of mobsters taking kickbacks and payoffs. Ironically, this can be said to have backfired on the Westies. As in the series, the gang, grown notorious for its violence, attracted the attention of the FBI, which worked with federal and local authorities to bring down the gang and break its hold on Hell's Kitchen.

Did the IRA seek support in New York?

A major subplot in The Westies involves Bridget Walsh (Sarah Bolger), the girlfriend of Sweeney’s sharpest lieutenant in a not-strong field, Jimmy Roarke (Tom Brittney of Granchester fame). When her old flame, Brendan Cahill (Allen Leech), an Irish republican who has taken up arms, shows up asking for a favour, it’s clear she has much to hide. While the specific storyline is fictional, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) often looked to the Irish-American communities of the USA for funding.

Throughout the Troubles, the Irish Northern Aid Committee (NORAID), supported the republican cause. It still exists today – though on a much smaller scale – and has always maintained it raised money purely for humanitarian relief.