Back Winter Hill Gang German Gang de Winter Hill French Winter Hill Gang Italian Winter Hill Gang Swedish 冬山幫 Chinese
| Founded | 1955 |
|---|---|
| Founder | James "Buddy" McLean |
| Founding location | Somerville, Massachusetts, United States |
| Years active | 1955–2000 |
| Territory | Greater Boston and South Florida |
| Ethnicity | Predominantly Irish American, as well as Italian American |
| Membership (est.) | 30 (1975)[1] |
| Activities | Racketeering, loan sharking, assault, murder, bribery, fraud, theft, robbery, illegal gambling, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption, extortion, prostitution, weapons trafficking |
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The Winter Hill Gang was a loose confederation of American 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, although some notable members, such as Stephen Flemmi and Johnny Martorano, are of Italian-American descent.[3]
The organization itself derives its name from the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, north of Boston.[4] Amongst its members several have been notorious Boston gangsters, such as James "Buddy" McLean, James "Whitey" Bulger, Howie Winter, Joseph "Joe Mac" McDonald, Patrick Nee, Kevin Weeks and Stephen Flemmi. They were most influential from 1965, under the rule of McLean and Winter, to the 1979 takeover led by Bulger.
The Winter Hill Gang was given its name in the 1970s by journalists at the Boston Herald, but the name is hardly ever openly used as a reference to them. Winter Hill Gang members are alleged to have been involved with most typical organized-crime-related activities, but they are perhaps best known for fixing horse races in the northeastern United States and shipping weapons to the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).[5] Twenty-one members and associates, including Winter, were indicted by federal prosecutors in 1979.[6]
- ^ Boston Gang Wars — The Gangs Matt Connolly, Medium (January 1, 2022) Archived February 1, 2025, at archive.today
- ^ Whitey Bulger & The Detroit Mafia: Boston's Winter Hill Gang Came To Motown To Fix Horse Races Scott Burnstein, The Gangster Report (November 2, 2018) Archived October 19, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Hitman : The Untold Story Of Johnny Martorano : Whitey Bulger's Enforcer And The Most Feared Gangster In The Underworld by Howie Carr". Johnston Public Library. Retrieved July 18, 2023.
- ^ "Winter Hill Gang (FBI internal memo)". September 12, 1987. Retrieved May 16, 2021 – via archive.org.
- ^ Finley, Bill (July 16, 2013). "The reverend's deal with the devil; Eddie Donnally crossed Boston mobsters and lived to tell about it". ESPN.com. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
- ^ Murphy, Shelley (July 22, 1998). "Howie Winter never saw Bulger coming". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on February 14, 2003. Retrieved September 3, 2023.