Who were the Westies? The New York gang referenced in Peter Greene’s final note

Peter Greene was found dead in his Lower East Side apartment on Friday. According to his manager Gregg Edwards music had been playing in the actor’s residence for more than 24 hours prompting a wellness check.

The cause of dead still has to be determined, but police don’t suspect foul play at this time. According to a neighbor that spoke with the New York Daily News, Greene was found face down on the floor with a handwritten note next to him on which was written, “I’m still a Westie.”

Who were the Westies? The notorious New York gang in Peter Greene referenced in final note

There is no record of Greene ever haing been a member of the now defunct Westies, which was a name given to the gang but one that they never actually used. The notorious New York gang operated out of Hell’s Kitchen on Manhattan West Side from the 1960s until the late 1980s and is considered the last Irish-American gang.

While it was a small outfit, consisting of just between a dozen and twenty members that were out of jail at any one time according to crime author T.J. English, it held its own against the more powerful Italian mafia. Eventually they joined forces with the Gambino Family when Jimmy Coonan to control of the gang after he had his predecessor Mickey Spillane murdered.

The gang ran gambling and loansharking operations as well as kidnapping people and holding them for ransom. They also had their hands in union activities and even the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

The Westies were one of the most violent gangs whose members often employed dismemberment in their killings. The gang was seriously weakened when several prominent members including Coonan were given long jail terms in the late 1980s after one of its most notorious members, Mickey Featherstone, turned state witness.

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