| James "Buddy" McLean | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 1929 Somerville, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | February 7 1966 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
James "Buddy" McLean (1929-February 7, 1966) was an Irish-American mobster and the original leader of the Somerville, Massachusetts-based "Winter Hill Gang" during the 1960s. Buddy was well known throughout Boston as a tough street fighter and eventually accumulated injuries including several scars on his neck and face as well a damaged left eye. A friend of Buddy's once said, "He looks like a choir boy, but fights like the devil".[1]
Contents |
Early life
Born out of wedlock to wealthy land speculator and one time heir to the Washington Post Newspaper John McLean in Somerville, Massachusetts , McLean had been orphaned at a young age and adopted by an immigrant Portuguese-American family. Working as a longshoreman during his teenage years on the docks of Charlestown and East Boston, he would became close friends with future president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters William J. McCarthy as well as a later member of the ILA. After marrying a local Portuguese nurse in 1955, McLean began to slowly amass a formidable criminal organization which would dominate the local underworld in northern Boston which included running numbers, loansharking and truck hijackings.[1]
Irish gang wars
In early-September 1961, two of his Winter Hill associates and their friend, 22-year-old Charlestown mobster George McLaughlin rented a cottage on Salisbury Beach for a Labor Day party. Drinking with his friends throughout the day and into the late evening, McLaughlin attempted to grope one of the gangster girlfriends. Confronted by the two men, McLaughlin received a savage beating until losing consciousness. Unsure weither he was still alive, they dumped him at a nearby hospital and went to tell McLean what had happened. Buddy told them he would take care of it and absolved them of responsibility while he would have a talk with his friend, and Georgie's brother, Bernie. When Buddy found that Bernie wanted revenge, and Buddy's help in doing it, Buddy told him his brother had been out of line and had the beating coming. McLaughlin stormed out of Buddy's house in a rage. Later that night, Buddy awoke to the sound of his dogs barking, and saw two men under his car. He went outside firing a .38 revolver, and found plastique wired to the ignition of his car. Immediately suspecting the McLaughlins, he began stalking Bernie McLaughlin throughout Charlestown until he took his shot and killed McLaughlin near the Bunker Hill Monument in a section of Charlestown called City Square, during broad daylight and in front of almost one hundred witnesses, on October 31, 1961.
Death
Although he was acquitted of the murder charges, he went to prison for two years for illegal possession of a firearm. Leading the Winter Hill Gang against their Charlestown rivals for more than two years, McLean was finally shot dead by the McLaughlin Brothers, Stevie and Cornelius Hughes as he left the Tap Royal. He was succeeded by his right hand man Howie Winter then later James "Whitey" Bulger. McLean's legacy is that he was the role model and idolized by his namesake, James Cameron McLean, the son of his older half brother John, who went on to become somewhat of an urban legend himself.
References
- ^ a b English, T.J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0-06-059002-5
