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The Winter Hill Gang is a structured confederation of Boston, Massachusetts-area organized crime figures, predominantly Irish-American and Italian-American. It derives its name from the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts north of Boston. Its members have included notorious Boston gangsters Howie Winter, James "Buddy" McLean, James J. "Whitey" Bulger, and John Martorano and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi. They were most influential from 1965 under the rule of McLean and Winter until the takeover led by Bulger in 1979. The Winter Hill Gang was given its name in the 1970s by journalists at ''The Boston Herald'', although the name was hardly ever openly used as a reference to them. While Winter Hill Gang members are alleged to have been involved with most typical organized-crime-related activities, they are perhaps most known for fixing horse races in the northeastern United States and shipping weapons to the IRA. Twenty-one members and associates, including Winter, were indicted by federal prosecutors in 1979. == Irish Gang War == The Boston Irish Gang War started in 1961 and lasted until 1967. It was fought between the McLaughlin Gang of Charlestown, led by Bernie McLaughlin and the Winter Hill Gang of Somerville, led by James "Buddy" McLean.〔Howie Carr, "The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century"〕 The two gangs had co-existed in relative peace for a number of years until an incident at Salisbury Beach on Labor Day weekend 1961. While at a party, Georgie McLaughlin made an advance on the girlfriend of Winter Hill Gang member Alexander Petricone, Jr. (who fled the Boston area during the war and became an actor under the name Alex Rocco).〔Teresa, Vincent. "My Life in the Mafia."〕 McLaughlin was subsequently beaten unconscious by members of the Winter Hill Gang and was dumped outside of the local hospital.〔 Bernie McLaughlin went to see "Buddy" McLean and demanded that he hand over the members of the gang who beat his brother. McLean refused. The McLaughlins took this refusal as an insult and attempted to wire a bomb to McLean's wife's car. In retaliation, McLean shot and killed McLaughlin coming out of the "Morning Glory" bar in Charlestown, Massachusetts in October 1961. This was the start of Boston's Irish Gang War.〔 In 1965, McLean was shot and killed by one of the last survivors of the McLaughlin Gang, Steve Hughes. Howie Winter then assumed control of the Winter Hill Gang. One of the surviving McLaughlin brothers, nicknamed "Punchy," was shot while waiting for a bus in the West Roxbury section of Boston. A year later, in 1966, the last two associates of the McLaughlin Gang, brothers Connie and Steve Hughes were killed, allegedly by hitman Frank Salemme. After the Irish Gang war, the Winter Hill Gang was reputed to be not only the top Irish Mob syndicate in the New England area, but along the entire east coast as well. In the book ''Black Mass'' by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill, the authors claimed that the Winter Hill Gang were far more feared and powerful than their rivals, the Boston branch of the Patriarca crime family run by the Angiulo Brothers. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Winter Hill Gang」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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