The Winter Hill Gang is a structured confederation of Boston, Massachusetts-area organized crime figures, predominantly Irish-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 ("Howie"), James McLean ("Buddy"), James J. Bulger ("Whitey"), and hitmen John Martorano and Stephen Flemmi ("The Rifleman"). 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. Twenty-one members and associates, including Winter, were indicted by federal prosecutors in 1979.
Read more about Winter Hill Gang: Irish Gang War, Productivity and Overall Success, FBI Informants, Historical Leadership
Famous quotes containing the words winter, hill and/or gang:
“So near to paradise all pairing ends:
Here loveless birds now flock as winter friends,
Content with bud-inspecting. They presume
To say which buds are leaf and which are bloom.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Cole’s Hill was the scene of the secret night burials of those who died during the first year of the settlement. Corn was planted over their graves so that the Indians should not know how many of their number had perished.”
—For the State of Massachusetts, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The best laid schemes o’ mice and men Gang aft agley;
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy!”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)