Full Description
According to the FBI, more
bank and armored-car robbers have come out of Charlestown, Massachusetts, than
any other one-square-mile area in the world. With these robberies also came
gangland violence and corruption. Fictionalized in the movie The Town featuring
Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner, this is the true story of Charlestown and
the thieves and gangsters who terrorized the community for decades.
On October 31, 1961,
Bernie McLaughlin got shot dead in broad daylight in front of a hundred
witnesses in the City Square section of Charlestown. Because of the ironclad code of silence in the Irish stronghold known as the "Green Square
Mile," no witnesses came forward. The murder ignited a bloody war between the
McLaughlin Gang and Buddy McClean's Winter Hill Gang that left more than sixty men
dead.
Three decades later, as
narcotics invaded Charlestown, and a concurrent Mob war raged between J. R.
Russo's North End crew and that of Patriarca-family boss "Cadillac Frank" Salemme,
five thieves called the "No Name Gang" committed over a hundred heists across
New England that cemented the enclave's infamy. Grippingly cinematic and raw, Thieves
of Charlestown delivers an unprecedented look at the real criminals who ruled
the streets of "The Town."
Contents
Charlestown
Prologue: Arthur "Butchie" Doe Jr.
Chapter 1: The McLaughlin's
Chapter 2: The Offer
Chapter 3: Buddy's Battles
Chapter 4: The Mac Attack
Chapter 5: The Salisbury Assault
Chapter 6: The Car Bomb
Chapter 7: A Halloween Surprise
Chapter 8: The Fallout
Chapter 9: Winter Hill Gang
Chapter 10: Burying The Ox
Chapter 11: The Hit
Chapter 12: The Kill Team
Chapter 13: The Animal
Chapter 14: An Eye for an Eye
Chapter 15: Teddy the Thief
Chapter 16: Putting Down the Dog
Chapter 17: A Dish Best Served Cold
Chapter 18: George's Last Bender
Chapter 19: The Butcher
Chapter 20: Beating Punchy to the Punch
Chapter 21: Painting the Town Red
Chapter 22: A Charlestown: IRA Thing
Chapter 23: The Charlestown 99 Massacre
Chapter 24: Two For Good Measure
Chapter 25: Raymond Patriarca Sr.
Chapter 26: Rubber Lips Takes Control
Chapter 27: Clipping The Wild Guy
Chapter 28: The Medford Induction
Chapter 29: First Blood
Chapter 30: Unleashing the Psycho
Chapter 31: The Three Banditos
Chapter 32: Tip of the Iceberg
Chapter 33: The Blessing
Chapter 34: Ponzo's Plight
Chapter 35: The Gunsmoke Clears
Chapter 36: End of an Era
Chapter 37: The Headache Eliminator
Chapter 38: The No Name Gang
Chapter 39: Murder in Hudson
Chapter 40: The Aftermath
Chapter 41: The Investigation
Chapter 42: The Unraveling
Chapter 43: All of This Ends
Chapter 44: The Arrests
Chapter 45: Town Oxy Bandits
Chapter 46: The Legacy Continues
Epilogue: Charlestown Today
