Full Description
Forget what you think you know about the Winter Hill Gang; this is the ruthless truth of the Boston underworld and its most ominous figure — his tragic origins, unsolved murders, and his daughter who broke the silence around him.
In 2020, author Springs Toledo set out to find a ghost in the Boston underworld whose name can end a conversation — what he found is startling. Don't Talk About Joe Mac is a true crime biography that reads like noir fiction. It is a journey through a shadow society as bizarre as it was impenetrable; an exposé that will upend the official narrative animating United States v. James J. Bulger (2013) as it corrects the record and takes the top off a succession of unsolved murders.
Joe McDonald (1917-1997), a World War II veteran and father of five, was the most revered career criminal in the region and its most prolific killer. He founded the Winter Hill Gang in the 1950s, became the bogeyman of the infamous Gangland War of the 1960s, and was among the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives in the 1970s, and yet his name was barely mentioned and his exploits only whispers.
His daughter, whose own unforgettable story is laced within his, brings us uncomfortably close to a personality marred by trauma. This is Joe Mac's story, a story you were never supposed to know.
Contents
Prologue: August 9, 1997
Part I: The Descent
Chapter 1: August 9, 1942
Chapter 2: Dear Ma
Chapter 3: Joe Noir
Chapter 4: A Pillow of Stone
Chapter 5: The Box
Part II: The Gangland War, 1961-1966
Chapter 6: "The Go-to Place for Summer Fun"
Chapter 7: "Boston Was Overrun With Sick Bastards"
Chapter 8: "Wait for the Splash!"
Chapter 9: "Buddy Was My Best Friend"
Part III: 1966-1973
Chapter 10: Walpole-28333
Chapter 11: The Friends of Kathy Murphy
Chapter 12: Crimson and Clover
Chapter 13: Blue Sunday
Chapter 14: The Man Who Wouldn't Die
Chapter 15: Chandler's
Chapter 16: Howie Winter's Mistake
Chapter 17: Blurred Lines
Part IV: 1973-1975
Chapter 18: Behind Closed Doors
Chapter 19: What Happened to John Leary
Chapter 20: Whitey and the Hit Squad: the Real Story
Part V: 1975-1983
Chapter 21: Jim Sims
Chapter 22: The Murder of Raymond Lundgren, and Then Some
Chapter 23: Two Fugitives in Florida
Chapter 24: Truth, Lies, and World Jai Alai
Chapter 25: "Because I'm Queer"
Chapter 26: Whitey Bulger v Joe Mac
Part VI: 1987-1997
Chapter 27: Pandemonium Day
Chapter 28: The Disappearance of Jim Sims
Chapter 29: Quincy
Chapter 30: 41
Epilogue: Jackie, Today
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
