The Westies: Inside New York's Irish Mob (54 page)
Read The Westies: Inside New York's Irish Mob Online
Authors: T. J. English
To this day, claims Mickey, he was never “money hungry or power hungry.” Consequently, he doesn’t find himself battling impulses to go on a robbery, make a big score, or use violence as a way to make money because “I never had those impulses in the first place.”
As for Jimmy Coonan and other leading members of the Westies who were put behind bars by his testimony, Featherstone feels “they got what they deserved,” though he long ago let go of the hatred and rancor. Despite the remorse he feels at many of his violent acts, Featherstone is no longer a tortured soul haunted by nightmares. He is, he says, “free from the past.”
Of course, the past is never gone for good. With criminal behavior, in particular, it has long been a contention of psychiatrists, sociologists and criminologists that ingrained antisocial behavior is like alcoholism or any other drug addiction: it may go into remission, but it never truly disappears.
Even so, for nearly twenty years now, by all available accounts, Mickey Featherstone has lived an exemplary life. Against all odds, and contrary to the steadfast beliefs of his enemies and even some of his supporters, he appears to have attained something few ever thought he would: peace-of-mind.
—T.J. English
March 2006
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Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to use copyrighted material:
United Artists Television, Inc.: Dialogue from
Angels with Dirty Faces
. © 1938 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. Renewed 1966 by United Artists Television, Inc.
MusicMusicMusic Inc.: Lyrics from “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” words and music by Barry Sandler and Robin Moore. © 1963, 1964, and 1966 by Music MusicMusic Inc.
Photos by Suzanne Opton.
Photo enhancement by Rick Nemo.
Map illustration by Lisa Amoroso.
copyright © 1990, 2006 by T. J. English.
cover design by Liz Connor
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