Read Online The Coffey Files by Jerry; Joseph; Schmetterer Coffey - Free Book Online Page B

the viciousness of the Westies, and the people they spoke to wondered why all of a sudden the cops were taking such an interest in murder and mayhem on the West Side. Why, for instance, one wondered, was nothing ever done about the murders of Dennis Curley and Patty Dugan?
    Curley and Dugan were involved in an incident that had become legend on the West Side. They were best friends who one day in 1975 got into an argument over a girl. Both were members of the Westies. They fought in the street outside the Market Diner, a favorite spot for longshoremen and truck drivers. Curley got the better of Dugan. Later Dugan went to Curley’s house with a gun. He rang the downstairs doorbell and through the intercom asked Curley to come down to talk. When his friend came downstairs, Dugan shot him dead.
    Jimmy Coonan, at the time leader of the Westies, was furious over the shooting. He liked Curley and considered him an important member of his mob. With the help of Edward “The Butcher” Commiskey he lured Dugan to the apartment house where Coonan’s niece lived. In the young woman’s apartment they took a steak knife and stabbed Dugan to death.
    Commiskey, who was called “The Butcher” because he was taught that trade while serving time in Green Haven Prison, then proceeded to dismember Dugan. First he cut his penis off and put it in a jar. Next Coonan asked his niece for a bigger knife. They used it to cut off the victim’s head. This they put in a green plastic trash bag.
    Coonan loved Commiskey because he operated on the theory that without a body the police could not make a murder case against the killer. Commiskey also added the twist of freezing the hands of victims and then using their fingerprints at the scene of Westies’ crimes in order to throw the police off the trail.
    By the time their work in the kitchen was done, the parts of Patty Dugan’s body filled six large plastic garbage bags. Five were dumped in the East River.
    Coonan took the bag with Dugan’s head and the bottle containing his penis and made a tour of Westie hangouts. He went into bar after bar and even stopped people on the street and showed off the body parts. “This is Patty Dugan’s head. He killed Dennis Curley,” he would say. “And this is Patty Dugan’s prick,” Coonan would add as he held up the jar for the bar to see.
    The entire episode was pretty much ignored by the police. Commiskey was murdered in 1977 and Coonan continued to lead the Westies for another ten years.
    Coffey loved hearing these stories and knew that someday he would catch up with Coonan, but he still needed something to tie McElroy to the Walker murder.
    Detectives in the local precinct confirmed that “Big Paulie” Castellano was backing Coonan and his Westie cohorts. It burned Coffey that Castellano seemed to get more respect in this part of town than a detective sergeant in the New York Police Department.
    Coffey decided that before they could go much further with the investigation they would need at least a picture of McElroy, and it would not hurt to get his prints.
    They decided to stake out a bar called Hell’s Kitchen on 43rd Street and Ninth Avenue, the heart of Westie territory, a place McElroy was known to favor. The three cops took up stations inside the bar with a good view of the entrance. Beginning around six o’clock each night they watched the parade of West Side characters walk in and tumble out of Hell’s Kitchen.
    On the third night, they saw McElroy walk in. He immediately, spotted the three cops sitting in the back.
    â€œSo as soon as he got inside he made a big scene about needing cigarettes and turned to walk out again. By the time we were out of our seats he started running.”
    A young man in good physical condition, McElroy took off down Ninth Avenue with Coffey, McDarby, and Cahill in pursuit. But these were three cops who usually got their man, and after five or