James Michael Coonan (born December 21, 1946) is an Irish-American mobster and racketeer from Manhattan, New York who served as the boss of the Westies gang, an Irish mob group based in Hell's Kitchen, from approximately 1977 to 1988.
[2] When Coonan was a young man, his father John was kidnapped, pistol-whipped and severely beaten by Mickey Spillane, a well-known mobster who frequently employed the kidnap-for-ransom racket of local merchants to their families.
[5] According to testimony given in 1987 by ex-Westies member turned informant William Beattie, Stein was killed and beheaded in 1977 in a move to erase Coonan's debt and prove the Westies power through viciousness.
[15] In a February 2023 parole hearing, Coonan asked to be considered for release, citing his mentorship to other inmates, advancing years, time served, exemplary disciplinary record and ill-health.
Corozzo and Mirigliano asked that he be released in order to provide care for his elderly wife, Edna, who was described as "in declining physical and neurological health", at their home in Hazelet, New Jersey.