Spillane, the so-called “Gentleman Gangster",[1] was a marked contrast to the violent Westies mob members who succeeded him in Hell's Kitchen.

[citation needed] After his release from prison, Spillane started as a numbers runner for various organized crime figures in Hell's Kitchen.

It was Spillane's refusal to allow the Italian mobsters to participate in the rackets in Hell's Kitchen and along the west side of Manhattan that led to his downfall.

The Italian gangsters greatly outnumbered the members of the Irish mob, but Spillane was successful in keeping control of the convention center.

[6] The Italians, frustrated and embarrassed by their defeat to Spillane and the Irish gangsters, responded by hiring a rogue Irish-American hitman named Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan to assassinate Tom Devaney, Eddie "the Butcher" Cummiskey, and Tom "the Greek" Kapatos, three of Spillane's chief lieutenants.

When he was released from prison, Coonan sought to align himself with the Gambino crime family through an up-and-coming mobster from Brooklyn, named Roy DeMeo.

Robert, an actor, fell six stories to his death on July 10, 2010, in Manhattan, New York, when he leaned against his apartment window screen.