Paul McGonagle Sr. (January 21, 1939 – November 1974) was an Irish-American mobster and leader of the Mullen Gang, a South Boston street crew involved in burglary and armed robbery.
[1] Paul ("Paulie") McGonagle was the oldest of several brothers born to first generation Catholic immigrants from Ireland, and raised in South Boston.
Sister-in-law Catherine later divorced Bobby before taking up with[2] Winter Hill Gang leader James J. Bulger.
During the Killeen-Mullen gang war, McGonagle and Irish immigrant Patrick Nee successfully led the Mullens against the Killeen brothers' organization, which finally ended when the neighbourhood boss Donald Killeen was gunned down outside his suburban home in 1972.
Paul's brother-in-law David was found mysteriously shot in Cape Cod, which was ruled a suicide.
Donald, however, who shared a fleeting physical resemblance with his brother, was mistaken by Bulger to be Paul and was shot in the head, execution style, in 1971, (an alternative version of events, according to the opposing gang, is that Donald was shot in the face while driving, by another motorist - James "Whitey" Bulger) during the Killeen-Mullen gang war.
Following the murder and subsequent disappearance of her husband Paul, Margaret was granted a divorce, on grounds of abandonment, and remarried, to a man named McCusker,[citation needed] to whom she was still married as of 2008[update].