Mickey Featherstone

About Mickey Featherstone

Francis "Mickey" Featherstone (born c. 1947) was an Irish American mobster and member of the Westies, an organized crime gang from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in New York City. Following his arrest for murder in 1986, he became an informant.

He served in the Vietnam War, during which he was tormented because of his size. He was upset because he was stationed with Green Berets, but he had none of their training and was forced to run errands. After a night of drinking with some of the medics with whom he was stationed, Featherstone passed out, and the medics tried to circumcise him. The attempt was botched, leaving Featherstone scarred for life. Shortly after his return to the U.S. in 1968, he began down the road that would eventually lead him to his friend James Coonan. But with the John Riley, and Emilio "Mio" Rettagliatta shootings, it wouldnt take very long.

After the Eddie "the butcher" Cummiskey shooting,Coonan needed some new muscle. Enter Mickey Feathersone.After the Linwood Willis shooting, Mickey felt indebted to jimmy for giving him the gun he felt was necessary to defend himself.In 1976 Jimmy approached Mickey for the need for "protection".After that there was no turning back. In 1977 Coonans major rival Mickey Spillane was murdered in Woodside, Queens, by soldiers of Gambino captain Roy Demeo, who wished to build an alliance with Coonan. Featherstone was Coonan's right-hand man and bodyguard, and, under their reign, the trigger-happy Westies committed many murders in addition to engaging in loan-sharking, drug trafficking and protection rackets. Coonan is believed to have murdered loanshark Ruby Stein to clear various debts members of the Westies had with Stein. The murder of Stein, who had been the Gambino crime family's man in Hell's Kitchen, led Paul Castellano to rein in the Westies by transforming Coonan and Featherstone into close associates of the Family. In theory, all murders were to be approved by the Italians. However, Coonan and Featherstone secretly skirted this rule on several occasions.