Paul McGonagle

Paul McGonagle (d. November 1974?) was a Boston, Massachusetts, mobster and leader of the Mullen Gang, a South Boston street crew involved in burglary and armed robbery. During the gang war against neighborhood boss Donald Killeen, McGonagle and Irish immigrant Patrick Nee successfully led the Mullens against the Killeen organization which finally ended with Killeen's murder outside his suburban home in 1972. The leadership of the Killeen Gang then devolved on James "Whitey" Bulger. He is the brother-in-law to Catherine Grieg, the fugitive girlfriend of Winter Hill Gang leader James J. Bulger. Later, Catherine's own brother, became close friends with Bulger and was found mysteriously shot in Cape Cod, Massachusetts which was ruled a suicide.

Rather than murdering Bulger as some Killeens desired, Patrick Nee arranged for their dispute with him to be mediated by Howie Winter, the godfather of the Irish-American Winter Hill Gang. After a sit-down in the South End, Boston, the two gangs joined forces with Winter as overall boss. Bulger, who proved a reliable moneymaker for Howie Winter, was soon in control of the South Boston rackets. It has since been revealed by investigators that Bulger was have been responsible for his disappearance in November 1974.

According to Patrick Nee, Paul McGonagle was enraged by the murder of his younger brother Donald, who, according to Kevin Weeks, was shot in the head during the Killeen-Mullen War after Bulger mistook him for his brother Paul. It was likely for this reason that Bulger shot McGonagle in the head and buried him in a shallow grave on Boston's Tenean Beach. The murder was almost certainly sanctioned by Howie Winter.

Further reading

*English, T.J. "Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster". New York: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0-06-059002-5
*Lehr, Dick and Gerard O'Neill. "Black Mass: The Irish Mob, the Boston FBI and a Devil's Deal". New York: Public Affairs, 2000. ISBN 1-891620-40-1
*Nee, Patrick. "A Criminal and an Irishman," 2006.
*Weeks, Kevin, "Brutal; The Untold Story of my Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob"