Tom Devaney

{{short description|American mobster}}

{{distinguish|Tom Devanney|Thomas Devaney}}

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Tom Devaney (died July 20, 1976) was a New York mobster and an enforcer to Mickey Spillane{{cite web |title=Tom Devaney |url=https://lamafiasiciliana.blogspot.com/2013/06/tom-devaney.html |website=La Mafia siciliana |access-date=6 January 2023}} during the 1960s and 70s. As Spillane's chief lieutenant, Devaney played a leading role in the growing animosity between Spillane and the Genovese crime family as well as the gang war against James Coonan.

Devaney was an exhibition worker on the West Side who was murdered by Joe "Mad Dog" Sullivan on the orders of Genovese mobster George Barone because "he was interfering with us", as Barone told prosecutor in court. Sullivan observed Devaney for eight weeks, then disguised himself with an Afro wig and skin dye, followed Devaney into a bar-and-grill in Midtown Manhattan, and shot him in the head.

Devaney's death marked the beginning of the end for Spillane's operation. Spillane was murdered the following year.

Notes and references

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Further reading

  • English, T.J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. {{ISBN|0-06-059002-5}}
  • English, T.J. The Westies: Inside the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob. St Martin's Paperbacks, 1991. {{ISBN|0-312-92429-1}}

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Category:Year of birth missing

Category:1976 deaths

Category:Murdered American gangsters of Irish descent

Category:Gangsters from New York City

Category:Murdered Westies (New York gang) members

Category:Westies (New York gang)

Category:People murdered in New York City

Category:Deaths by firearm in Manhattan

Category:People murdered by the Genovese crime family

Category:People murdered in 1976