May 13, 1972
This is the story of Donald Killeen. But it’s also the story of the notorious James “Whitey” Bulger, since Killeen’s story can’t be told without reference to the double-dealing Bulger who offered up Killeen as payment in a deal with the devil (or the Winter Hill Gang in this case). This act of treachery completed, Bulger then embarked upon a bloody campaign that eventually won him complete control of Boston’s underworld.
It could be said that everything began when Kenneth Killeen, Donald’s younger brother, bit off the nose of Mickey Dwyer of the Mullen gang. As Dwyer was rushed to emergency, Killeen boss Donald picked up the nose, wrapped it in a napkin and sent it to the hospital for reattachment to the unfortunate Dwyer. But that nose episode was just an excuse for the start of yet another gang war in Boston.
In the 1960s and early ’70s, the Killeens owned the southern part of Boston, termed Southie. The Mullens, though, there were plenty of them and really it was just a matter of time before the two gangs bumped noses. When the shooting began the city of Boston was knee deep in dead hoods.
Although the Killeens were the dominant gang, the Mullens were determined, and before long the Killeens found themselves backed into a corner. That’s when Whitey Bulger, Donald Killeen’s bodyguard, decided he needed to rethink his allegiance.
Going to Winter Hill leader Howie Winter, Bulger made it clear that he could put an end to the war—one that was costing numerous lives, not to mention money—by taking out his own boss, Donald Killeen. If Bulger could finish off Donald, he reasoned, then the rest of the Killeens would topple like dominoes. All that Bulger wanted in return was a position in Howie’s mob. Winter could then absorb the remnants of the Killeens and the Mullens into his own gang. This way, everybody would win. Everybody except Donald, of course.
On May 13, 1972, Donald Killeen was at home, celebrating the fourth birthday of his young son. He went outside to fetch a toy train set that he’d hidden in the trunk of his car, but got fifteen bullets in the face instead. It’s said that it was Whitey Bulger who pulled the trigger that day and then sped off in a waiting car.
With Donald Killeen gone, Howie Winter sued for peace with the Mullens and successfully took control of Boston’s criminal world—but by 1979 Whitey Bulger had wrested leadership of the Winter Hill Gang from him, and the city was his.