Dock Boss: Eddie McGrath and the West Side Waterfront

by Neil G. Clark

At a time when the Port of New York was ruled by lawless criminals, one hoodlum towered above the rest and secretly controlled the piers for over thirty years.

Dock Boss: The Story of Eddie McGrath and the West Side Waterfront is the fascinating account of one gangster's ascension from altar boy to the leader of New York City's violent Irish Mob.

Eddie McGrath's life and crimes are traced through the tail-end of Prohibition, the gang warfare of the 1930s that propelled him into the position of an organized crime boss, the sordid years of underworld control over the bustling waterfront, McGrath's involvement in dozens of gangland murders, and finally the decline of the dock mobsters following a period of longshoremen rebellion in the 1950s.

Like walking into the backroom of a smoky West Side tavern, the book also features all the other unsavory characters who operated on the waterfront, including McGrath's brother-in-law, John "Cockeye" Dunn; the gang's hitman of choice, Andrew "Squint" Sheridan; racketeers such as Mickey Bowers, Timothy O'Mara, Charlie Yanowsky, Joe Butler and Albert Ackalitis; as well as a plethora of corrupt union officials, robbers, enforcers, shakedown artists, loan sharks, boss loaders, and bookies.

This is the real-life story of the preeminent racketeer on Manhattan's lucrative waterfront and the bloodshed that long haunted the ports of New York City.

Genres: True Crime

309 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2017

About the author

Neil G. Clark is a researcher and writer who has conducted more than five years of investigation on the topic. The book is based on over a thousand previously unreleased law enforcement reports on waterfront gangsters, hundreds of rare archival records, interviews, dozens of trial transcripts, and numerous newspaper accounts.

Reviews

[Amanda S · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read that lures you in from page 1. This well-researched book weaves the stories of the McGrath-Dunn mob into one compelling narrative that exposes some of the most brutal tales of New York's west side waterfront. The stories were both shocking and almost disturbingly comical as Clark explored the corruption and deceit that riddled the port thanks to these gangsters.

I appreciated the depth and details included by Clark that really brought the stories to life (the citations included in the back of the book really highlight all the research that went into this). His writing style and the short chapters for me were a win because they kept me engaged and always turning the page.

I would definitely recommend this book to those interested in true crime and those who love a good murder story too!

[Tim Stolzenberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. The research is meticulous and the details are weaved together into a fascinating story.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the true mob genre dominated by La Cosa Nostra, the name Eddie McGrath has often been overshadowed by the likes of Tony Anastasia and Socks Lanza in discussions of the New York waterfront. But, as author Neil Clark explains, Eddie McGrath was the heaviest and most consequential gangster on the docks. McGrath had so much juice that even into the 1960's, when the Gambino and Genovese families were disputing waterfront territory in Brooklyn, the Genovese boss of the East River piers was captured on tape explaining how they needed to go through Meyer Lansky's right hand man Jimmy Alo, who could then reach Eddie McGrath. “McGrath is the ILA,” he said.

But McGrath was not just a corrupt union official in the mold of Joe Ryan or Frank Fitzsimmons. A stone cold gangster suspected in over 30 murders, McGrath led a large, well organized, mostly Irish gang of West Side racketeers who were every bit as violent and dangerous as the Mafia. It's no wonder the Italians left the West Side alone. I was always curious about this while reading about later West Side Irish gangsters like Micky Spillane and Jimmy Coonan. How was it that the Mafia had left their territory largely alone? Well, now I understand that Spillane et al were beneficiaries of the mighty McGrath machine, which was simply not worth challenging. With his army of killers, his partnership with John “Cockeye” Dunn, his influence within the ILA, his diversified rackets, and his close friendships with the likes of Jimmy Blue Eyes and Joe Adonis, Eddie McGrath was perhaps the most formidable and successful of the prohibition era Irish gangsters.

At one point, Clark referenced an antiquarian book called “Dock Walloper,” the biography of a rough and tumble machine politician who was the father of some of the men in McGrath's gang. Available for free on Archive.com, I ended up reading it alongside “Dock Boss” and it made for a delightful experience. Written almost 80 years apart, the two books flow into a nicely connected continuum and each book makes the other one better. I appreciated Clark drawing attention to “Dock Walloper” and I recommend reading both books as companion volumes.

It's hard to say which is the best part of Clark's book. The early chapters chronicle a 1930's gang war and a cast of fearsome characters that gives new meaning to the term “Wild West.” The later chapters place McGrath near the center of the peak-era national syndicate and offer up plenty of the intrigue and connections that readers of the genre are always hungry for. Throughout, Clark carefully builds up a nice summary study of longshoreman culture and history.

I didn't realize the void in my knowledge of the New York underworld. Just when you think you've heard it all, along comes Neil Clark with a missing piece of the puzzle. I hope we hear more from Clark soon. A book on the Hughie Mulligan/Mickey Spillane organization would make a nice sequel to “Dock Boss,” which is an excellent addition to the true mob canon.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blood-soaked history of the West Side docks
In his first book-length project, Neil Clark takes aim at the mobsters of New York's West Side waterfront and scores a hit.

His selection of subject puts Clark in the footsteps of giants. An early account of waterfront corruption and racketeering by Malcolm Johnson of the New York Sun won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. On the Waterfont, a fictional film about gang rule along the wharves, won a trunkload of 1954 Academy Awards. More recently, historian Nathan Ward revisited the Hudson River docks for his 2010 book, Dark Harbor, examining Malcolm Johnson's groundbreaking effort to bring waterfront organized crime to light.

While much of the material in Dock Boss is familiar, Clark expands on earlier work with information drawn from court and prison files, FBI archives and other state and federal agency records. He delivers an informative and intriguing history. The Greater Toronto Area resident strays just a bit from the beaten path and approaches the subject through the life and career of a real-world "Johnny Friendly," Eddie McGrath.

McGrath's life story is a virtual Who's Who of Gotham outlaws. On his way to boss status, he benefited from alliances with such figures as "Big Joe" Butler, "Peck" Hughes, "Red" McCrossin, "Farmer" Sullivan, Andrew "Squint" Sheridan, John "Cockeye" Dunn and James "Ding-Dong" Bell. The résumés of his associates and his underworld rivals featured service with some of New York's most notorious gang chieftains, including Dutch Schultz, "Legs" Diamond, "Mag Dog" Coll and Owney Madden. Working relationships with Joey Rao, Vincent "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo and Giuseppe "Joe Adonis" Doto, eventually brought McGrath into contact with syndicate bosses Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello.

While exploring in detail the bloody gang wars, assassinations and brutalities of McGrath's career, Clark takes a bit of time to explain the unique features of New York City's docks and the rackets used by gangsters, union leaders and politicians to profit from them.

This reviewer can manage only a few minor complaints about Clark's work:
- Chapters are unusually short and sometimes break up logical units of the story. While I offer it as a criticism, it is likely that many readers will appreciate the short chapters.
- There are occasional typos and a bit of indecision over whether to use U.S.- or Canada-preferred spellings for some terms.
- The author may have been overly accepting of earlier histories. Some small Dock Boss flaws can be traced to Malcolm Johnson's work and reports based on Johnson's articles.
- Dock Boss does not include source citations for statements of fact in the text. This seems due to publisher policy. While it may be mildly frustrating for researchers, it should not be interpreted as a lack of documentary support. Clark provides an extensive bibliography and proves that he has command of the available sources in this subject area.

[Note: Author provided a review copy of the ebook.]