THE BLACK HAND FORUM

Clark wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2019 5:50 am

I thought this was a good read and might help you with your research

Thanks John W !

Big Bill McCormack wasn't really a gangster per se, but rather an extremely successful corrupt businessman. He was friends with various underworld characters and had deep political connections, as well as being very close with ILA President Joe Ryan. The waterfront was full of labor strife; however, his company, Penn Stevedoring, never had a strike and in some cases paid less than union wages. You have do the math on that one.

Usually Wikipedia bios should be taken with a grain of salt, but the one on him is quite good:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J ... sinessman)

The FBI began investigating him after Cockeye Dunn teased a reveal of a powerful waterfront "Mr. Big" in an attempt to have his death sentence commuted. The feds made McCormack part of their Top Hoodlum program (which is why he appears in the MF files), but in the end they never really uncovered much.

In my opinion, he was simply one of those rags to riches, post-Prohibition, businessmen who was willing to play dirty and use his political connections to get ahead in the corrupt world of the docks. When he called, I am sure the gangsters would listen, but he was much too rich from his legitimate businesses to be involved in any street-level stuff. It was just a case of his world intersecting with organized crime and him knowing how to leverage that (very well).

The scene at the end of On the Waterfront, where they show the faceless shipping boss watching Brando's testimony, is supposed to be McCormack.

Hope you enjoy the book!

I thought this was a good read and might help you with your research

Wiseguy wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2019 4:50 pm The Irish, of course, controlled the west side docks of Manhattan before the Italians took over. The last holdout was ILA Local 1909, which was employees at the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier Museum. The Westies still had this local when Jimmy Coonan was running things. By the early 1990s there were only 300 members in the few Manhattan ILA locals left. The other two were Local 1809 (also Intrepid) and 824, which had only 88 members and handled baggage from occasional ocean cruises.

At first look it may seem the Gambinos got the better end of the split with their control of the Brooklyn and Staten Island waterfronts. However, most of the activity over the past 20 years has been on the New Jersey side of the Hudson. In the end, I think the Genovese got the most valuable territory.

John W wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2019 8:42 am I thought this was a good read and might help you with your research