Don't Talk About Joe Mac - by Springs Toledo (Hardcover)

About the Book

This is the story of Joe Mac, a mysterious figure in the Boston underworld, founder of the Winter Hill Gang in the 1950s, member of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives in the 1970s.

Book Synopsis

Forget what you think you know about the Winter Hill Gang; this is the ruthless truth of the Bostonunderworld and its most ominous figure - his tragic origins, unsolved murders, and his daughter who broke the silence around him.

In 2020, author Springs Toledo set out to find a ghost in the Boston underworld whose name can end a conversation - what he found is startling. Don't Talk About Joe Mac is a true crime biography that reads like noir fiction. It is a journey through a shadow society as bizarre as it was impenetrable; an exposé that will upend the official narrative animating United States v. James J. Bulger(2013) as it corrects the record and takes the top off a succession of unsolved murders.

Joe McDonald (1917-1997), a World War II veteran and father of five, was the most revered career criminal in the region and its most prolific killer. He founded the Winter Hill Gang in the 1950s, became the bogeyman of the infamous Gangland War of the 1960s, and was among the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives in the 1970s, and yet his name was barely mentioned and his exploits only whispers.

His daughter, whose own unforgettable story is laced within his, brings us uncomfortably close to a personality marred by trauma. This is Joe Mac's story, a story you were never supposed to know.

Review Quotes

Don't Talk About Joe Mac may well be the last of the great Boston Mob books. Springs Toledo delivers the whole package on the enigmatic Winter Hill boss-fine writing, familial insights from his daughter and many memorable stories. And he solves the mystery of the 1992 disappearance of Jimmy Sims, Joe Mac's partner in crime. A must-read for all Boston OC aficionados!
Howie Carr, New England's undisputed talk radio king, New York Times best-selling author of The Brothers Bulger and Hitman, and columnist for the Boston Herald

I always avidly await another book by Springs Toledo. I can count on him to explore dark and dangerous places, and trust that his heart and humanity will make it a trip worth taking. Don't Talk About Joe Mac is beautiful-the way a perfectly thrown left hook is beautiful.

Toledo's book is a revelation-for the quality of its investigation and the humanity with which it lays bare the life of a decorated World War II veteran, a husband and father, a gangster and prolific professional hit man. Joe McDonald is likely a name unknown outside the mean streets of the Boston underworld, but after reading Don't Talk About Joe Mac, you will feel as though you know the man. Toledo has peeled back the onion to reveal the beating heart of a sentimental, old-school tough guy who killed people for a living. Brutal, masterfully written, unrelenting in its excavation of fresh information, and with startling disclosures, this book may be the best portrait of a certain type of twentieth century American street mobster ever to appear in print. Get this book now.

About the Author

Springs Toledo was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts and is the author of six books, including Murderers' Row. His literary nonfiction has been featured on NPR's Here & Now, recognized in The Best American Essays (2019, 2020, 2022, 2023), and published in Ploughshares, City Journal, Salon, and several other magazines and journals.