Thieves of Charlestown - by Joe Bradley

Book Synopsis

According to the FBI, more
bank and armored-car robbers have come out of Charlestown, Massachusetts, than
any other one-square-mile area in the world. With these robberies also came
gangland violence and corruption. Fictionalized in the movie The Town featuring
Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner, this is the true story of Charlestown and
the thieves and gangsters who terrorized the community for decades.

On October 31, 1961,
Bernie McLaughlin got shot dead in broad daylight in front of a hundred
witnesses in the City Square section of Charlestown. Because of the ironclad code of silence in the Irish stronghold known as the "Green Square
Mile," no witnesses came forward. The murder ignited a bloody war between the
McLaughlin Gang and Buddy McClean's Winter Hill Gang that left more than sixty men
dead.

Three decades later, as
narcotics invaded Charlestown, and a concurrent Mob war raged between J. R.
Russo's North End crew and that of Patriarca-family boss "Cadillac Frank" Salemme,
five thieves called the "No Name Gang" committed over a hundred heists across
New England that cemented the enclave's infamy. Grippingly cinematic and raw, Thieves
of Charlestown delivers an unprecedented look at the real criminals who ruled
the streets of "The Town."

About the Author

Joe Bradley is a former gang-unit cop in Springfield, Massachusetts, with a Master's degree in criminal justice. He lives in Connecticut with his family.