Don't Talk about Joe Mac: The Life, Wars, and Secret History of the Man Behind the Winter Hill Gang

Five years ago, author Springs Toledo set out to find a ghost whose name could end a conversation. What he found was startling. Forget what you've read about Whitey Bulger; this is the ruthless truth of the Boston underworld and its most ominous figure, Joe Mac-his tragic origins, unsolved murders, and the daughter who broke his silence. It's a story you were never supposed to know.

Don't Talk About Joe Mac is a tour de force through the bizarre society that was the Boston underworld, where myths are dismissed and lies-ongoing and government subsidized-are met head-on. At its center was Joeseph McDonald, or "Joe Mac," who founded the Winter Hill Gang in the 1950s, became the bogeyman in the infamous Gangland War of the 1960s, and made the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in the 1970s. He was still active in the 1990s and committed his forty-first and final murder when he was seventy-four. This is his story and the story of a World War II veteran and family man gone terrifyingly wrong-his tragic origins, unsolved murders, and the daughter who broke his silence. Reading like noir, this book exposes the Boston underworld's secret history of collusion, cover-ups, and cold cases through its most feared and ominous figure.