Don't Talk About Joe Mac: The Life, Wars, and Secret History of the Man Behind the Winter Hill Gang
(Hardback)
Publishing Details
Don't Talk About Joe Mac: The Life, Wars, and Secret History of the Man Behind the Winter Hill Gang
By (Author) Springs Toledo
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Bloomsbury Academic
22nd January 2026
United Kingdom
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
True crime: serial killers and murderers
Organized crime
History: specific events and topics
Physical Properties
Hardback
352
Width 152mm, Height 229mm
Description
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 Machis tragic origins, unsolved murders, and the daughter who broke his silence. Its a story you were never supposed to know.
Dont Talk About Joe Mac is a tour de force through the bizarre society that was the Boston underworld, where myths are dismissed and liesongoing and government subsidizedare 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 FBIs 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 wronghis tragic origins, unsolved murders, and the daughter who broke his silence. Reading like noir, this book exposes the Boston underworlds secret history of collusion, cover-ups, and cold cases through its most feared and ominous figure.
Author Bio
Springs Toledo writes literary nonfiction and is the author of five books, including The Hanging of Old Brown: A Story of Slaves, Statesmen, and Redemption (2002) and Murderers Row: In Search of Boxings Greatest Outcasts (2017). His writing has been featured on NPRs Here & Now, recognized in The Best American Essays (2019, 2020, 2022, 2023), and published in Ploughshares, City Journal, and Salon, as well as several other magazines and journals. Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Toledo is a product of the underclass, parochial schools, and boxing gyms. At fifteen, his mugshot was snapped at Boston Police Headquarters on Berkeley Street; ten years later he was one mile west graduating summa cum laude from Northeastern University with an advanced degree in Criminology. Learn more at www.SpringsToledo.com
