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Thomas J. Ballou Jr.
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Meet
Tommy Ballou,
charter member of the Winter Hill Gang , and former bodyguard to the late Buddy McLean. Murdered in Charlestown, 1970. He was a close
friend of another Charlestown organized-crime figure, Thomas F.
Birmingham, who was the uncle and namesake of the man who succeeded
Whitey's brother as Massachusetts Senate president. Tom Birmingham, (the
gangster, not his nephew the senator) was murdered in a rooming house in
November 1969. Ballou had an unorthodox style of barroom fighting. A longshoreman, he always carried a grappling hook – and a $100 bill. If Ballou wanted to attack someone, he’d throw the C-note down. As it fluttered to the floor, the opposing plug-ugly would bend over to grab it, and that was when Tommy would plunge the grappling hook into the other guy’s back. Ouch. |
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