Silas Jayne

popular name: Nicholas Femia

date_of_death: December 16, 1983

age: 44

cause_of_death: Gunshot - .357 magnum to the head

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Nicholas "Nicky" Femia was a low-level, but extremely violent, mobster and member of the Joe "the Animal" Barboza gang on Bennington Street in East Boston. After the Barboza gang diminished in 1967, he later became involved with the Winter Hill Gang of Somerville during the early 70s, which by then wielded power in areas like South Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Brookline, South End, Charlestown and Cambridge. All other parts of the Greater Boston area were controlled by the Patriarca Crime Family, the Mafia's New England Branch. Femia was suspected in several gangland killings during the violent feud of the mid 1960s between the Charlestown gang lead by the McLaughlin Brothers, and Winter Hill Gang lead by James "Buddy" McLean in Somerville. Barboza's East Boston gang backed McLean along with various members of The Bennett Gang in Roxbury, which included; Stephen "the Rifleman" Flemmi, his psychotic brother Jimmy the Bear, and Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme. Femia was heavily involved in armed robberies and extortion. He was a bulky guy with a vicious temper known to use a baseball bat or a sawed-off shotgun when making a point. Femia would come to an abrupt end quite befitting of a man of his violent personality. In December 1983, Femia was killed in a shootout with the occupants of an East Boston Autobody shop on Condor Street, in a shakedown attempt that went horribly wrong. Nicholas Femia shares his grave with his father in the Winthrop Cemetery on Cross Street, a small upscale beach community in Suffolk County, just outside of East Boston.

popular name: James McLean

date_of_death: October 31, 1965

age: 35

cause_of_death: Gunshot wounds

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: James "Buddy" McLean was a feared and respected Irish-American mobster from Somerville, Massachusetts, best known as the original leader of the Winter Hill Gang. Born in 1930, McLean rose through the ranks of Boston's underworld in the 1950s and early 1960s, earning a reputation as a tough street fighter and savvy criminal strategist. Under his leadership, the Winter Hill Gang became a dominant force in Boston’s organized crime scene, engaging in activities like bookmaking, loan sharking, and extortion. His criminal career reached a turning point when he became involved in a deadly turf war with the rival McLaughlin Brothers gang from Charlestown, igniting the Irish Gang War—a brutal series of killings that gripped Boston’s underworld. On October 30, 1965, McLean was gunned down outside a Somerville bar by a McLaughlin associate, Stevie Hughes, marking a pivotal moment in the gang war. His death further escalated the violence, but it also solidified his status as a legendary figure in Boston mob history. After his murder, Howie Winter took over the Winter Hill Gang, continuing the legacy McLean had started. His funeral attracted over 4,000 mourners and James McLean's final resting place can be found at Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden, Massachusetts.

popular name: Stanford White

date_of_death: June 25, 1906

age: 52

cause_of_death: Gunshot wounds

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Stanford White was a celebrated American architect and a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms at the turn of the 20th century. White designed many houses for the wealthy, in addition to numerous civic, institutional and religious buildings. When White was 25 years old, he embarked on a year-long tour of Europe, gaining inspiration and honing his techniques. Upon his return to New York in 1879, White entered into an architectural partnership with Charles Follen McKim and William Rutherford Mead to form “McKim, Mead & White.” The firm would go on to produce such iconic structures as the Washington Square Arch (1892), the Brooklyn Museum (1895), the Morgan Library (1903), the Rosecliff Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island and the original Madison Square Garden where he would suddenly and violently lose his life. The grave of Stanford White can be found at St James Episcopal Cemetery in St. James, New York.