When McCarthy took over as head of Local 25 in 1955, just next door in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville—James “Buddy” McLean a hoodlum, a truck driver, and member of Local 25 had made a name for himself as founder and leading boss of the Winter Hill Gang. With the infiltration of Winter Hill Gang thugs at Local 25 and the constant stories making the headlines of the troubled local on the front pages of The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald, in 1991 McCarthy subsequently lost his local election to George Cashman, an opportunist disguised as a reformer.