A longtime gangster of the Manhattan's Westside ghetto known as Hell's Kitchen, Cummiskey served under Mickey Spillane following his release from prison. He was allegedly involved in the kidnapping of Genovese bookmaker Eli Ziccardi as well as later participating in the gang war between Spillane and Coonan during the mid-1960s. While serving time in an upstate New York prison, Cummiskey learned the trade of butchery, allowing him to take advantage of his sentence to perfect a new and gruesome murder method.