Murdered 1964 by William O’Brien in a typical Southie drunken brawl. It was always listed as a “gangland” slaying, but as you see from his mom’s letter to the newspapers, it really wasn’t.

Postscript: William O’Brien, George O’Brien’s killer, went to prison for four years for the slaying, and after his release, joined the Notrangeli mob. In 1973, the Winter Hill Gang began systematically exterminating the Notarangelis, and one day in 1973, as O’Brien drove north on Morrissey Boulevard to pick up his daughter for her birthday, a car driven by Whitey Bulger pulled up alongside his, and from the passenger seat, Johnny Martorano opened fire with a machine gun.

Mrs. O’Brien’s son George was avenged.