DOB 9-28-26, Cambridge MA, 1966 photo. One of Whitey Bulger’s fellow bank robbers, arrested and convicted with him 1956. Released from prison, arrested in a robbery, then shot to death in January 1967 before his trial. Resembled the fictional George V. Higgins title character in “The Friends of Eddie Coyle,” (played by Robert Mitchum in the 1974 film). Author Higgins denied that he based Coyle on William O’Brien. Not to be confused with William O’Brien, the killer of George O’Brien in South Boston who in 1973, as a member of Indian Joe Notarangeli’s gang, was

machine-gunned to death on Morrissey Boulevard by Whitey and Johnny Martorano.