William S. O'Sullivan - Murder Victim

Murder Victim

According to the memoirs of Mullin leader Patrick Nee, Paul McGonagle was thoroughly livid over the murder of his brother and, believing that O'Sullivan was responsible, received permission to kill him. On March 28, 1971, after having dinner with his wife at Jimmy's Harborside Restaurant, O'Sullivan dropped his wife off at their home and told her that he had an errand to do and that he would be back in an hour. Shortly after midnight, Mary noticed that his car was parked in the driveway in front of their house at the bottom of their driveway, it was surrounded by a group of neighbors. She went out to see what her neighbors were looking at and she saw her husband's bullet riddled body. She at first did not recognize his body but made positive identification from the suit that he wore. O'Sullivan had been shot by several gunmen numerous times as he sat behind the wheel of his car and was hanging half out of the car with the driver's door open.

According to Weeks,

"Billy O'Sullivan's death might not have happened if he had listened to Jimmy. Billy O had been with Jimmy against the Mullins and had shot Buddy Roache during the gang war. Buddy, whose brother Mickey later became Boston's police commissioner, ended up crippled and in a wheelchair. In March 1971, not long after he shot the wrong McGonagle, Jimmy went to New York to pick up guns. Before he left, he told Billy to be careful while he was gone and not to drink. But that night, Billy hung around with Kevin O'Neil down at the Transit Cafe and ended up drunk. Kevin offered him a ride home, but Billy refused the offer. Heading home, He was chased by a couple of men with the Mullins gang who caught up with him when he tripped over a manhole cover about 200 yards from his house and fell down. While he was lying there, the pursuers shot him to death. If Kevin O'Neil had ended up driving Billy O'Sullivan home that night, he probably would have been killed, too."