THE notorious gangster John "The Coach" Traynor has died in England.
Traynor, an associate of mob boss John Gilligan, passed away in a hospice in Kent, UK, on Sunday – several years after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The 73-year-old was a big name in organized crime for over forty years and had an extensive criminal resume, including fraud, drug trafficking, and prostitution.
Funeral arrangements are now being made for the life-long criminal, who fled Ireland following the murder of Sunday Independent journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996.
Traynor was a source for the gangland journlist, who referred to him as “the Coach” in her articles.
The journalist’s murder shook Irish society at the time and prompted authorities to shine the full light of the law onto Ireland’s criminal underworld.
According to the Irish Mirror, when Traynor was eventually tracked down in the UK in 2013, he said: "When Gilligan organised that murder he f****d everything up for all of us.
"The minute it happened I knew my life was over."
The father of four has long been suspected of playing a role in the murder of Mrs Guerin.
Gardaí believe he tipped off the Gilligan gang about where the journalist would be on the day she was shot, according to the Irish Mirror.
Two men on a motorbike pulled up alongside her car on Ireland’s M7 and fatally shot the brave journalist, who was 37 at the time, on 26 June, 1996.
