Albert L. O'Neil
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Albert L. "Dapper" O'Neil (1920 – December 19, 2007) was an American politician who served as a socially conservative member of the Boston City Council for 28 years.[1] He served on the Boston Licensing Board and was an operative for Boston Mayor James Michael Curley.[1]
He graduated from Roxbury Memorial High School and attended Suffolk University Law School, but left before graduating to serve in the United States Army during World War II.[1]
O'Neil was later a chauffeur for Endicott Peabody. After Peabody was elected Governor of Massachusetts, he appointed O'Neil to Boston's Licensing Board.[1] He was first elected to office in 1971.[2]
In a story published in The Boston Globe on November 11, 1999, when he lost his City Council election bid to Michael Flaherty, Boston historian Thomas H. O'Connor said, "This is the last hurrah not merely for a man but for the politicking he represents." O'Connor went on to say that O'Neil's career endured "largely through the kinds of loyalties he built up over 30 years, from people for whom he'd done favors, and they'd never forget him, and they'd talk about him to their relatives. He built a political career on a system of local patronage."
O'Neil had a long history in supporting the right to keep and bear arms.
[edit] Seat
Proceeded by: Louise Day Hicks
Succeeded by: Michael F. Flaherty
