A photo of Eddie O'Connor (left) with Danny West (right)
Danny West (14 August 1949 – 2004) was a British boxing trainer who owned the Shoreditch Boys Club in the Shoreditch district of London. He was killed in the 2004 Shoreditch Boys Club shootout.
Biography[]
Danny West was born in London, England on 14 August 1949, and he became a professional boxer at a young age. He went on to spend 25 years as a boxing trainer, founding the Shoreditch Boys Club in the Shoreditch section of the city. In 1974, he took the 11-year-old junior boxer Eddie O'Connor under his wing, and the two became close friends, with O'Connor seeing West as a role model. West became a local legend as O'Connor became a boxing celebrity, but, during the early 2000s, West began to amass a criminal record due to his gambling problems and his involvement in embezzlement. He went on to become an associate of the Collins Crew, and he collaborated with them to rob a bank in the Docklands section of the city.
Death[]
West's body
With the help of Jimmer Collins, West and the robbery crew pulled off one of the largest heists in British history, robbing Skobel Bank. The Russian Mafia boss Viktor Skobel had West's friend John interrogated, and he revealed West's location. Skobel, Yuri Gorsoy, and a large contingent of Russian mobsters headed to the gym, where they also faced the Collins Crew as they attempted to collect their debt from West. After realizing that West had gathered the crew together, Skobel shot him dead, and Skobel, Gorsoy, and Collins each escaped as a three-way firefight between their crews and responding SO19 operatives broke out.