William Ryan was born in 1849 in Manhattan, New York to Patrick and Ellen Ryan, two Irish immigrants. Before his incarceration, Mr. Ryan lived in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and worked as a laborer. In 1896, he married Mercy Smith, of Rockland, Maine, in Boston, Massachusetts. The 1910 census listed him as widowed.
Mr. Ryan was incarcerated in Massachusetts State Prison when he died of angina pectoris and coronary sclerosis on July 12, 1910. He was 61.
