Jay Flynn was born John M. Flynn on March 31, 1928, in Massachusetts. A hard-drinking Boston Irishman, he worked variously as a newspaperman, a bartender, editor, sex novelist, bootlegger, security guard, caretaker and, he claimed, "writer-in-residence" at a Nevada whorehouse. His first published work was his only short story, "The Badger Game," followed by the novel, The Deadly Boodle as J. M. Flynn, part of an Ace Double in 1958. In 1975, Flynn went to work for the low-tier publisher, Belmont-Tower, where he lasted two years—fired because of his drinking—then moved to Richmond, Virginia, where he lived for a while on skid row. Eventually relocating to Connecticut, he checked into a V.A. hospital in Branford for a checkup, where he died of cancer at age 57 on February 6, 1986.