John White (loyalist)

John White
Born	1950 (age 66–67) Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality	British
Other names	Captain Black Coco
Years active	1969-2003
Organization	Ulster Defence Association
Known for	Invented UFF covername
Political party	Ulster Democratic Party
Criminal charge	Double murder
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment (released due to GFA)

John White (born 1950) is a former leading loyalist in Northern Ireland. He was sometimes known by the nickname 'Coco'. White was a leading figure in the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and, following a prison sentence for murder, entered politics as a central figure in the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP). Always a close ally of Johnny Adair, White was run out of Northern Ireland when Adair fell from grace and is no longer involved in loyalist activism.

Born in Belfast, White was one of eight children, two of whom had died in infancy, whose father was permanently disabled as a result of wartime injuries. The family had initially lived on the mainly nationalist Ballymurphy area of the Springfield Road, Belfast but had left upon the outbreak of the Troubles to move to the Old Lodge Road area of the lower Shankill. White has claimed that although his house "wasn't a loyalist one" his father "hated Catholics" and was bitter about what he saw as the treachery of the Republic of Ireland in not becoming involved in the Second World War.

White began his career in loyalism with a group called the Woodvale Defence Association, a vigilante group based on the Woodvale estate in the upper Shankill, in the early 1970s. Before long the WDA was absorbed into the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and White became one of this group's leading members.

White was close to Charles Harding Smith, who emerged as the first leader of the West Belfast UDA, and in April 1972 he accompanied Harding Smith to London, where the two held a meeting with an arms dealer in order to procure weapons for the UDA. However, both men were arrested after the meeting and charged with the procurement of arms. After a series of mistakes by the prosecution, the case collapsed in December of that year, allowing White and the other defendants to return to Belfast.

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