On a grim morning in Boston, June 28, 1978, the city awoke to a scene of brutal violence that would come to be known as the "Blackfriars Massacre". Inside the blood-spattered basement of the Blackfriars Pub on Summer Street, law enforcement discovered the bodies of five men who had been shot in a gangland-style execution. One of these men was Charles Magarian, a 48-year-old male from North Andover. The victims, who also included the pub's owner Vincent E.
Solmonte, manager and former investigative reporter John "Jack" Kelly, Peter Meroth, and Freddy Delavega, were found after having been shot in the head with a. 12 gauge shotgun and a. 25 caliber automatic pistol. It is believed there were two shooters.
The men had apparently been playing a game of backgammon after the pub had closed for the night when the assailants entered. The gruesome discovery was made by a janitor arriving for work. Investigators found small amounts of cocaine and marijuana at the scene, along with $15,000 in cash in an open safe, leading them to believe the motive was not robbery but was connected to a drug deal gone wrong, specifically involving several kilograms of cocaine.
The investigation into the quintuple homicide pointed towards Boston's powerful organized crime syndicates, with suspicions falling on the notorious Winter Hill Gang and the Patriarca crime family. Prominent figures in the criminal underworld, including James J. "Whitey" Bulger and his associate Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, were considered prime suspects in orchestrating the killings. Another individual, Nicholas Femia, an associate of both gangs, was also a person of interest.
Despite the high-profile nature of the case and the clear links to organized crime, the path to justice was fraught with challenges. Two men, Robert J. Italiano and William N. Ierardi, were eventually arrested and brought to trial for the murders in 1979. However, after a twenty-seven-day trial, both men were acquitted of all charges. To this day, the Blackfriars Massacre remains officially unsolved, a chilling chapter in the history of Boston's criminal underworld, and the killers of Charles Magarian and the four other men have never been brought to justice.
