On the morning of June 28, 1978, the city of Boston 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, a janitor made a gruesome discovery: the bodies of five men, one of whom was 34-year-old Freddy Francisco Delavega of Somerville. The victims had been shot and, in some cases, brutally mutilated in what was described as a gangland-style slaying.
Delavega, along with the pub's owner, Vincent Solomonte, the night manager and former journalist John "Jack" Kelly, Peter Meroth, and a world-class backgammon player named Charles Magarian, had been playing a late-night game of backgammon after the pub, which also operated as a disco, had closed.
The scene discovered by police suggested a motive far more complex than a simple robbery. Although a significant amount of cash and drugs were reportedly on the premises, an open safe containing $15,000 in cash, along with firearms and small quantities of cocaine and marijuana, had been left untouched. Investigators believed the massacre was a targeted execution, likely stemming from a soured cocaine deal. The men were herded into the cramped basement and shot with what was believed to be a. 12 gauge shotgun and a. 25 caliber automatic pistol, indicating the presence of at least two shooters. The sheer brutality of the crime shocked even seasoned law enforcement officials, with the Suffolk County District Attorney at the time calling it one of the most shocking crime scenes he had ever witnessed.
The investigation into the five murders led to the arrests of two men, Robert J. Italiano and William N. Ierardi. They were brought to trial in 1979, but were ultimately acquitted of the murders. To this day, they remain the only individuals to have been tried for the crime, and the Blackfriars Massacre is officially considered an unsolved case. Over the years, whispers and theories have implicated notorious figures from Boston's criminal underworld, including the infamous mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger and his associate Stephen Flemmi, though their involvement in this specific crime was never proven in a court of law. The case remains a dark chapter in Boston's history, a brutal quintuple homicide that left a trail of questions and no convictions.
