The 1978 Blackfriars Massacre was an American Mafia massacre that occurred on June 28, 1978 in Downtown Boston in Boston, Massachusetts. The massacre claimed four criminals known to the police and a former Channel 7 (now WHDH-TV) Boston television investigative news anchorman and reporter, John A. Kelly. The massacre was allegedly over the sale of cocaine. The shooters who carried out the murders have never been caught.
The main targets that were the intended reason for the murders were John A. Kelly and/or his business partner and friend, Vincent E. Solomonte. The victim, bar manager John A. Kelly is not to be mistaken as corrupt DEA agent John Kelly, friend of FBI Special Agent John Connolly, Patriarca crime family mob associate John J. Kelley ("Red") who were all active at the same time in the Boston underworld.
Maurice Lewis a lifelong friend of Kelly stated,
Although he was fired over a political scandal with city hall, co-workers thought that Kelly was on the verge of making a comeback to the world of investigative journalism. According to former colleague Maurice Lewis, Kelly was scheduled to give up his job as manager of The Blackfriars Pub in two to three weeks in order to begin work as a freelance producer at WLVI-TV, Channel 56. His first pilot was scheduled to be taped on July 14 of that year. He also spoke of buying a bar or restaurant and manage it himself. While he managed Blackfriars for Solomonte, he hired Stephen Flemmi's long time mistress Marilyn DeSilva to work at the popular discothèque as a waitress.
John, as a Channel 7 investigative reporter would later say in an interview in November 1976, “I suppose my role with those people (organized-crime figures) is a dual role in a sense. I went into the relationship looking for stories. If you want a story on a gangster, go to a cop. If you want a story on a cop, go to a gangster. I went into that situation for that reason, and I suppose I came away with more.”
Mel Bernstein, who was WNAC-TV's news director stated that Kelly was a great admirer of Edward Francis Harrington, the former head of the New England Organized Crime Task Force and the United States Attorney in Boston], and says it was Harrington who first suggested to Kelly that if he really wanted to do investigative reporting he ought to develop underworld contacts. "It’s true that he kind of relished those associations... but he always maintained that those relationships were there because he needed sources. I accepted that only on the basis of who he was and what his job was. Every reporter has to have his sources."
Police Commissioner diGrazia informed reporters after the scandal at city hall that there was a witch hunt-type campaign to get Mayor Kevin White. His office's public relations workers were covertly leaking information on Kelly to reporters they considered cooperative. Soon after Chief diGrazia leveled his charges, The Boston Globe released an investigative article that revealing a police report indicating that John Kelly had been seen by law enforcement officials “in the company of known members of organized crime” on roughly 25 separate occasions. When firearms and cocaine were found at the scene of the massacre, allegations and speculations of Kelly being an active member in Boston's organized crime came to light. John Kelly's friend and fellow co-worker Maurice Lewis later commented to The Boston Phoenix that there was no evidence that Kelly had been profiting from drug deals, though he stated that at the very least Kelly was a fringe member of organized crime. Lewis said, :“He had no new car and no new clothes. He was driving a gold Cadillac Eldorado, but it was about three years old and it wasn’t his. It was Vinny’s (victim Vincent E. Solomonte), and it was all beaten up. Jack never hid anything. If he were a big drug dealer, he’d let the world know. Jack ain’t gonna be wearing moccasins if he can be wearing $150 shoes. And he left home wearing moccasins that morning.”
The Boston Police Department suspected the responsibility of the murders to be orchestrated by one or some of these suspects:
Three gunmen had burst into Blackfriars, a Downtown Boston bar located at 105 Summer Street. The Irish themed pub was named after Blackfriars which was mentioned in William Shakespeare's play Henry VIII. John A. Kelly of Framingham, Massachusetts, the club manager was found lying face-down, two gunshot wounds in the head, in the cramped, blood-spattered subterranean basement of the popular discothèque and lounge Blackfriars, along with the bodies of Charles Magarian of North Andover, Massachusetts, Peter Meroth of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, Freddie Delavega of Somerville and Vincent E. Solmonte of Quincy, Massachusetts who was the club's owner. The men had been killed while in the middle of a game of backgammon that had started up after the disco closed for the night. The bullet-riddled corpses were discovered by the janitor when he came in for work.
Investigators suspected that the five men were surprised at around 2:00 a.m., and herded into the office where they were all shot by one or more intruders wielding at least one shotgun and a .25-caliber automatic handgun. At the scene investigators discovered a small arsenal of firearms and small quantities of cocaine and marijuana, as well as including $15,000 in loose cash in an open safe. It is thought that with these discoveries the motive behind the massacre was not a robbery. The prevailing police opinion was that it looked to be a classic gangland-style slaying.
The armed robbery was allegedly over several kilos of cocaine. One of the murder victims, Vincent E. Solomonte was later discovered to be a close associate and friend of Winter Hill Gang member Stephen Flemmi. The homicide investigators concluded that the five men were all murdered "gang land style". Jack Kelly left behind a wife and four young children.
Suspect William N. Ierardi would later name James J. Bulger and Stephen Flemmi as two of the three triggermen in the massacre. Retired corrupt FBI Special Agent Michael J. Buckley said in court that he told FBI Special Agent John Connolly that Ierardi later admitted that he had fabricated the involvement of Bulger and Flemmi in the unsolved massacre.
Suspect Nicholas Femia was a hulking, overweight man with a cocaine addiction who wore flashy flamboyant clothing and had a troubled relationship with James J. Bulger when he became of an associate of the Winter Hill Gang in 1976. Nicholas lived with a girlfriend of Stephen Flemmi's mistress, Marilyn DeSilva in an apartment across the street from Chandler's Restaurant, a South End restaurant co-owned by Martorano. He first began as a career criminal under the tutelage of Joseph Barboza. Nicholas was introduced into the gang to assist with extra muscle for their extortion and "protection" rackets.
When suspect Nicholas Femia began hanging around the Winter Hill Gang's current headquarters, Lancaster Foreign Motors garage, James J. Bulger wanted it established that Nicholas had nothing whatsoever to do with the massacre, although his involvement in considered highly suspect by law enforcement circles. Bulger did this to reduce any pending surveillance and subpoenas or investigations by ambitious policemen who would try to prosecute Bulger just because of his association with a suspected killer with a higher profile like Nicholas.
Soon after Nicholas joined the Winter Hill Gang, a brief notice appeared in one of FBI Special Agent John Connolly's reports clearing Nicholas of any involvement in the Blackfriar's Massacre. As James J. Bulger grew older, he became more obsessed with physical fitness. James often wore tight jeans and t-shirts, and grew increasingly disgusted with Nicholas's protruding gut.
Later, after Bulger and Nicholas parted ways, Connolly put another report in Bulger's file, suggesting that Nicholas had in fact been one of the triggermen in the Blackfriars killings. Nicholas would later remain under police surveillance for an assortment of crimes until he was shot to death during the unsuccessful shakedown of an autobody shop on condor street East Boston in 1983. Femia remains one of the suspects in the massacre but his involvement has never been able to be proven.
Suspects Robert Italiano and William N. Ierardi, two suspects who were concentrated on by authorities during the initial homicide investigation were later tried and acquitted in court in 1978. The massacre remains unsolved.
The building - called the Church Green Building - that once held the pub that was managed by John A. Kelly and owned by Vincent E. Solmonte, now houses Copy Cop and a Dunkin Donuts stores.
Even though the crime was never officially solved, it is documented as being connected to organized crime. The Blackfriar murders is featured on Boston.com as a "Mob Tour" attraction [1].