[1] McMullen used an 8mm camera hidden in a lunch box to get footage of bookmakers accepting bets from hundreds of people inside the shop.
[3] The film showed 10 uniformed officers of the Boston Police Department and one recently retired BPD detective entering the establishment while illegal betting took place.
[1] In addition to footage of the key shop, Biography of a Bookie Joint featured interviews with members of the Internal Revenue Service's intelligence unit, the Massachusetts State Police, and the New England Citizen's Crime Commission.
[5] MSP Col. Carl Larson stated that he had informed Boston Police Commissioner Leo J. Sullivan on at least four occasions that illegal gambling was occurring at the key shop.
[6] George McKinnon of The Boston Globe called Biography of a Bookie Joint "a brilliantly handled documentary, far more intriguing than any TV private eye drama".
[9] Sullivan was brought before the Massachusetts Governor's Council's on charges of neglecting his duty by not ordering an investigation into the officers who were filmed visiting Swartz's Key Shop as well as three unrelated offenses.
Fiscal control of the BPD and the power to appoint the police commissioner was transferred from the Governor of Massachusetts to the Mayor of Boston.
Edmund McNamara was brought in from the FBI to become police commissioner and Quinn Tamm was hired to perform a survey of the department.