Four criminals known to the police and a former Channel 7 (now WHDH-TV) Boston television investigative news anchorman, Jack Kelly, were killed, allegedly over the sale of cocaine.
The Irish-themed pub, which also doubled as a late-night disco club, was named after Blackfriars, which was mentioned in William Shakespeare's play Henry VIII.
[4] Investigators suspected that the five men were surprised at around 2:00 a.m. and herded into the basement that served as the establishment's office, where they were all shot by one or more intruders wielding at least one shotgun and a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol.
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.
But it was very real, and he just kept getting in deeper and deeper.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.
While he managed Blackfriars for Solomonte, he hired Stephen Flemmi's longtime mistress Marilyn DeSilva to work at the popular discothèque as a waitress.
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 an admirer of Edward Francis Harrington, 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.
"[citation needed] Police Commissioner Robert diGrazia informed reporters after the scandal at city hall that there was a witch hunt-type campaign to get Mayor Kevin White.
Soon after Chief diGrazia leveled his charges, The Boston Globe released an investigative article that revealed 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.
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, with whom he had become an associate through the Winter Hill Gang in 1976.
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.