On June 28, 1978, Peter Meroth, 31, was one of five men executed in the basement office of the Blackfriars Pub on Summer Street in Boston in what became known as the Blackfriars Massacre. The victims had been playing backgammon after the pub closed when they were reportedly surprised, herded downstairs and shot. Crime-scene descriptions note blood-splattered surroundings and shootings with both a 12-gauge shotgun and a .25-caliber automatic pistol, suggesting multiple shooters.

Investigators recovered small amounts of cocaine and marijuana and $15,000 in an open safe, which led them to conclude robbery was unlikely and that the killings were tied to a drug dispute. The probe focused on organized-crime links, with suspected connections to the Winter Hill Gang and the Patriarca crime family. Two men, Robert J. Italiano and William N. Ierardi, were arrested and tried in 1979 but were acquitted after a 27-day trial. The case remains officially unsolved.