On the morning of June 28, 1978, a janitor arriving at the Blackfriars Pub on Summer Street in downtown Boston discovered five men shot to death in the pub’s subterranean basement. One of the victims was the 35-year-old owner, Vincent Solmonte, a Quincy resident who also owned a waterfront bar called Vincent’s. The other four victims were identified as Peter Meroth, 31, of Jamaica Plain; Freddy Delavega, 34, of Somerville; Charles Magarian, 37, of North Andover; and the night manager, 34-year-old John Jack Kelly.

Investigators recovered small amounts of cocaine and marijuana and $15,000 in cash in an open safe, and believed the killings were tied to a drug deal gone wrong involving larger quantities of cocaine. Solmonte had been under investigation by the FBI and the IRS for alleged bankruptcy fraud and was known to law enforcement as a cocaine trafficker. Two men, Robert J. Italiano and William N. Ierardi, were tried in 1979 but acquitted after a 27-day trial; the case remains officially unsolved.