It’s been nearly 30 years since Assistant Attorney General Paul McLaughlin was struck down in the street by a gang leader he was just a day away from prosecuting for a third time.
On Thursday, the Suffolk District Attorney’s office will hold a memorial and celebration of life service for McLaughlin, who was assigned to their office three decades ago when he became the first and only Bay State prosecutor killed over their work in fighting crime.
“There will be a memorial mass,” at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Boston at 4 p.m. “and then a gathering at the UMass Club after” at 5 p.m., the DA’s spokesperson told the Herald.
McLaughlin was killed on September 25, 1995 as he was getting into his car in West Roxbury shortly after stepping off of a commuter rail train.
According to contemporary reporting, Jeffrey Bly, then the alleged 20-year-old leader of the Theodore Street Posse in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood, stepped out into the open, exchanged brief words with McLaughlin, and then shot him in the temple.
The assistant attorney general, who was working inside the Suffolk DA’s office at the time and focused on putting gang members away, had already prosecuted Bly twice and failed to put him behind bars. However, an upcoming car jacking charge apparently had the would-be assassin concerned about the possibility he might finally see the inside of a jail cell.
Bly allegedly had a friend – and later witness at his trial – watch McLaughlin for three days before his murder in order to learn his routine.
After the shooting, police were able to tie Bly to the murder when they found the discarded clothing that had McLaughlin’s blood and a fragment from his glasses on it, as well as genetic material from Bly.
Bly was convicted of the killing in 1999 and is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
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