The Combat Zone: Murder, Race, and Boston’s Struggle for Justice (MHS)

This event is no longer on sale.

Wednesday February 23

6:00 PM  –  7:00 PM

At the end of the 1976 football season, more than forty Harvard athletes went to Boston's red light district to celebrate. In the city's adult entertainment district, drugs and prostitution ran rampant, violent crime was commonplace, and corrupt police turned the other way. At the end of the night, Italian American star athlete Andy Puopolo, raised in the city's North End, was murdered in a stabbing. Three African American men were accused of the crime. His murder made national news and led to the eventual demise of the city's red-light district. Starting with this brutal murder, The Combat Zone tells the story of the Puopolo family's struggle with both a devastating loss and a criminal justice system that produced two trials with opposing verdicts, all within the context of a racially divided Boston.

Loading...