Paul McLaughlin: Shooting, Jeffrey Bly’s Trial, and Legacy

Paul McLaughlin, a Massachusetts assistant attorney general and veteran gang prosecutor, was shot and killed on September 25, 1995, outside the Highland Street commuter rail station in West Roxbury. The gunman was Jeffrey Bly, a Mattapan gang leader whom McLaughlin had prosecuted twice before and was set to prosecute again the next morning. The murder of prosecutor Paul McLaughlin remains the only killing of a prosecutor in Massachusetts history tied to the victim’s work.¹ Bly was convicted of first-degree murder in 1999 and is serving life without the possibility of parole.²

The Shooting at Highland Street Station

McLaughlin was 42. He stepped off a commuter train that evening and walked to his Toyota Tercel in the station parking lot. A gunman shot him in the temple at point-blank range. Witnesses nearby reported hearing a brief exchange of words and then two gunshots.³ McLaughlin was found with his legs hanging out of the car. His wallet, cash, and credit cards were untouched.⁴

Boston Police Commissioner Paul Evans told reporters that investigators had not ruled out any motive, including the possibility that the killing was “an attack on the entire criminal justice system.”⁵ Officers and canine units searched along the commuter rail tracks, and detectives began working through McLaughlin’s case files for leads.

Why Jeffrey Bly Killed Him

The investigation led to Jeffrey Bly, who ran a drug-trafficking crew called the Theodore Street Posse, based in the Theodore Street area of Mattapan.⁶ In the eight months before the shooting, McLaughlin had tried Bly twice, once for drug trafficking and once for attempted murder. Bly was acquitted both times. A third case was already set: McLaughlin was scheduled to begin prosecuting Bly for carjacking on the morning of September 26, the day after the murder.⁷

According to trial testimony, Bly feared that another conviction at McLaughlin’s hands would mean a life sentence. After the shooting he told associates, “I don’t have to worry no more, I took care of my problem,” and said McLaughlin “was going to give him a lot of time because he had been up against him before.”³ Bly had recruited a younger associate, Anthony Houston, to track McLaughlin’s daily routine at South Station and the Highland stop. On the night of the murder, an associate named Ricardo Gittens drove one of the vehicles used to reach the station. Witnesses later testified that Bly bragged about the killing and was seen soaking his hands in bleach afterward.

How Investigators Built the Case

Near the crime scene, investigators recovered a black hooded sweatshirt, a brown glove, a green bandana, and a knit cap. Witnesses confirmed Bly had been wearing a black hooded sweatshirt that day.³

Three laboratories tested the items. Blood on the clothing matched McLaughlin, and DNA on the sweatshirt collar and cuff, on the glove, and on the bandana was linked to Bly, with random-match probabilities ranging from one in 480 to one in 2.3 million depending on the sample and the testing method. The Boston Police Department, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, and the FBI all contributed to the investigation.

Trial, Sentence, and Appeals

Bly stood trial in Suffolk Superior Court before Judge James D. McDaniel Jr. On May 29, 1999, after three days of deliberation, the jury convicted him of first-degree murder, finding the killing deliberately premeditated. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.² He had already been convicted separately on the carjacking charges McLaughlin had been preparing to try, and was serving 10 to 15 years for that offense.⁶ He was also convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.⁸

Bly challenged the conviction several times. In a decision dated March 7, 2007, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts affirmed the murder conviction and declined to order a new trial or reduce the verdict, finding the evidence “strong” and the jury’s handling of the case “dispassionate.”³ On an ineffective-assistance claim tied to evidence of a prior murder conviction, the SJC acknowledged that some prosecutorial questioning was improper but held that the judge’s limiting instructions “adequately defused” it and that no substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice resulted.⁹ A federal appeal to the First Circuit was also denied; the panel wrote that “the case against petitioner was stronger than any conceivable defense.”⁸

Who Paul McLaughlin Was

McLaughlin was born in 1953 and grew up in Boston. He earned his law degree with honors from Suffolk Law School in 1981 and began prosecuting in 1983 at the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office. In 1990 he became an assistant attorney general and was assigned to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office as a lead gang prosecutor.¹ He was a bachelor and the son of Edward McLaughlin Jr., a former Massachusetts lieutenant governor, and his wife Elizabeth.¹⁰

Over more than a decade of prosecutions, accounts placed his conviction rate at 75 percent or higher across well over 100 cases. Former Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley called him a “meticulous, smart, and very dedicated lawyer.” Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger described him as a “quiet, unassuming and unsung hero.”¹¹

Where Things Stand Now

Jeffrey Bly remains incarcerated at the North Central Correctional Institution in Gardner, Massachusetts.⁸ A mural honoring McLaughlin hangs in the Suffolk District Attorney’s downtown office. On September 25, 2025, the 30th anniversary of the murder, the office held a memorial Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Boston’s West End, followed by a gathering at the University of Massachusetts Club. Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden called McLaughlin “an extraordinary prosecutor” who was “deeply committed to helping his community and his city.”¹

1
Boston Globe. Suffolk DA Memorial Paul McLaughlin
2
New York Times. Gang Leader Convicted of Killing Prosecutor
3
FindLaw. Commonwealth v. Bly
4
Newsweek. Race and Murder in Boston
5
New York Times. Gang Tie Investigated in Prosecutor’s Killing
6
Cape Cod Times. Gang Leader Convicted in Prosecutor Case
7
Cape Cod Times. Trial Begins Today in McLaughlin Case
8
Boston Herald. Paul McLaughlin Forever a Hero to Boston
9
FindLaw. Commonwealth v. Bly (2005)
10
SouthCoast Today. Slain Prosecutor Craved Peace
11
Los Angeles Times. Gang Tie Investigated in Prosecutor’s Killing