The unluckiest bar in the world

According to its owners, that would be Packy Connors, 205 Blue Hill Ave., which today found itself before the Boston Licensing Board - again - for three more alleged infractions, from a guy walking out of the joint with a cup of beer to the involvement of its patrons in an all-out melee that shut down Blue Hill Avenue as the cops tried to restore order. Oh, yeah, and five to six gunshots fired in its vicinity one night.

The board put off any possible action until another meeting on Wednesday.

Owner James Cairns, his son, Packy, who runs the place, and their lawyer, John Russell, told the board that two more serious incidents were unfortunate, but really had nothing to do with the bar - which police want to shut down but which the licensing board keeps open. The Cairnses and Russell said the shots may have been fired from as much as 250 feet away from the bar - possibly from a house noted as a scene of violence. And the melee, which happened at closing time on May 29, was caused by two women in an argument over their shared, imprisoned babydaddy that started down the street, they said. In fact, Packy Cairns said he tried to break up the initial fight down the street from his bar, which spiraled into a near riot that ended with three stabbings and four arrests.

Boston Police Lt. Eric Eversley and Officer Brian Dunford, however, said "a crowd began to gather" as bar patrons exited the establishment at closing time, in particular as the male patrons rushed to see the women fighting. At the height of the incident, "it was total chaos," Eversley said.

Dunford, who works an overnight beat in the area, told the board he was shoved twice by a man watching the fight. And he told the board that the Packy's crowd is a rough one. Compared to a nearby bar, the Breezeway, Packy's "has a much heavier clientele in terms of their criminal records," he said, adding he has arrested Packy's customers exiting the bar with weapons. Packy Cairns said that wasn't possible because he and his staff of nine bouncers (eight men and one woman) screen all patrons as they enter with a metal-detecting wand.

Tom McDonough, an aide to City Councilor Stephen Murphy, said Murphy supports the bar owners.

Licensing Board Chairman Daniel Pokaski was sympathetic to the bar: "It appears you're doing everything right; you're a victim of the environment you live in."