DOCUMENT: College, Stupid

Boston Police Bust Up Frat Hazing Ritual

Underwear-clad pledges covered in condiments

Duct Tape

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BU Hazing Report

APRIL 10--Responding early yesterday to a noise complaint at an off-campus Boston University fraternity house, cops discovered five pledges taped together in the building’s basement, where they had been doused with chili sauce, coffee grounds, honey, mustard, hot sauce, flour, and empty sardine cans, according to a police report.

The five BU students were in their underwear and had “red welts and markings all over their backs.” Additionally, cops noted, the men had portions of their heads shaved in a haphazard fashion and had been bound to each other by the wrist with duct tape.

The quintet was discovered in a home occupied by 11 members of Alpha Epsilon Pi, an unsanctioned BU fraternity. Boston cops are probing frat members in connection with the apparent hazing activity, which left the five pledges “shivering” with “horrified and fearful looks on their faces,” according to the Boston Police Department report.

An officer got no verbal response when he asked members of the group--who were linked together in a human chain--if they were okay. However, the report notes, one victim “looked right at Officer and with tears coming down his face shook his head from right to left and back indicating no.”

After cops “cut the five victims loose,” investigators questioned suspects, each of whom denied knowing why there were “people in the basement freezing, humiliated, petrified and covered with all sorts of condiment type substances.” 

As officers searched the Ashford Street residence, suspects--some of whom sought to hide in a closet and behind a mirror--refused to cooperate with cops. Despite the frat omerta, police are continuing to probe the home’s residents in connection with the mistreatment of the nearly naked pledges, each of whom declined medical treatment offered by cops.

In addition to being doused with various substances, the hazing also appeared to have involved drinking a repulsive concoction. Cops spotted some red Solo cups filled with sardines and beer. Officers also seized a “gray metal pipe with writing on it stating BONGZILLA used for swilling beer.” (2 pages)