Murder of Carol Stuart
Police actions, with widespread stop and frisk of African-American residents in Mission Hill, was supported by the Suffolk County District Attorney.
[4] In 1989, Charles Stuart was the general manager at Edward F. Kakas & Sons, an upscale fur clothing shop on fashionable Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts.
[6] Stuart later told police that a young adult African-American gunman with a raspy voice and wearing a striped tracksuit forced his way into their car at a stoplight, ordered them to drive to nearby Mission Hill.
[9] Other footage included Stuart straining to speak with ambulance workers, and graphic scenes of his rushed entry to the hospital's emergency room.
[1] During the manhunt, the city's police indiscriminately used controversial[17] stop and frisk tactics on young black men, which heightened racial tensions.
[18][19] Suffolk County District Attorney Newman Flanagan called for reinstating the death penalty, which had been abolished in Massachusetts in 1984, a proposal that received some support in the state legislature.
[1] In late October, the Boston Police arrested Alan "Albie" Swanson and his girlfriend on a breaking and entering charge unrelated to the murders.
[20] Swanson became a suspect in the Stuart case after officers found newspaper clippings about the murder in his home and a black running suit soaking in his bathroom.
He asked his best friend, John "Jack" McMahon, to help him throw Carol's purse, a .38 revolver, her engagement ring and wallet off the Dizzy Bridge in their hometown of Revere, Massachusetts.
After spending the night in a Braintree motel, Charles abandoned his car on the Tobin Bridge in Chelsea around 7 a.m. on January 4, 1990, and jumped 135 feet to his death in the Mystic River.
Two months before the murder, Charles approached his brother, Michael Stuart, and a high school friend, David MacLean, and implied that he wanted them to help him kill his wife.
The Boston Globe, in its 2023 series and documentary on the murders,[1] asked an independent forensic consultant, Lewis Gordon, whether Charles could have shot himself.
[30] In September 1991, Matthew Stuart was indicted on six charges, including conspiracy, obstruction of justice, unlawful possession of a firearm, compounding a felony,[31] and insurance fraud.
In November 1992, he pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact of murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, conspiracy to impede and obstruct justice, and concealing stolen property.
"[1] In a New York Times article, Harvard psychologist Robert Coles described Stuart as "an extreme example of a psychopath, an antisocial personality with little sense of remorse, a propensity to lie and often an ability to deceive others into believing his fantasies."
"[18] In January 1990, The Boston Globe's Mike Barnicle wrote that Prudential Financial had issued a check for $482,000 as the life insurance payout for Carol's policy.
[11] After his release from the hospital, Charles began spending money on a new Nissan Maxima car and women's jewelry, including diamond solitaire earrings and a gold brooch.
[36] In October 1990, a jury found Bennett guilty of an armed robbery of a Brookline video store and three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.
[1] On January 5, 1990, the day after Charles Stuart committed suicide, District Attorney Newman Flanagan said Willie Bennett was no longer a suspect in the murder investigation.
[40] The foundation helped students who showed leadership ability and had significant financial need, and provided recipients with mentors and summer internships.
[41] The DiMaitis' attorney and family spokesman, Marvin Geller, told the press: "Carol would not want to be remembered as the victim of a sensational murder, but rather as a woman who left behind a legacy of healing and compassion.
[42][43] The Stuart case is mentioned in A Drink Before the War (1994), the first novel of Dennis Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro series that deals with the themes of urban crime and race relations in Boston.
It is also referred to in Robert B. Parker's novel Small Vices (1997); at one point, protagonist Spenser, a private investigator, muses that he would have suspected at once that Stuart had "murdered his wife and wounded himself badly to cover it up."
[44] The documentary TV series City Confidential covers the Stuart murder in its December 2000 episode titled "Boston: Betrayal in Beantown".
[45] The 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine refers to the case as contributing to false racial fears that drive gun ownership in the United States.
