Charles Stuart (murderer)
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Charles Stuart (ca. 1960-January 4, 1990) was a Boston man who murdered his pregnant wife and inflamed racial tension by blaming a non-existent black suspect.
On Oct. 23, 1989, Charles Stuart, a furrier, and his pregnant wife Carol (born Carol DiMaiti, March 26, 1959), a lawyer, got into their car after attending childbirth classes at Brigham and Women's Hospital. According to police, Stuart shot his wife in the head and himself in the stomach, and then called 911 on his cell phone. Carol Stuart died that night, after their son, Christopher, was delivered by cesearean section. He suffered seizures due to oxygen deprivation, and died 17 days later after his father discontinued his life support.
Stuart blamed the crime on a black man. The Boston police aggressively pursued black men without probable cause. They suspected one Willie Bennett, and on December 28, Stuart fingered him out of a lineup.
The case against Bennett came to an abrupt close when Stuart's brother, Matthew, identified Charles Stuart as the killer. Stuart had been involved in an affair, and was having financial difficulties. An article was published in the Boston Globe alleging that a $480,000 check was issued to Charles Stuart in payment for a life insurance policy on his wife, but this was later found to be false, as no such check was ever found. On January 4, 1990, he jumped from the Tobin Bridge to his death.
In Carol Stuart's memory, her family established the Carol DiMaiti Stuart Foundation to provide scholarship aid to Mission Hill residents. By early 2006, the foundation had awarded $1.2 million to 220 students.[link]
He was portrayed by Ken Olin in the 1990 CBS telefilm [[Good Night Sweet Wife: A Murder in Boston]].
External links
- [The Forgotten Victim]
- [Bizarro Boston]
- [Boston Globe article on William Bennett], ten years later
- [Illusion and Tragedy Coexist After a Couple Dies], New York Times, January 7, 1990
Further reading
- Sharkey, Joe (1991). Deadly Greed: The Riveting True Story of the Stuart Murder Case That Rocked Boston and Shocked the Nation. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 013584178X.
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