‘Unjust, Unfair, Racist and Wrong’: Boston Mayor Apologizes to Wrongly Accused Men After HBO Doc Reignites Controversy Over 1989 Murder
In 1989, Charles Stuart shot and killed his pregnant wife Carol and blamed a Black man for it, sending the City of Boston and its police department on a rampage of racial profiling that scarred the city’s Black community and ruined the lives of two wrongly accused men. Thirty-four years later, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D) offered those men and their families a formal apology, which was accepted.
She stood at a podium in front of the press, with Alan Swanson and the family of Willie Bennett, standing behind her as she spoke:
We are here today to acknowledge the tremendous pain that the city of Boston inflicted on Black residents throughout our neighborhoods 34 years ago. The mayor’s office, city officials, and the Boston Police Department took actions that directly harmed these families and continue to impact the larger community, reopening a wound that has gone untended for decades.
On behalf of the Boston Police Department, the mayor’s office, and the entire city of Boston. I want to say to Mr. Swanson and Mr. Bennett, the entire Bennett family, and Boston’s entire Black community: I am so sorry for what you endured. …
I am so sorry for the pain that you have carried for so many years. What was done to you was unjust, unfair, racist, and wrong. And this apology is long overdue. To every Black resident: I am sorry not only for the abuse our city enacted, but for the beliefs and the bias that brought them to bear in the first place.
Joseph Bennett, the nephew of Willie Bennett, took to the podium to accept the apology on behalf of his uncle and family:
We just want to express our gratitude to Mayor Wu for the apology. Her courage in acknowledging the wrongdoings of the Boston police and offering a sincere apology is something we deeply respect and appreciate. It takes great humility and courage to acknowledge someone else’s wrongdoings and to try to make amends. Your apology is accepted, the apology is accepted, the apology is accepted.
The case was thrust back into the spotlight after the debut of HBO’s documentary series, Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage & Reckoning, which wrapped up earlier this week. The three-part series, along with the nine-part podcast made in conjunction with The Boston Globe, dove into the Stuart case while providing the historical and racial context surrounding the environment and culture of the time.
The HBO series painted a picture of a deeply divided and racist atmosphere sparked by the desegregation of schools and busing in 1974. After a brief moment of unity in the 1980s, the Stuart case roiled the community once again. A guilty white man blamed an unidentified Black man in Mission Hill for shooting him (nonfatally) and his pregnant wife, and an uproar ensued, pointing the finger in the direction of Boston’s Black community and a suspect who didn’t exist. Charles Stuart’s brother eventually told homicide detectives that his brother had been planning an insurance scam shortly before Carol’s death, not knowing that the plan was to kill her. Before Charles could be arrested, he committed suicide.
There is no indication that the apology came as a result of the podcast or series, though Wu’s election is highlighted at the end of the documentary.
Watch the video above via The Boston Globe on YouTube.
