The Mayor of Boston formally apologized to two Black men who were wrongfully accused of murdering a pregnant white woman and her unborn child in 1989. This notorious murder case sowed decades of distrust between the Boston Police Department and the city’s Black community.
“I am so sorry for what you endured,” Michelle Wu said in an apology addressed to Willie Bennett and Alan Swanson at a news conference on Wednesday.
“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.” In 1989, Swanson and Bennett were named as suspects in the death of Carol Stuart.
Carol’s husband, Charles Stuart, plotted her killing, accusing an unidentified Black man, thus sparking a “systemic campaign targeting Black men” based on “a false, racist claim,” according to the Mayor.
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Michael Cox, the Boston police commissioner, apologized on behalf of the police department for “the poor investigation, overzealous behavior and, more likely, unconstitutional behavior.”
Flanking the speakers were Swanson and members of Bennett’s family. The Mayor handed them formal apology letters and said the gesture was “just the beginning of a much longer journey of accountability and action.”
Joey Bennett, Willie Bennett’s nephew, accepted Wu’s apology on behalf of his uncle, who did not attend the event.
“In accepting this apology, I wish to emphasize the importance of strength, resiliency, empathy, and growth – it’s through these principles that we change the narrative so the world can be informed of what transpired 34 years ago and begin the process of healing from our trauma,” he said.
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Carol Stuart was shot and killed in October of 1989. Her baby was delivered but died some weeks later. Charles Stuart, who was shot in the chest, said the assailant was an unidentified Black man who’d attempted a carjacking.
The false story led the Boston Police Department to begin an aggressive crackdown centered in one of the city’s traditionally Black neighborhoods.
In the following months, officers arrested Swanson, who was soon ruled out as a suspect, and later took Bennett into custody.
Meanwhile, Stuart’s story began to crumble: His brother, Matthew, confessed to helping to hide the gun used to shoot Carol Stuart, according to the Associated Press. In January 1990, Stuart died by suicide. It was later revealed that he orchestrated Carol Stuart’s killing for insurance money.
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Bennett unsuccessfully sued the Boston Police Department, claiming that officers violated his civil rights by coercing potential witnesses against him, the outlet reported. In 1995, his family won a $12,500 settlement with the city.
The murder and false accusations were recently the subject of an HBO documentary series titled “Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage & Reckoning.” This reinvigorated national interest in the case that fractured relationships across the city on racial lines.
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