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 what Stuart told police, a black man came to his car window and shot Carol in the head, and Charles in the stomach. Stuart then drove away to escape, calling 911 on his cellphone. During this time a CBS film crew happened to be in the area filming a segment to the series Rescue 911, and put their cameras on Stuart as police and EMTs assisted him.
Carol Stuart died that night, after their son, Christopher, was delivered by ceasarean section. The infant suffered seizures due to oxygen deprivation, and died 17 days later after his father discontinued his life support. Boston police aggressively pursued black men without probable cause, giving rise to complaints about police tactics and racial profiling. Police suspected one Willie Bennett, and on December 28, Stuart picked 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. Matthew admitted that he drove to meet Stuart that night, saw that Carol had been shot and that his brother - who had apparently shot himself to support his false story - was clearly in pain. Matthew took the gun and a bag of valuables which his brother handed him and threw them away; they were never recovered. Police learned that Stuart had been involved in an affair, and was having financial difficulties. An article in The Boston Globe alleged 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, Stuart jumped from the Tobin Bridge to his death. He left no suicide note.
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.[1]
Stuart was portrayed by Ken Olin in the 1990 CBS telefilm Good Night Sweet Wife: A Murder in Boston.
[edit] 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
[edit] 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 0-13-584178-X.
