Boston Mayor apologized to the Black men accused in the murder of a pregnant woman

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has officially said sorry to two Black men, Alan Swanson and Willie Bennett, who were wrongly accused of a crime back in 1989.

“The case was about the murder of a white woman named Carol Stuart. What happened back then caused a lot of problems in Boston because it made the divide between Black people and the police even worse.”

During a meeting with the press, Mayor Wu apologized for all the pain that Swanson and Bennett went through. These two men were wrongly blamed for the death of Carol Stuart.

It turns out that Carol’s husband, Charles Stuart, was behind the murder, and he falsely blamed a Black person. This made the police go after Black people in a neighborhood where mostly Black people lived, causing a lot of anger and distrust.

Mayor Wu wanted to say sorry not just to Swanson and Bennett but also to their families and the whole community. She talked about how the city did something very wrong 34 years ago, causing a lot of pain for Black people. She handed both families a written apology, acknowledging that the mayor’s office, city officials, and the Boston Police Department made mistakes that hurt these families and the larger community. This made an old wound, which hadn’t been taken care of for many years, open up again.

Wu explained that after Carol Stuart was killed, and based on a false and racist claim blaming a Black man, the city started targeting Black men in the Mission Hill neighborhood and other parts of the city.

She said there was no evidence that a Black man did the crime, but many people believed the story because it confirmed their existing beliefs.

The police commissioner, Michael Cox, also admitted that the police messed up back then. He said sorry for the pain and suffering caused by the Boston Police Department’s poor investigation and overly aggressive actions, which were probably against the law.

Willie Bennett’s nephew, Joey Bennett, accepted Mayor Wu’s apology on behalf of his uncle, his family, and Alan Swanson. He said they were grateful for finally getting this apology. He mentioned their family member, Willie Bennett, who had shown strength and resilience throughout his life no matter what others said.

While accepting the apology, both families asked for some kind of payment for what they went through. Swanson, who mentioned that he was broke, said he needed financial compensation for all the trouble and pain he’s still facing. He said he was glad that this was finally happening.

The whole story started when Charles Stuart claimed that a Black man forced his way into their car and shot both him and his wife after they attended a birthing class at a hospital in 1989.

Charles said the man ordered them to drive to the Mission Hill neighborhood, where he robbed them and shot Carol Stuart in the head. Charles was shot in the chest. Carol Stuart died the next morning at the same hospital where they had attended birthing classes, and the baby, delivered by cesarean section, survived only 17 days.

Charles Stuart survived the shooting, but his description of a Black attacker led to a big police crackdown on Black men in the neighborhood. Some investigators had already started doubting Charles’s story. During this crackdown, Swanson was arrested first but later ruled out. Then, Bennett was taken into custody. Stuart later identified Bennett in late December. But by then, Stuart’s story was falling apart.

Swanson and Bennett both said they had nothing to do with Carol Stuart’s death, and they were never officially charged with a crime. Charles Stuart’s brother, Matthew, eventually confessed to helping him hide the gun.

On January 4, 1990, Charles Stuart parked his car on a bridge that leads in and out of Boston and jumped, falling to his death. His body was found later that day.