Charles Stuart
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Charles "Chuck" Stuart (December 18, 1959 – January 4, 1990) was an American man who murdered his pregnant wife Carol in 1989 for insurance money. The case heightened racial tensions in Boston, as Stuart falsely claimed that a black man had killed his wife during a robbery.
Biography edit
Stuart, born in 1959, was a general manager for Edward Kakas & Sons, a Boston-based fur sales firm. His wife Carol was a tax attorney and at the time of her murder was pregnant with their son Christopher.
On October 23, 1989, the couple were driving through the Roxbury neighbourhood after attending childbirth classes. According to Stuart, during the drive they stopped at a traffic light and were accosted by a "raspy-voiced" black man who forced his way into the car at gunpoint and forced them to drive to nearby Mission Hill, where he took their money and shot Stuart in the stomach and Carol in the head before making his escape. Carol was rushed to hospital and died just hours later the following day. Christopher was born by caesarean section but died after seventeen days due to trauma from the shooting. Stuart himself was hospitalized for six weeks with a gunshot wound to the stomach.
A black youth named Willie Bennett was arrested by the Boston Police Department based on Stuart's description of the attacker. Stuart identified him in an identification parade and he was charged with Carol Stuart's murder. However, in January 1990 the case against Bennett collapsed when Stuart's brother Matthew contacted police and told them about the events of October 23. According to Matthew, Stuart had called him and told him to come to Mission Hill to help him with an insurance fraud scheme. When he arrived, he found Carol shot in the head and his brother bleeding from a bullet wound, which he admitted was self-inflicted. At Stuart's request, Matthew had taken his gun and several valuables and thrown them in a nearby river in order to make it look like a robbery. Several of the items were later found in the river. It was confirmed that Stuart had cashed in a life insurance policy worth several thousand dollars hours after being discharged from hospital, and had bought several expensive luxury items in the days after the murder.
On January 4, 1990, Stuart was told he would likely be charged with his wife's murder. Before he could be arrested, Stuart fled in his car. The car was later found abandoned on the Tobin Bridge over the Mystic River in Chelsea. Inside was a suicide note in which Stuart stated that he was beaten and sapped of his strength by the accusations against him and could not go on. His body was found in the river the next day.