Morbid - Episode 671: The Murder of Carol Stuart

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

On the night of October 23, 1989, Charles and Carol Stuart were returning home from a childbirth class and drove through the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. According to Charles Stuart, they were stopped at a red light when a black teenager forced the driver’s door open and robbed the couple, then shot Charles and Carol before running off. Charles managed to call 911 from his car phone, but by the time emergency responders arrived, Carol was in a very bad state and would die a few hours later at a nearby hospital.The murder of Carol Stuart captured the attention of residents in and around Boston, and the story remained on the front pages in the weeks that followed. On one hand, it was a tragic story of a young couple on the verge of starting a family who were robbed of a future. On the other hand, it shined a bright spotlight on the city’s long-simmer racial tensions and the unequal treatment and application of law enforcement with regard to race. And those tensions would be significantly exacerbated when the truth about Carol Stuart’s murder was finally discovered.Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!ReferencesBrelis, Matthew. 1989. "Stuart suspect held on charges." Boston Globe, November 12: 1.Canellos, Peter. 1989. "Roxbury probe is criticized." Boston Globe, November 1: 29.Canellos, Peter, and Irene Sege. 1989. "Couple shot after leaving hospital; baby delivered." Boston Globe, October 24.Cullen, Kevin. 1989. "Stuart suspect linked to Brookline case." Boston Globe, November 13: 1.Hayes, Constance L. 1990. "Illusion and tragedy coexist after a couple dies." New York Times, January 7.Howe, Peter, and Jerry Thomas. 1989. "Reading woman dies after shooting in car." Boston Globe, October 25.Howe, Peter, Kevin Cullen, and Anthony Flint. 1990. "Police focus on brother, woman." Boston Globe, January 8: 1.Jacobs, Sally. 1989. "Stuart is said to pick out suspect." Boston Globe, December 29: 1.—. 1989. "Stuart reportedly reacted physically to suspect's picture." Boston Globe, November 23: 93.Jacobs, Sally, and Diego Ribadeneira. 1989. "No wallet, so killer opened fire." Boston Globe, October 26: 1.Koh, Elizabeth. 2023. "Stuart shooting timeline." Boston Globe, December 1.Kong, Dolores, and Sally Jacobs. 1989. "Infant of shooting victims dies of respiratory failure." Boston Globe, November 10: 1.Murphy, Sean. 1989. "Man questioned in shooting still held." Boston Globe, November 7: 17.New York Times. 1991. "U.S. won't indict Boston policemen." New York Times, July 5: D7.Rollins, Rachel. 2019. "30 years after Stuart case, Boston still healing." Commonwealth Beacon, November 9.Sharkey, Joe. 2015. Deadly Greed: The Riveting True Story of the Stuart Murder Case. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.Walker, Adrian, Evan Allen, Elizabeth Koh, Andrew Ryan, Kristin Nelson, and Brendan McCarthy. 2023. "The untold story of the Charles and Carol Stuart shooting." Boston Globe, December 1.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, weirdos, Alaina here. If you're looking to kick back and relax with morbid, Wondery Plus is the way to go. It's like having a cozy seat in our haunted mansion, no ads, just you, and early access to new episodes. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You're listening to a Morbid Network Podcast. Thinking about the misfortunes your small business could suffer doesn't seem very zen, podcast. dollars per month. Quick and easy, whether you're self-employed, an entrepreneur, a contractor, or small business owner, ZenSurance offers the unique coverage you need in a snap. Get an instant price today at ZenSurance.com.

Lamont Jones is shattered when his cousin dies just weeks after entering prison. The official report says natural causes, but bruises and missing teeth tell a different story. Wondery presents Death County PA, a chilling true story of corruption and cover-ups. Follow Death County PA on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, you weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid. Hey, what's up? Hello. I think there is lawnmowers happening outside and there's not a lot we

can do. I think you should run out there, run in front of them and say, hey, yeah, stop it. I can pull the happening and just lay in front of it. I that's not what I said at all. I told you to tell them to stop. Happening known don't happening. Please don't happening. I'm not doing this show alone. So no, I will not happening. Hey, hey, hey, she's not happening. It's true. She's not. She's tired. She's not happening. No, this. She's not. She's tired. She's not happening. No, this is our last recording before we get to take a little breaky.

Yeah. You won't know that we're taking a breaky. You won't know we're taking a breaky. Because we breakied ourselves to get all these recordings in. Yeah, you got a bulk record to get a breaky. Yep. So in these streets. In these streets.

So we don't know when this comes out, but there's really nothing pertinent that will affect that. Yeah, I think it comes out like mid May. You can preorder the paperback version of the butcher game. There you go. Looking for that paperback outback. Um, yeah. I like how you had to go, yeah. It's my favorite part of the song. Um, it's beach season almost and vacation season and you need a paperback. Yeah, that's in your beach bag. It's a beach read.

My kind of beach read. Yeah, I like it. So go get it. You can get it at thebutchergame.com. It'll lead you to all the places you can get it. So go get it. You can get it at thebutchergame.com. It'll lead you to all the places you can get it. Let's go. The Barnes and Nobles, all the places. Freaking potty. Freaking potty with your paperback. Freaking potty kid.

Well actually that kind of transitions into what we're going to be talking about today. We got a Boston hometown case. Oh my god, it's Boston. Yes. Not one to be proud of, I'm sure. No. I was actually just going to say this is a very devastating case. Oh my God, it's Boston. Yes. Not one to be proud of, I'm sure. No, I was actually just going to say this is a very devastating case. Oh.

It's awful, but it's probably a case that I think if you're from Boston or like anywhere around there, you're probably familiar with. Okay. Or if you're a fan of Law and Order, I think they, I remember seeing an episode that was very, very similar to this.

Oh, okay. So today we're going to be talking about the murder of Carol Stewart, who seemed like a really fucking cool person. Oh no. And it bums me out. So let's start at the beginning though. Carol Ann Demati was born March 26, 1959 in Medford. Medford, kid.

Medford, Massachusetts. She was the second of two children born to Giusto and Evelyn DiMatti. She grew up in a multi-family home, which is, you know, all homes around here pretty much. Yeah. Her aunt Rosemary actually lived on the second floor of the house, and there was a lot of extended family, like, in their neighborhood, around their neighborhood. So she and her brother always had a really warm, loving support network all around. I loved that. Yeah.

So at the time, Medford was a heavily Italian working class suburb of Boston, which meant that religion and the church were pretty central to the lives of a lot of residents at the time. Carol went to St. James School, which was a Catholic school at that time run by nuns. She was a really, really good student. She was well liked by her teachers, her classmates,

friends, of course. Pretty much everybody agreed that she could be whatever she wanted to be when she was done with school. She was at the very top of her class and all the classes that she was taking were AP or honors. Damn. Which is insane. Yeah. I don't know how people do that. Not easy. No. And on top of all that, she also would volunteer and she worked in the administrative office before school every morning. Wow. So she woke up early and went to school before she even had to. Oh, so she's really doing the damn thing. The school's headmaster, Sal Todaro said she'd come into the office in the morning and it was like a ray of light

coming in. Oh, I know. But according to author Joe Sharkey, who wrote the book Deadly Greed about this case, what teenage Carol wanted most of all was to be quote, married to a good husband living in the suburbs with a couple terrific kids happily ever after, which is really cute and so relatable. This goal, I'm sure for a lot of reasons, is what people remembered most about Carol. Her childhood friend, Robert said, overall, her purpose in life was to raise a good family. She got along with jocks, burnouts, wimps, geeks, headmasters, everyone. She was a very pleasant person,

painless to speak to, able to bridge the gap and circle in all different groups. She just sounds really cool. She just sounds like an all-around awesome person to have around. Yeah, just like didn't give a shit who you were, just wanted to shoot, like wanted to chat with you. Like, let's go.

And would help you out. Now when Carol was 15, her father found her a part-time job at Driftwood, a restaurant on the main street of Revia Beach. Revia, Ken. Revia is just a little ways away from Medford. Justo D'amati also worked at the restaurant as a part-time bartender at night,

so it was a pretty good opportunity for his daughter to get some work experience while he could also keep an eye on her. Ah, I see. Yeah, it was pretty perfect. Yeah, it really is. And a few years later when Carol turned 18 and now she could serve drinks, she moved up to work as a server. She was really great because again, she's a people person. People

loved her and her coworkers loved her as well. Co-worker Christine Barada said, when I met Carol, I met a big sister. She taught me how to drive. She taught me how to wear makeup, taught me about clothes and hair. In a way, she really helped me grow up. Oh, I know. That's really sweet. By the time she graduated high school in 1978,

Carol had saved nearly $10,000 from her retracing job. Holy shit. And she planned to put that towards school. She'd already been accepted to Boston University. And by the way, that would be a little more than $49,000. I was just going to say, and by today's standards, that's even more. $49,000 by today's standards.

Wow. Yeah. That's incredible. It's insane. At first, Evelyn and Giusto questioned if college was really the best choice for their daughter, but Carol was able to be, you know, successful and kind of... She was like, listen, I can make it happen. Yeah, she very much wanted to.

She argued that BU was a Jesuit school, so she could still be involved in the religious activities that they wanted her to, you know, be involved in. And to help ease their minds even more, she agreed that she would live at home for the first three years and commute into the city for classes, even though she really wanted to live on campus and kind of experience that freedom.

Yeah, she just knew it was unlikely that she was going to win that battle. Makes sense. So when she first started BU, Carol had hoped to become a teacher since she always loved being around children. But by sophomore year, her sophomore year in college, there were widespread layoffs and pretty poor funding for education in this area. So that made the prospect of becoming a teacher a bit less attractive. It wasn't gonna, you know, really make her a lot of money or anything like that.

That makes sense. So Carol changed her mind and she decided to pursue a law degree instead. Whoa. Yeah. Obviously, pretty different from teaching. Yeah. But her objective was similar. Whatever her career was going to be, she wanted it to help people. Make a difference in their lives. Yeah. So in 1978, she started seeing her first serious boyfriend, Chuck Stewart, one of the cooks from Driftwood.

A restaurant romance. We love to see it. Sometimes. When they met in the summer of 1978, she was still seeing her high school boyfriend, but she wasn't really on the lookout for somebody new, but as soon as she met Chuck, she was immediately interested. He was also a local.

He was born and raised in Revia, just a few miles outside of Boston. And also like Carol, he came from a pretty decent Catholic home surrounded by adoring, doting family members, you know, all sweet. Bostonians, their families run deep. It's true.

We really do. According to those who knew him best, Chuck was quote, ruggedly handsome, athletic, but not the kind of student that Carol became. Oof. Yeah. When they started dating, Chuck told Carol that he was attending Brown University on a football scholarship, athletic, but not the kind of student that Carol became. Ooh. Yeah. When they started dating, Chuck told Carol that he was attending Brown University on

a football scholarship, but that he had a dropout after being sidelined with an injury. Like a lot of claims that Chuck would make over the years, this was a lie. Oh. Yeah. One of many that he told in order to make himself seem more impressive than he really was. Oh, no. In reality, he had never been a good student. Definitely not a good enough student to go to Brown University.

And even if he had been accepted to Brown, they didn't offer football scholarships. Oh, no, Chuck. Yeah, so he was, there was lots of layers that didn't work out with that lie. You got caught. Yeah. The truth was he attended the local Vogue Tech school and had gone to Salem State University for one semester before dropping out within that first semester. And it's like, man, I don't know a lot about this case right now,

but I'm like, that's fine. Just be honest, man. It's okay. Like, the people who like you are gonna like you for who you are. Well, college is college. Not everybody gets accepted to college. People shouldn't be liking you based on where you went to school. And Salem State is also a great school. Absolutely it is.

And a fucking fantastic location if we do say so. But he wanted to be more than what he saw that as. That makes sense. So Carol and Chuck, like I said, they shared a lot of things in common, but there were also some stark differences in the ways that they'd grown up. Both were from solidly middle-class families, but Chuck's family had struggled financially at times, and he was always a little ashamed of that.

By the time he reached high school, they were living in a modest two-story home, two blocks from the school that he and his brothers went to, but they had previously lived in public housing, and that was something Chuck was really embarrassed about. And with four boys living in the family, the house was kind of always in a state of disarray, because boys are pretty messy, typically.

One of Chuck's friends said that the way Chuck described it was, too many kids, too much yelling and fighting, the place was always a shithouse. So he just, he didn't like the way he grew up. Which, you know, that's to each their own. I'm sure his parents did their best. According to some who knew him, Chuck's attitude towards his upbringing and shame surrounding his family really made a lot of sense and it just pointed to his arrogant and usually snobby personality. One

former friend said, he always let you know that he thought he was better than you. Which like, that's not a great friend to have. Because he was the oldest and the first born, he was, quote, lavished with attention before it was gradually withdrawn as the Stewart house became crowded with children. Oh, that's tough when you're a kid. That's tough. As an adult, you get the fuck over it. But as a kid, it's tough when you have all the attention, I'm sure.

I was the youngest, so I don't relate to this at all. Like, I was the one sucking up all the attention, so sorry, siblings. I mean, but then I came around when you were ten. That's true. But I'm sure that's tough when you get all the attention as a kid and that it's kind of has to be divvied up. Yeah, I'm sure. I wouldn't know.

I don't know. I'm like an only child, but also not. So I'm like, I'm in a weird place in my family. Yeah, you do have a strange place. My mom's only child, but then with you guys, you were all like siblings to me because I grew up in that house a lot. So you feel like the youngest of that.

I feel like the youngest of that, the only of my mom, and then the oldest on my dad's side. So I kind of have like all the siblings to me, because I grew up in that house a lot. So you feel like the youngest of that group. I feel like the youngest of that, the only of my mom, and then the oldest on my dad's side. So I kind of have like all the boxes ticked. You really do. It's weird. So yeah, I don't know a lot about that. But as far as some are concerned, the lack of his parents' constant adoration and attention

left Chuck with a sense of frustration and kind of like a mild bitterness that he would carry with him the rest of his life. Yeah, you gotta drop that. Which is crazy. You gotta drop that sometimes. Yeah. And there was also the matter of where he grew up.

Unlike Medford, which is easily accessible from Boston and, you know, points north, Revere was a little bit isolated for a lot of its history. In the summer, the railroad brought tons and tons of tourists to the beach, to the boardwalk area, but otherwise the city was difficult to get to and mostly operated independently from the cities, from surrounding cities and towns. Okay.

Yeah. By the 1970s, the beach also wasn't really a popular place for tourists to go. And the area was just kind of in a general decline that got worse throughout the years. For somebody like Chuck, who always wanted to be seen as this very successful guy, his hometown became a source of shame. Which is stupid. Yeah, it's like, come on. Plenty of people come from plenty of places that aren't fantastic.

And it's like, you didn't build the city. It's okay, like no one's blaming you for it. Revere's fine. Yeah, it's fine. But as soon as he was able to, he got himself out of Revere, because he thought it was awful. Only to return for short visits with friends and families. Now when they got together, to a lot of people around them, Chuck and Carol's relationship

seemed a matter of convenience more than anything else. Carol's high school boyfriend had gone off to college and long distance wasn't working out for them. But Chuck, on the other hand, was right there at the restaurant. He seemed to he seemed very determined to catch Carol's eye and do whatever he could to get her to go out with him. Christine Barata said, he wanted her. That was it. He went after her.

Whoa. Yeah. Which sometimes that can be a really cute start to a love story. Yeah. And other times... I'm guessing it's not here. It could be a red flag. Yeah. Carol's decision to date Chuck was actually a not here. It could be a red flag. Yeah. Carol's decision to date Chuck was actually a major point of contention between her and

her dad. Really? Yeah. Her dad obviously believed that his daughter deserved the best of everything. Of course. And as far as he could tell, Chuck Stewart wasn't really the best. I mean, that's tough. That is tough.

That's tough as a parent, it's tough as a kid. Yeah, it's tough for everybody. It's definitely tough for Chuck. You can see both sides of that. But regardless of how her father and others felt about Chuck, Carol was determined to make her own decisions. And she decided she wanted to give this relationship with Chuck a chance. Which is her right.

Chuck a chance. Chuck a chance, you know? Give Chuck a chance. To her friends and her coworkers, especially the female ones, Carol's decision made sense. Chuck wasn't really brimming with personality and charm, but he was good looking, he was well-mannered, and most importantly, in the beginning, he adored Carol. And it seemed that the more Carol's father protested and complained,

the more attentive and adoring Chuck became. Ugh! Almost like he was trying to win that top spot in Carol's life. That stresses me out in every way that you can conceivably stress me out. Thinking of somebody doing that. It just won't happen. We won't allow it. But that's the thing.

Sometimes as a parent, I think you can go too hard. Well that's a new shit. You send them right in the other direction. How do you know that line? How do you know what line is the line that tips it that way? It's like, that's so hard. I think the scary thing too is that it can be one line for your kid. For one kid?

Well, one line for your kid, but another line for the partner. Yeah, you're absolutely right. You know, like you might push them in a different direction too. Oh man. Which is scary. I hate it. Yeah.

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He was very good at expressing love. With Chuck, it was always flowers here, flowers there. Which is nice. But can also be love bombing. It's really hard to be a woman because you just never know. As Carol worked her way through undergrad, her relationship with Chuck intensified and got a lot more serious than really anybody had expected. Yeah. As Carol worked her way through undergrad, her relationship with Chuck intensified and got a lot more serious than really anybody had expected. By the time Carol graduated

from BU in June of 1981, she and Chuck were talking about getting married. But Carol insisted that she wanted to wait until she was done with law school, which she was going to be starting at Suffolk in the fall. Good for her. I know. She did the damn thing. Chuck was disappointed with Carol's decision to wait. He really wanted to get married when Suffolk in the fall. Good for her. I know. She did the damn thing. That's smart. Chuck was disappointed with Carol's decision to wait. He really wanted to get married when she finished at BU, but ultimately he was like, I can't

force you to marry me. So we'll fall through with that plan. In the meantime, he decided finally to start taking his own future more seriously and he started looking for a better job. Until that point, he actually had dreams of opening his own restaurant. But with Carol starting law school, he had to accept that that dream of restaurant ownership was a bit unrealistic in the short term. Restaurants, from what I've heard, are incredibly tough to, like when you're like buying one

and owning it. Yeah. Yeah, I can't imagine that. It can go really well, but the statistics are that it doesn't. And when it goes not well, even if it's just going kind of well, you are bleeding money.

And you have to pour a lot into it. Like that's not just like, oh, I'm gonna have a restaurant and hire people to work there. It's like, it becomes your life. It absolutely does. So he realized for probably a lot of those reasons that it just wasn't the time to go down that path. So instead he made his way to downtown Boston where he found work as

a manager in training at Edward F. Cacus and Sons, a furrier on Newberry Street in Back Bay, very flouncy area. Excuse you. I know. A furrier. Which I don't love. Don't wear fur. No. When he applied for the job, Chuck had no management experience and no experience with high-end clothing either. But the owner just took a liking to him and soon Chuck found himself on the path to a pretty promising career. I'm always amazed at the amount of stories we hear that have that as part of it.

I never had experience doing either of these things. But it was just something about them that the boss was like, I just hired him. I just liked him. I just liked him. What the fuck is that? What is that about someone? I think in cases like this, I think where where it's somebody who has a sinister vibe like hidden within them, they study other people. Yeah, I could see that.

And they like know how to charm people. Yeah, you're right. You know what I mean? I think that's absolutely part of it. And I think in good people, it's just a cool quality that they have. Yeah, and bad people, it's a scary one. Yeah. Well, true to Carol's plan, she and Chuck did indeed get married on October 13th,

1985, the year of Yobith, in a large ceremony at St. James Church, the same church where her parents got married, so that was special. By the time they married, Chuck had moved up at the, at Caucus and Sons and was making around $50,000 a year, which would be about $148,000 today. So he was doing damn good. Yeah. And they were able to move out of Medford and buy a house in a more upscale area called Redding.

It's about 25 miles from Austin. It's a really nice area. From the outside, Carol and Chuck's marriage seemed like an ideal match. Like the older they got, the more time they spent together. He was a leading salesman and manager. She was on track to becoming a successful tax lawyer. They had two labs. They had a pool. They were really going for it. Yeah, like they were very all American,

you know, like that that couple that everybody aspires to be the picture of the suburban success. Yep. But behind the scenes, Carol was already having doubts. She was frustrated that despite her years of training and all the work she'd put into getting her education, she was entering the workforce making a lot less than her husband who had no training and virtually no education to speak of. That can be frustrating. She's like, I worked really hard and I'm making a lot less money. She worked her ass off. And she's probably in a'm making a lot less money. She worked her ass off.

And she's probably in a lot of debt too. And she's worked her ass off like her whole life. She's worked her ass off through high school, everything. And he just was charming and got this job. Yeah. That is frustrating. That would, I could get a little resentful of that. Yeah, and obviously you want to be happy for your partner,

but there were other things at play here. Yeah. Joe Sharkey wrote, it was the first time anyone had heard Carol disparage Chuck's education. And to make matters worse, Chuck always had a way of working his salary into conversations when they went out with friends. Ooh.

Blech. Yeah. That's gross. We don't love that. We don't do that. That's not appropriate dinner table talk. No, it's not. So Carol might not have seen it or maybe just didn't want to.

But there were also other things about Chuck's personality that her friends and family were starting to find concerning. Her friend Robert said, there was just something not quite right about Chuck. It wasn't natural. It's hard to put your finger on it. He seemed smooth enough, a little much with the blown back hair, but nicely tied together anyway, but not natural, you know? I'm kind of obsessed with that.

A little much with the blown back hair. He's like, fuck that guy's hairstyle. I like that little roast in the middle. He's like, I'm just telling you something wasn't right. That shit is New England to the core. So fuck that guy's hair. That's the most Massachusetts thing I've ever heard. He's like, I guess he was all right.

What kind of stupid with that fucking hair, but like, let's hair. That's the most Massachusetts thing I've ever heard. He's like, I guess he was all right. Look kind of stupid with the fucking hair, but like, let's go. But others found his Chuck seemingly like insatiable materialism to be a little off putting. I can understand that. I get that. At the time people felt it should have been Carol who was, you know, interested in shopping and her appearance. And they thought it was weird that it was Chuck who cared a lot more about those things.

And even weirder, stranger, that he made no secret of dismissing Carol's wants in favor for his own. Ooh. It wasn't just that he seemed wildly materialistic. To some, it just seemed like another way for Chuck to be the dominant one in their relationship and kind of like hold his success over Carol's head.

That makes sense. Yeah. The more Carol's friends got to know Chuck, the more they found that something in their relationship was just disturbing. But like Carol's friend Robert, they couldn't really put their finger on exactly what it was. Because it wasn't that Chuck was abusive in any recognizable way.

Carol doted on her husband endlessly though, and he didn't seem to reciprocate, which like that could be tough to see. And then there was the matter of him constantly keeping tabs on her. He wasn't what any of her friends would say was overly jealous, but he quote, always wanted to know exactly where his wife was.

Which like, you can see that as nefarious. I think it was probably in the way he went about it. It could also just be protective. Absolutely it can. And I think it can easily look nefarious with the power of hindsight. Yes. I think that's where it gets a little easier

to look at things as like, huh, that's seemingly innocuous thing was a little weird. Yeah, looking back and also in tandem with other things. That's the thing. By the late 80s, when Carol started commuting from Reading to her job in the city, Chuck bought her a cell phone so that she could keep in touch with him during the commute.

Another one of Carol's friends, Mark Brady, remembered she always had this damn car phone, and as soon as we got in the car, she'd pick it up and report in. Which like, if I was with a friend who constantly was like, oh, I have to let my husband know where I am. I have to call Chuck and report where I am. I'd be like, are you okay?

I'd be like, is everything cool? Yeah. And that, it sounds like her friends were like, is that okay? Yeah, like they're just like, is something going on here? Yeah. So by 1987, Chuck also insisted that Carol find a new job closer to home. You don't get to tell me where I work. I'm sorry, excuse me?

Yeah, no. No, I don't like that. No, that's a discussion that you can have as a couple of like, would this make more sense for us as a couple? As a husband, you don't get to tell your wife where she works. Yeah, that's a no for me. As a partner, you don't. So she did though, she took a job as a tax lawyer for, I think it's Kainer's publishing in Newton.

Okay. The house turned out to be an improvement over her last job. But to Chuck's disappointment, not long after she started there, they insisted that all of their tax staff needed additional education. So they enrolled Carol in night classes at BU. Oh, yeah, he didn't love that. I'm sure he didn't. Carol, though, had always loved education, and she was really loving these new classes,

which in turn kind of seemed to inspire this, like, new self-confidence in her that her friends and family hadn't seen before. She was doing well in her classes, but friends also were noticing that she was standing up to Chuck more often, even over like trivial matters. Interesting. On one occasion when he and his friends came home drunk from a hockey game, she demanded that his friends leave immediately. She was like, I'm not having this in my house.

Get out of here. Yeah. Which was very unlike her. I mean, it was super late at night. Yeah, you stand up. Yeah. Chuck protested, but Carol eventually won the argument and the other men left.

Good. A few days later, she confessed to a friend that she was being unreasonable, but she was also proud of herself for standing up to him. Yeah, sometimes you assert yourself in a way that you're like, eh, it probably wasn't the situation, but I did it. Yeah, I think especially when you're not used

to asserting yourself and you finally find the nerve to, it might not. Even something small. It might not be the right time. Yeah. But you did it. So as the 80s came to a close, Chuck and Carol's relationship had grown more and more tense. And at the same time, Chuck seemed to be spending a lot more money,

like, on things like clothing and jewelry than he ever had. While Carol bought all her clothes at mid-tier stores, like Filene's Basement, TBT. Ooh, Filene's Basement, I remember that. And she shopped at Marshall's. Chuck bought all of his custom suits from Brooks Brothers and other similarly expensive stores. Damn.

Brooks Brothers is like on Newberry Street. Yeah. It's like that caliber. Oh, yeah's for sure. So Carol didn't really complain about it, but there were times when she became exasperated while venting to her friends about how much she paid for things.

And she was like, I don't understand why he needs $1,200 sweaters. I mean, valid. Yeah. Most times, though, she just shrugged it off and said something about how he knew clothes better than she did. What she didn't know though was that his spending habits were racking up very serious credit

card debt and delinquent payments were also beginning to pile up. It turned out that Chuck's spending and mounting debt weren't the only secret he was keeping from his wife either. I'm sure we all saw this one coming. Yep. In the summer of 1989, he took a liking to the new summer employee at caucus. Oh, no. A college student. No. Named Debbie Allen. Like Carol, Debbie had been a dedicated student who was doing really well in

school and had taken the job at the furrier for the summer with plans to go back to Brown University to finish her senior year in the fall. She had a boyfriend at the time and didn't express interest in Chuck, but he seemed determined to quote unquote, obtain her. Oh, stop it. Just like he had all those other things in life that he thought were out of his reach.

I hate that. I hate it. He is like, he's compulsive. Yeah. With like... He he's compulsive. Yeah. With like, he acquires things. And people. And he looks at people as things that he acquires. Yeah, and he just can't help himself. Yeah.

Now, shittily enough, his interest in Debbie emerged not long after Carol started talking to her husband more seriously about starting a family together. So here's Carol being like, you know, like, let's get the spending under control. Let's like, come home a family together. So here's Carol being like, I, you know, like, let's, let's get the spending under control. Let's like come home a little more. Let's not go out with our drunk friends all the time and let's have a baby. Like we're normal behavior.

Yeah. They'd been married a few years. They're doing well in their careers and she wants to have a family and he's like, yeah, I think I want to have an affair with the new summer employee at work though. Cool. That's good. Yeah, that's great. Yeah.

And he knew that she wanted kids. Carole had never been shy about her desire for a family. Remember at the top of this episode, it was like the one thing anyone could tell you about her. But Chuck, whenever he talked about having kids with his friends, he didn't try to even hide his disdain for the idea. He did not want kids. That spring, he apparently told a friend, I knew it was coming just as soon as things started falling into place.

I'm sorry, what? Like what? I'm sorry, what, sir? Yeah. And the more and more she quote unquote pushed to have kids, the more Chuck complained about her to his friends secretly, suggesting that not only did he not want to have kids, but he also wasn't even really interested in being married to Carol anymore. Oh, then go away. Then divorce. Yeah, then go away. Given all his complaints about Carol and his not wanting to have children, most of his

friends and family were a little more than surprised when in early 1989, Carol announced that she was pregnant. Which also it's like my guy, if you don't want kids, you got to be upfront about that. You got to be upfront. And it's like, you know how kids are made. So it's like why like you gotta, you gotta talk about it. You gotta take a precaution. You guys are in a position where you can. So like, what are you doing? What are you doing? So approaching his 30th birthday, Chuck had these big dreams for himself. He'd been moving up at the store,

and now he was even planning to, and saving to open his own restaurant. He is going down that road. His vision for the future was fun, excitement, excess. Carol, on the other hand, had her own dreams of settling down in the suburbs, having a family, living a quiet life. Yeah.

They are on complete opposite ends of the spectrum. And when she became pregnant in the winter of 1989, it seemed like that's where they were headed, that quiet suburban life. At first, Chuck had even tried to convince his wife to get an abortion, arguing that he was on the cusp of reaching his goals and a baby just didn't fit into those plans. But Carol was like, absolutely not. Because you should have discussed this beforehand. You should have discussed this before you even got married. Yeah. Like meaning you should have been upfront with her saying I don't think I want kids. That's not what I want. I don't think that's part of my plan. Right.

That needs to be part of the discussion. But then he wouldn't have been able to obtain her. That's very true. So I'm sure, who knows what those discussions were. But I have an inkling that he was probably like, oh yeah, totally, I want kids. You want kids? Or at least just like fluffing around it, yeah. Yeah.

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Until May 31st, save up to $100 in rebates on select Toyo tires. Find a Toyo TreadExperts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. TreadExperts.ca Eventually he gave up trying to convince Carol and and as far as anybody could tell, just became compliant, if not an exactly supportive husband and father-to-be. On the evening of October 23rd, 1989, Carol picked a checkup on Newbury Street, and they drove to Brigham and Women's Hospital to go to a child birthing class.

But as she pulled onto Mass Ave, they hit a really serious traffic jam that would have had them tied up for a while. The traffic put Chuck in a really bad mood, but they did make it on time, and they went to the class as planned. And the class ended a few minutes early, actually, and Carol, who had a lot of questions, was eager to talk to the instructor,

but Chuck was like, no, we have to go, we have to go, we have to go. Let's get out of here. Wouldn't let her ask any of her questions. Oh, come on. Later, when they were interviewed by police, one of the other attendees at the class said, Chuck was, quote, really out of it

and couldn't wait to get out of the class. That's sad. Now, the way home from the hospital should have been considerably easier because they didn't have to go back through the city, but Chuck had a habit of going home the same way that they came in. So they headed back into the city, which like doesn't make a lot of sense. When you're leaving and you don't have to go through the city again, you are going to choose to. No. But this route took

them through Roxbury, which at the time was a pretty dangerous neighborhood. Yeah. Carol was always nervous driving through this particular area. So Chuck's decision to do so would have probably been cause for alarm, but she trusted him. And he was in the driver's seat, so she wasn't going to argue. And he'd already been in a bad mood, so she was probably just like, OK, sounds good. At a certain point in their trip,

Chuck brought the car to a stop at a red light on Huntington Ave, where he claimed they were approached by a young black man who forced his way into the back seat and pressed a gun to Chuck's head. You know this case. I very much know this case. It took me a minute. I absolutely know this case now. Yep. Yep. Oh, fuck. I hate this guy. Yeah. Later, Chuck would say the man forced him to drive the car to the Mission Hill area of Roxbury and told him to stop in what Chuck described as a quote unquote abandoned area across from one of the multi-story public housing projects.

Things got more intense, Chuck said, when the man saw the cell phone and the console between the driver and the passenger seat and thought Chuck was possibly a police officer. He said the man told him, I think you're five-oh. Chuck protested, but he said the man only grew more suspicious because Chuck said he didn't have a wallet when the man asked. And it was at that point that he said the man shot Carol point blank in the head and shot Chuck once in the stomach

and then left. The call came into Massachusetts State State Police Dispatch a little before 9 p.m. with Chuck yelling into the phone, my wife's been shot, I've been shot. He told the dispatcher that they'd been driving home from the hospital when they were carjacked, but that the carjacker shot them and fled and now he had no idea where they were. And then he asked the dispatcher who was frantically trying to figure out their location. Should I drive or should I should I try to drive or should I stay right here? It's like, why would you try to drive? No, you've been shot. Like, what are you talking? And also, I love that he's like, yeah, I don't know where they are. But

I do know they were black. Yeah, that's for sure. Yep, definitely. Yep. The dispatcher insisted that Chuck definitely not drive. but he started the car anyway and drove a few feet before bringing it to a stop again and saying, oh man, I'm going to pass out, it hurts and my wife has stopped gurgling. She stopped breathing, I'm blacking out. Oh my God. Without a more specific location, the dispatcher just ordered a flood of police cruisers to the Mission Hill neighborhood to start looking for Chuck and Carol. And in the meantime, the dispatcher Gary McLaughlin did his best

to keep Chuck alert and responsive, while also listening on the call for the sounds of sirens so that he could keep guiding the police towards Stewart's car, towards the Stewart's car. Later, McLaughlin said, it was a unique call. You don't get many of these in your career. There was a definite urgency in the man's voice. We didn't have a lot of time to find out where he was. So it took them 10 minutes to find the car on St. Alphonse Street, parked underneath a burnt out streetlight with the driver's side window rolled down.

Huh. Which is like, why would you like, why did you move the car to begin with and why did you move it under a dark street lamp? Like what are you doing? But to the paramedics, the scene did look a lot like domestic violence scenes that they'd encountered a lot of times in the past. And as they moved Carol, removed Carol from the passenger seat, that was when they realized she was pregnant. By the time she was loaded into the ambulance, she had lost a lot of blood and suffered a

tremendous injury to her head. And it seemed very unlikely to anybody that she would make it. That's so sad. It is really sad. Chuck, incredibly, had far actually far better in the attack. Crazy. But he still suffered a traumatic gunshot injury to his stomach and was bleeding quite heavily.

So Carol was sent back to Brigham and Women's where doctors did manage to deliver her baby prematurely. Wow. Which is incredible. Brigham and Women's. Incredible. One of the most incredible hospitals. But unfortunately they were unable to save Carol and she died a little after midnight. That's so sad. Yeah. Chuck meanwhile was taken to Boston City Hospital where he was listed as being in critical condition. Coincidentally, the entire remarkable rescue was caught on tape by the crew of Rescue 911. Holy shit. Bring me right back. Yeah.

I can literally, I can smell me sitting in a chair. I can smell the chair. I'm there. I fucking loved Rescue 911. Well, they were riding along with Boston Paramedics that night, and they caught this entire thing. Holy shit. I didn't know that part of it.

Isn't that crazy? Wow. So as soon as he was stable, Chuck Stewart gave a statement to the police, where he described the shooter as a young black man with a raspy voice, dressed in a tracksuit. He's like, let me give you so much detail. It was just also, in short, a pretty fucking racist stereotype of the kind of person...

100%. ...who at least in the minds of a lot of white suburbanites at the time would commit this kind of crime. Yeah. Like, that's the most racist description ever. Yeah, he might as well have just been like, hey, I'm a huge racist. Yeah.

But here's the description. Thumbs up. Yeah. That night, Boston Mayor Ray Flynn issued a statement from the Roxbury Police Precinct regarding the Stuart shooting, saying, I demand the Boston Police Department continue to be extremely aggressive in cracking down on people who are using guns and killing innocent people. It's intolerable. We will use every lawful tool to support our police officers in cracking down on gun wielding

criminals. Especially this white guy who just did it and is now lying about it. Yeah, 100%. Carol's murder had come during a time when Boston was experiencing a particularly troubling wave of gun violence. I think now it's just the norm, but back then it was like, holy shit, this is happening all the time. Just a few days earlier, 12 year old Darlene Moore had been shot and killed in what was described as a gang-related shooting. And that same night, 29-year-old James Moody was gunned down in Dorchester. City Councilor Bruce Bowling told a reporter,

People felt as long as all this violence was in the Greater Roxbury neighborhood, it's not going to affect us. Now we see it's not confined to a single race or ethnicity. It was definitely true that violent crimes were touching the lives of both white and black residents. But when it came to the response from law enforcement in this case, in the Stewart case, it seemed to a lot of people that the Stewart case was given much more priority than black victims of crime. In Roxbury, the mother of 15-year-old LaRusha Harris criticized Boston police for their inability to make progress on the attempted murder of her daughter while they wasted no time flooding

the streets to find Carol Stewart's killer. Yeah, of course. Neighbor Jacqueline Sims told a reporter, that's a feeling a lot of black people have. I do too. It seems like since the Stewart thing happened, everybody's coming down on the black area. See, look what he caused. Look what he did. It seems like since the Stuart thing happened, everybody's coming down on the black area. See? Look what he did. Look what he did.

Obviously details and intricacies of murder cases are always very complicated, but it does seem like this murder, the Stuart murder, got far more attention from the press and the police than other incidents of violent crime that occurred in the exact same area at the exact same time. By their own admission, investigators had no leads and no witnesses. But the morning after the shooting, dozens of Boston police officers

like were flooded around Mission Hill looking for this man who had killed Carol. Based on the evidence that they did have, they knew the shooter had used a 38 caliber handgun, but there was really little else to go on aside from that. In a statement to reporters, one investigator said, there's no question the perpetrator thought they were police officers. Investigators were convinced that the shooter lived in the Mission Hill neighborhood and believed that he had committed similar crimes in the past. One investigator said, somebody in Mission Hill is going to give this guy

up. If not to do the right thing, then just because it will get rid of the heat. Because everybody was upset that there was a huge police presence in this area. Yeah, of course. You know? Meanwhile, the debate over what many saw as unequal protection was growing louder and louder. Mayor Flynn dismissed the accusations, of course, that the Stewart case was getting more attention because the victims were white. He said, there will be the same aggressive and fair and consistent enforcement of all our laws, regardless of where it takes place. Whatever area or color or ethnicity, it will be handled the same aggressive and fair way

by the Boston Police Department. But in the days that followed, other leaders at City Hall started speaking out with different opinions. David Scondras, a white city counselor who represented the Mission Hill District said, You can't help but wonder if what you're watching is a class situation, that it's all right for the poor to put up with an enormous amount of shootings and killings,

but presumably if you're white, upper income and suburban, maybe that changes things. That's sad. Hmm, it is true. It is. That's one way of describing it. Yeah. Within a few days, a spokesperson for the Boston Police Department reported, the list of suspects has been narrowed down to a chosen few. By that point, Chuck Stewart's story had changed somewhat, which prompted investigators to adjust their search. Initially, when he described the shooting,

Chuck made it sound like the person had shot them because he thought they were police officers, but then he indicated that the shooter only said something about there being five. Oh, so he was like, very, right. And he said that the shooter said this after Chuck said he didn't have a wallet based on this revised statement. Investigators now thought the man maybe never saw the car phone and quote, was probably going to steal the car, but panicked when he, when his demand for the wallet could not be met. Okay. So interesting. never saw the car phone and quote, was probably going to steal the car, but panicked when

his demand for the wallet could not be met. Okay. So interesting. Interessante. Yeah. Despite their insistence that the case was progressing well, within a few days, the decreased police activity in Mission Hill had become pretty noticeable and so had the lack of new information coming from the Boston Police Department spokespeople.

Finally, on October 28th, police arrested their main suspect in the case, 29-year-old Alan Swanson, who had been in custody for days already after being arrested on an unrelated robbery charge. By the time he was arrested for the Stuart shooting, Swanson had already been cleared of the other charge, which led many to question why he was still being held. According to Swanson's attorney, Leslie Harris, the Boston Police Department was using Swanson as a quote, convenient scapegoat to appease the public that the police were making progress in the Stuart shooting case, which they weren't.

Which they weren't making progress is what I mean. They very much were using him as a scapegoat. For sure. Lesley Harris and others were right to question the legality of holding Alan Swanson for a crime when they had literally not a single shred of evidence against him. That's wild. And just a few days after his arrest, he was cleared of any involvement after investigators became convinced he didn't know anything about the murder. So they just terrorized that poor guy.

They just terrorized that poor guy. Yeah, they just terrorized him. Who was arrested for something he didn't do anyways, and then was held for another thing he didn't do. For another thing that he didn't do and they had no evidence of him doing it. Yeah, I'd call that racist. Yeah, I would too. Yeah, so the arrest and release of Alan Sponson made police look pretty bad. But any anger over his arrest was quickly overshadowed on November 9th when news broke that Chuck and Carol's baby, who they had named Christopher, died of complications from his premature birth.

Oh, that's so sad. Very sad. Christopher's death put even more pressure on investigators to find the killer and at the same time raised questions as to whether his death would be added to the charges when the killer was killed. That's two murders. Yep. That happened in Lacey Peterson. Yes. Speaking on behalf of the district attorney's office, Chief Homicide Investigator Frances O'Meara told reporters,

if and when the DA determines it's a homicide and if and when somebody is arrested, they will be charged with two complaints of homicide. Which I think is fair. I think absolutely. Because that baby was alive. Like they delivered that child, which is truly remarkable to me and really like just horrifying to think about. But it's like that baby was born and is alive and died because of the murder of their mother. Like that is directly linked.

That's killing two people. Yeah. Easy. It's just one of them just happened to live longer. Yeah, exactly. It's like when you shoot somebody and like they're in a coma, but then they die. It's still murder. Yep. So it turned out the public wouldn't have to wait very long for news of yet another you shoot somebody and like they're in a coma but then they die. You know, it's still murder.

So it turned out the public wouldn't have to wait very long for news of yet another arrest. Just two days later, police arrested 39-year-old Willie Bennett during a traffic stop. And he was soon charged with the murders. Jesus. A traffic stop escalated to murder. Wow. Got it. At the time of the shooting, he was a resident of a housing project near the crime scene, and he resembled the wildly vague description of the shooter, and he was also known to police.

In 1982, he was convicted of assaulting an officer when he pointed a gun at a Boston police officer and removed the man's gun from his belt, which he then used to shoot out one of the tires on the police cruiser. Damn. When police got to his apartment, they found him crouched on the floor of his living room clutching a revolver and he reportedly told police you're not going to take me alive. One of the arresting officers shot him in the hand which forced him to drop the gun and at that point he was taken into custody.

So that's the story of his wild ride. According to the report at the time of his arrest Bennett admitted his involvement in the shooting of the stewards during conversations with police And witnesses reported seeing him wearing a similar outfit to that to the one that Chuck described which was attract Yeah, just a general. Yeah Like which is where we're in aren't we in the 80s? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah So, uh, but it actually a lot of people are running around in a tracksuit a lot of people were but I'm not sure about Willie From, aren't we in the 80s here? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, a lot of people are running around in a tracksuit. A lot of people were, but I'm not sure about Willie Bennett.

That said, Bennett's relatives denied that he owned any clothing matching the description of the shooter, and investigators weren't able to find anything that resembled it during their search of his apartment. Wow. So, what did he do with it? Exactly. search of his apartment while so what did he do with it exactly. Last year long crime brought you the trial that captivated the nation she's accused of hitting her boyfriend Boston police

officer John O'Keefe with her car Karen Reid is arrested and charged with second degree murder. The six week trial resulted in anything but resolution. We continue to find ourselves at an impasse. I'm declaring a mistrial in this case. But now the case is back in the spotlight. And one question still lingers. Did Karen Reed kill John O'Keefe? The evidence is overwhelming that Karen Reed is innocent.

How does it feel to be a cop killer, Karen? I'm Kristin Thorn, investigative reporter with Law and Crime and host of the podcast, Karen, The Retrial. This isn't just a retrial, it's a second chance at the truth. I have nothing to hide. My life is in the balance and it shouldn't be.

I just want people to go back to who the victim is in this. It's not her. Listen to episodes of Karen, The Retrial, exclusively and ad free on Wondery Plus. [♪ Music Plays And Ends. Despite the now lack of evidence, which is coming up again, police were convinced of Bennett's guilt. And in his statement to the press, assistant district attorney Luis Sabadini described Bennett as a quote, mad dog running amok with a horrendous 21 year record of violent crimes. Get it together. All right. Like, because the thing is here, you're like, you'd it would

look better. Like you would understand, like police, you know, you want the police to go hard at this. A woman was, a pregnant woman was shot in the face and her baby just now died. It's like, of course you want them to find who did this, but it's like, but it's like, we want you to find who did it. And is no one looking at the guy in the car? Like that wasn't even a thought. When is nobody looking at the guy in the car who only got shot in the stomach? That's the thing. I'm like, why would she be shot in the face and he wouldn't? Right.

Why are they potentially leaving someone alive? Exactly. If they're going to carjack you and their plan is to kill both of you and they shoot one of you in the head. And the other in the stomach. They're going to shoot the other one in the head. And even from a logistics standpoint, how did they got in the car? Or were they standing outside of the car? He doesn't even really say.

And that's the thing. It's like I... You can understand the like need to catch whoever did this. Absolutely. Shooting a pregnant woman is a wild, heinous crime. Wild crime. Yep. But like they're just they're leaning right into the racist thing here. And it's like that, and it's a bummer.

It is a bummer. Because it's like you really were doing bad police work. I think it was a... When you could have done really good police work. I love Boston more than anything. I love being from here, but I think it was a very bad time for the city. Oh, of course. Yeah, like, hey, you got to be able to admit when, you know... I'm not being from here, but I think it was a very bad time for the city. Oh, of course.

Yeah, like, hey, you got to be able to admit when, you know, you can love your town and admit it's false. Yeah, there was a lot of racism running deep during that time. Yeah, absolutely. But because they lacked sufficient evidence to charge Willie Bennett with the murders, authorities took their case to a grand jury in mid-November, which I'm like, why would you take it to a grand jury if you don't have any evidence? That's weird.

But in the meantime, they were still able to hold him on an unrelated robbery charge from a few weeks before the Stewart shooting. They were just grasping at Strauss. Yeah. A week later, Chuck Stewart had recovered enough to speak with the police officers a second time. Yay!

This was when he was shown pictures of potential suspects and asked whether he recognized any of the men in the photos. According to a spokesperson for the BPD, Chuck had a strong physical reaction when shown photos of Bennett, but he wasn't able to make a conclusive identification at the time. Okay. I know how this ends now. That's why I'm being very flippant about this.

Yeah, exactly. I think everybody does too. Yeah. What constitutes a strong physical reaction? Well, that's why I'm being very flippant about this. Yeah, exactly. I think everybody does too. What constitutes a strong physical reaction? Well, that's what I want to know. I want to know what kind of shenanigans was happening there. And I don't know, there's a lot of questions I have that I think I'll keep to myself. But while Chuck's reaction seemed like a step in the right direction for the police, otherwise the investigation was running into trouble.

By the end of November, police still had yet to find any evidence linking Willie Bennett to these murders. And his family and friends were becoming increasingly vocal in their belief that, like Alan Swanson before him, Willie was being scapegoated just to appease the public and, you know, make the police look good. By his own admission, Chuck Stewart said he never got a good look at the man who shot his wife, but he was convinced that he could identify the person if he saw them in a lineup. Make that make sense. For me, those two things feel like they are...

Conflicting ideas. They're very conflicting here. I don't understand how that works. Yeah, the thing is like I didn't get a good look at the guy, but like if you put a lineup, I could probably, I could definitely say. But if you tell me who you want to put by in bars, I can totally point at them. Like, I can absolutely do that. That's good. Cool.

That's awesome. And he said he could do this based largely on the fact that the shooter had a very distinct voice. Like, wow. Okay. Wow. You're doubling down there. I'm like, wow. Okay. Wow. Okay. You're doubling down there.

Like damn. In late December, after Chuck was released from the hospital, a judge ordered Willie Bennett to appear in said lineup and Chuck told investigators that Willie quote, looked most like the man who shot him and his wife. Cool. Not definitely was. Yeah, but he looks the most like him. Looks the most like him.

One source went a step further telling a reporter that quote, Stuart made additional comments during the lineup that convinced investigators. It was absolutely crystal clear. That's the guy. Okay. Okay. Media. Sure.

Later, it would come out that one of the main reasons for Willie Bennett's arrest was that his nephew, a 15 year old at the time, was bragging to his friends that his uncle was the shooter in the case. However, the nephew would go on to deny that, so who knows. But the rumor was then apparently spread to others around the neighborhood, which was eventually how it made its way to a Boston police officer, and that became the impetus for willy-bennett's arrest. In all reality though, the case against him was weak, based on hearsay probably from a group of teenagers, and only supported by a violent criminal history.

Yeah. But across the river and revere, another story was coming together, and it told a very different version of what happened to Carol Stewart that night in Mission Hill. From the moment Carol and Chuck's friends heard about the shooting, a lot of them flashed back to the various comments that they had all made in the past. Remember, they didn't think something was right about Chuck.

For Chuck's friends, it was comments about Debbie Allen and how much he wished something bad would happen to his wife. He literally said that to his friends. Wow. He really liked Debbie and it was just too bad that nothing bad was happening to Carol to make that work. And just divorce your wife. It's really like, I know it sucks to go through.

I'm sure divorces suck. Of course they do. But I don't even think it is far superior to murdering someone far superior. I don't even think it's the fact that like divorces suck and it's a lot to get through. I think for Chuck, he didn't wanna be seen as somebody who had a divorce in their past.

Instead, he could gain sympathy from a wife who was shot and killed while pregnant. For Carol's friends, it was how unbelievable it was that Carol would have found herself in that neighborhood given her profound fear for, quote, urban violence. She had a big fear of shootings. There were also other holes in Chuck's story, and the fact that he changed his description of the shooter.

After all, if things happened as he had described them, why was there no evidence to support everything he said happened? And in hindsight, there would be other oddities too, like the dispatcher who remembered Chuck's final question before the line disconnected. Have you gotten any calls from the press yet? Wow. Okay.

What? What? What? What? I'm gonna spell this out for you guys. He shot his wife. Yeah, like the end of this is he did it. Like, I think you all saw that coming.

Yeah. Have you got any calls from the press yet while he's sitting next to a wife that he just shot in the head with a baby in her stomach? Wow. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's wild. Okay.

That is wild. And just like, I'm like, how are you that fucking dumb to even say that? That's the thing. And why in hindsight was that weird? I'm glad that he's an idiot. So same. Of course, nobody wanted to believe that any part of the story was a lie. They had both been shot. And even though Chuck didn't die, he did suffer serious injuries and lost his wife and his baby, everyone thought. It also seemed too unbelievable to be true, and the official story seemed more plausible to everybody. But everyone from the coroner to members of the press had unanswered questions, and eventually that feeling of having missed something would make a lot more sense. Whether people wanted to believe the official story of the carjacking

or not, the case against Willie Bennett was clearly unraveling, going nowhere, and there were no alternative suspects. Then, on January 2nd, 1990, Chuck's brother Matthew walked into a Revere Police Department with a very strange tragic story to tell. Oh yes. According to Matthew, Chuck had approached him a few weeks before the shooting with a proposition. He had a plan to steal Carol's jewelry from their house to commit insurance fraud. When that strategy didn't go as planned, Chuck concocted a new scheme and he said all he needed Matthew to do was to meet him in Mission Hill at a specified

time to receive a bag and get rid of it in a place where it would never be found. This is horrifying. Thinking his brother was still trying to pull off the insurance scam, Matthew agreed to help assuming the bag would contain jewelry or some other valuables like that. Still wrong, but not quite as deep. Yeah. Matthew confessed that he met Chuck in Mission Hill that very night where he received what was eventually identified as

Carol's purse. Inside he found a.38 caliber handgun and some jewelry. He admitted to keeping Carol's wedding ring for himself. She's like, wow, what? Man. And he said the rest he took to his friend John McMahon and the two men brought the items to a railroad bridge in Revere and tossed them into the water. The gun, it turned out, had been stolen from the caucus and son's safe a few days before the murders occurred. So he stole the gun from work. Holy shit. Matthew Stewart insisted that, and he also has always maintained that he knew nothing about Chuck's plan to kill Carol, and if he had, he never would have gone through with any of it. Okay.

But now it made sense why that case against Willie Bennett never made sense. Yep. It was because the real killer was staring everyone in the fucking face for months, and no one wanted to be the one to suggest what had already crossed everybody's minds. Wow. Unfortunately, Carol's real killer, her husband Chuck, would never be brought to justice though. The day after Matthew Stewart went to the police with his story, Chuck drove his car to the highest point of the Tobin Bridge, got out and threw himself to his death a little

after 7 a.m. I have thought about this so many times going over the Tobin. Because if you live near here and you go like anywhere, you've gone over the Tobin a million times in your life. The fact that he threw himself off the Tobin. It is spooky as hell. It is. It really is. A few hours after he was seen jumping from the bridge,

divers found Chuck's body in the Charles River, which is not a place you want to die. You do not want to die in the Charles. On the passenger seat of the car, though, investigators found a note that read, to my family and friends, I love you very much. Thank you for standing beside me. My life has been nothing but a battle for the last four months. Whatever this new accusation is, it has beaten me.

I've been sapped of my strength. That's it. Okay. That's all it said. Yeah. It made no mention of having murdered Carol or her death at all. But authorities believed that he had killed himself rather than face consequences of having murdered his wife and unborn son. Because Jack gave no explanation for his suicide and never really confessed to murdering Carol, the official motive remains a mystery.

But there's obviously reason to believe that he wanted to kill Carole so he could collect on a $500,000 insurance payout. And that money would have allowed him to pay down his debts and open up the restaurant that he dreamed of, and once single, he could pursue a relationship with other women and gain the sympathy that he had lost a wife so violently. A few days later, investigators dragged the river where Matthew claimed to have discarded the gun in Carol's purse, which was located and determined to be a match for that gun that was stolen.

And a match for the gun that was obviously used in the murder. That night, investigators held a press conference to announce that they believe Chuck Stewart was the killer and that the case would soon be closed. The following year, Matthew Stewart and Jack Mcmahon were indicted on charges including conspiracy to commit murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, and compounding a felony. And at the same time, Willie Bennett was finally cleared on murder charges, but he was still found guilty on armed robbery charges stemming from that unrelated case. Later that year,

Matthew and Jack pleaded guilty to the charges related to their involvement in the case. In the years since, the murder of Carol and Christopher Stewart has become one of the most defining criminal cases in Boston's more recent history. There were, of course, obviously, the original victims, Carol and Christopher Stewart, but the follow-up from the case and the way that it was handled by investigators was felt by so many residents, some who had never even heard of Carol. And people who hadn't done anything wrong. After the announcement of Chuck's death, considerable public outcry led the U.S. Attorney's Office to open an investigation into the mishandling of this case

and claims of racial bias against the Boston police department as well. After a 15 month investigation, US attorney Wayne Budd announced they had found quote some evidence of serious misconduct, but not enough to justifiably pursue charges against any of the officers involved. So he was like, yeah, we did find some evidence of serious misconduct. But we're not going to do anything about it. He said, I will not prosecute unless I think a person can be found guilty by an unbiased

jury. Damn. Okay. Okay. At a press conference in 2019, years and years and years later, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachel Rollins spoke out about the ways that the Stewart case tore the city apart and left lasting wounds that would remain unhealed. She said, Today we remember the survivors.

Those survivors include several families and the entire Mission Hill community. The brutal murder of Carol and Christopher Demati precipitated a chain of events that created deep trauma beyond one family. The people of Mission Hill, especially black men, were treated like criminals rather than members of a community that, like all of us, are innocent until proven guilty, and who the police are allegedly duty-bound to protect and serve. Which is like, gives you chills. She and other city leaders, as well as residents of all the neighborhoods, looked forward to

a day when justice and protection would be applied equally Which as she pointed out can only be achieved by confronting the wrongs of the past and holding ourselves to higher moral standards Oh, yeah, which I think is a great way to end that absolutely, you know Hold yourself to a higher moral. Yes Absolutely as we all should don't be a racist don't be a racist Don't be a racist and don't be a murderer. Don't be a racist. Don't be a racist. Don't be a racist. And don't be a murderer. Don't be a murderer. Don't be a fucking asshole.

If you don't want to be with somebody, then don't be with them. Don't be with them. It's that simple, but let them go live their life. You don't need to like... Ugh, it's just so yucky. It really is. It's so yucky when somebody's like, you know what, instead of just like making things a little uncomfortable for a while and ending this relationship, I'm going to remove this person's ability to have any further life experiences.

I don't know how anybody kills anybody, but specifically killing a pregnant woman is like another level of depravity. And for him to do that to his own child is sick. It's unthinkable. It's so messed up. But that is a very famous case from Boston. As soon as it got to that point I said, oh I know exactly what this is. As soon as he parked that car. For some reason the name didn't stick in my head, but yeah. That definitely brought it. Yeah, I didn't recognize the name at first either and then I was like, oh.

So yeah, terrible, terrible case. Really terrible. It's just really awful. It is. And I just really, I feel so bad for Carol. I do too. Carol had a lot to offer. She had a lot to offer.

She had a lot to give. She was a good friend. She was a lot to give. Was a good friend. Like she was a hard worker. She's smart as hell. She seemed like she was going to be a great mom. And that's all she wanted. She just wanted it. That's the thing. You know, when you want it that badly, you're going to do a great job at it. Yeah, I agree.

And she was never given that chance and that really sucks. I know. Poor Christopher. I hope that her and Christopher are like somewhere together. I know. You know, in and Christopher are like somewhere together. No. You know? In another life with a better dad. Just be good people. Be good people to your fellow people.

Especially right now. My God. Be good people to your fellow people. Let's stop being dicks to each other. Good people to everybody. Yeah. To real, to people in life, to people on the internet, to all the things. Just don't be dicks

Yeah, that's a great takeaway. It is just a love it You know, and if you take nothing else away, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird But not as weird as that motherfucker because he's a freak cuz fuck that guy hate him Meet him! I'm going to go to the bathroom. If you like morbid, you can listen early and and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. Everyone's got a pro. Need tires?

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