Highlighted crime
story of the week -
On December 5, 1873, Bridget Landregan was found beaten
and strangled to death in the Boston suburb of Dorchester. According to
witnesses, a man dressed in black with a flowing cape was seen running away
from the scene. In 1874, a man fitting the same description attacked and
clubbed to death another young girl, Mary Sullivan. The killer’s third victim,
Mary Tynan, was bludgeoned in her own bed in 1875. Although she survived the attack
for nearly a year, she was never able to identify her attacker.
Residents of Boston were stunned to learn that the serial
murderer had been among them all along. Thomas Piper, the sexton at the Warren
Avenue Baptist Church, was friendly with parishioners and nobody suspected his
involvement. But when five-year-old Mabel Young, who was last seen with the
sexton, was found dead in the church’s belfry in the summer of 1876, Piper
became the prime suspect. Young’s skull had been crushed with a wooden club. Piper,
who was dubbed “The Boston Belfry Murderer,” confessed to the four killings
after his arrest. He was convicted and sentenced to die, and he was hanged in
1876.
Check back every
Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”
Michael Thomas Barry is the award winning author of seven
nonfiction books that includes In the
Company of Evil Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950-1980. Visit Michael’s
website www.michaelthomasbarry.com
for more information. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the following
link: https://www.amazon.com/Company-Thirty-Years-California-1950-1980/dp/076435003X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480956232&sr=8-2&keywords=michael+thomas+barry
