Episode 158: The Murder of Carol DiMaiti
Carol DiMaiti was born on March 26th, 1959 to Giusto and Evelyn Dimaiti. Carol had one brother named Carl, and they grew up in a middle class family in Medford. The family ran a pizza shop also in Medford, and they were hardworking, good people. Carol was a great student and went on to do her undergrad at Boston College. She graduated there with high honors and then took a year off before attending law school to work in a restaurant called “The Driftwood” in Revere to make some extra money. During this break, she met her future husband, Charles “Chuck” Stuart. The two started dating and he proposed on Christmas Eve of 1983, and the two were married in October of 1985. They later bought a home in Reading, Massachusetts. Carol graduated from Suffolk Law, was hired by a firm, and eventually switched to working in tax law, while Chuck was working as the general manager at Edward F. Kakas & Sons selling furs on Newbury Street.
Carol began pursuing her master’s degree and was taking night classes on top of working full-time, and this is when she found out that she was pregnant. Being a mom was something that she had always wanted, so she was absolutely thrilled about this. Carol’s joy was quickly changed to dismay when Chuck was not happy with the news and even asked her to get an abortion. Chuck claimed that he wanted to open a restaurant and that they were too young, but Carol was 30-years-old and was determined to be a mom. Over the course of her pregnancy she hoped that Chuck would come around, but she went to many prenatal appointments alone.
On October 23rd, 1989, Carol and Chuck attended a Lamaze class at Brigham and Women’s Hospital that she had booked. They left after the class ended at 8:30pm, getting into their blue Toyota Cressida to head home. They were driving into Mission Hill, a neighborhood in Roxbury, Massachusetts that is predominantly black and Hispanic. At this time, the camera crew for the TV show “Rescue 911” was riding along with Boston EMS for a night of filming. Suddenly, a call came in from a car phone belonging to Chuck. He stated “My wife’s been shot, I’ve been shot.” Chuck told dispatch that he was in an abandoned area and that someone had tried to carjack them. While dispatch was begging Chuck for any information on his whereabouts to direct EMS and police, Chuck claimed he didn’t know where he was. He stated “Oh, man, I’m gonna pass out ... It hurts, and my wife has stopped gurgling, she’s stopped breathing.” He then stops responding to dispatch. He was finally found after 13 agonizing minutes in his car on the corner of St. Alphonsus street and Horadon Way. It was noted that the street signs were in clear view of where he was, and he could have easily told this to dispatch. He also failed to report that Carol was 7-months-pregnant, and he never addressed her to speak to her directly or console her while on the call.
Carol was rushed back to Brigham and Women’s with a gunshot wound to the head, undergoing emergency surgery as well as an emergency C-section to deliver her son, baby Christopher, who was rushed to the NICU. As Chuck was being loaded onto a stretcher, he was asked who did this to him, and he gasped out two words: “Black man.”
Devastatingly, at 2:50am on October 24th, 1989, Carol died of cardiac arrest after multiple attempts to revive her. Chuck underwent intense surgery for the damage from the gunshot wound to his stomach, and once in recovery he gave police a vague description of the perpetrator, saying that it was a black male, about 30-years-old with a raspy voice and a striped tracksuit. Baby Christopher passed away on November 9th from complications due to lack of oxygen as a result of the shooting. Both he and Carol’s deaths were ruled as homicides. He was buried with Carol on November 20th.
Two Boston police officers, Bobby Tinlin and Bobby Ahearn, went to see Chuck everyday in the hospital and felt that his story didn’t add up, and wanted to investigate him as the perpetrator. They were quickly pulled off the case, and the Boston Police Department instead doubled police presence in Mission Hill. Ron Bell, a resident of Mission Hill, stated “It was open season on black people.” When knocking on doors and asking questions yielded no results, police escalated to forcing their way into homes, spreading racist narratives in the media, and stopping and frisking every black male they came across in the area that even so much as mildly fit the description of the attacker that Chuck had given. At the height of the investigation, there had been upwards of 150 “stop and frisk” incidents in the neighborhood each day. These escalated to strip searches to humiliate their targets, and police would follow children to school to harass and scare them.
In late October, Boston Police arrested Alan "Albie" Swanson and his girlfriend on a breaking and entering charge. Alan Swanson became a suspect as he was homeless, making him especially vulnerable to police brutality, and because he owned a black track suit. He was held in jail for three weeks, enduring abuse and horrific treatment from other inmates and guards alike. Several weeks later, 39-year-old William “Willie” Bennett, was arrested on motor vehicle charges. Willie was known to police because he had prior charges, most notably a charge for shooting a cop in the leg. A rumor that Willie was responsible for Carol’s murder got back to police, and Chuck picked him out of a lineup on December 28th, 1989, 23 days after he was released from the hospital.
Chuck had recently purchased a brand-new Nissan Maxima in cash for $16,000. This only fueled rumors going around that he had gotten a check from Carol’s life insurance policy, and the rumors said that this was anywhere from $48,000 to $100,000. He also was purchasing women’s jewelry.
On January 3rd, 1990, Charles’ little brother, 23-year-old Matthew Stuart, came forward to police. He told them that Charles had offered him $10,000 to help with an insurance scheme where Matthew would pretend to rob Carol and Chuck of their jewelry on October 23rd when they were leaving the Lamaze class. Matthew claims that as he approached the car, parked in the area previously agreed upon by Chuck, he saw that there was something slumped over in the passenger seat that looked like a pile of clothes. As he got closer, Chuck threw him a bag out of the car window that Matthew saw was Carol’s Gucci bag. Inside the bag were both Charles’ and Carol’s wedding rings, her wallet, some valuables, and a gun. He stored the bag in his home, disposing of it in a river. He claims he didn’t know Carol had been murdered until he saw it on the news.
The next morning on January 4th, 1990, Chuck Stuart drove his brand-new car to the Tobin Bridge before jumping into the river to his death at around 7:00am. The drop into the water was 145 feet. Police later found a note in the car 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. - Chuck.” His body was pulled out of the Mystic River later that day.
Police received multiple statements from Chuck’s family and friends that they knew he was responsible for the murders, and said he had asked multiple people to help kill Carol. A good friend told police that Chuck wanted Carol to get an abortion and that he didn’t like that she now had more power in their relationship.
Matthew was indicted in 1991 on multiple charges for his involvement with the murder of Carol and Christopher. He was paroled in 1997 and went on to struggle with cocaine addiction before dying of an overdose in 2011.
Willie Bennett was never charged in the murders of Carol Stuart and Christopher, but he was found guilty of armed robbery at a video store as well as three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to 12 to 25 years in prison and was released in 2002. He and his family sued the city and the Boston Police Department for their treatment of Willie, and eventually they were awarded just $12,500 in damages. Willie’s mother Pauline passed away a few months later.
After the podcast and documentary “Murder in Boston” was released, Boston’s Mayor Wu issued a public apology to the black community, but especially the black community in Mission Hill, for how they were treated during the investigation and for the decades after. She addressed Alan and Willie, who both were arrested for the murders, stating "What was done to you was unjust, unfair, racist and wrong."
Carol’s family purchased a new headstone for both her and Christopher, with their last names being listed as “Dimaiti.” They also started the Carol DiMaiti Stuart Foundation in her memory to provide scholarships to children living in Mission Hill as well as graduates of Malden High School. Scholarships were awarded to students who showed leadership ability and had significant financial need, and the scholarships also provided students with mentors and connections to summer internships. One of the beneficiaries was Willie’s daughter. By early 2006, the foundation had awarded $1.2 million to 220 students. The family’s attorney and spokesman, Marvin Geller, stated “Carol would not want to be remembered as the victim of a sensational murder, but rather as a woman who left behind a legacy of healing and compassion."
Image sources:
findagrave.com - “Carol Ann DiMaiti Stuart”
medium.com - “Boston’s Legacy of Racist Policing & Media Coverage of Crime: 30 Years After Chuck Stuart”