American Notes Crime

Brotherly love can make a man do strange things. On the night of Oct. 23, 1989, Matthew Stuart pulled his car alongside a blue Toyota parked in a predominantly black Boston neighborhood. The driver of the Toyota, Matthew's brother Charles, handed him a purse through the window. Accompanied by his friend John McMahon, Matthew ditched the purse in the Pines River. It contained the engagement ring of Carol Stuart -- as well as the .38 revolver that Charles had just used to kill his pregnant wife and then wound himself.

The murder transfixed the nation and aggravated Boston's racial tensions after Charles Stuart, posing as a mugging victim, called police from his car phone and sent them on a manhunt that led to the arrest of a black suspect. Ten weeks later, Matthew came forward and told authorities he had helped dispose of the purse. Next day, Charles committed suicide after reportedly telling his lawyer that he had murdered his wife to get her life insurance. Last week a grand jury indicted Matthew and his accomplice McMahon on nine counts ranging from compounding a felony to unlawfully carrying a firearm. McMahon was also charged with accessory to murder after the fact -- a charge from which Matthew, as the killer's brother, is exempt under Massachusetts law.