Colby Cotter News Today

For a time, the case sparked an unusual spate of self-examination in the press. But the questions it raised — about how to cover communities of color and about whose stories are valued — were never resolved and resonate to this day. So it’s time to reckon with what happened.

After the shooting of Charles and Carol Stuart, the police descended on Mission Hill.

This is a story of Mission Hill, the Charles and Carol Stuart shooting, and the people who got caught up in it and never managed to get free.

Recovered from his wounds, Chuck Stuart was quick to identify the shooter in a police lineup. It was Willie Bennett, the star of the neighborhood rumors.

The Stuart case left Boston a divided city, where the truth is still chasing the lies.

After Charles Stuart's death, it was like the whole world was looking down into the water where he went under, and seeing themselves in the reflection.

In the days after the murder, the good people of Massachusetts thought they saw the shooter everywhere.

Police chased rumor after rumor about who shot Carol and Chuck Stuart, until they heard one that rang true.

Stuart’s guilt was widely known in some circles. But no one said a word — until the silence broke.