# A murder that's not just another murder in Baltimore **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 4, 2019, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-murder-thats-not-just-another-murder-in-baltimore/830530 "2019-03-04T15:48:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-murder-thats-not-just-another-murder-in-baltimore/830530/1 "2019-03-04T15:48:51Z")
[This](https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-jacquelyn-smith-update-20190303-story.html) is just horrifying. Or maybe disgusting and horrifying. I am saddened that human beings have sunk so low that this is the result. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-murder-thats-not-just-another-murder-in-baltimore/830530/2 "2019-03-04T15:57:04Z")
For those who haven’t followed the link, apparently “this”, in this context, means “man and his stepdaughter conspire to murder his wife and frame a panhandler for it”. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-murder-thats-not-just-another-murder-in-baltimore/830530/3 "2019-03-04T17:59:07Z")
These types of cases have been around a long time: look at the murder of Carol Stuart by her husband in Boston in 1989: > [@](#): > > In 1989, Stuart was serving as the general manager for Edward F. Kakas & Sons, furriers on Newbury Street. Stuart’s wife, was a tax attorney, and pregnant with the couple’s first child. On October 23, the couple were driving through the Roxbury neighborhood after attending childbirth classes at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. According to Stuart’s subsequent statement, a black gunman with a raspy voice forced his way into their car at a stoplight, ordered them to drive to nearby Mission Hill, robbed them, then shot Charles in the stomach and Carol in the head. Stuart then drove away and called 911 on his car phone… > > Boston Police searched for suspects based on Stuart’s description of the assailant. The Washington Post described the situation: “The city’s anger seems inexhaustible. That may be because it is impossible not to feel sullied by the Stuart case. Either one was duped by a fabrication with racist overtones, or one was impotent as police focused their investigation on a succession of innocent black men.” Meanwhile, Stuart himself was hospitalized for six weeks; the severity of his injuries required two operations, and Stuart’s surgeon did not suspect that the nearly fatal wounds were self-inflicted. Police found a young man, Willie Bennett, who fit Stuart’s description. On December 28, Stuart identified Bennett as his attacker in a lineup. > > The case against Bennett abruptly collapsed on January 3, 1990, when Charles Stuart’s brother Matthew identified Charles as Carol’s killer. Matthew admitted that he had driven to meet Stuart that night to help him commit what he had been told was to be an insurance fraud. Upon arrival, Matthew said that he had seen that Carol had been shot, and that his brother had shot himself to make it appear as a carjacking. Matthew took the gun and a bag of valuables, including the couple’s wedding rings, and threw them off the Pines River Bridge in Revere. > **[Murder of Carol Stuart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stuart_(murderer))** > > Carol Ann Stuart (née DiMaiti; born March 26, 1959) was murdered on October 23, 1989, by her husband, Charles Michael "Chuck" Stuart Jr. (December 18, 1959 – January 4, 1990). Charles Stuart claimed that a black man had carjacked their car in Boston and shot both his pregnant wife and himself. > His statement to police set off a months-long manhunt by the Boston Police Department for a purported black assailant. Police actions, with widespread stop and frisk of African-American residents in Mis... Here is the Straight Dope thread: > **[Questions on Boston Murderer Charles Stuart & Willie Bennett](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=685206)** > > We know the infamous incident in the late 1980s when Charles Stuart shot his pregnant wife in Boston and himself and then falsely claimed that they were attacked by a black man. Eventually Willie Bennett (who had already been arrested for a video... ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-murder-thats-not-just-another-murder-in-baltimore/830530/4 "2019-03-04T18:24:41Z")
I wonder how much of the general fear of homeless people committing crimes (the classic “drifter” explanation) has been caused by the actual criminals shifting the blame? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-murder-thats-not-just-another-murder-in-baltimore/830530/5 "2019-03-04T21:04:26Z")
This reminded me of the Mark Winger case, in which a husband heroically shot and killed a deranged man whom he caught bludgeoning his wife to death in their home. Only it turned out that [the husband set the whole thing up and murdered both of them](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/invitation-to-a-murder-05-09-2009/). I’m not sure humans are any scuzzier now than they’ve ever been, but there sure is better news coverage of their sleaziness. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-murder-thats-not-just-another-murder-in-baltimore/830530/6 "2019-03-04T21:31:15Z")
Seems fairly mundane for Baltimore. What’s supposed to be so particularly horrifying about it? That they tried to frame a homeless person? I suppose that adds a bit of variety to the normal patterns of murder in Baltimore, but it’s just fudging with the details. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-murder-thats-not-just-another-murder-in-baltimore/830530/7 "2019-03-04T21:59:37Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > These types of cases have been around a long time: look at the murder of Carol Stuart by her husband in Boston in 1989: > > [Murder of Carol Stuart - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stuart_(murderer)) > > Here is the Straight Dope thread: > [Questions on Boston Murderer Charles Stuart & Willie Bennett - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=685206) See also the case of [Susan Smith:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Smith) > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Susan Leigh Vaughan Smith (born September 26, 1971) is an American convict who was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years for murdering her two children, three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander. > > The case gained international attention because of Smith’s false claim that an African-American man had kidnapped her sons during a carjacking. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-murder-thats-not-just-another-murder-in-baltimore/830530/8 "2019-03-05T04:57:40Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > See also the case of [Susan Smith:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Smith) And [Diane Downs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Downs), who shot all 3 of her kids but blamed it on a shaggy haired stranger. ---
**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-murder-thats-not-just-another-murder-in-baltimore/830530/9 "2019-03-05T11:50:18Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Seems fairly mundane for Baltimore. What’s supposed to be so particularly horrifying about it? That they tried to frame a homeless person? I suppose that adds a bit of variety to the normal patterns of murder in Baltimore, but it’s just fudging with the details. The Sun had an article about how these people used the aura of violence in the city as a cover for what they did. They also made people afraid to give money to panhandlers; some panhandlers reported a drop in their daily earnings. Even Oprah Winfrey was quoted as saying that she would be much more careful rolling down her windows because of this.