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`Wikipedia- Roxbury Murders

• Overview: Between January and May of 1979 twelve black women were murdered within several miles of one another in the Roxbury neighborhood on the south side of Boston, Massachusetts. This was not suspected to be the work of one serial killer as at least 4 different men were charged on account of these murders. The Boston Globe was one of the only media outlets to cover the killings. Those most vocal about these incidents, however, were black feminist groups, such as the Combahee River Collective, who drew connections between the violent deaths and the multiple systematically marginalized identities of the black, female victims.

(Image from “Six slain women, and those who loved them”)

• Black Victims (12)
  • #1 Christine (Chris) Ricketts, 15 was found on the sidewalk on East Lennox Street in Roxbury on January 29, 1979 with Andrea Foye. (“Six slain women, and those who loved them” Boston Globe)
  • #2 Andrea Foye, 17 was found strangled on the sidewalk on East Lennox Street in Roxbury on January 29, 1979. (“Six slain women, and those who loved them” Boston Globe)- Dennis Jamal Porter arrested in connection with these two killings
    • Foye and Ricketts are the first two victims (“police piece together victims’ last hours”). Both were found in trash bags with a blanket.
  • #3 Gwendolyn Yvette Stinson, 15 was found strangled in a yard near her Park Street home in Dorchester on Tuesday January, 30. (“Six slain women, and those who loved them” Boston Globe)- Her neighbor, 40 year old James Brown was arrested for the murder. Third victim found
  • #4 Caren Prater, 25, was found dead on February 2 near Boston Parks Department office in Franklin Park. (“Six slain women, and those who loved them” Boston Globe)--. She was a mother of a two year old girl and was unemployed. The day of her death, she was heading over to her 75 year old grandfather’s, Charles Prater, house who she often took shopping. Prater was beaten and stabbed to death then left behind a wooden area near a hospital. She was the fourth victim. (“Blacks unhappy with death probe”). Kenneth Spann was arrested in relation to her death (“Roxbury man charged in slaying”)
  • #5 Daryal Ann Hargett, 29, was found strangled and bound in her apartment in Wellington on Wednesday, February 21. (“Six slain women, and those who loved them” Boston Globe)-- She was a choir singer and Social Worker. (“S. End death not linked to not earlier cases” and “Clergyman speaks of slaying) fifth victim (“5th black woman found slain)
  • #6 Desiree Denise Etheridge, 17 was found beaten and burned to death on Fellow Street in Dorchester on Wednesday, March 14. Her skull and jaw were shattered. (“Six slain women, and those who loved them” Boston Globe). She was a part time student who lived on the same street as Stinson. 6th victim. Her body was found 100 yards away from  a schoolwhere the bodies of Rickett and Foye were discovered. (“Slain woman a student, 17, of Dorchester”)
  • #7 Darlene Rogers, 22- (Black woman slain in Boston-- 7th) was stabbed multiple times and was found naked from the waist down in Washington Park on April 14.(“Police piece together the victims’ last hours”)
  • #8 Lois Hood Nesbitt, 31, was found dead in bed tied up and strangled by a radio cord on April 28.. (“Eighth Black Woman is Slain”- Boston Globe) Her murderer’s name was Richard Strother, 31. They had the same address but it is unclear whether they lived in the same building as neighbors or together.
  • #10 Sandra Boulware, 30- 10th woman murdered. Her naked body was found charred in a burning grass lott near a YMCA at 5 a.m. A year prior, she had moved from Connecticut to Boston. Her sister reported her missing after three days. Her murderer was Osbourne (Jimmy) Sheppard, 55. (“Suspect charged in the 10th murder”)
  • #12 Bobbie Jean Graham, 34- 12th woman murdered. Jean’s autopsy states that she died from a lacerated liver caused by multiple blows to her midsection with a blunt object. Graham was found in an alley by a man driving past. A female witness said that she noticed a couple walking towards the alley and the woman appeared intoxicated and unsteady to walk. The man then picked the woman up and carried her to the alley. Graham was found the next morning with blood on her body and indentions from a heel on her chest. (“Women identified in 12th murder)

• • Valyric Holliday, 19, who was mentioned in the “10th Black Woman murdered” Article. Was conscious when police arrived to her apartment on a Friday night. She told police she was stabbed by an 18 year old, Eugene B. Conway, man who lived in the Dorchester residence with her. Conway was arrested that night and pleaded innocent. Valyric died Saturday morning. (“Roxbury murder charged in slaying”) ------------
  • # 1 (?) Denise Curry, (16), On August 13, 1978 (COMMONWEALTH vs. GREER TONEY), A 27 year old woman, Greer Toney, fatally stabbed Curry after the two had an argument near Curry’s home. Toney was given a two year jail sentence, two year probation, and agreed to do 100 hours of volunteer work at a hospital. (“Woman gets life in fatal stabbing in Dorchester”)

Some of the women who were mentioned in the local newspapers had a very brief description of their death and it was quickly brushed aside. January 30, 1979, a brief article titled “Two Bodies Found in a Trash Can” consisting of four paragraphs, not once revealed their identities. The next day, Gwendolyn Yvette Stinson’s identity was revealed in an even briefer article. Caren Prater’s identity was finally revealed a few weeks later.

• Responses to Attacks (Alani)
  • As a response to the first six (unrecognized) murders, 1,500 people gathered on the streets of Boston on April 1, 1979 to have a memorial for the six black women who were murdered within a two-mile square radius beginning that year.
  • Combahee River Collective

As a response to the first six (unrecognized) murders, 1,500 people gathered on the streets of Boston on April 1, 1979 to have a memorial for the six black women who were murdered within a two-mile square radius beginning that year.

Combahee River Collective

• Black community leaders held that these murders were acts of racialized violence, but Barbara Smith along with the Combahee River Collective wanted it to be recognized as both racialized and sexualized acts of violence against black women. Following the march/memorial that spring, Smith and the Collective wrote and distributed pamphlets entitled “Six Black Women: Why Did they die?” The pamphlets were distributed to the women within the community. The pamphlet itself focused specifically on the murders which were not being covered extensively by the police or media. The collective held that these murders were both racists and sexist, because not only were the people who were murdered black but they were also women and that they were killed because they were black women who were systemically undervalued  in American society

• • • Try to add images of the pamphlets

• • US Response (Bre)
    • April 1, 1979, thousands gathered for a march memorializing the deaths of, at that time, six women who were murdered in a 2- mile radius of each other. The protest was organized by Barbara Smith’s Combahee River Collective group. During the march, Sarah Small, aunt of slain woman, Daryal Ann Hargett, asked the audience a question: “Who’s killing us?” The simple, yet powerful, question struck the audience for no one knew why random black women were being killed, why their deaths were not garnering national attention like their white counterparts, and who were the murderers. During the march, many Black men caused a stir when they failed to realize that there was a gender component to the murders and did not address the violence against Black women. In 2012, TV One hosted television show, “Find Our Missing,” dedicated to creating exposure for missing Black women and girls in the United States whose cases have not gained as much national media coverage as their white counterparts. In an episode featured in the series, Hargett’s death was covered.

The Coalition for Women’s Safety, an organization of Bostonian women who worked to combat violence against women in response to the murders, established two courses of action. The first was to educate their community about the matter of violence against women, and the other was1 to examine licensing and regulations of taxi drivers, in response to a high number of assaults in taxicabs. Members of the Coalition also coordinated support groups for community members affected by the murders, workshops on firearm safety and self-defense for women, establishing a trust fund for families of the murdered women, educating workers in health services on assisting the needs of Latina victims of assault, and groups who traveled within the community to talk about issues of security. (Roxbury: Women Organizing Against Violence)

• • : Women march on White's home to show murder fears Boston Globe

Are we talking about the disparity of media coverage for black women v. white woman?

Media response:

Local newspapers reported on these murders as they happened, and even kept a count [cite Boston globe articles], but despite activist work on the ground, most of these murders failed to make national news. One exception being Faye Polner, a white victim. Her death was widely reported, but not necessarily tied to the other murders, an example of “Missing White Woman Syndrome” in the surrounding media.

Another Response: the Formation of “Crisis” and they were part of a march: see Boston Globe article “Sixth slain woman….”