True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Part VII

The Boston Massacre Trials

BOSTON MASSACRE TRIALS: 1770

Defendants: Captain Thomas Preston; Corporal William Wemms; Privates Hugh White, John Carroll, William Warren, Matthew Killroy, William McCauley, James Hartegan, Hugh Montgomery

Crimes Charged: Murder and accessories to murder

Chief Defense Lawyers: Both trials: John Adams, Josiah Quincy, Jr.,; First trial: Robert Auchmuty; Second trial: Sampson Salter Blowers

Chief Prosecutors (Attorneys for the Crown): Samuel Quincy and Robert Treat Paine

Judges: John Cushing, Peter Olive, Benjamin Lynd, and Edmund Trowbridge

Place: Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Dates of Trials: Rex v. Preston: October 24-30, 1770; Rex v. Wemms et al: November 27-December 5, 1770;

Verdicts: First trial: Captain Robert Preston, Not guilty; Second trial: Corporal Wemms, Privates White, Carroll, Warren, McCauley, and Hartegan, Not guilty; Privates Killroy and Montgomery, Not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter

Sentences: Branding on the thumbs for Killroy and Montgomery

S I G N I F I C A N C E

This cause was a landmark on the road to the American Revolution. Despite a politically hostile atmosphere, two reasonably fair trials were conducted and the concept of the right of self-defense was upheld.

On the night of March 5, 1770, three men lay dead and two more were dying, following shots fired by British troops into an angry crowd outside of the Custom House in Boston, Massachusetts. This scene, known as the Boston Massacre, came after months of feuding between Bostonians and the soldiers sent to the city to protect newly appointed Customs commissioners. The British king and his cabinet viewed Boston as a hotbed of dissent in the colonies, where ill will blossomed in the years following the French and Indian War. Quarrels arose over Indian and frontier affairs, over customs regulations, over taxes, and particularly over how extensive was Parliament's right to tax the colonies. Boston, with its unusually stormy Stamp Act riots, seemed to be the focal point of the American political ferment.

Although some British troops had remained in the colonies following the war, the stationing of a large number of troops in a colonial city was a new and unwelcome phenomenon. In the 18th century, British citizens and colonists viewed the maintenance of a standing army in peacetime as an abomination, much as Americans would regard a secret police force today. The ever-present troops in Boston seemed proof of the erosion of the colonists' rights as individuals and the usurpation of the powers of their cherished political institutions.

In such an atmosphere, trouble was inevitable. Snubs, showing matches, loud arguments, and occasional fistfights occurred between Boston residents and the soldiers almost from the day the first contingent landed in the fall of 1768.

Snowballs, then Musket Balls-Fly

The series of events that led to the confrontation on March 5, 1770, apparently began with a nasty exchange between Private Patrick Walker of the 29th Regiment and William Green, a local rope-maker.

Soldiers of low rank routinely augmented their meager salaries with odd jobs. As Walker passed Green on March 2, he rope-maker asked the soldier if he wanted work. When Walker said yes, Green replied, "Well, then go and clean my shithouse." Insulted, Walker swore revenge. He walked away and, in a few minutes, returned with several other soldiers.