05/23/2026
The Belfry Murderer
In the mid-1870s Bostonians were on edge due to a cluster of assaults and r**e-murders of young girls in the city. Thomas Piper, a young church sexton of a local Baptist Church was later found guilty of the horrors.
On the night of December 5, 1873, Piper attacked a girl named Bridget Landregan as she passed some bushes along a snow-covered road. Piper leaped from the bushes and bludgeoned the young woman to death. A couple passing by scared Piper off before he could sexually defile the body. The couple reported the description of the culprit to the police, having labeled Piper as a "dark, bat-like figure."
That same night, Piper struck again and attacked another girl. This time he did r**e her and beat her close to death. She survived and was able to give a description of her assailant. Unfortunately, the police were still unable to identify/locate the lunatic.
Piper claimed three more young women before being brought to justice. His MO remained the same with every victim. He would surprise a lone, young woman, r**e her and beat her with a blunt object. After he had committed three murders, the police officially began the hunt for the caped perpetrator. Boston became a community of panic and hysteria. The chief of police ordered that all men seen wearing opera cloaks were to be stopped and questioned for suspicion of being the so-called "Boston-Belfry Murderer." It wasn't long before most men ceased wearing opera cloaks altogether.
The fourth and final murder was that of a five-year-old girl named Mabel Hood Young on May 23, 1875 (151 years ago today). The injuries to her body were the same as the other girls. This time however, the killer was caught. Piper had been identified as the murderer when he was seen by several witnesses taking the little girl to the tower in the Warren Avenue Baptist Church, where her body was later found.
Piper, 26, was arrested and confessed to her murder as well as to three others and a number of r**es. His trial was short and he was convicted of the murder of Mabel Hood Young and sentenced to hang. After his conviction and sentencing, Piper retracted his confession and maintained that he was innocent. However, once the day of the hanging arrived he once again admitted his guilt, perhaps as a way of finding forgiveness for his appalling crimes.
THE PHOTO: Thomas Piper
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