Tourist season is in full swing in Boston, but one tour is taking visitors off the Freedom Trail and into darker corners of the city’s history.
Joe Leeman, a retired detective with the Boston Police Department, is leading Boston Detective True Crime Tours, and tourists say he has some serious street cred.
“This is the ’99 Massacre,’ where four people were killed,” Leeman explained during a recent tour while passing the 99 Restaurant in Charlestown. “That’s when [Anthony and Damian Clemente] turned around and shot everybody in the booth. Four people were killed, one person lived.”
The 36-year veteran police detective now runs a true crime trolley tour featuring some of Boston’s worst crimes, including the 1989 murder of Carol Stuart.
“This is one of the first cases I was involved with,” said Leeman.
Leeman even pulled actual 911 calls and played them during the tour.
“My wife has been shot, I’ve been shot,” the caller said.
Stuart was killed by her husband, Charles Stuart, who was also shot and hospitalized. He lied to investigators and said the gunman was a Black man, leading to the racial profiling of many people, especially in the neighborhood where the shooting took place, Mission Hill.
Charles Stuart would eventually kill himself when his brother confessed to police that he was an accomplice in the scheme. The false accusation and police investigation sparked intense racial tensions in the city. Alan Swanson and Willie Bennett, two Black men who were wrongfully arrested in the initial investigation, received a combined $150,000 in a settlement last year.
“Boston’s known for its sports, its politics, and definitely known for its crime,” said Leeman.
The Charlestown native retired from Boston Police about five years ago.
“I loved being a detective,” he said. “It was something about being a detective. The investigation and the camaraderie between detectives. Just a phenomenal job.”
Now he shares his experiences one tour at a time.
“I didn’t realize there were so many murders,” said Carol Green, who was on the tour from South Weymouth.
“I’m excited to talk to him at lunch and get some more dirty details,” said Yvonne Kesner.
Leeman wanted every detail to be accurate. Even the mug shots on the side of his trolley are real mug shots. He got them through a public information request from his old department.
He wanted the riders to get a full experience.
“Because it brings you back, brings you right back to the day,” he explained.
One trend Leeman has noticed is that his tours are popular with the female demographic.
“I’m a big hit with the women between 55 and 80,” he laughed. “I think it’s just like a learning experience. Maybe if they don’t want something bad to happen to them, they can study these guys.”
Boston Detective True Crime Tours books private events and is open to the public Thursdays and Fridays by the New England Aquarium. The retired detective also added a new tour for the America250 celebrations around Boston.
Source: News – Boston – necn
