BOSTON — The City of Boston has paid a total of $150,000 to two men who were wrongfully accused in the high-profile murder of Carol Stuart — a case that shocked the nation and fanned racial tensions across the city.
Mayor Michelle Wu’s office authorized payments of $100,000 to Willie Bennett and $50,000 to Alan Swanson, documents obtained by Boston 25 News show.
Carol Stuart, a 29-year-old pregnant white woman, was shot and killed in what her husband, Charles “Chuck” Stuart, claimed was a carjacking by an armed Black man who forced his way into their car as the couple left a birthing class at a city hospital on Oct. 23, 1989.
Charles further claimed that the man ordered them to drive to the city’s Mission Hill neighborhood and robbed them before killing Carol. The accusations led to a citywide manhunt, a widespread “stop and frisk” crackdown, and the wrongful targeting of Bennett and Swanson.
Swanson and Bennett denied having any involvement in Carol Stuart’s death.
Months after Stuart was killed, it was revealed that Charles Stuart had orchestrated her murder. Charles Stuart’s younger brother told investigators that Charles had murdered his wife in an attempt to collect life insurance money.
Charles Stuart later died by suicide.
Neither Swanson nor Bennett were formally charged with anything related to the case, but both men were publicly labeled as suspects in the notorious killing.
Charles Stuart’s accusation also resulted in the harassment of Black men, in particular those living in the Mission Hill neighborhood, by city officials and the Boston Police Department.
In 2023, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu issued a formal apology to Swanson and Bennett, acknowledging the harm caused by the city to the Black community.
“This dark time in the City’s history exacerbated distrust between Boston’s Black community and the Boston Police Department,” Wu said at the time. “Acknowledging this painful moment and apologizing for the City’s wrongdoing is an effort to aid in the healing of those still living with this trauma and our City as a whole.”
Wu added, “I am so sorry for what you endured. I am so sorry for the pain that you have carried for so many years.”
The apology followed an extensive Globe investigation — and a related HBO docu-series — into the Stuart case and its aftermath.
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