Image: Thomas Piper, the Boston Belfry Murderer. (Public Domain)

On this day in history, December 5, 1873, the Boston Belfry murderer killed his first victim. Bridget Landregan was discovered battered and choked to death in the Boston district of Dorchester. A man in black clothes and a flowing cape was seen attempting to sexually assault the dead girl before leaving the area. In 1874, a man matching the description of the previous assailant struck another young girl, Mary Sullivan, to death. His third victim, Mary Tynan, was battered in her bed in 1875. Although she lived for a year after the vicious attack, she could never identify her attacker.

The people of Boston were stunned to realize that the murderer had been amongst them all along. Thomas Piper, the sexton of the Warren Avenue Baptist Church, was notorious for his black cape, but since he was outgoing with the parishioners, nobody imagined his connection. But when five-year-old Mabel Young, who was last seen with Piper, was found dead in the church’s belfry in mid-1876, he became the primary suspect. Young’s head had been pounded with a wooden club.

Originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, Piper was the son of farmer T.C. Piper. Thomas worked as a carpenter on his family-owned farm before moving with them to Boston in 1866. Regarded as educated and intelligent, he was a devoted Baptist churchgoer, which caused him to be hired as a sexton for the Warren Avenue Baptist Church. Piper also had a kidney condition, which he “treated” with a secret concoction of laudanum and alcohol, which caused hallucinations. He began perpetrating acts of arson before committing his first murder.

On December 5, 1873, while going with a couple of his brothers to the church in Dorchester, Piper unexpectedly told them he was feeling sick and wanted to return home. He went to a location and purchased opium, and combined it with alcohol, drinking it all before going home. After a while, he left the house again and was in the street with his brother when he saw a young woman walking down the road – Bridget Landregan, a domestic servant going to her mistress’ home.

The brothers went inside their home, with Thomas claiming he would go to bed, but instead went down to the kitchen, grabbed a club, and began walking after Landregan. He stalked her for some time and struck her with the club several times, thus killing her. Before he could hide the body, he saw a man approaching him, so he ran away.

Numerous arrests were made relating to the case, including Piper, but he was released due to the absence of evidence. A former lover of Landregan, Thomas Cahill, was transferred from Ireland after detectives wanted to question him. However, no evidence could connect the homicide to him, and Cahill soon returned to Ireland, where he was murdered.

In 1874, while in downtown Boston, Piper met Mary Tyner, a prostitute, on Lagrange Street. They started a conversation, Thomas invited her to a tavern, and Mary agreed. After drinking together, Piper and Tyner went to her house, eventually falling asleep. In the middle of the night, Thomas woke up and grabbed a hammer-like object, and struck Tyner numerous times with it.

He exited the house through a window, choosing to sleep in the church for the remainder of the night. Even though Tyner survived the assault, she could not identify her attacker and was sent to live as an inmate of a lunatic asylum. A former boyfriend of hers named Colby was detained but later discharged due to a lack of evidence.

On May 23, 1875, a five-year-old girl named Mabel Young was at the Warren Avenue Baptist Church, where Piper labored as a sexton. Thomas had taken a club from a lower room, intending to kill someone with it, up to the belfry. After the service finished, he tempted the young Mabel to the tower with the assurance of allowing her to view the pigeons. When they arrived, Piper struck the young girl on the head with the club several times. Thomas planned to rape her, thinking the girl was dead, but he realized she was still alive and moved her. She was soon found. Piper was captured, but Mabel succumbed to her injuries the next day.

Piper’s first trial ended in a hung jury. He frequently told the court that he was innocent, resulting in nine jurors voting for a conviction with three for an acquittal. During the second trial, they managed to find him guilty with circumstantial evidence. Piper remained stoic during the court proceedings.

During the trial, he tried to earn sympathy from the public but was unsuccessful. Before his conviction, he invented a story of how Mabel died was seen as sound before he admitted it was false: originally, Piper maintained that he had desired to show Mabel the pigeons, but the air was stale, so he decided to open the window to allow some fresh air in. He held it down with the club and left the room for a minute, but when he returned, he saw that the trapdoor had dropped on Young’s head. Terrified of being blamed for the assault, Piper ran downstairs to tell the women about the incident but remained quiet out of fear.

The crime’s motive was the lust for bloodshed, and due to stress, Piper eventually admitted to Young’s killing. To the disbelief of Bostonians, he acknowledged other crimes besides the one he was charged with, including the death of Landregan, the arsons, the assault on Tyner, and that he slew a girl named Minnie Sullivan. Despite insufficient evidence to convict him in those other cases, Piper was condemned to death for killing Mabel Young.

He unsuccessfully attempted to appeal his sentence. Over 300 people witnessed Piper’s execution, and he was hanged on May 26, 1876, along with the “Petersham Murderer.” Samuel Frost. His body was then buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Following the execution, Piper’s family asked that Thomas’s detailed written admission of the crimes not be circulated publicly. Authorities agreed to it, as most of Piper’s crimes were already public knowledge, and nobody wanted to glorify the horrible deeds of the murderer further.

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