“The Boston Belfry Murderer” killed his first victim.
Thomas Piper bludgeoned and strangled Bridget Landregan in the snow, and attempted to defile the dead girl before he was scared off by a passing couple who told police that the killer looked like a “dark, bat-like figure,” with a flowing black opera cloak. In 1874, another young girl was clubbed to death by a man with a cape. A third victim was bludgeoned in her bed in 1875.
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The slayings caused a panic. The Boston police chief ordered that all men in opera cloaks were to be stopped and questioned, causing the garment to go out of fashion.
Piper, the sexton at the Warren Avenue Baptist Church, was known for his flowing cape, but nobody suspected him. But in 1876, when 5-year-old Mabel Young, who had last been seen with Piper, was found dead with a crushed skull in the church’s belfry, the 26-year-old was arrested.
He confessed to the four killings and was hanged later that year.
