Torso Found in Fenway Dumpster - 1996

On Sunday June 23, 1996, a dumpster diver found the severed upper body of a young woman in the Back Bay section of Boston. The body belonged to a 20 year old Au Pair from Sweden named Karina Holmer. She was last reported being seen outside the Zanzibar nightclub located at Boylston Place. Police reports state she was was intoxicated and alone walking up Tremont Street between Bolyston and Park Street. Her employer stated she was allowed to stay at a South Boston studio on the weekends.

While Police interviewed 300 witnesses, including a BPD officer she had dated, no substantial leads developed. Adding to the investigators' frustration, the only physical evidence that police could gather was a partial fingerprint found on the inside of the garbage bag her body had been wrapped in and rope marks left around her neck. There was a person who eventually pleaded guilty in two separate cases involving decapitated victims, but police concluded the cases were not linked.

Fatal Brawl Ended in Gunfire

4 February 2005

Alexander Gonzales died from the trauma of a bullet traveling into his brain. The conflict started around 2am outside of the Paradise Rock Club. Boston's own Addison Groove Project and the Akashic Record just finished a show. 32-year-old Gonzales tried to enter the club, but bouncers rejected him at the door. They say they went back inside to start closing.

Dead by 2:28am at Beth Israel, within 30 minutes a scuffle escalated to murder. What drama unfolded before shots fired? Why was he trying to get into the club? Was this years in the making, or days or just minutes? The man had a heart condition, looked heavy. He held a piece, police say. After the gunshots, several people tried to help him up off the sidewalk, so there were witnesses. Maybe his killer helped too.

Jazz grooves just dying
madness commenced at the door
first (maybe) he ran

Target Shot in Jaw, Silenced, Nephew Dead

2 February 2005

William Clayter moved to a dead-end street in Mattapan. 17 years-old, he shared an apartment with his mom, another woman and her son, Brandon Henderson who was 24. Clayter and Henderson drove together that day a few blocks away from their home. An SUV slid up. Men jumped out and opened fire.

They hit Henderson in the jaw, Clayter in the chest. Clayter died on the sidewalk. He went to Hyde Park High School and had no criminal record. Henderson had been arrested several years earlier on gun and drug possession charges.

The fued that fueled this hit and run is probably still remembered by someone, maybe retold ad nausiam to a barber. Or nobody really remembers what started the thing, just that it happened, and Henderson did not talk.

Driving down the block
they got ambushed. An SUV
stopped, and lit them up.

Army Veteran, Excellent Father Dies in Gun Fight

1 February

Terrance Young died in Boston Medical Center. He faced multiple bullets on the At the intersection of Eustits and Dearborn Streets, near Upham's Corner, he met death. An 80 year-old lady related to his 2 year-old daughter said, "They have to get those gangs off the street."

Imagine the altercation as though it were a mugging. "Run your shit." Becomes, "Run." Wrong way. The gang (maybe) came from behind him, and he turned. Maybe they knew him. Maybe he still owed them for his seventh. Whatever the reasons, the reasons hit his chest. We know he was walking.

Capital punishment
for a debt or glance poorly
met in Roxbury

Fight Between Room Mates Ends with Knife Fatality

31 January 2005

Carlos Benito Garcia Cruz died in a pool of blood in his apartment. He lived with Manolo Salazar, his killer. What made them enemies? Did he cheat in poker? Were they friends, or joined by the Want Ads? Did they travel together from Guatemala? Were they secret lovers? Did they speak even the same language? Can we blame the kitchen knife?

Covered in blood, Salazar fought police. He failed to escape. He was the same age as his roommate, 41 (or maybe he was just 39, if we put more faith in a later article), when he slit his throat. How long they stuggled, when the seeds of malcontent were sown is immaterial. Salazar was captured, tried and convicted. It's an old, old story. New text does not fix their quarrel.

Police subdued Salazar as he acted crazy in the street, and EMTs took him to the hospital. While nurses treated wounds on his hands, police noticed an unusual amount of blood soaked his cloths. Thinking someone else must have been injured, they searched Salazar's apartment where they found Cruz with his throat slit.

Resentment or rage
grasped a kitchen knife and ended
the lives of two men

Cable Man Shot in the Back Outside a Party

29 January 2005

Michael Young died on Crowell Street at 4am. Imagine the party ending. Imagine the buzz, the bubbles in the blood. Imagine the altercation. Who said what to whom? What popped off? Whatever triggered these nerves, this murder left two girls and a little boy fatherless.

Ardent swimmer working for the Recreation Department, he moved with his mom to Dedham. She told reporters she wanted to get away from random chaos. "Anytime the kids needed anything, he was right there," His mom said. "That's my son, my friend, my buddy."

Returning to visit friends on Norfolk Street, staying out into dark hours, Police said he died just before the sun rose.

No time to hear shots
no ducking that friendly fire
Mike Mike died with friends.