What started as a simple holdup in a bar in Jamaica Plain in 1908 soon turned into a bloody battle, as a small group of radical anarchists engaged hundreds of Boston Police officers in a series of running gun fights across the neighborhood. The shootouts and a bloody siege at Forest Hills Cemetery left a total of 10 wounded and three dead. Most of the suspects escaped, only to be killed years later by British soldiers on the streets of London under the command of Winston Churchill himself. Listen now!
Tag: 20th Century
Organized Crime Classics (episode 78)
Bostonâs history with gangsters and goons goes far beyond the legacy of Whitey Bulger. This week weâre featuring three stories from our back catalog about very different aspects of organized crime in Boston. Â Weâll be discussing Charles âKingâ Solomonâs reign in the South End, the Tong Warâs place in Chinatown history, and the Brinks Robbery in the North End, known as the crime of the century.
Tent City (Episode 77)
50 years ago this week, residents of one Boston neighborhood carried out an act of civil disobedience, bringing attention to the cityâs need for affordable housing. A group of mostly African American residents occupied an empty lot where rowhouses once stood.  It was Bostonâs 1968 Tent City protest, and it helped change how the city approaches development and urban planning.
The Great Molasses Flood, Remastered (Ep73)
This week weâre revisiting Bostonâs great Molasses Flood, the subject of one of our earliest podcasts. Weâre giving you an update, now that our technology, research, and storytelling skills have improved. Stay tuned for tales of rum, anarchists, and the speed of molasses in January. Itâs not slow!
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Rat Day (Ep72)
The Boston Womenâs Municipal League was a civic organization made up of mostly middle and upper class women, at a time when most women didnât work outside the home. In 1915, they declared war on rats.  Over the next few years, Womenâs Municipal League published literature on eradicating rats, carried out an extensive education campaign, and in 1917 hosted a city-wide Rat Day with cash prizes for the citizens who killed the most rats. Â
Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968, with Ryan Walsh (Ep70)
This week, Ryan Walsh joins us to discuss Boston in 1968, the James Brown concert that might have prevented a riot, a cult that took over Roxburyâs Fort Hill, the strange history of LSD in our city, and a musical movement called the Bosstown Sound.  Most of all, though, we will discuss his book Astral Weeks, a Secret History of 1968 and the Van Morrison record that inspired it.
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Episode 65: The Boston Strangler
For almost two years in the early 1960s, women in Boston lived in fear of a killer who became known as the Boston Strangler. Thirteen women were killed, and the murders were eventually attributed to Albert DeSalvo, based on his confession, details revealed in court during a separate case, and DNA evidence linking him to the last murder victim. Itâs been over fifty years since DeSalvo was imprisoned on unrelated charges, leaving many people to question whether he was really the lone killer.
Classics: Holidays on the Harbor (Episode 60)
If youâve been listening to the show for a while, youâll know that the Boston Harbor Islands are one of our favorite local destinations. This week, weâre sharing three stories from the Harbor Islands, all of which originally aired within the first 20 episodes of the podcast.  Weâll hear about the zoo shipwreck, a hermit who made her home on the harbor, and the secret Harbor Island base where Nazis were smuggled into the country after World War II.
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Episode 59: Corn, Cotton, and Condos; 378 Years on the Mother Brook
Everyone knows the Charles River and the Neponset River, but have you ever heard of the Mother Brook? Â It is Americaâs first industrial canal, built by Puritan settlers in the earliest days of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and vital to the development of Dorchester, Hyde Park, and Dedham. Â Plus, by connecting the rivers on either side, it turns the landmass occupied by Newton, Brookline, and most of Boston into an island!
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Episode 58: Harvard’s Human Computers Reach for the Stars
During an era more associated with the Wild West, a group of women in Cambridge made historic advances in the field of astronomy, discovering new stars and fundamental principles about how our universe works. Â In the beginning, they were treated as menial clerical workers and paid a fraction of what their male counterparts got. Â Only decades later did they win academic respect, earning advanced degrees and finally the title Professor. Â They were the Human Computers of the Harvard University Observatory.
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