However, he grabbed a shaft he’d sawed off a larger piece earlier and started to follow Landregan. They went inside their house and Thomas said he was going to bed. When the commotion died down, Piper was standing with a brother when they saw a servant girl, Bridget Landregan walking home. But instead of going home, he bought some opium, mixed it with alcohol, and drank it. Thomas Piper was walking to the church with two of his brothers when he complained of not feeling well. And unknown to his employers at the church, Piper had a brief career as an arsonist before graduating to murder. Not surprisingly, the opium and alcohol “cure” gave him hallucinations. A popular “remedy” at the time, laudanum is a solution of opium in alcohol. Piper had s kidney disorder that he self-medicated with laudanum. He was also an avid Baptist, which led the Warren Avenue Baptist Church to hire him as a sexton. Young Thomas did carpentry work on the family farm until he moved with his parents to Boston in 1866. Piper was a Canadian born in Nova Scotia in 1849. It was there that Thomas Piper committed the crimes that caused the press to label him The Boston Belfry Murderer. ![]() This week’s case takes us back to 1870s Boston, Massachusetts. Last week, we met Rodney Alcala, the so-called Dating Game Killer.
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