“You never know what battles they might be facing”
Remembering the deadly 1984 Elliott Chambers Rooming House fire
Here are the news stories about alleged law enforcement misconduct in Massachusetts that I tracked last week:
“Massachusetts police oversight officials have revoked the certification of an ex-State Police trooper and three former police officers, officially barring them from future law enforcement work statewide. The Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission’s June 27 orders decertify former trooper Matthew Sheehan, former Belchertown officer Michael Beaupre, former Agawam officer Christopher Brunelle, and former Springfield officer Samuel Gomez-Gonzalez.” (Boston.com)
“North Andover, Massachusetts police officer Kelsey Fitzsimmons was in stable condition [July 1], a day after she was shot by a fellow officer as she was served with a restraining order. … [On June 30], her fiancé filed a restraining order, alleging that she struck him, threatened to take their baby away and said he feared for their child’s safety. Court documents show that he also filed for sole custody of their four-month-old baby. The officer who fired the shot has not been identified, but the district attorney said he’s been with the department for more than 20 years.” (WBZ)
“The state agency tasked with overseeing Massachusetts police officers suspended the certification of Paul Downey, the Boston police sergeant charged with raping a child and paying for sex. … City records show Downey made nearly $379,000 last year in regular pay and overtime, making him among the top 3% of earners on the department’s payroll.” (WBUR)
“A former Dukes County sheriff’s deputy was arrested on Cape Cod on [June 30] in connection with having nearly 1,200 files of child sexual abuse material on his phone, the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office announced.” (MassLive)
“Two months shy of the first anniversary of the death of Trooper Enrique Delgado-Garcia, the investigation into the circumstances surrounding his collapse and demise is yet to be finalized. Worcester city records show the cause of death is still pending on his death certificate.” (Telegram & Gazette)
“In a city dogged by allegations of endemic police malfeasance and corruption in recent years, Springfield has ponied up more than $11 million in taxpayer money to address claims of law enforcement wrongdoing since the second half of 2019. … More than 50 Springfield police officers are named in the various complaints that ended with legal payouts, according to court filings. It’s unclear how many are still on the force.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)
“A former Boston police sergeant detective was indicted in connection with an intoxicated man who was beaten the night of the St. Patrick’s Day parade in March, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office said [July 2].” (MassLive)
“The New Bedford Light has filed a lawsuit against the City of New Bedford in Bristol County Superior Court for failure to produce public records … regarding payment to a consultant who is evaluating the police department.” (New Bedford Light)
“The New Bedford Retirement Board this week requested materials from the city in order to review an allegation of financial misconduct by a retired police officer [Samuel Ortega] who is receiving a pension from the system.” (New Bedford Light)
“A Chelsea police officer is on administrative leave as he faces charges in connection with domestic assault, the Chelsea Police Department said. Michael Villanueva, 33, faces charges of domestic assault and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, the department said in a statement.” (MassLive)
Friday was the Fourth of July. Independence Day. It was also the 41st anniversary of the deadly Elliott Chambers Rooming House fire in Beverly. The blaze killed 15 people, making it one of the deadliest fires in Massachusetts history. I wasn’t born until four years later, but I don’t think I’ll ever live through another July Fourth without thinking about it.
As I previously wrote:
It was the early morning of July 4, 1984. A Beverly police officer was driving down Rantoul Street when he heard the owner of the Sunray Bakery screaming to get his attention. The officer turned his cruiser around, then came to a stop. The owner pointed to a rooming house a few blocks away.
It was burning. …
At 4:18 on that July 1984 morning, the Beverly patrolman radioed the police station to say he was investigating a fire in progress. He then raced a half-mile to the source: the Elliott Chambers Rooming House. The three-story building, located at the corner of Rantoul and Elliott Streets, had commercial space on the first floor, while residents lived on the upper two levels.
When the officer arrived, he saw “flames shooting out from the front entrance” and “billowing straight up to the second and third floors,” according to his report.
Firefighters showed up moments later and began a grueling effort to rescue trapped residents and extinguish the blaze. Before firefighters began applying water, they used ladders to save nine people, some hanging from windows. A few people jumped instead of waiting for help. Others went deeper into the burning building instead of remaining at the windows, and The Beverly Times later wrote that “several firefighters were nearly sobbing with frustration” when they could not save them.
Despite the efforts of first responders, 14 people died that morning, most from burns or smoke inhalation. Officials said the fire tore through the old wood-frame building so quickly that responders found six of the deceased victims in their beds. One man jumped from a third-story window, hit a traffic-control box, landed on the pavement right in front of the officer who called in the fire, and was pronounced dead on arrival at a local hospital. A fifteenth victim passed away from respiratory failure a month later.
The 1984 fire was quickly classified as an arson by law enforcement. Police eventually arrested a young man named James Carver for what The Beverly Times described as the “worst mass murder in Massachusetts history.” A jury convicted Carver in 1989. Carver insisted on his innocence, and a judge finally freed him in February after looking at new scientific evidence.
I first heard about the story of the Elliott Chambers fire and the James Carver case about three years ago. While most of my writing on the subject has focused on Carver’s legal case, I’ve spent plenty of time thinking about the fire itself and how it affected so many peoples’ lives. I talked to many people who were connected to the fire in some way—firefighters, a police officer, a survivor who was injured, family members of people who died, and others.
One of the family members, Tracie Lee Dalton, told me about her older brother, George Flynn, who died in the fire at age 18.
Dalton said her brother was a “loner” who had few friends but enjoyed spending time with family. She said Flynn liked to draw, build models of ships and cars, and was interested in electronics. Shortly before the fire, she said, Flynn graduated from Beverly High School and moved to the Elliott Chambers because it was near their grandparents’ home and his job at an electronics company.
I also spoke with Julie Nickerson Benedix, who lost three family members to the fire—her brothers, Rick and Ralph Nickerson, and her grandmother, Hattie Whary, who managed the rooming house.
“They were buried on my fifteenth birthday,” Benedix said. “Since I was 14, I’ve never had a birthday.” …
Benedix said Rick Nickerson liked rock music, played the guitar, and joined the US Army after graduating from high school in Maine. He eventually moved to Beverly, where he got a job and lived at the rooming house with their grandmother. He was 21 when he died.
Nine-year-old Ralph Nickerson was the youngest victim. He lived with his parents in Maine but was visiting his grandmother and brother at the time.
“[Ralph] had a lot of friends,” Benedix said. “A lot of the friends actually came to the funeral, which in itself was heartbreaking. […] To see that many kids at the funeral was just awful.”
I also visited the monument for the victims of the fire, which I wrote about the monument when I published my first story about the Carver case:
If you visit the corner of Rantoul and Elliott in Beverly now, you won’t find the Elliott Chambers Rooming House. Instead, you’ll find a CVS filling in for the now-defunct Davis Drug. But you’ll still see evidence that something horrible took place there once upon a time.
A modest hunk of polished granite rests between two benches. Affixed to it is a bronze plaque engraved with the names and ages of the 15 people who were killed by the fire. The monument was donated by the Elliott Chambers Fire Memorial Foundation in 2010.
I first visited this spot during one of my many research trips to the Beverly Public Library. To me, the size of the monument seems to understate the magnitude of what happened there nearly 40 years ago — and the way those events still impact us today. But perhaps it would be unreasonable to expect something bigger. It’s a commercial space, and business must go on. The monument’s subtlety is a reminder that we often move about the world oblivious that it is haunted by the ghosts of countless tragedies past.
The Elliott Chambers fire — whether it was an accident or the “worst mass murder in Massachusetts history” — was no doubt a tragedy. And we owe it to the ghosts, and the living, to learn its lessons.
The last time I visited the monument was last July Fourth, the 40th anniversary of the fire. The fire department had spruced up the surrounding area and left a note that advised the reader to remember the fire and be kind to others. It said in part:
The world has moved on. The Elliott Chambers building has long been removed. While most don’t know anything about the fire, the memory of the fire and its victims is seared into the brains of those who lived through it. It is our responsibility to remember this fire and those that were lost. We owe it to the victims and the survivors to ensure that a fire like this never happens again.
As you walk through this area, please take a moment to remember those we lost. More importantly, remember them after you leave here. When you are presented with the opportunity to help someone, no matter how small the gesture might be, go ahead and help. You never know what battles they might be facing.
That’s pretty good advice.
One June 30, the Healey administration announced that it plans to spend $360 million to “reimagine” MCI Framingham, the state’s only women’s prison. This is a shocking amount of money to spend on a prison that only holds about 200 people and has no real reason to exist. This money could be used to lift people up—instead it will be used to tear generations of women down.
Families for Justice as Healing and the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, both of which have spent years fighting the construction of a new women’s prison in Massachusetts, released a detailed statement opposing Governor Maura Healey’s plan for MCI Framingham. Here’s their full statement:
On Monday evening, the Healey administration announced its plans to build a $360 million women’s prison complex - a cost seven times higher than the $51 million previously budgeted in Healey’s former capital investment plan and held out by the Commonwealth as the anticipated price tag for nearly six years.
Families for Justice as Healing and The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls have opposed the Commonwealth’s plan to build a new women’s prison since 2019 when the state originally solicited for the study and design contract, and had to reissue the request for proposals twice due to violations of bid laws. We staunchly oppose this new, more expensive prison construction plan that will cause irreparable harm and trauma to current and future generations of Massachusetts women and families. We condemn this project as a misuse of taxpayer dollars, especially while our communities need significant capital investment and the state faces budget shortfalls in vital safety net programs.
Incarcerated women have testified to the legislature in two consecutive sessions that they oppose massive prison construction and support a five year moratorium on jail and prison construction, including most recently in a hearing before the State Administration and Regulatory Oversight Committee on May 13th, 2025.
“If it were not for untreated mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse, Framingham would be nearly empty. Most of the women here were victims of violence and abuse, long before committing any crime,” testified Kirsten Smith virtually from MCI-Framingham. “Many, like myself, asked for help, and received none. Society has failed to protect many of the women here since childhood and continues to fail them now. It’s not the prison itself that needs to be rebuilt, it’s the system that’s broken and that should be the focus.”
Incarcerated women also sent Governor Healey a letter with a list of concerns about MCI-Framingham that was neither acknowledged nor addressed by the administration. The letter expressed opposition to new prison construction. Forty community organizations signed on to a follow-up letter to amplify the voices of incarcerated women and the call to maximize and expand pathways to release prior to any construction planning.
Formerly incarcerated women, including those who have spent decades inside MCI-Framingham, have been unequivocal: there is no such thing as a trauma-informed prison. Academics and public health experts agree that incarceration only causes further harm, particularly to survivors of violence and trauma themselves.
It is abundantly clear that the Department of Correction cannot create or sustain a culture of rehabilitation given the dehumanization and violence incarcerated people regularly experience in Massachusetts prisons. Women at MCI-Framingham report experiencing and witnessing sexual misconduct and harassment. Last year, an officer was indicted for raping a woman in Framingham. Other women have recently brought civil suits about experiencing sexual abuse while incarcerated there. Women continually raise the total lack of healing programming, job training, computer access, and self-led groups that could be provided in the existing space.
Just last month, it was announced that $6.75 million taxpayer dollars will be spent to settle a class action lawsuit brought by 150 currently and formerly incarcerated men after enduring rampant brutality and racially targeted retaliatory force waged by DOC correctional officers at Souza Baronowski Correctional Center - the most recently built prison in Massachusetts. Even the first Trump administration’s Department of Justice cited the Massachusetts Department of Correction for eighth amendment violations and those fundamental problems have not been remedied. With a long and documented pattern of abuses, the taxpaying public believes it is impossible to entrust the DOC with creating “a national model of rehabilitation and correctional innovation” as the Governor’s announcement claims.
Taxpayers cannot trust the architecture firm, HDR Inc, to act in the best interest of our communities or steward our precious capital dollars. This multi-billion dollar firm has designed 275 jails and prisons in the United States. In addition to designing a $360 million women’s prison in Massachusetts, they have or have sought contracts recently in states criminalizing reproductive and gender affirming care, including Florida and Texas. HDR has refused to meet with formerly incarcerated women and ignored protests by taxpayers outside their offices, yet it spies on residents who have grave concerns about the impact of prison construction on our communities.
Governor Healey touts spending $360 million on a women’s prison project as “an investment in people, a commitment to second chances, and a responsibility to build a safer future for communities statewide.” An investment in people looks like state and capital budgets that expand access to truly affordable housing, healing, healthcare, recovery, education, and financial opportunity so families can provide for their children. To fulfill a commitment to second chances, this Governor must make good on her own clemency guidelines and ensure women are released from prison through all available avenues: commutation, parole, medical parole, moving women classed as minimum security to community placements, and passing elder parole.
Residents and our faith leaders are clear that prison construction will not make our communities safer. Constituents across the Commonwealth broadly support a Prison Moratorium to pause construction planning and pursue further reducing our incarcerated population, implementing alternatives, and investing in the resources that will actually address the root causes of incarceration and recidivism. Branding prison construction as “re-imagining” anything is a failed public safety policy that will condemn current and future generations of Massachusetts women and girls to further harm, trauma, and family separation. This project is a misuse of public funds.
Families for Justice as Healing and The National Council have been organizing to reimagine our communities, not prisons, for years. Directly impacted women are leading work to bring women home from incarceration and keep them home. We are implementing real models that reflect what women need to heal and advance our lives - like a guaranteed basic income program, rental assistance, healing programming, economic development opportunities like a paid commercial driver’s license course, and a community pantry.
MCI-Framingham is indeed the oldest operating women’s prison in the United States. Our organizations and the many constituents who support our work are outraged that 150 years after the construction of Framingham, this Governor’s brightest idea is to rebuild the same prison campus. What is possible for women has evolved significantly over the past century and a half, and our public safety policy should reflect that rather than changing the color of the walls. This Governor must recognize the urgent need, as a matter of public safety policy, to release more women—starting with elders in their sixties and seventies, women who are suffering with debilitating illnesses, and survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Governor Healey should truly invest in building up people, not prisons, and improve safety and well-being for all of us.
“The Governor’s plan to build a $360 million women’s prison is intentionally disrupting the work formerly incarcerated women are doing to create a better community,” said Families for Justice as Healing Co-Director Sashi James. “Build for our community what you’d envision for your children.”
If you haven’t read it yet, check out my story about a bill that would update the state’s system for compensating victims of wrongful convictions:
“Ain’t Nobody Helping Me.” More Calls For Reforms To Massachusetts Wrongful Conviction Compensation Law
Legal advocates have long said the commonwealth’s system for compensating victims of wrongful convictions is unfair, and now they have a plan to fix it
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