Before the Boston Strangler terrorized his hometown in the early 1960's, Thomas Piper, a young church sexton of a local Baptist church, was the scourge of the aristocratic town when he committed a series of vicious sex slayings. Sporting a long black opera cloak, his crimes actually caused high-society men all over town to cease wearing the garment during the period of the infamous rape-murders.

On the night of December 5, 1873, Piper attacked a girl named Bridget Landregan as she passed some bushes along a road laced in snow. Piper leaped from the bushes and bludgeoned the young woman to death, but was unable to perform any acts of sex on the body when he was scared off by a passing couple. The couple reported the description of the culprit to the police, having labeled Piper as a "dark, bat-like figure." That same night, Piper struck again as he attacked another girl. This time he did rape her and beat her senseless. She survived and was able to give a description her assailant even though the police came no closer to capturing the lunatic.

Piper would claim three more young women before being brought to justice. His modus operandi remained the same in every instance. He would surprise a lone, youthly woman and rape her before beating her to death with a blunt object. After he had committed three murders, the police officially began the hunt for the caped perpetrator. The city itself became a haven of panic and hysteria. The chief of police ordered that all men seen wearing opera cloaks were to be stopped and questioned for suspicion of being the so-called "Boston-Belfry Murderer." It wasn't long before most men ceased wearing opera cloaks altogether.

The fourth and final murder was that of a five-year-old girl named Mabel Hood Young in 1875. The injuries to the body were the same as the other girls; rape or sexual assault followed by a severe beating with a blunt instrument. This time however, the killer was caught. Piper had been identified as the murderer when he was seen by several witnesses taking the little girl to the tower in the Warren Avenue Baptist Church, where the body was found. Piper,26, was arrested and confessed to her murder as well as to three others and a number of rapes. His trial was short and he was convicted of the murder of Mabel Hood Young and sentenced to hang. Since, his conviction and sentencing, Piper retracted his confession and maintained that he was innocent. However, once the day of the hanging arrived he once again admitted his guilt, perhaps as a way of finding forgiveness for his appalling crimes.