Jim Tasker- Blood on the Sidewalk

The Chapel's next door businessman neighbor Gene Wesson -- the large Native American ex-Marine -- liked to come over and chat when he saw us on the sidewalk. He talked about his building owner parents who lived in Brookline; about losing a Marine buddy beside him in a lonely foxhole they had dug together while under heavy fire in the frozen tundra of Korea; about Dover Street neighborhood happenings, etc.

"A guy yesterday had his throat slit right where you're standing, Reverend," he began, pointing to some dark spots on the Sunday morning sidewalk. "He had shot a guy a few weeks ago. In the hospital, the guy he shot told the cops he didn't know who shot him. Yesterday morning I was talking to the guy who shot him, and another guy, right here on the corner. The guy who had been shot walked right up to the guy who shot him, and slit his throat."

Some of our legalistic purists may point out that I am possibly passing along what is known as "hearsay" in the barrister biz. Fair enough, but you'll agree It was a first-hand account. I have no doubt as to its accuracy. I always trusted and valued eye-witness Gene Wesson, our neighbor, friend, and Boston Chapel building protector.

In so many ways, God had His hand upon Boston Chapel and its history.