Thursday, 4:30 PM
Man pleads not guilty in stabbing death in downtown Boston
By John Ellement
Globe Staff
A 47-year-old Boston man was ordered held without bail this morning after he pleaded not guilty in Boston Municipal Court to charges he stabbed another man to death in view of tourists in downtown Boston Monday afternoon.
Joseph Lennon, whose defense attorney said had served in the United States Navy between 1976 and 1981, had his white T-shirt pulled up to cover the lower half of his face in court.
According to Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Gretchen Edson, Lennon was arguing with the unidentified man on Congress Street near the statue of Mayor James Michael Curley. The man turned around and Lennon stabbed him with a double-edged knife, which was still protruding from his back when police arrived, she said.
Edson said a tourist took a photograph that captured part of the murder and that Lennon was identified by eyewitnesses. He was taken into custody when he returned to the scene and started talking to a woman who was in police custody after shouting racial epithets at the murdered man, who was black. Edson said the woman, whose name was not released, was Lennon's girlfriend.
