Chapter 10: Tommy's Suicide

After Ma moves to Colorado, she let’s Michael have the apartment. Although he now has his own apartment, he continues to stay at his friends houses. Michael’s brother, Johnnie also returns from the Navy and stays with Michael. Since Johnnie just got back from the Navy, he was in possession of guns (remember that for later in the post).

            Meanwhile, in Colorado, Ma writes, and calls Michael and tells him that she is enjoying Colorado; however his brothers, Seamus and Stevie tell Michael that they hate it. Since they both hated it in Colorado, Michael’s brothers visited Southie.

            During the boys visit to Southie, Steve’s close friend Tommy is shot while with him. This caused a great amount of turmoil, because Steve was then accused of killing Tommy when in reality, Tommy found one of Johnnie’s guns and killed himself. Steve was found guilty of murder, and was then sent to the Department of Youth Services (DYS). Although, it was later revealed that some key information was missing from the trial. For one, in the 911 transcript it says that Steve says that he shot Tommy, however when Michael listens to the actual tape, Steve never says that. There is also ballistic evidence that proves that Steve did not pull the trigger, however the courts ruled that the evidence was not solid enough. Michael recommends that the police wanted to convict Steve so that they had a scapegoat, and would look good for solving a murder. Eventually, after Steve gets out of DYS the case is reviewed by lawyers (with all legitimate evidence considered) and Steve is proven innocent. Having read all of this, it gives me the sense that maybe the residents of Southie weren’t wrong for not trusting the police. This is just further evidence of the level of distrust between Southie and the government. Once all of this happens, Michael decides to move away, vowing to never return to Southie.