John F. Gallagher

John F. Gallagher served with the Boston Police Department for more than thirty years and rose to the rank of superintendent and chief of detectives. After his retirement in 2008, John’s interest in local history and his background in criminal investigation motivated him to research and write about obscure, century-old murders in towns throughout the South Shore of Massachusetts. John’s first book, "A History of Homicide in Hanover: Murder on Broadway," chronicles three separate, sensational crimes in his hometown. In 2008, John obtained a copy of "Images of America: Hanover," a pictorial history of Hanover, Massachusetts. Inside the book was a photograph of a house with a message scrawled across its surface – “Three Irishmen shot here by Seth Perry in 1845." The caption below the photograph provided scant information, so John decided to find out more. His research led to the facts of what happened in 1845, and the discovery of two other murders committed in Hanover – one in 1874, another in 1904. Fascinated by these stories, he decided to compile the details of each murder and share what he had learned by writing and publishing "A History of Homicide in Hanover: Murder on Broadway." Since the publication of his first book, the author has written three other books – "Arsenic in Assinippi: The Trial of Jennie May Eaton for the Murder of Her Husband, Rear Admiral Joseph Eaton," a 1913 murder in Norwell, Massachusetts; "A Monument to Her Grief: The Sturtevant Murders of Halifax, Massachusetts," an 1874 triple murder in a Halifax, Massachusetts farmhouse; and "Passion, Poison, and Pretense: The Murder of Hingham’s Postmaster," recounting the 1857 investigation into Postmaster Hosea Gardner's mysterious death; the issues of capital punishment in mid-nineteenth century Massachusetts, and the enactment of a historic revision to the Commonwealth's murder statute.