Homeless veteran beaten to death on July 4th

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Killing of homeless man leaves questions
Beating on July 4 witnessed by many
By Milton J. Valencia
Globe Staff / July 11, 2008
There are no roadside memorials for Timothy Finch, no flowers, cards or R.I.P. signs.

The homeless man, a 40-year-old US Army veteran, was killed in broad daylight on the Fourth of July, one of the city's busiest holidays, near Faneuil Hall Marketplace, one of its biggest tourist destinations.

Yet Finch's slaying was obscured by the same shadow of anonymity that shrouded his life. Police said that his gruesome beating was witnessed by tourists and other passersby who dismissed it as a run-of-the-mill scuffle between homeless men and that people walked by as he lay dying, thinking he was merely slumped on the sidewalk. One of the initial calls to police was for a drunk man lying on the ground, bleeding.

Soon after the killing, the scene was cleared, and Fourth of July festivities resumed. And in the days after, it was business as usual at Faneuil Hall, with little reminder that a man had recently been killed there.

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