Murder in the Shadow of Harvard
March 13 -- To university officials and prospective students, it's known as Harvard Square. But to locals and the street kids who make it their home, it's the Pit.
The square is a busy pedestrian hub just outside the entrance to the Harvard campus in Cambridge, Mass. At its center is a sunken plaza — the Pit — that has for decades attracted a mixture of the homeless, the jobless and the adventurous. Many of the Pit regulars panhandle and a few sell drugs, but most just sit and talk.
Last summer, a new arrival joined the crowd at the Pit: Io Nachtwey, a sunny, free-spirited 22-year-old from the Hawaiian island of Maui. Nachtwey had been very successful in high school — an excellent student, fluent in several languages, and so popular that her classmates gave her an ovation at graduation. But when her family decided to move to a Hare Krishna community in Florida, she decided to strike out on her own.
Nachtwey came to the East Coast in the hope of becoming a flight attendant, but her money ran out and she ended up spending a few nights in a shelter in Maine. There she met Gene Bamford, a 10-year veteran of the street life known as Leppy.
The pair wound up in Cambridge, hanging out at the Pit during the day and spending their nights sleeping rough at a local cemetery.
The perpetually upbeat Nachtwey was popular at the Pit and told her friends she was happy. "She would say, 'If you can't spare any change, spare a smile,' you know," remembers Michael Sullivan, who runs a homeless outreach program in Cambridge.
During the summer, Nachtwey and Bamford became engaged.
"She never had a bad word to say of nobody," said Bamford. "All she wanted them to do was smile."
After Dusk
During the day, the Pit can be a friendly place. But it takes on a different character after the sun goes down. "The Pit draws people who prey on the weak. It draws predators, right, and there's nothing you can do to change that," said Sullivan.
During the summer, a new group appeared at the Pit, a gang of young men who claimed to be an offshoot of the Boston branch of the Crips. The gang allegedly offered the street kids a tempting offer: food, shelter and a sense of belonging — in return for robbing people.
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