Towns

MA, USA

Cooper Tavern Killings

April 19, 1775

DateApril 19, 1775
Precisionday

At Cooper Tavern, British soldiers killed two men—Benjamin and Rachel Cooper's guests or employees—who were unarmed and apparently not participating in the fighting. Whether this was deliberate murder or the chaos of combat, contemporaries debated. The incident became part of the propaganda narrative about British atrocities, though the exact circumstances remain unclear. What is certain is that noncombatants died in Menotomy.