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.