What if Frank Converse was not killed in the Malden Bank?

On December 15, 1863, Frank Converse became the first murder victim during a bank robbery in American history.

This video explores a hypothetical scenario created by an author who’s spent a lot of time thinking about Frank’s murder and its impact on the Converse family. I’ve also considered the importance of the Converse Rubber Shoe Company’s role in the formation of the NBA. Chuck Taylor, who played a significant role in the creation of the All Star shoe, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969. The Converse World Headquarters is located right next to the TD Garden. With the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, the time seems perfect to ponder the consequences of this murder on the development of the early NBA and the role the Converse family played in the sport.

If Frank wasn’t murdered and he took over his father’s Boston Rubber Shoe Company as planned, would his distant cousin, Marquis Mills Converse, have started his own rubber shoe company in the same city? It seems doubtful. Surely, there couldn’t have been room or available workforce for two giant rubber shoe companies in early twentieth century Malden. Marquis saw the void and the name recognition he shared with Elisha Converse, took his chance and succeeded. His success coinciding with the NBA’s rise of popularity and the first basketball shoe his company produced.

In 2021, after years of research and writing, I published my first novel, “Abel Bodied: Murder at the Malden Bank” – based on the little-known, outside of Malden, historic crime. Thanks to the City of Malden and Incantrix Productions, the novel has been the basis of a dozen sold-out interactive murder mystery pub crawls since its publication in 2021.

With over a thousand participants so far, six more pub crawls are scheduled this summer! I’ll be signing copies of my novel at Idle Hands Craft Ales. Please stop by and say hi!

For tickets: