For the Locals

Mr. Butch, The Street Icon, Dies in Scooter Accident

By Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff

Mr. Butch, the dreadlocked, homeless man who was an icon in Kenmore Square and Allston, was killed today in a scooter accident, friends and family said.
Boston police said there had been a fatal accident just after 7:30 a.m. on Cambridge Street in Allston, but did not release the name of the victim. Mr. Butch's sister, Jeannette Madison of Worcester, said she had been notified of her brother's death.
Mr. Butch’s real name was Harold Madison Jr. The 56-year-old had been the subject of YouTube videos, a MySpace tribute page, and a Wikipedia entry. He was so popular that The Boston Phoenix wrote in April that it was considering changing the criteria for its "Readers' Pick: Neighborhood Character" category because Mr. Butch won so regularly.
"He's been in so many local movies, videos, in the Phoenix -- he's like an icon of the neighborhood," said Erin Scott, manager of New England Comics on Harvard Avenue in Allston.
Mr. Butch had lived on the streets of Boston for about 30 years. In Kenmore Square and his neighborhood in Allston -- areas rife with college students and people who cleave to less traditional approaches to living in Boston -- some saw in Mr. Butch a latter-day Thoreau, a man who chose a life that didn't involve taxes, rent, or office cubicles.