Peters served two terms in the Massachusetts State Senate (1904, 1905). In 1906, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served from 1907 to 1914.[6]
Peters married Martha Phillips in 1910 and they had six children.[4]
Peters' cousin-in-law, Helen Faithfull, had a young daughter named Starr Wyman, later Starr Faithfull, who attracted his attention in 1917. A student of the Rogers Hall School in Lowell, Massachusetts, she spent summers with the Peters. He began to sexually abuse her when she was age 11,[8] dosing her with ether, reading to her from Havelock Ellis's books about sex, and taking her to hotels.[9] She drowned under mysterious circumstances off Long Island in 1931. When her diaries were found, the story came out,[10] and her stepfather produced evidence that Peters paid him and Helen to keep quiet.[11][9] Through a family friend and attorney, Peters denied "improper relations" with her.[12] He is reported to have had a nervous breakdown as a result of the scandal.[11] This story became part of the material used by John O'Hara in his novel BUtterfield 8. Peters is a key character in Dennis Lehane's novel The Given Day.
Peters died of pneumonia in Boston on June 26, 1938.[13]
Goodman, Jonathan.: The Passing of Starr Faithfull. (London: Piatkus, c. 1990) ISBN0-86188-844-8
Russell, Francis.: A City in Terror, 1919: The Boston Police Strike (New York: Viking Press, c. 1975) ISBN0-670-22449-9
Russell, Francis.: The Knave of Boston & Other Ambiguous Massachusetts Characters (Boston: Quinlan Press, c. 1988) (pp.68–84: "The Mayor and the Nymphet") ISBN0-933341-79-2
City of Boston Statistics Department The Municipal Register for 1918 (1918) p.2.
