I know this is quite old but... I have been bitten by this spider (I live in Massachusetts too) more than once, on three occasions I caught the spider biting me (always at night, always on my bed, it is by an open window in the summer months). I actually get very ill when bitten by these spiders, and I just got bitten, and caught her yesterday. I am very ill at the moment. That is how I found your site actually. I hold no ill will toward these little creatures, but some people can get quite sick from their bites (nausea, muscle soreness, headaches, or for me head heaviness, dizziness, and a sore throat). Once bitten, for me anyways, I get a small lump, it gets bigger within a day and very red, I start to feel tired, and then the general symptoms listed above start, after three days I start to feel better, but it takes me a whole week to fully recover, this has happened to me every time, and in the span of three years. When I was younger I had no reaction from them, now I feel like death. I have to go lay down now, but remember, no one is a complete authority on everything, everyone reacts differently to different things, even spiders for that matter. By the way, this is a very serious comment, I just feel a bit strange and loopy, so it may sound like a joke, but it's not, sorry.

I disagree with your comment about this spider biting humans, I in fact have been bitten by this very species.

Perhaps this particular species of Cheiracanthium doesn't bite humans but the Cheiracanthium Miturgidae definitely does and as they are related, I think I would be extremely careful around this spider. I would like to direct you to a website that shows the possibility of this spider biting humans. www.usq.edu.au/spider/find/spiders/113.htm
If you look up finding spiders by location and then click on Retreat (as in the place you find them, in a retreat, by day) and then click on the Cheiracanthium Miturgidae you will see an almost identical spider to what is listed on this site. The Miturgidae doesn't have the cross on its abdomen or the recessed area on the thorax but other than that it is extremely similar in appearance yet poisonous, like the brown recluse. The places these people have bites, I would say that the spider's weren't provoked much. Perhaps the ankle bite victim walked too close and the hand bite may have accidentally brushed one. The point is, they are apparently aggressive and will bite leaving quite a lesion. I live in California and found one in my apple tree. It has a worldwide distribution so I wouldn't go picking up one of these beasts.