The Boston Strangler is a
name attributed to the murderer (or murderers) of several women in
Boston
, Massachusetts
, United
States
, in the early 1960s. Though the crimes were
attributed to
Albert DeSalvo,
investigators of the case have since suggested the murders
(sometimes known as the silk stocking murders) were not committed
by one person.
Victims
First Stage (1962)
- Anna E. Slesers, 55, sexually
molested with unknown object and strangled with the cord on her
bathrobe; found on June 14, 1962
- Mary Mullen, 85, died from a heart attack but
in the confession was said to have collapsed as the strangler
grabbed her; found on June 28, 1962
- Nina Nicols, 68, sexually molested and
strangled with her nylon stockings; found on June 30, 1962
- Helen Blake, 65, sexually molested and
strangled with her nylon stockings; found on June 30, 1962
- Ida Irga, 75, sexually molested and strangled;
found on August 21, 1962
- Jane Sullivan, 67, sexually assaulted and
strangled with her nylon stockings; found on August 30, 1962
Second Stage (1962-1964)
- Sophie Clark, 19, sexually assaulted and
strangled with her nylon stockings; found on December 5, 1962
- Patricia Bissette, 23, sexually assaulted and
strangled with her nylon stockings; found on December 31, 1962
- Mary Brown, 69, stabbed and beaten, found on
March 9, 1963
- Beverly Samans, 23, stabbed to death on May 8,
1963
- Evelyn Corbin, 58, sexually assaulted and
strangled with her nylon stockings; found on September 6, 1963
- Joann Graff, 23, sexually assaulted and
strangled on November 25, 1963
- Mary Sullivan, 19, sexually assaulted and
strangled with dark stockings; found on January 4, 1964
Events
Between June 14, 1962 and January 4, 1964, 13 single women (between
the ages of 19 and 85) were murdered in the Boston area. Most had
been sexually assaulted in their apartments and were murdered in
the manner indicated above. Without any sign of forced entry into
their dwellings, the women were assumed to have either known their
assailant or have voluntarily allowed him into their homes,
believing him to be an apartment maintenance person or some other
service person. While the police were not convinced that all of
these murders were the work of a single individual, much of the
public believed so. The media certainly fueled the idea of a single
murderer referring to him with names such as 'The Phantom' and 'The
Sunset Killer' before settling on 'The Boston Strangler.'
Confession
Gainsborough Street, site of the first
murder attributed to the Boston strangler.
On October 27, 1964, a stranger entered a young woman's home posing
as a
detective. He tied his victim to her
bed, proceeded to sexually assault her, and suddenly left, saying
"I'm sorry" as he went. The woman's description led police to
identify the assailant as
Albert
DeSalvo and when his photo was published, many women identified
him as the man who had assaulted them.
Earlier on October 27,
DeSalvo had posed as a motorist with car
trouble and attempted to enter a home in Bridgewater,
Massachusetts
. The homeowner, future Brockton police chief
Richard Sproles, became suspicious and eventually fired a shotgun
at DeSalvo.
DeSalvo was not initially suspected of being involved with the
stranglings. It was only after he was charged with
rape that he gave a detailed confession of his
activities as the Boston Strangler. He initially confessed to a
fellow inmate
George Nassar who
reported to his attorney
F. Lee Bailey who took on DeSalvo's case. The
police were impressed at the accuracy of DeSalvo's descriptions of
the crime scenes. Though there were some inconsistencies, DeSalvo
was able to cite details which had not been made public. However,
there was no physical evidence to substantiate his confession. As
such, he stood trial for earlier, unrelated crimes of robbery and
sexual offenses in which he was known as
The Green Man and
The Measuring Man respectively. Bailey brought up the
confession to the stranglings as part of his client's history at
the trial in order to assist in gaining a 'not guilty by reason of
insanity' verdict to the sexual offenses but it was ruled as
inadmissible by the judge.
DeSalvo was sentenced to life in prison in 1967.
In February of that
year, he escaped with two fellow inmates from Bridgewater State Hospital triggering a full scale
manhunt. A note was found on his bunk addressed to the
superintendent. In it DeSalvo stated that he had escaped to focus
attention on the conditions in the hospital and his own situation.
The next day he gave himself up.
Following the escape he was transferred to
the maximum security Walpole
State Prison where he was found murdered six years
later in the infirmary. He had been stabbed. The killer or
killers were never identified.
Doubts
Doubts remain as to whether DeSalvo was indeed the Boston
Strangler. At the time he confessed, people who knew him personally
did not believe him capable of the vicious crimes. It was also
noted that the women killed by "The Strangler" came from different
age and ethnic groups, and that there were different
modi operandi.
Susan Kelly, author of the 1996 book
The Boston
Stranglers, accessed the files of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts "Strangler Bureau". She argues that the stranglings
were the work of several killers rather than a single individual.
Another
author, former FBI
profiler Robert Ressler, said that "You're putting
together so many different patterns [regarding the Boston Strangler
murders] that it's inconceivable behaviorally
that all these could fit one individual."
In 2000,
Elaine Whitfield Sharp, an attorney specializing in forensic cases
who is based in Marblehead, Massachusetts
, took up the cause of the DeSalvo family and that
of the family of Mary A. Sullivan. Sullivan was publicized
as being the final victim in 1964, although other stranglings
occurred after that date. A former print journalist, Whitfield
Sharp assisted the families in their media campaign to clear
DeSalvo's name, to assist in organizing and arranging the
exhumations of Mary A. Sullivan and Albert H. DeSalvo, in filing
various lawsuits in attempts to obtain information and trace
evidence (e.g.
DNA) from the government, and to
work with various producers to create documentaries to explain the
facts to the public. Whitfield Sharp pointed out various
inconsistencies between DeSalvo's confessions and the crime scene
information (which she obtained). For example, Whitfield Sharp
observed that, contrary to DeSalvo's confession to Sullivan's
murder, there was no semen in her vagina and that she was not
strangled manually, but by ligature. Forensic pathologist Michael
Baden observed that DeSalvo also got the time of death wrong — a
common inconsistency with several of the murders pointed out by
Susan Kelly. Whitfield Sharp continues to work on the case for the
DeSalvo family..
In the case of Mary Sullivan, murdered January 4, 1964 at age 19,
DNA and other
forensic evidence were used by Casey
Sherman to try to track down her presumed real killer. Sherman
wrote about this in his book
A Rose
for Mary (2003), and stated that DeSalvo was not
responsible for her death. For example, DeSalvo confessed to
sexually penetrating Sullivan, yet the forensic investigation
revealed no evidence of sexual activity. There are also suggestions
from DeSalvo himself that he was covering up for another man, the
real killer.
In film
References
- The Boston Strangler 48 Hours Mystery, February
15, 2001. CBS News
- bostonstrangler.org
Bibliography
- Junger, Sebastian. A Death in Belmont. Norton, W. W.
& Company, Inc. April 2006. ISBN 0-393-05980-4.
- Kelly, Susan. The Boston Stranglers: The Public Conviction
of Albert Desalvo and the True Story of Eleven Shocking
Murders. Citadel. October 1995. ISBN 1559722983.
- Rogers, Alan. New England Remembers: The Boston
Strangler. Commonwealth Editions. May 2006. ISBN
1-889833-52-5.
- Sherman, Casey and Dick Lehr. A Rose for Mary: The Hunt for
the Boston Strangler. Northeastern University Press. September
2003. ISBN 1-55553-578-X.
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