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The Boston Strangler
About The Programme
Between June 14th 1962, and January 4th 1964, thirteen women in the Boston area were victims of either a single serial killer or possibly several killers.
The Boston Strangler was America’s first serial killer of the modern era. At least eleven of these murders were popularly known as the victims of the Boston Strangler. While the police did not see all of these murders as the work of a single individual, the public did.
All of these women were murdered in their apartments, had been molested, and were strangled with articles of clothing. With no signs of forced entry, the women apparently voluntarily let their assailant (s) into their homes. These were respectable women who for the most part led quiet modest lives. Mass market television, radio and Newspapers seized upon the phenomenon creating a widespread panic.
Even though nobody has ever officially been on trial as the Boston Strangler, the public believed that Albert DeSalvo, who confessed in detail to each of the eleven “official” strangler murders, as well as two others, was the murderer.
However, family and friends did not believe him capable of the crimes. He never stood trial for the killings and there is a persuasive case that DeSalvo was not the killer.
Sex Fetishist
There was a definite sexual undertones to the Boston strangler crimes. Once admitted to the homes of his female victims, the assailant raped and strangled them. His hallmark was to tie the ligature around their necks with a characteristic bow under their chin. The motive appeared to be sex followed by murder.
Many sexual deviants were questioned. It was one accusation of indecent assault which led to the identification of Albert DeSalvo who had been released from prison in April 1962 following a conviction for indecent assault. It was rape and other sex crime, known as the Green Man offences (because the attackers green overalls), which put DeSalvo behind bars in 1967.
His disrupted childhood seemed to have set him up for such crimes. As a child he grew up with a warped view of both sex and violence as a result of his abusive, alchoholic father.
Legacy of Doubt
The Boston Strangler case continues to fascinate Americans almost 40 years after his reign of terror began. And in December 2001, new DNA tests cast doubt on whether Albert DeSalvo, the man who confessed to the murders, was the real killer after all.
James Starrs, Professor of Forensic Evidence at George Washington University, states that DNA evidence found on the body of the last victim, 19 year old Mary Sullivan did not match DeSalvo’s. It has been alleged that DeSalvo who was facing many years in jail for the Green man crimes, made up his confession in the hope it would lead to a lucrative book and film deal which would take care of his wife and two children.
It has also been suggested that the threat of the truth emerging was the reason for his murder in his jail cell in 1973.