Criminology - The Boston Strangler

Episode Date: September 4, 2022

From 1962 to 1964, the Boston Strangler terrorized the Boston area, praying mostly on older and vulnerable women. The police eventually connected the murders due to the signature methods that this predator used. Many of the women were strangled with a piece of their own clothing, and the killer tied a knot, and often a bow. 11 murders were eventually connected to the Boston Strangler. A man named Albert DeSalvo eventually confessed to all 11 of the murders. But did he actually commit them? Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the infamous killer who became known as the Boston Strangler. Albert DeSalvo was undoubtedly a bad man. He was in prison for other crimes when he confessed to being the Boston Strangler. His other crime sprees earned him the monikers of "The Measuring Man" and "The Green man." But many people did not believe that DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler even though he was able to provide a lot of information on the murders. A fellow inmate named George Nassar has been looked at by many as the real perpetrator. And some people believe not all 11 murders were committed by the same person. In recent years DNA has shed some light on Albert DeSalvo's connection to the murders. But, for many, quite a bit of mystery still surrounds this case. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Going West is a true crime podcast hosted by me, Heath, and my partner Daphne. Hello. In each episode, we dive into various U.S.-based disappearance and murder cases. Whether it's the bizarre stalking story of Dorothy Jane Scott, a young mother who received harassing phone calls before she went missing from a hospital parking lot in 1980, or our recent, our recent two-year-old. 200th episode on The Man Upstairs, where we discussed the 1950 murder of Janet Christman and the urban legend that came of it. We drop episodes twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays, so go check out Going West True Crime wherever you listen to podcasts. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.

Everyone and welcome to episode 22 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, man. What is going on with you? A little bit busy doing work around the house and trying to get this episode out. It's a big one we have today. So I'm excited about this case. What's new with you?

I'm excited too. This is a big case. And it's one that's always fascinated me. So I'm excited to do it. I'm like you, just busy. Week in, week out, man. That's what life is all about. It's the grind.

But it's a good one. It's a good one. Hey, let's go ahead and give our people. Patreon shoutouts. We only have one this week, and it's Amy Who. So we appreciate that support very much. Yeah, thank you so much, Amy. And thank you to all of our other supporters. Anyone that would like to help support the show, it would mean a lot. You can go to patreon.com slash criminology. We'd appreciate it. All right, buddy, let's go ahead and jump into this case. And like we said, it's a big one. It's a well-known historic case, the Boston Strangler. And while I think a lot of people have heard of

the case or may have a general. idea of what happened, many people may not be aware of just how frightened one serial killer had residents of big city Boston and its suburbs afraid back in the early 1960s. It was in the city of almost three million people over a two-year period from 1962 to 1964 that the Boston strangler terrorized the community, preying on mostly older and vulnerable women. On June 14th, 1962. Fifty-five-year-old seamstress, Anna Elsa Leggens-Slessers, was found dead in the kitchen of her apartment on the third floor of 77 Gainesboro Street in Fenway, a neighborhood in Boston. She had been strangled with the belt of her own bathrobe and sexually assaulted with an unknown

foreign object. The belt was tied into a large bow. She had been left in the doorway of the bathroom with her legs spayed and the bathrobe she was wearing spread open. Anna had immigrated from Latvia. Her door may have been unlocked because she was waiting for her son to come over and pick her up or she may have answered a knock thinking it was her son there a little bit early. Her killer ransacked her apartment but apparently didn't steal anything. On one hand, the ransacking seemed like a crime of burglary, but since nothing seemed to be taken. The police began to wonder if Anna was the target herself. Just two weeks later, on June 28, 1962, 86-year-old Mary Mullen was found dead in her Commonwealth

Avenue apartment. A medical examiner determined she had died of a heart attack, but just two days later, two more bodies were found in the area. On June 30th, 68-year-old Nina Francis Nichols, a retired physiotherapist, was found dead in her third-story apartment on Commonwealth Avenue. She had been strangled with her own stockings and sexually. assaulted. The ends of the stockings were tied into a large bow, much like the belt of Anna's bathrobe had been. Also, as in Anna's case, Nina had been left with her legs spayed open. The home had been ransacked, but expensive items had not been stolen. For some reason, though, authorities didn't consider the murders of Nina and Anna to be connected. They were left pondering, however,

how would a stranger have gained entry to a third floor apartment? The very same day Nina Nichols was found dead. Sixty-five-year-old Helen Elizabeth Blake was also found dead in her home on Newhall Street in Lynn, Massachusetts. She had been very violently sexually assaulted and strangled with her own nylon stockings. A bra had been wrapped underneath the stocking and tied into a bow at the front of her neck. Her body was left lying face down on her bed, nude with her legs open. Two diamond rings that Helen always wore were missing, and it looked like someone had tried to pry open a metal strong box, as well as a footlocker in the home.

It was after Nina's body was found, that police believed that they were dealing with one man who had killed three older women. They decided how to go about investigating and getting the word out without starting a full-fledged panic. Summer was coming on strong in Boston, and people often left their windows, and doors open to keep cool. They knew that if there was indeed a predator trolling for victims,

he would easily find more. And as it turned out, they were right. On July 11, 1962, 60-year-old Margaret Davis was found dead. She had been strangled to death. Many articles state that she was found in her home in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. But author is clarified on her website, Susankellywriter.com, that Margaret was found at the Hotel Roosevelt in Bob. Just over two weeks later on July 30th, 14-year-old Cheryl Laird was murdered. She too had been strangled, but wasn't sexually assaulted. She was found the next day in a field. Investigators who were on high alert didn't believe that her death had anything to do with the previous murders.

After all, Cheryl was much younger than the previous victims, and she was found outside. The following month, on August 19th, 74-year-old Ida Odaz Urga was found dead in her apartment on Grove Street in Boston's Beacon Hill. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted. She was found on her back in the living room with her nightgown torn wide open. A pillow case was tied in a knot around her neck. The pillow that it covered was under her body and her legs were spread wide. Each foot propped onto a chair.

It was the first thing police saw when they entered the apartment and immediately they knew who they were dealing with. with. Just two days later, on August 21st, 67-year-old Jane Buckley Sullivan, a nurse, was found dead in her home on Columbia Road in Dorchester in Boston. She had been killed on the same day as Ida Urga, about 10 days earlier, and strangled with her own stocking. She was left kneeling in the bathtub with her head under the faucet and her feet sticking up out of the tub. Blood was found on the kitchen floor, the bedroom floor, and on the floor in the hallway. The end of a broom handle was stained with blood. Her body was too badly decomposed to determine whether or not she had been sexually assaulted,

but it was considered highly likely. Jane's purse was left lying open, but it seemed like nothing was taken from the apartment. So we said right up front, Morph, I mean, you talk about a city feeling terrorized. Six very similar murders and sexual assaults in the span of what? About a two-month time period? Okay. That's scary stuff. And we know Boston is a really big city, so you're bound to have murders.

But when you have this many that have the very similar M.O. And a lot of the victims are similar in age alone in their home. You see a pattern there. Well, pretty hard not to put it together that more than likely, this is one person. This is a serial killer who is running around targeting his victims. For the next four months, police in the area, held their breath, waiting for the next attack, now hoping it wouldn't come, but their hopes were dashed just weeks before Christmas. On December 5th, 20-year-old Sophie Clark, a student at the Carnegie

Institute of Medical Technology, was found dead in her apartment. On Huntington Avenue in Fenway, her apartment was just blocks from where Anna Slessers lived. She had been strangled with her own stockings and sexually assaulted. Three stockings. were tied around her neck in a knot, and her slip was knotted over that. Her legs were spread wide. Seamen was found on the rug next to her in the living room. There were signs of struggle, but no signs of forced entry. Those who knew Sophie wondered how her attacker got in,

because even her roommates had a hard time getting past her sometimes because of how safety conscious she was. There were also multiple locks on the front. front door. It appeared that someone had interrupted Sophie as she was writing a letter to her boyfriend. It sat unfinished in the apartment. Sophie was the first black victim and it was the first time that seaman was found at the scene. Her time of death was determined to be 2.30 p.m. Nothing was stolen, but someone had looked through Sophie's belongings. Now, Sophie was much younger than the other victims and she was a different race, but the clues at the crime scene left no doubt in investigators' minds that she was

indeed the latest victim of a single killer. By this point in early December 1962, the press had connected the dots and they knew that a serial predator was operating, targeting older women in the Boston area, and word got out. When people read of the silk-stocking murders, as the press had dubbed them, understandably residents were frightened, especially older women who lived alone. On December 15, 1962, just 10 days after Sophie Clark was found dead, 28-year-old George Balasentis was arrested on suspicion of murder in Cheryl Laird's case. Belizentis, from Lawrence, Massachusetts, confessed to the crime. He was questioned in the other murders to see if he was, who authorities were calling amongst themselves, the phantom strangler.

Though Balasentis admitted to killing Cheryl, he claimed that he didn't mean to kill her, and that he thought she had been unconscious, not dead when he put her body in the field that she was found in. He cried more than once as he described his actions during the interrogation. While some investigators felt that Balazentis was the man who had killed all of the women, most did not. Then on December 31st, 1962, 23-year-old Patricia Jane Bullock Beset was found dead in her park drive home in Fenway. Patricia was a secretary for an engineering firm in Boston. Her boss discovered her body after he crawled through her window because she didn't show up to work, didn't answer her phone or respond to a knock at the door.

And he was very worried. He discovered Patricia on her back in her bed. The blankets tucked up all the way to her chin. It looked to him almost peaceful like she was asleep. But lifting the covers revealed that she had been strangled with her own stockings in a shirt, all tight. together and nodded around her neck. She also had been violently sexually assaulted. She was in the first trimester of a pregnancy at the time of her murder. The apartment had been looked through, but nothing is mentioned to have been stolen or missing. And more if this was a horrific murder scene, no doubt.

But one of the things that struck me was that this woman didn't show up for work and her boss was so worried that he decided. to go to her residence. So I think it shows you kind of a different time, right? In 1962, today, I don't know how many bosses are showing up to their employees' home when they don't show up for work and they don't call. Yeah, it definitely seems like a different error. I know a couple cases just right off the top of my head that are older cases where something similar happened.

The boss went looking for their employee only to find them dead. But I think today, you know, with technology and cell phones and social media, they'd probably try a couple different other methods before we're just saying, okay, they're goofing off or something and, you know, I'll text them and see when they turn up. Investigators knew as 1962 turned to 1963 that a killer was still roaming their streets. The question was, when and where would he strike next? On February 18, 1963, just after noon, there was a knock at the door of 20. 29-year-old Gertrude Gruen's apartment in Boston on Melrose Street. She was home in bed, feeling under the weather. The knock woke her up, but she was groggy from the sleeping pill she had taken earlier. The man at the door claimed that he needed to repair something leaking in her bathroom.

Gertrude let him in, as he mentioned he would need to wait for a signal from his partners on the roof working on the pipes. As they waited, she turned her back, and the man immediately pounced on her, wrapping one arm around her throat and knocking her to the ground. Gertrude, despite being tired and under the weather, fought back vigorously and was able to bite the man's finger, hard enough that he let go, and she let out a scream. This scream alerted real workmen who were actually on the roof, and they came down to investigate her screams.

The attacker fled. It all happened so fast, and Gertrude was so upset that she could not provide much to police in the way of details about her attacker. On March 6th, just a little over two weeks after Gertrude Gruen was attacked, 68-year-old Marianne Brown was found dead in her Lawrence, Massachusetts home, 25 miles north of Boston. She had been strangled, beaten, stabbed, and sexually assaulted. Two months later on May 6th, 23-year-old Beverly Salmons was found dead. In her home on University Road in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a friend.

discovered her body after they became worried when she missed choir practice at the second Unitarian church. Beverly was lying on a couch bed directly across from the living room door, much like Ida Urga had been left. Her hands were bound behind her back with one of her own scarves. One nylon stocking and two handkerchiefs had been tied together and then tightly tied around her neck into a knot. A cloth had been shoved into her mouth like a gag and secured with another cloth over her mouth. Oddly, though, she had been stabbed to death. There were 22 total stab wounds, 18 to her left breast, and four fatal stab wounds to her neck. There was no sign of sexual assault. Despite the stabbing death, police felt that Beverly had been killed by the strangler. One theory they

considered for the choice of stabbing over strangling, was that Beverly had strong throat muscles due to her opera singing career, and the killer may have found it difficult to strangle her. The press was now publishing articles regularly about the killer they were now calling the Boston strangler, and people worried where and when the killer would strike next. Area residents, especially older women who lived alone, took extra precautions and made sure their doors were locked. For four months, there were no more murders. Then, on September 8, 1963, 58-year-old Marie Evelyn Corbin,

known as Evelyn, was found dead in her home in Salem, Massachusetts. She had been strangled with her own stockings. Her underwear was shoved into her mouth, used as a gag like in Beverly's attack. Tissues near the bed were stained with lipstick and semen. She had been sexually assaulted, and semen was found in her mouth. Things had been moved around in the apartment. There was jewelry on the floor,

her purse had been dumped onto the couch, but nothing had been taken. Evelyn's apartment had been locked by whoever killed her. There was a donut, a fresh one, on the fire escape outside of her window. No one could figure out who it belonged to, and police theorized that it was the killers. On November 23, 1963, 22-year-old Joanne Marie Graff was found dead in her apartment in Lawrence, Massachusetts. She had been strangled to death with a pair of her own stockings. They were tied in a bow, nodded around.

her neck. She had been violently sexually assaulted and her breast had been bitten. Police knew immediately who they were dealing with, the Boston Strangler. Police found a witness. At 3.25 p.m. that afternoon, a neighbor who lived in the apartment above Joanne heard weird noises in the hallway. Like someone was out there moving around. So he went out and stood at the door listening. Someone knocked on the door across the hall. The resident who had, been standing in his apartment, listening, opened the door to his apartment, and saw a young man dressed in dark green pants and a dark jacket. The man asked him, does Joan Graff live here? He specifically called her Joan, not Joanne, an indication that the man didn't really know

Joanne. As 1963 drew to a close, without the Boston Strangler being in custody, police were at their wits end. Finding the killer in such a large city was proving to be like finding a needle in a haystack. The holidays passed with people cautiously ushering in the new year on high alert. On January 4, 1964, 19-year-old Marianne Sullivan was found dead in her apartment

on Charles Street in Boston. She had been strangled with a dark stocking knotted around her neck, a pink scarf tied over that stocking in a large bow in the center of her neck. And finally, a pink and white and redacted white flower scarf wrapped around that. She had been violently sexually assaulted. A broom handle was still inside of her vagina, and semen was found on her mouth and on her breast. She had been left sitting up in bed,

leaning against the headboard. There was a happy New Year's card next to her foot. To police, it was clear. The longer this killer went on, the more violent he was becoming. They knew that they had to find him and stop him somehow. By early 1964, 18 months after the murders had suddenly started, it seems as though they abruptly stopped. And at this point, women throughout New England were terrified of someone who came to be known as the green man. He would break into the homes of young women. But he was also often able to just talk or charm his way right inside. The name green man came from his clothing.

He wore dark green clothes during multiple incidents, likely to blend in with workmen. A man fitting this description used the same method to enter homes in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, where he is believed to have assaulted over 300 women. On May 6th, he assaulted four different women in their homes all on that same day. In at least one instance, in October, the green man impersonated a detective to gain entry into a young woman's home, where he used a knife to threatener. He tied her to the bed and then sexually assaulted her. Strangely, the man suddenly stopped and apologized to her and asked for forgiveness. Apparently, he saw himself in the mirror and was remorseful. As he went to flee, the victim told him that she was tied too tightly,

and he stopped to make sure that he loosened the knots for her before he left. The 20-year-old victim had seen his face and was able to give authorities a detailed description of the man. The description she gave matched someone with a prior conviction for a different series of prime. crimes. This was a man known as the measuring man. In 1961, the young man known as the measuring man would go around Cambridge, Massachusetts, knocking on the doors of attractive young women. He claimed to be a representative of the black and white modeling agency. This man told the young women that he was a talent scout and that he liked the way they looked. Obviously, flattered and surprised, most of the women let him in to take their measurements.

But unlike the green man and the Boston Strangler, the measuring man had been arrested. On March 19, 1961, 30-year-old Albert DeSalvo, a rubber factory worker from Mulden, was arrested for pretending to represent a modeling agency to Case and Rob Holmes in Cambridge. Well, actually, he was arrested for breaking into a home. but he spontaneously volunteered the rest of the information. The father of two was being investigated for 40 different home burglaries in the Cambridge area over a period of just a few weeks. On May 3rd, 1961, DeSalvo was found guilty of four charges of assault and battery,

as well as two charges of attempted breaking and entering during the daytime. He was found innocent of two lewdness charges at the time. same time. Apparently, DeSalvo offered a few young women $40 an hour to model, but told the women he would need to measure them first. He would then use that opportunity to grope them. DeSalvo was sentenced to serve 18 months at Middlesex House of Correction, but he was released on good behavior in April 1962. It was shortly after his release that women in New England near Boston started dying at the hands of the Boston Strangler. Authorities published DeSalvo's photograph in the newspaper in relation to the green man crimes,

thinking that he may be the green man, and this led to more women coming forward to report their assaults. Earlier on the very same day, the green man assaulted the woman he apologized to. He had pretended his car broke down and asked to use a phone to be able to get into a home, but it was the home of Richard Sprouls, who would later become the Brockton police chief, and Sprouls actually fired a gun to Green Man when he figured out it was all a ruse. 32-year-old Albert Salvo from Malden was arrested on November 6, 1964, and charged with sexual assault in connection with the Green Man crimes.

On February 4, 1965, DeSalvo had a competency hearing, and he was determined to be incompetent to stand trial on the sexual assault charges. So let's recap just a little bit more. The authorities have connected DeSalvo to the measuring man. Now they believe him to be the green man. How long is it going to take for them to start to believe that he could be the Boston Strangler? And based on DeSalvo's history, it doesn't seem like it would be a huge leap for police to try and connect him to the Boston Strangler crimes. Well, the one thing I will say is, you know, if he was found to be all three of these men, and obviously we'll go into it as we get through the episode, just,

think of how prolific a predator this man was. Yeah, to me, it brings up shades of Joseph DeAngel in his East area, rapist, Golden State killer crimes. And I see where you draw that parallel. You know, think about the number of different monikers that that man was given. You know, it was almost as if he had different criminal lives at different points in time. And there's something similar to that here. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered.

I wonder which emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now, wherever you can. at your podcasts. DeSalvo was held at Bridgewater State Hospital under psychiatric observation. At the time, it was called the Center for the Treatment of Sexually Dangerous Persons at Bridgewater. Okay, that's a very long title. I could see why at some point they changed it.

At Bridgewater, he met a killer named George Nasser, who was responsible for at least two murders. Nasser had committed a spree of robberies with two of his friends in May of 1948 when he was just a sophomore in high school. They ended up with $80 from their spree, which sounds like such a small amount of money. But in today's money, that's almost $1,000. One of the store owners fought back against their robbery attempt. And Nasser shot him multiple times with a nickel-plated revolver. he had been hiding in his coat. Dominic Kermil died hours later from blood loss.

Nassar was arrested in Ayer, Massachusetts, after he crashed a car, which he had stolen on Route 2. He had two 38 caliber bullets in his pocket, and the nickel-plated revolver was found in the stolen car. Nassar was charged with auto theft and second-degree murder, which he pleaded guilty to. Nassar and his two friends were sentenced to. life in prison. At Massachusetts Correctional Institute, Norfolk, Nassar joined the prison's

debating society and met with a Unitarian minister named William Moors, who helped him earn early parole. Nassar was released from prison in 1961, one year before the first known Boston Strangler murder. On September 29, 1964, just three years after his early release from life in prison, Nassar killed a Texaco gas station owner. It was especially cruel. Forty-year-old Irvin Hill Hilton was on his knees when Nassar shot him the first time and lying on the floor wounded when he shot him the next three times. A woman named Rita Bloat and her 14-year-old daughter, Diane, who were just stopping for gas, ended up witnessing the murder. An autopsy would show that Hilton had been stabbed in the back and shot six times, not four. Investigators believed that he was

begging Nassar not to kill him when he was shot. Nassar then tried to carjack Rita, but she wouldn't unlock her doors. So he got into another parked car and fled. Luckily, a truck driver was able to copy down the license plate number. That plate number came back to a car that had been stolen. Near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, the Navy lieutenant who owned the car was a student at MIT. The stolen car that NASA used to flee the Texco station was found just hours later in Andover, Massachusetts,

this time near Phillips Academy. Inside the car, two guns were found hidden under the driver's seat. One was a 32-caliber, nickel-plated Harrington and Richardson revolver, and the other was a semi-automatic 22-caliber astra pistol. Rita and her daughter, Diane, had given Andover police officer William Tammany a detailed description of Nassar and a composite sketch was created. Lawrence Police Patrolman Charles Keenan noticed the uncanny resemblance to Nassar, who he had arrested in 1948. when he had crashed a stolen car, and he dug through all of his old files to find a photograph of him. Rita and Diane both positively identified the man in the photo, Nassar, as the man they had seen kill Irvin Hilton. Nassar was arrested in Boston.

His apartment on Deering Road was searched, and so was this car. A large hunting knife was found. Like DeSalvo, Nassar was held at Bridgewater State Hospital until his trial. It was during this time that Nassar made a confession. to his lawyer, famed attorney F. Lee Bailey, that he could ID the Boston Strangler. According to Nassar, Albert DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler, and he claimed that DeSalvo had confessed everything to him. In early March, 1965, F. Lee Bailey met with DeSalvo and confronted him with the accusations by Nassar. According to the Chicago Tribune, DeSalvo asked Bailey,

if a fellow were the strangler, could he write a book about it and make some money? Bailey took DeSalvo on as a client and conducted a tape-recorded interview. Albert DeSalvo confessed to all 11 of the Boston Strangler murders, Anna Slessers, Nina Nichols, Helen Blake, Ida Urga, Jane Sullivan, Sophie Clark, Patricia Bissette, Beverly Salmons, Evelyn Corbin, Joanne Graff, and Mary Sullivan, as well as two more. Mary Mullen, who had died of a heart attack, and Mary Brown, who had been stabbed in Lawrence, Massachusetts. George Balazentis had confessed to killing 14-year-old Cheryl Laird, and according to some online speculation, the murder of 60-year-old Margaret Davis was ultimately found to be the work of someone other than the Boston Strangler, though we couldn't find any documentation to verify that. But all in all, DeSalvo claimed to have ended the lives,

of most of the women we discussed in this episode. On June 26, 1965, Albert Nassar was found guilty of the murder of Irvin Hilton. The jury did not recommend mercy, and he was subsequently sentenced to death, to be housed at Walpole State Prisons, Death Row. On June 7, 1966, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

nullified Nassar's death sentence, and it became a sentence of life in prison. On June 30th of that year, Albert DeSalvo appeared at the Middlesex courthouse for competency hearing. F. Lee Bailey called him, as reported in the Boston Globe, a completely uncontrollable vegetable walking around in a human body. He also said that DeSalvo had one of the most crushing sexual drives that psychiatric science had ever encountered.

When he had been imprisoned on the measuring man assaults, his wife rejected him. After he was released, she refused to sleep with him. Dr. Brussels, a psychiatrist, claimed that DeSalvo's wife used sex to hurt him. Dr. Brussels also diagnosed DeSalvo with schizophrenia or split personality, something that state psychiatrist disagreed with. On January 7, 1967, DeSalvo's trial for assault in the Green Man cases began, the statements he had made in the psychiatric hospital could not be used against him in court. So he was not officially named as the Boston Strangler. To avoid the death penalty,

DeSalvo pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. DeSalvo admitted that the way he got into the homes was to pose as a repairman of some sort and asked the women to take him to something in the apartment. He admitted in one of his measuring man attacks that he had offered Sophie Clark money for a modeling session. As soon as the women turned their back on him, he would grab them and put them in a chokehold. This was exactly what Gertrude Gruen had described as happening to her when she was attacked. DeSalvo claimed the 85-year-old Mary Mullin, the woman who lived on Commonwealth Avenue that died of a heart

attack, had actually been frightened by him when he attacked her. She felt limp when he tried to grab her. Already dead from the shock of his attack, he fled the scene. The rest of the women, DeSalvo said, would become unconscious or die from strangulation after he would wrap one arm around their neck. It was also revealed that he had tied them into what he described as a frog-like position, still unconscious or sometimes dead, before he sexually assaulted them. After DeSalvo had already lied to gain entry to the home of his victim, it was apparently at that point, according to Dr. Brussels, who examined DeSalvo, that it was the women turning their backs on him that made him attack them.

He said that the feeling of hatred, the feeling of his wife having turned her back on him, the feeling that he was not being shown affection, which his mother never had shown him, simply swept over him. So more if I'm not a psychiatrist, I've never claimed to be one. But this statement by this Dr. Brussels is a little hard for me to swallow. I get the part about DeSalvo feeling as though his wife had turned her back on him. You know, his mother didn't show him affection. The part I'm struggling with is that these women turning their backs on him,

made him attack them, as though he didn't go there with the intention of attacking them. It was only after they turned around that he got mad or angry or whatever. I'm not buying that part. No, as if they had made eye contact with him the whole time, he never would have attacked him. He went there with the clear intention of doing that. So I don't buy that either. DeSalvo said that 75-year-old Ida Urga had not let him.

him into her home at first due to the previous attacks and her being cautious, but he told her it was no problem. He'd just come back the next day. For some reason, as he turned to leave, she changed her mind and let him in. That decision cost Ida her life. After DeSalvo was taken into custody, the Boston Strangler murders stopped. In February 1967, DeSalvo managed to escape from Bridgewater State Hospital. He tried to pretend he was a U.S. Navy petty officer third class, but he was free for just three days. He even called F. Lee Bailey and surrendered himself.

When he was captured, he was moved to Walpole State Prison, a maximum security facility. It was at this point that despite his earlier confession to being the Boston Strangler, DeSalvo changed his tune and now claimed that he was not the Boston Strangler after all. For what it's worth, many people didn't believe that DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler. Even some of DeSalvo's surviving victims in the Green Man attacks felt that considering the

circumstances, DeSalvo was somewhat gentle and concerned, not exactly like one would picture someone who would strangle someone or stab someone to death, like the Boston Strangler. DeSalva's wife did believe he could be the green man and the measuring man due to his insatiable sexual appetite, but she didn't believe that he could be the Boston Strangler. And there was more information that cast doubt on whether DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler. None of the people who reported seeing strange men around the murder sites thought DeSalvo looked like the men they saw. It was also pointed out that Salem's cigarettes were found floating in the toilet of Sophie Clark's apartment and also in an ashtray in Mary Sullivan's bedroom. But Mary didn't smoke

Salam's, and DeSalvo didn't smoke at all. In 1968, a former fellow in made of DeSalvo's named George Harrison, who had escaped Bridgewater with DeSalvo, claimed that he heard Albert and Nassar talk about the murders, about two dozen times. And each time, Nassar was describing them to DeSalvo, not the other way around. Ames Robey, who had been director of Bridgewater State Hospital when DeSalvo and Nassar were housed there, told the Daily Tribune, Nassar and DeSalvo spent hours talking together. They were very secretive about it too, apparently. If anyone came near, they would always hush up.

One popular theory is that Nassar and DeSalvo had an agreement. One of them would confess to being the Boston Strangler, and the other one would receive the $10,000 reward being offered for information, and they would use it to take care of both of their families. Now, splitting $10,000 doesn't seem really worth a confession to 13 murders, but in 1965, that was more like $94,000. On top of that, the two men apparently believed that there was a $10,000 reward per case. So basically, $94,000 in today's money per victim they confessed to.

Plus, they thought maybe there could be book and movie deals to come in the future if they sold their tell-all stories. It could take care of their families and was an especially good offer for someone who was already in prison and not likely to get out to be able to support their families anymore. DeSalvo had a very good memory, nearly photographic. Talking to Nassar and reading about the crimes in the newspapers could have given to Salvo everything he needed to confess. Apparently there was a chart in one newspaper that had details about each crime, but included a few mistakes, errors which DeSalvo also made in retelling of the facts. It's even been reported that someone who had their doubts, an official, brought the only known surviving victim of the Boston Strangler,

Gertrude Gruen, face to face with both DeSalvo and Nassar, to see if she recognized either man as her attacker. At the same time, they brought in a woman named Marcella Loka, who had lived in the same approach. apartment building as Sophie Clark. Just 10 minutes before Sophie's murder, a man calling himself Mr. Thompson tried to get into Marcella's apartment supposedly to paint. He was wearing dark green pants and a dark jacket. She told the man that he couldn't come in because her husband was sleeping and the man quickly left, saying he must have the wrong unit. Both Marcella and Gertrude agreed to come to

the prison and sit in the waiting room to get a look at the two men. They had been there primarily to see DeSalvo, but neither of the women recognized him. Interestingly, however, both women were unsettled when they happened to also see Nassar. According to the book, The Boston Strangler, by Gerald Frank, Gertrude stated, I realized how shocked I was when I saw him. To see this man, his eyes, his hair. his hands. The whole expression of him was upsetting. For his part, Nassar has always maintained his innocence in the Boston Strangler murders. Another theory is that the Salvo was responsible for

some of the Boston Strangler murders, just not all of them. Some of the victims were of different races. Some were elderly and some were teenagers. Some were strangled with stockings or other items of clothing. And some were strangled with bare hands. And one was stabbed. Some are assaulted with objects, some forced to perform oral sex, and some of the victims were left posed in a disrespectful way, while others were found neatly in bed. One victim's attacker left a greeting card by her foot, a sick hello to whoever found her body. The deaths of Jane Sullivan, Helen Blake, and Ida Urga were similar, likely the work of one killer. There was a blood-stained broom handle at Jane Sullivan's home, and Mary Sullivan had been assaulted with her broom handle. They share the same last name, but no relation has been noted.

Sophie Clark, Anna Slessers, and Patricia Bessette, all lived in the same area that the church Beverly Salmons went to was in. Mary Mullen may have actually been DeSalvo's victim, dying of a heart attack when he grabbed her during what was supposed to be a green man attack rather than a Boston strangler murder. Tom Kavanaugh, a former detective from New York City. believed that a man named Charles Edward Terry was actually responsible for at least the first four

Boston Strangler murders. Kavanaugh had been the one questioning Terry when he admitted to strangling a woman in New York in 1963. The crime scene was very similar to those first four Boston murders. And Terry was in the Boston area when all four of the women were murdered. Despite theories of how DeSalvo might be innocent of the Boston Strangler murder,

were only responsible for some of them. Many people do believe his confession that he was solely responsible. Though he didn't get everything right about each crime, he was incredibly detailed about each of the women's apartments. He was able to pick out a specific raincoat he had used at one of the attacks, out of over 20 that were presented to him.

One woman that was attacked described the brown chair in her living room, which DeSalvo described as blue. Photographs from the crime scene showed that the chair in her living room was in fact blue. DeSalvo was getting things right about the scenes that even the people who live there were getting wrong. He knew that Sophie Clark was menstruating and that she had a certain brand of cigarettes by her bedside.

He recalled the Christmas bells on Patricia Beset's door and the notebook under Beverly Salmon's bed, things he couldn't have learned from reading about the crimes and newspapers. On the night of November 25, 1973, DeSalvo was rushed to the infirmary at Walpole. During the night, he was attacked and stabbed. DeSalvo died and in the eyes of many took the secrets of the Boston Strangler murders with him to his grave. An investigation revealed that security checks had to be skipped and locked doors had to be left open in order for someone to have accessed DeSalvo's bed that night.

Dr. Ames Robey, the former director of Bridgewater State Hospital, was one of the people who never believed that DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler. he was actually set to visit DeSalvo the day after he was stabbed at Walpole. According to an article in The Guardian, Roby said he was going to tell us who the Boston Strangler really was and what the whole thing was about. Whatever he was going to say, we will never know. No one has ever been charged and formally named the Boston Strangler. And no one has ever been convicted for DeSalvo's murder either. So what do we know about Albert Silva?

He was born on September 3rd, 1931 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He was described as somewhat of a sadistic child. Apparently, he would trap cats and dogs and crates, separating them and starving them until he would remove the board between them and wait for their hunger to drive them to fight to the death. He would also shoot trapped animals through the slits in the crates with his bow and arrow.

One of six children, he was shoplifting as early as six years old, but he was according to the Boston Globe, model child, and a teacher's pet at school. Apparently he thrived when the healthy authority was in control. His father, Frank, was abusive to him and to his siblings and their mom, Charlotte. DeSalvo was in the Army from 1948 to 1956.

His behavior was described as exemplary in a Boston Globe article. DeSalvo was stationed in Germany at one point where he met his wife, Armgard, back, Flee Bailey was quoted by the Boston Globe as saying, during the time he was not on duty. In the military, his conduct was anything but appropriate because he was able to control himself only because he had controls, the psychological controls of a

superior authority. Bailey tried to explain his behavior using his past, claiming that DeSalvo was blatantly mistreated and exposed to the most deviant conduct so that his ideas from early childhood were warped. Bailey concluded that due to all of this, there is a facet to his personality that leaves him without control. In 1955, DeSalvo was charged with groping a young girl, but the charges were dropped. Soon after, his first child with Ermgard, a daughter named Judy was born. She had a congenial pelvic disease. This caused Irmgard.

to stop having sex with DeSalvo as much as she could, fearing that she would have another child that was physically disabled. In 1960, they had their second child, a totally healthy son named Michael. Decades after Salvo died, the truth about the Boston Strangler murders was still being sought, and investigators hoped that science might help provide answers. In 2000, the body of Mary Sullivan was exhumed for an autopsy. Sullivan's family, as well as DeSalvo's family, requested the private autopsy, both believing that the wrong man had been named as Sullivan's killer.

Both families sued Massachusetts authorities to make it happen, trying to prove that someone else had murdered Mary Sullivan. On October 26, 2001, the body of Albert DeSalvo was exhumed, and DNA was collected for analysis. In July 2013, authorities collected a water bottle that Tim DeSalvo, Albert DeSalvo's nephew had used as a construction site. DNA testing was conducted on the bottle, and according to ABC News,

it was determined with 99.9% certainty that the DNA from Sullivan's body matched the DNA of Albert DeSalvo. The DNA proved the Salvo had killed Mary Sullivan. However, the next year in 2014, authorities wanted to exhume DeSalvo's body again to be sure of their DNA findings, due to advances in DNA technology.

Once again, the DNA matched. In 2018, George Nasser, who was in his mid-80s, gave an interview to CBS. He still maintained his innocence. In the end, it seems likely to most people that Albert DeSalvo was indeed the Boston strangler.

So Morph, as we wrap up this case, you know, it's one that has fascinated people for, what, almost 60 years? It's a very big case in the world of true crime. We knew that we would cover it one day. I think, you know, what fascinates people about this case is Albert de Salva confessing, recanting, telling this story, telling that story, you know, was he the measuring man? Was he the green man?

And then was he also the Boston Strangler? I think there's always been a divide in this case. You know, you have your people who staunchly support the theory that, yes, Albert DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler. You've had your people who have said, no, no, he's not. And there's people who believed it was George Nasser. I think once DNA came around and after the exhumation of Mary Sullivan's body and this very high probability match, I'm assuming it changed the minds of a lot of people. Not everyone, but I'm assuming it changed the minds of a lot of people.

Because if Mary Sullivan is a known Boston Strangler victim and there's a DNA match to Albert DeSalvo, then how can he not be the Boston Strangler? Now, it doesn't mean that he killed everyone who was thought to be a Boston Strangler victim. But to me it means at least he was in there. He was in the mix. He killed a number of people. Yeah, we talked about it with a number of different victims, how similar the M.O.

It was how the bows were tied in the different stockings that were tied around the victim's neck. So could there be, theoretically, a separate killer that was tying bows on the necks of these victims the same way? It's possible. But I think the overall, the overwhelming likelihood is that it was Albert de Salvo. Now, I think to eliminate any guesswork after all this time, since we do have the benefit of science,

if there is physical evidence left from these murders that can still be examined, why not go back and see which ones still have evidence that can be tested? Maybe he can definitively be linked to all of the crimes and then eliminate any doubt. Yeah, I just wonder exactly what they have left. I mean, you know, you're talking about the early 60s. How well did they collect the evidence? How well did they preserve it? And just how much has it degraded over time?

And one thing I'm left wondering after talking about all these crimes, the green man, the measuring man, the Boston Strangler, I wonder if there's other victims out there of the Salvas that somehow were not linked to these different series. If he could ultimately have more murders, out there or more victims that survived somehow but didn't come forward because we know that a lot of times sexual assaults are underreported. So maybe he had other victims that did survive but were afraid to come forward. I would say the likelihood of that is very high. But I think that about a lot of the cases that we do. Yes, we know about X number of victims. But what is it that we

don't know about. And I always think that that number is, is a lot higher than what most people think. I mean, here's a guy who, you know, presumably went through three different stages as a predator. You're telling me that there couldn't be unknown victims out there. No, now, I'm sure there was a lot more. But I want to go back to something that, that you said, and it was around the MO, you know, this, this tying of the bow, the stockings and all the different things that were used to, you know, strangled these victims. But the tying of, of a large bow and all of that is very, very specific. And so, you know, I think in a lot of cases where people are murdered.

Yes, there's an M.O. But there's, there's not always something in the murder scene that just jumps out, that is so stark that it screams. this must be related to this other murder. But in the Boston Strangler murders, you have that. So going back to Mary Sullivan, she was found with a stocking, a pink scarf, all this kind of tied up in a large bow. So if the DNA links DeSalvo to her, how can he not be linked to at least the other ones where you know, there was this same presentation.

Yeah, it seems highly unlikely that there'd be a second separate killer doing the exact same kind of tying of the bows and stuff. And, you know, it sort of is a reminder, too, of how an uphill battle it was for the police to try and find him. And it's a city the size of Boston with the millions of people that live there, this is before social media, this is before they could track cell phones. How do you find this killer in a city that big? Like, do you just randomly sit outside every building where single women live?

Of course you can't do that. So I think the police really are their hands tied trying to figure out how to identify this guy, how to stop him. Well, and I think at one point in the episode, we said that they were waiting for the next victim. And I'm sure they were doing work, but maybe it was like that. You know, yeah, they're being proactive, but how much can they really do until they get more information? And that more information might only result from another crime. And here we are all these years later, almost 60 years later, and we still don't have all the answers. Yeah.

And I think that's the other thing that fascinates people about this case. Some people are not going to change their mind. They're firmly in the camp of he did it or they're firmly in the camp of he didn't do it. But that's what makes some of these cases so interesting that even after all this time, people are still looking into it. people are still trying to, you know, put the pieces of the puzzle together because there is still mystery that surrounds this case. But that's it for our episode on the Boston Strangler. If you love the show, but you haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a rating, leave us a review on iTunes, all of that helps. And keep telling your friends, word of mouth about

the criminology podcast really helps out the show. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at criminology pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook Discussion Group, Criminology Podcasts Discussion and Fans. So that's it for another episode of Criminology. But Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week.

Take care, everyone.