Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Boston Strangler” Pt. 2 - Albert DeSalvo

Episode Date: April 17, 2018

After being admitted to Bridgewater State Hospital, Albert DeSalvo began confiding in other patients, bragging about his crimes and admitting he was the Boston Strangler. But was that a lie for attention? Or was DeSalvo truly the killer behind the crimes of the Boston Strangler?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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is advised. This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. In a perfect world, a serial killer's confession would be the end of the story. A serial killer is charged and convicted for the confessed crime or crimes, then heads to jail for a life sentence. For Albert de Salvo, His confession is where the biggest mystery of the Boston Strangler began. As we discussed last week, the Boston Strangler raped and murdered 13 women around the New England city from 1962 until 1964. The murders are often attributed to Army veteran Albert DeSalvo. But the identity of the serial killer is still often disputed due to his unreliable confession, his trial, and his mysterious death in jail.

33-year-old DeSalvo confessed to being the Boston Strangler in March 1965, while he was admitted to Bridgewater State Hospital for the Green Man series of sexual assaults. Psychiatrists diagnosed him as a sociopath and as, quote, quite clearly overtly schizophrenic. The judge found DeSalvo unfit to stand trial and sent him to Bridgewater. At the hospital, he loved to boast about his previous crimes, as many sociopaths often tend to do. He bragged to his fellow patients

about how he used to impersonate a modeling agent and fondled women in the measuring man assaults in Boston. He claimed the women enjoyed it. DeSalvo gloated about how he had raped four to five women in a single morning in Connecticut. He bragged that the women he assaulted in the green man rapes supposedly begged him to come back again. As a diagnosed sociopath,

DeSalvo was clearly lying about these stories. The women in The Measuring Man and Green Man assaults did not enjoy his actions or beg him to be with them. DeSalvo was even jailed for lewd conduct for the Measuring Man assaults from 1961 to 1962. But there was one patient who listened more intently to DeSalvo's stories than the others. He was George Nasser, a 33-year-old man from Manapan, Massachusetts, who stabbed and shot a gas station attendant. He was admitted to Bridgewater a few days after DeSalvo arrived at the hospital. Psychiatrists observed that Nassar was, quote,

very paranoid, very bright, very angry. Nassar displayed paranoid and schizophrenic symptoms. At Bridgewater, Nassar and DeSalvo became close friends and confidants. Perhaps it was because they were bonded by their schizophrenia diagnosis. They may also have bonded over the simple fact that they were admitted to Bridgewater within the same week. One day, in early March, 1965, DeSalvo took a break from his usual bragging about his previous sexual assaults and posed a question to Nasser. He asked his friend, quote, George, what would happen if a guy was sent up for robbing one bank when there were really 13 banks robbed?

End quote. Nassar was confused and responded, quote, You must be a nut like the others around here. Get away from me. I don't want anything to do with you. End quote. DeSalvo walked away. and they did not speak again until a few days later.

DeSalvo's riddle could be interpreted many ways. First, DeSalvo could have been confessing that while he was in custody for one series of rapes, he was also responsible for the 13 assaults and murders done by the assailant known as the Boston Strangler. Or it could have been the beginning of a scheme in which DeSalvo confessed to being the Boston Strangler, so Nasser could collect a reward money for DeSalvo's family.

At the time, authorities believed their work, 11 total stranglings and were offering up to $10,000 each, totaling the potential reward to $110,000. It has also been theorized that DeSalvo wanted to get a book and film deal for his story. Later, he did receive $50,000 for the rights to his life story. Bridgewater medical director Dr. Ames-Robie even theorized that Nassar could have been the Boston Strangler and fed details to DeSalvo so they could get the reward cash. way, the conversation prompted Nassar to call his lawyer, a 31-year-old hot-shot criminal defense attorney named F. Lee Bailey. Nassar recommended Bailey as an attorney to DeSalvo. Bailey was

fresh off defending Dr. Sam Shepard in a retrial, which found the Ohio doctor not guilty of murdering his wife. Bailey enjoyed the cases that challenged him, and he set up an initial meeting with DeSalvo on March 4, 1965. On March 6, 1965, DeSalvo told Bailey that he was responsible for the 13 Boston Strangler murders and rapes, as well as the sexual assaults of 800 to 1,000 women. DeSalvo claimed he had sex with about 2,000 women in his lifetime. Bailey went on to become DeSalvo's new attorney. Was this another one of DeSalvo's exaggerated stories?

Was he lying about committing the Boston Strangler crimes for attention or infamy? Or was DeSalvo's confession, the truth of his confession, the truth of his own, truth. Hi, I'm Greg Polson, and this is serial killers. Today we're going to continue a deep dive into the life of Albert DeSalvo, who admitted to raping and strangling 13 women as the infamous Boston Strangler. I'm here with my co-host Vanessa Richardson. Vanessa's not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she's done a lot of research for the show. Hi, everyone. We'd like to ask a quick favor. Would you leave a five-star review of serial killers on your favorite podcast directory, it seems so simple, but it really helps us out.

And don't forget to subscribe all you there because a new episode comes out every Monday. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and on Twitter at Parcast Network. It's important to note that while Albert DeSalvo is widely attributed as being the Boston Strangler, he did not stand trial for those murders and rapes. Police found several inconsistencies in DeSalvo's confession and did not have any physical evidence to corroborate his statement. But he also recalled many details about the Boston Strangler murders that were not public knowledge. But DeSalvo had a long reputation of bragging, lying, and making up stories to suit his needs. Psychiatrists diagnosed him with a sociopathic

personality, which is known today as antisocial personality disorder. The diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition, defines sociopathic criteria. as displaying a pattern of three or more incidents in which a person shows disregard for and violation of the rights of others. DeSalvo did just that in his petty crimes as a teenager, his lewd conduct in the measuring man assaults and the green man serial rapes. It was entirely possible that DeSalvo could have also committed the Boston Strangler murders, but needed to be proven beyond his confession. In the spring 1965, Assistant Attorney General John Bottomley interrogated DeSalvo about the murders in order to find out if DeSalvo was telling the truth or making up his confession. Because of DeSalvo's status as a patient at a hospital for the mentally ill, DeSalvo's confession could not be used against him in court. And instead, every statement made was fact-checked by the case's detectives.

DeSalvo could not be interrogated by the detectives directly because they could be subpoenaed to give testimony, and then the confession could be used against DeSalvo. Vanessa, what could motivate DeSalvo to falsely confess to the Boston Strangler rapes and murders? What would he have to gain? Psychologists have found that some people make false confessions for fame and notoriety. For instance, more than 200 people confessed to kidnapping Charles Lindbergh's baby for the fame. And that definitely could have been DeSalvo's motivation. Bragging and boasting about his crimes were part of his sociopathic nature.

According to the Innocence Project, one out of four people who have been wrongly convicted and were later exonerated by DNA evidence had made a false confession. Psychologists have found that false confessions have typically taken place after a police interrogation that lasts many hours. Lengthy interrogations often cause fatigue, sleep deprivation, and psychological stress. Some suspects feel that they'll be convicted no matter what they say during the interrogation, so they falsely confess to get it over with. Many suspects give confessions to avoid physical harm or distress in the interrogation room.

Sometimes the suspects will even begin to believe their own false confession. De Saltho was able to recall specific details from the Boston Strangler Killings. If he was falsely confessing to the crimes, was he merely making up those facts? Well, he could have been, or he may have convinced himself the false facts were indeed real. Many studies by Association for Psychological Sciences Dr. Elizabeth Loftus have found that the human memories can be continuously modified and that the brain can even create memories simply through prompting. In a series of experiments, Loftus helped discover that the way questions are worded can affect how a memory is reported and that doctored photos of a public event can affect how that event is remembered by people who were there. As for DeSalvo, it's possible that this is a public event. phenomenon may have occurred when he was questioned about the Boston Strangler murders. He could

have filled in details about the killings that police didn't have or consider. Detectives did notice that DeSalvo remembered many facts from the crime scenes that were published in newspapers. He also got some small details of the crime scenes wrong, such as where some apartments were located and where tubs and sinks were located. DeSalvo said that he had raped the first victim, Anna E. Slezers, while her autopsy was negative for rape. Next, we'll take a look at the murders of the remaining Boston Strangler victims, as well as what DeSalvo said about each crime scene in his interrogation with Bottomley. The details provided by DeSalvo are what he confessed to during his interrogation with Bottomley,

and they are not what police definitively proved during their investigation. We'll return to our story in just a moment. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon. Just tell the manager you'll sue. Instant room upgrade.

Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip right. Kayak, got that right. And now, back to serial killers. As we talked about last week, the Boston Strangler's first victim was 55-year-old seamstress Anna E. Slezers, who was raped and strangled in her Boston apartment on June 14, 1962. On June 25th or June 26, 1962, the Boston Strangler next visited 85-year-old Mary Mullen in her own Boston apartment. She was found dead in her living room two days later, reportedly suffering heart failure.

DeSalvo claimed years later that she had died in his arms after he grabbed her neck. On June 30, 1962, 68-year-old Nina Nichols returned from out of town and headed back to her fourth-floor apartment at 1940 Commonwealth Avenue. She arrived home around 5 p.m. She was a retired chief physiotherapist at Massachusetts Memorial Hospital, and she was a widow who lived alone. The temperature outside was nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so Nichols opened her windows, undressed, and put on a thin robe. She then called her sister Marguerite Stedman. They were planning to have dinner at Stedman's home in Wellesley Hills at 6 p.m. and stay overnight. Nichols hung up with Stedman when her door buzzer went off. I'll call you right back, Nichols told your sister, but she never did.

DeSalvo told Bottomley in the 1965 interrogation that he, He was the one that rang the buzzer. He recalled telling Nichols that the building super sent him to check the windows for leaks. She told him to make it fast because she had somewhere else to be. He followed Nichols to each room, checking the windows with her.

DeSalvo asked Nichols to check one of her bedroom windows, using the excuse that he didn't want to wrinkle or curtains. As she checked the window, DeSalvo said he did the following. Quote, I grabbed her and she fell back with me on the bed, on top of me. She took her fingernails and dug them into the back of my hand." He sexually assaulted Nichols on a rug.

DeSalvo said he pushed the neck of a wine bottle inside Nichols' vagina, but Assistant Attorney General Bottomley noticed that he described the wrong color of the bottle during the interrogation. Marguerite Stedman noticed that Nichols did not arrive at 6 p.m. like they discussed. Nichols' brother-in-law, Chester Stedman, an attorney, called Nichols. There was no answer. By 7.30 p.m., Chester called the apartment building and reached the janitor, a 65-year-old man named Thomas Bruce. Chester asked Bruce to check and see if Nichols' car was still parked in the building's lot. Bruce said it was.

Worried, Chester asked Bruce to check on Nichols, thinking that maybe she got sick. Bruce ventured to the fourth floor of the building and knocked on Nichols' apartment door. There was no answer. Bruce opened the door with the building's master key. He saw possessions strewn about and drawers open inside Nichols' apartment. In one of the open drawers, he could see a sterling silver set neatly placed and untouched. From where he was standing, Bruce saw the bedroom door open and Nichols' body on the floor. Her legs were spread and her robe and slip pulled up to her waist, leaving her exposed.

Two nylon stockings were tied tightly around her neck in a decorative bow, the Boston Strangler's signature. In the Houston Police Lieutenant Sherry's goal at the scene of the crime was to find evidence that something was stolen, which would make the break-in a burglary. But Nichols' sterling silver was still in a drawer. Her expensive camera was still located in its leather case. Her watch remained on her left wrist. Sherry asked Nichols' neighbors if they had heard anything suspicious and came up empty. Sherry and the detectives saw no evidence of forced entry. He said, quote, we don't know whether she admitted him or he used a master key.

there is no indication he broke in. Nichols was not the only Boston Strangler victim found on the evening of June 30, 1962. DeSalvo claimed to have made a visit to Lynn, Massachusetts, which is located about 10 miles north of Boston. He recalled knocking on the door of 65-year-old Helen Blake's 72 New Hall Street apartment. DeSalvo told her he was there to check the apartment's windows for leaks and paint the interior. Blake's response was, quote, well, it's about time.

According to DeSalvo, she was in the middle of cleaning her house, and he lured her into the bedroom by saying, quote, I'd like to check the windows in the bedroom, too. They both went into the bedroom. As Blake pointed out the bedroom window, DeSalvo remembered, quote, while she was pointing, I grabbed my hand behind her neck.

We were standing near the bed. She went down right away. She fainted, passed right out, end quote. DeSalvo undressed, sexually assaulted and then strangled Blake. Later in the day, she was found dead by the Lynn Police. Her neighbors became concerned about her whereabouts when she didn't collect the mail in her doorway,

and they called 911. Detectives observed that she was lying face down on her bed, nude from the waist down, and had nylon stockings and her brapped tightly around her neck. They determined that she had been sexually assaulted. Boston Police Commissioner Edmund McNamara held a press conference on Monday evening to address Slezers and Nichols murders. Afterward, Detective Lieutenant Donovan told McNamara about Blake's similar death than Lynn. McNamara said, quote, oh God, we've got a madman on the loose.

In the light of the recent stranglings, Boston Police Commissioner Edmund McNamara put special protocols in place. All police leaves were cancelled and all detectives were assigned to the homicide use. unit. Women were given special warnings, and an emergency phone number for such crimes was established. Police compiled a list of every known sex offender in the city, and this was decades before the National Sex Offender Registry would be established in the United States in 2006. McNamara wanted a check on every man between 18 and 40 years old, who had been released from mental hospitals in the last two years. Why wasn't DeSalvo included in this list? DeSalvo was in the Boston police system under the crime of breaking and entering and was not arrested or convicted

of any sex crimes at the time. McNamara's order read, quote, special attention should be paid to persons suffering from a paranoia of mother hate, end quote. Police had profiled the serial killer as a young, sociopathic man who hated his mother and had murdered older women because of that. Nearly two months later, 75-year-old Ida Urga was found strangled inside her apartment at seven Grove Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston on August 21st, 1962. By the time police found her, she'd been dead for two days. Police found her with a pillowcase tied tightly around her neck in a bow, but determined that she had been strangled by human hands.

DeSalvo recalled that he picked her apartment at random. He said, quote, I told her I was going to do some work in the apartment, but I could see she didn't trust me, end quote. He told her he wanted to check the windows. in her bedroom. Once they reached the bedroom, DeSalvo put his right arm around her neck. He said, quote, she passed out so fast. I saw purplish dark blood. It came right out of her ear, just enough for me to see, end quote. DeSalvo said he wasn't sure if he had sexually assaulted Erga. The first police officer at the scene was Sergeant James McDonald. He wrote the following

observation in his report about how he found Urga. Quote, her legs were spread approximately four to five feet from heel to heel, and her feet were propped up on individual chairs, and a standard bed pillow, lest the cover, was placed under her buttocks. And quote. Detectives began to notice a pattern forming. Victims were sexually assaulted, strangled, and left exposed. Boston police did not let the public or press know about that specific pattern because they wanted to be on the lookout for any man in possession of knowledge only the

murderer would know. DeSalvo's own details showed a pattern forming as well. He gained entry into the apartments, claiming to be a maintenance man looking for leaks, and he tended to physically assault the victims in their bedrooms. During his 1965 interrogation, DeSalvo described that the media circus surrounding the Boston's strangler victims had made ergo wary of trusting him. But detectives noticed that this was another detail he had gotten wrong. The media frenzy surrounding the murders actually started.

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And now let's continue the story. In his interrogation with Assistant Attorney General Bottomley, Albert DeSalvo said he visited 67-year-old nurse Jane Sullivan on August 22, 1962, at 435 Columbia Road in Dorchester. He approached her as she was moving cartons into her apartment and said that he needed to check on the apartment. Sullivan took DeSalvo around the apartment. He said, quote, then she looked in the closet, and that was it.

I was behind her. I put my right arm around her, and we both fell back on the floor. She struggled and struggled. I put a scissor grip, end quote. A scissor grip or hold in wrestling involves an aggressor locking the head of their opponent between their thighs. It's a move that's considered an illegal hold and is not allowed in many wrestling competitions, including the Olympic Games, due to its dangerous nature. After DeSavo attacked Sullivan, he said he wasn't sure if he sexually assaulted her,

and he didn't know why he left her in a tub filled with water. He did remember the correct position that Sullivan was left in, but described the wrong locations of her bathroom's tub and sink. On August 30, 1962, Sullivan was found strangled in her apartment. Like some of the other victims, Sullivan was strangled by her nylon stockings, which were tied around her neck. She, too, was found in a position that exposed her body below her waist. Sullivan was discovered in the bathroom, with the top half of her body submerged in a full bathtub, face down.

Her rear was fully exposed. Police suspected that she was sexually assaulted as well, but the condition of Sullivan's body made it impossible to determine. After Sullivan, there were no Boston strangler victims found for three months, but all was not quiet. During those three months, newspapers dubbed the Boston Strangler as the Mad Strangler, the Phantom Strangler, and the Sunset Killer, referencing the fact that he often visited women at dusk. Psychologists also began analyzing the Boston Strangler and who they thought he might be. Boston City Hospital chief psychiatrist Dr. Philip Solomon said he thought the serial rapist and murderer had two personalities. One was well adjusted on the surface, but the same.

The second one was a, quote, psychotic sex pervert suffering from the most malignant form of schizophrenia, and unless police get to him, he will kill again, end quote. Assistant State Health Commissioner Dr. Robert W. Hyde supported that opinion. Dr. Hyde thought that the Boston Strangler was likely to be a regular man who blended into the rest of the population and had a full-time job. He theorized that the killer murdered women at dusk because he would be on his way home from work around then. As for police, their list of suspects grew every day. They received many tips from anonymous informants. Boston police also considered men who were known loiterers, peeping tombs,

and undergarment thieves. Several alcoholic men even turned themselves into police, fearing they may have strangled the victims during their blackouts. Albert DeSalvo, though, was not among the men suspected of raping and strangling the five victims so far. The Boston Strangler's sixth victim was much younger than his previous victims, who were all older than 50 years old. Unlike the other victims, she didn't live alone. Sophie Clark was a 20-year-old student who lived at 315 Huntington Avenue when she received a visit from the Boston Strangler on December 5, 1962. On that day, DeSalvo worked only three hours for his boss, C. Russell Blomber's construction maintenance firm. DeSalvo claimed that he took the day off from work because it was the anniversary of his

wedding to his wife Irmgard. DeSalvo told Clark that he needed to make repairs in the apartment, but she didn't feel comfortable letting him aside while she was home alone. So he reverted back to his measuring man scheme. DeSalvo told her he could get her a job as a model. Clark led him into the apartment. He asked her, quote, turn around and let me see how you're built, end quote. When Clark turned around, DeSalvo said he attacked her. He said, quote, I grabbed her around the neck with my right arm. She was very tall. Because she fell on top of me on the settee, my legs went around her legs. She didn't give me any struggle at all, end quote. Then DeSalvo noticed that she became conscious and began to scream as he was sexually assaulting her. He grabbed nylon stockings

from a drawer and tie them around her neck in the trademark bow. DeSalvo told Bottomly, she was the one I had to tie really tight. Clark was found dead in her Boston apartment on December 5, 1962 at 5.30 p.m. One of her roommates discovered her lying on the living room floor with three nylon stockings tied around her neck. Clark's white slip and an elastic belt were also twisted around her neck. She had a gag in her mouth and her legs were spread wide apart. Police determined that Clark was sexually assaulted and there were no signs of forced entry into the apartment. Three weeks later, on December 31st, 1962 at 3.30 p.m., 23-year-old secretary Patricia Bissette brought her clothes down to the laundry room of her apartment building at 515 Park Drive in Boston.

De Salleville said he had been in this apartment building before. He often took advantage of the fact that new college kids moved into the building every semester. Since it was a holiday weekend, he didn't expect anyone to be inside Bessette's apartment at 515 Park Drive in Boston. He slipped the lock, but the decorative Christmas bells on the door woke Beset, who emerged from her bedroom. DeSalvo told Beset that he was her upstairs neighbor, and they began talking. She made instant coffee for them and put out a Christmas record. During their conversation, DeSalvo said, quote, I was looking at her and getting worked up. I went over to her. I was on my knees, end quote. DeSalvo didn't elaborate further on what exactly he did on his knees. only saying that Bizet told him, quote, take it easy. He said he replied, quote, nobody's here, nobody can hear you.

I can do what I want to you, and quote. Perhaps DeSalvo felt some remorse for this murder, the eighth of the Boston Strangler killings. He also may have been trying to keep her quiet or placid. These details also could have been made up to make himself look better to the police. Or maybe it was a sign he wasn't the Boston Strangler.

DeSalvo then put his, arm around Beset's neck, and she passed out. He admitted to sexually assaulting her, but he said he didn't enjoy it. DeSalvo told police the following, quote, I think I did this not as a sex act, but out of hate for her, but not for her in particular, but for a woman. After seeing her body, the sex act naturally came in. There was no thrill at all, end quote. He said he strangled Bissette with nylon stockings, and, quote, at the end, I could. covered her up, end quote. Later that day, she was found dead in her apartment.

Police found Bissette in a different position than the previous victims, though. She was lying down in bed, face up, and eyes closed, with the blanket covering her body up to her chin. This was a key detail. When medical examiner, Dr. Michael Luongo, removed the blanket, he saw Bissette with her arms at her sides and her legs placed together, a more modest pose than the previous Bosten Strangler victims. Dr. Luongo noted in his report that this was a, quote, compassionate setting, a pose he often saw used by men who killed their wife or mistress and felt immediate remorse. And DeSalvo

admitted as much to Bottomley. He said, quote, she was so different. She talked to me like a man. She treated me like a man, end quote. Later in the interrogation, DeSalvo began to tear up, saying, why did I do it to her? She treated me like a man. Perhaps it was this remorse that caused there to be another three-month gap between Boston Strangler murders. Yet the Boston Strangler's violence towards his victims seemed to increase. On March 9, 1963, DeSalvo remembered entering the apartment building at 319 Park Avenue in Lawrence and finding a nine-inch brass pipe lying behind a door. He put the pipe in his back pocket and knocked on the door of 69-year-old Mary Brown.

When she answered, DeSalvo fed her the line. that he needed to paint the kitchen and wanted to see it first. As Brown led him to the kitchen in her apartment, DeSavo hit her in the back of the head with a pipe. He covered her body with a sheet and continued hitting her with the pipe. DeSavo said, quote, this is terrible, because her head felt like it was all gone. Terrible, end quote.

Then he admitted to stabbing her right breast with a fork. He did not say whether or not he sexually assaulted Brown. This is the first of the Boston Strangler killings to include such violence, and it may be the result of DeSalvo being a disorganized serial killer. DeSalvo told police that he did not plan who he would kill in advance, and an urge would often come over him at a moment's notice. Disorganized killers also tend to blitz their victims, meaning that they use sudden force to assault them. This could be evidence of the Boston Strangler's disorganized use of force and deviation from his usual pattern. Two months later, Beverly Sammons was a 23-year-old graduate student at Boston University. On May 5, 1963, she sang in choir at the local church

and attended a rehearsal for an opera in which she had a role in Brookline. That night, she met with a girlfriend for a meal at a nearby restaurant, and they parted ways at 11 p.m. That was the last time Sammons was seen alive. On May 8, 1963, Mary Viven, the organist at the local church, became worried about Sammons when she did not show up for choir practice or rehearsal for the opera in which she had a role. Vivin left a note voicing her concern for Saman's fiancé,

33-year-old Oliver Chamberlain Jr. Chamberlain rushed to Saman's red-brick apartment house located at four University Road in Cambridge and knocked on the door. There was no answer. Chamberlain then used the key Sammons gave him and unlocked the door. Chamberlain saw Sammons right where he opened the door. She was sprawled out, naked on her back on a convertible sofa bed.

Her neck and chest were bloody. Her wrists were tied behind her with a sequenced scarf. A bloodstained nylon stocking, as well as two handkerchiefs, were tied together and nodded around her neck. Later, police found that the nylon stockings and handkerchiefs weren't tied tightly enough to cause Salmon's death. Upon investigation, her death resulted from stabbing. She was stabbed 22 times.

four times in the throat, and 18 times in her left breast, where the wounds made a circular bull's-eye pattern surrounding the final center wound. The stabbing was a definite deviation from the pattern of the Boston Strangler's previous killings. Police theorized that Sammons may have developed such strong throat muscles from singing opera that the killer was unable to render her unconscious or strangle her as easily as the others, so he stabbed her instead. DeSalvo did not share her. any details about Salmon's murder with Bottomley. He said, quote, I don't want to talk about her.

I just don't want to talk about it now, end quote. The summer of 1963 went by without a murder until September. Vanessa, why are there so many long gaps between the Boston's triangle killings? Well, there are a lot of reasons. Most serial killers experience a cooling off period, which can last months or years. During that period, the killer would return to his normal life. DeSalvo claimed to Bottomley that his wife, Irmgard de Salvo, liked to keep an eye on him and didn't want him going out at night. After DeSalvo was released from his measuring man jail sentence in 1962, Irmgard had supposedly put him on probation in their marriage. He said, quote, I must learn to control my sex wants, she told me. She would say I was dirty and

sickening and called me an animal, end quote. DeSalvo had to make sure he left Boston at the right time in order to avoid traffic and get home to his wife on time every night. He mentioned that when Irmgard was intimate with him, he, quote, felt no urge to go out and do those things. End quote. If DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler, perhaps he only murdered when he knew his wife wouldn't suspect anything, or when he felt he wasn't being satisfied in his marriage. On Sunday, September 8th, 1963 at 10 a.m. 52-year-old Evelyn Corbyn had breakfast with a good friend and neighbor, 66-year-old Flora Manchester. They lived down the hall from each other at 224 Lafayette Street in Salem. Corbin was dating Manchester's son, Bob, a sales engineer who left

for work at 9 a.m. that day. Manchester and Corbyn talked about how she suspected that someone had been tampering with the locks on her door earlier that morning. Corbin said that she suspected the same about her door, but didn't see anyone when she peaked outside. Corbyn left breakfast at 10.35 a.m. to return to her apartment and prepare for church. Then DeSalvo said he knocked on Corbyn's door. When she answered, he used his usual line. He needed to check the windows for leaks. Corbin relented and led him, joking, quote,

how do I know you're not the Boston Strangler? End quote. But DeSalvo said he was able to earn her trust. As she showed him the peeling paint in her bathroom, DeSalvo held a knife against her and ordered her to go to the bedroom. DeSalvo claimed he sexually assaulted Corbyn and then strangled her. He remembered, quote, I put a pillow on top of her face so I couldn't look at her face.

I strangled her manually, end quote. Usually Corbyn let Manchester know about her departure and return from church with a knock at Manchester's door. At 11.10 a.m., Manchester expected to hear a knock from Corbyn on her way out to church. But there was silence. There was no knock by 11.15 a.m. either. Worried, Manchester phoned Corbyn, but there was no answer.

By 12.30 p.m., Manchester did not hear either the departure or return knock from Corbyn. Manchester recruited another neighbor to accompany her as she unlocked Corbyn's apartment. They found Corbyn sprawled out in her bed in the same clothes she wore to breakfast. Police determined that she was strangled with two nylon stockings, and her underwear was placed in her mouth as a gag. From Dallas, two priests who were with President Kennedy say he is dead. dead, a bullet wounds suffered in the assassination attempt today. I repeat, a flash from Dallas, two priests who were with President Kennedy say he is dead. On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Kennedy was a Brookline native, and Boston was in mourning. The next day on November 23rd, the city and the nation watched Kennedy's televised memorial service around noon. On the same day, 23-year-old designer and Sunday school teacher Joanne Graff accepted a dinner invitation from her new friend Mrs. Johnson in Andover at 1130 a.m. At 12.30 p.m., Graff paid her rent to her landlord of her apartment building at 54 Essex Street in Lawrence, located 30 miles outside of Boston. At 3.25 p.m., a man with pomated hair knocked on engineering student Kenneth Rose door. The man who was wearing green slacks asked Roe where Graff lived. Roe directed the man to an apartment in the floor below.

DeSalvo told Bottomly that he used the maintenance man line to get Graff to let him into her apartment, claiming he needed to do repairs in her bathroom. He headed for the bathroom, but she was reluctant to follow him inside. DeSalvo said he pretended to point to a repair and she finally stepped inside the bathroom to join him. That's when he cornered her with a knife. DeSalvo mentioned that he tried tying her up in the bathroom.

He said, quote, I put my hand around her neck and pulled her backwards onto the bed, and we fell onto the bed, and she passed out, end quote. DeSalvo admitted to sexually assaulting her and biting her breast. At 3.30 p.m., Mrs. Johnson called Graff to confirm their dinner plans, but there was no answer. Mrs. Johnson continued calling every 15 minutes and became worried. Her husband, Mr. Johnson, drove to Graff's Lawrence apartment and knocked on her door loudly. There was no answer.

Graff was strangled with two nylon stockings and a black leotardt, tied with the Boston Strangler's usual knot. She was found lying diagonally on her bed, mostly nude, and her legs spread apart. There were teeth marks on her left breast. One psychiatrist called this murder one of the greatest acts of megalomania in the history of modern crime. due to its timing right after the Kennedy assassination. Megalomania is a psychological condition in which a person has an obsession with power and delusions of their own grandeur. The psychiatrist theorized that the Boston Strangler saw how shocked the world was at Kennedy's assassination and he wanted to create a bigger shock with another murder.

But during his interrogation, DeSalvo didn't realize that Graf's murder occurred on the day after Kennedy's assassination. Salvo said that he cried when he heard the news of the president's death. Then he asked, quote, could the president be killed that day and I went out and still did something? To me, I think that day, it could be that graph girl. On January 1st, 1964, 19-year-old Mary Sullivan moved from Hyannis to an apartment at 44A Charles Street on Beacon Hill. She shared the apartment with two roommates. Three days later, Sullivan's roommates came home to find her dead inside. the apartment. DeSalvo told Bottomley that this was another murder that he didn't like talking about,

but soon relented. Quote, I say to myself, that could have been my daughter too, Mary Sullivan. Oh, that bothers me, he said. I wish I was dead, end quote. DeSalvo said he was familiar with all the apartments in Cambridge due to his past measuring man's scheme, during which he spent a lot of time knocking on doors in that area. He knocked on Sullivan's door on January 4,000. He knocked on forth and told her he needed to make some repairs to the apartment. She led him inside, and he held a knife against her inside her apartment kitchen. DeSalvo remembered tying up Sullivan in her bedroom, and he put a sweater over her head as he sexually assaulted her because he didn't want to look at her face. He said that he ejaculated inside of her, but her autopsy did not find any traces of seminal evidence

inside of her. DeSalvo said he strangled her with his hands, but Sullivan's autopsy determined that she was strangled by nylon stockings and a blouse tied around her neck. According to the police stenographer's report, Sullivan's body was found, quote, on bed in propped position, buttocks on pillow, back against headboard, head on right shoulder, knees up, eyes closed, viscous fluid, seminal, dripping from mouth to right breast, breasts and lower extremities exposed, broomstick handle inserted in vagina, steak knife on bed near brown straw, seminal stains on blanket, end quote. Sullivan was the final Boston's triangular victim.

In addition to DeSalvo's confessions to attorney F. Lee Bailey and Bottomley, DeSalvo underwent hypnosis on March 20, 1965, arranged by Bailey. Dr. William J. Brian of Los Angeles hypnotized DeSalvo at age 34 and obtained information. police created a report analyzing every single fact in DeSalvo's confessions as true or false. But this was not enough. Police needed physical evidence in order to charge DeSalvo. There were no witnesses to these murders, and the bystanders at the scene that did encounter the killer did not recognize DeSalvo. Psychiatrists were not willing to testify unless they were absolutely sure he was the Boston Strangler.

DNA testing did not exist at the time. Attorney General Edward W. Brooke Jr. was also up for re-election in 1966, and he did not want to face scrutiny for using the Boston Strangler case to his political advantage. Bailey's goal was to have DeSalvo committed to Bridgewater State Hospital for life and avoid execution. Bailey has said, quote, Albert was on the left bank of a river, and my job was to get him to the right bank without letting him drown, end quote. On May 25, 1966, Brooke and Bailey agreed to the following conditions. DeSalvo would receive a trial for the rape charges as the Green Man.

And if the psychiatrist testifying thought he was insane, then Bailey would let 34-year-old DeSalvo officially confess to the Boston's Triangler murders. On June 30, 1966, DeSalvo appeared in court at the Middlesex County Courthouse to determine his competency to stand trial for the Green Man rape charges. 10 days later, the judge found DeSalvo competent. During the trial in January 1967, Middlesex County Assistant District Attorney Donald L. Kahn argued during the trial that DeSalvo was faking symptoms of mental illness to avoid execution or jail time.

Khan said, quote, it's my duty to my wife, to your wife, to every woman who might conceivably be a victim of this man, to stamp his conduct for what it is, vicious criminal conduct. Don't let this man con you right out of your shoes, end quote. The judge, however, reminded the jury that the trial should be decided on the merits of the Green Man case and not the Boston Strangler murders.

On January 18, 1967, the jury found DeSalvo sane and guilty of the Green Man sexual assaults and breaking and entering charges. He was sentenced to life in prison at age 35. Nearly a month later, DeSalvo resumed his old tricks. On February 24, 1967, he escaped from Bridgewater State Hospital, along with 40-year-old inmate Frederick E. Erickson and 35-year-old inmate George W. Harrison. Erickson and Harrison were readmitted to Bridgewater during the same day.

But DeSalvo was missing for 24 hours. On February 25, 1967, DeSalvo was found and arrested in a clothing store in Lynn, Massachusetts. He claimed to police that he escaped to draw more attention to his case. To prevent another escape, authorities transferred DeSalvo to the maximum security

Walpole State Prison. About eight months later, seven to ten years were added to DeSalvo's sentence for the escape. DeSalvo's brothers Richard and Joseph aided in the escape,

and both were given one year suspended sentences, meaning they did not have to serve unless they broke the law during their probation. In 1968, Harrison claimed that DeSalvo had learned the details of the Boston Strangler murders from other inmates at Bridgewater. Criminal Investigations Division of the State Attorney General's Office, Chief John Irwin, told the New York Times that many police officers thought DeSalvo

may not have committed some of the murders and suspected that he obtained many of the crime scene details from other convicts. While DeSalvo was imprisoned in Walpole, he may have gotten involved in trafficking drugs. On November 27, 1973, Albert DeSalvo was found stabbed to death in Walpole State Prison at age 42. Authorities found his body in his cell bed, and he had multiple stab wounds. A Norfolk County District Attorney George Burke told the New York Times in 1973, quote, we don't know if this murder is drug-connected. It's possible. Anyone who deals in drugs has enemies because it's competitive, end quote. By the time authorities found his body, DeSalvo had been dead for up to 10 hours.

It's been rumored that DeSalvo called Dr. Roby in 1973 to confess that he didn't commit the Boston Strangler murders, but DeSalvo was murdered before the meeting could take place. Burke prosecuted three inmates for DeSalvo's murder, Carmen Gagliardi, Robert M. Wilson, and Richard L. Devlin. The trio believed to have ties to the Boston Mafia. The three inmates were tried together in an October 1974 trial that ended in a hung jury. Gagliardi died of a heroin overdose in January 1975. In March 1975, Wilson and Devlin stood a second trial for the murder of DeSalvo, which ended in a mistrial with a deadlocked jury.

Some former inmates at Walpole said that there was a contract hit on DeSalvo, who was set to confess that he wasn't the Boston Strangler. DeSalvo's killer was really. rumored to be Vincent the Bear Flemmy, a mafia hitman who later died of a heroin overdose. Although DeSalvo was dead, various authorities continued to try to prove or disprove his connection to the Boston's triangular murders in the following decades through DNA testing. In 2001, a forensic team tested the mitochondrial DNA sample from Albert DeSalvo's brother, Richard, against dried seminal fluid found on the pubic hair of Mary Sullivan's dead body. The Sullivan case was the only one of the strangler murders

in which physical evidence remained and was preserved. Dr. David Forren led the forensics team and said in 2001, quote, we couldn't find anything on the remains that was consistent with Albert DeSalvo, DNA-wise, end quote. The chief scientist, among them James Starrs, is an attorney, so they're very careful about throwing around legal phrases. They won't say that this exonerates Albert DeSalvo,

but they're certainly clear in saying that they found no evidence whatsoever to connect him with that killing. The biggest break in the case came on July 11, 2013. Investigators announced that they had found a link between DeSalvo and the DNA in the seminal fluid found on Mary Sullivan's body and a blanket from the 1964 crime scene. The DNA from Sullivan matched DNA from one of DeSalvo's nephews.

Investigators had used the DNA from a discarded water bottle they obtained by trailing him. Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said the following on July 11, 2013. A Suffolk Superior Court judge authorized the exhumation of DeSalvo's remains for confirmatory testing that we expect will prove DeSalvo's guilt once and for all. Vanessa, why would they be able to use DeSalvo's nephew's DNA in this test? What would be their connection? Well, because why chromosomes are passed down from father to son almost unchanged,

the forensic team was able to use a sample from a close male relative of DeSalvo's in the DNA test. But then why did the sample from Sullivan match DeSalvo's nephew in 2013 and not DeSalvo's brother Richard in 2001? It's been theorized that they were different samples analyzed in different labs. The 2001 test by Dr. Foren's team used the dried seminal fluid found on Sullivan's exhumed corpse. The 2013 test included slides of seminal fluid from the crime scene that may have been from the perpetrator. trader. The new result also puzzled Dr. Forren. He told Slate in 2013, quote, one thing that confuses me is why they didn't test those 15 years ago, because they could have, and we certainly did ask for them back then, end quote. Authorities credited the break in the case to advances in

scientific technology since the Boston's Triangler murders occurred in the 1960s. Connolly told the New York Times, quote, the evidence in this case never changed, but the substance, scientific ability to use that evidence has surpassed every hope and expectation of investigators who were first assigned to the case. End quote. This gave the police enough evidence to obtain a warrant to exhum the body of the deceased DeSalvo. On July 12, 2013, DeSalvo's remains were dug up and tested, providing a match to the

seminal fluid found on Mary Sullivan. Physical evidence finally linked DeSalvo to one of the killings. Whether or not DeSalvo murdered, and sexually assaulted, the other 12 victims of the Boston's Triangler, is still unknown. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. If you want to listen to any previous episodes as serial killers, you can find them on Apple podcasts, tune in, Google Play, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Spotify, or on our website, paracast.com.

Spelled P-A-R-C-A-S-T.com. If you like what you hear, please leave a five-star review or tell us what you think on social media. We're on Facebook and Instagram as at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network. It seems simple, but it really helps our show. As always, we thank you for listening. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler media and is part of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Kenny Hobbs, with production assistance by Carrie Murphy, additional production assistance by Carly Madden and Maggie Admire. Serial Killers is written by Mallory Kara and stars

Greg Polson and Vanessa Richardson. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping thing, and there was a full of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up, getting ready for bed, is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again.

I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcast this year. but they're not Crime Beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.