Further Reading For The Boston Strangler
The Boston Stranglers by Susan Kelly
The Boston Strangler by Gerold Frank
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Serial murder is already a pretty strange thing but the case of the Boston Strangler compounds the strangeness with a heavy dose of uncertainty in the face of the established facts. Back in the early 1960’s, Boston, Massachusetts was gripped with fear in the wake of 13 murdered women. Albert DeSealvo, through confession, and admitted details of murders not reported to the press, was successfully nailed with the murders but since that time, what was evidently a case of shoddy police work and a lazy police force desperate to close a series of unpleasant murder cases, has evolved into the possibility of multiple murderers working in the same area and using similar modes of killing. The case is sometimes called The Boston Stranglers due to this possibility.
According to the investigation, all 13 murdered women, ages 19 to 85, were strangled to death in their apartments. Police believe that DeSalvo either knew his victims or that he posed in such a way, such as a maintenance man, to gain access to their apartments without a struggle. Most of his victims were raped, all were strangled to death, mostly with stockings or pantyhose. Just like the Son of Sam killings, area women were so frightened of The Strangler, that many of them changed their appearance or left the area, altogether.
The police eventually became aware of DeSalvo’s involvement when he was arrested for an unconnected rape charge and confessed his Boston Strangler killings to a fellow prisoner, who promptly turned the confession over to Boston investigators.
Episodes: 159 & 160
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