February 18, 2025 • 19 mins
The families of the victims of Albert DeSalvo, will never forget his true name. He was The Boston Strangler.
Learn more about AdvocacyCon here: https://www.advocacycon.com/
We would like to The Boston Globe, The Daily Item, The Springfield Union, The Daily News, CBS Boston, SouthCoastToday.com and Wikipedia for information contributing to today’s story.
Written by Frederick Crook - check out our other collaboration WRAITHWORKS - Wraithworks at Amazon https://www.amzn.com/dp/B07HXNCW4L (audiobook narrated by John Lordan) Also avaible on iTunes: https://apple.co/2OFXb8L
This is not intended to act as a means of proving or disproving anything related to the investigation or potential charges associated to the investigation. It is a conversation about the current known facts and theories being discussed. Please do not contact people you are suspicious of or attempt to harass, threaten or intimidate them in any way. Do not release information that can be used to do the same, or join in attacks being conducted by others.
Everyone directly or indirectly referred to is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
LordanArts 2025
Learn more about AdvocacyCon here: https://www.advocacycon.com/
We would like to The Boston Globe, The Daily Item, The Springfield Union, The Daily News, CBS Boston, SouthCoastToday.com and Wikipedia for information contributing to today’s story.
Written by Frederick Crook - check out our other collaboration WRAITHWORKS - Wraithworks at Amazon https://www.amzn.com/dp/B07HXNCW4L (audiobook narrated by John Lordan) Also avaible on iTunes: https://apple.co/2OFXb8L
This is not intended to act as a means of proving or disproving anything related to the investigation or potential charges associated to the investigation. It is a conversation about the current known facts and theories being discussed. Please do not contact people you are suspicious of or attempt to harass, threaten or intimidate them in any way. Do not release information that can be used to do the same, or join in attacks being conducted by others.
Everyone directly or indirectly referred to is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
LordanArts 2025
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Lorden Arts is very proud to be sponsoring the family
of missing person Vladik Hassle at the first ever Advocacy
Con so they can attend workshops, seminars, and panels that
will help them navigate their tough situation and also connect
with like minded individuals, organizations, and potential collaborators. Are you
a family that can benefit from this, or someone that's
(00:21):
working in advocacy or looking to get started, than this
event's for you. Join us in Indianapolis, Indiana, March twenty
eight through the thirtieth, twenty twenty five. You can learn
more and book your tickets at Advocacycon dot com. Become
part of the transformative community that is empowering families and
advancing justice. Become part of Advocacy Con. This episode contains
(01:05):
descriptions of brutal murders to a level that is a
little bit deeper than we usually do here on this show. However,
it's important to understand these details for understanding how these
cases relate to each other, So I'll only take it
as far as we need to for that purpose. Listener
discretion is strongly advised. Albert de Salvo, It's just a
(01:29):
name to most of us. If you're old enough, you
probably feel like you've heard it somewhere before, but you
just can't place it. Maybe you're lucky not to have
that memory synapse fire. Maybe you're trying to forget. But
for the families of the victims of Albert de Salvo,
they will never forget his name or the numerous other
names given to him. I'm John Lorton, and this is
(01:51):
the seriously mysterious case of the Boston Strangler, a case
that some consider solved, while others have lingering doubts and
unham answered questions. If you're too young to remember this story,
it's about what many consider a monster and his gripping
reign of terror. The start of this story actually dates
all the way back to nineteen sixty two, a time
(02:13):
of relatively low tech daily life. There were no smartphones,
no Internet, and no home computers. John F. Kennedy was
the President of the United States at the time, pushing
his dream of Americans landing on the Moon, an event
that he would never live to see. NASA was still
poking holes in the sky with rockets of the Mercury
Atlas missions, much to the thrill of Americans. Most of
(02:35):
whom would listen to the events unfold on radios, while
the luckier ones would catch it on the television news.
Then it began June fourteenth of that year, when the
body of Anna Slesser's was found in her apartment on
Gainsborough Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Anna was found lying on
her kitchen floor, free of clothing from the waist down.
(02:55):
The horror of it all was that the woman had
her own sash wrapped around her neck, and it had
been sinch tightly by a pair of powerful hands with
such murderous intensity that Ann had died with blood trailing
from her ear. If that wasn't terrible enough, detectives discovered
that she had been sexually assaulted as well, but by
something not of the human anatomy. She had been violated
(03:17):
by an unknown object. Two weeks later, on June twenty eighth,
another victim was found, though it wasn't immediately clear that
this was the case. Eighty five year old Mary Mullen
was found in her home on Commonwealth Avenue. She had
died of an apparent heart attack. It would be some
time before the world discovered that her death was not
of natural causes. Two days later, sixty eight year old
(03:40):
Nina Nichols was found murdered in her apartment just up
Commonwealth from the Mullen residence at around four pm. She
had been on the phone with her sister when the
doorbell rang. Nina ended the call, promising to call back
after she answered the door. Of course, she never had
the chance. Nicholls was strangled with a pair of nylons
so vigorously that her ears also bled as Slesser's had.
(04:02):
Nichols had been sexually assaulted with another foreign object, though
this one was known a glass bottle. That same day,
Helen Blake, a sixty five year old woman, turned up
dead in the town of Lynn, just on the outer
edges of Greater Boston. Helen had been strangled by stockings
and abra again with great force. Applied. Four dead women
(04:24):
in a single month, three of which were obvious strangulations.
All four were living alone, and their apartments were ransacked.
Police theorized that the murders were not motivated by robbery,
and that the vandalism was done perhaps to cover up
evidence the killer also did something else. They took the
time to stage the scene, leaving the victims in grotesque positions.
(04:46):
Meant to horrify whoever came in and discover the brutal crimes.
During the month of July nineteen sixty two, the citizens
of Boston and Lynn were left with newspaper articles depicting
the crimes in great detail. No forced dona, they said,
No robbery was suspected, they said. The newspaper article sketched
a nightmare scenario for any woman living alone in the
(05:07):
Boston area. In response, Boston police formed additional squads of
officers to patrol the streets at night in search of
the killer, and detectives brought in the usual suspects, men
that at criminal records of violent acts, and interrogated them.
All these efforts came up with nothing. However, the month
passed with no additional attacks. Did the additional police presence
(05:30):
in the streets of Boston and the surrounding areas prevent
further murders, perhaps, but it wouldn't last for long. On
August nineteenth, he struck again. Seventy five year old Ida
Erga of Boston was found dead. Like the others, Ida
lived alone in an apartment, and like the others, had
been strangled with excessive force, this time with a pillowcase.
(05:54):
Her body, again like the others, was also posed in
an undignified manner. Just two days years later, Bostonian Jane Sullivan,
sixty seven years old, was found murdered in her apartment.
Two stockings were used to strangle her, though it was
found that her head had also been submerged in a
tub of water during the assault. Was the attacker evolving
(06:15):
or was this pointing to a scarier truth that more
than one person was responsible. The summer of nineteen sixty
two had now seen six women killed in Massachusetts. Some
(06:39):
investigators theorized that these murders were actually the work of
more than one man, perhaps copying one another or even
working together. As some women on the growing list had
been sexually assaulted and others had not, and the murder
weapons and methods showed some differences, the theory seemed plausible.
Others didn't agree and stuck to the idea that this
(07:01):
was indeed one man, a monster, walking among the innocent
and hitting upon targets of opportunity, strangling them with whatever
was handy. Regardless of which theory was believed, no detective
seemed to have the answer to several troubling questions just
how did the killer or killers gain access to these
women's apartments. Were they being tricked into opening their door?
(07:23):
How were there no witnesses? In any case, The newspapers
took a front line at the one perpetrator theory, calling
the assailant the phantom Strangler or the mad Strangler. The
hunt for the killer was intensified, and, almost as if
in response, the murderers halted. No more women fell victim
for the remainder of August. September passed without another killing,
(07:47):
Then October and November went by with no sign. The
investigations into the six dead women stalled. December nineteen sixty two.
It rained on the fifth and was quite cold, but
not enough to snow. Perhaps seeing that the man hunt
had led up, the strangler again took to the streets.
He found a woman living alone in her apartment near
(08:08):
Boston University, and he murdered her. She was found gagged
and strangled to death. This victim was different, Sophie Clark
was only twenty years old, and she was black. For
some detectives, this was not the work of the Boston Strangler. Still,
the single women of Boston and the surrounding suburbs took
to the hardware stores to buy new locks, primarily chain
(08:31):
locks that were simple to engage and didn't need a key.
The dog pounds when empty, their occupants being adopted to
Holmes to guard their frightened new owners. On New Year's Eve,
the eighth victim was discovered. Patricia Bissett, twenty three years old,
was found strangled. The strangler was quiet for the months
of January and February, as if avoiding the city of Boston.
(08:54):
Because the search was so intense, the strangler seemed to
turn his attention to the suburbs for his next wave
of attacks. March sixth, nineteen sixty three, Mary Anne Brown
of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was found. The sixty nine year old
had again been strangled to death. Two months passed until
May sixth, when twenty three year old Beverly Salmons was
(09:15):
found in her home in Cambridge. The summer of sixty
three was quiet until September eighth, when Mary corbyin fifty
seven was found dead in Salem. Joanne Graff, twenty three
years old, was killed in her Lawrence apartment on November
twenty third, the day after President Kennedy was assassinated. The
last murder attributed to the Boston Strangler occurred on January fourth,
(09:37):
nineteen sixty four. The youngest of anyone on the list,
nineteen year old Mary Anne Sullivan of Boston, was strangled
and sexually assaulted with a foreign object, as if taunting police.
The murderer left a note Happy New Year. It read
the police now had thirteen cases to solve and fully
(09:57):
expected more victims to be discovered in the days. The
Assistant Attorney General, John S. Bottomley was given command of
the Strangler Bureau, a multi jurisdictional task force of investigators
dedicated to this goal. Bottomly entertained the theories that the
Boston Strangler may have been a psychopath already in the
custody of a mental institution, or that he may have
(10:19):
committed suicide, moved out of the area, or simply have
died of natural causes. Thousands of known sex offenders or
perpetrators of violent crimes were looked at, even interrogated, but
none fit the bill completely. Then, in March of nineteen
sixty five, Albert DeSalvo entered the picture. He was thirty
three at the time and had been arrested for committing
(10:41):
a series of rapes. Dsalvo began confessing to one murder
after another, revealing details that only the killer would know.
Some details he actually got wrong, but it was likely
that after all he had done, DiSalvo had a hard
time keeping track of his victims. Looking into the confessor's upbringing,
it was found that Albert's father, Frank DeSalvo, was a
(11:03):
terrorizing abuser of his wife, Charlotte and his children. Frank
would bring prostitutes to their home and carry on with
them with his children in full view. After a few
vicious beatings of Charlotte and Albert, a divorce was finally
granted to Charlotte and Frank DeSalvo was out of the picture,
but the psychological damage was done. At the age of thirteen,
(11:24):
Albert had been arrested after assaulting and robbing a paper boy.
The judge handed down a suspended sentence with the hope
that Albert had learned a valuable lesson. Albert was arrested
just a few weeks later after breaking into a neighbour's
home and stealing jewelry. This time he was sent to
the Lyman School for Boys, where he stayed in custody
for two years. He later joined the US Army and
(11:45):
served in Germany in nineteen forty nine. There he met
a woman by the name of Ermgard Beck and they
were married. This didn't last, however, as ermgard found that
her husband had a form of sexual addiction. He would
claim that he would feel a burning sensation in his
lower abdomen and the only way to relieve it was
to engage in sex. This would occur to him multiple
(12:09):
times a day, and Ermgarde felt that she just had
to live with the bizarre behavior. The couple relocated to
the US in nineteen fifty four, settling in New Jersey,
Thesalvo's urges were out of control. In January of nineteen
fifty five, he was accused of molesting a young girl.
This crime never went to trial, as the mother of
the victim did not wish to put her daughter through
(12:30):
that traumatic experience. Unfortunately, this meant that Albert DeSalvo would
again escape punishment. In nineteen fifty six, Dsalvo left the
army and moved his wife and newborn daughter to Boston, Massachusetts.
For the next few years, Albert DiSalvo played it straight.
He held a job, came home every night from work,
and gave Ermgard his paychecks so that she could run
(12:52):
the household. He was, at least from her point of view,
acting like a good husband and father. In nineteen sixty,
Erngarde gave birth to their second child, a son, Michael.
It was around this time that Albert was losing control
over his urges. He began to stalk women, following them
to their homes, knocking on the door and claiming to
(13:13):
be a model agent. All he would need to get
them started, he said, was to take their measurements. He
offered them money to pose for him, and the fewer
clothes they wore, the more he would give them. On occasion,
when things went too far and the victim began to
catch on to the fact that a modeling agent wouldn't
grope them, DeSalvo would get kicked out. Many of these
(13:35):
women called the police and gave them a description. They
began to call him the measuring Man. During this time
and into nineteen sixty one, Albert took to breaking and
entering once again. He was caught and arrested, and during
his time with police, he began to brag about various things,
including his conquests with women. The tales he told made
(13:57):
it quite evident that he was indeed the measuring man,
and he was charged for those crimes as well. However,
the judge inexplicably refused the charges of lutness and only
tried him on the breaking and entering charges. Albert DeSalvo
was only given eleven months in prison, getting out in
April of nineteen sixty two. Just two months later the
(14:17):
murderers began. The sad truth about it all was because
the judge had not pushed the sexual assault charges. Bottomley's
Strangler Bureau was unable to search for him in their
files because of a judge's strange decision to be lenient.
Tssalvo's name just never came up during their investigations. Albert
changed his tactics after the last strangulation. He began driving
(14:40):
into Connecticut wearing green workmen's coveralls. He would walk the
streets of New Haven, Meriden, East, Hartford, Orhampton, pick an
apartment building, find a woman's name next to an apartment number,
and ring that bell. He would claim that there was
something that needed to be worked on, perhaps a gas leak,
water leak, potential power failure, et cetera, and would occasionally
(15:03):
be let inside he victimized for women, and papers called
him the green Man because of Dissalvo's antics as the
measuring man, police decided to make contact with Albert and
bring him in for questioning. While police waited, Albert drove
up with his brother and sister in law in the car.
Seeing the squad cars, Albert panicked and drove off. The
(15:25):
police chased him, but as Albert had no talent behind
the wheel, he went off the road several times. Eventually,
his brother convinced him to stop attempting to drive, and
Albert did. He pulled over and ran from the car,
but was apprehended quickly. Always unable to keep himself from
bragging about his misdeeds, Albert confessed to the rapes and
(15:46):
was sent to the Bridgewater State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
There he met another patient by the name of George Nasser.
Albert couldn't help himself and began telling Nasser all about
the murders he had committed. It was then that Albert
was introduced to Nassar's lawyer, f Lee Bailey. Albert told
Bailey the entire story, even including the death of eighty
(16:08):
five year old Mary Mullen in his list of crimes.
He had broken in and the old woman fell dead
of heart failure. The attorney went to the police with
this startling information. Once Erngard found out, she took the
children and left town. Albert would never see them again.
In nineteen sixty seven, Albert DeSalvo was convicted on these
(16:29):
rape charges and robbery, none of which were related to
what became the final count of thirteen women attributed to
the Boston Strangler, not one. Several women had come forward
to describe Dsalvo after his sexual assaults dating back to
October of nineteen sixty four, a period of nine months
after the Boston Strangler's activities had halted. Thesalvo's attorney, f
(16:52):
Lee Bailey, had attempted to enter a plea of insanity
to defend against the rape charges, but the judge shot
down that attempt. Despite Disalvo's hauntingly detailed confessions to the
murders of the Boston Strangler, there was no physical evidence
to add them to the list of charges, even Sodsalvo
was sentenced to life in prison on November twenty fifth,
(17:15):
nineteen seventy three. While serving this sentence in Walpole State Prison,
DiSalvo was stabbed to death in the prison infirmary by
fellow inmate Robert Wilson. DiSalvo had been put to work
as an orderly in the infirmary. He was forty two
years old at the time of his death. Ultimately, Dussalvo
received a sentence of life in prison and never walked
(17:37):
the streets as a freeman again. Even if he was
never charged for the murders of the Boston Strangler, no
indisputable evidence existed connecting DiSalvo to any of the Strangler's
victims until twenty thirteen. DNA testing revealed that DiSalvo at
least had sex with the Boston Strangler's final victim, Mary Sullivan.
(18:00):
Of course, it still doesn't definitively prove that he killed her.
Is it possible that he was working with a partner,
or that there was a copycat. While many of the
women seem to fit a profile of being older, a
few of the victims did not fit that profile and
were rather young. Some people to this day believe that
George Nasser may have committed some of those murders, manipulated
(18:21):
DiSalvo into confessing, and then convinced his attorney to take
Disalvo's case. It's an interesting theory and an aspect of
this case that's likely to remain seriously mysterious. George Nassar
died of prostate cancer in December of twenty eighteen. Do
you have any comments or a case you'd like to suggest.
(18:42):
You'll find a comment form and case submission link at
lord narts dot com. We would like to thank The
Boston Globe, The Daily Item, The Springfield Union, The Daily News,
CBS Boston, South Coast Today dot com, and Wikipedia for
information contributing to today's story. This episode was written by
Frederick Crook, is edited by John Lorden, and produced by
Lord Nart's. If you appreciate it today's episode, please check
(19:05):
out the novel Wraithworks, another collaboration between Frederick Crook and myself.
It's available in hard copy or audiobook format. You can
find more info about Raithworks at lordnarts dot com or
by searching for it on Amazon. Thank you to our
audience here for the live recording session hosted on the
YouTube channel Lord Nart's Studio two special Thanks to Seriously
(19:26):
Mysterious financial supporters James Reed, Robert Martin, and Neat Noodle.
Most of all, thank you for listening. I'm John Lorden.
Please join me again next week for a story I
know you'll find seriously mysterious.
Lorden Arts is very proud to be sponsoring the family
of missing person Vladik Hassle at the first ever Advocacy
Con so they can attend workshops, seminars, and panels that
will help them navigate their tough situation and also connect
with like minded individuals, organizations, and potential collaborators. Are you
a family that can benefit from this, or someone that's
(00:21):
working in advocacy or looking to get started, than this
event's for you. Join us in Indianapolis, Indiana, March twenty
eight through the thirtieth, twenty twenty five. You can learn
more and book your tickets at Advocacycon dot com. Become
part of the transformative community that is empowering families and
advancing justice. Become part of Advocacy Con. This episode contains
(01:05):
descriptions of brutal murders to a level that is a
little bit deeper than we usually do here on this show. However,
it's important to understand these details for understanding how these
cases relate to each other, So I'll only take it
as far as we need to for that purpose. Listener
discretion is strongly advised. Albert de Salvo, It's just a
(01:29):
name to most of us. If you're old enough, you
probably feel like you've heard it somewhere before, but you
just can't place it. Maybe you're lucky not to have
that memory synapse fire. Maybe you're trying to forget. But
for the families of the victims of Albert de Salvo,
they will never forget his name or the numerous other
names given to him. I'm John Lorton, and this is
(01:51):
the seriously mysterious case of the Boston Strangler, a case
that some consider solved, while others have lingering doubts and
unham answered questions. If you're too young to remember this story,
it's about what many consider a monster and his gripping
reign of terror. The start of this story actually dates
all the way back to nineteen sixty two, a time
(02:13):
of relatively low tech daily life. There were no smartphones,
no Internet, and no home computers. John F. Kennedy was
the President of the United States at the time, pushing
his dream of Americans landing on the Moon, an event
that he would never live to see. NASA was still
poking holes in the sky with rockets of the Mercury
Atlas missions, much to the thrill of Americans. Most of
(02:35):
whom would listen to the events unfold on radios, while
the luckier ones would catch it on the television news.
Then it began June fourteenth of that year, when the
body of Anna Slesser's was found in her apartment on
Gainsborough Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Anna was found lying on
her kitchen floor, free of clothing from the waist down.
(02:55):
The horror of it all was that the woman had
her own sash wrapped around her neck, and it had
been sinch tightly by a pair of powerful hands with
such murderous intensity that Ann had died with blood trailing
from her ear. If that wasn't terrible enough, detectives discovered
that she had been sexually assaulted as well, but by
something not of the human anatomy. She had been violated
(03:17):
by an unknown object. Two weeks later, on June twenty eighth,
another victim was found, though it wasn't immediately clear that
this was the case. Eighty five year old Mary Mullen
was found in her home on Commonwealth Avenue. She had
died of an apparent heart attack. It would be some
time before the world discovered that her death was not
of natural causes. Two days later, sixty eight year old
(03:40):
Nina Nichols was found murdered in her apartment just up
Commonwealth from the Mullen residence at around four pm. She
had been on the phone with her sister when the
doorbell rang. Nina ended the call, promising to call back
after she answered the door. Of course, she never had
the chance. Nicholls was strangled with a pair of nylons
so vigorously that her ears also bled as Slesser's had.
(04:02):
Nichols had been sexually assaulted with another foreign object, though
this one was known a glass bottle. That same day,
Helen Blake, a sixty five year old woman, turned up
dead in the town of Lynn, just on the outer
edges of Greater Boston. Helen had been strangled by stockings
and abra again with great force. Applied. Four dead women
(04:24):
in a single month, three of which were obvious strangulations.
All four were living alone, and their apartments were ransacked.
Police theorized that the murders were not motivated by robbery,
and that the vandalism was done perhaps to cover up
evidence the killer also did something else. They took the
time to stage the scene, leaving the victims in grotesque positions.
(04:46):
Meant to horrify whoever came in and discover the brutal crimes.
During the month of July nineteen sixty two, the citizens
of Boston and Lynn were left with newspaper articles depicting
the crimes in great detail. No forced dona, they said,
No robbery was suspected, they said. The newspaper article sketched
a nightmare scenario for any woman living alone in the
(05:07):
Boston area. In response, Boston police formed additional squads of
officers to patrol the streets at night in search of
the killer, and detectives brought in the usual suspects, men
that at criminal records of violent acts, and interrogated them.
All these efforts came up with nothing. However, the month
passed with no additional attacks. Did the additional police presence
(05:30):
in the streets of Boston and the surrounding areas prevent
further murders, perhaps, but it wouldn't last for long. On
August nineteenth, he struck again. Seventy five year old Ida
Erga of Boston was found dead. Like the others, Ida
lived alone in an apartment, and like the others, had
been strangled with excessive force, this time with a pillowcase.
(05:54):
Her body, again like the others, was also posed in
an undignified manner. Just two days years later, Bostonian Jane Sullivan,
sixty seven years old, was found murdered in her apartment.
Two stockings were used to strangle her, though it was
found that her head had also been submerged in a
tub of water during the assault. Was the attacker evolving
(06:15):
or was this pointing to a scarier truth that more
than one person was responsible. The summer of nineteen sixty
two had now seen six women killed in Massachusetts. Some
(06:39):
investigators theorized that these murders were actually the work of
more than one man, perhaps copying one another or even
working together. As some women on the growing list had
been sexually assaulted and others had not, and the murder
weapons and methods showed some differences, the theory seemed plausible.
Others didn't agree and stuck to the idea that this
(07:01):
was indeed one man, a monster, walking among the innocent
and hitting upon targets of opportunity, strangling them with whatever
was handy. Regardless of which theory was believed, no detective
seemed to have the answer to several troubling questions just
how did the killer or killers gain access to these
women's apartments. Were they being tricked into opening their door?
(07:23):
How were there no witnesses? In any case, The newspapers
took a front line at the one perpetrator theory, calling
the assailant the phantom Strangler or the mad Strangler. The
hunt for the killer was intensified, and, almost as if
in response, the murderers halted. No more women fell victim
for the remainder of August. September passed without another killing,
(07:47):
Then October and November went by with no sign. The
investigations into the six dead women stalled. December nineteen sixty two.
It rained on the fifth and was quite cold, but
not enough to snow. Perhaps seeing that the man hunt
had led up, the strangler again took to the streets.
He found a woman living alone in her apartment near
(08:08):
Boston University, and he murdered her. She was found gagged
and strangled to death. This victim was different, Sophie Clark
was only twenty years old, and she was black. For
some detectives, this was not the work of the Boston Strangler. Still,
the single women of Boston and the surrounding suburbs took
to the hardware stores to buy new locks, primarily chain
(08:31):
locks that were simple to engage and didn't need a key.
The dog pounds when empty, their occupants being adopted to
Holmes to guard their frightened new owners. On New Year's Eve,
the eighth victim was discovered. Patricia Bissett, twenty three years old,
was found strangled. The strangler was quiet for the months
of January and February, as if avoiding the city of Boston.
(08:54):
Because the search was so intense, the strangler seemed to
turn his attention to the suburbs for his next wave
of attacks. March sixth, nineteen sixty three, Mary Anne Brown
of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was found. The sixty nine year old
had again been strangled to death. Two months passed until
May sixth, when twenty three year old Beverly Salmons was
(09:15):
found in her home in Cambridge. The summer of sixty
three was quiet until September eighth, when Mary corbyin fifty
seven was found dead in Salem. Joanne Graff, twenty three
years old, was killed in her Lawrence apartment on November
twenty third, the day after President Kennedy was assassinated. The
last murder attributed to the Boston Strangler occurred on January fourth,
(09:37):
nineteen sixty four. The youngest of anyone on the list,
nineteen year old Mary Anne Sullivan of Boston, was strangled
and sexually assaulted with a foreign object, as if taunting police.
The murderer left a note Happy New Year. It read
the police now had thirteen cases to solve and fully
(09:57):
expected more victims to be discovered in the days. The
Assistant Attorney General, John S. Bottomley was given command of
the Strangler Bureau, a multi jurisdictional task force of investigators
dedicated to this goal. Bottomly entertained the theories that the
Boston Strangler may have been a psychopath already in the
custody of a mental institution, or that he may have
(10:19):
committed suicide, moved out of the area, or simply have
died of natural causes. Thousands of known sex offenders or
perpetrators of violent crimes were looked at, even interrogated, but
none fit the bill completely. Then, in March of nineteen
sixty five, Albert DeSalvo entered the picture. He was thirty
three at the time and had been arrested for committing
(10:41):
a series of rapes. Dsalvo began confessing to one murder
after another, revealing details that only the killer would know.
Some details he actually got wrong, but it was likely
that after all he had done, DiSalvo had a hard
time keeping track of his victims. Looking into the confessor's upbringing,
it was found that Albert's father, Frank DeSalvo, was a
(11:03):
terrorizing abuser of his wife, Charlotte and his children. Frank
would bring prostitutes to their home and carry on with
them with his children in full view. After a few
vicious beatings of Charlotte and Albert, a divorce was finally
granted to Charlotte and Frank DeSalvo was out of the picture,
but the psychological damage was done. At the age of thirteen,
(11:24):
Albert had been arrested after assaulting and robbing a paper boy.
The judge handed down a suspended sentence with the hope
that Albert had learned a valuable lesson. Albert was arrested
just a few weeks later after breaking into a neighbour's
home and stealing jewelry. This time he was sent to
the Lyman School for Boys, where he stayed in custody
for two years. He later joined the US Army and
(11:45):
served in Germany in nineteen forty nine. There he met
a woman by the name of Ermgard Beck and they
were married. This didn't last, however, as ermgard found that
her husband had a form of sexual addiction. He would
claim that he would feel a burning sensation in his
lower abdomen and the only way to relieve it was
to engage in sex. This would occur to him multiple
(12:09):
times a day, and Ermgarde felt that she just had
to live with the bizarre behavior. The couple relocated to
the US in nineteen fifty four, settling in New Jersey,
Thesalvo's urges were out of control. In January of nineteen
fifty five, he was accused of molesting a young girl.
This crime never went to trial, as the mother of
the victim did not wish to put her daughter through
(12:30):
that traumatic experience. Unfortunately, this meant that Albert DeSalvo would
again escape punishment. In nineteen fifty six, Dsalvo left the
army and moved his wife and newborn daughter to Boston, Massachusetts.
For the next few years, Albert DiSalvo played it straight.
He held a job, came home every night from work,
and gave Ermgard his paychecks so that she could run
(12:52):
the household. He was, at least from her point of view,
acting like a good husband and father. In nineteen sixty,
Erngarde gave birth to their second child, a son, Michael.
It was around this time that Albert was losing control
over his urges. He began to stalk women, following them
to their homes, knocking on the door and claiming to
(13:13):
be a model agent. All he would need to get
them started, he said, was to take their measurements. He
offered them money to pose for him, and the fewer
clothes they wore, the more he would give them. On occasion,
when things went too far and the victim began to
catch on to the fact that a modeling agent wouldn't
grope them, DeSalvo would get kicked out. Many of these
(13:35):
women called the police and gave them a description. They
began to call him the measuring Man. During this time
and into nineteen sixty one, Albert took to breaking and
entering once again. He was caught and arrested, and during
his time with police, he began to brag about various things,
including his conquests with women. The tales he told made
(13:57):
it quite evident that he was indeed the measuring man,
and he was charged for those crimes as well. However,
the judge inexplicably refused the charges of lutness and only
tried him on the breaking and entering charges. Albert DeSalvo
was only given eleven months in prison, getting out in
April of nineteen sixty two. Just two months later the
(14:17):
murderers began. The sad truth about it all was because
the judge had not pushed the sexual assault charges. Bottomley's
Strangler Bureau was unable to search for him in their
files because of a judge's strange decision to be lenient.
Tssalvo's name just never came up during their investigations. Albert
changed his tactics after the last strangulation. He began driving
(14:40):
into Connecticut wearing green workmen's coveralls. He would walk the
streets of New Haven, Meriden, East, Hartford, Orhampton, pick an
apartment building, find a woman's name next to an apartment number,
and ring that bell. He would claim that there was
something that needed to be worked on, perhaps a gas leak,
water leak, potential power failure, et cetera, and would occasionally
(15:03):
be let inside he victimized for women, and papers called
him the green Man because of Dissalvo's antics as the
measuring man, police decided to make contact with Albert and
bring him in for questioning. While police waited, Albert drove
up with his brother and sister in law in the car.
Seeing the squad cars, Albert panicked and drove off. The
(15:25):
police chased him, but as Albert had no talent behind
the wheel, he went off the road several times. Eventually,
his brother convinced him to stop attempting to drive, and
Albert did. He pulled over and ran from the car,
but was apprehended quickly. Always unable to keep himself from
bragging about his misdeeds, Albert confessed to the rapes and
(15:46):
was sent to the Bridgewater State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
There he met another patient by the name of George Nasser.
Albert couldn't help himself and began telling Nasser all about
the murders he had committed. It was then that Albert
was introduced to Nassar's lawyer, f Lee Bailey. Albert told
Bailey the entire story, even including the death of eighty
(16:08):
five year old Mary Mullen in his list of crimes.
He had broken in and the old woman fell dead
of heart failure. The attorney went to the police with
this startling information. Once Erngard found out, she took the
children and left town. Albert would never see them again.
In nineteen sixty seven, Albert DeSalvo was convicted on these
(16:29):
rape charges and robbery, none of which were related to
what became the final count of thirteen women attributed to
the Boston Strangler, not one. Several women had come forward
to describe Dsalvo after his sexual assaults dating back to
October of nineteen sixty four, a period of nine months
after the Boston Strangler's activities had halted. Thesalvo's attorney, f
(16:52):
Lee Bailey, had attempted to enter a plea of insanity
to defend against the rape charges, but the judge shot
down that attempt. Despite Disalvo's hauntingly detailed confessions to the
murders of the Boston Strangler, there was no physical evidence
to add them to the list of charges, even Sodsalvo
was sentenced to life in prison on November twenty fifth,
(17:15):
nineteen seventy three. While serving this sentence in Walpole State Prison,
DiSalvo was stabbed to death in the prison infirmary by
fellow inmate Robert Wilson. DiSalvo had been put to work
as an orderly in the infirmary. He was forty two
years old at the time of his death. Ultimately, Dussalvo
received a sentence of life in prison and never walked
(17:37):
the streets as a freeman again. Even if he was
never charged for the murders of the Boston Strangler, no
indisputable evidence existed connecting DiSalvo to any of the Strangler's
victims until twenty thirteen. DNA testing revealed that DiSalvo at
least had sex with the Boston Strangler's final victim, Mary Sullivan.
(18:00):
Of course, it still doesn't definitively prove that he killed her.
Is it possible that he was working with a partner,
or that there was a copycat. While many of the
women seem to fit a profile of being older, a
few of the victims did not fit that profile and
were rather young. Some people to this day believe that
George Nasser may have committed some of those murders, manipulated
(18:21):
DiSalvo into confessing, and then convinced his attorney to take
Disalvo's case. It's an interesting theory and an aspect of
this case that's likely to remain seriously mysterious. George Nassar
died of prostate cancer in December of twenty eighteen. Do
you have any comments or a case you'd like to suggest.
(18:42):
You'll find a comment form and case submission link at
lord narts dot com. We would like to thank The
Boston Globe, The Daily Item, The Springfield Union, The Daily News,
CBS Boston, South Coast Today dot com, and Wikipedia for
information contributing to today's story. This episode was written by
Frederick Crook, is edited by John Lorden, and produced by
Lord Nart's. If you appreciate it today's episode, please check
(19:05):
out the novel Wraithworks, another collaboration between Frederick Crook and myself.
It's available in hard copy or audiobook format. You can
find more info about Raithworks at lordnarts dot com or
by searching for it on Amazon. Thank you to our
audience here for the live recording session hosted on the
YouTube channel Lord Nart's Studio two special Thanks to Seriously
(19:26):
Mysterious financial supporters James Reed, Robert Martin, and Neat Noodle.
Most of all, thank you for listening. I'm John Lorden.
Please join me again next week for a story I
know you'll find seriously mysterious.
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