The boston strangler

During a nineteen-month reign of terror, the serial killer known as the Boston Strangler murdered 13 women ranging in ages between nineteen and eighty.

It began on Thursday, June 14, 1962 with the murder of 55-year-old Anna Slesers in an apartment at 77 Gainsborough Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Anna’s son Juris Slesers arrived at the apartment about 7 pm and became concerned after repeated attempts of knocking on the door elicited no response from his mother. Juris entered the apartment by knocking down the door at which time he discovered his mother’s body in her bathroom wearing a housecoat that had been left open, leaving her naked from the shoulders down. The murderer had strangled Mrs. Slesers with the belt of her own housecoat, then tied it around her neck in the shape of a bow.

On June 30, 1962 the next murder occurred. The victim was 68-year-old Nina Nichols who was also discovered in her apartment. Like Anna Slesers, Nina Nichols had been strangled, this time with her own nylon stockings that had also been tied into a bow.

Although her body wouldn’t be found for several days, 65-year-old Helen Blake was also murdered on June 30, 1962. Sexually molested but not raped, her lower body left naked and this time the bow was made out of the stockings used to strangle her and a bra tied under the chin to finish the “bow” effect.

The police realized they had a “repeat killer” and set up 24 hr. hotlines as well as assigning additional manpower. The media on the other hand had a field day.

Seventy-five year old Ida Irga’s body was discovered on August 21, 1962. She had been strangled in her West End apartment on August 19, 1962. While the signature bow was tied around her neck, the murderer had changed his way of handling the body. This murder marked the first time he arranged the deceased in a weirdly obscene sexual position.

The next victim was 67-year-old Jane Sullivan. She too had been strangled in her apartment and while discovered on August 30, 1962 her autopsy placed her death ten days earlier or, one day after Ida Irga.

The police were confident they were hunting a white man age 18-40 years old who “hated his mother.” They believed this because all of his victims were older white women. On December 5, 1962 all of this speculation and “profiling” were tossed out the window when the Strangler’s next victim was murdered.

While the victims up to this point were all older white women who lived alone, Sophia Clark was 20 years old, black, shared an apartment and was raped. The trademark bow, strangulation with an article of the victim’s clothing and sexual positioning of the body was the same but now the police had to deal with the Strangler changing his modus operandi.

New Year’s Eve 1962 the Strangler struck again with the rape and murder of Patricia Bissette. Like Miss Clark, Patricia Bissette also shared an apartment. While there were many similarities between the Bissette murder and the previous seven, there was one distinct difference. The police couldn’t understand why Bissette’s body had been covered when all the others had been vulgarly displayed; an autopsy showed she was pregnant.

After five months of quiet, the Strangler killed again. This time it was a 23-year-old Cambridge student on May 6, 1963. She had been raped, strangled and stabbed several times in the throat.

For the following four months, it was as if the Strangler had disappeared. The police were no closer to a suspect because none of their profiles matched the number of times the Strangler changed his methods. The only thing in common between the victims was that they were all women. Young, old, white, black, alone or a roommate, blonde, brunette or gray haired made no difference to him.

On September 8, 1963 Evelyn Corbin, a 58-year old factory worker became the next victim.

As the entire nation was in shock at the assassination of President John Kennedy, November 23, 1963 was the next attack by the Strangler. The victim a Lawrence, Massachusetts was a Sunday school teacher named Joann Graff.

The final official murder by the Strangler was 19-year-old Mary Sullivan. She was a secretary in the Beacon Hill area and had moved into her apartment just three days before she was murdered. Like the other victims her body was posed, her bow was made of a stocking and two scarves but the Strangler had added a finishing touch before leaving. He placed a blank, Happy New Years greeting card between her toes.

Becoming desperate, the police raised the reward for information leading to the Strangler’s arrest to $110,000. They also brought in the renowned psychic Peter Hurkos to assist them. Hurkos was able to give descriptions of the murder scenes that only the police had access to, and was supposedly able to communicate with the victims and eventually gave the police a description of the suspect. When the police acted upon this description and made an arrest of what proved to be an innocent man, Hurkos left the country believing he was providing no real help to the authorities.

During the nineteen months the Boston Strangler was actively murdering women in the Boston area, another crime spree was underway that was lost in the media circus surrounding the Strangler. Throughout the Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire areas, “The Green Man” was raping literally hundreds of women.

The Green Man earned his nickname because he always wore dark green work pants. He would slip into a woman’s apartment, tie her up and rape her. Oddly enough, there were times he would apologize and decide not to rape the would-be victim. In all, the Green Man is credited with over 300 known rapes.

In November 1964 one of his victims was finally able to identify him to police and they arrested and charged him for these rapes. The man was Albert DeSalvo, a thirty four year old husband and father.

During his stay at Bridgewater, doctors learned several things about his background. Born to Frank and Charlotte DeSalvo in 1931, Albert was raised in poverty. His father was a violent alcoholic who used to bring prostitutes home and force the children to watch his sexual activities.

Albert and his sisters were also forced to steal to survive. Their father taught them the arts of shoplifting, simple robberies as well as breaking and entering. At ten, Albert started prostituting himself to the homosexuals in the area. He joined the army in 1948 and was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany where he met his future wife Irmgard. His daughter Judy was born in 1955, and son Michael after Albert’s honorable discharge in 1956.

Between 1956 and 1962 when the murders began, DeSalvo was arrested several times for breaking and entering, eventually spending eleven months in prison. It was at the end of this prison term he returned to the Boston area and his time as the Green Man began.

Committed to Bridgewater State Hospital DeSalvo began bragging to a fellow inmate about his sexual dominance over women and of how he was actually the Boston Strangler. He also told of two other murders he supposedly committed that the police had never linked to the others.

Convincing his roommate George Nassar that he was the Strangler, Nassar contacted his own attorney Lee Bailey. Awaiting trial himself of murder, Nassar was most likely interested in making some type of plea arrangement as well as the reward money and was able to convince Bailey to come to Bridgewater for an interview.

Lee Bailey contacted the police detectives and informed them of DeSalvo’s statements and that he was willing to speak to Bailey. They provided Bailey with questions whose answers Bailey tape-recorded. Even with DeSalvo confessing on tape to the murders, giving information only known to police and making drawings of the apartments and women he had murdered, there was no physical evidence to link him to the crimes. As such, DeSalvo was never charged for murder as the Boston Strangler.

His trial as the Green Man resulted in a life sentence without possibility of parole but since DeSalvo had attempted to get off by reason of insanity, the judge ordered the sentence to be served at Bridgewater.

After a successful escape from Bridgewater in February 1967, DeSalvo decided to turn himself back in at which time he was transferred from Bridgewater to Massachusetts Walpole Maximum Security Prison.

Serving a relatively quiet term until his death on November 25, 1973 when authorities found DeSalvo murdered in his bunk. He had been stabbed six times through the heart and the investigation into his death wouldn’t turn up any suspects to his murder.