Albert DeSalvo

Albert DeSalvo

Between June 1962 and January 1964, 13 women were strangled to death in Boston. Most were elderly women who lived alone. Eleven of the murders were thought to have been committed by one individual (the other two were probably copycat murders). The victims were all sexually assaulted, most were strangled with their own nylons or undergarments, and there were no signs of forced entry. The serial killer was infamously dubbed the Boston Strangler.

Eventually, 29-year-old Albert DeSalvo was arrested for a seemingly unrelated string of sexual assaults. He would knock on women’s doors andclaim to be a modeling scout. The victims would invite DeSalvo into their homes and he would feel them up while measuring them. He was eventually arrested for sexually assaulting a woman at knifepoint.

While being interrogated by the police, DeSalvo confessed to all 13 murders. DeSalvo had a history of sexual assault and of being able to gain entrance to women’s apartments. Despite this, many people, including some victims’ family members, do not believe that DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler.

According to the skeptics, DeSalvo confessed to the crimes because he liked to brag. When he was incarcerated in a mental institution, he conspired with another inmate to collect the reward money for the murders he claimed to have committed. DeSalvo was prepared to go to prison for the rest of his life, as long as he could ensure his family was secure financially.

On November 25, 1973, DeSalvo desperately wanted to talk to his doctor about the Boston Strangler case. They were due to meet the next morning, but DeSalvo was stabbed to death that night. Because of the level of security at the hospital, it has been suggested that the murder was a conspiracy between employees and inmates. Due to the lack of physical evidence, DeSalvo never stood trial for the Boston Strangler case. The murders did stop after DeSalvo was arrested. In 2013, a DNA test found that semen discovered on one of the victims was almost certainly his.