What Is The Albert Desalvo Case

Albert DeSalvo

The Boston Strangler is a name given to the murderer of thirteen women in and near Boston, Massachusetts in the early 1960s. Although Albert DeSalvo confessed to the crimes and DNA evidence linked him to the last victim, some investigators still believe that not all thirteen murders could have been committed by one person. Between June 14, 1962 and January 4, 1964, thirteen women ranging in age from nineteen to seventy-five were found murdered in their respective apartments. Most had been strangled; one had been stabbed. All had been sexually assaulted. The first news of the serial murders appeared in the July 8, 1962, edition of the Sunday Herald under the banner headline “Mad Strangler Kills Four Women in Boston.” The story

The homeowner became suspicious and fired a shotgun at him. At the time, he was not suspected of being involved with the stranglings. It was only after he was later charged with rape that he gave a detailed confession of his activities as the Boston Strangler. He told fellow inmate George Nassar, who reported the confession to his attorney, F. Lee Bailey. Bailey agreed to take on DeSalvo’s case. Although he was able to cite details of the murders, there was no physical evidence to substantiate his confession. DeSalvo was tried for earlier crimes of robbery and sexual offenses in which he was known as the Green Man and the Measuring Man, respectively. Because of his client’s history, Bailey sought a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict to the sexual offenses, but was overruled by the judge. DeSalvo was sentenced to life in prison in 1967. Bailey believed that his client was the killer, describing the case in The Defense Never Rests. Susan Kelly, who accessed the files of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts “Strangler Bureau” for her book The Boston Stranglers, argues that the stranglings were the work of several killers rather than a single individual. Former FBI special agent John E. Douglas wrote in his book The Cases That Haunt Us that he doubted that DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler, because a power-assurance motivated rapist such as the Strangler would be prone to take credit for the