The Infamous Boston Strangler

Albert DeSalvo, better known as the Boston Strangler, is one of New England’s most prolific serial killers. Desalvo was born on September 3, 1931, to Frank and Charlotte DeSalvo and grew up in an abusive household. He recounts witnessing his alcoholic father brutalizing his mother on more than one occasion. He told author Gerald Frank, “I saw my father knock my mother’s teeth out and then break every one of her fingers. I must have been seven. Ma was laid out under the sink—I watched it.” DeSalvo was regularly abused by his father and committed small crimes that led to his time at the reform school, Lyman School for Boys. He joined the army at age 17 and served for eight years. While on active duty, he met his wife and had two children. 

Prior to gaining the infamous nickname, DeSalvo also deemed various titles coinciding with his criminal history. Two of them are “The Measuring Man’, in relation to his series of sex offenses in the Cambridge area, and “The Green Man,” due to a crime spree that took place throughout multiple states across New England. He would break into women’s apartments, tie them up and sexually assault them - all while dressed in green. 

The crimes that led to the name the Boston Strangler started in 1962 and ended around 1964. His first victim was a 55-year-old woman who was assaulted and strangled with stockings on June 14, 1962. Over the course of approximately 20 months, 13 women were raped and killed around the Boston area. Each victim was attacked in their home, and the killer always left the rope or cord he used to attack in a bow.

DeSalvo was never charged with murder due to lack of evidence but was convicted of life in prison for his “lesser” crimes in 1967. At the time of his arrest, he was not yet named The Boston Strangler, but DeSalvo confessed to the killings of the 13 women that took place between 62’ and 64’. The admission was subject to skepticism and controversy over the last five decades due to a lack of evidence and how spread out each crime was. Albert DeSalvo was found stabbed to death in his jail cell in Walpole State Prison on Nov. 26, 1973, but his case didn’t end there. 

Nearly 50 years later, Albert DeSalvo was directly linked to the 1964 rape and murder of Mary Sullivan due to DNA found on her body. DNA from DeSalvo’s nephew showed a 99.9 percent familial match with DNA found on Sullivan, and the case finally came to a close. 

Although there was no official determination that Albert DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler, there is no doubt that this man was a sexual predator that spread fear throughout the women of New England in the 1960s.