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| Albert Henry De Salvo Albert Henry De Salvo September 3, 1930 – November 26, 1973. Albert DeSalvo was considered the Boston Strangler, responsible for killing 13 women, but he was never charged. He was incarcerated for unrelated offenses when he was stabbed to death in 1973. The Strangler case was never closed. DeSalvo's confession remains the only evidence linking him to the case, and it contradicts autopsy findings. The Boston Strangler
was an alleged serial killer in Boston, Massachusetts in the early between
June 14, 1962, and January 4, 1964, when thirteen single women between
the ages of 19 and 85 were murdered in the Boston area. They were murdered
in their own apartments, with no signs of forced entry. After a sexual
assault they were strangled with their own clothing.
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In
the early evening of October 27, 1964, Albert Henry De Salvo was posing
as a motorist with car troubles while he broke into a home in Bridgewater,
Massachusetts. The homeowner, the future Brockton police chief Dick Sproles,
fired a shot at him. He was not suspected of being The Boston Strangler.
Later in the evening, masquerading as a detective a man entered a young
woman's home, tied her to her bed, and sexually assault her, but left
suddenly with apologies. The woman's description matched that of Albert
Henry De Salvo. After his photo was published, numerous victims identified
him as their assailant. When charged with rape, he confessed to being
the Boston Strangler, but there was no evidence to confirm his statements.
After standing trial for robbery
and unrelated sexual offenses he was sentenced to life in prison in 1967.
He was the subject of an FBI unlawful flight to avoid confinement investigation
when he escaped from a Massachusetts state mental hospital on February
24, 1967. He was being held at the hospital pending appeal of a life sentence
for numerous rapes. Local authorities apprehended him in Lynn, Massachusetts
the following day. |
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In 1971 the Texas legislature passed a resolution honoring
the Albert DeSalvo.
DeSalvo was murdered in his cell in 1973. It was never confirmed that DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler. Starrs: Forensic Secrets Revealed Mary Sullivan, 19, the strangler's last victim, was murdered on January 4, 1964. DNA and forensic evidence gathered nearly forty years later by Casey Sherman, her nephew, in his book A Rose for Mary (2003) claims DeSalvo was not responsible for her death. Sherman is a television producer in Boston and a contributing writer for Boston magazine. "I wanted to prove that DeSalvo did do it and at least have some kind of closure. Once I peeled back the onion, I realized this guy didn’t do it. The only thing connected to DeSalvo was his confessions and not a shred of physical evidence. He was simply confessing to events that never happened.” |
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Sherman believes he knows who killed his aunt Mary. It
was her roommate's boyfriend who she caught breaking into the apartment.
He killed her. He was a prime suspect and failed two lie-detector tests...
He was placed near the scene of the crime by the only witness. Police
were close to arresting him when De Salvo confessed. His alibis years
later were that he was watching football on TV with his grandfather when
the crimes took place. On January 4, 1964 no football games were televised.
James Starrs, a professor of forensic science and law at George Washington
University, said DNA evidence on Mary Sullivan is not associated with
Albert DeSalvo.
Regarding the information DeSalvo used in his confession, Susan Kelly, the author of The Boston Stranglers, said: "the newspapers were an excellent source of information - and it's very interesting to me that the details that Albert got wrong in his confession were identical to the details that the newspapers got wrong." |
Robert
Ressler, a criminologist and former profiler for the FBI, believes it
is unlikely that one person is responsible for all the Strangler murders:
"You're putting together
so many different patterns here that it’s inconceivable behaviorally
that all these could fit one individual," says Ressler. |