Albert DeSalvo - The Boston Strangler

When And Where?: Boston, Massachusetts and area. June, 1962 - March, 1963

Who?: Albert De Salvo, known as the Boston Strangler. De Salvo was a 29 year old father of two, who was married to a German girl he had met while serving a military stint overseas. He had a police record for break and entry, and was, in the eyes of the law, a career burglar. DeSalvo was also involved in sexual offenses before he became a household name. Prior to the stranglings, a series of assaults that became known as the "Measuring Man" crimes occurred in the Boston area. The man, dressed in dark green work pants would knock on apartment doors and tell young women that he was from a modelling agency. He would go on to say that he had been given their name as a potential model. The man would go on to say that he had been sent to take her measurements and then quickly produced a measuring tape. After measuring all parts of the woman's body, the Measuring Man would then leave with the promise of returning to discuss details including money. Needless to say, he never came back. Soon, the Measuring Man encounters included his touching the 'models' in a way that made many uncomfortable, and that caused some to contact police. The ruse was tried with DeSalvo being a modelling agent, photographer and tailor. One incident led to police being called and DeSalvo was captured. This of course was before the Boston stranglings. DeSalvo was diagnosed in 1961 as having a sociopathic personality. He was sentenced in May of 1961 to eighteen months in jail for the Measuring Man assaults. Release came eleven months later, in April of 1962.

The Murders: In October 1964, a twenty year old Cambridge Massachusetts woman awoke to see a man with slicked back, dark hair standing at the end of her bed. He was wearing large green aviator's goggles and work pants. The Green Man told her that he was a police detective and "not to worry." Suddenly, the man lunged toward her bed telling her not to scream or she would be killed. He proceeded to gag her by stuffing underwear into her mouth, bound her to the bedposts and then raped her. Upon completion of his deeds, the man apologized, and then quickly left. The woman contacted police and worked with a police artist to produce a composite sketch. Detectives noticed a striking similarity, not only in the m.o. of entering the apartments of women, but in the appearance of the Green Man and the Measuring Man from 1961. Police contacted Albert DeSalvo. DeSalvo was questioned, where the victim could see and hear him through one-way glass. She identified him as her attacker. Soon after, a photograph was released publicly. Phone calls poured in from Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. DeSalvo had been very busy. It appears that DeSalvo's mental state bounced between the need to sexually control and assail his victims to commit murders to satiate himself. In other words, the Boston Strangler did not murder every time he struck. On some occasions he simply went further than on others. The Strangler's first victims were elderly women. In fact, the first five victims were aged from fifty-seven to seventy-five. He switched to younger victims later, as young as nineteen, but completed his 'career' with a fifty-six year old quarry. The victims were gagged, strangled by having a stocking tied tightly around their necks, and then displayed grotesquely in lewd poses that almost taunted investigators. Actual intercourse was not the Strangler's release. He achieved orgasm by the act of killings itself, or by assaulting the body with a variety of items.

Trial And Outcome: It is possible that police might have never connected DeSalvo to the Boston Stranglings on their own. Elaborate confessions, along with rationalizations of a horrible, abusive childhood, poured from the mouth of the Green Man. It is believed that the Strangler's victims numbered thirteen. It is possible that the Green Man sexually assaulted hundreds of women. It will never be known for certain. DeSalvo's lawyer, the now renowned F. Lee Bailey, worked to have Albert DeSalvo judged as schizophrenic and therefore unable to stand trial. DeSalvo was in fact, never charged with being the Boston Strangler. He was however, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1967 for sex offenses and robberies committed before the stranglings. DeSalvo was found dead in his cell at Walpole State Prison in 1973. He had been stabbed through the heart.

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