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In 65, the victim gave the police a good description that matched his likeness sketch from his previous crimes. Shortly afterward, DeSalvo was arrested. After he had been picked out of an identity parade, DeSalvo admitted to robbing hundreds of apartments and carrying out a couple of rapes.
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Years before, the Albert DeSalvo killings began, and sex offenses began in Boston. In his late twenties, he went door-to-door looking for young women. If a young woman answered the door, he would introduce himself as a talent scout from a modeling agency looking for new models. He would tell her he needed to get her measurements if she was interested. He would then fondle the women as he took their measurements. Several women contacted the police, and this man was called the “Measuring Man.
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BPD caught a man breaking into a house. He confessed to the burglary, and without any prompting, he also confessed to being the “Measuring Man.” The man’s name was Albert DeSalvo. 29yr at the time was linked with numerous cases of breaking and entering into apartments and stealing whatever money and goods he discovered. The judge sentenced DeSalvo to 18 months in jail but he was released after 11 months for good behavior. Following his release, he began new crimes around New England.
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The first victim was Anna Slesers, murdered on June 14, 1962. She lived independently in a brick house apartment at Gainsborough St. in Boston. Were was sexually assaulted and strangled in her ransacked apartment. And he did so for all his victims.
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Between June 14, 1962, and January 4, 1964, 13 single women between 19 and 85 years old were murdered in Boston, Massachusetts. All were tied to Albert DeSalvo, or "Boston Strangler." Most of the women were sexually assaulted in their apartments and then strangled with articles of clothing. Without any sign of forced entry into their dwellings, the women were assumed to have either known their killer or voluntarily allowed him into their homes.
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The second victim was to be murdered on the evening of June 28, 1962. She lived in the apartments on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston
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He was traveling 17 miles from Boston to Lynn the same night. The victim Helen Blake was murdered on June 1962. The victim lived in her home on Newhall Street, Lynn
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The Third victim was to be murdered on the evening of June 30, 1962. She lived in the apartments on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Only 14 blocks from the third victim.
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The Boston police commissioner Edmund McNamara
transferred nearly all his department’s resources to the search for the so-called “mother killer.” -
The victim Ida Irga was to be murdered on the evening of August 19, 1962. She lived in the apartments on Grove Street in Boston
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The victim Jane Sullivan was murdered on the evening of August 21, 1962. She lived in the apartments on Columbia Road in Boston.
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The victim, Sophie Clark, was murdered on the evening of December 5, 1962. She lived in the apartments on Huntington Avenue in Boston.
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The victim was Patricia Bissette, murdered six after Christmas on December 31, 1962, was killed. She lived in the apartments on Park Drive in Boston.
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The victim was Patricia Bissette, murdered on the evening of March 6, 1963. She lived in the apartments on Park Street in the city of Lawrence.
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The victim was Beverly Samans, murdered on the evening of May 6, 1963. She lived in the apartments on University Road in Cambridge.
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After many hours of questioning and going into minute detail about what the victims wore or how their apartments looked, both Bailey and the police were convinced that they had the killer. One disturbing revelation was when DeSalvo described an aborted attack on a Danish girl. As he was strangling her, he caught sight of himself in the mirror. Horrified by the vision of what he was doing, he released her and begged her not to tell the police before fleeing.
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The victim was Evelyn Corbin, murdered on the evening of September 8, 1963. She lived in the apartments on Lafayette Street in Salem.
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The victim was Joann Graff, murdered on November 23, 1963. She lived in apartments on Essex Street in Lawrence.
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The victim was Mary Sullivan, murdered on the evening of January 4, 1964. She lived in the apartments on Charles Street in Boston
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By January 1964, 13 women had died, and Albert DeSalvo was brought to BPD custody. But not for the 13 murders. B/c of crime spree throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. The Massachusetts attorney general, Edward Brooke, had personally taken multiple cases of the investigation relating to Albert DeSalvo.
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AG Brooke headed up a task force that included assigning permanent staff to the Boston Strangler case. He brought in AAG John Bottomly, who had a reputation for being unconventional. AAG Bottomly's force had to sift through thousands of pages of material from different police forces in New England.
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Police profiling was relatively new in the early 1960s, but they came up with what they thought was the most likely description of the killer. He was believed to be around 30, neat and orderly, worked with his hands, and was most likely a loner who may be divorced or separated.
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The killer ended up being found by chance, not by the work of the police force. DeSalvo went on to commit more serious crimes. He had broken into a woman's apartment, tied her up on the bed, and held a knife to her throat before molesting and running away.
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While in police custody at Bridgewater State Hospital before his trial, DeSalvo confessed to being the Boston Strangler and committing all 13 murders. His lawyer interviewed DeSalvo to discover if he really was the notorious killer. The attorney was shocked to hear DeSalvo describe the murders in incredible detail, right down to the furniture in his victims' apartments.
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After a second visit and listening to DeSalvo describe in grisly detail the murder of 75-year-old Ida Irga, Bailey was convinced his client was the Boston Strangler. When he asked DeSalvo why he chose a victim of such an age, the man coolly replied that “attractiveness had nothing to do with it."
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However, without anything but the confession to go on, BPD never brought charges against him. No physical was traced to him. DeSalvo was convicted of sexual assault, burglary, and robbery in an unrelated case and sentenced to life in prison. He was incarcerated at Walpole State Prison.
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DeSalvo was arrested on a rape charge, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison at Bridgewater State Hospital for psychiatric observation. In February of that year, he escaped with two fellow inmates from the hospital, triggering a full-scale chase. A note was found on his bunk addressed to the superintendent. In it, DeSalvo stated he had escaped focusing attention on the conditions in the hospital and his situation there. Three days after the escape, he called his lawyer to turn himself in.
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DeSalvo was sent to Walpole Maximum-security prison. Six years later, he was found dead and stabbed in the prison infirmary. Inmate Robert Wilson, associated with a prison gang, was tried for DeSalvo's murder. However, the trial ended in a hung jury. It was later believed that DeSalvo was killed for selling amphetamines in prison for less than the inmate-enforced syndicate price.
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Despite his confession in the 1960s, there was no physical evidence to link Albert DeSalvo to the "Silk Stocking Murders." BPD believed that they had discovered DNA evidence linking Albert DeSalvo to Mary Sullivan, who had been raped and strangled – the final victim of the Boston Strangler. After taking DNA from DeSalvo's nephew, the Boston Police said it was a "near certain match" to DNA evidence found on Mary Sullivan's body and a blanket taken from her apartment.
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Upon this discovery, Suffolk County DA Daniel Conley, MA AG Martha Coakley, and BPD Commissioner Edward Davis announced the DNA test results proving that DeSalvo was the source of seminal fluid recovered at the scene of Sullivan's 1964 murder. The court ordered the exhumation of DeSalvo's body. After extracting DNA from DeSalvo's femur and some of his teeth, it was determined that DeSalvo was the man who killed and raped Mary Sullivan.
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DeSalvo was viewed as a textbook case of a sexually motivated serial murderer, a seemingly ordinary man capable of outbursts of savage violence.
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