The Boston Strangler | Criminal Minds Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit The first murder attributed to the Boston Strangler was committed on June 14, 1962. The victim was Anna E. Slesers, a 55-year-old seamstress. It was initially attributed to a suicide, but was then believed to have been the result of a botched robbery, even though several pieces of jewelry were found at the scene. Between that day and August 30, five more women were killed; the second, an 85-year-old, died of a heart attack while her attacker was trying to strangle her. All of those victims were middle-aged or elderly, the youngest being 55. The Strangler then appears to have stopped killing for a few months, returning on December 5. During this second round of murders, the victims were usually in their late teens or early 20s. At the last crime scene, that of Mary Sullivan on January 4, 1964, the killer left a Happy New Year card propped up against her left foot. During the investigation, two psychics got involved with the task force in charge of the case, the "Strangler Bureau".

The first, Paul Gordon, was an ad copywriter said to have ESP powers. He made a description of the killer of Anna E. Slesers which fit Arnold Wallace, a mental patient held at Boston State Hospital who had escaped on several occasions, most of which coincided with the Strangler murders. When he was consulted about the seventh Strangler murder, that of Sophie Clark, he, surprisingly, displayed detailed knowledge of her apartment and made a description that fit Lewis Barnett, who was an initial suspect in the murder. Nothing concrete came out of Gordon's advice. The second psychic, Peter Hurkos , was a well-known career psychic. He claimed to have assisted in the investigation and is confirmed to have been in Boston at the time of the investigation and to have spent time with the police, but a few days later, he was arrested for impersonating a police officer in order to gather information and later convicted of it. James A. Brussel , who previously had made a spot-on profile of the Mad Bomber in New York, aided the authorities.

Unlike many contemporary and later psychologists and psychoanalysts involved in the case, he asserted that the murders were the work of a single man, attributing the changes in his behavior to changes in his regular life. In November of 1964, a convicted burglar named Albert DeSalvo (see below ), was caught for an unrelated series of attacks and confessed to the Strangler murders. Albert DeSalvo Edit DeSalvo at the time of his arrest. Albert Henry DeSalvo was born on September 3, 1931 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. His father, Frank DeSalvo, was a sadistic, violent, alcoholic fisherman from Newfoundland who brutally abused his wife, Charlotte DeSalvo, Albert and his five siblings, one brother and four sisters, and would regularly take home prostitutes and have sex with them in front of his family. Albert once saw him beat all of the teeth out of Charlotte's mouth and then break her fingers one by one. Frank also once sold all his children to a farmer in Maine for $9, though they managed to break out and return home, at which point Frank began teaching him to steal and encouraged him to do so.

In 1943, aged 12, Albert was arrested for battery and robbery and was sent to a reform school. The next year he was paroled and got a job as a delivery boy. He was sent back to the same reform school for auto theft only two years later. At the age of 17, after being released, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to Europe, where he met a German woman, Irmgard Beck, whom he married and brought back to the States, where he did a second tour in the Army. During his second tour, at Fort Dix, New Jersey, he was arrested for molesting a nine-year-old girl, narrowly escaping conviction because her parents wouldn't press charges. In spite of his court-martial, he was honorably discharged in 1956. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested twice for robbery. He demanded sex from his wife six times a day and called her rigid if she refused. When their first child, a girl named Judy, was born with a pelvis disease, she kept their sex life to a minimum, afraid that any other children they might have might also have conditions. They eventually conceived a healthy son, Michael, together.

In the time between DeSalvo's second discharge and March of 1960, he committed a series of attacks known as the Measuring Man crimes, during which he would pose as a talent scout from a modeling agency named "Johnson" in order to get inside women's homes and con them into undressing so he could pretend to take their measurements, fondling them while doing so. Though he confessed to the attacks when he was arrested for burglary, no charges for them were filed and he was sentenced to 11 months in prison for only the burglary charge. After being released from prison, DeSalvo committed a series of home invasions known as the Green Man attacks. Dressed in green work-clothes, he would break into apartments belonging to women, tie them to their beds in a spread-eagle position at knifepoint, sexually assault them, and leave. A victim who was attacked on October 27, 1964 gave the police a description of the assailant, which led the investigators to DeSalvo and was published in newspapers, leading to more victims coming forward. Earlier on October 27, DeSalvo attempted to break into a home by posing as a motorist.

In November, he was arrested for the assaults and confessed not only to them, but also to being the Boston Strangler. He made further confessions under hypnosis. Though his descriptions of the murders and the crime scenes had inconsistencies, he did know some details which had not been revealed to the public. In 1967, he was found guilty of the Green Man attacks and sentenced to life in prison as result of a plea bargain his lawyer, F. Lee Bailey (who later acted as defense for O.J. Simpson and Patty Hearst ), made with the prosecution. In February of the next year, he escaped from his imprisonment together with two other inmates, but turned himself in to Bailey the next day. In 1973, he was found brutally stabbed to death in his cell. Nobody was ever found guilty of his murder. Though he confessed to the Strangler murders, there are still some doubts as to whether DeSalvo's claims about them were credible.

For one thing, his confessions were not completely consistent with the evidence; in many cases, he got the time of death wrong, sometimes he got whether the victim's death was caused by manual or ligature strangulation wrong, and in the case of Mary Sullivan, he stated that he had sexually penetrated her, and yet no semen was found on her body; she was, however, sexually assaulted with a broom handle. Additionally, there was no physical evidence linking DeSalvo to the murders and no witness could place him on any of the crime scenes. Because the victims varied widely in age, race, and social class, and the modi operandi in the attacks varied, some believe the murders to be the work of multiple killers; FBI profiler Robert Ressler agreed with this theory, also remarking that it is very implausible that a serial killer who murders thirteen women would simply stop killing in favor of sexual assaults. Additionally, DeSalvo was braggart and is believed to have exaggerated his confessions; according to Dr. Ames Robey, the psychiatrist who evaluated him, DeSalvo "wanted so badly to be the Strangler".

One theory about why he would make a false confession is that he wanted to make money from it to support his family; he had told Bailey that he hoped to do so. On June 11, 2013, it had been announced that newly-discovered DNA evidence linked DeSalvo to the murder of Mary Sullivan, the last victim of the Strangler killings, and that authorities are having DeSalvo's body exhumed for further evidence. In July the same year, the authorities announced that a DNA comparison between DeSalvo and semen found at the Sullivan crime scene had confirmed that DeSalvo was the source. Modus Operandi Edit The Strangler's victims were women of several different ethnicities and of widely varying ages; the youngest was 19 and the oldest 85. During the first phase of the killings, the victims were often older and during the second phase, younger. He entered their homes through home invasions, where he attacked them sexually. As the Strangler's nickname implies, the victims were killed by strangulation, usually with their own nylon stockings. Sometimes the killer constructed ligatures by weaving together a bunch of smaller ones.

According to some sources, the Strangler also had a habit of tying the murder weapons and/or other handy lengths of fabric such as handkerchiefs around the victims' necks into a bow. One thing that was later noted by profilers was that, though the murders attributed to the Strangler have similarities, there were differences between them: Some victims were posed, some were not. Some murders were brutal and aggressive while some were more clinical and efficient Some victims were physically raped while some were sexually assaulted with blunt objects from the house. Evelyn Corbin was forced to perform oral sex on her killer. A few victims were stabbed; Beverly Samans was killed solely by 25+ stab wounds, mostly around her right breast. The rest were not stabbed. Some victims were strangled with multiple ligatures while some were strangled using only one. One victim, Ida Irga, was killed by manual strangulation. Known Victims Several victims of the Boston Strangler. Note: The dates denote when the victims were found. 1962: June 14, Boston, Massachusetts: Anna E.

Slesers, 55 (sexually assaulted with an unspecified object, non-fatally strangled with a belt, fatally strangled with the cord of her bathrobe, and tied it around her neck post-mortem) June 28, Boston, Massachusetts: Mary Mullen, 85 (indirectly; died of a heart attack when he attempted to strangle her) June 30: Boston, Massachusetts: Nina Nichols, 68 (sexually assaulted with a wine bottle and strangled with a nylon stocking; tied two stockings around her neck post-mortem) Lynn, Massachusetts: Helen Blake, 65 (sexually assaulted and strangled with a nylon stocking like the previous victim; tied the nylon and a bra around her neck post-mortem) August 19, Beacon Hill, Massachusetts: Ida Irga, 75 (sexually assaulted and manually strangled; a pillowcase was tied around her neck post-mortem) August 30, Boston, Massachusetts: Jane Sullivan, 67 (sexually assaulted and strangled with her nylon stockings) December 5, Boston, Massachusetts: Sophie Clark, 20 (sexually assaulted and strangled with her nylon stockings and a pett

icoat) December 31, Boston, Massachusetts: Patricia Bissette, 23 (raped and strangled with a ligature made of several interwoven nylon stockings and a blouse; was one month pregnant at the time of her death) 1963: March 9, Lawrence, Massachusetts: Mary Brown, 69 (raped, stabbed in the breasts with a fork, and strangled; fatally bludgeoned with a pipe) May 8, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Beverly Samans, 23 (stabbed four times in the neck and 22 times in the torso; two scarves and a nylon stocking were tied around her neck post-mortem) September 6, Salem, Massachusetts: Evelyn Corbin, 58 (raped, forced to perform oral sex, and strangled with two stockings) November 23, Lawrence, Massachusetts: Joan Graff, 23 (beaten, raped, and strangled with two nylon stockings and a black leotard) January 4, 1964, Boston, Massachusetts: Mary Sullivan, 19 (sexually assaulted with a broom handle and strangled with two scarves and a nylon stocking, then them

 around her neck post-mortem) On Criminal Minds Edit The Strangler was mentioned in Tribute as one of the serial killers whose M.O.s were copied by Michael Peterson .

In the episode, Prentiss erroneously names Albert DeSalvo as being the Strangler. Also, his habit of targeting women, attacking them through home invasions, and raping and then killing them through strangulation, is similar to the M.O. of Franklin Graney , a.k.a. The Tommy Killer, the unsub of Plain Sight . Sources The Boston Strangler | definition of The Boston Strangler by Medical dictionary The Boston Strangler | definition of The Boston Strangler by Medical dictionary Also found in: Encyclopedia , Wikipedia . The name given by the media to one or more serial murderers who killed 13 single women between 1962 and 1964, most of whom were raped, then strangled, often with their own stockings (hence the alternative name, ‘the Silk Stocking Strangler’). While Albert DeSalvo confessed to the crimes, it is uncertain how many of the victims died at his hands. After breaking out of prison 2 years into his life sentence, he was caught and sent to a maximum security prison where he was stabbed to death six years later Want to thank TFD for its existence?

Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content . Link to this page: References in periodicals archive ? Even the Boston Strangler would be afraid of the city's Old Town Trolley Ghosts and Gravestones Tour. Haunted Halloween Happenings Offer Spooky Fun 30am on a Sunday morning but I felt like I had entered Death Race 2000 as I merged onto the M53 and gingerly made my way back fifty miles taking care to get back into the inside lane as soon as I could, gripping the wheel like the Boston Strangler all the way. Boston strangler's identity proved following positive DNA test result 50 years on The Boston Strangler was believed to have raped and murdered 13 single women in Boston between 1962 and 1964.

Boston Strangler Case Update: Suspect Albert DeSalvo Linked To Murder Victim Mary Sullivan Through New DNA Evidence 50 Years Later BOSTON, Ramadan 2, 1434, Jul 11, 2013, SPA -- Investigators helped by advances in DNA technology finally have forensic evidence linking longtime suspect Albert DeSalvo to the last of the 1960s killings attributed to the Boston Strangler, leading many involved in the case to hope that it can finally be put to rest. Officials: DNA links suspect to Strangler victim Franck Ribery (below) and Co are odds-on favourites, even though Bayern have a longer history of choking than the Boston Strangler, losing five of the last six European Cup finals they've contested. The Boston Strangler Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 45 out of 63 people found the following review useful: Fiction from Deming, New Mexico, USA 16 February 2002 There is a big problem with this movie -- aside from the unecessary and distracting use of the split screen, a passing fad ripped off from Warhol's Chelsea Girls. The first half is an almost flawless police procedural.

It doesn't stick to historical facts all that much. Bottomly was a political nobody whose main job was to keep the public thinking that something was being done. The second half deals with Albert DeSalvo the man and is pretty much hyped up and fictional. It turns from a good docudrama into a standard piece of Hollywood baloney. Not a reflection on Tony Curtis's performance. He's better here than in most of his performances, some of which -- Some Like It Hot and The Outsider -- are pretty good. But, first, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the diagnosis of multiple personality disorder. MPD is when two or more whole and integrated personalities inhabit the same body. It may or may not be "real" and in any case is easily faked. And DeSalvo didn't "have it." I don't mean to harp on the issue of historical accuracy. Sometimes, as in Shakespeare in Love, it really doesn't matter much, but in this case it does because it's used as a deus ex machina that resolves all the questions the actual facts raise. Interviews with DeSalva make it clear that he knew exactly what he was doing when he was doing it.

And he didn't need help in remembering the facts. He recalled all of the details, including the state of his penis, while he committed the murders. The film changes history and turns him into just another dramatic case of MPD. Nothing is said about his admission that he was also a criminal rapist known to the police as "the green man," who, in the guise of a talent scout, went around measuring girl's busts and hips, thousands of them by his admission. The film also leaves out any reference to his escape from jail and his subsequent recapture wearing a sailor's uniform. He never had the anxiety attack shown in the film. He never went over the edge into irredeemable psychosis. Any competent shrink in reviewing the case would diagnose the real Boston strangler as a socialized type of anti-social personality disorder, the kind of illness that used to be called "psychopath." He was a con man, pure and simple. The ending is dramatic but it's nothing but fictional trash designed to lull an unthinking audience into the belief that even the most loathsome and darkest aspect of human nature has a comprehensible explanation. The twisting of fact is understandable, however.

The real, historical explanation, or the lack of it, would give not only the Boston strangler but all the rest of us an anxiety attack. Some people commit thoroughly rotten acts -- and none of the rest of us knows why. Was the above review useful to you? 27 out of 31 people found the following review useful: True-crime drama features Tony Curtis in career-best performance Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision) Sound format: 4-track magnetic stereo The true story of serial killer Albert DeSalvo (Tony Curtis), a devoted family man with a split personality who terrorised Boston during the early 1960's and murdered eleven women. Perhaps taking its cue from the success of Richard Brooks' true crime drama IN COLD BLOOD (1967), Richard Fleischer's THE BOSTON STRANGLER is a dignified, unsensational account of Albert DeSalvo's notorious crimes and the wide-ranging police investigation which led to his arrest.

However, modern viewers may be alarmed by the casual references to 'faggots', and a screenplay (by Edward Anhalt, from the book by Gerold Frank) which assumes a divide between 'normal' heterosexual behaviour and other forms of sexuality, all of which are bracketed as seedy, deviant and marginalised. That small (but significant) caveat aside, the movie provides an effective overview of a complex case, and Curtis - an unlikely choice for such a difficult role - gives a career-best performance as the deranged killer whose routine domestic life provided no hint of the monster lurking within his psyche. Henry Fonda is his nemesis, a dedicated law lecturer assigned to the case against his will, who eventually secured DeSalvo's confession. Some of the crime-scene details are fairly frank for a major release of the period, though the worst of it is relayed through dialogue and reaction shots, and visual depictions are kept to a bare minimum. Even for those familiar with the outcome of the case, the movie generates suspense through an accumulation of historical evidence, as Boston's terrified populace reacts convulsively to the maniac in their midst, and police trawl the streets for anyone whose sexual peccadilloes mark them as possible suspects.

Fleischer was a particular advocate of the widescreen format (he photographed most of his films anamorphically after being bowled over by a demonstration of CinemaScope in 1953), and his modish use of split-screen effects is completely diminished whenever the movie is broadcast on TV (you'll need a big screen to get even a modicum of the intended effect!). While irritating for some, there's nothing gratuitous about this technical device, by which Fleischer is able to convey layers of relevant information within the space of a single scene, whereas a conventional approach might have taken more time and necessitated the removal of crucial information (note also the clever use of directional dialogue and sound effects during these episodes). Few of the murders are recreated in any detail, but there's a couple of unsettling scenes which describe the cunning manner in which DeSalvo was able to gain access to his victims despite a city-wide alert over the Strangler's crimes, and Sally Kellerman is hugely sympathetic as the only woman to survive one of DeSalvo's brutal assaults. NB.

While Fleischer's film takes DeSalvo's guilt wholly for granted, the facts which condemned him have been challenged in robust terms by a number of sources throughout the years (most recently in Susan Kelly's 2002 book 'The Boston Stranglers: The Public Conviction of Albert DeSalvo and the True Story of Eleven Shocking Murders'), and much of the evidence which 'exonerates' DeSalvo is as compelling as anything in the movie. DeSalvo himself died in 1973, murdered by a fellow inmate whilst serving time in Walpole Prison. Was the above review useful to you? 27 out of 33 people found the following review useful: Curtis Riveting As Is The Entire Film from United States 22 October 2005 Like most people, I'm fascinated with serial killers and why they do what they do. I don't need the gory details: just what makes them tick. I know some people here are turned off because they say that the killer - Albert DeSalvo - was not the mental personality he was portrayed in the last 30 minutes of this film. Personally, I don't care.

I realize this is Hollywood, and how often is the film world historically accurate? Almost never. So....just enjoy the acting, the camera-work, and the suspense because there is a lot to like here if you are entertained by crime stories. I, for one, liked the split screen technique presented in this film. It gave a unique feel to the film, seeing the crimes from all kinds of angles at once. Rarely has this been done in films before or since. (I presume because it didn't go over that well to most people.) Anyway, the story is riveting start to finish and Curtis gives a memorable performance, even though he isn't in the movie until the last segment. How some "critics" can label him a sub-par actor is beyond me. He is amazing in here, as he was in "Sweet Smell Of Success," "Some Like It Hot," and other films. His fellow actors - Henry Fonda,George Kennedy, Hurd Hatfield, Murray Hamilton, Jeff Corey and Mike Kellin - all add to this excellent drama. It was a long wait for the DVD but at least that finally came out in 2005.

This film was originally released about the time the rating system began to be employed and films changed drastically. Although there is very little offensive language, there is nudity and some shocking scenes with the intense horrific subject matter. Was the above review useful to you? 24 out of 28 people found the following review useful: Curtis Should Have Been Nominated from Los Angeles, California 11 March 2003 It takes a lot of courage to take on a role as challenging as one of the most brutal serial murderers in United States history. Tony Curtis made you believe that he was Albert DeSalvo and he did it after years of playing the handsome leading man. He took a big chance and it paid off in some of the greatest reviews of his career, but when it came to an Oscar nomination, nothing. Tony Curtis is one of the greats in Hollywood. Too bad when he played the role of a lifetime the Academy forgot him. Also, Henry Fonda deserved a nomination for his role. This was probably one of the most intense roles of his career. The other thing that made the film great was its innovative use of split screen.

You pretty much got the creeps as you saw people living their ordinary lives on one side of the screen, while on the other side you saw the strangler stalking his victim. Also, I think that the director really did a good job by not really showing any of the attacks in progress, at least until the last one. This film truly was a great psychological thriller. Was the above review useful to you? 23 out of 28 people found the following review useful: Good, well-done thriller from United States 10 October 2001 Fictional account of the Boston Strangler--a maniac who killed about 12 women in the Boston area from 1962-1964. Most of the main actors just walk through their roles--Henry Fonda and George Kennedy especially. But Tony Curtis (who doesn't appear until an hour into the film) is surprisingly good as the strangler. Most people don't think of him as a good actor but as this and "Sweet Smell of Success" proved, he COULD give out a good performance. This was a very tricky role but he pulled it off. The last half hour especially--it's basically one long confession but he's excellent.

The film is exceptionally well-directed--the split screen is a bit disorienting at times but, ultimately, it helps the film. It keeps you on edge. It's also very interesting to see what Boston looked like in 1968. The only sour spot is there is some homophobia in the movie...but this does take place in '62-'64 and they did think the strangler was a gay man. From what I've heard this film was not a big hit when released which probably explains why it took so long to get out on DVD. It's probably one of the best serial killer movies ever made and the multiple screens look great on DVD. Well worth seeing if just for Curtis' performance. Was the above review useful to you? 17 out of 18 people found the following review useful: They say its overrated,but Tony Curtis' performance is electrifying to watch from Chapel Hill, North Carolina 29 May 2003 After all the movies that he has done this one shown his acting chops and basically established himself as one of the most distinguish actors in Hollywood,but if you want to see Tony Curtis in a stunning performance as a serial killer,this is the movie to see and not to be missed.

Tony Curtis showed them off brilliantly with his chilling portrayal of confessed 1960's serial killer,Albert DeSalvo who killed and strangled 13 women in the streets of Boston. Curtis is frighteningly good at depicting the schizophrenic life of a seemingly normal family man who hides his sexual compulsions. Here also you have Henry Fonda as the detective out to stopped him and George Kennedy in a co-starring role. Director Richard Fleischer(of "Fantastic Voyage",and "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" fame)uses a split screen technique show DeSalvo crimes along with the painstaking police investigation that finally nabbed him in 1964. Shocking as it was back in 1968,and still shocking today in one of Tony Curtis' most gripping roles and exhilarating performance. Was the above review useful to you? 13 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Tony Curtis embraces the unpleasant from United States 2 August 2005 Based on the real-life series of murders in Boston from 1962-64, this police procedural has close to a documentary-style approach.

The filmmakers also utilized the split-screen technique briefly popular back then, in other films such as "The Thomas Crown Affair." More than just splitting the screen in two, there are sometimes as many as 5 different images dividing the screen, and a widescreen version is necessary to get the full effect. Here, the technique is used to display the actions of both the victim and the serial killer at the same time, viewing their movements preceding the actual murders. Some viewers may find their concentration divided to a greater degree than they would like. The first half of the film shows how the police deal with (or, try to) the number of female bodies steadily piling up in the city. Some of the material is dated, with homosexuals being the primary suspects, and various types of perverts, like peeping toms, rounded up in unintentionally amusing scenes (see also "The Detective"1968 with Frank Sinatra for similar scenes of the homosexual community persecuted by the police dept.). Fonda plays the chief investigator, placed in charge against his wishes, but who soon accepts the gravity of the situation. George Kennedy is one of the main detectives. Curtis doesn't appear until the first hour ends.

As an actor, he immersed himself in this unpleasant role, and, from the first minute he's seen on screen, all his past film roles are summarily wiped away. He was a star for close to 15 years at that point and all those comedies & sappy adventures he'd been in immediately disappear from one's mind. It's a rather astounding feat - who knew he was this method actor? But, he wasn't even nominated for an Oscar. Also, unlike, for example, Travolta's comeback in "Pulp Fiction"(94), this did not revitalize his career. Sally Kellerman("M*A*S*H",1970) also appears in an early role as a victim who just may survive. Look also for, in a very early role, James Brolin in one scene as a police sgt. caught in some indiscretion by a supposed clairvoyant. Modern filmmakers should also check out some of director Fleischer's techniques towards the end, in that white room with Curtis. Was the above review useful to you?

15 out of 17 people found the following review useful: A Killer Role from Buffalo, New York 6 May 2008 Tony Curtis really showed his acting chops when he took on the most unlikely role of Albert DeSalvo the famous Boston Strangler of the early 1960s. Though he's only in the film literally for about half of it, what you see is a classic performance. Why he wasn't nominated for an Oscar, the Deity only knows. 13 women were found dead in the Boston area of manual strangulation and they were also sexually molested. Public concern was so great that the then Attorney General Edward Brooke, played by William Marshall, overrode local jurisdictions and prerogatives and assigned a lawyer from his office John Bottomly to coordinate the strangler investigation. Henry Fonda plays Bottomly who takes the task on quite reluctantly because his expertise is civil litigation. My guess is that Brooke was thinking that Bottomly would be best for the job because he came in with no preconceived notions on how to do the job and would be open to anything. Turned out he was right.

Actually Fonda has more screen time than Curtis because the first half of the film concentrates on him and the investigation. He follows up every red herring thrown at him. He even hires a medium paid for with private funds by a millionaire friend of Brooke's played by George Voskevec who actually comes close in terms of geography to finding the real killer. One of the red herrings is a gay man played by Hurd Hatfield who in those days before Stonewall was considered a likely suspect. He gets turned in by his landlady who is suspicious of his reading material. It's something he's used to, every time there's a lurid sex murder as an openly gay, or at least openly gay for that time he's brought in for questioning. This was one of the few times I ever heard the word gay used in a film made before the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969. Curtis however dominates the film. The last 20 minutes or so is a final confrontation with him and Fonda and for those who are used to the insouciant leading man of swashbucklers and comedies, this is a real breakthrough.

As much if not more of breakthrough than his part in Sweet Smell of Success. In his memoirs however Curtis decries the fact that on this, the second of two films he worked with Henry Fonda on, he said that he found Fonda cold and forbidding as a person to work with. The film is tautly directed by Richard Fleischer with some fine editing though I think Fleischer was a bit too fond of the split screen technique. Still it's a film worth watching. Was the above review useful to you? 13 out of 14 people found the following review useful: Interesting and engaging drama from United Kingdom 23 May 2005 When one or two strangulations of women in their own homes starts to turn into a whole series of murders, the press climb all over it, Boston is on edge and the police are struggling. Leading a new taskforce to find the strangler, John Bottomly continues the search and, after several false leads hits it lucky with a man who appears to be the one they are looking for.

However, this is only half the story as Albert DeSalvo appears perfectly normal and doesn't seem to have anything to hide even though everything points to him being the serial murderer of the title. Not being aware of the real events behind this film, it was an interesting story of me to watch even though I had to guard myself against the truism that many "true stories" will be simplified for cinema treatment. Regardless though, the film still made for an interesting detective case but also a rather engaging look at mental illness and violence. The investigation part is nicely delivered and is quite tense  yes, we know who the killer is but the other suspects are still interesting and I never felt like I was just hanging around waiting for Curtis to show up. Once he does, the film changes tact slightly but is still interesting because Albert is so engaging a person  I was not sure what he was playing at but it was interesting to go along with Bottomly and try to piece the man together; the closing captions show the slant of the film and this may annoy the more right wing viewer, but it didn't take anything away for me. The cast are strong and help the tone of the film.

Fonda plays his role well and provides a strong focus for the film until Curtis arrives to sweep it away from under his feet. Curtis' performance is well understated and lacking in the sort of showy acting that he could easily have done (Edward Norton did a similar role in this way but the vehicle was different and it worked); instead he is both a person and a monster, someone we are not allowed to judge but rarely invited to feel sympathy for. Support is good from Kennedy, Hamilton, Kellerman and others but really it is Curtis' film and it is he that sticks in the mind. The direction seems obvious now (especially with 24 in its fourth season) but it is clever and effective, the split screen keeping the film busy even in basic sequences while also helping the tension. Overall this is not a pacey thriller but rather a more serious drama, although it still works well as an interesting look at the case but also at the failings of the system of dealing with violent mental illness sufferers. Its point is rather bluntly delivered but getting to it is well done and Curtis' performance is probably one of his best. Was the above review useful to you?

5 out of 6 people found the following review useful: change of pace for Tony Curtis from United Kingdom 21 July 2004 Here it is, the film that proved Tony Curtis' worth as an actor; not just the pretty boy of a dozen identikit pictures of the 1950s - but here convincing as the cold blooded killer of various women; 'The Boston Strangler' now looks dated, particularly in its split-screen editing and gloomy editing, and in some of its references to 'queers', but is still a fine example within its genre. Bleak and uncompromising in its verbal and visual details of the murders, this film is held together by the excellent work by Curtis - he really is chilling as the psychopath preying on women. The ending is especially affecting, making superb use of silence as a cinematic trick and leaving the viewer curiously numb. Not a film to leave you anything but depressed, but a must-see at least once. Was the above review useful to you?

Page 1 of 9: Boston Strangler | American serial killer | Britannica.com American serial killer See Article History Boston Strangler, American serial killer who murdered at least 11 women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964. His crimes were the subject of numerous books and a film, though the exact number of victims—as well as his identity—proved a matter of controversy. The Boston Strangler’s first victim, a 55-year-old woman, was sexually assaulted and strangled in her ransacked apartment on June 14, 1962. During the following months, several other women, ranging in age from 65 to 85 years, were murdered in similar circumstances, news of which engulfed the city in panic. The Boston police chief transferred nearly all his department’s resources to the search for the so-called “mother killer.” Then, in December, a young woman was killed, and three weeks later a 23-year-old woman was found strangled. Subsequent victims included women of a range of ages. By January 1964, 13 women were dead, and the Massachusetts attorney general, Edward Brooke , had taken charge of the investigation personally.

In 1965 Albert DeSalvo , an inmate at a state mental hospital who had a history of burglary dating from the 1950s, confessed to the murders. Although never actually charged with the killings (investigators at the time were unable to physically link him to the murder scenes), DeSalvo was convicted on charges of sexual assault and sentenced to life imprisonment. The case and DeSalvo’s life were portrayed in the 1968 film The Boston Strangler. DeSalvo was murdered in Walpole State Prison in 1973. DeSalvo was viewed as a textbook case of a sexually motivated serial murderer , a seemingly ordinary man who was nevertheless capable of outbursts of savage violence. Yet DeSalvo’s guilt was controversial at the time and remained so in the decades after his death. His original confessions, for example, demonstrated ignorance of many aspects of the crimes. Although he would later describe details that only the actual killer could have known, his testimony, according to some observers, could have been based on information provided to him by police. Furthermore, several victims who survived did not believe he was their attacker.

At the beginning of the 21st century, DNA analysis of newly uncovered forensic evidence offered the possibility of determining whether DeSalvo was guilty of the rape and murder of Mary Sullivan, the last victim commonly attributed to the Boston Strangler. Although testing conducted in 2001 had suggested that DeSalvo was not responsible for the crime , DNA analysis of his exhumed remains in 2013 proved, according to investigators, that he had in fact raped and murdered Sullivan. In light of the later findings, authorities concluded that DeSalvo “most likely” committed the other killings as well. Boston Strangler Interpretation Translation Boston Strangler the name given by newspapers, etc. to Albert DeSalvo, a US man who attacked and killed 13 women in Boston , Massachusetts , between 1962 and 1964. He killed the women by strangling them (= squeezing their throat tightly). He was sent to prison for his crimes and was killed by another prisoner. * * * American serial killer who murdered at least 11 and as many as 13 women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964.

The killer's first victim, a 55-year-old woman, was sexually assaulted and strangled in her apartment on June 14, 1962. During the following months, several other elderly women were murdered in similar circumstances, though subsequent victims included young women. In 1965 Albert DeSalvo, an inmate at a state mental hospital, confessed to the murders. Although never charged with the killings because no physical evidence tied him to the murder scenes, he was convicted on separate counts of sexual assault and sentenced to life imprisonment. DeSalvo's guilt remains controversial, in part because his confessions demonstrated ignorance of many aspects of the crimes. DNA tests in 2001 confirmed that it was all but impossible that DeSalvo was guilty of the last of the murders, though it was one of the crimes to which he had confessed. * * * ▪ American serial killer American serial killer who murdered at least 11 women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964. His crimes were the subject of numerous books and a film, though the exact number of victims—as well as his identity—remains a matter of controversy.

The Boston Strangler's first victim, a 55-year-old woman, was sexually assaulted and strangled in her ransacked apartment on June 14, 1962. During the following months, several other women, ranging in age from 65 to 85 years, were murdered in similar circumstances, news of which engulfed the city in panic. The Boston police chief transferred nearly all his department's resources to the search for the so-called “mother killer.” Then, in December, a young woman was killed, and three weeks later a 23-year-old woman was found strangled. Subsequent victims included women of a range of ages. By January 1964, 13 women were dead, and the Massachusetts attorney general had taken charge of the investigation personally. In 1965 Albert DeSalvo, an inmate at a state mental hospital who had a history of burglary dating from the 1950s, confessed to the murders. Although never actually charged with the killings (there was no physical evidence linking him to the murder scenes), DeSalvo was convicted on charges of sexual assault and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The case and DeSalvo's life were portrayed in the 1968 film The Boston Strangler. DeSalvo was murdered in Walpole State Prison in 1973. DeSalvo was viewed as a textbook case of a sexually motivated serial murderer, a seemingly ordinary man who was nevertheless capable of outbursts of savage violence. Yet DeSalvo's guilt was controversial at the time and has remained so in the decades after his death. His original confessions, for example, demonstrated ignorance of many aspects of the crimes. Although he would later describe details that only the actual killer could have known, his testimony, according to some observers, could have been based on information provided to him by police. Furthermore, several victims who survived did not believe he was their attacker. In 2001, DNA tests confirmed that DeSalvo could not have been guilty of the last of the murders commonly attributed to the Boston Strangler, though this was one of the crimes to which he had confessed. John Philip Jenkins The Boston Strangler | Serial killers Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Share Ad blocker interference detected! Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising.

We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected. is a name attributed to the murderer of several women in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, in the early 1960s. Though the crimes were attributed to Albert DeSalvo, investigators of the case have since suggested the murders (sometimes known as the silk stocking murders) were not committed by one person. Victims First Stage (1962) Anna E.

Slesers, 55, sexually molested with unknown object and strangled with the cord on her bathrobe; found on June 14, 1962 Mary Mullen, 85, died from a heart attack but in the confession was said to have collapsed as the strangler grabbed her; found on June 28, 1962 Nina Nicols, 68, sexually molested and strangled with her nylon stockings; found on June 30, 1962 Helen Blake, 65, sexually molested and strangled with her nylon stockings; found on June 30, 1962 Ida Irga, 75, sexually molested and strangled; found on August 21, 1962 Jane Sullivan, 67, sexually assaulted and strangled with her nylon stockings; found on August 30, 1962 Second Stage (1962-1964) Sophie Clark, 19, sexually assaulted and strangled with her nylon stockings; found on December 5, 1962 Patricia Bissette, 23, sexually assaulted and strangled with her nylon stockings

; found on December 31, 1962 Mary Brown, 69, stabbed and beaten, found on March 9, 1963 Beverly Samans, 23, stabbed to death on May 8, 1963 Evelyn Corbin, 58, sexually assaulted and strangled with her nylon stockings; found on September 6, 1963 Joann Graff, 23, sexually assaulted and strangled on November 25, 1963 Mary Sullivan, 19, sexually assaulted and strangled with dark stockings; found on January 4, 1964 Between June 14, 1962 and January 4, 1964, 13 single women (between the ages of 19 and 85) were murdered in the Boston area.

Most had been sexually assaulted in their apartments and were murdered in the manner indicated above. Without any sign of forced entry into their dwellings, the women were assumed to have either known their assailant or have voluntarily allowed him into their homes, believing him to be an apartment maintenance person or some other service person. While the police were not convinced that all of these murders were the work of a single individual, much of the public believed so. The media certainly fueled the idea of a single murderer referring to him with names such as 'The Phantom' and 'The Sunset Killer' before settling on 'The Boston Strangler. On October 27, 1964, a stranger entered a young woman's home posing as a detective. He tied his victim to her bed, proceeded to sexually assault her, and suddenly left, saying "I'm sorry" as he went. The woman's description led police to identify the assailant as Albert DeSalvo and when his photo was published, many women identified him as the man who had assaulted them. Earlier on October 27, DeSalvo had posed as a motorist with car trouble and attempted to enter a home in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

The homeowner, future Brockton police chief Richard Sproles, became suspicious and eventually fired a shotgun at DeSalvo. DeSalvo was not initially suspected of being involved with the stranglings. It was only after he was charged with rape that he gave a detailed confession of his activities as the Boston Strangler. He initially confessed to a fellow inmate George Nassar who reported to his attorney F. Lee Bailey who took on DeSalvo's case. The police were impressed at the accuracy of DeSalvo's descriptions of the crime scenes. Though there were some inconsistencies, DeSalvo was able to cite details which had not been made public. However, there was no physical evidence to substantiate his confession. As such, he stood trial for earlier, unrelated crimes of robbery and sexual offenses in which he was known as The Green Man and The Measuring Man respectively. Bailey brought up the confession to the stranglings as part of his client's history at the trial in order to assist in gaining a 'not guilty by reason of insanity' verdict to the sexual offenses but it was ruled as inadmissible by the judge. DeSalvo was sentenced to life in prison in 1967.

In February of that year, he escaped with two fellow inmates from Bridgewater State Hospital triggering a full scale manhunt. A note was found on his bunk addressed to the superintendent. In it DeSalvo stated that he had escaped to focus attention on the conditions in the hospital and his own situation. The next day he gave himself up. Following the escape he was transferred to the maximum security Walpole State Prison where he was found murdered six years later in the infirmary. He had been stabbed. The killer or killers were never identified. Doubts remain as to whether DeSalvo was indeed the Boston Strangler. At the time he confessed, people who knew him personally did not believe him capable of the vicious crimes. It was also noted that the women killed by "The Strangler" came from different age and ethnic groups, and that there were different modi operandi. Susan Kelly, author of the 1996 book The Boston Stranglers, accessed the files of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts "Strangler Bureau". She argues that the stranglings were the work of several killers rather than a single individual.

Another author, former FBI profiler Robert Ressler, said that "You're putting together so many different patterns [regarding the Boston Strangler murders] that it's inconceivable behaviorally that all these could fit one individual." In 2000, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, an attorney specializing in forensic cases who is based in Marblehead, Massachusetts, took up the cause of the DeSalvo family and that of the family of Mary A. Sullivan. Sullivan was publicized as being the final victim in 1964, although other stranglings occurred after that date. A former print journalist, Whitfield Sharp assisted the families in their media campaign to clear DeSalvo's name, to assist in organizing and arranging the exhumations of Mary A. Sullivan and Albert H. DeSalvo, in filing various lawsuits in attempts to obtain information and trace evidence (e.g. DNA) from the government, and to work with various producers to create documentaries to explain the facts to the public. Whitfield Sharp pointed out various inconsistencies between DeSalvo's confessions and the crime scene information (which she obtained).

For example, Whitfield Sharp observed that, contrary to DeSalvo's confession to Sullivan's murder, there was no semen in her vagina and that she was not strangled manually, but by ligature. Forensic pathologist Michael Baden observed that DeSalvo also got the time of death wrong — a common inconsistency with several of the murders pointed out by Susan Kelly. Whitfield Sharp continues to work on the case for the DeSalvo family. In the case of Mary Sullivan, murdered January 4, 1964 at age 19, DNA and other forensic evidence were used by Casey Sherman to try to track down her presumed real killer. Sherman wrote about this in his book A Rose for Mary (2003), and stated that DeSalvo was not responsible for her death. For example, DeSalvo confessed to sexually penetrating Sullivan, yet the forensic investigation revealed no evidence of sexual activity. There are also suggestions from DeSalvo himself that he was covering up for another man, the real killer. The film The Boston Strangler starred Tony Curtis as Albert DeSalvo. Henry Fonda co-starred.

1000+ images about Albert DeSalvo on Pinterest | Albert desalvo, Boston and Dna Learn more at the-line-up.com A.K.A.: "The Boston Strangler" Classification: Serial killer Characteristics: Rape Number of victims: 0 - 13 Date of murders: June 1962 - January 1964 Date of arrest: November 1964 Date of birth: September 3, 1931 Victims profile: Anna Slesers, 55 / Mary Mullen, 85 / Nina Nichols, 68 / Helen Blake, 65 / Ida Irga, 75 / Jane Sullivan, 67 / Sophie Clark, 20 / Patricia Bissette, 23 / Mary Brown, 69 /Beverly Samans, 23 / Evelyn Corbin, 58 / Joann Graff, 23 /Mary Sullivan, 19 Method of murder… More 1000+ images about The Boston Strangler on Pinterest | Albert desalvo, Boston and In prison Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas The Boston Strangler Albert De Salvo confessed to being the Boston Strangler

,raping and killing 13 women in Boston in 1963-64.

Although he confessed he was never charged or tried for any of the murders and doubt still hangs over his guilt.One thing for sure the killings stopped when he was caught. 53 Pins60 Followers

Question: By what name was the serial killer Albert DeSalvo, who killed 13 women between 1962 and 1964, better known?
Answer: The Boston Strangler