DeSalvo, Albert (1931-1973), was an American criminal who confessed to being the serial killer known as the “Boston Strangler.” A serial killer is someone who murders two or more victims in separate events. The Boston Strangler was responsible for the murders of 13 women in Boston from 1962 to 1964.
DeSalvo was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, on Sept. 3, 1931. His father was known as an abusive man. At an early age, Albert himself showed a strong tendency towards sadism (taking pleasure in causing pain to other people or animals).
As a young man, DeSalvo served in the United States Army in Germany. Upon his return to the United States in 1956, he began to commit a series of sexual crimes that earned him the title “Measuring Man.” He posed as a representative from a modeling agency. When a woman answered his knock at the door, DeSalvo complimented her figure, suggested she could become a model, and asked if he could take her measurements. While taking the measurements, he improperly touched the women. He was caught and convicted of an unrelated burglary charge in 1961. DeSalvo was sentenced to serve two years in prison, but he was paroled in less than a year.
After being released from prison, DeSalvo developed a new method of committing crimes. As the “Green Man,” he dressed in green work clothes to impersonate a repairman. He raped women whom he found alone at home.
At the same time that he was committing crimes as the Green Man, DeSalvo was also killing women as the Boston Strangler. The first murder victims were older women whom he raped and strangled. He left a nylon stocking tied in a bow or some other form of decoration around each woman’s neck. After several such murders, he began to choose younger victims. The last woman DeSalvo assaulted was a young married woman. He broke into her home, abused her, apologized, and left. This incident, which the victim survived, led to his arrest in November 1964.
While in jail awaiting trial for the rapes, DeSalvo con fided to another inmate that he was the Boston Strangler. The inmate informed his attorney, who then took on DeSalvo as his client. During the trial for the Green Man sexual assault crimes, the attorney used DeSalvo’s confession to argue that DeSalvo was not guilty by reason of insanity. Nevertheless, DeSalvo was found guilty of the sexual assault crimes and sentenced to life in prison.
Although DeSalvo gave detailed confessions to the authorities about the Boston Strangler murders, he was never charged with those crimes. His family questioned the validity of the confession. In addition, forensic experts (legal experts who study evidence) found inconsistencies between DeSalvo’s confession and the evidence in the various cases. DeSalvo was found dead on Nov. 26, 1973, after being stabbed by another prisoner.
In 2012, investigators with the Boston Police Department reopened the Boston Strangler case. They sent samples of DNA found on the body and in the home of the Boston Strangler’s last murder victim to two private laboratories for analysis. DNA contains genetic material that is unique to every individual. The laboratories were able to provide a DNA profile from the samples for an unknown male.
The investigators later exhumed (dug up) DeSalvo’s body and had DNA extracted from his teeth and bones. DeSalvo’s DNA matched that taken from the last victim and the crime scene. Nearly 50 years after the Boston Strangler murders, the detectives determined that DeSalvo was responsible for the killing of at least one of the Boston Strangler’s victims.
