Boston Strangler Film Out Friday: 5 Little-Known Facts About Real Case

BOSTON, MA —Though the story of the Boston Strangler will hit the big screen Friday in a film starring industry heavyweights like Keira Knightley and Chris Cooper, the gritty details of the real-life case are far from Hollywood fiction.

The Hulu film chronicles the heroism of Loretta McLaughlin, the journalist who fought doubt and sexism to expose the crimes of the man who killed 13 women in Boston in the 1960s. The case was a historic whodunnit that ignited fear in women all throughout Boston as years passed, attacks continued, and no perpetrator was brought to justice.

Albert DeSalvo, the man posthumously identified as the Boston Strangler, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a series of rapes in 1967 and killed in prison in 1973, thus beginning a long period of mystery surrounding a case with staggeringly local ties that only had closure within the last decade.

Before you watch Hollywood's latest take on the story, here are 5 lesser-known facts about the real-life horrors of the Boston Strangler's terror on the city.

The Measuring Man

According to Crime Museum, Albert DeSalvo had a different nickname and a different mode of operation a couple of years before his most infamous string of attacks began. Known then as the "Measuring Man," a late-twenties DeSalvo would go door-to-door, claiming to be a modeling agency talent scout and asking young women for their measurements. If they agreed, he would "fondle the women as he took their measurements," the museum said.

The Family Man

Once an army man who was discharged for disobeying orders, DeSalvo settled down and married a German woman, with whom he had two children, according to Biography. DeSalvo was known as a conscientious man who was able to support his family, including his child with special needs, Biography reported.

Prison Escape, Prison Death

Though he was never convicted of the murders due to a lack of evidence at the time, DeSalvo was sentenced to life in prison in January 1967 after being convicted on charges of sexual assault. He escaped just one month later with two fellow inmates from Bridgewater State Hospital, according to Biography. He was recaptured in a clothing store in Lynn the next day and sent to maximum-security Walpole State Prison, where he was stabbed to death by another inmate in November 1973.

The Confession

While imprisoned at a state mental hospital, DeSalvo confessed to the Boston murders, but authorities found his confession to be suspicious because he "demonstrated ignorance of many aspects of the crimes," according to Britannica. Some believed that the information he gave that only the actual killer could have known was based on statements by police—and several victims who survived said they did not believe he was their attacker, according to Britannica.

Water Bottle Of Closure

After nearly 50 years of mystery, police finally got the DNA evidence they needed to bring closure to the murders when they recovered a water bottle from a construction site with DNA from DeSalvo's nephew, ABC News reported in 2013.

The DNA was linked to DNA evidence found on the body of the Boston Strangler's final victim, Mary Sullivan. The court then ordered the exhumation of DeSalvo’s body, after which they were able to confirm that DeSalvo was the man who killed and raped Sullivan, according to the Crime Museum.

Background

The string of murders began in 1962, when Anna E. Slessers was found dead in her Gainsborough Street apartment. Police found a grotesque scene, with Slessers body posed lewdly on the bathroom floor. She had been sexually assaulted with an object and then strangled with her bathrobe’s belt. The belt had been tied in a bow.

Soon more murders followed, some with accompanying sexual assaults, some with the bodies placed in disgusting poses, and all with some sort of strangling. As the bodies mounted and some details made it to the press, Boston became aware it had a serial killer on its hands. The Boston Sunday Herald was the first to give him his name, calling the killer “the Mad Strangler of Boston.”

There were initially 11 cases connected to the Boston Strangler, and two more connected years later. The ages of the victims spanned from 19 to 85. While most of the killings occurred in Boston, others happened in Lynn, Salem and Lawrence.

'Boston Strangler' is set to premiere March 17 on Hulu.