Boston Strangler Victims

Between June 14, 1962, and January 4, 1964, at least 13 women were killed in the Greater Boston area in a series of murders that came to be attributed to a single offender the press dubbed the "Boston Strangler." The victims ranged in age from 19 to 85 and were generally attacked in their own apartments; most were sexually assaulted and strangled, frequently with articles of their own clothing left knotted around the neck. The first known victim was 55-year-old Anna Slesers, found on June 14, 1962, and the last widely counted victim was 19-year-old Mary Sullivan, killed on January 4, 1964, in her Charles Street apartment.

The killings generated one of the largest manhunts in Massachusetts history, and the state assembled a special "Strangler Bureau" to coordinate the investigation. Investigators were never certain that a single person was responsible: the victims varied widely in age and circumstance, and the methods differed enough that some detectives and later analysts believed more than one killer may have been involved. No one was ever charged with the stranglings during the years the cases were actively worked, and much of the physical evidence predated modern forensic techniques.

The case became linked to Albert DeSalvo, who was in custody on unrelated sexual-assault charges connected to the "Green Man" and "Measuring Man" offenses. While held, DeSalvo confessed in detail to being the Boston Strangler, initially to a fellow inmate and then to authorities through his attorney, F. Lee Bailey. His account included details that drew attention, but it also contained errors, and skeptics noted that some information could have come from press coverage or from investigators. His confession was never used to try him for the murders; a judge ruled it inadmissible, and DeSalvo was instead convicted and sentenced to life in 1967 for the earlier sexual offenses. He later recanted. DeSalvo was never tried for any of the stranglings and was stabbed to death in the Walpole State Prison infirmary in 1973; his killing was never solved.

For decades DeSalvo's guilt remained disputed. Former FBI profiler John Douglas and others questioned whether one man committed all the crimes, and some victims' families and researchers argued that the confession was unreliable. A partial resolution came in July 2013, when Massachusetts authorities announced that DNA recovered from the scene of Mary Sullivan's murder produced a familial match to DeSalvo through a relative. Investigators then exhumed DeSalvo's remains, and testing of the recovered DNA was reported as a definitive match, which officials said established that DeSalvo raped and killed Sullivan.

The 2013 DNA evidence directly ties DeSalvo to only one of the 13 deaths. The other cases were not resolved by that testing, and questions remain about whether DeSalvo was responsible for all, some, or none of the remaining murders, and whether one or more other offenders were involved. As a result, the Boston Strangler killings are best described as partially solved: forensically confirmed in the Sullivan case, but still uncertain as to the other victims.