Albert DeSalvo

Dr. Ames Robey

One of the key issues that Kelly addresses – with mixed success – is the accuracy of the voluminous confession and its myriad of details, some of which were correct and some of which were not. How did Albert DeSalvo, a man of average or less than average intelligence convincingly absorb so many, many details about the victims and their apartments if he was not the Strangler?

Kelly points out that Albert had an exceptional memory. Dr. Robey testified that he had "absolute, complete, one hundred per percent total photographic recall." One of his lawyers. Jon Asgeirsson noted that "Albert had a phenomenal memory. Another of his lawyers, Tom Troy agreed, "It was remarkable."

Robey cites an example of how he tested Albert’s ability to make instantaneous mental carbon copies of people, places, things: "We had a staff meeting [at Bridgewater] with about eight people. Albert walked in and walked out. The next day we had him brought back in. Everyone had on different clothes, was sitting in different positions. I said, "Albert, you remember coming in yesterday? Describe it."

Albert did, perfectly.

She also cites a number of sources of information available to Albert to learn what he did about the crimes:

The newspaper accounts were extraordinarily detailed. The Record American printed up a chart, along with the victims’ photos, called "The Facts: On Reporters’ Strangle Worksheet." This chart was a summary of all the important details of each crime, what victims were wearing, their hobbies, affiliations, etc. Kelly says, "That DeSalvo had memorized this chart is apparent because in his confession to John Bottomly, he regurgitated not only the correct data on it but the few pieces of misinformation it contained as well.

Leaks by law enforcement agencies, particularly the Strangler Bureau, which was criticized for being lax with its accumulated material, and the Suffolk County Medical Examiner, who allegedly held a number of unauthorized press conferences in which he freely distributed information about the victim autopsies.

Albert’s own research as a burglar put him in many of the apartment buildings in which women were murdered. He knew the layouts of the apartments and, according to Kelly, had visited each apartment after the murder.

Information deliberately and inadvertently fed to him by people anxious to wrap up the investigation, such as John Bottomly who, according to Kelly, "did knowingly and quite intentionally provide Albert with information about the murders –while he was taking the latter’s confession to them…which explains why the only version of it [the confession] ever made public were abbreviated and heavily doctored. The full version virtually exonerates DeSalvo."

Possible information provided by another suspect who could have coached DeSalvo on the details. Police speculated that George Nassar could have been one such source of information.

Finally, experts never saw the stranglings as the work of one individual. The modi operandi were not identical and the victims as a group were quite dissimilar. Kelly summarizes some of the more obvious differences:

No similarity whatsoever exists between the relatively delicate killing of Patricia Bissette, whose murderer tucked her into bed, and the ghastly homicidal violation inflicted on Mary Sullivan, whose killer’s intent was not just to degrade his victim by shoving a broom handle into her vagina but to taunt the discoverer of her corpse by placing a greeting card against her foot. Beverly Samans was stabbed but not sexually assaulted; Joann Graff was raped vaginally and strangled. Evelyn Corbin had performed – probably under duress – oral sex on her killer. Jane Sullivan was dumped facedown to rot in a bathtub. Ida Irga was left in the living room with her legs spread out and propped up on a chair.

Serial killers tend to select and stick with a particular kind of victim. For example, Jack the Ripper picked prostitutes; Ted Bundy picked pretty, longhaired young girls; Jeff Dahmer young boys, etc. The strangling victims represent a wide disparity in age and attractiveness and race which flies in the face of serial killer profiling expertise. A very likely explanation is that some of the crimes were committed by one individual, especially the murders of Ida Irga, Jane Sullivan and Helen Blake.

And what about Mary Mullen, the elderly woman who died of a heart attack? Kelly says that this may be the only killing of which DeSalvo is guilty. He probably burglarized her apartment and she died of fright. Did the same Albert DeSalvo who carried his unintended victim over to her couch and fled without stealing anything savage the bodies of Ida Irga and Jane Sullivan?

The Mary Brown affair raised some interesting questions. She had been raped, strangled and beaten to death in Lawrence in early March of 1963. Albert’s confession to this crime was very sketchy and many of the details were incorrect. Perhaps, Albert had been told about this crime from the Bridgewater inmate who was really responsible. Kelly says Mary Brown lived on the same street as the man that George Nassar shot to death in 1948.

Once the Commonwealth was satisfied that DeSalvo was the Strangler, very sticky legal issues had to be resolved before any trial could be held. Basically, DeSalvo’s confession was inadmissible as evidence.

Bailey put it this way to Brooke and Bottomly: "When I met Albert, there were enough indictments pending against him to pretty much ensure that he’d never be walking the streets again. Now, I’ve helped him disclose that he’s committed multiple murder, it’s a certainty he’ll never be released. Show me some way to avoid the risk of execution — I’ll run the risk of conviction, but not execution – and you can have anything you want. I know damn well that neither of you really wants to see him killed. Tell me, is that asking too much?"

Brooke didn’t think Bailey was asking for too much, but he wanted to think about it some more. At this point he was a solid candidate for the Senate and they agreed that it would be a mistake to have the DeSalvo trial in the midst of the campaign. At least Bailey could get a ruling on whether DeSalvo was mentally competent to stand trial. And despite the objections of Dr. Robey, DeSalvo was found competent to stand trial.

Finally on January 10, 1967, Albert DeSalvo was tried on the Green Man charges. Bailey explained that "the basic strategy by which I hoped to convince a jury to find Albert not guilty by reason of insanity was simple: I would attempt to use the thirteen murders he had committed as the Boston Strangler to show the extent of his insanity. To do this, I would try to get both his confession and its corroboration by police into evidence…Certainly the problem was unusual: I wanted the right to defend a man for robbery and assault by proving that he had committed thirteen murders."

Donald L. Conn led the prosecution team, F. Lee Bailey the defense in Judge Cornelius Moynihan’s court. Conn called four Green Man victims with very similar stories. DeSalvo would either jimmy the door or con his way in to the apartment verbally. He would tie the woman, strip her and fondle her breasts, demand fellatio or cunnilingus, but stopped short of rape. He used a knife or toy gun to ensure cooperation. After he was done, he took money and jewelry from the victims. Bailey did not cross-examine the witnesses because he felt he had nothing to gain by doing so.

Bailey said in his opening statement that he had no doubts that DeSalvo committed the crimes as charged and the only "issue was whether the Commonwealth could prove that he was not insane at the time." Bailey brought forth his expert witnesses to testify to Albert’s paranoid schizophrenia. They said that while Albert knew what he was doing was wrong, "his Green Man crimes were the result of an irresistible impulse."

Conn pointed out that the non-sexual aspects of the crimes – jimmying the locks, lying to gain entrance and the theft of valuables – were not a result of irresistible impulse. The psychiatrist agreed that only the sexual assaults were.

The jury thought about it for four hours, found DeSalvo guilty on all counts and sentenced him to life in prison. The psychiatric help he wanted was denied.

Bailey was very angry: "My goal was to see the Strangler wind up in a hospital, where doctors could try to find out what made him kill. Society is deprived of a study that might help deter other mass killers who lived among us, waiting for the trigger to go off inside them."

Albert DeSalvo showing off his hand-crafted choker necklaces with earrings and bracelet in prison

Albert dancing in the prison

Albert DeSalvo was serving out his life sentence at Walpole State Prison, now called MCI-Cedar Junction, when he was stabbed to death in the infirmary in November of 1973. The night before he was murdered, he telephoned Dr. Ames Robey and asked him to meet with him urgently. DeSalvo was very frightened. Robey promised to meet with him the next morning, but Albert was murdered that night.

Albert had asked one other person to meet with him and Robey – a reporter. Robey explained," He was going to tell us who the Boston Strangler really was, and what the whole thing was about. He had asked to be placed in the infirmary under special lockup about a week before. Something was going on within the prison, and I think he felt he had to talk quickly. There were people in the prison, including guards, that were not happy with him…Somebody had to leave an awful lot of doors open, which meant, because there were several guards one would have to go by, there had to be a fair number of people paid or asked to turn their backs or something. But somebody put a knife into Albert DeSalvo’s heart sometime between evening check and the morning."

Officials believed that Albert’s death was related to his involvement in a prison drug operation. Three men were tried, but twice the trials ended in hung juries.

Albert wrote this poem a few years before his death:

Here is the story of the Strangler, yet untold,
The man who claims he murdered thirteen women,
young and old.
The elusive Strangler, there he goes,
Where his wanderlust sends him, no one knows
He struck within the light of day,
Leaving not one clue astray.
Young and old, their lips are sealed,
Their secret of death never revealed.
Even though he is sick in mind,
He’s much too clever for the police to find.
To reveal his secret will bring him fame,
But burden his family with unwanted shame.
Today he sits in a prison cell,
Deep inside only a secret he can tell.
People everywhere are still in doubt,
Is the Strangler in prison or roaming about?