The Evil Within - A Top Murder Squad Detective Reveals The Chilling True Stories of The World's Most Notorious Killers (14 page)

Between 14 June 1962 and 4 January 1964, 13 single and respectable women in the Boston area were victims of either a single serial killer or possibly several killers. At least 11 of these murders were attributed to the killer who came to be known as the Boston Strangler. Of these 11, six of the victims were between the ages of 55 and 75. Two possible additional victims were 85 and 69 years of age. The remaining five victims were considerably younger, ranging in age from 19 to 23. All of these women were murdered in their apartments; they all had been sexually assaulted and were strangled with articles of their own clothing. There were no signs of forced entry and either the women knew their assailant or had been confident enough to let him in.

The dates of the murders are as follows:

14 June 1962: Anna E. Slesers, 55, was found dead in her apartment by her son. She was lying naked in the bathroom with the cord from her robe around her neck. She had been sexually assaulted.

30 June 1962: 68-year-old Nina Nichols was found murdered in her apartment at 1940 Commonwealth Avenue in the Brighton area of Boston. She was found with her legs spread wide open,
and her housecoat and slip pulled up to her waist. Two of her own nylon stockings were tied tightly around her neck in a bow. She too had been sexually assaulted; blood had been found in her vagina. The time of death was estimated to be around 5pm. The apartment looked as if it had been burgled; every drawer had been pulled open, and possessions lay scattered on the floor. The killer had gone through her address book and her post for some unknown reason, although later it was determined that nothing had been taken. Later that same day, Helen Blake met a similar death sometime between 8pm and 10pm. The 65-
year-old
divorcée had been strangled with one of her nylons. Her brassiere had been looped around her neck, over the stockings, and tied in a bow. Both her vagina and anus had been lacerated, but there was no trace of semen. She was found lying face down and naked on her bed, with her legs spread wide apart. Her apartment had also been thoroughly ransacked. It appeared as though two rings that she was wearing had been pulled from her fingers and taken. The killer had also tried unsuccessfully to open a metal strongbox and a footlocker.

19 August: 75-year-old Ida Irga, a very shy and retiring widow, fell victim to the Strangler. She was found two days later in her apartment at 7 Grove Avenue in Boston’s West End. As with the other deaths, there was no sign of forced entry. She was found lying on her back on the living-room floor wearing a light brown nightdress, which was torn, completely exposing her body. There was a white pillowcase knotted tightly around her neck. Her legs were spread approximately 5ft from heel to heel, her feet were propped up on individual chairs and a standard bed pillow was placed under her buttocks, in what was described as an obstetrical position, and she had died of manual strangulation. Dried blood covered her head, mouth and ears. She, too, had been sexually assaulted but again there was no trace of semen.

20 August 1962: a 67-year-old nurse named Jane Sullivan was found murdered in her apartment at 435 Columbia Road in
Dorchester, across town from where Ida lived. She had apparently been dead for some 10 days before she was found. Police found her on her knees in her bath with her feet up over the back of the bath and her head underneath the taps. She too had been strangled with her own nylons. It was difficult to tell whether she had been sexually assaulted, due to the decomposition of the body. However, there were bloodstains on the handle of a broom, leading officers to believe this may have been inserted into her vagina. There was no sign of forced entry to the property, nor was the apartment ransacked.

5 December 1962: Sophie Clark, a 21-year-old student at the Carnegie Institute of Medical Technology, was found by her two room-mates in the apartment they shared at 315 Huntington Avenue in the Back Bay area, a short distance from Anna Slesers’s apartment (the first victim). Sophie was found naked; her legs were also spread wide apart. She had been strangled with three of her nylon stockings, which had been knotted and tied very tightly around her neck. Her half-slip had also been tied around her neck. There was evidence of sexual assault and this time the police found traces of semen on the rug near her body. There was no sign of a forcible entry, but Sophie had been very
security-conscious
and had insisted on having a second lock on the apartment door. She was so cautious that she even questioned friends who came to the door before she let them in. Despite this, her killer had somehow convinced her to let him in. There were signs that she had put up a fight with the killer. Her time of death was calculated as 2.30pm. This crime left the police puzzled – there were marked differences between Sophie’s murder and the others. Sophie was young; all the previous victims had been elderly. Semen had been found this time but none had been found at any of the previous murders. Was this the same killer? Or was there a copycat killer at work? Police questioned another female resident living in the same building who mentioned that at around 2.20pm a man had knocked on her door and said that the building superintendent had sent him to see about painting her
apartment. He then told her that he’d have to fix her bathroom ceiling and complimented her on her figure. He asked her if she had ever thought of modelling. When she put her finger to her lips, the man became angry. His character seemed to change completely. She told him her husband was sleeping in the next room. The man then stated that he had got the wrong apartment and left. She described him as between 25 and 30 years old, of average height and with honey-coloured hair, wearing a dark jacket and dark green trousers. Was this Sophie’s killer? It was quite probable, as the building superintendent had not sent a workman to any part of the building and this coincided with the time that Sophie Clark was murdered.

31 December 1962: 23-year-old Patricia Bissette, a secretary for a Boston engineering firm, was found dead. She had failed to turn up for work and her boss went to look for her. Her apartment was locked, so he climbed through a window into the apartment. He found her lying face up in bed with the covers drawn up to her chin; it looked as if she was asleep. When he pulled the covers back he could see that she had several stockings knotted and interwoven with a blouse tied tightly around her neck. There was evidence of recent sexual intercourse and it was later revealed that she was in an early stage of pregnancy. There had been some damage to her rectum. The killer had made a search of her apartment.

8 May 1963: Beverly Samans, a pretty 23-year-old student, missed her Wednesday night choir practice at the Second Unitarian Church in Back Bay. Her friend went to her apartment and opened it with the key she had given to him. On opening the door, the friend saw Beverly lying directly in front of him on a sofa bed, her legs spread apart. Her hands had been tied behind her with one of her scarves. A nylon stocking and two handkerchiefs tied together were tied and knotted around her neck. A cloth had been placed over her mouth. Under it, a second cloth had been stuffed into her mouth. It appeared that Beverly had been strangled, but she had, in fact, been killed by the four
stab wounds to her throat. She had sustained 22 stab wounds in all, 18 of which were in a bull’s-eye design on her left breast. The ligature around her neck was like a necktie and was not tied tightly enough to strangle her. A bloody knife was found in her kitchen sink. She had not been raped either by man or by object, nor was any semen present in her body. It was estimated that she had been dead approximately 48–72 hours and had probably been killed between late Sunday evening and Monday morning.

8 September 1963: Evelyn Corbin, a pretty 58-year-old divorcée, was found murdered. She had been strangled with two of her nylon stockings. She lay across the bed, face up and naked. Her knickers had been stuffed into her mouth as a gag. Around the bed were lipstick-marked tissues that had traces of semen on them, and semen was also found in her mouth but not in her vagina.

25 November 1963: 23-year-old Joann Graff was raped and murdered in her apartment. Two nylon stockings had been tied in an elaborate bow around her neck. There were teeth marks on her breast. The outside of her vagina was bloody and lacerated. At 3.25pm, a tenant living above her had heard footsteps in the hall. His wife had been concerned that someone had been sneaking around, so he went to the door and listened. When he heard a knock on the door of the apartment opposite his, he opened his door to find a man of about 27 with pomaded hair, dressed in dark green slacks and a dark shirt and jacket. ‘Does Joan Graff live here?’ he asked, mispronouncing Joann’s name. The tenant told him that Joann lived on the floor below. Moments later, he heard the door open and shut on the floor beneath him and assumed that Joann had let the man into her apartment. Ten minutes later, a friend telephoned Joann, but there was no answer. The morning before Joann’s death, in the apartment down the hall from Joann’s, a woman had heard someone outside her door. Then she saw a piece of paper being slipped under her door. She watched, mesmerised, as it was moved from side to side soundlessly. Then suddenly the paper vanished and she heard footsteps. The description of this man
was similar to the one who had been seen and spoken to in the apartment block where Sophie Clark was found murdered on 5 December 1962.

4 January 1964: Two young women came home after work to their apartment. They were horrified to find their new roommate, 19-year-old Mary Sullivan, murdered in the most grotesque and shocking fashion. Like the other victims, she had been strangled: first with a dark stocking; over the stocking a pink silk scarf tied with a huge bow under her chin; and over that, another pink-and-white flowered scarf. A ‘Happy New Year’ card had been placed against her feet. She had been left in a sitting position on the bed, with her back against the headboard. Thick liquid that looked like semen was dripping from her mouth onto her exposed breasts. A broomstick handle had been inserted almost 4in into her vagina.

Despite all the murders, police had no evidence or any clues as to the identity of the killer or killers and a Strangler taskforce was formed. Its enquiries revealed a series of strange sexual offences that had occurred in the same area some two years previously. These offences had been committed by a man who would knock on the doors of apartments occupied by young, attractive women. He would tell them he was from a modelling agency and ask if they were interested in becoming models. He would then ask if he could take their measurements. He then left each time, telling them that someone from the agency would be in touch. All the details were, of course, false. Police subsequently arrested a man for these offences – Albert DeSalvo, who was 29 at the time. He was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment and was released two months before the first murder in 1962.

In November 1964, DeSalvo was arrested again on a more serious charge relating to an offence that had taken place on 27 October, when a woman who was in her bed suddenly found a man in her room holding a knife. The man had put the knife to her throat and threatened to kill her if she made a sound. He
stuffed her underwear in her mouth and tied her in a spreadeagle position to the bedposts with her clothes. He kissed her and fondled her, then apologised before fleeing. Police arrested DeSalvo and the woman later identified him on an identity parade. DeSalvo was released on bail. His photo and details were circulated to other police forces and soon calls came in from Connecticut where police were seeking a male sexual predator they called the Green Man, because he wore green work trousers. This offender had assaulted four women in one day in different towns in Connecticut.

DeSalvo was arrested yet again at his home and in front of his wife, who told him to confess to whatever he had been responsible for. It appeared that DeSalvo heeded her advice and, when interviewed, admitted to breaking into 400 apartments and a couple of rapes. He had allegedly assaulted some 300 women in a four-state area. The police were also aware of DeSalvo’s tendency to exaggerate and tell lies. This was borne out by the police not having the reported crimes to corroborate his admissions. They attributed this to the fact that a lot of the women had not reported the crimes.

DeSalvo was detained at the state medical hospital for mental assessment. At the hospital, he was put in the same ward as another murderer, George Nasr, with whom he became close friends.

In March 1965, DeSalvo confessed to his lawyer that he was responsible for all 11 of the strangulation murders, in addition to two other deaths of women who had apparently died of heart failure before he could strangle them. It would appear that while in custody he had realised that he was likely to spend many years in prison. He had been thinking about his wife’s future and her financial security and considered the financial rewards that his story could bring. DeSalvo and Nasr got together and discussed the reward the police were offering for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer. They discussed the possibility of DeSalvo admitting to the stranglings; Nasr would tell the
police about DeSalvo and then they would split the reward money between them. DeSalvo believed that he would not receive the death penalty, so the plan was agreed. DeSalvo contacted his lawyer and made the confessions to him.

DeSalvo’s lawyer was unsure what to do with the confession his client had given him. His priority was to satisfy himself that DeSalvo had actually committed the murders. He obtained some information about the murders from the police that only the killer would have known about. He went to visit DeSalvo a second time on 6 March 1965. DeSalvo mentioned that a detective had come to take his palm print the day before. His lawyer knew that he had to work fast if he was going to be able to protect his client, so he recorded a lengthy interview with DeSalvo. After hearing the confession in great detail, he believed that DeSalvo was the killer. The lawyer then went to the police and played the tape to them with the voice disguised. This was in an attempt to plea-bargain to avoid DeSalvo receiving the death penalty. Finally, this was agreed and DeSalvo made a full confession to the police. However, many people connected to the police and to DeSalvo still had their doubts. Some of the evidence did not point to DeSalvo. Cigarette butts had been found at some of the crime scenes, yet DeSalvo did not smoke. The witness descriptions of the workman seen and spoken to did not match DeSalvo.