CLOSING THE CASE OF THE BOSTON STRANGLER. The Boston Strangler was a presence in the Boston area while I was living there, comprising part of daily life for young women and those who knew them. This wikipedia article says that there were 13 murders in all, committed from 1962 to 1964. Albert DeSalvo confessed to the crimes, and was held in jail after 1964, but the wikipedia article has a section captioned “Doubts”, which summarizes the views of those who did not agree that DeSalvo had committed the crimes. Now, as this USA Today article recounts, police have taken DNA from a nephew of Alfred DeSalvo and produced a match with DNA from one of the crime scenes “that excluded 99.9 percent of suspects.”
I was walking in Cambridge with a friend one day in the late 60’s. He said that there was something strange going on and asked if I had noticed anything strange as well. I said that I had, but couldn’t put a finger on it. He said that he had finally realized that there were policemen everywhere, and that it must be connected to the escape of the Boston Strangler (which we all knew about). This would have been in February 1967 when the wikipedia article says that DeSalvo escaped for a short time from Bridgewater State Hospital.