1 00:00:01,917 --> 00:00:03,292 [dramatic music] 2 00:00:03,292 --> 00:00:06,167 - Tonight, a series of shocking murders 3 00:00:06,167 --> 00:00:08,333 terrorizes the city of Boston. 4 00:00:08,333 --> 00:00:11,958 - Each victim is found strangled to death in their home 5 00:00:11,958 --> 00:00:15,500 with a telltale bow around their neck. 6 00:00:15,500 --> 00:00:17,625 - All of these victims are women. 7 00:00:17,625 --> 00:00:18,833 They live alone. 8 00:00:18,833 --> 00:00:20,917 - Almost immediately, the suspect in this case 9 00:00:20,917 --> 00:00:23,375 was named the Boston Strangler. 10 00:00:23,375 --> 00:00:25,917 - Law enforcement is under enormous pressure 11 00:00:25,917 --> 00:00:28,625 to find and stop this predator. 12 00:00:28,625 --> 00:00:32,375 - This is one of the biggest manhunts in history. 13 00:00:32,375 --> 00:00:35,375 - 13 victims over nearly two years, 14 00:00:35,375 --> 00:00:37,917 he seems to be killing for sport. 15 00:00:37,917 --> 00:00:40,292 - It almost seems like the Boston Strangler 16 00:00:40,292 --> 00:00:43,375 is taunting law enforcement and the people of Boston. 17 00:00:43,375 --> 00:00:45,625 - Now, we uncover the top theories 18 00:00:45,625 --> 00:00:49,833 surrounding one of history's most notorious serial killers. 19 00:00:49,833 --> 00:00:52,958 - They're looking at the usual suspects of mental patients, 20 00:00:52,958 --> 00:00:55,292 people arrested for sex offenses. 21 00:00:55,292 --> 00:00:58,958 - The Boston police have made zero headway in this case. 22 00:00:58,958 --> 00:01:01,792 Boston goes from being scared to being angry. 23 00:01:01,792 --> 00:01:04,250 - Ultimately, the Strangler is still out there, 24 00:01:04,250 --> 00:01:08,208 potentially ready to terrorize and murder more women. 25 00:01:08,208 --> 00:01:11,208 - Who is the Boston Strangler? 26 00:01:11,208 --> 00:01:13,500 [mysterious music] 27 00:01:25,125 --> 00:01:27,417 [pensive music] 28 00:01:29,667 --> 00:01:32,333 - [Laurence] On a June evening in 1962, 29 00:01:32,333 --> 00:01:34,875 in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, 30 00:01:34,875 --> 00:01:37,583 a young man named Juris Slesers 31 00:01:37,583 --> 00:01:40,042 shows up at his mother's apartment. 32 00:01:40,042 --> 00:01:42,917 - Anna Slesers is a 55-year-old divorcee. 33 00:01:42,917 --> 00:01:44,583 On this Sunday, as usual, 34 00:01:44,583 --> 00:01:47,042 her son swings by to pick her up for church. 35 00:01:47,042 --> 00:01:49,375 But he stays at the door for 45 minutes, 36 00:01:49,375 --> 00:01:52,292 knocking and waiting, and she doesn't come out. 37 00:01:52,292 --> 00:01:54,542 - She's someone who rarely misses church. 38 00:01:54,542 --> 00:01:56,708 She is also someone though that does suffer 39 00:01:56,708 --> 00:01:58,208 from bouts of depression, 40 00:01:58,208 --> 00:02:01,875 so Juris decides to finally knock the door down 41 00:02:01,875 --> 00:02:03,750 to go inside. 42 00:02:03,750 --> 00:02:05,833 Inside the house, Juris is met with a sight 43 00:02:05,833 --> 00:02:10,208 that no child ever wants to see of their parent. 44 00:02:10,208 --> 00:02:11,375 - [Natalia] His mom is lying there 45 00:02:11,375 --> 00:02:12,917 on the floor by the bathroom 46 00:02:12,917 --> 00:02:15,708 with the belt of her bathrobe wrapped around her neck. 47 00:02:15,708 --> 00:02:17,292 She's ice cold. 48 00:02:17,292 --> 00:02:20,708 He calls the cops and he says, "My mother hanged herself." 49 00:02:20,708 --> 00:02:22,875 - He assumed that she had committed suicide 50 00:02:22,875 --> 00:02:25,333 because she'd been struggling with depression, 51 00:02:25,333 --> 00:02:30,042 but police immediately felt like something was off. 52 00:02:30,042 --> 00:02:31,958 - [Natalia] There are fresh baked muffins on the table. 53 00:02:31,958 --> 00:02:33,458 There's a kettle on the stove. 54 00:02:33,458 --> 00:02:36,292 This does not look like the scene of a suicide. 55 00:02:36,292 --> 00:02:37,667 Something else is going on. 56 00:02:39,333 --> 00:02:42,375 - Anna has been sexually assaulted, 57 00:02:42,375 --> 00:02:46,042 and the cord from the robe tied around her neck 58 00:02:46,042 --> 00:02:48,042 is tied in a bow. 59 00:02:48,042 --> 00:02:50,083 This is not the work of a suicide. 60 00:02:50,083 --> 00:02:51,375 This is a murder. 61 00:02:52,542 --> 00:02:54,750 - [Laurence] The crime scene yields no evidence. 62 00:02:54,750 --> 00:02:56,458 There are no fingerprints 63 00:02:56,458 --> 00:03:00,750 and the neighbors didn't see or hear anything suspicious. 64 00:03:00,750 --> 00:03:02,292 More than two weeks go by 65 00:03:02,292 --> 00:03:04,708 without any advances in the case, 66 00:03:04,708 --> 00:03:07,667 but the killer is just getting started. 67 00:03:09,667 --> 00:03:11,708 - [Austin] Boston is sweltering. 68 00:03:11,708 --> 00:03:14,583 Retired psychotherapist Nina Nichols 69 00:03:14,583 --> 00:03:16,375 needs to escape the heat from her apartment, 70 00:03:16,375 --> 00:03:20,292 so she decides to spend the afternoon shopping. 71 00:03:20,292 --> 00:03:22,167 - [Sami] She comes back to her apartment at 5:00 PM 72 00:03:22,167 --> 00:03:25,125 and she starts getting ready to go to dinner 73 00:03:25,125 --> 00:03:26,333 at her sister's house. 74 00:03:26,333 --> 00:03:28,667 By 7:30 PM, Nina still has not shown up 75 00:03:28,667 --> 00:03:30,542 to her sister's home for dinner. 76 00:03:30,542 --> 00:03:33,583 The sister begins wondering, and goes to the apartment, 77 00:03:33,583 --> 00:03:36,375 and starts knocking on the door but gets no answer. 78 00:03:36,375 --> 00:03:38,375 So she gets a janitor from the building 79 00:03:38,375 --> 00:03:41,292 to open up the apartment with a master key. 80 00:03:41,292 --> 00:03:44,250 - The janitor is shocked at what he finds. 81 00:03:44,250 --> 00:03:47,625 Nina's in her bedroom, half on/half off the bed, 82 00:03:47,625 --> 00:03:50,750 with a nylon stocking wrapped around her neck. 83 00:03:50,750 --> 00:03:53,250 - Her apartment has been ransacked, 84 00:03:53,250 --> 00:03:56,250 but nothing valuable seems to have been taken. 85 00:03:56,250 --> 00:03:58,667 Nina Nichols' cash is still there. 86 00:03:58,667 --> 00:04:01,792 It doesn't look like this is a matter of a robbery 87 00:04:01,792 --> 00:04:03,875 and there's no sign of forced entry. 88 00:04:03,875 --> 00:04:07,375 So either it's somebody that the victim knew 89 00:04:07,375 --> 00:04:10,292 or someone who talked her into letting him in. 90 00:04:11,500 --> 00:04:13,250 - [Laurence] Detectives note the similarities 91 00:04:13,250 --> 00:04:15,333 between this strangulation killing 92 00:04:15,333 --> 00:04:17,500 and the murder of Anna Slesers. 93 00:04:18,542 --> 00:04:21,417 That same day, 15 miles north of Boston, 94 00:04:21,417 --> 00:04:23,375 in the quiet suburb of Lynn, 95 00:04:24,500 --> 00:04:27,875 yet another older woman is brutally killed. 96 00:04:29,625 --> 00:04:32,542 - Police are called to the crime scene of Helen Blake, 97 00:04:32,542 --> 00:04:35,542 a divorcee who's also been strangled. 98 00:04:35,542 --> 00:04:37,708 - [Mike] She too was found with a nylon 99 00:04:37,708 --> 00:04:40,917 tightly wrapped around her neck and tied in a bow. 100 00:04:40,917 --> 00:04:42,458 They also discovered 101 00:04:42,458 --> 00:04:44,958 that the apartment door wasn't damaged, again indicating 102 00:04:44,958 --> 00:04:48,000 that there had been access to the apartment without force. 103 00:04:49,208 --> 00:04:52,875 - Three murders, two in one day, 104 00:04:52,875 --> 00:04:55,208 same MO for all of 'em. 105 00:04:55,208 --> 00:04:56,708 - [John] Once you have a pattern like this, 106 00:04:56,708 --> 00:04:59,125 there's going to be an immense amount of pressure 107 00:04:59,125 --> 00:05:00,958 on the Boston Police Department. 108 00:05:00,958 --> 00:05:04,042 There's kind of a hysteria that's building up about this. 109 00:05:05,875 --> 00:05:07,458 - Media even goes one step further 110 00:05:07,458 --> 00:05:10,000 by dubbing the killer the Boston Strangler. 111 00:05:11,750 --> 00:05:14,625 - The police are at a total loss. 112 00:05:14,625 --> 00:05:17,708 They have no sign of connection between any of these victims. 113 00:05:17,708 --> 00:05:22,333 This is random crime that can happen at any time. 114 00:05:22,333 --> 00:05:24,375 - Now the public was concerned 115 00:05:24,375 --> 00:05:27,333 that they had a serial killer on their hands 116 00:05:27,333 --> 00:05:29,625 and Boston police weren't moving fast enough 117 00:05:29,625 --> 00:05:32,125 to figure out who this man was. 118 00:05:32,125 --> 00:05:34,500 [tense music] 119 00:05:34,500 --> 00:05:37,708 - [Laurence] Boston Police Commissioner Edmund McNamara 120 00:05:37,708 --> 00:05:41,375 is a veteran officer, but he's new in the top job. 121 00:05:42,542 --> 00:05:44,333 - [Austin] McNamara has to take drastic action. 122 00:05:44,333 --> 00:05:46,708 The city is in a panic. 123 00:05:46,708 --> 00:05:50,708 On July 2nd, he takes the extraordinary action 124 00:05:50,708 --> 00:05:53,708 of assigning every single detective 125 00:05:53,708 --> 00:05:55,167 on the Boston Police Department 126 00:05:55,167 --> 00:05:57,875 to the Boston Strangler case. 127 00:05:57,875 --> 00:05:59,750 - [Reporter] Thousands of women are taking up judo 128 00:05:59,750 --> 00:06:02,167 and YWCA branches throughout the city 129 00:06:02,167 --> 00:06:05,125 are increasing their classes to deal with the new demand. 130 00:06:05,125 --> 00:06:07,208 - [Sami] People all over Boston start taking steps 131 00:06:07,208 --> 00:06:08,708 to protect themselves. 132 00:06:08,708 --> 00:06:11,583 More dogs are adopted at that time for added protection. 133 00:06:11,583 --> 00:06:14,292 The sale of deadbolts and extra locks on the doors 134 00:06:14,292 --> 00:06:15,875 go up significantly. 135 00:06:15,875 --> 00:06:17,750 People are afraid. 136 00:06:19,042 --> 00:06:21,125 - [Mike] The Boston Police Department established a hotline 137 00:06:21,125 --> 00:06:24,167 where people could call and offer tips and leads. 138 00:06:24,167 --> 00:06:28,542 And in addition to that, they offered a $5,000 reward 139 00:06:28,542 --> 00:06:30,208 to anyone that could give information 140 00:06:30,208 --> 00:06:33,625 that might lead to the capture of this Boston Strangler. 141 00:06:34,833 --> 00:06:36,625 - [Laurence] But the hotline doesn't yield 142 00:06:36,625 --> 00:06:39,042 any promising leads. 143 00:06:39,042 --> 00:06:42,458 July goes by without any additional murders. 144 00:06:42,458 --> 00:06:46,667 Then in August, a pair of grisly discoveries 145 00:06:46,667 --> 00:06:48,875 reminds the people of Boston 146 00:06:48,875 --> 00:06:51,583 that the Strangler is still among them. 147 00:06:52,417 --> 00:06:53,792 - [Natalia] The fourth victim, 148 00:06:53,792 --> 00:06:56,333 a 75-year-old woman named Ida Irga, 149 00:06:56,333 --> 00:06:57,875 is also discovered dead. 150 00:06:57,875 --> 00:07:00,792 She's lying on the floor, still in her pajamas, 151 00:07:00,792 --> 00:07:03,333 with a pillowcase wrapped around her neck. 152 00:07:03,333 --> 00:07:07,625 The next victim is a 67-year-old nurse named Jane Sullivan. 153 00:07:07,625 --> 00:07:11,208 She's found in her bathtub with her head underwater. 154 00:07:11,208 --> 00:07:13,792 - Jane Sullivan not only had been strangled, 155 00:07:13,792 --> 00:07:17,208 but it took about a week for them to discover her body. 156 00:07:17,208 --> 00:07:19,708 - [John] Now that the death toll has reached five, 157 00:07:19,708 --> 00:07:21,625 fear is turning to anger. 158 00:07:21,625 --> 00:07:25,375 These are all older ladies living alone 159 00:07:25,375 --> 00:07:27,875 who have been killed by some fiend, 160 00:07:27,875 --> 00:07:30,208 and the people of Boston wanna know, 161 00:07:30,208 --> 00:07:33,458 why haven't the Boston Police Department found anyone? 162 00:07:33,458 --> 00:07:35,625 [tense music] 163 00:07:35,625 --> 00:07:38,792 - [Laurence] It is not until the end of 1962 164 00:07:38,792 --> 00:07:42,625 that police finally focus on their first viable suspect. 165 00:07:43,792 --> 00:07:46,542 - [Sami] The police will spend the next six months 166 00:07:46,542 --> 00:07:50,542 rounding up any known sex offenders in the area. 167 00:07:50,542 --> 00:07:53,417 One of those is a man by the name of Arnold Wallace, 168 00:07:53,417 --> 00:07:55,458 who's caught breaking into a tea shop 169 00:07:55,458 --> 00:07:58,042 in the Back Bay neighborhood in Boston. 170 00:07:58,042 --> 00:08:00,625 - [Laurence] Arnold Wallace is not the real name 171 00:08:00,625 --> 00:08:03,417 of this 26-year-old mental patient 172 00:08:03,417 --> 00:08:04,917 who had recently escaped 173 00:08:05,083 --> 00:08:07,833 from Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. 174 00:08:09,292 --> 00:08:14,583 - He has escaped five times in the last six months, and 175 00:08:14,583 --> 00:08:17,208 all of the murders have taken place 176 00:08:17,208 --> 00:08:19,625 during times when he was out of the hospital. 177 00:08:19,625 --> 00:08:21,917 [tense music] 178 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:26,625 - [Sami] Records show that he once 179 00:08:26,625 --> 00:08:27,875 physically assaulted his mother 180 00:08:27,875 --> 00:08:31,250 and he obsessively talks about sex. 181 00:08:31,250 --> 00:08:32,792 He readily confesses 182 00:08:32,792 --> 00:08:35,625 that he finds older women extremely attractive, 183 00:08:35,625 --> 00:08:39,500 and one of his favorite pastimes is hugging them. 184 00:08:39,500 --> 00:08:42,875 The more Wallace talks, the more that leads investigators 185 00:08:42,875 --> 00:08:46,083 to think that he might be the Boston Strangler. 186 00:08:47,542 --> 00:08:50,667 - Not everyone thinks it's as simple as that. 187 00:08:50,667 --> 00:08:54,958 For one thing, he's clearly not all there mentally. 188 00:08:54,958 --> 00:08:58,500 He seems more goofy than menacing. 189 00:08:58,500 --> 00:09:00,208 Is he the kind of person 190 00:09:00,208 --> 00:09:03,333 that someone's gonna open their door and let in? 191 00:09:03,333 --> 00:09:06,042 Is he the kind of criminal mastermind 192 00:09:06,042 --> 00:09:10,083 who's going to be able to not leave any clues behind 193 00:09:10,083 --> 00:09:13,208 at any of the places where these murders have taken place? 194 00:09:13,208 --> 00:09:14,833 It seems kind of unlikely. 195 00:09:16,167 --> 00:09:17,833 - [Laurence] Many at City Hall 196 00:09:17,833 --> 00:09:20,583 push Commissioner McNamara to arrest Wallace 197 00:09:20,583 --> 00:09:22,042 for the Strangler killings, 198 00:09:23,542 --> 00:09:25,958 but before he does, a call comes in 199 00:09:25,958 --> 00:09:28,042 from Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. 200 00:09:29,583 --> 00:09:30,958 - [Sami] There's a 20-year-old student 201 00:09:30,958 --> 00:09:33,542 at the Carnegie Institute of Medical Technology 202 00:09:33,542 --> 00:09:38,667 named Sophie Clark, who is also found dead by strangulation. 203 00:09:38,667 --> 00:09:40,417 There are nylons that are used 204 00:09:40,417 --> 00:09:42,708 to strangle her around her neck, and then they're tied 205 00:09:42,708 --> 00:09:44,208 into that distinctive bow that's become 206 00:09:44,208 --> 00:09:46,792 sort of the trademark of the Boston Strangler. 207 00:09:46,792 --> 00:09:50,292 However, while the other victims are older white women, 208 00:09:50,292 --> 00:09:54,083 Sophie Clark is a 20-year-old and she's Black. 209 00:09:55,792 --> 00:09:57,750 - So investigators are confused. 210 00:09:57,750 --> 00:10:00,708 She doesn't fit the bill, and these kind of serial killers 211 00:10:00,708 --> 00:10:04,708 rarely deviate from their particular ideal kind of victim. 212 00:10:04,708 --> 00:10:06,875 - [John] The idea that a serial killer 213 00:10:06,875 --> 00:10:09,583 is going to go after five victims 214 00:10:09,583 --> 00:10:11,083 in their 50s or older, 215 00:10:11,083 --> 00:10:13,583 and then suddenly switch to a 20-year-old, 216 00:10:13,583 --> 00:10:15,042 it seems unlikely. 217 00:10:15,042 --> 00:10:17,750 But at this point, the police are kind of desperate 218 00:10:17,750 --> 00:10:19,167 over the Boston Strangler. 219 00:10:23,625 --> 00:10:25,708 - December 1962, police believe they finally have 220 00:10:25,708 --> 00:10:29,000 the Boston Strangler under lock and key, 221 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:32,708 a mental patient known by the pseudonym Arnold Wallace. 222 00:10:32,708 --> 00:10:34,875 But while Wallace is in custody, 223 00:10:34,875 --> 00:10:37,000 there's yet another killing. 224 00:10:38,125 --> 00:10:40,542 - Patricia Bissette is a 23-year-old secretary 225 00:10:40,542 --> 00:10:43,083 who was gonna get a ride to work from her boss. 226 00:10:43,083 --> 00:10:46,708 Her boss shows up, doesn't get an answer at the door. 227 00:10:47,875 --> 00:10:50,000 - [Laurence] Bissette's boss goes back to work. 228 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:52,625 But when Bissette doesn't show up at the office, 229 00:10:52,625 --> 00:10:54,750 he returns to her apartment. 230 00:10:54,750 --> 00:10:56,750 - [Matthew] He contacts the janitor, 231 00:10:56,750 --> 00:10:59,000 asking for a stepladder to climb into the window. 232 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:01,958 - He crawls into her apartment window 233 00:11:01,958 --> 00:11:05,042 and discovers her sprawled out on her bed, 234 00:11:05,042 --> 00:11:07,042 but the covers are pulled up to her neck. 235 00:11:07,042 --> 00:11:09,792 And when the covers are pulled down, 236 00:11:09,792 --> 00:11:13,875 she has been strangled with four pieces of clothing. 237 00:11:13,875 --> 00:11:15,583 You now have seven women 238 00:11:15,583 --> 00:11:17,875 who have been murdered in less than a year, 239 00:11:17,875 --> 00:11:20,958 and still, investigators do not have 240 00:11:20,958 --> 00:11:23,333 any real leads in this case. 241 00:11:24,333 --> 00:11:26,917 - The residents of Boston are no longer sure 242 00:11:26,917 --> 00:11:29,042 if there's just one Boston Strangler out there 243 00:11:29,042 --> 00:11:30,792 or if there's a copycat killer 244 00:11:30,792 --> 00:11:32,792 that's not just targeting older women 245 00:11:32,792 --> 00:11:34,042 but younger ones as well. 246 00:11:36,833 --> 00:11:38,625 - [Laurence] In an effort to calm the city, 247 00:11:38,625 --> 00:11:40,792 Chief McNamara promises to explore 248 00:11:40,792 --> 00:11:43,208 every possible tip or lead. 249 00:11:44,417 --> 00:11:46,125 But that promise is tested 250 00:11:46,125 --> 00:11:49,917 when a man named Paul Gordon calls the hotline. 251 00:11:49,917 --> 00:11:55,292 - Paul Gordon is a local copywriter/clairvoyant/psychic. 252 00:11:55,292 --> 00:11:57,542 He comes to the police saying he's got important evidence 253 00:11:57,542 --> 00:11:59,792 that he knows who committed these crimes. 254 00:12:01,125 --> 00:12:04,500 - [Catherine] He says that he has these visions of the killing 255 00:12:04,500 --> 00:12:06,083 and what the killer looks like. 256 00:12:07,542 --> 00:12:09,333 They bring him into the station, 257 00:12:09,333 --> 00:12:12,000 and other officers recognize him 258 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:14,167 because he's come into the station before 259 00:12:14,167 --> 00:12:17,750 saying he has information about various other cases. 260 00:12:17,750 --> 00:12:19,458 They never took him seriously. 261 00:12:19,458 --> 00:12:22,208 But right now, they're taking him very seriously 262 00:12:22,208 --> 00:12:25,375 because he starts describing the killer 263 00:12:25,375 --> 00:12:28,083 as somebody with bony knuckles, 264 00:12:28,083 --> 00:12:32,458 and he has this one curl that comes down his forehead. 265 00:12:32,458 --> 00:12:33,833 And they're shocked 266 00:12:33,958 --> 00:12:38,875 because this matches Arnold Wallace's description. 267 00:12:38,875 --> 00:12:41,542 - He is describing Arnold Wallace to a T. 268 00:12:41,542 --> 00:12:42,750 So they show him some photographs 269 00:12:42,750 --> 00:12:44,875 and he picks Wallace out of the photographs. 270 00:12:46,458 --> 00:12:49,458 - [Laurence] Gordon is taken to Bridgewater State Hospital 271 00:12:49,458 --> 00:12:51,458 to ID Wallace. 272 00:12:51,458 --> 00:12:54,042 - And not only does he say, "Well, that's the guy there," 273 00:12:54,042 --> 00:12:55,583 but Arnold Wallace IDs him. 274 00:12:55,583 --> 00:12:57,542 He says, "Hey, how you doing, buddy?" 275 00:12:57,542 --> 00:13:00,333 They met before, which is crazy. 276 00:13:00,333 --> 00:13:02,292 - Detectives learn that Paul Gordon 277 00:13:02,292 --> 00:13:04,542 has actually gone to the hospital 278 00:13:04,542 --> 00:13:08,250 to visit Arnold Wallace in March, 279 00:13:08,250 --> 00:13:12,375 long before Gordon got involved in this case. 280 00:13:12,375 --> 00:13:14,292 - Some in the department begin to suspect 281 00:13:14,292 --> 00:13:16,167 that Gordon's trying to pin the murders 282 00:13:16,167 --> 00:13:18,500 on this innocent, mentally challenged man 283 00:13:18,500 --> 00:13:20,167 because he's the murderer. 284 00:13:20,167 --> 00:13:22,208 [tense music] 285 00:13:25,125 --> 00:13:27,417 As the police continue to question Gordon, 286 00:13:27,417 --> 00:13:29,000 their suspicion grows. 287 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:31,500 He just knows so many details about these murders. 288 00:13:33,042 --> 00:13:36,375 - He starts giving descriptions of entryways, and doorways, 289 00:13:36,375 --> 00:13:39,917 and furnishings, and colors of fixtures. 290 00:13:39,917 --> 00:13:44,042 Some of these things haven't been reported on. 291 00:13:44,042 --> 00:13:45,875 Some of these things haven't even been marked down 292 00:13:45,875 --> 00:13:47,458 in police reports. 293 00:13:49,208 --> 00:13:50,667 - [Laurence] There's a growing belief 294 00:13:50,667 --> 00:13:52,417 that Gordon's psychic visions 295 00:13:52,417 --> 00:13:55,333 are actually the confessions of a killer 296 00:13:55,333 --> 00:13:56,458 begging to be caught. 297 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:00,167 - When investigators looked into Gordon's background, 298 00:14:00,167 --> 00:14:01,750 they don't find anything suspicious, 299 00:14:01,750 --> 00:14:04,167 except for the times that he's come to the police station 300 00:14:04,167 --> 00:14:06,542 in an attempt to try to aid police officers 301 00:14:06,542 --> 00:14:07,958 who are working on cases. 302 00:14:09,208 --> 00:14:11,583 - [Laurence] That doesn't mean Gordon's innocent. 303 00:14:11,583 --> 00:14:14,750 Police are eager to learn if he knows more details 304 00:14:14,750 --> 00:14:17,083 that might give him away as the Strangler. 305 00:14:18,542 --> 00:14:21,750 - Police decided that they were gonna interrogate Gordon 306 00:14:21,750 --> 00:14:23,750 under a use of a drug 307 00:14:23,750 --> 00:14:25,375 that they were using back in those days 308 00:14:25,375 --> 00:14:29,125 called sodium pentothal, or the truth serum. 309 00:14:29,125 --> 00:14:32,625 - For six and a half hours, investigators questioned Gordon. 310 00:14:32,625 --> 00:14:35,708 All the while, psychologists are watching Gordon 311 00:14:35,708 --> 00:14:38,333 to determine if he's actually telling the truth or not. 312 00:14:38,333 --> 00:14:40,583 Gordon stands by his story the entire time. 313 00:14:40,583 --> 00:14:43,958 He says that he has nothing to do with the murders at all. 314 00:14:43,958 --> 00:14:46,333 Psychiatrists believe that Gordon is telling the truth, 315 00:14:46,333 --> 00:14:49,083 that he's not the Boston Strangler. 316 00:14:49,083 --> 00:14:51,458 - Gordon has no real history of violence. 317 00:14:51,458 --> 00:14:54,333 He doesn't really seem to be the perpetrator. 318 00:14:54,333 --> 00:14:56,458 Maybe he really believes he's a psychic, 319 00:14:56,458 --> 00:14:58,333 but in the end, the police decide 320 00:14:58,333 --> 00:15:00,875 that he doesn't seem to be the Boston Strangler. 321 00:15:02,042 --> 00:15:04,667 - It's been six months since the first murder. 322 00:15:04,667 --> 00:15:08,375 Every single lead, every single suspect that the police get 323 00:15:08,375 --> 00:15:10,125 are dead ends. 324 00:15:10,125 --> 00:15:11,917 They're no closer to solving this 325 00:15:11,917 --> 00:15:14,542 than they were after the first murder. 326 00:15:14,542 --> 00:15:18,708 No woman is safe in the city of Boston. 327 00:15:18,708 --> 00:15:22,333 Everyone is furious and terrified at the same time. 328 00:15:26,417 --> 00:15:28,375 - [Laurence] By the spring of 1963, 329 00:15:28,375 --> 00:15:32,042 there have been seven victims in the Boston Strangler case. 330 00:15:32,042 --> 00:15:33,500 On May 6th, 331 00:15:33,500 --> 00:15:36,875 a discovery just a few blocks from Harvard Square 332 00:15:36,875 --> 00:15:39,250 raises the death toll to eight 333 00:15:39,250 --> 00:15:42,875 when a 23-year-old graduate student is found dead 334 00:15:42,875 --> 00:15:44,875 in her apartment. 335 00:15:44,875 --> 00:15:47,875 - Beverly Samans is another victim of the Boston Strangler, 336 00:15:47,875 --> 00:15:50,708 also sexually assaulted, but she's one of the few 337 00:15:50,708 --> 00:15:55,000 that is a victim of violence beyond strangulation. 338 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:57,167 She's stabbed 22 times. 339 00:15:58,542 --> 00:16:01,167 - [Laurence] Four days later in New York City, 340 00:16:01,167 --> 00:16:04,542 200 miles from the Boston Strangler's home turf, 341 00:16:04,542 --> 00:16:07,708 a wealthy divorcee meets a violent end 342 00:16:07,708 --> 00:16:09,208 in a Times Square hotel. 343 00:16:11,042 --> 00:16:13,417 - A woman in her 60s, Zenoria Clegg, 344 00:16:13,417 --> 00:16:16,375 who's described as very frail and thin, 345 00:16:16,375 --> 00:16:19,875 who wears a scarf around her neck to hide cancer scars, 346 00:16:19,875 --> 00:16:23,042 is seen at a hotel bar hanging out with a guy 347 00:16:23,042 --> 00:16:26,167 who's super tall and about half her age. 348 00:16:26,167 --> 00:16:29,042 Because they're such an odd couple, everyone notices them. 349 00:16:30,208 --> 00:16:32,458 - This unlikely duo spends the afternoon 350 00:16:32,458 --> 00:16:36,292 getting drunk at the bar and then they go up to her room. 351 00:16:36,292 --> 00:16:40,542 Her body is discovered in the room two days later. 352 00:16:40,542 --> 00:16:43,292 - She's been beaten, she's been sexually assaulted, 353 00:16:43,292 --> 00:16:46,292 and she's had a scarf tied around her neck, 354 00:16:46,292 --> 00:16:48,417 and she's been strangled to death. 355 00:16:48,417 --> 00:16:51,250 - The officer who arrives to investigate 356 00:16:51,250 --> 00:16:54,625 is New York Police Department Detective Thomas Cavanagh. 357 00:16:55,792 --> 00:16:58,208 - [Laurence] Smooth talking and intelligent, 358 00:16:58,208 --> 00:17:02,083 Cavanagh is the inspiration for the TV detective "Kojak." 359 00:17:03,375 --> 00:17:06,333 - Cavanagh, as he's going through the evidence, 360 00:17:06,333 --> 00:17:10,458 immediately concludes this is really, really similar 361 00:17:10,458 --> 00:17:13,625 to the modus operandi of the Boston Strangler. 362 00:17:13,625 --> 00:17:15,500 - [Laurence] Cavanagh questions witnesses 363 00:17:15,500 --> 00:17:19,042 who saw the odd couple at the hotel bar. 364 00:17:19,042 --> 00:17:20,250 - It turns out that the man 365 00:17:20,250 --> 00:17:21,542 that was with Zenoria Clegg that night 366 00:17:21,542 --> 00:17:24,917 was actually a regular at that bar in the hotel. 367 00:17:24,917 --> 00:17:26,458 He's a 34-year-old New York native 368 00:17:26,458 --> 00:17:28,375 by the name of Charles Edward Terry. 369 00:17:29,375 --> 00:17:31,292 - [John] Seven days after the murder, 370 00:17:31,292 --> 00:17:34,708 Terry is tracked to a bar in Greenwich Village, 371 00:17:34,708 --> 00:17:37,208 and Cavanagh has him taken in for questioning. 372 00:17:37,208 --> 00:17:39,875 Terry almost immediately confesses 373 00:17:39,875 --> 00:17:41,667 to the murder of Zenoria Clegg. 374 00:17:42,875 --> 00:17:44,625 - He met Clegg at the bar. 375 00:17:44,625 --> 00:17:47,083 They went upstairs for a sexual encounter. 376 00:17:47,083 --> 00:17:50,292 He said that Clegg then humiliated him, 377 00:17:50,292 --> 00:17:55,083 and in a rage, he strangles her with her own scarf. 378 00:17:55,083 --> 00:17:56,542 - [John] It turns out Terry 379 00:17:56,542 --> 00:17:59,125 has his own share of run-ins with the law. 380 00:17:59,125 --> 00:18:01,708 He was in prison for rape in Maine. 381 00:18:01,708 --> 00:18:05,417 And in December 1962, police look at him 382 00:18:05,417 --> 00:18:09,375 as a possible suspect in the strangling of a stewardess 383 00:18:09,375 --> 00:18:11,333 in New Orleans, Louisiana. 384 00:18:11,333 --> 00:18:12,833 - So Detective Cavanagh 385 00:18:12,833 --> 00:18:14,583 contacts the Boston Police Department, and he's like, 386 00:18:14,583 --> 00:18:17,833 "Hey, we got a guy here for strangling murder. 387 00:18:17,833 --> 00:18:20,458 We think he could be the guy that you're looking for." 388 00:18:20,458 --> 00:18:22,583 [tense music] 389 00:18:24,958 --> 00:18:28,208 Detectives come down to New York, they talk to him, 390 00:18:28,208 --> 00:18:30,167 and they do kind of a half-ass job. 391 00:18:30,167 --> 00:18:32,792 - [Laurence] Terry denies he was ever in Boston 392 00:18:32,792 --> 00:18:35,708 and the Boston police reject him as a suspect. 393 00:18:35,708 --> 00:18:39,833 Critics contend they feared being shown up by Cavanagh. 394 00:18:41,417 --> 00:18:44,750 - It would look kind of bad for the Boston Police Department 395 00:18:44,750 --> 00:18:48,250 if this case that they've been working on for months now 396 00:18:48,250 --> 00:18:51,500 is immediately cracked open 397 00:18:51,500 --> 00:18:54,292 by some slick New York police detective. 398 00:18:55,292 --> 00:18:57,208 - [Natalia] Charles Edward Terry is arrested 399 00:18:57,208 --> 00:18:59,167 for the killing of Zenoria Clegg. 400 00:18:59,167 --> 00:19:00,625 But just 'cause the Boston police 401 00:19:00,625 --> 00:19:02,042 don't wanna pursue him 402 00:19:02,042 --> 00:19:04,167 doesn't mean he's not the Boston Strangler. 403 00:19:04,167 --> 00:19:06,833 Cavanagh is not gonna let this slide so easily. 404 00:19:08,375 --> 00:19:11,042 - [Laurence] Cavanagh assembles a crew of veteran detectives 405 00:19:11,042 --> 00:19:15,208 who go to Boston and conduct their own investigation. 406 00:19:15,208 --> 00:19:18,125 - They find out that at one point in time, 407 00:19:18,125 --> 00:19:22,542 Terry stayed at two rooming houses in Boston, 408 00:19:22,542 --> 00:19:25,375 very nearby two of the stranglings. 409 00:19:25,375 --> 00:19:27,500 - They start talking to witnesses, 410 00:19:27,500 --> 00:19:31,333 until the Boston PD gets wind of what Cavanagh's up to, 411 00:19:31,333 --> 00:19:34,875 and they tell him to go back to New York City. 412 00:19:34,875 --> 00:19:36,625 - [Matalia] Cavanagh considers going to the press 413 00:19:36,625 --> 00:19:39,458 and badmouthing the Boston Police Department. 414 00:19:39,458 --> 00:19:43,083 But while Terry is awaiting sentencing in prison 415 00:19:43,083 --> 00:19:44,583 for the Times Square killing, 416 00:19:44,583 --> 00:19:46,500 the Boston Strangler strikes again. 417 00:19:47,458 --> 00:19:50,708 - [Laurence] September 8th, 1963, 418 00:19:50,708 --> 00:19:54,042 it's a Sunday morning in Salem, Massachusetts. 419 00:19:54,042 --> 00:19:58,125 58-year-old Evelyn Corbin has just come home from church, 420 00:19:58,125 --> 00:20:00,042 with plans to join her neighbor 421 00:20:00,042 --> 00:20:01,708 down the hallway for breakfast. 422 00:20:03,083 --> 00:20:05,083 - Evelyn Corbin never shows up 423 00:20:05,083 --> 00:20:06,667 to her friend's apartment for breakfast, 424 00:20:06,667 --> 00:20:10,500 so the friend goes down, uses a spare key to open the door. 425 00:20:10,500 --> 00:20:14,708 And Evelyn is found lying on her back, face up, 426 00:20:14,708 --> 00:20:18,833 with two stockings tied around her neck. 427 00:20:18,833 --> 00:20:23,375 - This is well over a year since the first murder. 428 00:20:23,375 --> 00:20:26,500 The public is outraged. 429 00:20:26,500 --> 00:20:28,917 - [Sami] Boston residents once again are on edge 430 00:20:28,917 --> 00:20:31,708 because the Strangler is still out there. 431 00:20:35,792 --> 00:20:38,750 - November 1963, it's been a year and a half 432 00:20:38,750 --> 00:20:41,375 since the Boston Strangler first struck. 433 00:20:41,375 --> 00:20:44,042 Nine women have been savagely murdered in their homes, 434 00:20:44,042 --> 00:20:46,750 and investigators are still at a loss. 435 00:20:46,750 --> 00:20:48,500 Police don't know how the Strangler 436 00:20:48,500 --> 00:20:50,542 gets into his victim's homes. 437 00:20:50,542 --> 00:20:53,667 They don't know if there are copycat killers at work. 438 00:20:53,667 --> 00:20:56,500 All they know is that they're being outsmarted. 439 00:20:57,875 --> 00:21:00,875 - Boston PD still has no solutions. 440 00:21:00,875 --> 00:21:02,875 They go ahead and they double the reward money. 441 00:21:02,875 --> 00:21:06,250 It's $10,000 now per victim, 442 00:21:06,250 --> 00:21:09,375 $1 million in today's dollar value. 443 00:21:09,375 --> 00:21:12,042 It's a huge sum of money. 444 00:21:12,042 --> 00:21:13,583 And with huge sums of money 445 00:21:13,583 --> 00:21:17,208 come huge, unintended consequences. 446 00:21:17,208 --> 00:21:22,500 The plan to double the reward backfires on the Boston PD. 447 00:21:22,500 --> 00:21:24,708 - They were bombarded with all this information, 448 00:21:24,708 --> 00:21:26,625 people calling into the police station 449 00:21:26,625 --> 00:21:30,125 alleging friends, and neighbors, and family, 450 00:21:30,125 --> 00:21:32,708 ex-wives implicating their ex-husbands. 451 00:21:32,708 --> 00:21:34,625 It just bogged down the investigation 452 00:21:34,625 --> 00:21:36,208 and just further confused 453 00:21:36,208 --> 00:21:38,375 who is really a viable suspect here. 454 00:21:39,833 --> 00:21:42,042 - [Laurence] The hotline and the increased reward money 455 00:21:42,042 --> 00:21:44,208 get a lot of media attention, 456 00:21:44,208 --> 00:21:47,417 but do nothing to stop the killer from striking again. 457 00:21:48,625 --> 00:21:52,833 In late November 1963, 23-year-old designer 458 00:21:52,833 --> 00:21:55,708 and Sunday school teacher Joann Graff 459 00:21:55,708 --> 00:21:58,292 is found strangled to death in her home 460 00:21:58,292 --> 00:22:00,667 just 30 miles north of Boston. 461 00:22:01,583 --> 00:22:03,167 A little more than a month later, 462 00:22:03,167 --> 00:22:07,667 the Strangler kills again in the heart of the city. 463 00:22:07,667 --> 00:22:10,208 - Mary Sullivan, 19-year-old, 464 00:22:10,208 --> 00:22:13,167 her first day living in Boston. 465 00:22:13,167 --> 00:22:14,750 She doesn't make it to day two. 466 00:22:14,750 --> 00:22:19,083 She's found the day after she moved in strangled to death. 467 00:22:19,083 --> 00:22:21,000 Like all the others, 468 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,708 the same signature knot, the Strangler's knot, 469 00:22:23,708 --> 00:22:26,875 is around her neck, fashioned into a bow. 470 00:22:26,875 --> 00:22:30,833 - In between Mary Sullivan's toes is a New Year's card, 471 00:22:31,917 --> 00:22:34,167 as if the murderer is being cheeky 472 00:22:34,167 --> 00:22:35,417 with the police department, 473 00:22:35,417 --> 00:22:38,000 like, "You can't catch me. Happy New Year." 474 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:41,542 - [Laurence] Two weeks after Mary Sullivan's murder, 475 00:22:41,542 --> 00:22:44,250 Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke 476 00:22:44,250 --> 00:22:45,667 takes over the case 477 00:22:45,667 --> 00:22:47,833 from Boston's floundering police chief. 478 00:22:57,167 --> 00:22:59,708 - Now we have the attorney general inserting himself 479 00:22:59,708 --> 00:23:02,292 from a state level into a city jurisdiction 480 00:23:02,292 --> 00:23:04,417 to bring this situation to a close. 481 00:23:04,417 --> 00:23:06,625 He's an African-American attorney general 482 00:23:06,625 --> 00:23:09,333 in a mostly Caucasian environment, that being Boston. 483 00:23:09,333 --> 00:23:13,125 But the bigger conversation was not just the AG coming in, 484 00:23:13,125 --> 00:23:14,875 but who he brought in with him. 485 00:23:15,958 --> 00:23:18,250 - [Matthew] Brooke assigns the case 486 00:23:18,250 --> 00:23:20,542 to his good friend from law school, 487 00:23:20,542 --> 00:23:23,667 Assistant US Attorney John Bottomly. 488 00:23:23,667 --> 00:23:27,833 - Bottomly's first act is to collect all pieces of evidence, 489 00:23:27,833 --> 00:23:30,625 every police report, and he starts to collate them 490 00:23:30,625 --> 00:23:31,958 into a new machine. 491 00:23:31,958 --> 00:23:35,292 He's bringing computer science into policing 492 00:23:35,292 --> 00:23:37,500 for maybe the first time ever. 493 00:23:38,542 --> 00:23:40,167 - [Laurence] This allows everyone working on 494 00:23:40,167 --> 00:23:43,125 the Strangler case to share all the available 495 00:23:43,125 --> 00:23:46,167 information and evidence. 496 00:23:46,167 --> 00:23:47,625 - While Bottomly's doing that, 497 00:23:47,625 --> 00:23:50,375 Brooke sets about assembling a task force. 498 00:23:50,375 --> 00:23:55,542 It's experts in psychiatry, in forensics, in police work, 499 00:23:55,542 --> 00:23:58,042 and it's people from outside of Boston. 500 00:23:58,042 --> 00:24:00,125 And you can imagine how the Boston Police Department 501 00:24:00,125 --> 00:24:01,917 might have felt about that. 502 00:24:01,917 --> 00:24:04,042 - This is very unpopular among the police. 503 00:24:04,042 --> 00:24:07,375 To them, it really looks like a slap in the face. 504 00:24:07,375 --> 00:24:09,042 While we have this fight going on 505 00:24:09,042 --> 00:24:12,750 between the special task force and the Boston PD, 506 00:24:12,750 --> 00:24:17,208 a smaller task force is looking into a rash of rapes 507 00:24:17,208 --> 00:24:22,167 in the Boston area in which the victims are not killed. 508 00:24:22,167 --> 00:24:24,625 - [Laurence] Victims report that a man came to their door 509 00:24:24,625 --> 00:24:26,792 dressed in green work clothes, 510 00:24:26,792 --> 00:24:30,208 claiming to be a handyman sent by the landlord. 511 00:24:30,208 --> 00:24:33,875 - In the most recent attack, a woman lets in a man 512 00:24:33,875 --> 00:24:36,375 who says he's there to fix a leaky pipe. 513 00:24:36,375 --> 00:24:39,583 He sexually assaults the woman and then flees. 514 00:24:40,708 --> 00:24:44,542 A few days later, this same man apparently 515 00:24:44,542 --> 00:24:46,417 knocks on the door of this apartment, 516 00:24:46,417 --> 00:24:48,208 but the woman refuses to let him in. 517 00:24:48,208 --> 00:24:50,208 He eventually storms off, 518 00:24:50,208 --> 00:24:51,708 but over the course of this, 519 00:24:51,708 --> 00:24:55,042 he is seen by about a half dozen different witnesses. 520 00:24:55,958 --> 00:24:57,375 - [Sami] The man is quickly identified 521 00:24:57,375 --> 00:25:00,208 as 33-year-old Albert DeSalvo. 522 00:25:00,208 --> 00:25:01,625 Police arrest him 523 00:25:01,625 --> 00:25:03,750 and take him to the station for questioning. 524 00:25:03,750 --> 00:25:06,583 - [John] He's first sent to Bridgewater State Hospital 525 00:25:06,583 --> 00:25:08,833 for a psychiatric evaluation. 526 00:25:08,833 --> 00:25:11,042 The more the police look into him, 527 00:25:11,042 --> 00:25:13,875 the more it looks like he could be the killer. 528 00:25:15,708 --> 00:25:17,417 - [Steven] Mr. DeSalvo was found to have 529 00:25:17,417 --> 00:25:18,708 a very, very long rap sheet, 530 00:25:18,708 --> 00:25:21,542 hundreds of crimes from a very young age 531 00:25:21,542 --> 00:25:24,542 that all centered on sexual deviancy. 532 00:25:24,542 --> 00:25:26,750 [tense music] 533 00:25:29,208 --> 00:25:33,875 - He was viciously assaulted by his father multiple times. 534 00:25:33,875 --> 00:25:37,750 He claims he saw his father break his mother's fingers. 535 00:25:37,750 --> 00:25:39,458 He claims his father would 536 00:25:39,458 --> 00:25:41,542 frequently bring home prostitutes 537 00:25:41,542 --> 00:25:44,708 and have sex with them in front of him. 538 00:25:44,708 --> 00:25:47,875 This is a traumatized man. 539 00:25:47,875 --> 00:25:50,625 And to the psychiatrist, to the investigators, 540 00:25:50,625 --> 00:25:53,125 this could be a person who could mature 541 00:25:53,125 --> 00:25:54,250 into a serial killer. 542 00:25:55,375 --> 00:25:57,583 - [Natalia] In some ways, DeSalvo feels like a perfect fit 543 00:25:57,583 --> 00:25:59,083 to be the Boston Strangler, 544 00:25:59,083 --> 00:26:01,792 but what they can't figure out is why a serial killer 545 00:26:01,792 --> 00:26:04,625 would all of a sudden start leaving his victims alive. 546 00:26:05,875 --> 00:26:07,833 - [Laurence] Bottomly conducts a series of interviews 547 00:26:07,833 --> 00:26:11,083 with DeSalvo, who admits to hundreds of break-ins 548 00:26:11,083 --> 00:26:15,000 and sexual assaults, but denies killing anyone. 549 00:26:16,125 --> 00:26:18,875 - Nothing that he says and nothing that the detectives find 550 00:26:18,875 --> 00:26:20,708 actually links him conclusively 551 00:26:20,708 --> 00:26:23,208 to the Boston Strangler's crimes. 552 00:26:23,208 --> 00:26:26,208 - But curiously, while he's in custody, 553 00:26:26,208 --> 00:26:28,875 no other women are strangled. 554 00:26:28,875 --> 00:26:31,750 - [Laurence] In March of 1966, 555 00:26:31,750 --> 00:26:34,667 Bottomly gets a surprise phone call from a lawyer 556 00:26:34,667 --> 00:26:37,292 claiming to represent Albert DeSalvo. 557 00:26:38,917 --> 00:26:41,208 - The man on the other end of the line is F. Lee Bailey, 558 00:26:41,208 --> 00:26:43,875 who gains notoriety from defending a man 559 00:26:43,875 --> 00:26:45,292 by the name of Sam Sheppard, 560 00:26:45,292 --> 00:26:48,875 who was wrongfully accused of murdering his wife. 561 00:26:48,875 --> 00:26:51,833 - The Sam Sheppard case was very famous. 562 00:26:51,833 --> 00:26:56,167 It inspired a TV series in 1963 called "The Fugitive" 563 00:26:56,167 --> 00:27:00,083 and a movie version of it that came out in the 1990s. 564 00:27:00,083 --> 00:27:03,000 Bailey tells Bottomly that his client 565 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:07,083 is prepared to confess to the Boston Strangler murders. 566 00:27:07,083 --> 00:27:10,250 DeSalvo is willing to do this on one condition, 567 00:27:10,250 --> 00:27:14,458 that none of these confessions can be admitted to trial. 568 00:27:14,458 --> 00:27:16,500 DeSalvo is not going to be convicted 569 00:27:16,500 --> 00:27:19,208 for any of the Boston stranglings. 570 00:27:19,208 --> 00:27:21,542 - [Austin] While Bailey never overtly explains 571 00:27:21,542 --> 00:27:25,875 why DeSalvo would confess to being the Boston Strangler, 572 00:27:25,875 --> 00:27:27,792 Massachusetts at this time 573 00:27:27,792 --> 00:27:31,042 does not have a death penalty for sexual assault 574 00:27:31,042 --> 00:27:34,625 but does have a death penalty for murder. 575 00:27:35,583 --> 00:27:37,250 - [John] Prosecutors conclude they have 576 00:27:37,250 --> 00:27:38,583 more than enough evidence 577 00:27:38,583 --> 00:27:41,542 to send Albert DeSalvo to prison for life, 578 00:27:41,542 --> 00:27:43,750 so they end up taking the agreement. 579 00:27:43,750 --> 00:27:45,292 - I think there's a lot of people 580 00:27:45,292 --> 00:27:48,542 that are gonna sleep better tonight, especially women. 581 00:27:48,542 --> 00:27:52,542 - The prosecutors know that they can close those cases 582 00:27:52,542 --> 00:27:53,875 and they could announce to the public, 583 00:27:53,875 --> 00:27:56,292 "We took a bad man off the streets for life." 584 00:27:58,125 --> 00:28:00,708 - [Laurence] In the summer of 1966, 585 00:28:00,708 --> 00:28:02,208 DeSalvo confesses not only 586 00:28:02,208 --> 00:28:05,167 to the 11 known Boston Strangler murders, 587 00:28:05,167 --> 00:28:08,042 but also two more unsolved killings 588 00:28:08,042 --> 00:28:11,042 not previously linked to the Strangler; 589 00:28:11,042 --> 00:28:15,292 that of 80-year-old Mary Mullen in June of 1962 590 00:28:15,292 --> 00:28:20,208 and 69-year-old Mary Brown in March of '63. 591 00:28:21,500 --> 00:28:26,208 In all, DeSalvo confesses to murdering 13 women. 592 00:28:26,208 --> 00:28:28,375 - Bottomly officially announces to the press 593 00:28:28,375 --> 00:28:30,792 that the Boston Strangler has finally been caught 594 00:28:31,792 --> 00:28:33,917 and the city itself celebrates. 595 00:28:33,917 --> 00:28:35,792 The long nightmare is finally over. 596 00:28:36,958 --> 00:28:38,292 - [Laurence] DeSalvo's confession 597 00:28:38,292 --> 00:28:40,042 makes Bottomly a hero, 598 00:28:40,042 --> 00:28:43,917 but some come to doubt the authenticity of that confession. 599 00:28:44,875 --> 00:28:47,750 - Later researchers obtain copies 600 00:28:47,750 --> 00:28:50,542 of Bottomly's interrogations, 601 00:28:50,542 --> 00:28:55,292 and they find he's not the most seasoned interrogator. 602 00:28:55,292 --> 00:28:56,667 - There are parts of the interview, 603 00:28:56,667 --> 00:28:58,375 it seems like Bottomly is showing him 604 00:28:58,375 --> 00:28:59,875 photographs of the crime scene. 605 00:28:59,875 --> 00:29:01,708 It's done with a bunch of leading questions. 606 00:29:01,708 --> 00:29:04,500 When DeSalvo gets answers wrong, 607 00:29:04,500 --> 00:29:07,958 he's asked a question over again to change his answer. 608 00:29:07,958 --> 00:29:10,792 - Relatively quickly, there are some people who doubt 609 00:29:10,792 --> 00:29:12,333 that DeSalvo is the guy. 610 00:29:13,375 --> 00:29:16,375 Ames Robey, a doctor who worked with DeSalvo 611 00:29:16,375 --> 00:29:19,250 at Bridgewater State Hospital, just has his doubts. 612 00:29:19,250 --> 00:29:21,667 He doesn't think DeSalvo fits the profile. 613 00:29:21,667 --> 00:29:23,917 He thinks that DeSalvo just desperately wanted 614 00:29:23,917 --> 00:29:25,875 to be someone famous, someone remembered. 615 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,167 - [Laurence] After nearly five years and 13 murders, 616 00:29:33,167 --> 00:29:36,375 authorities believe they finally have the Boston Strangler 617 00:29:36,375 --> 00:29:38,083 behind bars. 618 00:29:38,083 --> 00:29:40,333 The fact that Albert DeSalvo was arrested 619 00:29:40,333 --> 00:29:43,833 for a separate series of assaults doesn't matter. 620 00:29:43,833 --> 00:29:45,458 As long as he's off the street, 621 00:29:45,458 --> 00:29:47,917 that's good enough for Boston's police force 622 00:29:47,917 --> 00:29:49,417 and its citizens. 623 00:29:51,250 --> 00:29:53,917 - There were two women who say they actually saw 624 00:29:53,917 --> 00:29:55,875 the face of the Boston Strangler. 625 00:29:55,875 --> 00:29:59,042 Those women were brought into the police headquarters 626 00:29:59,042 --> 00:30:03,792 to take part in a lineup of potential suspects. 627 00:30:03,792 --> 00:30:07,708 In that group of suspects was DeSalvo. 628 00:30:07,708 --> 00:30:09,875 - One of 'em, Marcella Lulka, 629 00:30:09,875 --> 00:30:14,125 was a neighbor of victim number six, Sophie Clark. 630 00:30:14,125 --> 00:30:16,750 Marcella claims that she had an encounter 631 00:30:16,750 --> 00:30:21,208 with a man on the same day that Sophie Clark is found dead. 632 00:30:21,208 --> 00:30:23,792 - Marcella Lulka said that that day, 633 00:30:23,792 --> 00:30:25,083 someone knocked at her door. 634 00:30:25,083 --> 00:30:26,542 She went and answered it. 635 00:30:26,542 --> 00:30:27,958 And he says, 636 00:30:27,958 --> 00:30:30,292 "The super sent me here to paint the apartment." 637 00:30:30,292 --> 00:30:32,750 Marcella doesn't have a good feeling about this guy, 638 00:30:32,750 --> 00:30:34,333 and she's like, "You can't come in now. 639 00:30:34,333 --> 00:30:36,083 My husband is asleep in the other room." 640 00:30:36,083 --> 00:30:38,000 And he flees the scene. 641 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,083 - The other woman who joins to look at the lineup 642 00:30:40,083 --> 00:30:41,833 is a woman named Gertrude Gruen, 643 00:30:41,833 --> 00:30:43,958 who says that a man broke into her house 644 00:30:43,958 --> 00:30:45,292 and attempted to attack her, 645 00:30:45,292 --> 00:30:47,458 but she fought him off and he ran away. 646 00:30:47,458 --> 00:30:50,583 - [Mike] Interestingly, the women failed to pick DeSalvo 647 00:30:50,583 --> 00:30:52,042 out of the group of men, 648 00:30:52,042 --> 00:30:56,125 but they did both independently point at one person 649 00:30:56,125 --> 00:30:59,333 as the Boston Strangler, and that person was George Nassar. 650 00:31:01,292 --> 00:31:03,375 - When the police dig into Nassar's past, 651 00:31:03,375 --> 00:31:06,292 they find a checkered history of violent crimes. 652 00:31:06,292 --> 00:31:08,375 [tense music] 653 00:31:11,542 --> 00:31:14,458 - [Matthew] George Nassar is a career criminal, 654 00:31:14,458 --> 00:31:17,458 starting with his first murder at the age of 15. 655 00:31:18,375 --> 00:31:21,375 He went to do a robbery at a store 656 00:31:21,375 --> 00:31:24,542 and he shot the store clerk four times in the chest. 657 00:31:24,542 --> 00:31:27,333 He then is sentenced to 20 years in prison 658 00:31:27,333 --> 00:31:30,083 and he's let out for good behavior after 13. 659 00:31:30,083 --> 00:31:33,500 In 1964, he goes to a gas station, 660 00:31:33,500 --> 00:31:36,708 he puts the gas station attendant to his knees, 661 00:31:36,708 --> 00:31:39,083 and shoots him execution style. 662 00:31:39,083 --> 00:31:41,250 Then he realizes that there's two witnesses; 663 00:31:41,250 --> 00:31:43,542 a young mother and her teenage daughter 664 00:31:43,542 --> 00:31:44,917 were at the gas pumps. 665 00:31:44,917 --> 00:31:46,375 - He then goes toward them, 666 00:31:46,375 --> 00:31:49,500 he fires a couple of shots at their car, 667 00:31:49,500 --> 00:31:50,958 then runs out of bullets. 668 00:31:50,958 --> 00:31:53,000 And he ends up taking off in his own car. 669 00:31:54,375 --> 00:31:56,833 - [Laurence] The testimony of the mother and daughter 670 00:31:56,833 --> 00:31:59,792 puts Nassar behind bars. 671 00:31:59,792 --> 00:32:01,208 - And to add to the mystery, 672 00:32:01,208 --> 00:32:03,417 police, when they look into Nassar's background, 673 00:32:03,417 --> 00:32:07,250 find out that he actually was free and on the streets, 674 00:32:07,250 --> 00:32:10,458 out of prison, during the time of the Boston stranglings, 675 00:32:10,458 --> 00:32:14,417 which made him again a really interesting suspect. 676 00:32:14,417 --> 00:32:17,083 - [Laurence] After Marcella Lulka and Gertrude Gruen 677 00:32:17,083 --> 00:32:19,458 identified Nassar as their assailant, 678 00:32:19,458 --> 00:32:22,417 he's questioned about the Boston Strangler killings. 679 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:25,917 - He was very clear that he knew nothing 680 00:32:25,917 --> 00:32:27,792 about the Boston stranglings. 681 00:32:27,792 --> 00:32:29,333 It was only until later, 682 00:32:29,333 --> 00:32:31,792 when he was speaking with Dr. Robey, 683 00:32:31,792 --> 00:32:33,125 that he revealed the fact 684 00:32:33,125 --> 00:32:35,000 that he had heard about the Boston stranglings 685 00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:37,167 from Albert DeSalvo. 686 00:32:37,167 --> 00:32:39,667 - [Laurence] Dr. Ames Robey knew both Nassar 687 00:32:39,667 --> 00:32:41,417 and DeSalvo from their time 688 00:32:41,417 --> 00:32:45,042 at Bridgewater Hospital for the Criminally Insane. 689 00:32:45,042 --> 00:32:47,875 - [Matthew] Initially, when DeSalvo is a suspect, 690 00:32:47,875 --> 00:32:49,625 Dr. Robey, he didn't agree. 691 00:32:49,625 --> 00:32:53,167 He's like, "He's not a murderer. He doesn't have it in him." 692 00:32:53,167 --> 00:32:56,250 But he did think that Nassar could be the Boston Strangler. 693 00:32:56,250 --> 00:32:58,750 He noticed that on several occasions, 694 00:32:58,750 --> 00:33:01,792 that Nassar and DeSalvo were talking, 695 00:33:01,792 --> 00:33:03,917 in hushed tones, by themselves. 696 00:33:03,917 --> 00:33:05,542 It seemed like Nassar was coaching him 697 00:33:05,542 --> 00:33:07,625 to say certain things in a certain way, 698 00:33:07,625 --> 00:33:09,500 giving him information. 699 00:33:09,500 --> 00:33:11,625 - [AUstin] Robey believes, along with others, 700 00:33:11,625 --> 00:33:17,042 that Nassar shared intimate details of the Strangler crimes 701 00:33:17,042 --> 00:33:20,917 so that DeSalvo would claim that he did it, 702 00:33:20,917 --> 00:33:26,042 looking for glory and fame in being the Boston Strangler. 703 00:33:26,042 --> 00:33:28,292 - [Laurence] The theory goes that Nassar 704 00:33:28,292 --> 00:33:30,958 would turn DeSalvo in for the reward 705 00:33:30,958 --> 00:33:34,958 and split it with DeSalvo to give to his wife and children. 706 00:33:34,958 --> 00:33:36,208 - The two incorrectly assume 707 00:33:36,208 --> 00:33:38,708 that they are eligible for that reward money, 708 00:33:38,708 --> 00:33:42,042 but because they're convicted felons, they are not. 709 00:33:42,042 --> 00:33:43,250 - [Laurence] But there are other ways 710 00:33:43,250 --> 00:33:46,917 to make money off these notorious crimes. 711 00:33:46,917 --> 00:33:49,000 - DeSalvo also knew that there'd be books 712 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:50,667 and movies written about this, 713 00:33:50,667 --> 00:33:52,542 and that he wanted a cut of it. 714 00:33:52,542 --> 00:33:54,875 - [Laurence] It's Nassar who connected DeSalvo 715 00:33:54,875 --> 00:33:58,125 to his defense attorney, F. Lee Bailey. 716 00:33:58,125 --> 00:33:59,625 - [Natalia] Up until Bailey came on the scene, 717 00:33:59,625 --> 00:34:01,708 DeSalvo had been vehemently denying 718 00:34:01,708 --> 00:34:02,792 that he had anything to do 719 00:34:02,792 --> 00:34:04,167 with the Boston Strangler murders. 720 00:34:04,167 --> 00:34:05,458 Then all of a sudden, 721 00:34:05,458 --> 00:34:07,292 Nassar connects him with this new lawyer 722 00:34:07,292 --> 00:34:09,750 and suddenly he's claiming that he committed all of them? 723 00:34:09,750 --> 00:34:11,875 It just seems a little odd. 724 00:34:11,875 --> 00:34:15,333 - [AUstin] When confronted, Nassar denies any involvement 725 00:34:15,333 --> 00:34:17,083 with the Boston Strangler crimes. 726 00:34:17,083 --> 00:34:18,750 He says, "All the information I have 727 00:34:18,750 --> 00:34:22,833 came from my distraught fellow inmate, DeSalvo, 728 00:34:22,833 --> 00:34:25,167 who gave me all the gory details." 729 00:34:26,792 --> 00:34:30,333 - Nassar is hoping for a retrial of his murder conviction. 730 00:34:30,333 --> 00:34:32,083 He knows he's not gonna get that 731 00:34:32,083 --> 00:34:34,792 if he confesses to more murders. 732 00:34:34,792 --> 00:34:37,542 - Police finally decide that the case against DeSalvo 733 00:34:37,542 --> 00:34:39,958 is much stronger than the case against Nassar, 734 00:34:39,958 --> 00:34:41,958 and they kind of let it go. 735 00:34:41,958 --> 00:34:43,208 - Both of them are locked up. 736 00:34:43,208 --> 00:34:44,542 Neither one of them 737 00:34:44,708 --> 00:34:46,208 are gonna see the light of day again in Boston, 738 00:34:46,208 --> 00:34:47,458 and the crime stopped. 739 00:34:51,750 --> 00:34:56,042 - [Laurence] In 1967, Albert DeSalvo is two years 740 00:34:56,042 --> 00:34:58,708 into a life sentence for sexual assault. 741 00:34:58,708 --> 00:35:02,375 And even though police can't pin the murders on DeSalvo, 742 00:35:02,375 --> 00:35:07,083 the Boston Strangler's killing spree appears to be over. 743 00:35:07,083 --> 00:35:08,833 But not for long. 744 00:35:08,833 --> 00:35:11,042 [tense music] 745 00:35:11,042 --> 00:35:12,875 - In July 1967, 746 00:35:12,875 --> 00:35:16,417 a 19-year-old Eastern Michigan University student 747 00:35:16,417 --> 00:35:19,917 is found strangled to death in her apartment. 748 00:35:19,917 --> 00:35:21,417 She was sexually assaulted 749 00:35:21,417 --> 00:35:24,292 and she was strangled with her own clothing. 750 00:35:24,292 --> 00:35:26,500 This bears striking resemblance 751 00:35:26,500 --> 00:35:30,042 to the Boston Strangler murders. 752 00:35:30,042 --> 00:35:31,583 - [Laurence] Over the next two years, 753 00:35:31,583 --> 00:35:34,375 six more young women are raped and murdered 754 00:35:34,375 --> 00:35:37,208 in and around Ypsilanti, Michigan. 755 00:35:37,208 --> 00:35:41,292 All but one have clothing tied around their necks. 756 00:35:41,292 --> 00:35:44,542 - Dr. Ames Robey, who was in charge 757 00:35:44,542 --> 00:35:48,125 of Bridgewater State Mental Institute in Massachusetts, 758 00:35:48,125 --> 00:35:50,042 where does he live now? 759 00:35:50,042 --> 00:35:52,042 He lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan, 760 00:35:52,042 --> 00:35:54,542 and he's the chief forensic psychiatrist 761 00:35:54,542 --> 00:35:56,917 for Ypsilanti State Hospital. 762 00:35:56,917 --> 00:35:59,875 - He is disturbed and unsettled 763 00:35:59,875 --> 00:36:02,875 at how closely these murders 764 00:36:02,875 --> 00:36:05,708 mimic the Boston Strangler murders. 765 00:36:05,708 --> 00:36:08,083 - [Laurence] There are fears that the Boston Strangler 766 00:36:08,083 --> 00:36:11,667 may have moved to Michigan to resume his serial killing. 767 00:36:12,750 --> 00:36:15,208 - [Matthew] One day, Dr. Robey sees an article 768 00:36:15,208 --> 00:36:17,375 about a student protest. 769 00:36:17,375 --> 00:36:19,167 And in that article is a photograph 770 00:36:19,167 --> 00:36:20,875 of these students protesting, 771 00:36:20,875 --> 00:36:22,417 and he recognizes somebody. 772 00:36:23,375 --> 00:36:24,833 - [Laurence] Robey recognizes a man 773 00:36:24,833 --> 00:36:27,750 known by his pseudonym, David Parker, 774 00:36:27,750 --> 00:36:29,458 one of his former mental patients 775 00:36:29,458 --> 00:36:31,708 at Bridgewater State Hospital. 776 00:36:31,708 --> 00:36:34,292 - Dr. Robey, he's like, "This is one of the people 777 00:36:34,292 --> 00:36:37,083 that I actually thought was the Boston Strangler." 778 00:36:37,083 --> 00:36:40,500 - [Catherine] He starts to think, now Parker's in Michigan, 779 00:36:40,500 --> 00:36:42,375 he's been a student at the university 780 00:36:42,375 --> 00:36:44,042 for the last couple of years. 781 00:36:44,042 --> 00:36:46,500 Could he not only have been responsible 782 00:36:46,500 --> 00:36:48,042 for the Boston Strangler murders, 783 00:36:48,042 --> 00:36:50,208 but also these Michigan murders? 784 00:36:50,208 --> 00:36:52,542 [tense music] 785 00:36:56,250 --> 00:36:58,333 - [Austin] Parker planned to build 786 00:36:58,333 --> 00:37:01,542 and detonate a bomb in Boston in 1961, 787 00:37:01,542 --> 00:37:05,708 and his erratic behavior sends him to Bridgewater, 788 00:37:05,708 --> 00:37:09,000 where he's put under the care of Dr. Robey. 789 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:10,375 - [Matthew] He's then arrested 790 00:37:10,375 --> 00:37:12,333 for beating his pregnant wife in Harvard Square. 791 00:37:12,333 --> 00:37:14,375 She says she feared for her life. 792 00:37:14,375 --> 00:37:16,375 He was beating her regularly 793 00:37:16,375 --> 00:37:17,875 that at one time, after strangling her, 794 00:37:17,875 --> 00:37:21,500 he stops and says, "I choose to let you live." 795 00:37:21,500 --> 00:37:24,875 - Parker also expresses a deep hatred 796 00:37:24,875 --> 00:37:27,125 and a deep distrust of women. 797 00:37:27,125 --> 00:37:29,375 And for a while, because of that, 798 00:37:29,375 --> 00:37:31,750 Robey believed that Parker 799 00:37:31,750 --> 00:37:33,375 could have been the Boston Strangler 800 00:37:33,375 --> 00:37:35,875 up until DeSalvo's arrest. 801 00:37:35,875 --> 00:37:39,250 - [Catherine] But now, Dr. Robey realizes that once again, 802 00:37:39,250 --> 00:37:40,958 Parker is in the same vicinity 803 00:37:40,958 --> 00:37:44,542 where there are now a string of strangulations. 804 00:37:44,542 --> 00:37:46,375 Dr. Robey calls investigators 805 00:37:46,375 --> 00:37:50,333 and tells them that Parker is here in Michigan 806 00:37:50,333 --> 00:37:52,750 and he fears he may be the Boston Strangler 807 00:37:52,750 --> 00:37:54,250 and is killing again. 808 00:37:55,417 --> 00:37:57,333 - [Laurence] Police interview Parker, 809 00:37:57,333 --> 00:37:59,167 who denies any role in the killings. 810 00:37:59,167 --> 00:38:01,708 He's dismissed as a suspect. 811 00:38:01,708 --> 00:38:06,292 But the cops soon get a promising new lead in the case. 812 00:38:06,292 --> 00:38:07,667 - An eyewitness comes forward 813 00:38:07,667 --> 00:38:10,458 to say that she saw one of the victims 814 00:38:10,458 --> 00:38:13,250 getting on a motorcycle that a man was driving, 815 00:38:13,250 --> 00:38:14,583 a blue motorcycle. 816 00:38:15,542 --> 00:38:17,792 - A police officer who's on campus 817 00:38:17,792 --> 00:38:20,542 notices a young man fitting that description. 818 00:38:20,542 --> 00:38:22,750 He actually knows this person. 819 00:38:22,750 --> 00:38:25,792 John Collins was in his fraternity, 820 00:38:25,792 --> 00:38:28,042 and he was thrown out of the fraternity for theft. 821 00:38:28,042 --> 00:38:29,417 This officer sees Collins 822 00:38:29,417 --> 00:38:31,083 sitting on the back of his motorcycle, 823 00:38:31,083 --> 00:38:33,208 trying to talk to young, pretty girls 824 00:38:33,208 --> 00:38:34,958 walking through campus. 825 00:38:34,958 --> 00:38:37,792 And that's how he's brought in as a suspect. 826 00:38:37,792 --> 00:38:39,958 They start interviewing people in his past 827 00:38:39,958 --> 00:38:42,708 and they see he's got a history of sexual violence. 828 00:38:42,708 --> 00:38:45,208 Past girlfriend said that he was abusive, 829 00:38:45,208 --> 00:38:46,583 that he would choke them, strangle them. 830 00:38:46,583 --> 00:38:48,417 He was not a nice person at all. 831 00:38:49,542 --> 00:38:51,125 - [Laurence] Police consider Collins 832 00:38:51,125 --> 00:38:54,833 a prime suspect in these terrifying serial killings, 833 00:38:54,833 --> 00:38:57,458 though there's only enough evidence to convict him 834 00:38:57,458 --> 00:39:01,083 for the last of the seven Michigan murders. 835 00:39:01,083 --> 00:39:03,042 - Some researchers find it hard to believe 836 00:39:03,042 --> 00:39:06,417 that Collins is responsible for all seven murders 837 00:39:06,417 --> 00:39:07,750 that take place in Michigan. 838 00:39:07,750 --> 00:39:10,083 It has been suggested that perhaps 839 00:39:10,083 --> 00:39:11,500 he might have had an accomplice. 840 00:39:11,500 --> 00:39:14,542 And that accomplice is David Parker. 841 00:39:14,542 --> 00:39:15,917 - [Laurence] Though the Michigan murders 842 00:39:15,917 --> 00:39:18,625 may have nothing to do with the Boston killings, 843 00:39:18,625 --> 00:39:20,542 they keep alive the theory 844 00:39:20,542 --> 00:39:24,417 that Albert DeSalvo may be innocent after all. 845 00:39:26,042 --> 00:39:29,417 - In 1973, DeSalvo puts in a call to Robey. 846 00:39:29,417 --> 00:39:32,333 He says, "I'm not the Boston Strangler 847 00:39:32,333 --> 00:39:35,125 and I'm ready to reveal to you exactly who is. 848 00:39:35,125 --> 00:39:36,583 Come meet me in prison." 849 00:39:36,583 --> 00:39:38,667 He wants to speak to him face to face. 850 00:39:39,875 --> 00:39:42,458 Robey says he'll be there as soon as possible. 851 00:39:43,625 --> 00:39:47,833 - And that night, DeSalvo is stabbed in his cell. 852 00:39:47,833 --> 00:39:49,333 He's murdered. 853 00:39:49,333 --> 00:39:53,042 The prison officials say it was a drug deal gone wrong, 854 00:39:53,042 --> 00:39:55,542 but Robey's not so sure. 855 00:39:55,542 --> 00:39:58,542 Was he silenced for what he was about to say 856 00:39:58,542 --> 00:40:00,125 about the Strangler murders? 857 00:40:01,875 --> 00:40:04,875 - [Laurence] In 2013, investigators employ 858 00:40:04,875 --> 00:40:07,833 new technology in order to solve the murder 859 00:40:07,833 --> 00:40:12,208 of the Boston Strangler's last victim, Mary Sullivan. 860 00:40:12,208 --> 00:40:13,875 - The police department reanalyzes 861 00:40:13,875 --> 00:40:16,833 the evidence that they have from Mary Sullivan. 862 00:40:16,833 --> 00:40:19,667 They have semen samples from her crime scene. 863 00:40:19,667 --> 00:40:21,542 DeSalvo is exhumed. 864 00:40:21,542 --> 00:40:24,333 They get DNA from his bones and from his teeth, 865 00:40:24,333 --> 00:40:26,458 and now they have a definitive match. 866 00:40:26,458 --> 00:40:29,250 His semen is on Mary Sullivan. 867 00:40:29,250 --> 00:40:30,958 He is the killer of Mary Sullivan. 868 00:40:32,042 --> 00:40:34,083 - [John] For many, this is conclusive evidence 869 00:40:34,083 --> 00:40:36,833 that Albert DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler, 870 00:40:36,833 --> 00:40:40,167 but can we really tie him to all of those murders? 871 00:40:40,167 --> 00:40:43,083 - [Sami] Many others believe that this isn't a case 872 00:40:43,083 --> 00:40:44,208 that should be closed. 873 00:40:44,208 --> 00:40:47,167 In fact, it should continue to remain wide open. 874 00:40:47,167 --> 00:40:49,417 [dramatic music] 875 00:40:50,958 --> 00:40:54,042 - To this day, there's no hard evidence connecting DeSalvo 876 00:40:54,042 --> 00:40:56,792 to the other 12 Boston Strangler murders, 877 00:40:56,792 --> 00:41:00,083 all of which remain officially unsolved. 878 00:41:00,083 --> 00:41:01,583 Many experts remain convinced 879 00:41:01,583 --> 00:41:04,583 that there wasn't a single Boston Strangler, 880 00:41:04,583 --> 00:41:07,167 that there were probably multiple killers 881 00:41:07,167 --> 00:41:08,542 copying each other. 882 00:41:08,542 --> 00:41:10,500 More than six decades later, 883 00:41:10,500 --> 00:41:13,542 the Boston Strangler case still fascinates, 884 00:41:13,542 --> 00:41:16,208 not only for what we know, 885 00:41:16,208 --> 00:41:17,958 but for the mysteries that linger. 886 00:41:19,125 --> 00:41:21,125 I'm Laurence Fishburne. 887 00:41:21,125 --> 00:41:24,542 Thank you for watching History's Greatest Mysteries. 888 00:41:24,542 --> 00:41:26,833 [dramatic music]