The Boston Strangler

The Boston Strangler (1966), a true crime book by American journalist and biographer Gerold Frank, tells the story of the serial killer who murdered 13 women in the Boston area from 1962 through 1965. The book was adapted into a 1968 movie of the same title starring Tony Curtis and Henry Fonda.

The book begins in June 1962. A 25-year-old man arrives at his mother’s apartment to pick her up for church. After waiting half an hour for her to come to the door, he forces entry, to find his 55-year-old mother, Anna Slesers, lying dead on the kitchen floor, with the cord of her housecoat knotted around her neck.

Soon three more women are dead. All four of these initial victims appear to fit a profile: they are middle-aged or elderly, quiet, frugal, and lived alone. All four have been strangled, most of them with their own stockings. The same unusual knot has been used to make the noose. In no case is there any sign of forced entry, so police conclude that the victims let the killer into their homes.



The police, relying on FBI profiling techniques, declare that a serial killer is responsible. Serial killers are a new phenomenon. The newspapers are full of hysterical reports on the “Phantom Strangler,” and tensions are aggravated all over the city. When a new victim is discovered on the same day President Kennedy is assassinated, many Bostonians feel a sense of impending doom. Neighbors accuse one another of being the Strangler. As each new victim is discovered, the tension mounts, and more investigators are brought into the case. Eventually, the Attorney General’s office takes over the investigation.

However, just as the police have concluded that the murderer’s modus operandi fits the profile of a serial killer, his pattern changes. The killings become more violent, and the victims younger. Amazingly, even though the women of Boston know the killer is on the loose, the victims continue to willingly admit their murderer into their homes.

The police, working with psychiatrists and serial-killing experts brought in from other states, examine suspect after suspect. Frank follows the investigation in detail, leading the reader to each suspect one by one. However, every suspect turns out to be a dead end. A psychic named Peter Hurkos is brought in, and Frank follows his (unsuccessful) efforts to find the killer. Suspects and untrustworthy witnesses are subjected to interrogation under the influence of sodium pentothal (“truth serum”).



In October 1964, a rape is reported to the police. The assailant, police learn, posed as a detective to enter the home of a young woman, where he tied her to her bed. The victim describes her attacker precisely, and the police identify him as Albert DeSalvo, already known to them as a petty housebreaker. When his photo is published, dozens of women come forward to identify him as the man who assaulted them. DeSalvo is identified as the “Measuring Man,” a serial sex offender, who obtained access to his victims’ homes by posing as the agent for a modeling company, claiming that he was taking the measurements of potential models. Eventually, he would be found to have raped or assaulted nearly 2,000 women.

DeSalvo is not suspected of being the strangler. He doesn’t fit the profile drawn up by the FBI. Far from being a psychopathic loner, he is described by those who know him as charming and loveable. He is regarded as “low intelligence,” while the police are looking for someone who has cannily outwitted them for years. Furthermore, he is thought of—by the police if not by his victims—as a “non-violent” criminal. However, while in prison on the rape charge, DeSalvo confesses to his cellmate, George Nassar, that he is the Boston Strangler. Nassar passes the information on to his lawyer, who offers to represent DeSalvo.

Under police questioning, DeSalvo describes every murder in detail, including details that have been withheld from the public. Quizzed about his modus operandi, DeSalvo reveals that his approach is far more randomized than the FBI’s profile had led detectives to assume. He simply drives to an area, stops where he feels like it, and begins knocking on doors until someone lets him in. As for his motives, he explains that his wife has been withholding sex from him.



However, there is no physical evidence tying him to the murders. For this reason, he is eventually prosecuted only for the “Measuring Man” assaults and some earlier robberies. His lawyer argues that DeSalvo is “not guilty by reason of insanity,” and mentions his confession to the strangling murders in this connection, but the judge rules it inadmissible. DeSalvo is found insane and sentenced to life in Bridgewater State Hospital.