Desalvo Was The Real Boston Strangler? Never Any Doubt Among Those Who Knew!!!
I have to say, it has been a real nostalgia trip for the past few days, listening to the news stories, the true stories and the absolute false stories on the Boston Strangler. I was approaching the peak of my career as a street reporter in Boston during the 1960's and '70 and there were many days, weeks and months that were totally consumed by stories about The Boston Strangler. A visited crime scenes, I had inside contacts with the Boston Police Homocide unit, viewed many pictures of victims and believe me, it was an horrific and frightful time for the city of Boston......and then came Albert Desalvo. Bostonians lived in fear, round the clock when these murders were happening, and the capture of Albert ended that fear.........until he escaped from prison. Absolute panic set in. Keep in mind, Desalvo was never charged with any of the stranglings, BUT.... he confessed to every one of them. Albert wasn't smart enough to survive on the lamb for very long and it didn't take long to track him down, hiding under somebody's porch as I recall....in Lynn.
As is being pointed out presently, over the course of a half century, many many stories, books, movies....whatever about the infamous Boston Strangler. Was it Albert Desalvo or wasn't it. Desalvo was locked up for a series of housebreaks and vicious rapes, but never once, accused of the stranglings. The Boston Police Homicide detectives believed he was the Strangler, Donald Conn, the Assistant District Attorney who prosecuted Desalvo on all the crimes was positive, Albert was the Strangler. I covered his trial in Middlesex Superior Court from start to finish.....many times stuck a microphone under Albert s chin and I believe he was the Strangler and.......and......Albert's defense attorney, F. Lee Bailey....at the time the most prestigious defense lawyer in the entire country said to me....."Gary, make no mistake....Albert is the Strangler." In his later years however, even F. Lee Bailey had his doubts about that, but Albert is dead.
Albert Desalvo was serving life prison for many other crimes, when someone carved him up like a piece of Swiss cheese while he was in prison, but the legend of The Boston Strangler never died, and the arguments over whether Albert Desalvo was the Strangler never lost intensity for the next 40-years........until now. They're diggin' up Alberts body to recover the final piece of DNA evidence, but the proof is there, Desalvo did at least one of the Boston Stranglings and those involved in the case from more than 50-years ago are sure.....this should close the book on those dark days in Boston in the 60's and 70's.
