Boston Strangler

The victims – Anna Elsa Šlesers, Mary Mullen, Helen Blake, Nina Nichols, Ida Irga, Jane Sullivan, Sophie Clark, Patricia Bissette, Mary Brown, Beverly Samans, ...

Sam Sheppard(Opens in a new tab)](https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/590) (who provided the inspiration for the 1993 film The Fugitive), as well as [Patty Hearst(Opens in a new tab)](https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/patty-hearst) and DeSalvo in 1967. [McLaughlin recalled(Opens in a new tab)](https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/11/25/loretta-mclaughlin-groundbreaking-reporter-and-former-globe-editorial-page-editor/SfVdYxacCQtG5JfUSru5gL/story.htmledium.com/how-to-get-around-news-paywall-with-just-one-chrome-extension-in-2022-9fd5dcfabc5e) that it was the fourth Strangler murder, that of 75-year-old Ida Irga, that spurred her into action and drove her to talk to her editor about writing a series. Ames Robey,(Opens in a new tab)](http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2004/10/13/ames_robey_psychiatrist_argued_desalvo_was_innocent/) a forensic psychiatrist, served as a defense witness. Simpson's defense attorneys(Opens in a new tab)](http://www.cnn.com/US/OJ/), [F. Lee Bailey(Opens in a new tab)](https://www.npr.org/2021/06/03/1003042259/f-lee-bailey-celebrity-defense-attorney-has-died-at-87) defended several infamous defendants over the course of his career, including [Dr. [1967 criminal trial(Opens in a new tab)](https://www.encyclopedia.com/law/law-magazines/albert-henry-desalvo-trial-1967) for the Strangler cases, [Dr. Four years later, Nassar was sentenced to death (later commuted to life in prison) for the murder of Irvin Hilton, the owner of a Texaco station in Andover, Massachusetts. [13 women(Opens in a new tab)](https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/07/11/victims-boston-strangler/CwbsZlSNcfwmhSetpqNlhL/story.html) were found fatally strangled with their own clothing and sexually assaulted in their homes across the Boston area. [confessed to a cellmate(Opens in a new tab)](https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/boston-strangler-cellmate-interview-george-nassar-albert-desalvo-wbz-tv-i-team-cheryl-fiandaca/) to being the Boston Strangler. [women all over Boston lived in terror(Opens in a new tab)](https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/police-find-first-victim-of-boston-strangler.html). This was the moniker for a serial predator who went door to door throughout Cambridge in the guise of a modeling scout. [Boston Strangler](https://me.mashable.com/entertainment/25349/boston-strangler-trailer-keira-knightley-and-carrie-coon-team-up-to-investigate-a-serial-killer), takes audiences into the newsroom where this emerging murder spree was first recognized.

The movie shines a light on the female reporters who covered the murders in the early 1960s.

Film critic Peter Travers shares his review of Hulu's new true-crime thriller, "Boston Strangler."

Did DeSalvo, Marsh and Nassar conspire to throw police off or to collect reward money or to cash in on a book deal for DeSalvo organized by Nassar's lawyer F. There is also too little of DeSalvo (David Dastmalchian), except to show how he disguised himself as a handyman to talk himself into his victim's apartments. Boston-raised writer-director Matt Ruskin lets us see Loretta at home as a mother whose husband (Morgan Spector) pitches in when the strangler story dominates their lives. Reduced to lifestyle puff pieces by her newspaper, Loretta had to fight editor Jack Maclaine (Chris Cooper) to write a story about a pattern she saw in the early killings. As portrayed by Tony Curtis in the 1968 film "The Boston Strangler," DeSalvo suffered from a multiple personality disorder that left him unaware of his murderous side, a theory dismissed as Hollywood hogwash by later evidence that pointed to multiple stranglers. The British Knightley, sporting a spot-on American accent, is ideal casting as Loretta.

The serial killer is the focus of a new true crime drama starring Keira Knightley, but the real-life case is potentially even more shocking.

DeSalvo later recanted his confession to the killings. In the end it was a confession from Albert DeSalvo while in prison that brought him to their attention. The lawyer took on DeSalvo as a client and made a deal with prosecutors that meant he was not charged or convicted for the Boston Strangler murders. Per History, DeSalvo confessed to the murders while speaking with his cellmate George Nasser, who in turn told his attorney, F. Hulu's true crime drama, simply titled Boston Strangler, sees Knightley portray Loretta McLaughlin, the first journalist to connect the Boston Strangler murders. Between 1962 and 1964, the Boston Strangler raped and killed 11 women across the city.

'Boston Strangler,' a true-crime drama told from the perspective of two tenacious South Shore female reporters, is streaming on Hulu.

“I didn't want that to get in the way of the story we were telling.” [Nivola (“The Many Saints of Newark”)](https://www.patriotledger.com/story/entertainment/2022/01/27/keira-knightley-boston-strangler-movie-films-scenes-braintree/9243055002/) plays the lead detective seeking the Boston Strangler. ... I basically just imitated the voice of the detective in that investigation.” In 1967, Albert DeSalvo – who confessed to the crimes but was never charged – was convicted on unrelated armed robbery and sexual assault charges. It's "get in the car and go to work," said the actor, who lives 30 miles south of Boston in Kingston with his wife, Marianne Leone, a writer and actress. [Philip Markoff](https://www.patriotledger.com/story/news/courts/2011/03/31/suffolk-da-says-case-against/40084629007/) was dubbed the "Craigslist killer" after he shot and killed a masseuse at the Marriott Copley Hotel in Boston's Back Bay in April 2009. One of my grandmothers was a teacher, and the other was a homemaker. She began a long newspaper career as a “copy boy” for the Boston Daily Record in 1944. “In terms of the look and feel for the film, we wanted to create something that felt authentic, that really transported people back to this time,” Ruskin said. Despite derision and ridicule from investigators, the two worked tirelessly to pursue the story and keep women informed of the dangers. The movie is a crime drama based on the real-life case of the serial killer who murdered 13 women in the Boston area during the early 1960s. “You’ve got a case where most people didn’t know that it was two women who broke the story," she said.

Ruskin succeeds in paying tribute to McLaughlin's hard work but is less successful in filling in the bigger story.

Eventually, "Boston Strangler" reaches a point in which it is totally controlled by the wild course of events it is recreating, and it does make for decent, unsettling twists in a third act based on truth. [Alessandro Nivola](/cast-and-crew/alessandro-nivola), who plays a Boston cop who admits to being worn down by the case but starts to see the purpose in supporting Loretta's tenacity. There are many scenes of Loretta and Jean poring over documents, and moments meant to sting—like when Jean makes eye contact with a suspect in custody—lose their effect. But the plotting takes on some interesting layers, including the point when Loretta and Jean call out the Boston police in the paper for how they have mishandled the investigation and left innocent Bostonians in a dangerous dark. Instead, the stakes are more about someone believing so hard in the case they risk losing focus on their family life, and yet "Boston Strangler" doesn't have much space for that. Loretta and Jean are the first to pursue and broadcast the connection through the paper.

'Boston Strangler' tells the story of a series of murders in the early 1960s from the perspective of the two journalists who broke the story.

[WBZ-TV in 2018](https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/boston-strangler-cellmate-interview-george-nassar-albert-desalvo-wbz-tv-i-team-cheryl-fiandaca/), Nassar denied having taken part in the killings and claimed he told Bailey to take on DeSalvo’s case. In the following years, Marsh moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., where a series of similar murders later took place. Lee Bailey (played by Luke Kirby), who took on DeSalvo as a client when he became the prime suspect in the case. The question of whether DeSalvo committed the other 12 murders remains unanswered. [Boston Globe](https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/11/25/loretta-mclaughlin-groundbreaking-reporter-and-former-globe-editorial-page-editor/SfVdYxacCQtG5JfUSru5gL/story.html) about what pushed her to cover the case, explaining how it was the fourth murder in the summer of 1962 that “galvanized” her attention. DeSalvo recanted his confession in prison in 1973 shortly before he was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate. It was at this point in time that McLaughlin and Cole started to come up against significant resistance from authorities who took the stance that the level of detail included in their reporting wasn’t helping the investigation and could inspire copycat crimes. That said, in terms of trying to tell a story that spanned several years in a feature film, you obviously have to take some liberties.” In October 1964, 34-year-old Albert DeSalvo (played by David Dastmalchian) was arrested for sexually assaulting a woman after pretending to be a police officer to gain entry into her home. DeSalvo was sent to await trial at Bridgewater State Hospital, a state facility for the criminally insane, and it was there that he allegedly confessed to his cellmate, George Nassar (played by Greg Vrotos), that he was responsible for the murders associated with the Boston Strangler case. The majority were sexually assaulted before being strangled to death. That was what made them so interesting…sisters in anonymity, like all of us.”

Hulu and Disney+'s new film, 'Boston Strangler' looks at real murders in Boston, and the women journalists who uncovered the story.

He was later murdered in jail, where he was serving a life sentence for a string of robberies and rapes, per [Biography.](https://www.biography.com/crime/albert-de-salvo) (The authorities used DNA from DeSalvo's nephew and then exhumed DeSalvo's corpse, the [Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/us/dna-evidence-identified-in-boston-strangler-case.html) reported). [murdered by a killer](https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a41251138/jeffrey-dahmer-now/) in the Boston area, and the person behind the crimes would eventually become known as the Boston Strangler. And that's just to name a few. Yep, the Boston Record-American used to be a daily newspaper in the Boston area. After that, a string of women between the ages of 65 to 85 were killed in a similar fashion, and the murderer was dubbed a “mother killer.” The duo had to fight to get the story published, and in the trailer, Keira (who plays reporter Loretta McLaughlin) asks, “How many women have to die before it’s a story?!” They were famous for their work on the Boston Strangler news story until their deaths. Mary was However, DeSalvo was already dead at the time of the discovery. [victims](https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a42295664/whakaari-volcano-victims-survivors/) in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964, and became one of the most [notorious serial killers](https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a41311818/jeffrey-dahmer-victims-netflix-documentary/) in American history, according to [Brittanica](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Boston-Strangler). [Keira Knightley](https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/g42109037/love-actually-cast-now/) and Carrie Coon, doggedly [investigated](https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/g30471431/best-true-crime-podcasts-2020/) the disturbing killings.

In writer/director Matt Ruskin's true-crime thriller “Boston Strangler” (now streaming on Hulu), Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley) and Jean Cole (Coon) team ...

Some of the imagery and the way in which we depict the violence – hearing things instead of seeing things in many cases – is actually more horrifying than if we tried to depict it.” “Boston Strangler” also digs into how the police struggled in the "early stages" of criminology, Ruskin adds. “They would go visit different regional police stations and see some of their articles taped to the wall,” Ruskin says. “It was a tabloid newspaper, and so they did what they could to sell papers,” the filmmaker says. McLaughlin “tried to punch everyone in the face and say, ‘Take me seriously!’ And Jean is much more wily about it and a bit flirty,” Knightley says. “A lot of women have said watching it is cathartic,” Knightley says.

The new film Boston Strangler, available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ documents the real murders that took place in Boston in the 1960s.

DeSalvo was sent to MCI-Walpole to serve his life sentence in 1967, per The Crime Museum. Gertrude Gruen, a survivor of an assault by the man believed to be the Boston Strangler, doubted DeSalvo was the killer, but felt "something frighteningly familiar" about George Nassar, per The Crime Museum. However, DeSalvo was able to describe the women he supposedly killed in detail, per Crime Library. Supposedly, DeSalvo told Nassar that he was responsible for the Boston Strangler murders. The case could not be linked to DeSalvo until 2013, when police were able to test DNA from DeSalvo's nephew, Tim DeSalvo. Her work has previously appeared in The Cut and Teen Vogue. A few years before the Boston Strangler murders occurred, DeSalvo confessed to being the "Measuring Man," a man who went around to women's houses, claiming to be from a modeling agency, and sexually assaulted women while taking their measurements. Mary Sullivan, the last woman killed in the Boston Strangler murders, was found with a "Happy New Year" card leaning against her foot. After matching DNA with DeSalvo's nephew, investigators extracted DNA from DeSalvo's body—including his femur and teeth. Shortly after his confession, DeSalvo was sent to a mental hospital for psychiatric observation. The film, which stars Keira Knightly and Carrie Coon, follows the journalists who broke the story of the serial murders that took place in the city, and the hysteria that surrounded the case, particularly for women living in Boston at the time. [The Crime Museum](https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serial-killers/the-boston-strangler/), were raped and left naked with the murder weapon—a stocking or pillow case—ornamentally tied around their neck like a bowtie.