The Impossible Confession of the Boston Strangler

Killer Confesses to Thirteen Murders from Prison Before He's Stabbed to Death: The Boston Strangler case of Albert De Salvo

In the early hours of November 25, 1973, Albert De Salvo was stabbed six times in his maximum-security cell while he slept. Hours earlier, he had requested an urgent meeting because he claimed he had something to reveal about the Boston Strangler-the man he had confessed to being. But the confession that paralyzed Boston was never proven in court, and the killer died just before changing the story.

In this episode, we explore the thirteen murders that terrorized Boston between 1962 and 1964, the contradictions in De Salvo's detailed confessions, and the witnesses who pointed to a different man entirely. We examine the biological evidence, the mysterious details left at crime scenes, and the unsolved question: was the right person ever identified for these homicides?

Victim: Mary Sullivan, Joan Graff, Beverly Simmons, Evelyn Corbin, Patricia Bissette, Sophie Clark, Aida Irga, Jane Sullivan, Helen Blake, Nina Nichols, Anna Lessers, and others
Date: June 1962 - January 1964
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Status: Unresolved

- Thirteen women strangled with signatures-knots, positioned objects, no forced entry-across five jurisdictions in less than two years
- De Salvo confessed to all thirteen murders but was tried only for sexual assaults; the strangler murders never went to trial
- Two independent witnesses identified George Nazar-not De Salvo-in a lineup as the man seen entering victim Sophie Clark's building
- De Salvo demanded the reward be paid to Nazar and sought psychiatric hospital transfer rather than prison, structuring his confession as a financial transaction

Albert De Salvo, Boston Strangler, 1962, 1963, 1964, homicide investigation, serial killers, unsolved mysteries, forensic science, true crime English

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