Morbid - Episode 79: The Boston Strangler(s) Part 2

Episode Date: July 8, 2019

It's here! Part 2 of our deep dive into the most frustrating series of murders to ever hit our hometown is here early. In this episode, we cover the last six murder attributed to this serial killing monster, we discuss the psychology behind strangulation, the physiology behind strangulation and also reveal a bit about the guy who confessed to it all: Albert DeSalvo.  ***THIS EPISODE CONTAINS GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT*** Sources: The Boston Strangler by Gerold Frank https://abcnews.go.com/US/boston-strangler-case-solved-50-years/story?id=19640699 https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/us/dna-evidence-identified-in-boston-strangler-case.html See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, Prime members, you can listen to morbid, early, and ad-free on Amazon music. Download the app today. You're listening to a morbid network podcast. Whether you're running errands on your daily commute, or even at home, you can enjoy all your audio entertainment in one app, the Audible app. As an Audible member, you can choose one title a month to keep from the entire catalog. This includes the latest bestsellers and new releases. Plus get full access to a growing selection of included audiobooks, audible originals,

and more. If you've been wanting to form good habits, break bad ones, and improve motivation, atomic habits written and narrated by James Clear is a great lesson. It'll reshape your mindset on progress and success by helping you develop strategies to transform your habits. New members can try audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash wondery pod or text wondery pod to 500-500 to try audible for free for 30 days.

That's W-O-N-D-E-R-Y-P-O-D. Audible.com slash wondery pod or text wondery pod to 500-500 to try audible for free for 30 days. Angie has made it easier than ever to connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well. Whether it's routine maintenance and emergency repair or a dream project, Angie lets you browse home on her reviews, compare quotes from multiple local pros, and even book a service instantly. So the next time you have a home project, just Angie that and start getting the most out

of your home. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's ANGI.com. Being town. We are back with another installment of the Boston Strangler Slash Strangler. We look instead of a Strangler. That's maybe how they set it back then. Strangler. Strangler. Yes, see?

So, yeah, we don't have a whole lot of business to attend to in this episode and we have so much to get to in this case that we don't want to take up a lot of your time. We are, however, going to be shouting out our beautiful patronuses at the end of this episode. So hang on for that and stay tuned, weirdos. So let's just start where we left off. So this case is, I mean, it is just chock full of really graphic descriptions of sexual assaults.

Like horrific. This is going to continue in this episode and it gets, I mean, it gets narrower. It stays on the gnarly level, if it doesn't get gnarlier, but I think it gets slightly gnarlier. This morning I was driving home from my friend's house and I was like, oh, listen to the podcast, because sometimes I like to do that

and I couldn't listen to it. It's rough. I was like, I don't want to hear about it. It's very rough. It's very, very bright, beautiful Sunday morning. Right, it's really rough. So just another warning, if that is something you are not comfortable listening to, I'm going to do what I did in

the first part before I say one of the like most graphic descriptions, I will tell you so you can skip over it if you'd like. She's so nice. I'm so nice guys. I'm so nice. You're welcome. You're welcome. So where we left off was we were talking about the seventh victim, Jane Sullivan, had been found in the bathtub, right? Yes, halfway in the bathtub. And at this point, they had all been, quote unquote, elderly victims who lived alone.

Right. That's gonna change. So it was quite a bit. Quite a bit. The same strangler. I don't know. You decide. And here's what we're gonna do in this episode. We're gonna discuss the rest of the victims.

And we're also going to talk about the psychology and physiology of strangulation. Physiology. Because it's real interesting. Cool. I just feel like it's so brutal that I had to know more. And I feel like, you know what? You guys got to know more about it too. Everybody's just got to know the most they can know. And anytime I can talk about like anatomy, I mean, you know this. You know that I

had to take anatomy in hair school. Did you really? Yeah, that's crazy. I was bad at it. You should add me help you. Yeah, I just like didn't care that much though. Anyways. So what we're gonna do is, we'll talk about that. We're going to get to the man of the hour Albert DeSalvo, but we are really gonna dive into Albert DeSalvo in part three. That's right. Ladies and gentlemen, this episode is, I mean, this series is The Re Parts. And it's just because there's so much in this case. Is this our first-ever three-parter?

It is. Oh, yeah. And it's our hometown one. So, game town murders. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that we, you know, discussed all the sleep. As much as we could about these things before getting to Albert. So, we will get to him, I promise,

we're gonna spend a whole episode on him. We're like, actually, we're just not at all gonna talk about him. We're just never gonna talk about him again. So here we are. There was a lull between Jane Sullivan's murder and the next victim attributed to the Boston Strangler. It was somewhere around like three and a half months

of fact, pulling off period. Which is weird for him. Because he was on kind of a tear. He was doing him like every other day. Yeah, he was on a tear, sometimes the same day. Yeah. At this point, it was the biggest manhunt in the city's history, and still they had zero evidence. This dude had left nothing.

Which is wild. Yeah. Well, and also it was like the 60s. So even if he did, like could they find much? Well, they could, but they and they took what they could, but they I mean even now they described the first seven murders that we talked about in part one as the perfect crime because they said he was just so clean about it. Right. Like he didn't leave anything behind. He was using an object to assault them. Which doesn't leave any of your DNA behind. Right. And that's why these ones that we're going to talk

about ring so differently because they are not as perfect. And that's why people think that's two different people. That and a few other things. Well, I'm excited. So experts agree that the first five or six possibly seven victims were likely the same person. Okay. But again, we still don't know this for sure. Well, they had like the bows and shit. All seven, right? It's the ritualized behavior that we're in all of those ones. And again, and this is quite graphic, so just bear with me. The assaults and penetrations with foreign objects

are rare, that is not something you see a lot. And for them to happen in most of those seems to point to the person being the same person. And again, that ritualized behavior is what really points them that way. There were confirmed attempts of copycatching the strangler by people. And it was basically people who just happened to murder women and then they just quickly

made it look like the murder scenes. Like they would tie bows and stuff around their necks just to be like, it was the strangler. And it was kind of because the media was telling them all these things. So they were like, oh, I can just tie a bow around this person and and they're gonna think it's a strangler. Right. That's so good. And it became a problem because people were like is this somebody in their life or is this another strangler case? Right. But now I would like to before we start in on these victims, this is when I want to talk about the psychology and physiology of strangulation. That was cute how you said that. You really thought I would like to. And I literally did my hand, like, I'm ready to lecture you.

You got like very excited. I wish I had my glasses on and I could have just propped them up on my nose real quick. So in strangulation, the cause of death is cerebral hypoxia secondary to compression. I knew that. This means that death is caused by intense compression of the vessels in the neck that supply blood in there by oxygen to your brain. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. So it's such a quick method. It's not quick in time, but it's such a like kind of foolproof if you do it, right?

Because you're stopping oxygen from going to the brain, which is how you kill someone. Constant and consistent pressure on the neck causes unconsciousness in approximately five to 15 seconds, especially with ligature strangulation, which is what this was using something else other than your own. So in five to 15 seconds, the person will go unconscious. Exactly. To kill someone with the, even with the constant and consistent pressure on the wild, right? It's still a couple minutes after that. Sure. But you had, you have to keep applying that pressure.

The same consistent. Which when they're unconscious is much easier to do because they're not fighting back. But that's so like personal. Oh, it's very personal. Like very, a minute is a long time when you're, like when you're timing it. Oh, absolutely. That's very, and it's, and it's probably like three to four minutes

that you really have to do it. And it takes a specific amount of pressure to collapse all the various structures in the neck. That's supply all this important stuff to your brain and you know, keep you alive. I just want to go through a couple of them right now so you know how much pressure it takes to do these things. So your jugular veins, they collapse under 4.4 pounds of pressure. Now I'm sure most people have heard the term go for the jugular, she went for the jugular. There's a reason for that. There's a reason for that. The jugular veins function to collect blood from the skull

brain and a lot of parts of the face and the majority of the neck. And that blood that's collected from those vessels in the parts of the head that it's taking it from, then drain into the brachiosophalic vein and into the heart. Now this vein is not protected by any bone or cartilage, the jugular vein. It's just hanging out there. It's just sitting there vulnerable beneath a giant muscle called the sternocleto mastoid muscle. Where is it? It's right here on the side of your neck. Do you have one jugular or two? You have two. You have an external and internal. Cool. And they're really vulnerable because they're just kind of hanging out under that muscle. And the sternocleetomastoid muscle is one of the largest cervical muscles that you have.

And it basically allows you to rotate your neck and to flex your neck back and forth. Stay flexed in on these hosts. Do it. And it's location and the lack of protection makes it really easily prone to trauma. Right. That's why a lot of times when people get their throat slit, if they cut that jugular vein, it's like, you're done for.

See you later, goodbye. Bye, sis. Now, the next thing that tends to get affected by strangulation is the carotid arteries. They collapse under 5.5 to 22 pounds of pressure. You imagine 22 pounds of pressure. Yeah, the carotid arteries are major blood vessels in your neck, and they supply blood to the brain, neck, and your face.

So that's important. There are two of those, one on the right, one on the left, and each carotid artery branches into two divisions. The internal carotid artery supplies blood to the brain. And the external carotid artery supplies blood to the face and neck. So they're both equally important. And when you put your two fingers on the side of your neck,

that's what you feel that pulse, but you can feel that's your carotid neck. That's what you feel that pulse, but you can feel that's your carotid artery. That's what you're feeling. That's cool. Yeah, see, shit. The more you know. But I feel like I'm in school. You are.

You're in a lane of science class right now. That's very scary. You're all in here with me and you can't escape. Well, actually, you can't. I was gonna say, they could just hit the 15 button like six times. Yeah, they definitely can. Please don't do that though. Don't do that. I'm interested.

The next thing that tends to get affected is the vertebral arteries. They'll collapse under 18 to 66 pounds of pressure. Now, this this poundage of pressure that we're talking about is like when somebody is manually strangling someone and they're putting their body down. Right. So this artery is super important as well. They supply blood to the upper spinal cord, the brainstem, the cerebellum, and the posterior part of the brain. What they do is they originate from the subclavian arteries and these are two arteries below your clavicle that get blood from the biggest vessel in your body, which is the aorta. The vertebral arteries are situated on each side of your neck and then they merge within the skull to form a singular, the single midline basilar artery. The basilar artery is basically the main blood supply to your brain stem. So that's really important.

Yeah. Oh, I think so. And that's what these two vertebral arteries merge to form. Is this huge blood supply to your brain stem. So the brain stem literally where this is all meeting sits at the base of the ponds, which is part of your brain. It's so interesting how fucking involves your body. It is. That's what I love. I love how complex. Every system in the human body is so

cool. Everything relies on each other to get everything. It's like one thing. Things kind of be a better person. But I'm not there yet. But you know what? You have the thought.

Yeah. That's the first step. Yeah. So basically it's it's it you know what you have the thought. Yeah. That's the first step. Yeah. So, basically, it sits at the base of the pond, which is part of your brain stem. And the pond, this is just a quick little side, the pond is actually implicated in sleep paralysis. Oh, which you suffer from.

I do. And actually, we'll do an episode on it. Oh, sick. That'll be a good mini episode. I've got sleep paralysis, like twice in my whole life. I get it a lot. I know. Oh, free.

The puns also controls breathing communication between different parts of the brain and sensations like hearing, taste, and balance. So when that is cut off, boom, all that's gone. The next thing that's obviously going to be affected is the trachea that's going to collapse under 33 pounds of pressure. That's your windpipe. It connects the larynx, which is your voice box, to the bronchi of your lungs. And the bronchi are main passageways into the lungs because they're literally the only passage from your trachea

into the little sacks of air in your lungs. passage from your trachea into the little sacks of air in your lungs. Since the trachea is the only way into these, it is vital to the process of bringing air to and from your lungs. It's the only pathway. Now I'm like feeling like I'm getting strangled. I know I feel like I'm like taking deep breaths like yeah like okay we're good we're still doing it. But once you're trachea is crushed, you're in real trouble. I would think so. Nothing else is gonna get air there. The last thing that I just wanted to mention was the crycoid cartilage.

That's gonna fracture under 45 pounds of pressure. Basically what that is, it's a ring of cartilage on your trachea and it provides connections for different ligaments, cartilages, and muscles, all of which facilitate the opening and shutting of the air passage and the production of sound. So when you crush that, you're in trouble too. You're just really fucked if you mess with any of that. Basically, your neck is a very delicate thing.

That's cool. So you can see how the destruction of literally any of these systems would be easily fatal or debilitating at the very least. Now I just now that we've talked about the physiology of it, I just want to go a little bit into the psychology of it. Now research on homicidal strangulation shows that in a higher percentage of cases the offender in the victim have a family relationship. I knew it. Yeah. And that as much as 75% of the victims

are females or infants. Well, that makes sense because just like, a woman strangling a man like men typically have thick neck. Yeah. So it would be super hard to like. And you have to hold the person down, you know what I mean? Right. So it's like, it's just a matter of physiology, basically.

Yeah. And infants, which it's like, who the fuck is strangling an infant? God, monsters. Oh, it's like, it's just like, I'm not even making it so angry today. Other studies said that other motives for homicidal strangulation tend to be rape, sexual jealousy and personal rivalry. That's why people strangle people.

So they're all very personal intimate issues, you know what I mean? It's all very like in someone's face. And it's been suggested that females tend to be like strangled at such a higher rate because they are more likely to be the targets of sexual assaults. And basically the strangulation just acts to stop them from moving so that that can be done. Right. It's just because they're that close to the person, like physically I mean, it's just the easiest thing to do to stop somebody from moving. Which is so fucked. It really is, it's awful.

Strangulation is also associated very highly with sexual and sadistic murders, very high and sexual murders, which we see a lot, in a lot of the cases we've talked about, when they involve rape or sexual assault, strangulation does tend to pop up a lot. Yeah. And it's been the cause of death in 67% of sexual murders, 63% of sexual murders of elderly females, in 61% of sexual sadistic murders. And it's also found in 59% of serial sexual murders. Oh, like this.

Yeah, exactly. So it makes sense that he's also involving this element of awful sexual assault while he's doing this because it all goes hand in hand. Now, in a study on sexual murder, some experts analyzed crime scene behavior, and they took that stuff that they were analyzing at the crime scene. And basically what they found, that insexual murder's ligature strangulation is associated with kind of like weird crime scene behavior, like kind of bow. And again, this is going to be graphic inserting foreign objects, you know, I mean like weird gross, very over the top behavior.

That's where you tend to see ligature strangulation in the sexual miters. Okay. Now, this can all, what studies seem to think is basically it kind of all has to do with the fact that they're physically in a position where in a sexual attack, it just makes it, quote, easy and convenient to stop somebody from moving. And they also think that it's basically about power and control, like, dominion. Yeah. And that's kind of like the whole point, I mean, the whole point of rape and sexual assault is domination control.

Right. Like having power over somebody, that's what they tend to like. And I mean, they like, they can watch the light leave somebody's eyes. They're that close, you know? And a lot, you'll hear a lot of murders who use strangulation as a method, say that. Like I liked to watch the light leave their eyes. That is the most fucked up scene. And I feel like that's how you have to,

that's how fucked up you have to be to do that. Like you need to wanna see their face. Change. You know, exactly. Like, like distort, you know? That's dark. I know. It's a dark thing.

There's a book called Hunting Serial Predators, a multivariate classification approach to profiling violent behavior, and it's by Grover Maurice Godwin. It's a long title, Godwin. I know. And he says that ligature strangulation, which is what we're seeing in these cases, it basically represents the killer's explosive rage, and that he has a very personal focus towards the victim. Whether that victim is someone he knows or that victim represents someone that he knows. Like his mom, which is what I'm thinking is the case here.

I have a question. Yes. So he wasn't strangling these women with his hands. He was doing it with the bows. It seems like that's what I that's what it looks like from all the things I've researched is that he's actually using these items in a ligature strangling. And like just pulling it and pulling yeah. Does that make it less personal kind of? No, because you still have to be right up front and you still have to exert force right on top of them. Okay. Because you have to hold them down regardless.

Okay. And there could have been a couple of cases where he did manually strangle. And that just had the consciousness and maybe then tied the boat to finish the job. Right, right. Just to keep that constant pressure, which would have been very efficient, I guess,

because you don't have to hold down the pressure. You just tie something that will do it for you. Right. Which is you. Right. Which is awful. I Hate to say it's efficient, but that's how it kind of is This kind this and again that like like we're saying this kind of strangulation just allows the sexual serial killer Which like Ted Bundy for instance or something that somebody like that to have Intimacy with the victim that shooting them or stabbing them doesn't allow.

Right. Like we've said, you have to be touching them and really close to them and shooting them, you can be across the room, you know? Yeah. And so that's basically all I have for the psychology, but what it leads us to is that this is mainly what we see in sexual killings. Very common in sexual serial killings, and that it's all

about power and control. That is number one thing is I have the power to crush the wind out of you. Great. It's like, can you imagine the kind of pleasure that this dude was getting knowing, not only, because obviously control was something he needed in power, that he knew women all over Boston were living in terror. We're terrified of him. Terror. He must have loved this.

That's so weird to put your mind there. Isn't it? Yeah. You feel like you should have, but you're like, I got it. But you go there and then you're like, shit, that's a dark place. Yeah. Like that is some junction. It is picture him in like a lazy boy, like watching the news and like I just feel like his apartment is dirty. Oh, 100%. You know, in seven, the guy that, like, eats himself to death, yeah, I try to make it look like that. Yeah. That's what I like the house. I feel like that's what his house was like.

Because he's just he's just so mean. And he's just so like dark. He's obviously trying to make up for something. Yeah. That he's lacking sorely. Yeah. So it's like you just picture this little little bit of a dude just sitting there being like, yeah, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, yeah, you kill widows who are living alone. Like, good, a kudos dude, you're really killing it out there. Like fuck off. And jail don't they not like people that killed people?

No, they don't. I think jail doesn't like, you know, when you kill elderly people, rapists, child killers, and it crimes against women are tended. Right. It's a weird hierarchy. Prison is interesting. It's a very interesting thing.

We should do it. We should do it prison episode. I know. That would be a good thing. The hierarchy of prison. It's just discussing the hierarchy of prison life. So now that we've talked about the physiology and the psychology of this, let's get into the next victims.

So we're on victim number seven. This was like I said, about three and a half months later, which is wild after Jane Sullivan. The next, this was on December 5th, 1962. On this day, it was 40 degrees out and it had been raining all day. That's my weather, sis. I know, I love that weather. I want that weather so bad right now. I do too, but after hearing this,

you're like, I don't want that weather. The victim was 21 year old Sophie Clark, 21. Who ya? So we have done quite a jump. Does he have sister issues now? Well, it gets even more different. She was an African-American woman. Oh.

Now, he had killed previously elderly white women who lived alone. Sophie Clark was a 21-year-old African-American student living with roommates. Interesting. Very different. She was known to be very careful and didn't go out a lot. No one will ever say that about me when I die. No, they will not. Certainly not me. Can you lie? I'll lie for you, I don't want to. And she lived in an apartment at 315 Huntington Avenue in Backbay in Boston. Yeah, Backbay.

By day she was a hospital technician and at night she attended classes at Carnegie Institute of Medical Technology on Beacon Hill. Which is interesting, another medical person. Exactly. I know it is weird. So she was super smart, super responsible, very reliable, didn't go out a lot, just studied, did her thing. A sweet angel.

She really was. So this particular afternoon, she sat home writing a letter to her fiance Chuck, non-leaving, who lived back in New Jersey where she was from. He was planning on visiting her the next week and they were both super excited about this visit, like super in love. Stop. Yeah, it's awful. Now it gets worse. Great. She was killed in the middle of writing this letter. So this letter abruptly stops. Oh my god. I wouldn't I wouldn't want Chuck to read it. I know. I wouldn't want him to suffer that. I know. It's awful. And he was never considered a suspect by the way.

Oh, it has been, he was like a way. Yeah, but they didn't, you know, yeah, true, true, true. So there's just little pieces of this letter that I just want to read to you to show how like, no, don't do it. Don't do that to me. I'm really going to ruin you guys here.

But it just shows how like, just sweet and just in love they were. You know, how I feel about love. And how just like oblivious she was to. What was about to hop? She was very aware of what was going on in Boston and she was very nervous about it. But it's like, you never think it's going to happen to you. And she was just sitting in her apartment on the afternoon of December 5th, writing a letter.

It's just a typical afternoon. Typical afternoon. She had a whole night planned out. Didn't even it would never cross your mind that somebody stood up. So did he break in? We don't know. Oh, he there was no sign of forced entry in this scene.

Okay. But it looks like she let him in even though that was very against her, her ways. Now here's some of the letter. It began my dearest chap. No. May this letter find the man that, man I love well. How is that cold? I feel fine, especially after you called me last night. No. You're the kind of medicine I need. Oh my God, my heart is aching. And then in another paragraph, she said, today is a nasty day. I do hope the weather will be better next week for our sakes. I hope it won't be too late when you get here.

I know it depends on when you finish work, but you know I'll be sitting here waiting. I fell asleep last night playing an album by the flamingos. Tonight I'll start my homework then I finish this letter. Then I will switch over to the kitchen to cook supper. We're going to have liver tonight cooked in onion and gravy with mashed potatoes and a vegetable, I guess. And then in another paragraph she says, When is your friend going to move in with you?

I'll be glad for you then because you won't have as many expenses. I was going to suggest that you get a phone, but I guess you can do without it. And then she writes in a new paragraph, I, and that's it. Oh, I got chills. So she starts a new paragraph that starts I, and it's done. I love you.

So that's what she was gonna say. It's like really, I can't stop thinking about how oblivious we all are. You know, like you know in the back of your mind that like anything can happen all this, especially when stressing me out. Something like that is happening, but none of these victims went home to their apartments thinking, well, maybe I'm going to be next today. They just did their shit like that they normally do and boom. Off snuffed. It's like snuffed. It's just so upset. It's like so. I don't know, man.

You just never know what's gonna happen tomorrow. It blows your mind. It really does. It's just, it doesn't all love in it. You really fucked me up there. It's the unsuspecting victims. The fact that she was writing? You know how I am. I know. And I'm obviously going to post photos of these victims on her Instagram. She was beautiful. Oh.

Now, it's like the notebook Boston Strangler style. I know. I'm hopeful. Now, her roommate Gloria Todd, she did interviews after, she, after Sophie was found. Okay. She said she had a habit of calling Sophie every day

between four and four thirty. And that day she called around four, fifteen and didn't get an answer. And that made her feel, she said I just like felt odd about it because she was like Sophie was very reliable. She was home a lot. And we always had a phone call. Yeah, and she was like, she knew I was going to be calling

around this time. And she said she always had a routine of school and work and then straight home to study. She didn't really do anything else. So she called again at 4.30, still no answer. So Gloria came home from work around 5.30. She said she didn't immediately unlock the door. She knocked on the door first and called out to Sophie.

Oh. Because she said she was Feeling weird. Like she was just like I didn't know what I was gonna walk into because she hadn't answered that phone And I was very nervous. Oh shit. So she said I knocked on the door. Nothing called out to her nothing. So she said That's when I took out my keys and I unlocked the door. I last feeling must have been horrible. And she said she immediately saw Sophie. Sophie was, I'm gonna discuss how she was found, just so you know. She was on her back, her legs were spread wide open. She was wearing a garter belt, black stockings,

and a blue floral house coat and bra that were torn open to expose her. Oh God. The house coat was literally ripped open and she had been sexually assaulted. She was strangled by a stalking in a petty coat that had been intertwined. Because you know in the other ones we mentioned too,

that these, whether it was the Boston Strangler or copycats, they tended to use multiple items to like layer this big bow that they would make. On the carpet near her body, police found some stains. Okay. Turned out to be semen. Gross. Which is very different from the other scenes.

Right. So when Gloria found her, this is just really sad. Well, she said one of the first thoughts she had was, oh my God, what am I going to tell her mother? Oh God. And she said the reason she thought this immediately was because when Sophie moved in with them, she said she had promised her mother

that she would take care of her. And she said, I told her, don't worry. Oh God. And she said, she had, and now Sophie had actually told her father weeks earlier when she visited home in New Jersey that she was terrified of the skill or on the loose. Oh my God. And her parents weren't worried because she was so careful. And she wasn't an old lady.

Exactly. And all the reports were saying there's no sign of four century. He's being let in. Right. And Sophie would never let somebody in. So this whole thing is very weird obviously because it completely goes against the normal pattern of the killer. The methods are the same, but the victim profile takes a sharp turn here.

And all of the other women, so all the other women are elderly and white. This was a beautiful young African-American woman. And killers just don't do that. It's serial killers rarely deviate at all. Yeah, from their... But if they deviate slightly, it is slightly. It's not going to be age, race, and, you know, situation. And especially a sexual serial killer to deviate, that's almost unheard of. Yeah. Because they have a type that they're

going towards. Now it wasn't just the victim profile that changed in this one though, like that it was like the American and well the first crimes in part one, like we mentioned were called perfect crimes because he left nothing and he took nothing. And this one, he left a big old sign. He left behind here and he left Siemens. That's a big thing to leave behind. Seriously. Even though DNA was not something that people still, you left something behind. She had also not been assaulted with an object, which is totally different from the other ones. And this is a huge deal, this one thing, because the previous victims that were assaulted with objects,

that fact was never printed in any media or released to the public. Oh. All of the sexual assaults with foreign objects, none of it was released to the public. So no one knew that. So this, if this was a copycat killer, they wouldn't know about this particular piece of ritualistic behavior. So they wouldn't be able to add it into the scene to really sell the strangler thing. So it makes it look like a copycat who was like, oh, they were all sexually assaulted. I can do that. Right. But what they didn't know is that's not how he rolls. Right. So that's an interesting deviation here. An argument for like there maybe there was too. Yeah, exactly. So

I mean, there's just, to me, Sophieke is most certainly not the same. I don't think so. But people immediately postulated that Sophie knew her killer. Oh. There were articles about this everywhere. All her friends and family said that this made sense because she never would have opened the door to a stranger one, and especially if she was wearing just a house coat. Right.

That was a matter of... They said she was very modest and they said, even at home, she would never...no one saw her in a house coat unless it was like her roommates, her boyfriend, somebody who she really knows. So there's no way she would have opened that door wearing that house coat. Her roommates said a man named Bob Peyton had actually taken Sophie out before that, like recently, and he had been in their apartment. Neighbors said that he had been in the building on the day that Sophie was found.

Interesting. One neighbor said he even knocked on her door and appeared like weird and like sketchy and sweaty. And he said that he was there to borrow a book from her husband. That's weird. And she was like, no. And just kind of shouldn't know. Like she was like, I don't know who you are.

Police actually interrogated him and he failed to polygraphs. Oh. Which obviously can go either way, but still interesting. Do you think that he was going to attack that woman? I don't know. That's weird. It's just a weird behavior. Yeah. And he was just released because they didn't have anything really to tie him to the field to Polygraph. You can't keep someone for a polygraph. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, that's not a good enough evidence because it's so variable. Right. They can't rely on that shit. So they, he just was released, but Bob Peyton looks like a good one to me for that crime. Yikes, he's.

Now, the next victim was three weeks later. It was on New Year's Eve in 1962. New Year's Eve, I'm saying. I love that holiday. I know you do. Don't ruin that for people. The victim was 23 year old Patricia Bassett. No, I'm 23. So we're sticking with low 20s here, which again, low 20s. Now I'm concentrating on these two victims like going into more detail with them because to me these two are totally different outliers to me. Patricia Bassett was attending Middlebury College and she had been editor of the yearbook there. She also told people that she was not scared of the Boston Stringley. Girl, don't be running around saying that. It's like an urban legend when the girl with the radio show was like, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, and then... Exactly.

Off. That's done for. That was a perfect description of that. mom, mom, and then exactly. Off. That's on for that was a perfect description of that. Yeah, I'm not, oh, I'm not victim for me. No, the rate. I just love how you like the girl with the radio shows like, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom. Yeah, that's what she was like. Off. That's what happens. That was the scene. That was what the story board looked like. Listen, if I could recreate it any other way, I wouldn't. No, and obviously she's not victim but we're just saying, just don't put it into the universe.

It's like that you're not scared. All the movies that the people are like, and that scared of that. Yeah, and then it always ends up happening. So just don't do it, just be a little careful. Yeah. So Patricia worked as a receptionist or a secretary at an engineering company called Engineering Systems Inc.

Eek! And it was located in Kenmore Square. Fun! Fun Kenmore Square! Hashtag Fenway, yeah! So the vice president of this company, Jules Rothman, who becomes very important. Jules. He showed up at her apartment that day at 515 Park Drive to give her a ride to work. Who is this man's the vice president of the company? Okay. How old is this man? When I read that, I was like, huh, what's going on? Weird.

How many vice presidents give their secretary a ride to work? I don't know. I'm just... No, no, no, no. Jules. Well, she didn't answer the door. I cordoned him. Okay. And he figured she overslept or something,

so he just went to work. Because he was like, I gotta go to work on the vice president. Okay. The day went on, she still never showed up. So he got a little worried and he attempted to call. He said he called a few times and he got no answer. So this was very unlike her. So he got worried and he decided to drive back

to her apartment to check on her. She didn't answer the knocking on the door or calling to her. So he ended up getting a janitor in the building to give him a step ladder and he crawled through the window. OK. When he got in there, he opened the door for the janitor. And as soon as he opened it, Jules apparently said to the janitor, she's dead. She's got a stocking around her throat.

Okay. And the janitor was like, oh shit. But that's the first thing he said. As soon as he opened the door, he was like, she's dead. She's got a stocking around her throat. Like a, the shrine glow. But like, just saying, looks the exact same. So Patricia Bessette was found in bed and she was in a

bra and a blue and red house coat. There was a sheet and a blanket that were pulled up to her chin and they were smoothed out. That's interesting. That had been very carefully laid into bed. Underneath that, she had been strangled with four pieces of clothing. Directly against her neck, there was a knotted blouse over that an nylon stocking and then two stockings tied together in a big bow. Okay. The medical examiner said there were no signs of trauma other than the strangulation, but there was evidence that sexual activity had occurred recently. They couldn't tell if it was rape or not, but it had occurred recently. Okay. No signs of forced

entry into the apartment. She was one month pregnant. Oh, yes. Sis. So the police immediately interrogate Jewels Rothman. Yeah. Because shit looked like Sophie's did. They were like pregnant. Yeah, and it looked like someone she knew did this Mm-hmm. Just like Sophie's Jewels Rothman was married with kids and was having an affair with Patricia Bassett. Was he the dad? They think he was the and he believed he was the dad of that child. So the interrogation is bonkers to use the dad of that child. So the interrogation is bonkers. You can, there's a total account of this interrogation in a really great book about this case that I was using for some of the research called the Boston Stranglers, and it's by Susan Kelly,

who believes there more than one Boston Strangler. It's a really good book. She got so much information, and she has a total transcript of this interrogation. Oh cool. And it's crazy. So police asked was she, and this is just, you look at it and you're like, damn. Oh gosh. Police asked quote, was she an easy girl to have intercourse with? Oh wow. Is that just right out the gate? Okay. And Jules replied here. Yeah, like just like give it to me straight And Jules replied quote yes, that is the trouble with her It wasn't trouble for you you sack of her good-to-tayed bile like what do you mean?

That's the trouble with her that's the trouble with her you didn't seem to have trouble with it Well, he's trying to make it look like she's super promiscuous Well, that's the thing. I'm like, fuck you, man. Yeah. Go fuck yourself, Jewel. Swanjie, go home to your three kids. That's the trouble with her. What's the trouble with you?

You're married with kids. Right. Oh, bitch. Fucking Jewel. You're not a Jewel. You're a Jewel pod. So then when, so then they asked so she didn't say no a lot. And he replied, not to me.

Well, yeah, you were like in a relationship. And it sounds like gross. Yeah, like all you're so special. Gross, sir. Yeah, fuck you. Gross on all accounts. Fuck yourself, Jules. That's when they started pressing about whether he knew

that she was pregnant or not. Because they were like, because I, and my month is like very soon, like she might not have even known. No, I think she definitely knew. Oh, she did? Yeah, she did. And I was saying, you know, when I first started this, I was like,

the police would be in Dix asking that. But I think the police did this because they knew who Jules Rathman was and they were trying to be like, so she was easy, huh? You know, I mean, like get him to talk like, do make him comfortable. Yeah. So she was easy, huh? You know, I mean, like get him to talk like do make him comfortable. Yeah, and so this is when they started being like, did you know she was pregnant? So when they asked him about it, he said he knew that she had a stir period. Oh, oh, oh, and she had told him, I think I'm pregnant because I hadn't had it in over a month. And they said, what was your reaction to that?

And he said he got in touch with a friend of his to ask about illegal abortions for her. Hey there, fellow podcast listener, it's Elena. And Ash, and we're taking you back to the days before streaming services. Whoa. You know, when you would come home from high school, and it was only a few hours until that TV show,

everyone was watching was about to come on. Well, in 1999, that show was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In our podcast with Wondery, the re-watcher Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we take it back to 1999. So get out your knee-high boots and paste that poster of Angel on the wall. It's time to enter the Buffyverse. Some of you avid morbid listeners already know what we've gotten store.

Hey, my nose. Join us as we sway our way through Buffy's drama, action and romance. Episode by episode. Slazy, follow the rewatcher, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Darn, un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our newest series, we look at the Kids for Cash Scandal, a story about corruption inside America's system of juvenile justice. In Northeastern

Pennsylvania, residents had begun noticing an alarming trend. Children were being sent away to jail in high numbers, and often for committing only minor offenses. The FBI began looking at two local judges, and when the full picture emerged, it made national headlines. The judges were earning a fortune, carrying out a brazen criminal scheme, one that would shatter the lives of countless children, and force a heated debate about punishment, an America's criminal justice system. Follow American scandal wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen ad-free on the Amazon music or wonder app. So what's interesting about that is she was having a fair with a married man. Yup. Who just found out she was pregnant and didn't want to be pregnant. And was attempting to get an illegal abortion for her. And then she's found dead. Yeah. That's troublesome. There's another little troublesome detail. found dead. Yeah, that's troublesome. There's another little troublesome detail. In the book by Susan Kelly, she points out that the body of Patricia was also very differently posed than all the others. Yeah, like she was like taken care of. She was in bed, covers pulled up, covering her body, not exposing her, which indicates that someone who is weird and you know when we any time we say this like when parent you know when kids are Found and like blankets and stuff

It's not like this caring person that did this it's just like a subconscious Exactly it's that psychological need when you know or cared about and you're like connected to them that you just subconsciously do things They don't mean you're a good person to them that you just subconsciously do things. They don't mean you're a good person. Because you're not. You're not. You're not, jewels. Okay. So this covering is important, not just because of what it signifies, but it also covered the ligatures around her neck, which make it weird that jewels is first thing. Oh. She's dead in the stockings around her neck. Oh. You couldn't see it.

Oh. And he didn't pull back those covers. Jules. You fucked up. He kind of fucked up. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything concrete tying him to the case, so they couldn't arrest him.

Come on. But if you ask me, Jules, I think he did it. I am just saying. I hope his wife left him. Come on. But if you ask me, I think he did it. I am just saying, I hope his wife left him. It honestly, because now we're going to take a quick step back before we go to victim number nine. We're going to step back into the late 50s to about 1960. Okay. Before Sophie and Patricia's deaths, it's when there were tons of reports of a man police later referred to as the measuring man, who was going door to door to tell women that they had futures and modeling.

This man was super charming and polite. He would talk his way into being let into the apartment, saying he was a scout for the, quote, black and white modeling agency. Oh, and seems legit. Yeah, seems totally a little bit. But then it's like in the 1960s, people were so much more trusting. Yeah, the shit didn't happen. And when he got in there, he would take measurements of the women, the fuck? Mostly without a measuring tape, he would just use his hands. Like they would say he would like put his thumbs together

and just like put it around your waist to measure. And they were like, I thought it was weird, but I thought it was weird. You don't know. And when he would do that, he would most times try to fondle them while he was doing it. Gross. The man would then try to get the woman to sleep with him.

And if she said no, he would come back later, pick her lock and wait for her in her apartment. Nope. Yep. He was eventually caught in the process of picking one of these women's locks when she wasn't home. Did he kill them? No. He just like scurried them. He assaulted women. Oh yeah. May 3rd 1961. They did. So he was arrested trying to do this. Yeah. So May 3rd, 1961, there was one day trial for him, and he was found guilty on eight counts of breaking and entering. Wow. And he was sentenced to 18 or two years in prison and released, according according to documents on May in May 1963. Who do you think that guy was? Was it Albert? Albert DeSalvo.

So we just wanted to put that out there. What a fucking weirdo. That according to this, he would have been in jail for the first full year of the Boston Strangler killings. Just keep that aside. Keep it in mind. So, and that would seem to discount him completely. He was interesting. He was interesting. But what?

Hold on to it. Hold on to your butts. Because it's going to come back at the end of this episode. So don't worry, you don't have to wait another thing to find out what I mean here. So, on to victim number nine. In March 1963 1963 in Lawrence, 68-year-olds Mary Brown was found on the floor of her apartment. So we're back to regular. We're back to another quote unquote, really, overly person. She was found with her head covered with a sheet. She had been raped, strangled, and beaten in her head. And she'd also been stabbed in her breasts with a kitchen fork that was left in her chest.

Huh. Yes. A kitchen fork? Yes. Now, this may seem way too different than all the other ones, but this one kind of seems like it could go along with the elderly ones Even though it's an escalation escalations do have it. Yeah, exactly

But why was her head covered with the sheet? Well, that's yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, that seems like that's a variation, but it's also like he did put Jane Sullivan Underwater her face under what if so maybe that was like a weird covering or face thing So like he did put Jane Sullivan underwater. Her face underwater. So maybe that was like a weird covering or face thing. You know, you never know.

Later, when DeSalvo confessed to some of these murders, which he did, he said about this one that he said he described the kitchen faucet in her house, perfect. He was talking about the yellow kitchen radio and the investigator actually said that sheet you covered her with must have been bloody and his response was, oh was it my God. But was it? And it was. Okay. So those are the kind of things that in part three we're

going to go through his confession. Sure. And really dissect it. But those are the kind of things that like when he would describe certain things in like great detail, but they were like, huh. How does he know this? Right. And now where we are right now, DeSalvo has not been arrested for this crime. Remember? Okay. So victim 10 was on May 8, 1963, on University Road in Cambridge. This victim is 23 years old. I don't like that theme. Her name was Beverly Sammons, and she was figured out that something was a rye when she missed choir practice, which was unlike her, and it alerted people that something was

off. Right. She was found on her bed, stretched out, completely naked, stabbed, and strangled, and her hands were tied behind her back. Oh. The thing that made them connect it with this is two silk scarves and a nylon stocking. We're not in a bow around her neck. Now, this strangulation around her neck was not the cause of death according to the medical examiner because they said none of the bones in her neck had been fractured. And in strangulation, any kind of like thing

with the neck, the hyoid bone, which is like a free floating bone on top of your larynx, will break in most cases. If that's not broken, the cause of death is likely not. Strangulation. They use that a lot and like skeletal remains when they not broken, the cause of death is likely not strangulation. They use that a lot in skeletal remains when they're trying to find cause of death. If they find a broken hyoid bone, it points them to strangulation. First smartest block.

I just like bones and bodies. That's cool. You should put that on a shirt. Just like bones and bodies. I just like bones and bodies. That murder of Harold. That would be a great one. That murder of Harold. So she had been stabbed 22 times. Oh yeah. Four of those times were in the neck. 18 were in the chest in the shape of bull's eyes.

What? Yeah. She had been raped. And she had what they think this so this is interesting not funny but interesting They think that the reason she was not killed by strangulation was because she had very strong throat muscles from singing Oh, and so it was hypothesized that she was stabbed because strangulation wasn't working Oh, he tried but he couldn't do it because she had stronger throat muscles.

That's so interesting. So, protecting those delicate things in your neck. Right, that's cool. Isn't that interesting? I mean, that's awful. I know, I know. Because she's so dead. I know, she's got stabbed, which is awful.

She was a musical therapist and a graduate student in music at Boston University. The next victim was victim 11. This was on September 8th, 1963, and it was in Salem. My favorite fucking place. I fucking love Salem. We're going to Salem soon be up. We are. Love Salem. I could go there every day. And we're gonna do something cool in Salem. We have something to play on. We too. I'm excited. It's not a meet and greet I'm sorry. No, it's not. But that'd be cool. Maybe we could add that to that. Yeah, maybe we could do that. Who knows? So the next this victim was

Evelyn Corbin. She was a 58 year old divorcee and She had had breakfast with her neighbor that day. Oh people said she was very young looking Mm-hmm, which is like a gentleman. Exactly. So she had had breakfast with her neighbor that day. People said she was very young looking, which is interesting to know. Like I'm gonna tell them. Exactly. So she had had breakfast with her neighbor, Flora Manchester. What a name.

What a name. And then she went home to dress for mass at St. Teresa's church. And they were planning to meet for lunch after. This is wholesome as fuck. At one o'clock, Flora was getting nervous because she didn't show. So she went to her apartment and she got no response. So she unlocked the door because she had a key.

Just so you know, this one is a little graphic and rough. So great. If you don't want it, press the skip button. Where's my skip button? You don't get one. She found Evelyn draped over her bed with her right leg dangling towards the floor. Uh-huh.

Around her neck were two stockings tied in a bow. And a third was wrapped around her left ankle. Where? And then a fourth was found on the bed. And she had been raped. And you said there was a bow, right? Yeah, and there was a bow. Her underwear had also been stuffed in her mouth. Oh, Jesus Christ. And again, this scene had traces of semen, which is weird. Very weird. Now, the next victim was victim number 12, and it was on November 25th, 1963.

It was 23-year-old. Fuck. Joanne Graff. Too many 23s. She was an industrial designer in Lawrence, and neighbors said she was a quiet, super sweet girl. She was a Sunday school teacher and an artist. She just seemed like a well-rounded individual. She

didn't show up for dinner Saturday night or for Sunday church services so people were like what the fuck's going on. So there are people who knew her friends and family called the police and said somebody needs to go check. Police were the ones to find her naked body. Oh no. Again, graphic crime scene, skip if you don't want to hear. Her blouse was pushed up to her armpits to expose her completely. Two nylon stockings and a leotard were knotted in a bow around her neck. And people said that they did see a man near her apartment that day. And so they said this man was wearing dark green slacks, dark shirt, and a dark jacket. Okay. Remember this for later. Dark, dark, dark, dark. Because green pants or green man is going to come back. Green man. And that'll probably come back in part three. So hang on to that. Okay.

Victim 13 was on January 4th 1964. It was at 44A Charles Street. And this was the youngest victim and the last victim attributed to the Boston Strangler. She was 19 years old. Oh Jesus. Her name was Mary Sullivan. That day on January 4th, she was finishing moving into her new apartment that she would be sharing with two roommates and it was actually her first full day in the apartment. Oh my God. Which is nightmare. And she was probably so excited. And it's like you're all excited. You're all in your nervous because it's a new apartment and you're like, oh, I don't know this place yet. And then this shit happens. And then these two girls are like, great, now we have to live here.

And it's like really? Yeah. So she had just got a job with PhyLeans. And I think her roommates were also working at PhyLeans. PhyLeans. I know. TBT. Throw it on back.

But I think her roommates also worked there. That's where they all kind of met. That's cute. And if you listen to the Strangler's podcast that I talked about last week, or excuse me, in part one, they go, they talk to her roommates and like her family members and go really in depth into her. So definitely go listen to that

because that's a lot of information about her. Apparently she was just super psyched. She had just moved to Boston. She was excited. She had a new job, new roommates. She was found murdered by her roommates. They came home from work and they called to her, but they got no answer. So they started making dinner in the kitchen and they called to her again from the kitchen

because they were starting to get nervous, but they were scared to go in there and look. And when she didn't answer, they said they were terrified. So they opened the door to her room and they said she knew she was dead right away. Oh, God. And then they got immediately terrified because they thought the killer could still be in the house. Oh, my God. She was found in the sitting position. Now this one is really rough. Okay. Skip, skip, skip, if you do not want to hear a graphic description of sexual assault. Here I am.

Skip, skip, skip. So she was found sitting up on her bed. Her back was against the headboard. She had been strangled with two dark stockings that were tied in a big bow. She had been sexually assaulted with a broom handle. Huh! And this broom handle was left protruding from her body. What? Yes. Even worse, a happy New Year's card was wedged between her feet.

What? And there was seamen collected from her body. So this killer left her sitting up with the broom handle that he had raped her with protruding from her body and a happy new years card between her feet. That's so strange. That's the new years card. Fucked up. Yeah. That is beyond fucked up. Like the killer is saying like happy like like like he's left it there. Oh, no, he's just making a disgusting. He put a happy New Year's card in front of a raped and dead woman. Like that's so thick. Again, this is just left this room in her room. This is like the Ida Urga crime scene where she was propped up and facing the door. Right, right, right.

He likes people walking into this awful shit. I can't imagine like being a fucking 19 year old with like new roommates and like that's yeah, that's how you start your your fucking journey of living by yourself. I honestly can't even imagine. Oh my God. Now, just a little, just a little aside about Mary Sullivan, when she graduated from Barnstable High School in 1962, classmates said that she was happy go lucky and that she was just a sweet girl,

very quiet, very unassuming. And she ended up being the last known victim of the Boston Strangler or Boston Stranglers. So this is one attorney general Edward Brooke who was the first African-American to hold the job in the whole country. Interesting. Formed the Strangler task force. And this was going to allow all information and investigation to fall under one umbrella.

This is where they could all shoot all the different towns that these were happening in could share all of their shit. And they brought together all the best detectives that had been on all the crime scenes together. So the police were clearly now desperate and they even sought the help of some clairvoyance. Oh cool. The first that they sought help from was Paul Gordon and he was an ad copywriter that was said to have ESP powers. He said the description of the killer of Anne East Leicesters would fit this guy named Arnold Wallace who was a patient in a mental institution held at Boston State Hospital who had escaped on several occasions most of what's coincided with the strangler. He was consulted about the the Sophie

Clark murder and he actually weirdly had detailed knowledge of her apartment and made a description that fit a guy named Lewis Barnett who was the initial suspect in the murder but nothing concrete came out of any of these. They couldn't pin them on any of them all they kind of fell apart when they tried to connect it. Right. So it just ended up being like cool that you could do that, but we didn't work. Yeah. The second psychic was Peter Herkos, and he was a well-known psychic, like his whole life, with he had been on other cases. That's so cool.

He showed the hands of not being cool. Oh, no. He showed the police his skills by just coming out with shit like one time an officer was late and claimed he had car trouble but Peter just looked at him and said that's not true. You're late because you were having sex with your girlfriend. Oh my God. What a savage. And I guess the police officers like what face was like what the fuck? And then he said

he described it like how it happened like how. Wow. So they were like all right, maybe you can help us. So they said he drinks scotch on the rocks and smokes cigars constantly. She's healthy. She's healthy. They would just let him hold his hand over evidence or like drive him around until something triggered him. Yeah. One day, the police brought him a letter and they said, what do you think of this? And it was someone they had been slightly looking at

as a suspect and they just wanted to see what he was, he thought of it. He didn't open the letter, he just held it and he told the police, the guy who wrote it, had a sharp nose and a scar on his left arm. He was a feminine, tortured and nervous. His words not mine. He also said he hated women and sold shoes. Okay. This described the guy perfectly.

Oh shit. And he was, the guy was Tony Moran and he was a door-to-door salesman who sold nurse issues. Interesting. He was being looked at because he was currently in a mental institution. And he was being looked at because of his job having access to women's homes, the gaining entry. So he was detained and his apartment was, his apartment was searched. They found a book of yoga drawings with 11 drawings of women exed out. And at this point, they only knew of 11 victims. Oh, shit. They had to connect with the other two.

So they were like, uh, well, unfortunately his alibi is all checked out. And he had honestly no information in the case. So it was just a weird and maybe he had done that because he had heard of some of the cases and he was like seeing because he wasn't a mental institution at the time. So maybe he was having, you know, some kind of moment and just did that. So nothing tied him to it, at least, and he never ever became anything else. That was spooky.

Now, Peter Herkos left boss of the psychic, left bossed in after six days on the investigation, and then was arrested a few days later for impersonating an FBI agent and investigating the JFK assassination. The fuck? Basically, this whole thing was looked at as like a joke. Like people were like, did you really bring psychics and like, what are you doing? And it kind of embarrassed the shit out of the police. Well, it helped.

Like, they just were trying, man. They were reaching its flaws. They didn't have anything. So a full year of investigating later, it was detective Phil Denali, So a full year of investigating later, it was Detective Phil Denali, who really broke it wide open. Phil D'Nattali is amazing. Like he's one of those detectives on those cases

that you're like, what the fuck? Like that guy was born to be a detective. Like he just does. It was so cool. Yeah, he just like does the damn thing. But you know what, I bet they know how cool they are. But I don't know. I think he just is like, the bee is neat. Just a bad ass. It's like Paul Holes.

They just don't, they don't even know it. They're just like, that's the best. I just do things like that. I hope I marry a dude like that someday. Like Paul Holes. Yeah. I want to marry Paul Holes. So a friend of Phil said that there was, the way that this all came about was that a friend of Phil's came to him and was like Phil I got something to tell you

And he was like this woman wrote to the head of security at mass general hospital Friday, January 8th 1965 and the girl was a nurse in the hospital and she said she had seen a man named Albert DeSalvo. He had come to her apartment. He had told, he had like forced his way in, told her he was the Boston stranger, raped her, and bound her and left her spread evil.

Did he think that she was dead? Probably. I don't think so. I think this was just an assault. But this woman remains anonymous to this day, Did he think that she was dead probably? I don't think so. I think this was just an assault. But this woman remains anonymous to this day and they weren't able to get any more information because she didn't want anyone knowing. Oh shit.

Well, Dean Atali was like, I'm going to follow this shit. He was like, Albert Salvo, I got to find out who this guy is. Right. So, DeSalvo was already locked up by Cambridge police for breaking and entering an intention to commit a Lasavius in a natural act totally unrelated to this. Okay. Was this the picking? He was already a creep This wasn't the picking thing. Oh, this is another thing and Yeah, they had him for The B&E the intention to commit a

Lasavius in a natural act he had already committed about four assaults and rapes in the Cambridge area. So he was already on like a spree of sexual assault. Right. And he was being held in Bridgewater State Hospital. So the Cambridge police had questioned him immediately about the strangler crimes because they were, you know, sexual assaults, you're gonna, they were asking anybody. Yeah. But he, they got nothing from him. And when they asked him about it,

he actually answered, don't be absurd. Like, are you the guy? And he was like, don't be absurd. And they were like, all right, well, in that obviously wasn't enough for them to be like, oh yeah, this not a guy. He said it's absurd. He was like, you guys are ridiculous.

But the reason they totally discounted him from it was because he was in prison for the measuring man crimes. But what's the for the first year of the strangling? What's the loophole? So when Phil went into the so Phil went to the Cambridge police, he was like, I think you have my guy. I think he's the strangling and they were like, no, dude, like I get it, but he was in fucking jail for that whole time. Like he couldn't have done it. Tell me what happened. So Phil was like, I just don't,

something is telling me that this is more connected than it is and somebody is wrong here. Okay. Which is like crazy detective. It's instinctive. So he went super into Albert's history and he found that he had been arrested at age 12. What?

For two counts of assault and battery. Jesus. His rap sheet and his teens was like for auto theft, breaking and entering theft, and finally he graduated to starting to rape women. Gross. So that he was already like, this is my fucking guy. Right.

So in the late 1950s, he ended up being arrested for rape finally and attempted rape. So he was like, this is all great. But he was not out of jail for the first chair of the Strangler murders. Wrong. What? Filled a deep.

And he went into the courthouse archives because he was like the Cambridge police didn't have on file at that time. They didn't have computers. So he didn't have on file all the shit that went down during that. They just he was sentenced to this. That's when he was there. Well, when he went into the courthouse archives to see if there was some way that the Cambridge police were incorrect. He was right because Albert DeSalvo was paroled in April 1962. Wow. This is two months before the first victim, Anna Slesers, was murdered in her apartment,

June 14, 1962. Ending on a fucking bang, bang, bitch. Whoa. So this is when he was like, holy shit. I got my dude. And that's where we're going to end part two. Thank you for listening and keep it. No, we're just kidding.

Part three is going to be all Albert DeSalvo. And we're going to go Part three is gonna be all Albert to Salvo and we're gonna go into all the other stuff like how they found out that from his employer that he was absent on days of the murders. Oh my god. He came in late on days. I love this shit. When the murders were early, I eat it up. He left early on days that the murders were late. It shit works. Oh yeah. We're just gonna we're gonna throw all kinds of shit. I love this shit. We're just gonna, we're gonna throw all kinds of shitties. I love this shit. Can I just tell you, you're doing like a really good job.

Thank you. You're welcome. I'm sweating, so I hope you're doing good job. All right guys, well, this has been real and we will see you next week with part three of the Boston Strangler. Yeah. We are going to quickly thank some patronesses.

I'm sorry that we're not able to spend more time on each name here, but we have a lot of patronesses. So we want to make sure your names get shouted out and you get thanked. So number one is Nicole Caldwell. Nicole Caldwell, you sound like a witch. I don't know why that last name always makes me think of a witch, but thank you so much. Thanks girl Next is Joshua Morgan. Joshua Morgan. You have Dexter Morgan's last name and that makes you a badass and you so much Sonia Morgan. So thank you so much. There's our different personalities. Hey Brittany Waller. You're the fucking best You're a baller Brittany Waller. Thank you so much. There's our different personalities. There you go. Hey, Brittany Waller, you're the fucking best.

You're a baller, Brittany Waller. Oh, thank you so much. Thanks, Brit. Laura Trigg, you're the best. You are. I'm gonna pull Trigg and say your name. There you go. Hey, oh.

Thank you so much. Madonna in the house. Hey, oh. Thank you, Erica. Erica, so hot right now. Thank you so much. You know who else is so hot right now? Who else? Andrea. Andrea, so hot right now. Thank you so much. You know who else is so hot right now? Who else?

Andrea. Andrea, so hot right now. Thank you. So much. Liz Ferguson, I'd like to give you a big old thanks. I love you, Liz Ferguson. Fergie? Thanks.

Thank you. Uh, Harley Ann. Harley Ann. Your name's Harley, so that's a cool name. Yeah, you're so cool. But nobody fucks with you. I just want to hang out with you, so thank you, Harley. Thank you.

Girl, if I butcher your last name, I'm just so sorry. Rachel Kazmirsky. Rachel Kazmirsky, that's just a great, any name that isn't ski, I just love. I do too. I think it's great. I think it sounds good in my mouth. I love you.

Thank you. Thanks, Rachel. We then have, oh, I like this last name. Jasmine Beringer. Jasmine Beringer. You're a whole new world. Yes. Thank you, Jasmine. I love you so much, Jasmine. Thank you. Do you know who else I love?

Who else? Andrea Rashid. Andrea Rashid. Don't you love her? You get out of town. I love you. I love you Andrea. Thank you. And I have a little bit of love left to get for this one last person

Who is Lisa Flowers? Lisa Flowers. Which is convenient because I doodle flowers all over this page. She did. So your name is surrounded by flowers So thank you so much Lisa Flowers. I would give you a bouquet of flowers. Thank you to all of our motherfucking Patreons. You guys are the fucking tits. Thank you, thank you, thank you. If you don't already, you can head on over to Instagram and follow us at morbidpodcasts. You could go on Twitter and follow us at. A morbidpodcasts.

You could join the Facebook group. morbid, colon, a true crime podcast. It's awesome in there. It's lit. You could send us a gmail. morbidpodcasts.gmail.com. You could, you could donate to the Patreon if you're feeling so inclined.

Patreon.com slash morbidpodcast. We hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But that's a weird thing you're the Boston Strangler. Bye. Bye. Hey, Prime members. You can listen to morbvid, Early, and Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen Add Free with Wondery Plus and

Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. flash survey.