The Boston Serial Killer: Albert Desalvo's Murder

She claims she returned to the victim residence the next morning to ask Smith for his assistance starting her car. When he did not answer, she entered the unlocked residence and found the victim deceased at the bottom of the back steps. There is no indication of forced entry; although, the body was found face up and the lividity on the victim’s face and chest indicate he died face down. The victim died at approximately 12:30 am on June 12, 2012, due to blunt force trauma to the back of the head and a broken neck as result of suspicious

The Boston strangler- Albert DeSalvo Albert DeSalvo was born in 1931 in Boston. His father Frank Desalvo was an alcoholic, abusive father who allowed his kids to steal. When Albert was a child his father would beat his wife and six kids.

June 14, 1962 Anna Slesers was found in her bathroom with a cord around her neck tied in a bow. This was the first of 13 murders believed to have been committed by Albert DeSalvo, the Strangler. Slesers was

At the second door, 82-62 Austin Street, he saw her slumped on the floor at the foot of the stairs. He stabbed her a third time. ”(Pg 129) . The police got their first call from a man that was a neighbor of Miss Genovese, they were there in two minutes. “The neighbor, a seventy year-old woman and another woman were the only persons on the streets.

It was a summer Sunday afternoon in 1982, a partially clothed body discovered floating in the river, becoming a gruesome welcome to a serial killer’s trail (McCarthy & Thornburgh, 2002, p. 1). Next to this woman’s body was a naked 17-year-old girl who was strangled in the same manner as the first (McCarthy & Thornburgh, 2002, p. 1). The horrific discovery of these two women, Marcia Chapman and Cynthia Hinds, will become the beginning of a trail of serial murders. As murders mounted, the killer would be identified as ‘The Green River Killer” because his identity would remain unknown for 19 years. In 2001 detectives were able to use a new technology that tested DNA samples (McCarthy & Thornburgh, 2002, p. 8).

Albert Desalvo was the most notorious serial killer of his time. He caused an uproar around many places as well as man hunts. DeSalvo was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in September 3, 1931 to Frank and Charlotte DeSalvo. His father, an Italian, was a violent alcoholic who at one point knocked out all of his wife's teeth and bent her fingers back until they broke in front of him. His father verbally abused him and brought prostitutes home.

The first victim was Sarai Griffin. She was called by those who knew her to be attacked and had her throat tied up to a ceiling. The cut from the rope was so deep it had exposed her vertebrae.

It was a dark, cold morning and a sudden urgent scream broke the empty silence of the calm spring air. The screams of a young woman awakened many people within hearing distance, but though the yell for help was vital, no help was to arrive. The woman was stabbed multiples times and at age 28, died with no help from the many bystanders who had heard the attack. 1 Catherine Genovese was murdered on March 13, 1964. Genovese worked as a manager at a bar five miles away from her apartment complex.

The most notorious cold case in Los Angeles history is the gruesome murder of Elisabeth Short. On January 15, 1947, Short’s mutilated corpse was found on the ground of a vacant lot by a local mother taking her child for a walk. As the news got word of this tragedy, there were many accused of committing this heinous crime. Although there are many suspects in Elisabeth Short’s murder, evidence suggests that George Hodel is a primary culprit. Elisabeth Short was born July 29, 1924, in Hyde Park of Boston Massachusetts.

Moynihan found DeSalvo competent and announced that his trial would proceed the next day. When Albert DeSalvo stood trial in the Cambridge Massachusetts courtroom for armed robbery and sexual assault, everyone present knew Albert had confessed as the "Boston Strangler" (encyclopedia.com, Albert Henry DeSalvo Trial: 1967). The testimony began from the four victims who had been attacked by DeSalvo in their homes. Two woke to find DeSalvo in their bedroom. One said he had pretended to be a detective before tying her up and committing the offence (encyclopedia.com, Albert Henry DeSalvo Trial: 1967).

Long’s true reign of terror started in 1984, when he murdered his first victim. Over an 8 month period, 10 women would end up missing or dead from an unknown perpetrator who evaded capture every time. Tampa law enforcement suspected that these crimes were committed by a serial killer, since these murders happened around once every other week with the same forensic evidence at the scene. The victims were consistently placed in different body positions with rope, had a tied white scarf placed underneath them, and had red nylon carpet fibers on their body.

William's first victim’s name was Josephine Ross. She got murdered on June 5, 1945, at the age of 43. Ross’ body found repeatedly stabbed with her head wrapped with a dress. The police had mentioned that she was most likely to have had an intruder beforehand and was soon to be known as the killer. In Josephine’s hand, there were dark hairs this shows that she had struggled before she was murdered.

The ages for the victims ranged anywhere from 12 to 28 years old (Chaleff, 1988). Buono and Bianchi would would strangle the victims to death and many of the autopsies reported instances of aggressive torture (Chaleff, 1988). The killings were slow in procedure to ensure that the victim had felt every ounce of pain (Cable et al., 2012). Buono would kill frequently and the murders were random; this caused moral panic throughout Los Angeles (Chaleff, 1988). The cousins had also experimented with lethal injection (Cable et al., 2012).

“But the evidence will show he directed her off the highway to a dark, secluded where he strangled her with a rope and threw her body off a bridge.” Desloup stated (pg 1). As stated in the case, the murder weapon was a rope, as she died because of strangulation. After the murder,

The Boston Strangling case verdict was reached when DeSalvo confessed to committing the crimes. Although, the authorities were suspicious of DeSalvo being the criminal, they noted that he was able to recall minute and comprehensive details of all the crimes and some of the details he recalled were not of public knowledge. He was soon convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He escaped with fellow inmates and later was captured and transferred to a maximum security prison, where he was stabbed to death. A few years ago in 2001, the case was reopened and DeSalvo’s body was exhumed to obtain a DNA sample.