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I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.
She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.
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Beantown. We are back with another installment of the Boston Strangler slash Stranglers.
With a sh instead of a s. Stranglers. That's maybe how they said it back then.
Stranglers. Yes, see? Um, 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 assault.
So horrific. This is going to continue in this episode and gets.
It gets gnarlier? 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 the ladies on this 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 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.
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 going to change. So is it the same strangler?
I don't know. You decide. And here's what we're going to do in this episode.
We're going to 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'm in.
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 have me help you. Yeah, I just didn't care that much, though.
Anyways. So what we're going to do is we'll talk about that.
We're going to get to... the man of the hour, Albert DeSalvo.
But we are really going to dive into Albert DeSalvo in part two. three that's right ladies and gentlemen this episode is so i mean this series is three parts And it's just because there's so much in this case.
Is this our first ever three-parter? It is.
Yeah, and it's our hometown one. Beantown murders.
I just wanted to make sure that we discussed as much as we could about these things before getting to Albert.
So we will get to him, I promise. We're going to 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.
In fact. Pulling off period. Which is...
Weird for him because he was on kind of a tear.
He was doing them 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, could they find much?
Well, they could, and they took what they could.
I mean, even now, they describe 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 rang so differently because they are not as perfect.
And that's why people think that it's two different people.
That and a few other things. 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, and they had like the bows and shit all seven, right?
It's the ritualized behavior that were 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. Right.
And for them to happen in most of those seems to point to the person being the same person.
Sure. And again, that ritualized behavior is what really points them that way.
There were confirmed attempts of copycatting 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 they're going to think it's the strangler.
Right. That's fucked up. 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're like, I would like to.
And I literally did my hand like, I'm ready, guys, 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. 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 5 to 15 seconds Wow.
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, even with the constant and consistent pressure on the neck.
It's a while, right? It's still a couple minutes after that.
But you have to keep applying that pressure.
The same consistency. 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 a minute is a long time when you're timing it.
Oh, absolutely. 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 supply all this important stuff to your brain and 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, like 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 brachiocephalic 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 sternocleidomastoid 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 an internal. Cool.
And they're really vulnerable because they're just kind of hanging out under that muscle.
And the sternocleidomastoid 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 on these hoes. Do it. And its location and 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, 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.
Can 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.
Okay. So they are both equally important.
Yeah. 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 artery.
That's what you're feeling. That's cool.
Yeah, see? Shit. The more you know. I feel like I'm in school you are you're in Elena's science class right now that's very scary you're all in here with me and you can't escape Well, actually, I was going to say they could just hit the 15 button like six times.
Yeah, they definitely can. Please don't do that, though.
No, 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 poundage of pressure that we're talking about is like when somebody is... manually strangling someone and they're putting their body weight 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 brainstem.
So that's really important. And that's what these two vertebral arteries merge to form is this huge blood supply to your brainstem.
This sits at the, so the brain sim literally where, where this is all meeting sits at the base of the pons, which is part of your brain.
It's so interesting how fucking involved your body is.
It is. That's what I love. I love how complex... every system in the human body is and how everything relies on each other to get everything it's like one thing makes me want to be a better person But I'm not there yet.
But you know what? You have the thought.
Yeah. That's the first step. So, basically, it sits at the base of the pons, which is part of your brain stem.
And the PONS, this is just a quick little side, the PONS 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 got sleep paralysis like twice in my whole life.
I get it a lot. I know. The Pons 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 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.
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 Good job, guys.
But once your trachea is crushed, you're in real trouble.
I would think so. Because nothing else is going to get air there.
The last thing that I just wanted to mention was the cricoid cartilage.
That's going to 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 this.
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 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 and 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 necks.
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.
And infants, which it's like, who the fuck is strangling an infant?
God damn it. Monsters. I can't talk about that 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.
Yeah. So they're all very personal, intimate issues.
You know what I mean? It's all very in someone's face.
And it's been suggested that females tend to be strangled at such a higher rate. because they are more likely to be the targets of sexual assault.
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 in 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 in sexual murders, ligature strangulation is associated with kind of like weird crime scene behavior.
Like having a bow. And again, this is going to be graphic. inserting foreign objects, you know what I mean?
Like weird, gross, very over the top behavior.
That's where you tend to see ligature strangulation in the sexual murders.
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.
Yeah. And that's kind of like the whole point.
I mean, the whole point of rape and sexual assault is domination control. 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 murderers who use strangulation as a method say that, like I liked to watch the light leave their eyes.
That is the most fucked up. And I feel like that's, that's how you have to, that's how fucked up you have to be to do that.
Like you need to want to see their face.
You know, exactly. Like, like distort, you know.
That's dark. I know. It's a dark thing. Uh, 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... Mm-hmm.
It basically represents the killer's explosive rage in that he has a very personal focus towards the victim.
Right. Whether that victim is someone he knows or that victim represents someone that he knows.
Like a mama. His mama. which is what I'm thinking is the case here.
I have a question. So he... he wasn't strangling these women with his hands, he was doing it with the bows.
That's what it looks like from all the things I've researched, is that he's actually using these items in a ligature strangulation.
And 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, maybe to unconsciousness. and maybe then tied the bow to finish the job 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 awful. I hate to say it's efficient, but that's how it kind of is.
And again, like we're saying, this kind of strangulation just allows the sexual serial killer, which... like Ted Bundy, for instance, or somebody like that, to have intimacy with the victim. that shooting them or stabbing them doesn't allow.
Like we've said, you have to be touching them. really close to them and shooting them you can be across the room you know yeah and that so that's basically that's basically all I have for like the psychology but it's 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's all that is like number one thing is I have the power to crush the wind out of you.
Great. And it's like, can you imagine the kind of pleasure that this dude was getting knowing... not only because, like, obviously control was something he needed in power, that he knew women all over Boston were living in terror.
Were terrified of him. He must have loved this.
That's so weird to like put your mind there, isn't it?
Yeah. Like you feel like you shouldn't, but you're like, I gotta.
But you go there and then you're like, shit, that's a dark place.
Yeah. Like that is some dark place. I think I'm 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 eats himself to death.
Yeah. They try to make it look like that.
Yeah. That's what I'm. Like the house, I feel like.
That's rough. That's what his house was like.
Because he's just so mean. And he's just so like... Dark.
He's obviously trying to make up for something.
Yeah. Yeah. that he is lacking sorely yeah so it's like you just picture this little little bitch of a dude just sitting there being like yeah I power over everybody.
And it's like, yeah, you kill widows who are living alone. kudos dude you're really killing it out there like fuck off in jail don't they not like um people that kill old people I think jail doesn't like when you kill elderly people, rapists, child killers.
Yeah, they never make it. Crimes against women are tended.
Right. It's a weird hierarchy. Prison is interesting.
It's a very interesting. We should do a prison episode.
I know that would be a good episode the hierarchy of prison 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. 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 we're hearing this, you're like, I don't want that weather.
The victim was 21-year-old Sophie Clark.
21. 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, don't worry. And she lived in an apartment at 315 Huntington Avenue in Back Bay in Boston.
Yeah, Back Bay. By day, she was a hospital technician, and at night she attended classes at Carnegie Institute of Medical Technology on Beacon Health.
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 fiancé, Chuck.
No, I'm 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 want Chuck to read it. I know.
I wouldn't want him to suffer that pain.
I know. It's awful. And he was never considered a suspect, by the way.
Because he was, like, away. 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 too.
Like 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.
Like it's just a typical afternoon. Typical afternoon.
She had a whole night planned out. It would never cross your mind that somebody's just going to bust in.
Did he break in? We don't know. 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 Chuck.
No. May this letter find the man I love well.
How is that cold? I feel fine, especially after you called me last night. 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 when I finish this letter.
Then I will switch over to the kitchen to cook supper.
We're going to have liver tonight. Gross.
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.
Love you. So... That's what she was going to say.
It's like really... I can't help but... I can't stop thinking about how oblivious...
We all are, you know, like, you, 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 no, 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.
Boom. 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 going to happen tomorrow.
It blows your mind. No, it really does. It's just... Don't involve love in it.
You've really fucked me up there. It's the unsuspecting victims that get me.
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 hurtful Now, her roommate, Gloria Todd, she did interviews after Sophie was found.
Okay. She said she had a habit of calling Sophie every day between 4 and 4.30.
And that day she called around 4.15. 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 going to 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 that feeling must have been Yeah.
Horrible. And she said she immediately saw Sophie.
Sophie was, I'm going to 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. Oh, God.
And she had been sexually assaulted. She was strangled by a stocking in a petticoat that had been intertwined.
Because, you know, in the other ones we mentioned, too, that he used 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.
Mm-hmm. 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.
Aw. 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 now Sophie had actually told her father weeks earlier when she visited home in New Jersey. that she was terrified of this killer on the loose.
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 forced entry.
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.
Right. 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. 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.
It was like the manner. 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 shit behind here.
He left semen. I mean, that's a big thing to leave behind.
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.
Okay. So no one knew that. So 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 maybe there was two. Yeah, exactly.
So... I mean, to me, Sophie Clark is most certainly not the same killer.
Yeah, 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 housecoat.
Right, that wasn't her. They said she was very modest, and they said even at home, she would never... No one saw her in a housecoat 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 just the coat Her roommate said a man named Bob Payton had actually taken Sophie out before that, like recently, and he had been in their apartment.
Okay. 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 like, she was like, I don't know who you are.
Police actually interrogated him and he failed two 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 weird behavior.
Yeah. And he was just released because they didn't have anything really to tie him to the scene.
He failed to polygraph. you can't keep someone for a polygraph oh I didn't know that yeah that's not enough evidence because it's so variable right they can't rely on that shit So they, he just was released.
But Bob Payton looks like a good one to me for that crime.
Yikesies. 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 Bessette.
No, I'm 23. So we're sticking with low 20s here, which again... low 20s big deviation 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 Bessette was attending Middlebury College, and she had been editor of the yearbook there.
Oh. She also told people that she was not scared of the Boston Strangler.
Girl, don't be running around saying that.
It's like an urban legend when the girl... with the radio show was like blah blah blah blah blah and then exactly off You're done for.
That was a perfect description of that. Yeah.
Oh, I'm not victim blaming. No, the radio.
I just love how you're like the girl with the radio show is like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then off. That's what happened. That was the scene.
That was what the storyboard looked like.
Listen, if I could recreate it any other way, I wouldn't.
No, and obviously she's not victim. We're just saying.
Just don't put it into the universe that you're not scared.
It's like all the movies that the people are like, I'm not scared of that.
Yeah, and then it always ends up happening.
So just don't do it, you know? Just be a little careful.
Yeah. So Patricia worked as a receptionist or a secretary at an engineering company called Engineering Systems Inc.
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's? When I read that, I was like, huh.
What's going on? Weird. How many vice presidents give their secretary a ride to work?
You know, I'm just putting it out there, Jules.
Well, she didn't answer the door. according to him okay and he figured she overslept or something so he just went to work Because he was like, I got to go to work.
I'm 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 the knocking on the door calling to her so he ended up getting a janitor in the building to give him a stepladder and he crawled through the window okay 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, it's the strangle.
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. She had been like very carefully laid into bed.
Mm-hmm. Underneath that, she had been strangled with four pieces of clothing. uh directly against her neck there was a knotted blouse over that a 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 Jules Rothman.
Yeah. Because shit looked like Sophie's did.
They were a month pregnant. Wow. Yeah. And it looked like someone she knew did this.
Just like Sophie's. Jules Rothman was married with kids and was having an affair with Patricia Bessette.
Was he the dad? They think he was the, and he believed he was the dad of that child.
So the interrogation is bonkers. 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 are more than one Boston Strangler.
Right. 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, 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. You want some coffee? Yeah, just 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 regurgitated 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, Jules. Why don't you go home to your three kids, asshole?
What's the trouble with you? You're married with kids.
Right. Ugh. Bitch. Fucking Jules. Ugh. You're not a jewel.
You're a jewel pod. 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's also like gross. Yeah, like, oh, 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.
Uh-huh. Because they were like... And one month is like very soon.
Like she might not have even known. No, I think she, 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 dicks asking that.
But I think the police did this because they knew who Jules Rothman was and they were trying to be like...
So she was easy, huh? You know what I mean?
Like, get him to talk. Like, 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 missed her period.
And she had told him, I think I'm pregnant because I haven'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.
The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.
The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.
His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.
Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.
I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.
As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all.
Legal proceedings have been initiated. Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption, and magic.
Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mayor exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.
Start your free trial in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or the Wondery app. uh-huh so what's interesting about that is she was having an affair with a married man yep who just found out she was 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.
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 it's someone who...
And, you know, anytime we say this, like when kids are found in like blankets and stuff.
It's not like this caring person that did this.
It's just like a subconscious thing in your brain.
It's that psychological need when you know or cared about And you're connected to them.
That you just subconsciously do things that don't mean you're a good person.
Because you're not. You're not. You're not, Jules.
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 Jules' first thing was she's dead and the stocking's around her neck.
Oh. Oh. You couldn't see it. Oh. And he didn't pull back those covers.
Jules, you fucked up. So 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, I think he did it.
I am just saying. I hope his wife left him.
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 in 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.
Seems legit. Yeah, seems totally legit. But then it's like in the 1960s people were so much more trusting because this 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 They would say he would put his thumbs together and just put it around your waist to measure.
And they were like, I thought it was weird.
I thought it was weird. I 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.
No. 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 didn't kill them, but he assaulted women.
Oh. Yeah. May 3rd, 1961, they did, so he was arrested trying to do this thing.
Yeah. So May 3rd, 1961, there was a one day trial for him and he was found guilty on eight counts of breaking and entering.
And he was sentenced to 18 or two years in prison and released, according to documents, 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 in mind. Keep it in mind.
And that would seem to discount him completely.
He was in jail. 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 in Lawrence...
68-year-old Mary Brown was found on the floor of her apartment.
So we're back to regular. We're back to another quote-unquote elderly 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.
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 happen.
Yeah, exactly. But why was her head covered with the sheet?
That's weird. 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 underwater.
So maybe that was like a weird covering her 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.
Yeah. 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. Oh, 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 that 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 8th, 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... It was... figured out that something was awry 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.
The thing that made them connect it with this is two silk scarves and a nylon stocking were knotted in. and 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.
Okay. And in strangulation, any kind of like...
The 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 in, like, skeletal remains when they're trying to find cause of death.
If they find a broken hyoid bone, it points them to this person.
You're smart as fuck. I just like bones and bodies.
That's cool. You should put that on a shirt.
I just like bones and bodies. I just like bones and bodies.
At Murder Apparel. That would be a great one.
At Murder Apparel. So she had been stabbed 22 times.
Four of those times were in the neck. 18 were in the chest in the shape of bullseyes.
What? Yeah. She had been raped. And she had what they think... 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.
Like he tried, but he couldn't do it because she had stronger throat muscles that protected those delicate things in your neck.
Right. That's cool. Isn't that interesting?
I mean, that's awful, though, because she still died.
I know. She 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, man.
We're going to Salem soon, biatch. We are.
I love Salem. I could go there every day.
And we're going to do something cool in Salem.
We are. We have something planned. We do.
I'm excited about it. 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 the list that day.
Yeah, maybe we can 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.
People said she was very young-looking. Like Jane Sullivan.
Exactly. So she had had breakfast with her neighbor, Flora Manchester.
I love that 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.
Around her neck were two stockings tied in a bow, and a third was wrapped around her left ankle.
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 25, 1963.
It was 23-year-old 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?
Mm-hmm. So the 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.
Oof. 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.
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.
Okay. 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. Yes. 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. and you're 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, right now we have to live here.
And it's like, really? Yeah. So she had just got a job with Filene's, and I think her roommates were also working at Filene's.
Filene's. 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.
If you listen to the Stranglers podcast that I talked about last week, or excuse me, in part one, And 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 it has a lot of information about her.
Apparently she was just super psyched she had just moved to Boston.
So she was just 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.
No. So they started making dinner in the kitchen and they called 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... This one's really rough.
Okay. Okay. Skip, skip, skip if you do not want to hear a graphic description of sexual assault.
Here I am, skip, skip, skipping. 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.
And there was semen 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 Year's card between her feet.
That's so strange, the New Year's card. That's fucked up.
Yeah. That is beyond funny. fucked up. Like the killer saying like, do you think that's why he 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.
It's just being a dick. Ugh. Again, this is just, this is like the Ida Urga. crime scene where she was propped up and facing the door so right right right he likes people walking into this awful shit I can't imagine being a fucking 19-year-old with new roommates and that's how you start your fucking journey of living by yourself.
I honestly can't. Can't even imagine. Oh my God.
Now, 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 when Attorney General Edward Brooke, who was the first African-American to hold the job in the whole country.
Hey, hey. Interesting. formed the Strangler Task Force.
And this was going to allow all information and investigation to fall under one umbrella.
This is where 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 clairvoyants.
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 E. Slessor's 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 which coincided with the Strangler writers.
He was consulted about the Sophie Clark murder, and he... actually weirdly had detailed knowledge of her apartment and made a description that fit. a guy named Louis 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 of it kind of fell apart when they tried to connect it.
So it just ended up being like, cool that you could do that, but it didn't work.
Yeah. The second psychic... was peter herkos and he was a well-known psychic like his whole life like he'd been on other cases that's so cool he showed he ends up not being cool 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 officer's face was like, what the fuck?
And then he said he described it like how it happened perfectly.
Wow. So they were like, all right, maybe you can help us.
So they said he drank scotch on the rocks and smoked cigars constantly.
Savage. Which seems healthy. Seems healthy.
They would just let him hold his hand over evidence or 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 thought of it.
Mm-hmm. 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 effeminate, 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 the guy was Tony Moran, and he was a door-to-door salesman who sold nurses' shoes.
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 in the game. entry.
So he was detained and his apartment was searched.
They found a book of yoga drawings with 11 drawings of women X'd out.
And at this point, they only knew of 11 victims.
They hadn't connected the other two. So they were like, well, unfortunately, his alibi is all checked out.
And he had honestly no information about 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 just being...
Cause 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 in the least, and he never became anything else.
That one was spooky. Now, Peter Herkos left this psychic.
Left Boston 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.
People were like, did you really bring psychics in?
What are you doing? And it kind of embarrassed the shit out of the police.
Well, it helped... They just were trying, man.
They were reaching at straws. They didn't have anything.
So a full year of investigating later, it was Detective Phil Denali who really broke it wide open.
Phil DiNatale is amazing. 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.
Those people are so cool. Yeah, he just like does the damn thing.
But you know what? I bet they know how cool They are.
I don't know. I think he just is like the business.
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 i hope i marry a dude like that someday like potholes yeah i want to marry potholes So a friend of Phil's 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 forced his way in. Mm-hmm. told her he was the Boston Strangler, raped her, and bound her and left her spread-eagle.
Did he think that she was dead, probably?
I don't think so. I think this was just an assault.
But this woman really... 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, Di Natale was like, I'm going to follow this shit.
He was like, Albert DeSalvo, 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 lascivious and unnatural act.
Totally unrelated to this. Okay. Was this the picking?
He was already a creep. This wasn't the picking thing.
Oh, this was another thing. And yeah, they had him for...
The B&E, the intention to commit a lascivious and unnatural act, he had already committed about four assaults and rapes in the Cambridge area.
Wow. So he was already on like a spree of sexual assault.
Right. And he was being held in Bridgewater State Hospital.
Huh. So the Cambridge police had questioned him immediately about the strangler crimes because they were...
You know, sexual assaults, they were asking anybody.
But 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, and that obviously wasn't enough for them to be like, oh, yeah, that's not the 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 for the first year of the stranglings.
What's the loophole? So when Phil went into... So Phil went to the Cambridge police.
He was like, I think you have my guy. I think he's the strangler.
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. 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 skills.
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 in 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 year of the Strangler murders.
Wrong. What? Phil dug 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. Yeah. 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 court 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.
This is two months before the first victim, Anna Slessers, was murdered in her apartment.
June 14th, 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.
But we really are done. Part three is going to be all Albert DeSalvo, and we're going to 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 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 going to throw all kinds of shit at you.
Yes, I love this shit. Can I just tell you, you're doing a really good job.
Thank you. You're welcome. I'm sweating, so I hope I'm doing a 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 Patronuses!
I'm sorry that we're not able to spend more time on each name here, but we have a lot of Patronuses, 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.
Thank you so much. And Sonia Morgan. 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. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Britt. Laura Trigg, you're the best.
You are. I'm going to pull Trigg and say your name.
There you go. Thank you so much. Madonna in the house.
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. Liz Ferguson, I'd like to give you a big old thanks.
I love you, Liz Ferguson. Fergie, thanks.
Thank you. Harley Ann? Harley Ann. Your name's Harley, so that's fucking rad.
Yeah, you're just cool. I bet 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 Kazmierski. Rachel Kaczmirski. That's just a great line.
Any name that ends in 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, ooh, I like this last name, Jasmine Berenger.
Jasmine Berenger. 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?
Get out of town. I love you. I love you, Andrea.
Thank you. And I have a little bit of love left to give for this one last person who is Lisa Flowers.
Lisa Flowers. Which is convenient because I doodled 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 Morbid Podcast.
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It's awesome in there. It's lit. You could send us a Gmail. morbidpodcast.gmail.com You could... You could donate to the Patreon if you're feeling so inclined.
Patreon.com slash Morbid Podcast. We hope you keep listening.
And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you're the Boston Strangler.
Bye. Bye. Thank you. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
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