New documentary reveals unheard Albert DeSalvo Boston Strangler confessions

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Casey Sherman, the nephew of the youngest recognized sufferer of the Boston Strangler, doesn’t imagine that the person who confessed to the infamous murders was the fitting suspect.

"I truthfully don’t imagine Albert DeSalvo did it," Sherman informed Fox Information Digital. "I am going again to the psychological profile developed by Albert DeSalvo’s personal psychologist, Dr. Ames Robey, who created the profiles of all of the potential suspects. He informed me in an in depth interview that he didn’t assume DeSalvo was able to murder."

"Albert DeSalvo was a sexual predator," Sherman stated. "He was a con man. He was a thief. He was actually benefiting from girls in a bodily manner by these sexual assaults. However DeSalvo by no means murdered these girls."

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Albert DeSalvo (1931-1973) holds one of many necklaces he made whereas in jail as much as his neck at Walpole State Jail, South Walpole, Massachusetts, circa Nineteen Seventies. DeSalvo is the alleged Boston Strangler, a serial killer who claimed the lives of 13 girls within the Sixties. DeSalvo confessed to the murders, however there has all the time been a shadow of doubt regarding his guilt. (Hulton Archive/Getty Photographs)

The killings, which came about between 1962 and 1964 within the Boston area , are explored in a brand new Oxygen true-crime documentary, "The Boston Strangler: Unheard Confession." It options never-before-heard audio made by DeSalvo, who was murdered in jail in 1973.

The particular is hosted by Sherman, an creator who beforehand wrote a guide concerning the 1964 homicide of his aunt, Mary Sullivan.

Fox Information Digital reached out to the Boston Police Division for remark concerning the movie and Sherman’s claims.

Casey Sherman, creator and nephew of homicide sufferer Mary Sullivan, has spent years investigating the Boston Strangler case. (Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe by way of Getty Photographs)

"Rising up, I heard whispers about my aunt’s murder ," Sherman stated. "Someday, I lastly approached my mom, who was 17 when her 19-year-old sister was killed. They have been greatest buddies. That they had deliberate to stay their lives collectively, increase households collectively and develop previous as sisters collectively. All of that was stolen from my mom."

"I noticed her get emotional for the primary time," Sherman recalled. "I did what any little one would do — I hugged her. I stated, ‘Mother, a minimum of they received the man.’ She checked out me and stated, ‘Casey, I don’t know in the event that they ever did.’

"My mom didn’t have any proof to assist her perception — it was a sister’s instinct, a bond that might by no means be damaged."

A view of Mary Sullivan's condominium the place she was murdered. (Wendy Maeda/The Boston Globe by way of Getty Photographs)

For many years, Sherman has investigated Sullivan’s homicide. In 2013, investigators introduced that DNA exams carried out on DeSalvo’s exhumed stays confirmed he killed Sullivan and was possible accountable for the opposite victims. Whereas Sherman initially supported the findings, over time he grew skeptical about how the DNA proof was offered and interpreted.

"The Boston Strangler: Unheard Confession" options never-before-heard recordings of Albert DeSalvo. (Oxygen)

"After I interviewed everybody linked to the case, I started to discover a a lot totally different story," Sherman stated. "I spoke with about 50 witnesses and individuals who labored on the Boston Strangler process drive. One unique member believed all through his complete profession that authorities pinned these murders on the incorrect man. There have been a number of different suspects."

13 girls between the ages of 19 and 85 were sexually assaulted and killed , crimes that terrified the area. All of the victims have been strangled with articles of their very own clothes; one was additionally stabbed repeatedly.

The Boston Strangler was dubbed "America’s Jack the Ripper" by the press. Just like the notorious killer of Victorian London, the serial killer terrorized a serious metropolis with a string of brutal murders that focused girls and left the nation gripped by worry.

Albert DeSalvo recanted his confession earlier than dying in jail, the place he was serving a life sentence for different crimes. The Boston Strangler was also called "America's Jack the Ripper." (Getty Photographs)

DeSalvo, a blue-collar employee and Military veteran who was married with youngsters, confessed to the slayings. On the time, he was a affected person at Bridgewater State Hospital, which housed the criminally insane, The Associated Press reported.

Albert DeSalvo (left), the self-professed "Boston Strangler," is seen right here being escorted to Middlesex County Superior Courtroom in 1968. He was returned to Walpole State Jail to start serving a life sentence on conviction of intercourse and armed theft offenses. (Getty Photographs)

Police lacked evidence to convey DeSalvo to trial. He was by no means convicted of the killings and was as an alternative sentenced to life in jail in 1967 for a collection of unrelated assaults. DeSalvo recanted his confession earlier than he was stabbed to dying in a maximum-security jail, in response to the outlet.

"There are 60 hours of confession tapes from Albert DeSalvo," Sherman stated. "What you hear within the documentary is simply a pattern. One investigator saved the tapes — thought-about the holy grail on this case — as a result of on the time, nothing tied DeSalvo to any of the murders. I discovered that this man had them in his possession. I constructed a friendship with him over a number of months and eventually received him to let me take heed to the tapes."

Albert DeSalvo prays within the chapel at Walpole State Jail, South Walpole, Massachusetts, early Nineteen Seventies. DeSalvo was killed on Nov. 25, 1973. (Hulton Archive/Getty Photographs)

"Albert DeSalvo confessed to occasions that by no means occurred," Sherman claimed. "There have been obtrusive errors in these confessions. John Bottomley, who led the interrogation, had no expertise in legal investigations — he was an actual property lawyer who had by no means questioned a suspect earlier than.

Mary Sullivan, Casey Sherman's aunt, was discovered murdered and sexually assaulted in her Boston condominium on Jan. 4, 1964. She was 19 years previous. (Courtesy of Casey Sherman)

"He provided main questions and confirmed DeSalvo images of the crime scenes, which it's best to by no means do. I shared the confession tapes with veteran murder detectives, and so they have been shocked the interrogation was allowed to occur this fashion."

Sherman stated that in his analysis, he uncovered 40 letters DeSalvo wrote to a Massachusetts family who visited prisoners at Walpole State Jail.

"He informed this household in no unsure phrases that he deliberate to recant his confession in entrance of a reporter from The New York Occasions," Sherman stated. "DeSalvo by no means received the possibility — he was murdered in jail."

Charles Terry is pictured in custody in New York Metropolis on June 7, 1963, after confessing to the strangling of Zenovia Clegg, a 62-year-old divorcee, in a Occasions Sq. resort. The 34-year-old Terry was grilled in reference to crimes dedicated by the Boston Strangler. There was no proof linking him to the Boston Strangler murders, and he was by no means charged in these instances. (Bob Costello/New York Each day Information by way of Getty Photographs)

Skeptics, together with Sherman, have lengthy argued that there have been a minimum of two killers accountable for the murders — possibly extra. They level out that DeSalvo didn’t match witness descriptions, wasn’t on the listing of greater than 300 suspects, and infrequently gave inconsistent and contradictory statements.

However not everybody agrees. A number of key investigators, legislation enforcement officers and forensic consultants have maintained that DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler — or a minimum of accountable for a lot of the murders attributed to the serial killer.

This undated photograph reveals convicted assassin George Nassar sitting in a automotive between two legislation enforcement officers as he waits to be transported from the Salem Jail to Walpole State Jail. (Getty Photographs)

Sherman famous that DeSalvo was a cellmate of George Nassar, a convicted assassin and profession legal. Sherman, like others, believes Nassar could have manipulated DeSalvo into confessing to divert suspicion from himself. Nonetheless, there is no such thing as a conclusive proof to assist that declare.

George Nassar is seen right here being interviewed whereas in jail. In 1965, Albert DeSalvo informed Nassar that he was the Boston Strangler. (Janet Knott/The Boston Globe by way of Getty Photographs)

Nassar, who died in 2018, all the time denied having something to do with the crimes.

"If I had been, theoretically, on a rating with Al, and we have been in a legal conspiracy collectively, and I discovered that he was murdering girls and getting away with it, I’d have given him a fast and painless dying, proper there," he informed WBZ .

Sherman is adamant that there was a motive. He famous that throughout the top of the murders, a reward was being provided as town grew determined for solutions. He believes DeSalvo and Nassar could have concocted a plan in hopes of amassing the cash themselves.

F. Lee Bailey, who served as Albert DeSalvo’s protection lawyer, stated he believed DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler. (Getty Photographs)

DeSalvo’s lawyer, F. Lee Bailey, beforehand stated, "That they had the fitting man, past query," Unsolved.com reported.

"Nobody has ever give you something significant to contradict that," Bailey added.

Sherman stated he would welcome a reexamination of the case — even when it proves him incorrect.

This undated photograph reveals Diane Dodd, middle, along with her son Casey Sherman, at a information convention asking officers to launch info and proof in regards to the homicide of Dodd's sister Mary Sullivan (proven in photograph), who they are saying was not killed by Albert DeSalvo, the confessed Boston Strangler. On the far proper are DeSalvo's brother Richard DeSalvo, partly obscured, and Richard's son Tim DeSalvo. (John Blanding/The Boston Globe by way of Getty Photographs)

"The victims' households deserve solutions and the reality behind the tragic murders of their family members," he stated. "There’s no statute of limitations on homicide within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

"I do assume the reply exists," Sherman mirrored. "I’ve offered my theories on the case, and others have as nicely. The killers are lifeless, and plenty of who have been linked to the case are gone. Now it’s as much as the general public to maintain elevating questions and debating the solutions.

An aerial view of the exhumation of Albert DeSalvo's stays at Puritan Memorial Park, circa 2013. (David L Ryan/The Boston Globe by way of Getty Photographs)

"I’m not beholden to any single principle, and even in 2025, reexamining these murders could reveal new info that wasn’t accessible just some years in the past. It’s an ongoing quest to seek out the reality."