DNA Test Confirms Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo Raped And Killed His Last Victim, Slowly Putting 1960s Case To Rest
Massachusetts state authorities say they have uncovered significant DNA evidence linking longtime Boston Strangler suspect Albert DeSalvo to the string of murders that took place between 1962 and 1964. A search warrant to exhume DeSalvo's body is expected to close the file on this 50-year-old case.
Limited by the technology of their time, investigators in the mid-1960s set aside evidence found on the scene of the killer's final victim, 19-year-old Mary Sullivan. When DNA extracted from the evidence was run against a water bottle used by DeSalvo's nephew, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley marked a "familial match" that exonerated 99.99 percent of suspects in the case.
DeSalvo, a married father and ARMY veteran at the time, was already serving a life sentence due to a string of armed robberies and sexual assaults when he ended up on the investigators' radar. He eventually confessed to all 11 Boston Strangler murders; however, he later recanted his confession. Albert DeSalvo was stabbed to death by another inmate at Walpole prison in 1973 at the age of 42, MyFoxBoston reported.
Attorney F. Lee Bailey, who would go on to represent DeSalvo and subsequently obtain his confession, represented another inmate who claimed that DeSalvo divulged information about the murders that wasn't made public. Bailey is confident that this recent discovery will help ease the minds of those involved, who were perplexed by the half-century long mystery.
"It was a very challenging case," said Bailey.
"My thought was if we can get through the legal thicket and get this guy examined by a team of the best specialists in the country, we might learn something about serial killers so we could spot them before others get killed."
Although this evidence could definitively tie DeSalvo to Sullivan's murder, there was no DNA taken from the other 10 Boston Strangler crime scenes. Sullivan's case cannot be fully closed until DNA taken from DeSalvo's corpse is confirmed as a match.