Back in the early 1960s, a wave of terror swept through Boston as a chilling series of murders left the city on edge.

At the heart of this fear was a ruthless killer who targeted single women, leaving behind a sinister signature: an article of the victim’s clothing tied around their neck in a bow.

Investigators believed this murderer, who became infamously known as The Boston Strangler, was gaining the trust of these women before assaulting and killing them in their own homes. Between 1962 and 1964, The Boston Strangler was linked to the brutal deaths of 11 women in the area.

The atmosphere of dread eased somewhat in 1965 when Albert DeSalvo confessed to all 11 murders. However, DeSalvo was never formally convicted of these crimes. He died in prison while serving time for other offenses, leaving a cloud of doubt over whether he was truly the man behind the notorious killings.

This lingering mystery is revisited in Oxygen’s documentary, The Boston Strangler: Unheard Confession. For the first time, audiences can listen to 16 hours of DeSalvo’s confession, offering an unprecedented glimpse into the mind of the man who was at the center of one of Boston’s most infamous criminal cases.

Victims Linked to The Boston Strangler

The killing spree began on June 14, 1962 with the death of Anna Slesers, 56. Sleser’s adult son found his mom lying dead on the kitchen floor, with the belt of her housecoat tied around her neck, according to Boston Magazine.

Over the next two months, four more bodies would be found: Nina Nichols, 68; Helen Blake, 65; Ida Irga, 75, and Jane Sullivan, 67.

“They were older women, they were white, they were unmarried and they were living alone,” podcast producer Portland Helmich explained in the Oxygen special. “They were sexually assaulted with objects and they were posed in obscene ways after death, but it seemed that they were letting the killer inside because there was no forced entry into their apartments.”

She added that all of the woman had been “strangled with articles of their own clothing, tied in the shape of a bow.”

As news of the crimes spread, according to the documentary, single women across in the city began sleeping with items of protection, lining up liquor bottles in front of their front doors to warn of an intruder and taking self defense courses.

Then, as quickly as the killings started, they seemingly stopped for months until the Dec. 5, 1962 murder of Sophie Clark. Unlike the first victims, however, Clark was just 20-year-old, Black and a college student living with other roommates. 

“Her roommate comes home and finds Sophie on the living room floor,” Boston Globe reporter Emily Sweeney noted. “Sophie’s on her back, her legs are spread she’s wearing a house coat, but it’s open and there’s a gag in her mouth.” 

For the first time, the killer had also left semen on the rug near her body. Yet, according to Sweeney, The Boston Strangler’s “trademark signature” was also still there. Someone had tied Clark’s stocking and a half slip around her neck.

A few weeks later, the body of 23-year-old Patricia Bissette was found, followed by Beverly Samans, 23; Evelyn Corbin, 58, and Joann Graff, 23. Nineteen-year-old Mary Sullivan—the last and youngest victim linked to the Boston Strangler—was discovered dead inside her apartment on Jan. 4, 1964. The killer had left her propped up in her bed with her legs spread open and a broomstick stuck inside her. 

As Bruce Holloway, the former Superintendent of Boston Police Department, explained in the special, “She had a scarf around her neck, the signature marker of the Boston Strangler, and also at her foot was a card that said ‘Happy New Year.’” 

According to Helmich, killer’s modus operandi was “kind of all over the place” in the last six murders, causing some to wonder whether the highly publicized crimes were really all tied to the same killer or if copycats could have been responsible.

“The killer raped and ejaculated inside a couple of the women. That hadn’t been the case prior,” Helmich explained. “One of the women was stabbed multiple times, but there were articles of their own clothing tied in the shape of of a bow and that was the signature mark of The Boston Strangler.”

“But, it is, uh…going to make a lot of true history,” DeSalvo replied back, before later adding,  “And they’ll know the true story as to what really happened, and this is the only reason why I’m going ahead with what I am. Because I’ll tell you right to your face I’d just as soon drop it.”

Adding to his confession, DeSalvo also had a long criminal past of his own. In the early 1960s, the married father was believed to be “The Measuring Man,” a con artist pretending to be a modeling scout as part of a ruse to grope women. 

He was also tied to “The Green Man” rapes in 1964. 

“He would put on a workman’s outfit and gain entry into women’s apartments by posing as a man who was here to fix things,” Rachel Toles, a forensic psychologist who studies serial killers, explained. “He would sexually assault these women.”

As Dr. Ames Robey, a medical director of Bridgewater State Hospital explained in a recording in the special, “He asked if I would like to come down Monday morning to hear the real story, which indeed I was interested in because I have never believed he was the strangler.”

DeSalvo’s death has continued to fuel speculation that he may not have been the real strangler. Casey Sherman, an investigative journalist and the nephew of final victim Mary Sullivan, argued in The Boston Strangler: Unheard Confession that DeSalvo stood to benefit financially through book and movie deals by confessing. Sherman also noted discrepancies between DeSalvo’s confession and the details of the murders.

Sherman argued, “I found evidence that tells me that the Boston Police Department did not capture the Boston Strangler.”

Yet, others believe that DeSalvo was the right man. They point to DNA evidence found on a maroon blanket at Sullivan’s crime scene that was determined to belong to DeSalvo in 2013. 

“It was a irrefutable match,” Former Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley noted in the special. “We proved that absolutely and definitively Albert DeSalvo killed Mary Sullivan.”

Whether DeSalvo was responsible for other murders remains a mystery.

To learn more about the haunting case, watch The Boston Strangler: Unheard Confession, available now through the Oxygen App.