The Untold True Story Behind The Boston Strangler

Some of the statements made by DeSalvo during more than 50 hours of interviews, which amounted to 2,000 pages of transcripts, were unprovable. But relatively speaking, he wasn’t much wrong, and investigators were able to verify most of the details he provided.

On June 30, 1966, DeSalvo was found fit to stand trial for the “green man” rapes (so called because victims remembered their attacker was wearing green work pants).

He pleaded not guilty and Bailey argued that the jury had no choice but to declare his client insane so that he could receive psychiatric treatment. But DeSalvo was found guilty of 10 counts of rape and armed robbery and sentenced to life in prison on January 18, 1967.

“Massachusetts burned another witch,” Bailey told reporters after the verdict. “It’s not the jury’s fault, of course. It’s the law’s fault.”

DeSalvo and two other inmates escaped from Bridgewater on February 24. He was arrested the following day at a clothing store in Lynn and, after this escapade, was transferred to a maximum-security facility that is now the Massachusetts Correctional Facility – Cedar Junction.

DeSalvo later retracted his confession. He was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate in the prison infirmary on November 25, 1973, having never been formally charged with any of the Boston Strangler murders.