DNA Proof Sought in 1960s Case of Boston Strangler

Police are looking for DNA evidence to determine once and for all whether Albert DeSalvo really was the Boston Strangler, the sadist who killed 13 women in a string of attacks that terrorized the city in the early 1960s.

DeSalvo admitted to the murders, which took place from 1962 to 1964, but police lacked the evidence to bring the factory worker to trial. Instead, he was tried for a series of unrelated assaults, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He was stabbed to death in his cell in 1973.

The DNA probe began last summer, when scientists in the Police Department began looking at 14 boxes of evidence from two of the strangler’s victims, said Kevin Jones, a police spokesman. Those tests were inconclusive.

Several obstacles stand in investigators’ way. Police know evidence exists--case logs describe sperm samples swabbed from some of the victims--but have been unable to locate the items. And they think the knife used to kill DeSalvo was preserved, but they haven’t been able to find it either.

The knife could provide a DNA sample so investigators wouldn’t have to exhume DeSalvo’s body. But police said they are willing to dig up the body.

No physical evidence tied DeSalvo to the crimes. A 1995 book by Susan Kelly claimed that DeSalvo could have learned all the details about the killings--information with which he impressed investigators--by reading the newspapers. Kelly also said DeSalvo could have learned the information from the real killer in prison.