Families Denied Strangler Evidence

A judge said the state does not need to share forensic evidence with the families of a man who confessed to being the Boston Strangler and a woman believed to be the strangler’s last victim.

Judge Vieri Volterra on Monday said the families of Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to the killings, and Mary Sullivan, who was found murdered Jan. 4, 1964, are not entitled to evidence from the crime scene because the investigation of the murders remains open.

The two families believe DeSalvo did not kill Sullivan. They said DeSalvo confessed to the strangler murders in 1965 because he wanted the notoriety and fortune a confession would bring.

DeSalvo, who never was charged in the killings, later recanted the confession. He was killed in prison in 1973 while serving a sentence on an unrelated rape conviction.

Earlier this month, a team of forensic scientists working with the two families said tests on Sullivan’s clothing and remains found DNA from two individuals that did not match Sullivan’s or DeSalvo’s DNA.

They said the evidence appears to clear DeSalvo of sexual assault in Sullivan’s killing and raises significant doubt that DeSalvo killed the young woman.

The ruling means three parties named in the families’ lawsuit seeking access to the evidence--state Atty. Gen. Thomas Reilly; Dr. Richard Evans, the state’s chief medical examiner; and John Di Fava, the former state police superintendent--no longer are part of the suit.

Reilly’s office has said the new findings don’t resolve the question of whether DeSalvo killed Sullivan.