Serial Killer Project on Boston Strangler

1. THE BOSTON STRANGLER
By: Joseph Hargenrader

2. CHILDHOOD
• Watched his dad beat and abuse his
mother
• His father also abused his other children
• Before he was 12 he had been arrested
for robbery, assault, and battery
• Was put in a correction facility, got out
and was readmitted two years later for
car theft

3. ADULT LIFE
• Went into the military at age 29
• Was honorable discharged for
disobeying orders
• Married a young German girl
while touring in Germany
• They had one child that was
born handicap Albert and his wife and
child
• He seemed to be fairly social
especially for a serial killer

4. MOTIVES/RITUALS
Theory’s Behind the killings
• Had a bad relationship with his mother
Rituals
• Strangled victims with their own clothing and then raped them
• Their clothing was also tied in a bow around their neck
• Before leaving the house of the victims he would make it look like a robbery but few
valuables were ever taken.
• Also the houses of the victim never looked broken into, its almost like the victims
just let him in.

5. THE VICTIMS
• The first victims were all
older single women late 50’s
to mid 80’s
• Research says the older
women were targeted
because of his sour
relationship with his mother
• Then Albert began killing
younger college women 19-
23
• They don’t know why he
switched his ways but it was
the same bow ties around
the neck

6. HOW HE WAS CAUGHT?
• He left a woman tied up but didn’t kill her
• She later turned him in and he was taken to the police station
• There he was questioned and later admitted to being the Boston strangler
• He was put in jail and stabbed to death the day before he was to meet with a
doctor who was going to try diagnose him as mentally ill.

7. WHAT WAS HE CHARGED WITH?
• Albert Desalvo was
charged with the murders
of 11 women
• For this he was
sentenced to life in prison
• They still aren't sure the
arrested the right man
there is no DNA evidence
to prove it .

8. WHY ARE SERIAL KILLERS HARD TO
SPOT?
• The blend in
• They are smart and know how to gain the trust of their
victims
• "Dress him in a suit and he looks like ten other men,"
said an attorney on the Dahmer case
• They are also charming, well dressed, and polite
individuals

9. TYPES OF CRIME SCENES
• Organized
• Everything premeditated and well put together, leave little to no evidence behind
• Disorganized
• Random Victim frenzied assaults, uses materials at hand to kill
• Mixed
• Bits and pieces from both organized and disorganized crime scenes
• Atypical
• Has no signs or aspects from either organized or disorganized, most often a scene
involving a decomposed body or few remains of a body

10. INTERESTING INFORMATION
• Albert Desalvo also given two other nicknames
• The Measuring Man
• Would approach young attractive women an pretend to be a fashion
model recruiter and fondle them while using a tape measure to
measure them.
• Spent 11 months in jail for burglary after one of the strikes
• The Green Man
• Dressed in all green and raped 300 women in a 2 year period in 4
different states sometimes up to six a day.
• He was arrested and put into Bridgewater state hospital for
evaluation

11. REFERENCES
• http://crime.about.com/od/murder/a/albert_desalvo.htm
• http://www.biography.com/people/albert-de-salvo-17169632
• http://serialkillr.tripod.com/SerialKillersExposed/crimescenes.html
• http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/boston/index_1.html