The victims were all murdered in their apartments. They all had been sexually assaulted and were strangled with articles of clothing. With no sign of forced entry, the victims apparently knew their assailant(s) or, at least, voluntarily let him (them) into their home. These were respectable women who led quiet, modest lives.

Even though nobody has ever officially been on trial for the Boston stranglings, most people believe that Albert DeSalvo, who confessed in detail to each of the eleven "official" Strangler murders, as well as two others, was the murderer.

Albert DeSalvo was a 30-year-old man with numerous arrests for breaking into apartments and stealing whatever money he found. He lived in Malden with his German wife and two small children. He worked during the day as a press operator in a rubber factory.

A couple of years before the strangling murders began, a series of strange sex offenses began in the Cambridge area. A man in his late twenties would knock on the door of an apartment and, if a young woman answered, he would say he was from a modeling agency and ask to take her measurements. His glib, disarming manner was successful. Apparently, a number of women were interested and flattered and allowed him to take out his tape and measure them.

When he was finished, he told them that Mrs. Lewis from the agency would be contacting them if the measurements were suitable. Of course, there was never any call from Mrs. Lewis because neither she nor the modeling agency existed. Eventually, some of the women contacted police.

On March 17, 1961, Cambridge police caught a man, Albert DeSalvo, breaking into a house. Not only did he confess to breaking and entering, but he confessed to being the "measuring man."

DeSalvo was sentenced to 18 months. With good behavior, he was released in April 1962, two months before the first victim of the Strangler was found.

Early in November 1964, almost three years after his release from jail, DeSalvo was arrested again for a sexual assault on a woman who had been dozing in her apartment.

She got a very good look at his face. The police sketch reminded the detectives of the "measuring man."

Police arrested DeSalvo who admitted breaking into 400 apartments and several rapes. He was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for observation. Shortly after DeSalvo arrived at Bridgewater, a dangerous man named George Nassar also became an inmate. He had been charged with a vicious execution-style murder of an Andover gas station attendant. He was put in the same ward with DeSalvo and became his confidant.

F. Lee Bailey, who had already distinguished himself in the Dr. Sam Sheppard case, was George Nassar’s lawyer. Bailey heard about DeSalvo from Nassar and went to visit Albert with a dictaphone on March 6. Not only did Albert confess to the murders of the eleven "official" victims, but he admitted to killing two other women, Mary Brown in Lawrence and an elderly woman who died of a heart attack before he could strangle her.

Bailey thought there must be some way to allow him to confess without setting him up for possible execution. But foremost in Bailey’s mind was determining if DeSalvo was really guilty without putting his client in jeopardy. Bailey called Donovan and suggested that he might have a suspect for him, but first he wanted Donovan to provide him with some questions to ask the suspect that would help determine if he was for real.

Donovan furnished the questions that only the killer would know. After DeSalvo answered the questions, Bailey was convinced that DeSalvo was telling the truth.

In the meantime, Donovan had a friend who worked at Bridgewater. He called him and asked him who Bailey was visiting at Bridgewater. He told him Albert DeSalvo.

So now Donovan had his prime suspect and an exhaustive investigation followed that convinced detectives that DeSalvo’s confession was truthful and that he was the Strangler.

DeSalvo was sentenced to life for the rapes, but was never actually tried for the Strangler murders. He was sent to Walpole Prison where he was later stabbed to death in the prison hospital. His end was not pleasant. He was stabbed 18 times, reportedly by two other convicts, but without witnesses, no inmate was ever found guilty of the murder.

According to Walpole correction officers, DeSalvo’s killing was not connected to his being known as the Strangler. "It was a typical jailhouse beef," said one guard. "DeSalvo probably crossed someone. It doesn’t take much for those guys to turn on each other."

Earlier DeSalvo had stated that his motivation for confessing that he was the Strangler was to sell his story for money. Massachusetts was not using the electric chair and I knew I would be doing life for the rapes. I wanted to sell the story to give money to my family. I also hoped I would be found insane so that I could spend my life in a mental facility and not Walpole, he was reported as saying.

There are those who feel the crafty Nassar was responsible for at least some of the stranglings and that he, Nassar, had coached DeSalvo on the details. To this day, there are former police officers, including some in Cambridge where DeSalvo was first arrested, who doubt that DeSalvo was the Strangler. There has also been criticism of the jurisdictional politics that surfaced during the case.

"I’m aware of the Nassar connection, but in my mind I’m ninety-nine percent certain that DeSalvo alone was the Boston strangler," said Donovan.

"DeSalvo had a photographic memory. He was able to recant exact details of every crime scene, details that we kept top secret. Investigators who were at first skeptical of DeSalvo eventually agreed that he was the strangler."

‘I know in the minds of some, there will always be skepticism, but I’m very comfortable in saying that Albert DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler.’