The untold true story behind Boston Strangler

Some of the statements DeSalvo made over the course of more than 50 hours of interviews totaling 2,000 pages of transcripts were unprovable. But relatively speaking, he didn’t do much wrong, and investigators were able to verify most of what he said.

On June 30, 1966, DeSalvo was found eligible to stand trial for the rapes of the “Green Man” (so called because the victims remembered their attacker wore 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 undergo psychiatric treatment. But DeSalvo was convicted 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. “No jury fault, of course. It is the fault of the law.”

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

DeSalvo later recanted his confession. He was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate in the prison infirmary on November 25, 1973, without ever being formally charged with any of the Boston Strangler murders.