The Boston Stranglers
Page 41
In an article published in the Boston Globe on June 14, 2012—fifty years to the day since Anna Slesers was murdered—reporter Martine Powers quoted Brooke as saying: “Even to this day, I can’t say with certainty that the person who ultimately was designate as the Boston Strangler was the Boston Strangler.”He added, “I’ll probably go to my grave not knowing for sure. ”
In June 2012, several news agencies reported that 139 Blue Hill Avenue in Roxbury—the house in which sixty-year-old Margaret Davis, a purported Strangler victim, had been murdered and found dead—was due for demolition. These press reports were inaccurate on two counts.
According to the initial police reports and follow-up investigative reports on the case, Margaret Davis died in room 7 of the Hotel Roosevelt on Washington Street in Boston. She had checked into the hotel on July 10, 1962. She and her male companion had used the names “Mr. and Mrs. Byron Spinney.” Chambermaid Eva Day found Davis’s body the following day. Byron Spinney, who had given a false name and a false address to the hotel clerk, was nowhere to be found. Davis herself had a number of pseudonyms or street names, among them “Anne Cunningham,” “Annie Oakley,” “Winnie Hughes,” and “Tobey.” An itinerant, she may have spent some time at the house on Blue Hill Avenue, but she certainly didn’t die there.
In some ways, the second issue is an even larger one. Was Davis even a Strangler victim? The police working on her case didn’t think she was. An August 18, 1964, progress report by the Strangler Task Force, working out of Edward Brooke’s office, noted that Davis most likely died as a result of a fight with her companion, Byron Spinney. Spinney himself had vanished back into whatever netherworld from which he’d briefly emerged on July 10, 1962.
Again, the Davis case was another illustration of the way in which any unsolved murder of a woman in the Boston area during the early and mid-1960s would come, in the public mind, to be attributed to a single killer—and later to Albert DeSalvo.
During an autopsy, the internal organs are removed from the body, examined for visible disease, defect, or injury, and weighed. Samples may be taken for microscopic analysis or other tests. The organs are then placed in a plastic bag and returned to the body cavity, or bagged and placed in the coffin. By law, the body of the decedent and all its parts belong to the survivors.
Albert DeSalvo’s first autopsy took place after his November 1973 murder in the infirmary of what was then known as Walpole State Prison (now Massachusetts Correctional Institution—Cedar Junction). At his second autopsy, in York, Pennsylvania, in October 2001, it was discovered that all of DeSalvo’s internal organs—but for the bladder—were missing. So was his brain.
On December 18, 2001, Elaine and Daniel Sharp, lawyers for Richard DeSalvo, Albert’s brother, sent a letter to Thomas Reilly, attorney general of Massachusetts:
The tort claims we are presenting on behalf of our clients, Richard DeSalvo and the Estate of Albert DeSalvo, include but are not limited to the grossly negligent loss of Albert DeSalvo’s internal organs upon autopsy by state agencies, including but not limited to the Office of the Attorney General, the Massachusetts State Police, and the Office of the Medical Examiner.... The relatives of Albert DeSalvo had no idea whatsoever that his internal organs (including the heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, and spleen) had been removed from the body and never replaced for burial by one of the above-named agencies until Albert DeSalvo was exhumed on October 26, 2001. We are also claiming that the above-named state agencies negligently failed to return the personal property of Albert DeSalvo to his representative, Richard DeSalvo, upon both his written and oral request.... If, in the course of your investigation, you determine that individuals other than public employees—or government entities other than the state agencies described—have caused or contributed to the claimants’ injuries, we would appreciate it if you would so advise us, and provide the identity of such individuals or entities.
The Sharps subsequently filed a complaint on behalf of Richard DeSalvo in the Suffolk Division of the Superior Court of Massachusetts. The defendants were Attorney General Thomas Reilly, Chief Medical Examiner Richard J. Evans, M.D., and Colonel Thomas Robbins, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police. In addition to the general allegations, the complaint listed five counts: negligent infliction of emotional distress, tortuous mutilation of a corpse, negligent failure to return personal items, violations of the Fair Information Practices Act, and request for equitable relief.
What Richard DeSalvo really wanted to know was why the organs had been taken, and who had taken them. Albert DeSalvo had been stabbed to death. During the second autopsy of the body, his heart, lungs, liver, and spleen might have provided further information about the murder.
Richard DeSalvo would also like to have returned to the DeSalvo family the autobiography his brother told him he was writing shortly before his death. Albert had said the document would reveal the truth about his life. As of this writing, its whereabouts are unknown. It was just one of Albert DeSalvo’s personal possessions—perhaps the most important one—that vanished after he died in prison.
As of 2012, the litigation is ongoing. Elaine Sharp is seeking to negotiate a global settlement, in which the DeSalvo family would drop the suit for the return of the organs in exchange for the state’s agreement to test the samples taken from the Strangler crime scenes for traces of Albert DeSalvo’s DNA, and furnish the results of those tests to the DeSalvo family.
No matter what you think about the Boston Strangler case, or whom you believe might be guilty of some or all of the murders that took place between June 1962 and January 1964, keep in mind this one irrefutable fact: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts never intended to charge Albert DeSalvo with murder, for the very good reason that no physical or circumstantial evidence, nor any eyewitness testimony, ever existed to connect him with any of the crimes. (It is worth repeating that DeSalvo’s DNA was not found on the body of the final Strangler victim.) All authorities had was an unsubstantiated and, in numerous instances, wildly inaccurate confession that, to be blunt, many of them never believed in the first place.
And that is why, to this day, the case files for the murders that took place between 1962 and 1964 remain packed away in archival boxes labeled “unsolved homicides.”
Bibliography
Newspaper Articles
Gerhart, Ann, “An honor for a Senate pioneer,” Washington Post, October 29, 2009.
Powers, Martine, “Memories of the Strangler,” Boston Globe, June 14, 2012.
Court Documents and Police Reports
Casebook on Homicide of Margaret Davis: Code 04.
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, THE TRIAL COURT, SUPERIOR COURT, SUFFOLK DIVISION, CIVIL ACTION: 04-4647F.
COMMONWEALTH v. GEORGE NASSAR, SJC-09951, SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS, 450 Mass. 1031; 880 N.E.2d 793; 2008 Mass. LEXIS 128.
COMMONWEALTH v. GEORGE H. NASSAR, SJC-10349, SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS, 454 Mass. 1008; 908 N.E.2d 371; 2009 Mass. LEXIS 318.
GEORGE NASSAR v. DISTRICT ATTORNEY FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT & OTHERS [The Commonwealth and the Attorney General], SJC-10629, SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS, 456 Mass. 1006; 922 N.E.2d 140; 2010 Mass. LEXIS 40.
IN THE MATTER OF DISBARMENT OF F. LEE BAILEY, D2291, SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, 536 U.S. 936; 122 S. Ct. 2650; 153 L. Ed. 2d 827; 2002 U.S. LEXIS 4674.
IN THE MATTER OF F. LEE BAILEY, SJC-08764, SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS, 439 Mass. 134; 786 N.E2d 337; 2003 Mass. LEXIS 268.
IN RE: E LEE BAILEY, M.B.D. No. 02-10093, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26528.
IN RE: F. LEE BAILEY Appellant. No. 05-2779, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT, 450 F.3d 71; 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 14189.
Tort Claims Presentment Letter Pursuant to M.G.L.C. 258 Section 1, ET Seq., December 18, 2001.
Telephone Interview
Mark Safarik, July 25, 2012.
Miscellaneous
www.wellesley.edu/PubLicAffairs/WellesleyWeek/archiveweek.html
Sources
Those people who were kind enough to be interviewed by letter, by telephone, or in person are mentioned in the Acknowledgments to this book.
COURT DOCUMENTS
Commonwealth vs. Albert H. DeSalvo. Docket Number 71789. Criminal Numbers 71789, 71790, 71841, 72032, 72034, 72097-8-9.
Commonwealth vs. Albert H. DeSalvo. Superior Court Numbers 71841-2-3.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Middlesex Superior Court; Probate Court Number 70560. Decree Nisi of Divorce; Sonja Marie Anderson, Libellant, and Albert DeSalvo, Libellee. November 22, 1966.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Suffolk Superior Court; Superior Court Civil Action No. 93223, Richard E. DeSalvo, Administrator of the Estate of Albert DeSalvo, Plaintiff, vs. F. Lee Bailey, Defendant.
Massachusetts Reports: Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Commonwealth vs. Albert H. DeSalvo. Vol. 353 (1968).
Massachusetts Reports: Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Commonwealth vs. Anthony Jackson. Vol. 370 (1976), Vol. 376 (1978), Vol. 384 (1981), Vol. 388 (1983), Vol. 391 (1984).
Massachusetts Reports: Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Commonwealth vs. George H. Nassar. Vol. 351 (1966), Vol. 354 (1968).
Massachusetts Reports: Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Commonwealth vs. Roy Smith. Vol. 350 (1966).
Massachusetts Reports, Papers, and Briefs. Vol. 353. CivCom v. DES, 4.
Massachusetts Reports, Papers, and Briefs. Vol. 354. BucNas, 5.
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit: Albert DeSalvo, Plaintiff, Appellant vs. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., Defendant, Appellee. Order of Court Entered Feb. 19, 1970.
United States District Court: District of Massachusetts; Civil Action Number 68-882-G. Albert H. DeSalvo, Plaintiff vs. 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and Reade Organization, Defendants. October 10, 11; December 20, 24, 30, 1968.
United States District Court: District of Massachusetts; Civil Action Number 68-1114-G. Albert DeSalvo, Plaintiff vs. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and Walter Reade Organization, Inc., Defendants. June 16, 1969.
LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY REPORTS
Casebook on Homicide of Anna Slesers: Code 01
Casebook on Homicide of Nina G. Nichols: Code 02
Casebook on Homicide of Helen E. Blake: Code 03
Casebook on Homicide of Margaret Davis: Code 04
Casebook on Homicide of Ida Irga: Code 05
Casebook on Homicide of Jane Sullivan: Code 06
Casebook on Homicide of Sophie Clark: Code 07
Casebook on Homicide of Patricia Bissette: Code 08
Casebook on Homicide of Evelyn Corbin: Code 09
Casebook on Homicide of Joann Graff: Code 10
Casebook on Homicide of Mary Sullivan: Code 11
Casebook on Homicide of Jennie Woronowski: Code 12
Casebook on Homicide of Mary M. Brown: Code 13
Casebook on Homicide of Bessie Goldberg: Code 14
Casebook on Homicide of Beverly F. Samans: Code 15
Casebook on Homicide of Modeste Freeman: Code 16
Casebook on Attempted Homicide of Erika Wilsing: Code 17
Casebook on Homicide of Effie MacDonald
Interrogations of Albert DeSalvo Conducted by John S. Bottomly August—September 1965 (Transcripts of Tapes)
Preliminary Notes for the Project to Establish a “Psychiatric Profile of the Boston Strangler, ”Donald P. Kenefick, M.D.
Report of Attorney General Edward W Brooke: Coordination of Investigations of “Stranglings, ” (August 18, 1964)
CORRESPONDENCE
Nathan Cobb to Albert DeSalvo: 11/30/72
Albert DeSalvo to F. Lee Bailey: 7/21/68
Albert DeSalvo to L. Burke: 9/2?/70
Albert DeSalvo to Clerk of Court, Middlesex Probate Court: 3/11/71
Albert DeSalvo to Massachusetts Bar Association Grievance Committee: 12/24/69
Albert DeSalvo to Francis C. Newton, Jr.: 8/29/70; 9/2/70; 10/6/70; 10/7/70; 7/27/70
Albert DeSalvo to Frederick H. Norton, Jr.: 1/11/70
Albert DeSalvo to P.J. Piscitelli: 1/13/73
Albert DeSalvo to Robert Quinn: 10/12/70
Albert DeSalvo to Paul Reardon: 2/15/71
John J. Keane to Albert DeSalvo: Undated
George Nassar to Richard and Rosalie DeSalvo: 6/24/73; 7/1/73
George Nassar to P.J. Piscitelli: 6/24/73
Francis C. Newton, Jr., to Albert DeSalvo: 9/4/70; 9/23/70; 10/7/70; 10/27/70; 11/5/70; 11/21/70; 2/8/71
Francis C. Newton, Jr., to Sheldon Newman: 12/27/76
P.J. Piscitelli to Nathan Cobb: 12/17/72
P.J. Piscitelli to Albert DeSalvo: 1/22/73
P.J. Piscitelli to Sheldon Newman: 7/18/75
NEWSPAPERS
“After Three Stranglings ... MCNAMARA’S APPEAL! To Public: Help Us Find the Killer. TO WOMEN: Keep Doors Locked,” Traveler, June 3, 1962.
“Albert DeSalvo Found Stabbed to Death in Cell,” Stephen Wermiel, Boston Globe, November 27, 1973.
“Another Silk Stocking Murder; Lynn Nurse, 65, Strangled Same Day as Brigthon Woman, 68,” Boston Globe, July 3, 1962.
“An Appeal to Reason Paid Off,” Ray Richard, Boston Globe, February 25, 1967.
“Arrested Twice for Burglaries at Age of 12,”Jack Kendall, Record American, February 25, 1967.
“Atty. John Bottomly of Holliston, a Former Assistant State Attorney,” Boston Globe, August 16, 1980.
“Back Bay Girl Found Strangled; Hospital Worker-Student 7th Victim; Painter Sought,” Frank Mahoney Boston Globe, December 12, 1962.
“Back Bay Killer Known in Building,” Stanley Eames, Boston Herald, December 8, 1962.
“Back Bay Secretary 23, Slain, Hunt Clues in Date Book, Cards,” Jim Murray and Frank McGrath, Record American, January 1, 1963.
“Bailey Begs Client to Give Himself Up,” Ken O. Botwright, Boston Globe, February 25, 1967.
“Bailey Charges Double-Gross,” Jack Wharton and Tom Downey Record American, February 25, 1967.
“Bailey Does It—Again!” Record American, February 25, 1967.
“Bailey May Let DeSalvo Testify,” Jonathan Klarfeld, Boston Globe, January 16, 1967.
“Bailey Wins Case for A.F. Captain,” Boston Globe, February 25, 1967.
“Beacon Hill Girl Slain; Strangled in Apartment,” Michael Bennett, Boston Sunday Herald, January 5, 1964.
“Beverly, Too, Liked Music,” Record American, May 9, 1963.
“Bloodstained Paring Knife Reportedly Killed Student,” Boston Sunday Herald, May 12, 1963.
“Boston’s Own Strangler,” George Frazier, Boston Herald, January 12, 1964.
“Bottomly Fined $1000 for Tax Return Charge,” Boston Globe, July 22, 1981.
“Brooke Names Top Assistants,” Boston Advertiser, January 13, 1963.
“Brooke: Patient Strangle Suspect,” Jean Cole, Jack Wharton, and Frank Thompson, Record American, March 12, 1965.
“B.U. Coed Slain by Knife Fiend,” James B. Ayers, Boston Globe, May 9, 1963.
“Burke and Nassar Counsel Confer,” Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, October 22, 1964.
“Cambridge Choir Girl Strangled,” Dan Gould, Ed Martin, and Warren Walworth, Record American, May 9, 1963.
“Cambridge Girl Murdered; B.U. Singer’s Death Follows Terror Pattern,” Robert Hassett, Boston Herald, May 9, 1963.
“Case Rests on MD’s Conflicting Stories,” Bill Duncliffe, Record American, January 19, 1967.
“Check Dates of Throttled Back Bay Girl,” Record American, January 1, 1963.
“Chief Strangler Prober Bottomly Set to Take Stand,” Ed Corsetti, Jean Cole, Tom Berube, and Bill Duncliffe, Record American, January 18, 1967.
“Co-Ed Worked With Handicapped,” Ed Gillooly, Record American, May 9, 1963.
“Conn Calls DeSalvo Cunning Criminal,” Recor
d American, January 19, 1967.
“Cop Laxity Charged in Slain Girl Case,” Joe Guilotti and Frank McGrath, Record American, January 9, 1963.
“Correct Bin Sought for Vegetable,” W.J. McCarthy, Boston Herald, January 13, 1967.
“Defendant ‘Satisfied’ With Bailey’s Work,” Ed Corsetti and Harold Banks, Record American, January 17, 1967.
“Defendant’s Hopes Rest on Two Medics,” Harold K Banks, Record American, January 13, 1967.
“DeSalvo Believed Headed for Mexico; Two Pals Nabbed,” Ken Powers, Tom Riley and Ed Gillooly, Record American, February 25, 1967.
“DeSalvo Branded Boston Strangler,” Arthur Stratton, Boston Herald, January 13, 1967.
“DeSalvo Curable, Dr. Robey Says,” Ed Corsetti, Jean Cole, Tom Berube, and Bill Duncliffe, Record American, January 17, 1967.
“DeSalvo Death Probe Near End in Walpole,” Boston Globe, November 29, 1973.
“DeSalvo ‘Discussions’ Belong in the Proper Hands,” Mike Barnicle, Boston Globe, November 29, 1973.
“DeSalvo Is ‘Boston Strangler’; Defense Says He Killed 13,” Robert J. Anglin, Boston Globe, January 13, 1967.
“DeSalvo Is Pictured by Bailey as Killer of 13 in 18 Months,” Jean Cole, Ed Corsetti, and Frank Thompson, Record American, January 13, 1967.