The Boston Strangler -
Albert Henry DeSalvo was born in Chelsea,
Massachusetts, on September 3, 1931, the third of six children. When DeSalvo was
eight his abusive father abandoned the family, returning occasionally for drunken
rampages. Upon graduating high school, with a criminal record, DeSalvo joined
the army. While stationed in Europe he married a German woman who returned to
the United States with him when he was transferred to Fort Dix in New Jersey.
Together they had two children. DeSalvo had an inexhaustible sex drive that took
on a criminal dimension when he was stationed at Fort Dix and was accused of molesting
a nine-year-old-girl. He then began to approach women on the street saying he
represented a modeling agency. Apparently hundreds of women allowed him into their
homes. In March 1960 he was arrested for breaking and entering, he received a
two year sentence and was released after only eleven months. After his release
he became a rapist. He raped as many as six women a day. He claimed that he had
assaulted over one thousand women. It was not until the summer of 1962 that he
began killing some of his victims. In 1964 DeSalvo was arrested and sent to the
mental hospital at Bridgewater for observation. In January 1967 DeSalvo was found
guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment. On November 26 1973 DeSalvo was
found dead in his cell, stabbed in the heart. His murderer was never identified.