The Boston Stranglers
Page 44
66 Whether Bottomly was lying or simply mistaken is unknown. And, if McGrath wasn’t Albert’s legal guardian, why was he present at the latter’s interrogations?
67 Margaret Davis’s murderer was believed, probably correctly, by most police to be the drifter with whom she’d checked into the hotel and spent the night.
68 Jane Sullivan had an illegitimate daughter, again an indication that her past life was slightly less than conventional.
69 In The Boston Strangler Gerold Frank writes that Barrows (whom Frank calls Arnold Wallace) had been brought to the attention of police by a psychic who had uncannily accurate visions of Barrows at his homicidal activities (pp. 68—81). It was later established that these visions had their basis in an acquaintance the psychic had formed with Barrows at Boston State Hospital.
70 Apart from the semen stain.
71 Ruth Darling reported to police that much to her disgust, John had asked her out when she told him that Patricia wasn’t available. When she later met him, in Pat’s company, her initial bad impression was confirmed: “He looked like a snake.”
72 No relation and no apparent connection to the Joann Graff who was to be raped and strangled in Lawrence in late November 1963.
73 Beverly was a creature of her time, as was Leslie. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, many gay men sought—or were told to seek—counseling in the hope of finding a “cure” for their sexual orientation. The theory fashionable at the time, according to gay men who underwent this therapy, was that they had been warped by their mothers.
74 Frank, p. 209.
75 In an outlandish coincidence, the Globe reporter was a college friend of Strangler suspect William Lindahl, and would be accused in 1970 of murdering his own wife.
76 This atmosphere enabled Albert DeSalvo, in his Measuring Man phase, to move so freely around the Harvard Square area. He was in fact quite gleeful about the number of “high class ladies” he was able to seduce there. He claimed to have enjoyed a number of sexual successes with residents of apartments at University Road, which was probably why when he confessed to the murder of Beverly Samans, he was able to describe the layout (although not, interestingly, the furnishings and household effects) of her flat fairly convincingly.
77 See pp. 212-13.
78 As of this writing.
79 A quality that again radically distinguishes him from the typical serial killer.
80 The prison is now officially designated MCI-Cedar Junction.
81 Robey never knew who this might be; Albert did not give a name.
82 No experienced ethical professional interrogator would ever show photos of a crime scene to the suspect and then take the suspect’s confession.