Genetic evidence has the potential to solve the 37-year-old mystery. But many families of the Strangler’s victims–and even some of DeSalvo’s own relatives–want to keep the past behind them. As with many grisly cases across the country that are being pulled from the cold file and given new life by DNA evidence, opening the Boston Strangler case raises uncomfortable questions: what if the victims of violent crimes or their families don’t want to dredge up painful memories–even if the truth is at stake? For the relatives of some of the Strangler’s other victims, revisiting the horrific crimes would mean reliving the most traumatic events of their lives. After decades of believing that the real killer was behind bars–and even feeling a guilty sense of relief when DeSalvo himself was murdered in a Walpole prison in 1973–the families must now come to terms with the possibility that the police got the wrong man. “I feel it can only cause more hurt,” says Kathleen Johnson, whose 23-year-old sister, Patricia Bissette, was found strangled and tucked in bed on New Year’s Eve in 1962. “I wish they’d leave it alone.”
But the Sullivan and DeSalvo families aren’t about to do that. Even without DNA to prove it, there are reasons to question whether Albert DeSalvo was the Strangler. At the time, investigators suspected that the stranglings that plagued Boston from 1962 to 1964 were copycat crimes and not the work of one serial killer. But the media sparked hysteria over the Strangler. In 1965, when DeSalvo, held on other rape charges, confessed to the murders, it seemed like a gift to desperate officials. But no physical evidence ever linked DeSalvo to the stranglings. Prosecutors didn’t even have enough proof to charge him; he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the unrelated rapes. Richard believes that his brother hoped to strike lucrative book and movie deals by confessing to the Strangler crimes. When Casey Sherman heard a copy of DeSalvo’s confession, he was astonished by the inaccuracies. DeSalvo claimed, for example, that he’d strangled Mary with his bare hands–but the autopsy showed she’d been killed with a ligature. “This guy didn’t know what he was talking about. He mostly answered yes or no to leading questions,” says Sherman.
In their quest to find out whether Albert was the Strangler, Sherman and his mother, Diane Dodd, and Richard DeSalvo have gathered a pro bono dream team of forensic scientists–including James Starrs, who worked on the Jesse James case, and Henry Lee of O.J. fame–and launched an investigation of their own. On a sunny day last October, the scientists exhumed Mary Sullivan’s body from a Cape Cod cemetery and, in a new autopsy, collected more than 60 DNA samples that might point to her killer. The team expects final results in three to six months. For comparison, they are using Richard’s DNA, because certain types of DNA match in brothers. They’re now testing DNA from foreign hairs on Mary’s body and one semen stain on her panties. One disappointment: DNA found under Mary’s fingernails turned out to be her own.
Whatever they eventually find may be cold comfort to the families. Most of Mary Sullivan’s siblings have been against the quest from the start and were livid when they learned that their sister Diane Dodd had exhumed Mary without telling them. “I hate what you’ve done. I don’t want to talk about it,” one sister, Helen, told Diane. (Contacted by NEWSWEEK, Helen declined to comment.) On the DeSalvo side, the effort to exonerate Albert has been no less contentious. Albert’s wife and two children have long since changed their names and want little to do with the family, much less the investigation. For years the rest of the DeSalvo family felt that talking about the case only further sullied the family name. Richard’s in-laws despaired at seeing his wife discussing the case on TV. And only lately has Richard’s brother Joe warmed to the effort.
Sherman, Dodd and Richard DeSalvo know that using DNA to prove Albert’s innocence in Mary’s death is only the first step in unraveling the entire mystery. The families are trying to enlist relatives of the Strangler’s other victims in their cause. So far, only two have expressed even the slightest interest. Many of the others agree with Kathleen Johnson, who first learned of the new investigation when she was flipping through a magazine and stumbled upon a photo of her dead sister. “Bringing it all up again is just a reminder,” Johnson says.
Authorities haven’t been eager to revisit the past either. Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly told the DeSalvo and Sullivan families last spring that the state saw no reason to reopen the case. But a round of publicity sent officials digging through their archives, and last fall the state announced that it had unearthed DNA evidence of its own: semen from the crime scene. Last week Reilly disclosed that the first tests had been “nonproductive.” Another round of tests is now underway. Richard DeSalvo and Dodd, furious that the state refused to share evidence, are suing the attorney general and other Massachusetts officials in U.S. District Court. Last Friday the state promised it would share some DNA samples. Meanwhile a federal judge issued a gag order in the case; he’ll hold a hearing this week to decide how to proceed.
For now, Reilly insists he’s only investigating Mary Sullivan’s murder, not the whole Boston Strangler case. If the DNA tests do eventually exonerate Albert, the police will face the daunting task of finding a new suspect. In the meantime DeSalvo and Sherman have no plans to stop their freelance investigation. They already have an alternate suspect in Mary’s murder and are marshaling their own set of evidence to force authorities to follow up. “We’re not chasing ghosts here,” says Sherman. Maybe not, but for other families, they could be raising them.
