January 11, 2017

EP. 7 — Episode 7: Bridgewater

By November, 1964, detective Phil DiNatale was closing in on a prime suspect, Albert DeSalvo, who had a long record of sexual assaults. DeSalvo was already in custody, in fact, at Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where he was undergoing psychiatric evaluation. But while the police were gathering evidence, DeSalvo was confessing to a fellow inmate, George Nassar, that HE was the Boston Strangler. In this episode, host Portland Helmich visits George Nassar in prison to learn more about DeSalvo’s confession. She also meets DeSalvo’s attorney, F. Lee Bailey, who rose to prominence in his defense of DeSalvo, and who changed the course of the Boston Strangler investigation by getting to Bridgewater and DeSalvo one day ahead of the police.

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Recent Episodes

February 15, 2017

55 years after the Boston Strangler murders first began, and despite decades of investigation, the search for answers continues. Although we may never know the truth about what happened to these women, we can draw some conclusions about the likely killers, and we can reach a new understanding about how crimes like this occur. In our final episode, Adele Roof, once nearly a victim herself, joins host Portland Helmich on a touching, thought-provoking journey back to Boston.

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February 8, 2017

Doubts and confusion about the identity of the Boston Strangler didn’t end with the death of lead suspect Albert DeSalvo. In fact, a small but determined group of family members and journalists continued to investigate the many unresolved questions surrounding the case–including the chilling possibility that some stranglers continued to live freely. In this episode, host Portland Helmich talks to Casey Sherman, nephew of victim Mary Sullivan (profiled in Episode 1) about his unlikely effort to exonerate DeSalvo. We learn about the existence of new forensic evidence, and about the strange, post-Strangler career of another major suspect: he moved to Michigan, and—perhaps coincidentally—a new series of murders began.

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February 1, 2017

Boston is gripped by fear once again after Albert DeSalvo escapes from Bridgewater State Hospital. But imprisonment never stops the man most people believed to be the Boston Strangler from communicating with—and attempting to manipulate—those outside. In this episode, we get an exclusive glimpse of DeSalvo’s extensive correspondence with his pursuer, Detective Phil DiNatale. DeSalvo never left prison again, but host Portland Helmich follows Phil DiNatale to Hollywood, where he became an official advisor and major character in the very successful 1968 film, The Boston Strangler. While the movie solidified many of the publicly accepted myths about the stranglings, DeSalvo’s mysterious death in prison only adds to the confusion surrounding the Strangler’s identity.

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