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Gary Alan Weatherhead
Inspector
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 432
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, December 08, 2003 - 7:40 pm: | 
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Hello All
One of The Boston Strangler's alleged victims, Mary Sullivan, was removed from her grave recently and DNA evidence was used to demonstrate that her killer was not likely to have been Albert DeSalvo: The so called Boston Strangler. A previously unrecognized semen deposit was found in her pubic hair. It did not match DeSalvo's DNA and seems to exonerate Desalvo of her murder. Further, a re-examination of DeSalvo's confession provides strong evidence that he was not present at the scene of the crime.
Anyone interested in reading more on the subject should read the book A ROSE FOR MARY, written by her nephew, Casey Sherman.
DeSalvo was murdered in prison under suspicious circumstances and many of the killings attributed to him in the 1960's are being re-examined.
At present I do not believe it would be of any benefit to remove any of the Ripper victims from their graves for DNA testing. However, the advances being made in trace DNA analysis may one day make this feasible. It would be folly to speculate what this evidence may be able to tell us as advances are made in this field as time passes. Forty years ago no-one would have dared to suggest that Ms. Sullivan could be excluded from the Strangler murder list by advances in forensic science.
All The Best
Gary |
MF
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 - 3:23 am: |
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The Boston Strangler case with all its muddied waters has many shades of Whitechapel. Instead of a deluge of Ripper mail, the publicity opened the floodgates of a torrent of rape and murder by upwards of eight copycat killers. At least that's the consensus nowadays.
Many Americans now believe that the Boston Strangler was a myth. He never existed as an individual but was created by the media from a rash of stranglings. Although how this rash switched half way through it course from old ladies to young, I don't know....
The Boston Stranglings had to have at least begun as a campaign by an individual. More shades of Whitechapel. If you believe Yours Truly.
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Gary Alan Weatherhead
Chief Inspector
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 548
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, February 27, 2004 - 3:24 pm: |
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Hi MF
I agree that the idea of a single 'Boston Strangler' is a myth. We are asked to believe that the same man: 1) Entered the homes of women and fondled them and: 2) Broke into the homes of his victims and raped them, and: 3) Broke into the homes of elderly women, raped and murdered them and then posed them in a grotesque fashion. This scenario begs credulity.
All The Best
Gary |
MF
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, February 27, 2004 - 10:56 pm: |
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Dear Gary,
You're right about the varied MOs but you must be including the Measuring Man/Green Man offences by Albert DeSalvo with the Boston Strangler ones. That scenerio of course does begger credulity.
I'm still targeting a major player amidst the copycats. Right now I'm up to 4 killers. One more and I'll have to give up or I'll become a victim myself.
It's a tangled knot that the stranglers have tied.
Yours Truly |
Gary Alan Weatherhead
Chief Inspector
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 553
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 12:30 pm: |
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Hi MF
I believe Desalvo was the 'Measuring Man' and may have been the 'Green Man.' The most likely candidate for Mary Sullivan's killer was her roomates' boyfriend.
George Nassar may have been responsible for the murders of the elderly women.
All The Best
Gary |
MF
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 3:30 pm: |
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You may be right about Mary Sullivan's killer. The Patriot Ledger says her nephew, Casey Sherman, got a partial match on a DNA sample provided secretly by of all people, the suspect's family. Case Closed? Maybe.
How accurate are these partial matches anyway? I heard 99%.
That would throw my idea out the window. Eventhough a witness says she saw the suspect standing in Mary's window but she couldn't identify the roomie's boyfriend even when the police stood him in the same spot. She said the guy she saw was taller and blond or red-headed.
I was sure it was another suspect--the blond guy with the crazy laugh who showed up in taverns near the scene of the last two murders in Lawrence and Boston, 100 miles apart, on the day of the murders asking for the unavailable Lucky Lager Beer. He's played by Shelley Burton in the movie.
Mary's was the last murder, in Boston. |
MF
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 2:48 pm: |
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If George Nassar or someone else was responsible for the murders of the elderly ladies, then I would still consider him a major player, worthy to be branded the real Boston Strangler. He could have commited these initial murders and the resulting publicity could have triggered the copycats who copied the strangler's knot and bows.
The Boston Strangler is real enough for me. I can't see how else to explain the bowties on the early victims without big prior publicity. It was either an original criminal or else it was an original movie.
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Gary Alan Weatherhead
Chief Inspector
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 554
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 01, 2004 - 9:11 am: |
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Hi MF
I agree. The real Boston Strangler was the man who murdered the elderly women and and copycats followed. The Bow ties and the distinctive knots were the real clues to the Strangler'victims as opposed to the copycats. Without getting into profiling jargon, I would say the true Stranglers M.O or crime signature was too distinctive be confused with the other crimes.
I believe new light will continue to be shed on these killings and that the events are not so remote in time that the truth will one day come out.
All The Best
Gary |
MF
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, March 01, 2004 - 11:52 am: |
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My research into partial DNA matches makes me believe that anything less than 6 genetic markers and I can disregard Casey Sherman's findings.
Labs, according to the Miami Herald, usually like to match at least 13 markers. Here's the rundown:
13 markers: 1 in a million billion
9 markers: 1 in several billion
6 markers: 1 in several thousand (my guess)
3 markers: forget it
Anything less than 6, so many people are ruled in that you can only rule people out.
Less than 6, I can still rule in the Lucky Beer guy for the last two murders. Lucky was a West Coast Beer unavailable in Boston and Lawrence and the favorite of the Shelley Burton character. And the last bartender's description matched. The first's was too vague.
Now if I could only link him to the first 4 or 5, I'm grooving!
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Ma r k
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 5:07 pm: |
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The first 5 victims were all old ladies which usually means a younger murderer (teens to 25). Not the 25-35 that is standard for serial killers.
Nassar was 30. Too old.
He killed 30 men in gang-related incidents. A different kind of predator altogether.
And he's Syrian....
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Gary Alan Weatherhead
Chief Inspector
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 626
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 8:51 pm: |
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Hi Mark
Your scenario does not rule out Nassar as the killer of the younger women. 30 is not that much older than 25 and Nassar could have changed his MO to copycat the earlier murders. I am not saying that it is a certainty that Nassar killed any of the women. It is conjecture at this point in time.
All The Best
Gary |
Mark
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 12:39 am: |
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The Dark Strangler a.k.a. Gorilla Man, Earl Leonard Nelson switched from old to young women. John Collins, the Michigan Co-Ed Murderer, was 20.
I'm not hung up on age or victimology, just broaching the subject from conventional wisdom.
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Gary Alan Weatherhead
Chief Inspector
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 639
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 5:13 pm: |
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Hi Mark
Earl Nelson, "The Gorilla Murderer," was an interesting example of how spouses and people living with serial killers can choose to ignore their strange behaviour. Nelson would leave his home in a nice suit of clothes and would return dressed in rags. He didn't bathe and had terrible hygiene. He would go away for lengthy periods of time and come back home without giving any explanation. When he was a child his father tried to literally beat him into behaving normally. His wife and those they lived with would turn a largely blind eye to his behavior. He is the exception that proves the rule that profiling can only take us so far in finding serial killers. Not all serial killers live alone, are white males between the ages of 25 and 35 and strictly adhere to the dictate that they never vary in their age of victim. A lot of them do fit this mold, but not all. If I remember correctly and please correct me if I am wrong, he never changed one part of his M.O. He would strangle and then rape his victims. Presumably this is what gave him his 'sexual kicks'.
I suppose conventional wisdom should be that the profile of a serial killer can and does vary. They can be married. Further, the opportunity to strike successfully is of more importance than the specific age of the victim. Witness Mary Kelly.
All The Best
Gary |
Mark
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 25, 2004 - 12:17 pm: |
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Gary,
Your point is quite valid (although it is not conventional FBI wisdom)--Even disorganized killers can be married. (In Victorian Times, I assume it would be even easier.) Even if Earl Nelson's official killings (22) were during his "nomadic dementia" all over the US and into Canada, 15 months up to capture (Crimelibrary), there could very well have been murders during his more settled dementia.
Marital status aside, conventional wisdom still works as well as any unconventional wisdom I might have on the Boston Strangler case. The younger-killer-killing-older-women rule-of-thumb (which I didn't know) will get you the same result that I did. You still get one of the two Harvard student suspects.
Nassar was too old by conventional wisdom not to mention not white and wouldn't have changed his MO from killing men to killing women even to be a copycat (going from older women to younger women, I can understand!). Copycats, unless they're on a totally different turf, kill someone they know and copy to cover it up. Do they not? |
Gary Alan Weatherhead
Chief Inspector
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 641
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - 11:51 am: |
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Hi Mark
I would tend to agree that copycats for the most part, kill people they know and try to make it look like the work of a killer who is operating at the same time.
I believe a killer kills both the objects of his fantasies as well those who are within his comfort range and degree of sophistication. Therefore, age is perhaps more flexible in serial killers than we tend to think.
All The Best
Gary |
James Jeffrey Paul
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, May 30, 2004 - 11:54 pm: |
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Have any of you read Harold Schechter's superb book on the Nelson case, BESTIAL? |
Gary Alan Weatherhead
Chief Inspector
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 649
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 01, 2004 - 4:51 pm: |
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Hi James
I believe I have read all of Schechter's books. They are all very well done.
Bestial is an interesting example of how a spouse can ignore seriously bizarre behavior on the part of a serial killer. It also demonstrates how a killer can change his choice of victim if the circumstances are more propitious for a successful kill. In Nelson's case the change was in the age of his victims.
All The Best
Gary |
Mark
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, May 31, 2004 - 4:49 pm: |
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Schechter's book BESTIAL is now in reprint and back in bookstores here along with his other books. (I'm almost half way through.) I picked it up mostly because he was caught in Canada and it looks like a good test case for the Boston Strangler. TBSphiles should put it on their list.
Gary will be glad to know that age was at variance with conventional wisdom. Nelson was 28, not the conventional under-25, when he killed his first official victim who was 60 (Clara Newman).
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MayFlowerMarK
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 3:38 pm: |
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The Under-25 rule could still apply today regardless of Earl Nelson's age due to increased precocity over time. According to the Fairfield Echo, Donald Korn would have been 19 at the time he killed Ethel Stayer 73, in Ohio, in 1964.
As for Earle Nelson's behavior, I would be remiss if I didn't say that, in actual fact, he wasn't returning home in the clothes of his poor victims. These were second-hand-store-bought clothes and he was purposely dressing up as a castaway. It was one of the many identities he assumed. What was his wife to make of that?...
Shades of Whitechapel?
How about Americans protecting their royalty, no matter how remote the connection?...
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