Stranglers

Episode 2: Fear in Boston

<p>Two more murders bring the total to five, terrorizing the city. As the police come up short in their attempt to protect the city, women take desperate measures to protect themselves. In this episode, host Portland Helmich meets a granddaughter of the Strangler’s fourth victim, and she follows the Boston police as they launch and attempt to control one of the largest manhunts the city had ever known. We’ll hear the voice of the late detective Phil DiNatale, meet his son, John, and explore the family’s vast archive of original Strangler notes, photos and diaries. Portland also interviews Mark Safarik, a retired FBI agent, who specializes in the homicides of elderly women. Safarik explains that with an unprecedented crime, traditional crime-solving techniques are almost never effective.</p>
<p>This episode is brought to you by Blue Apron.</p>

From June, 1962 through January, 1964, women in the city of Boston lived in fear of the infamous Strangler. Over those 19 months, he committed 13 known murders-crimes that included vicious sexual assaults and bizarre stagings of the victims' bodies. After the largest police investigation in Massachusetts history, handyman Albert DeSalvo confessed and went to prison. Despite DeSalvo's full confession and imprisonment, authorities would never put him on trial for the actual murders. And more than 50 years later, significant doubts continue to surround the case. Was DeSalvo really the killer? Was there more than one Strangler? And did the Boston PD and the FBI do everything necessary to find and stop the murderer?
 
Stranglers, an original 12-part weekly documentary podcast from Stitcher and Northern Light Productions, is a fascinating, contemporary audio investigation of the Boston Strangler story. Using never-before-heard voices, interviews with actual suspects, extensive original research and new conversations with the victims' family members, host Portland Helmich will introduce you to every facet of the case, from the reporters who originally covered it to the police who worked furiously to solve it, as well as terrified witnesses who claim to have met the Strangler himself.