New forensic tests link confessed Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo to murder of Mary Sullivan in 1964
Source: Boston.com
New forensic tests link Albert DeSalvo to the murder of Mary Sullivan, who was 19 years old when she was killed in her Boston apartment in 1964, a killing that made Sullivan the final victim of the Boston Strangler, officials said today.
In a statement, Boston police summarized the topic of a press conference about DeSalvo and Sullivan’s murder that is set for 11 a.m. today and will be attended by Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, and Attorney General Martha Coakley.
“Despite a confession taking responsibility for the murder, DeSalvo was never charged because his confession was ruled inadmissible in court,’’ Boston police said in a statement today. “Instead of homicide convictions, DeSalvo, instead, was sentenced to life in prison on unrelated charges involving armed robberies and sexual assaults.’’
The statement continues, “now, some 50 years later, the miracle of science and DNA evidence has put law enforcement officers in a position to formally charge the Boston Strangler with the murder of Mary Sullivan.’’
The first of the 11 murders eventually attributed to the Boston Strangler took place on June 14, 1962, when the body of Anna Slesers, a 55-year-old Latvian seamstress, was found in her Gainsborough Street apartment by her son. And the last was Sullivan who was murdered on Jan. 4, 1964.
Read more: http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/07/11/major-development-boston-strangler-case-will-unveiled-today/AHJ5B214mZ0rSG6sxv27AI/story.html
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malthaussen
(17,175 posts)... considering the backlog of work in so many labs, I don't quite get why time and resources were spent on a case this old.
-- Mal
Treant
(1,968 posts)to get closure, however late, and I trust the relatives and friends of Ms. Sullivan feel some closure here.
billh58
(6,635 posts)appears to be to determine whether the actual killer of these women has been identified. From the linked article:
"DeSalvo confessed to being the “Boston Strangler,’’ but was never prosecuted for the crimes under a deal negotiated with then-Attorney General Edward Brooke and DeSalvo’s attorney, F. Lee Bailey. But many people, including Brooke, have questioned whether DeSalvo did kill all of the women whose deaths have been attributed to the Strangler.
“Even to this day, I can’t say with certainty that the person who ultimately was designated as the Boston Strangler was the Boston Strangler,” Brooke told the Globe in 2012."
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)of Albert DeSalvo.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)DeSalvo was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, to Frank and Charlotte DeSalvo. His father was of Italian ancestry and his mother was of Irish ancestry. His father was a violent alcoholic, who at one point knocked out all of his wife's teeth and bent her fingers back until they broke.[citation needed] He also forced his children to watch him have sex with prostitutes that he brought home.[citation needed] DeSalvo tortured animals as a child, and began shoplifting and stealing in early adolescence, frequently crossing paths with the law.
In November 1943, the 12-year-old DeSalvo was first arrested for battery and robbery. In December of the same year he was sent to the Lyman School for Boys. In October 1944, he was paroled and started working as a delivery boy. In August 1946, he returned to the Lyman School for stealing an automobile. After completing his second sentence, DeSalvo joined the Army. He was honorably discharged after his first tour of duty. He re-enlisted and, in spite of being tried in a court-martial, DeSalvo was again honorably discharged.[citation needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_DeSalvo
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)She's dead, he's dead, they've both been dead for decades. He already confessed to the crime. They did this so they can charge a dead man with a crime they will never prosecute?
Or they could did up his casket, try and convict him, and sentence him to...more death?
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)And for the people saying that it's a waste of resources, if one case can be considered CLOSED, that frees up law enforcement resources for other cases that are still open.
Th1onein
(8,514 posts)They have always believed he was innocent.
Midnight Writer
(21,717 posts)of another inmate who many suspected was the true Strangler. There has been suspicion all these years that the mentally unstable DeSalvo got details of the crimes that made his confession believable from his cellmate and good friend. DeSalvo was one of these "eager to please" suspects whose confession seemed to come too easily. In addition, he got several details of the crimes wrong. It is good to know that he is actually guilty, especially of the Sullivan murder, which was particularly horrendous.
catchnrelease
(1,944 posts)Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said detectives followed DeSalvo relatives around, waiting for the chance to grab something that could provide a DNA sample for comparative purposes. When a relative discarded a plastic bottle, an officer picked it up and it was submitted for DNA testing.
snip
Conley defended the use of surreptitious means to get the DNA profile from the DeSalvo family as “fair and legal and ethical’’ and also allowed the investigation to proceed without disrupting the DeSalvo family.
Conley said the DNA sample from one of DeSalvo’s nephews helped build the “familial match’’ between DeSalvo and Sullivan’s murder.
Couldn't they have just asked the DeSalvo family to cooperate first? It's kind of creepy to think someone is following you around trying to get some of your DNA. I'm not opposed to them investigating further, but I'm not sure about their tactics.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)What part of our identity belongs to us in these times?
How is this ethical?
Corgigal
(9,291 posts)Even if you leave out a trash can in front of the house, law enforcement can take whatever they want out of it. Yep, it's legal.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)But I think that technology has evolved more than our laws have.
And that there are significant ethical and philosophical questions we need to examine more, such as who the DNA (which may be on the trash, but is a separate element) belongs to and what is the extent or the limits of access to it, especially given the ability of DNA testing to discover so much information about a person.
For example:
http://www.wral.com/spread-of-dna-databases-sparks-ethical-concerns/12654887/
A similar note of caution has been struck by Alec Jeffreys, the British geneticist whose 1984 discovery of DNA fingerprinting revolutionized criminal investigations. He has warned that "mission creep" could see authorities use DNA to accumulate information on people's racial origins, medical history and psychological profile.
Erlich agreed that scenario was possible, if not likely.
"If it's not regulated and the police can do whatever they want ... they can use your DNA to infer things about your health, your ancestry, whether your kids are your kids," he said.
Police forces have already tracked down criminals through the DNA of their innocent relatives, a practice that is both a goldmine for investigators and, according to skeptics, an ethical minefield. Charles Tumosa, a clinical assistant professor in forensic studies at the University of Baltimore who is wary of the potential for genetic surveillance, says relatives of suspects could be identified through DNA and leaned on for information about their family members.
"There's got to be a debate," said Tumosa. "Nobody has talked this out.
The same article notes that 54 nations currently have "national police databases" with the largest one being the United States.
I agree with Tumosa that there needs to be a debate about this and about what should be allowed in terms of collection and use of this information.
