Customer Reviews

The Boston Strangler

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I always wanted to know more about the Boston Strangler, having read about him in other true crime accounts, but never getting the full picture. This book gives a frightening and touching account of Boston in the 60s and the Strangler's unwitting victims. Frank handles brilliantly the chaotic investigation and numerous (but mesmerizing) deadend leads; his reporting of the case and its frustrations is near perfect. By the time I got to DeSalvo's confessions (and the fact that the case has never been brought to trial!) I wanted to roll up my sleeves and spend an all-nighter going through the files to check facts. Not since reading about Jack the Ripper have I been so engaged by an unsolved crime.

The persons who wrote the negative reviews on this book don't seem to have actually read it. The reason Albert DeSalvo was never tried for the stranglings was due principally to the skillful maneuvering of his attorney, F. Lee Baily. Anyone who reads Gerold Frank's The Boston Strangler cannot help but come to the conclusion that DeSalvo was the right man. But there are people who have an interest in casting doubt on the facts. If my brother, or son, or spouse had committed such horrible crimes, I would try to bring up such doubts myself. Or if I wanted to write a book about the case, using sensationalistic hogwash about another killer or killers. I first read Gerold Frank's book in the late sixties. Recently I came across it again, and reread every word. It is a fascinating story, a masterpiece of reporting, with elements of the supernatural, turbid politics, and police bungling. For, despite the fact that Albert DeSalvo was arrested for a violent rape, in which he had entered a woman's home under the pretext of effecting repairs (after he had already committed the murders), yet they did not investigate him as a possible suspect in the stranglings. The final pages of the book present a repelling, yet fascinating, picture of a sick soul, the depths of hell in the mind of a seemingly pleasant and affable man. And those final pages also fully explain why Albert DeSalvo was never tried for the murders.

Even when I first read this book as a teenager, something didn't sit right with Albert DeSalvo being pegged as the killer. The "old women" and "the girls" cohorts of victims propagated subconscious disconnections between factors being treated as the work of a single perpetrator, as did the case's sudden wrap-up. The psychoanalysis sessions, looking back at them, appeared laced with manipulation, and subsequent examinations of the Strangler case substantiate that: DeSalvo was prompted to be the killer, because they needed a killer to blame.

Still, the portions about the investigation before DeSalvo's appearance are fascinating -- the crime scene descriptions, the victim timetables, detectives and their occasional dead ends. The tale is quite interesting, but should be absorbed only in combination with other writings about the Strangler case(s). It only makes you wish they had had, in the early 1960s, the same forensic techniques we have today. They really might have caught the guy(s).

I read the 1960's paperback edition of this book after discovering it in a used bookstore. Its extreme level of detail and general sense of being well-written attests to the great interest of a general readership in these crimes at the time they took place. Even today, when there are many more serial killer stories to choose from, people who like very detailed true crime stories and are interested in how police investigations and criminal cases were handled decades ago will enjoy this book.

The book meticulously documents each of the killings and details of the investigations. One thing that immediately becomes apparent is that there were a lot of weird characters prowling around Boston with various mental illnesses and/or motivations to kill women. I'm sure it's still that way today, but given the more antiquated investigation methods and forensics used back in the Strangler's day - no DNA tests and an overreliance on possibly faulty witness testimony from neighbors, etc. - you get the sense that the police are really looking for a needle in the haystack, and maybe more than one needle. The case of the only African-American victim in particular suggests that her killing might have been done by an acquaintance, rather than being one of the serial killer's victims. Later on when F. Lee Bailey becomes involved in the case, this book provides a good description of how he operated in his prime, as opposed to a couple decades down the road when his star was fading.

By the end of the book, I was by no means convinced that Albert deSalvo was the Boston Strangler, or that even if he had killed some of the women, he had necessarily killed all of the victims attributed to him. Indeed, I came away more convinced that more than one murderer was responsible and that the crimes possibly weren't all related. Read it and judge for yourself - it's well worth your time.

I have read many true crime novels. This is among the best written ones which is particularly note-worthy since the copyright is 1966.

The book tells the chronology of the investigation into the strangling murder that took place in the Boston in the early 1960's. After going through the investigation of each murder as it happens, the author discusses the interviews and suspects. The investigators even go so far as to discuss their use of a man with ESP powers in the investigation. However, this only serves as a side track from the real killer. The book concludes with the interviews of the real Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo. The Strangler describes his childhood and marriage which are the main factors which caused the rampage. Desalvo also describes each of the killings as he went through them.

One of the most interesting facets of the book is the question of DeSalvo's sanity. He did show remorse and gave hints as to why he did it. But the fact that he willingly confessed in itself raised the question of his sanity again. In cases of well publicized crime sprees like this, numerous people will often try to confess. Usually all of these confessions are false. Based on the acuracy of some of the false suspects' confessions, the book raises some doubts about DeSalvo's confession. However, the author ultimately assures the reader that DeSalvo is the man.

I remember as a child the newspapers were always talking about the Boston Strangler. However since I was only a child I never really knew the details, and I never had the opportunity to see the film account. And so with little hesitation I picked up this book when I saw it at a secondhand bookshop. Well, ... I was rather disappointed. The book is structured such that there is little suspense or horror, and the named killer is not even mentioned until the last 100 pages or so (despite being referenced on the book's back cover!). Overall I found the book to read like raw data that was strung together very unimaginatively into sentences.

As an aside, the book is now very dated. There is plenty of discussion of why the experts thought the Strangler must have been homosexual. While I don't disagree particularly with the assumptions, which turned out to be wrong, I found the homophobic language to be way beyond politically incorrect by today's standard. Since the book was written in 1966 I won't be too critical on this point, but any potential reader should be forewarned.


Bottom line: Gerold Frank somehow turned one of the most sensational murder sprees into a boring read. Not recommended.

Fascinating, but creepy. Mr Gerold is very thorough in his research. It must have been difficult as complex a man as DeSalvo was and as this case was. If you want to know the true story about the murders, investigation, an insight into the mind of Albert DeSalvo and his tortured childhood, if you want to know the true facts, this is the book for you. Go back in time as Mr DeSalvo describes each murder, the apartments in graphic and true detail. How would he know if he wasn't there? I don't believe the strangler is still out there. No murders since Mr DeSalvo was locked up, and none since he died. These were one of a kind murders. And Albert DeSalvo was the murderer.

A pretty gripping read back in its day (1966)--but in the 40 following its original publication, plenty of evidence has surfaced strongly suggesting that self-confessed killer Albert deSalvo WASN'T the real deal--or even close. (According to some reports, author Gerald Frank later admitted he'd been conned by deSalvo's bogus admissions.) Creepy reading--but file this one under FICTION.

hello dear readers! my name is walter and i am from austria,so excuse my sometimes strange english.i am a great fan of true crime novels,but since this books are so hard to get in austria,i think amazon is the only future i have.of all the books i read in the last two years,"boston strangler" by gerold frank is my absolute favourite.oh yes,i know,this is not what you call"intellectual",but dont we like some trashy fears and thrills sometimes(at night when nobodys home?)"boston strangler"tells us the horrifying story of a sexual psychopath,that terrorized a whole city for eighteen months back in the sixties.for this time,the police was unable to catch him,the women were absolutely in panic and in the center of all police investigations,one kill after another happened.the great gift that the author has to offer is that he makes full use of the police records,medical and psychiatric records of that time,so he can give us the whole horrifying story in every trembling detail.and he carries us to every wrong track on which the police officers were at that time. i cant get no sleep since i read this book,but is this not the greatest thing a book can give us? sadly i realized that it is not in print at the moment,but let the amazon guys get you at hand and im shure they will find it for you anywhere in this great country... thanx for your time walter brantner graz,austria

Gerold Frank's book on the Boston Strangler case will probably remain the definitive work on the case; despite conspiracy theorists who want to claim that someone else was the killer, Albert DeSalvo remains the only convincing suspect, and this account, only occasinally marred by tabloid-ish prose, is the best account I've ever read of the crimes and their effects on the city of Boston (including some moments of indavertent comedy). Frank takes us not only to the scenes of the killings, but to the corridors of the Massachusetts State House, the offices of the various police stations around Boston, and into the stranger reacher of Boston as the case becomes a political football and the police, in the days before psychological profiling and DNA testing, attempt to talk to anyone considered sexually deviant in hopes of running down clues to the killer's identity. And then he gives a good account of the maneuverings between the police, the Massachusetts Attorney General, and DeSalvo's lawyer, F. Lee Bailey, whose motives waver between a cynical desire for publicity and a genuine hope to get his client psychiatric treatment. Ultimately rather bleak, but undeniably engrossing