Boston Strangler

2023 - 3 - 18

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Boston Strangler to The Hurt Locker: the seven best films to watch ... (The Guardian)

Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon star in the gripping true story of the hunt for a brutal murderer, while Jeremy Renner plays a bomb disposal expert in a ...

[Samuel Fuller](https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/jul/08/4)’s bold, brutal 1964 melodrama takes a wrecking ball to the hidden hypocrisies and crimes of small-town American life. Huppert stars as Michèle, the co-owner of a company that creates violent video games, who is raped in her home by a masked intruder. With a mistrust of the police born of her horrific family history, she doesn’t report the attack; indeed, she is intrigued, if not turned on, by her feelings about it. [a sharp reminder](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/24/call-jane-review-abortion-drama-is-sensitive-if-not-revelatory) of what it was like in the 60s before the abortion ruling came into effect. His addiction isn’t shared by his colleagues, particularly Anthony Mackie’s JT Sanborn who fears James’s insouciance in the face of danger will be the death of them. Keira Knightley brings a no-nonsense steeliness to her portrayal of journalist Loretta McLaughlin, the first person to see a link between the killings.

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Image courtesy of "Roger Ebert"

Boston Strangler movie review (2023) | Roger Ebert (Roger Ebert)

Ruskin succeeds in paying tribute to McLaughlin's hard work but is less successful in filling in the bigger story.

Eventually, "Boston Strangler" reaches a point in which it is totally controlled by the wild course of events it is recreating, and it does make for decent, unsettling twists in a third act based on truth. [Alessandro Nivola](/cast-and-crew/alessandro-nivola), who plays a Boston cop who admits to being worn down by the case but starts to see the purpose in supporting Loretta's tenacity. There are many scenes of Loretta and Jean poring over documents, and moments meant to sting—like when Jean makes eye contact with a suspect in custody—lose their effect. But the plotting takes on some interesting layers, including the point when Loretta and Jean call out the Boston police in the paper for how they have mishandled the investigation and left innocent Bostonians in a dangerous dark. Instead, the stakes are more about someone believing so hard in the case they risk losing focus on their family life, and yet "Boston Strangler" doesn't have much space for that. Loretta and Jean are the first to pursue and broadcast the connection through the paper.

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Image courtesy of "TIME"

The Chilling True Story Behind Hulu's <em>Boston Strangler</em ... (TIME)

'Boston Strangler' tells the story of a series of murders in the early 1960s from the perspective of the two journalists who broke the story.

[WBZ-TV in 2018](https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/boston-strangler-cellmate-interview-george-nassar-albert-desalvo-wbz-tv-i-team-cheryl-fiandaca/), Nassar denied having taken part in the killings and claimed he told Bailey to take on DeSalvo’s case. In the following years, Marsh moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., where a series of similar murders later took place. Lee Bailey (played by Luke Kirby), who took on DeSalvo as a client when he became the prime suspect in the case. The question of whether DeSalvo committed the other 12 murders remains unanswered. [Boston Globe](https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/11/25/loretta-mclaughlin-groundbreaking-reporter-and-former-globe-editorial-page-editor/SfVdYxacCQtG5JfUSru5gL/story.html) about what pushed her to cover the case, explaining how it was the fourth murder in the summer of 1962 that “galvanized” her attention. DeSalvo recanted his confession in prison in 1973 shortly before he was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate. It was at this point in time that McLaughlin and Cole started to come up against significant resistance from authorities who took the stance that the level of detail included in their reporting wasn’t helping the investigation and could inspire copycat crimes. That said, in terms of trying to tell a story that spanned several years in a feature film, you obviously have to take some liberties.” In October 1964, 34-year-old Albert DeSalvo (played by David Dastmalchian) was arrested for sexually assaulting a woman after pretending to be a police officer to gain entry into her home. DeSalvo was sent to await trial at Bridgewater State Hospital, a state facility for the criminally insane, and it was there that he allegedly confessed to his cellmate, George Nassar (played by Greg Vrotos), that he was responsible for the murders associated with the Boston Strangler case. The majority were sexually assaulted before being strangled to death. That was what made them so interesting…sisters in anonymity, like all of us.”

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Image courtesy of "Boston.com"

Separating fact from fiction in the 'Boston Strangler' movie (Boston.com)

The 1968 film “Boston Strangler,” starring Henry Fonda as the lead investigator and Tony Curtis as suspected Strangler Albert DeSalvo, debuted to generally ...

In the same documentary, Phil DiNatale, the lead investigator of a Boston Strangler task force, said he believed that DeSalvo, his prime suspect in the case, was guilty. A 1964 Record-American story tells of Hurkos touching crime scene objects and using ESP to identify an unnamed 57-year-old suspect who Brooke said matched the description of a “prime suspect” in the case. Much like in real life, the ending of “Boston Strangler” doesn’t come to any tidy conclusion about who was responsible for the killings. The deal said that DeSalvo would be sentenced to life in prison for the multiple rapes he allegedly committed, but his confession to being the Boston Strangler would not be admissible in court. “Boston Strangler” also spends time with another alleged suspect, known as “Daniel Marsh.” Marsh did not exist in real life, but instead represents the many men who were at one point strongly considered to be the Strangler. It also speculates that perhaps Nassar himself may have committed some of the killings, and found DeSalvo as a willing scapegoat. Nivola, who doesn’t naturally speak with a Boston accent but capably pulls it off in the film, told Boston.com that he watched a police interrogation of the “It was actually the first time I’d ever really listened to a real police interrogation start to finish,” Nivola said. It was also true that McLaughlin wrote a number of lifestyle pieces during her time at the Record-American and its predecessor. “Growing up in Boston, I think everybody had heard of the Boston Strangler,” Ruskin told Boston.com. McNamara initially garnered positive headlines for his diligence on the case, with the Record-American noting that he had assigned 150 detectives to the case in September 1962. This isn’t the first time Hollywood has taken a look at the killing spree that rocked Boston in the 1960s, during which 13 women were murdered between June 14, 1962, and January 4, 1964.

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Image courtesy of "Seventeen.com"

Where is Loretta McLaughlin from The Boston Strangler Now? (Seventeen.com)

Here's what we know about Loretta McLoughlin the respected Boston Record American reporter who investigated The Boston Strangler in the 1960s.

There isn't much information on her cause of death, but the award-winning medical reporter and former Boston Globe editorial page editor was reportedly in her Milton, Massachusetts home when she passed away. She went on to appear in televised interviews surrounding the Boston Strangler, per She became the first journalist to find a connection between the infamous string of killings conducted by Albert DeSalvo and wrote a five-part series of stories about them in August 1962. Following the Boston Stranglers investigation, McLaughlin became "fascinated" by the psychological factors that prompted DeSalvo to kill his victims. Per the [Crime Museum](https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serial-killers/the-boston-strangler/), he would act as a delivery or repairman to lure his female victims into their apartments before sexually assaulting and killing them. [The Boston Strangler](https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=74968X1525086&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hulu.com%2Fmovie%2Fboston-strangler-323eae40-5c62-4765-949a-5b4f7f8f2ba4), is based on the Boston Record American's investigation that revealed the chilling real-life murders conducted by Albert DeSalvo between 1962 and 1964.

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Image courtesy of "CBS News"

Former WBZ employees tied to Boston Strangler speak out as new ... (CBS News)

"There was a time he came to the WBZ studios and that was terrifying," said Joanne Desmond, the city's first female news anchor. She worked at WBZ, and some of ...

"It follows the trajectory of the multi-killer theory that I'm a proponent of." "There was a time he came to the WBZ studios and that was terrifying," said Joanne Desmond, the city's first female news anchor. "All written in very small print, 'what is your bra size, panty size,' and a line to put in the numbers," she says.

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Image courtesy of "The Capital Times"

'Boston Strangler' hunts for the truth in a notorious murder case (The Capital Times)

Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon play two reporters investigating a real-life serial killer in this moody drama, now streaming on Hulu.

“Boston Strangler” speculates that Boston police, who were out of their league in trying to catch the murderer, were too quick to accept DeSalvo’s confession at face value in the interests of expediency. Knightley and Coon deliver strong performances as the two reporters, piecing together clues, interviewing witnesses, and navigating sexism both in the police department and within their own newsroom. Two of the attacks we don’t see, but hear, letting our imaginations fill in the unsettling rest.

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Image courtesy of "ABC News"

REVIEW: 'Boston Strangler' is a rallying cry for justice (ABC News)

Film critic Peter Travers shares his review of Hulu's new true-crime thriller, "Boston Strangler."

Did DeSalvo, Marsh and Nassar conspire to throw police off or to collect reward money or to cash in on a book deal for DeSalvo organized by Nassar's lawyer F. There is also too little of DeSalvo (David Dastmalchian), except to show how he disguised himself as a handyman to talk himself into his victim's apartments. Boston-raised writer-director Matt Ruskin lets us see Loretta at home as a mother whose husband (Morgan Spector) pitches in when the strangler story dominates their lives. Reduced to lifestyle puff pieces by her newspaper, Loretta had to fight editor Jack Maclaine (Chris Cooper) to write a story about a pattern she saw in the early killings. As portrayed by Tony Curtis in the 1968 film "The Boston Strangler," DeSalvo suffered from a multiple personality disorder that left him unaware of his murderous side, a theory dismissed as Hollywood hogwash by later evidence that pointed to multiple stranglers. The British Knightley, sporting a spot-on American accent, is ideal casting as Loretta.

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