The film with Keira Knightley, broadcast on Disney + since this month of March, is inspired by the hunt for a real serial killer.
Two journalists on the trail of a serial killer who attacks women in the city of Boston: this is the plot at the heart of the new film by Matt Ruskin, The Boston Strangler, broadcast since March on Disney + and produced by Ridley Scott. A feature film that is all the more fascinating in that it is inspired by real events.
Direction Boston in the early 1960s. Between 1962 and 1964, 13 women were strangled by a mysterious killer. Each time, the victims are found dead with a nylon stocking around their neck. Some of them have been sexually assaulted.
A detail immediately attracts the attention of the investigators: there is no trace of a break-in in the apartments, a sign that the victims may have known their attacker or at least opened their doors to him without being suspicious.
Two journalists lead the investigation
As the investigation begins, the police have no idea of the identity of the man who rages. Quickly, he is nicknamed “the crazy strangler of Boston” by the media and the general public. But the latter also attacks women in other cities of Massachusetts, making the investigations even more complex.
In the film directed by Matt Ruskin, Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon play two journalists from the Record American, Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole, in the footsteps of the famous murderer. In parallel with their investigation, they write a series of articles devoted to the Boston strangler after having managed to establish links between the various murders.
Confessions in 1964, but a part of mystery
Everything changes in October 1964. While the individual manages to introduce himself to a new woman by posing as a detective, he flees after apologizing for having sexually assaulted her and without having killed her. Thanks to the testimony of this one, a robot portrait is established and diffused, leading finally to the arrest of a certain Albert DeSalvo.
Arrested, this worker ended up confessing and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1967. However, there are still doubts about his involvement in all 13 murders: indeed, according to DNA analyzes carried out in 2013 , Albert De Salvo is connected only to the last murder in the series. No material evidence exists to scientifically establish his guilt in the other 12 crimes.
Moreover, before these new results, several authors and experts have continued to assert that the Boston strangler could not be a single killer. Today, a part of mystery therefore still hangs over this affair which hit the headlines some sixty years ago.
