The Evil Within - A Top Murder Squad Detective Reveals The Chilling True Stories of The World's Most Notorious Killers (15 page)

Another important factor that suggested DeSalvo was not the killer was that police had taken two female witnesses to secretly view him in the prison hospital, with one being the only woman to survive an encounter with the Strangler. Police were hoping that the women would positively identify DeSalvo. What the police had not foreseen was that they would identify someone totally different – George Nasr. The women posed as visitors in the prison’s visiting room. Nasr was the first to enter the room to meet with a prison social worker. He glanced at one of the women then immediately took a second look. She was disturbed by his presence and wondered if she knew him, or vice versa. At
that moment, DeSalvo came in and sat down. Straightaway, the woman realised DeSalvo was not her attacker. She had been shown his photograph previously and was unsure then; now she was positive. She later made a revelation to police, stating that she believed that the other man she had seen that day, George Nasr, looked like her attacker but she could not be 100 per cent sure. The second female witness also failed to identify DeSalvo but, having seen Nasr, believed he was the man who had called at her apartment posing as a workman.

Despite these doubts and relying totally on DeSalvo’s confession, the legal wrangling continued. In the interim, on 10 January 1967, Albert DeSalvo was tried on the original charges relating to the Green Man offences. DeSalvo’s legal team explained that they hoped to convince a jury to find him not guilty by reason of insanity. They would attempt to use the 13 murders he had committed as the Boston Strangler to show the extent of his insanity in this trial. To do this, they would attempt to get evidence to support his confession and its corroboration by the police. However, the ploy failed and he was deemed sane enough to stand trial. The jury subsequently found DeSalvo guilty on all counts and sentenced him to life in prison without any hope of psychiatric help. DeSalvo was not charged at that time with any of the murders attributed to the Boston Strangler.

In November 1973, Albert DeSalvo, while serving out his life sentence, was stabbed to death in the prison hospital. The night before he was murdered, he had telephoned his doctor and asked to meet him urgently, apparently very frightened. The doctor promised to meet with him the following morning, but DeSalvo was murdered that night. He had also asked a reporter to meet him that same night, and was going to reveal the identity of the Boston Strangler. DeSalvo had asked to be placed in the hospital under special lock-up about a week before. According to the doctor: ‘Something was going on within the prison and I think he felt he had to talk quickly.’ DeSalvo had indicated that there were people in the prison, including guards, who were not happy with
him. Following his death, the doctor remarked that somebody must have had to leave an awful lot of doors open, because for anyone to get to DeSalvo there were several guards to go past. But the reality is that someone did get through and stuck a knife into Albert DeSalvo’s heart sometime between the evening check and the morning. Prison officials believed that DeSalvo’s death was related to his involvement in drugs. Three men were later tried, but twice the trials ended in hung juries.

Since DeSalvo’s death, there have been lingering doubts as to whether he was the Boston Strangler, so much so that the relatives of DeSalvo and of one of the victims, Mary Sullivan, joined forces in 2000 to have Sullivan’s remains exhumed for DNA testing, not available in the 1960s. In his confession, DeSalvo said he had strangled Mary Sullivan with his hands. In fact, she had been strangled with her own clothing. DeSalvo also claimed to have raped her when evidence proved that she was sexually assaulted with a broomstick. A forensic scientist who took part in an autopsy arranged by the families said that experts were unable to find the effects of a blow DeSalvo claimed to have inflicted on Sullivan. Also, the families said DeSalvo claimed to have left a knife and a sweater at the murder scene, but neither was found. Tests were also conducted on samples of hair, semen and tissue taken from Sullivan’s exhumed body. The Attorney General’s office reviewed the Sullivan case but has continually refused the families access to evidence because it considers the case unsolved.

In October 2000, a judge ordered the two sides to try to work out a compromise but the Boston authorities have been less than cooperative. Jerry Leone, chief of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s criminal bureau, said that if evidence does point to someone other than DeSalvo as Sullivan’s killer, it doesn’t necessarily cast doubt on all the other Boston Strangler murders and doesn’t mean the other cases will be re-investigated. ‘We are looking into the Sullivan case because it’s the only case that has any evidence that can be used in a viable prosecution right now,’
Leone said. On the other hand, DeSalvo’s brother Richard believes that if it is proven that his brother didn’t kill Mary Sullivan, it raises a serious question about who really killed the other victims. On Friday, 26 October 2001, the body of Albert DeSalvo was exhumed and taken to a forensic laboratory for examination. An autopsy was conducted on the remains, attempting to prove DeSalvo’s innocence of the murders and, possibly, to identify his killer. On Thursday, 31 December 2001, it was confirmed that DNA evidence taken from Mary Sullivan’s remains did not provide a match to Albert DeSalvo. A forensic scientist confirmed that they had found DNA evidence and that the evidence does not and cannot be connected to Albert DeSalvo. The scientist did make it clear that the evidence only cleared DeSalvo of sexual assault. To this day, the fight for the truth goes on.

The murders attributed to the killer known as the Boston Strangler are known the world over and even now, over 35 years since the suspicious death in prison of the prime suspect, there is still a mystery surrounding the case.

In Kansas City over the Easter weekend of 1988, police received a report of a naked man running down the road. When the police came upon the man, they were startled and slightly amused. As they drew closer, they saw that he was totally naked and wearing a dog collar with a red lead attached. The naked man could barely talk and his foot appeared to be injured. His eyes were swollen and red, and he seemed to be having trouble seeing in the daylight. When the officers asked him what had happened, it was clear that he was distressed and visibly shaken. A witness told the police that the man had jumped out of the window of a house across the street. The naked man was Chris Bryson, and he initially told the police a lie about what had happened to him. He told them he had been picked up in a pick-up truck by a man and a woman who had taken him to a house and held him captive.
However, he would later retract that statement as facts emerged to show that there had only been one man and that Bryson was in fact a male prostitute.

The man who picked up Bryson on 29 March was called Bob – an older and taller man than Bryson. They drove to a house. Inside, the house was a mess. Junk was piled up in several rooms and it smelt strongly of dogs. Bob invited Bryson to go upstairs. As Bryson reached the top landing, he was hit from behind on the back of the head. He tried to turn and defend himself, but he felt the prick of a needle in his neck and knew that Bob was injecting him with something; he couldn’t fight. Bryson couldn’t move and he blacked out.

When Bryson came round he found himself gagged and on a bed, spreadeagled and tied to the bedposts. He had no clothes on and he had no idea how much time had elapsed. He passed out again and when he came round he found that he had a dog collar around his neck. Bob had been sexually abusing him while he had been unconscious and placing drops in his eyes, which caused him great pain. On waking again, he was subjected to more physical torture of the worst kind. Bob had attached an electrical device to Bryson’s testicles and thigh, and he felt a sudden strong jolt of electricity going through his lower body. The pain was excruciating, and he gave out a muffled scream. He saw a flash of light and heard a whirring sound. He realised that Bob was taking pictures of him in these humiliating, involuntary poses. By now, Bryson had realised that he was in the hands of a sexual sadist and that he had to try to escape or risk being killed. For the next four days, Bryson was kept a prisoner at the house, alternately drugged, bound, tortured with shocks and sexually assaulted. He was always tied to the bed with the dog collar and lead even when a hand or foot was freed. Bob sometimes injected his throat with drain cleaner and sometimes hit Bryson with an iron bar. Bob also warned Bryson that others before him had died for misbehaviour. To prove this, he showed Bryson photographs of men who looked
deceased. They might have been just sleeping, but Bryson could not tell.

However, Bob made one mistake. He tied Bryson’s hands in front of him rather than to the bed and, once Bob was gone from the house, Bryson managed to get free and escape. After Bryson told his story to the police, they decided to go and arrest the man they had by then identified as Robert Berdella (b. 1949). He was not at home when the police called so they waited for him to return. When he did, they immediately arrested him on suspicion of sexual assault and asked if he would sign a consent form to allow them to search his home.

Berdella asked for an explanation and refused the police entry to his house without a warrant. He was arrested and taken to the police station without his house having been searched. However, the police soon returned with a warrant and commenced a search. The upstairs bedroom was just as Bryson had described it, with a bed and a television. On the bed were some burnt ropes, which Bryson said he had set light to with discarded matches to free himself, and some bindings tied to the bars on the headboard. Near the bed was a homemade electrical device, plugged in, with wires that led to the bed. The police also found syringes on a tray on a table, prepared and ready, along with a bottle of eye drops and a bottle of what appeared to be a liquid drug. Pornographic magazines were scattered on the floor. The police also found a collection of audiotapes, together with what appeared to be a log or notebook full of scribbled notes that looked like code, and photographs of men who appeared to be asleep. In another room, police found a box of Polaroid photos of Bryson, who appeared to be frightened and suffering. They catalogued everything methodically, unaware that the investigation was soon going to escalate. When they searched Berdella’s bedroom the police found two human skulls and two envelopes containing human teeth. One skull was identified as being human, the second a fake. The teeth were believed to have
come from the skull and belonged to a young male. By now, a full forensic team was combing the house for evidence.

Police found even more photographs around the house, along with more written records, and a wallet with a man’s name in it that was not Berdella’s – it turned out to belong to a missing person. Newspaper articles about another missing man were discovered on a table. Even worse, a fresh area of cement had been poured in the basement’s concrete floor. By this time, Berdella had been arrested on suspicion of murder. Inside a cupboard, officers found a bag containing human vertebrae. All around the house, they found pieces of paper on which the names of men were written, as well as a man’s passport. A thorough police check showed that Berdella had been investigated in 1985, three years earlier, over the disappearance of two young men: Jerry Howell, 19, who went missing in July 1984, and James Ferris, 25, who vanished in September 1985, after Berdella had been seen with both men before their disappearances.

In order to detain Berdella while they continued to search, the police charged him with nine holding charges with regard to Bryson. He was not granted bail. The forensic search then focused on Berdella’s back yard, especially when it appeared that one area had recently been dug up. On opening up the ground, they found a human head with tissue and hair still clinging to it, as well as a vertebra. It became of prime importance to ascertain whether the skull had belonged to any of the men whose names and possessions had been found in the house, or other men who had been reported missing. A chainsaw seized from the house was taken for analysis. The analysts found traces of human blood, hair and flesh. They unearthed more vertebrae but no other bones.

Forensic tests on the skulls revealed that both belonged to specific men whose presence in Berdella’s house could be proven by other means – items that belonged to them, logs of what Berdella had done to them in which he had sometimes written names, and photographs. One skull was that of a young man
named Robert Sheldon. The skull found in the ground was identified as having belonged to Larry Pearson.

As a result, Berdella was charged with Pearson’s murder, and in a bid to avoid the death penalty, Berdella pleaded guilty to killing him. Prosecutors were caught off-guard, but they decided to accept this. At that time, the second skull had not yet been identified. They hoped they could bring more charges later. Berdella admitted that he had killed Larry Pearson by asphyxiation. He had placed a plastic bag over his head, secured it with a rope and let him die. He acknowledged that he had been aware of what he was doing and that it was wrong.

The judge deferred judgment at this time. In the meantime, police had been able to identify the body of Sheldon using dental records. This time, prosecutors were ready for his defence team’s tactics. They notified the court in advance that they were seeking the death penalty, while Berdella indicated his intention to plead not guilty. Berdella’s attorneys offered a deal: Berdella would make a full confession, giving detectives the details of his sadistic crimes and naming names, in exchange for life in prison and for the police dropping their efforts to seize his house. Prosecutors decided to accept the deal and preparations were made to record everything that Berdella revealed. In a small conference room in the basement of the Kansas City jail, under oath, Berdella described what he had done; the confession took up 717 pages. His said his crime spree had begun four years earlier in 1984. All the victims had been abused and all had died inside his house.