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Warning: This article contains spoilers for Boston Strangler.
The Boston Strangler ending may leave more questions than answers about the true story that inspired the film. The new true crime movie follows the two “girl reporters” who broke the story of someone murdering mostly single elderly women living alone in Boston in the early 1960s. The case becomes more complex as more women are killed, including some that break the killer’s original modus operandi. Boston Strangler ultimately theorizes that there were multiple killers behind the crimes.
The true crime story of the Boston Strangler movie focuses on Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightly), as well as Jean Cole (Carrie Coon), the two women covering the story for the Boston Record American newspaper. Their work seems to be done after Albert DeSalvo confesses to the crimes, but not every detail adds up. Just after DeSalvo agrees to meet with Loretta, he’s killed in prison. She then writes one final article, “Boston Stranglers,” suggesting DeSalvo wasn’t the only killer. The Boston Strangler ending closes with Loretta looking pensive as she drinks in a bar with Jean, leaving many questions for the audience to dwell on.
Were Loretta’s Boston Strangler Articles Real?
Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole were the real women who broke the story of the Boston Strangler in the Record American, and it was McLaughlin who coined the name of the Boston Strangler — a name that would inspire other “strangler” serial killer names in real life and in fiction. Most of McLaughlin and Cole’s articles seen in Hulu’s Boston Strangler, including “Two Girl Reporters Analyze Strangler,” were real. However, McLaughlin’s final “Boston Stranglers” article was seemingly invented to create a more dramatic ending.
Other Record American reporters, including Eddie Corsetti, also covered the Boston Strangler stories, and Jean Cole wrote some articles by herself. McLaughlin left the Record American sometime in the 1960s, but Cole continued to cover the life of DeSalvo into at least 1967. She wrote “Girls: Keep Doors Shut ‘Til DeSalvo Again in Custody” during DeSalvo’s brief escape from prison, which wasn’t included in Boston Strangler.
The Michigan Murders Were Not Linked to the Boston Strangler
Boston Strangler unexpectedly opens with a murder in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1965, before flashing back to 1962 Boston. The true crime story of the Michigan murders are returned to later, with Detective DeLine (Rory Cochrane of CSI: Miami) contacting Loretta about a possible connection to the Boston Strangler. This seems to be in reference to a series of so-called Michigan Murders that happened from 1967 to 1969.
Though Boston Strangler draws a comparison between the Michigan Murders and the Boston Strangler murders, there is no known connection between them. There are some similarities – namely that stockings were used to strangle some of the victims – but the Michigan Murders were committed by John Norman Collins. Boston Strangler only used the Michigan Murders to show that similar crimes, unfortunately, have always and will always happen.
George Nassar is Still in Prison
As stated on-screen before the Boston Strangler ending credits, George Nassar is still in prison in Massachusetts, having been convicted of killing Dominic Kirmil in 1948. In the true crime movie, a neighbor of one victim identifies Nassar over DeSalvo as the potential killer. Though it’s stated Nassar was in prison during the murders, so could not be the Boston Strangler, in real life he was out of prison on parole from 1961 to 1964, during some of the murders.
While out of prison, Nassar killed Texaco station owner Irvin Hilton in 1964. It was after this that he and DeSalvo were in prison together. Nassar was sentenced to life in prison in 1967 and is currently imprisoned at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution–Shirley. He has appealed for a new trial multiple times but has been denied. He’s one of the few still living people connected to the Boston Strangler murders, and is currently 90 years old.
The Boston Strangler Was Technically Never Caught
The Boston Strangler case is an unsolved mystery with many theories. Though Albert DeSalvo confessed to the murders, there was doubt about his confession. It had inconsistencies, and Boston Strangler suggests he may have been coached by Nassar and Daniel Marsh. Marsh is a major suspect shown in Boston Strangler, but there were many more. The Boston Strangler ending article speculates that the murders may have actually been committed by several different people. But no one was ever convicted of the murders, and there have been no major suspects since the 1960s. However, DeSalvo was finally linked to the murder of Mary Anne Sullivan with DNA evidence in 2013.
12 Boston Strangler Murders Remain Open
Thanks to the DNA evidence, Sullivan’s murder is considered solved, but the other 12 official Boston Strangler murders are open cases. As Boston Strangler suggests, DeSalvo (David Dastmalchian) may have committed more of them, but there’s no way of knowing since he was killed in prison in 1973. The other 12 victims of the Boston Strangler were Anna Slesers, Mary Mullen, Nina Nichols, Helen Blake, Ida Irga, Jane Sullivan, Sophie Clark, Patricia Bissette, Mary Ann Brown, Beverly Samans, Marie Corbin, and Joann Graff. Other true crime cases were also originally attributed to the Boston Strangler, but were ultimately unrelated.
DeSalvo’s own murder is unsolved, too. He was found stabbed in the infirmary of Walpole (now Massachusetts Correctional Institution—Cedar Junction) where he was imprisoned. Boston Strangler implies the real Strangler may have killed him, but this is unknown. Robert Wilson was tried for DeSalvo’s murder, but it ended in a hung jury. Nassar and DeSalvo’s lawyer F. Lee Bailey—most known for his involvement in The People vs. O. J. Simpson—claimed DeSalvo was killed over drugs.
The Boston Strangler ending settles on a quiet moment between McLaughlin and Cole, giving them and the audience time to consider the events that have unfolded in the true crime movie. The mystery had a long-lasting impression on McLaughlin, who later wrote about why the case caught her attention, “Why should anyone murder four obscure women. That was what made them so interesting . . . sisters in anonymity, like all of us.” (via Boston Globe) The murders may never be solved, but the Boston Strangler ending provides some closure by showing the events through the eyes of two reporters for the case.
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