Unheard Boston Strangler Tapes Renew Doubts: Victim’s Nephew Questions Albert DeSalvo Case

Unheard confession tapes renew doubts about the Boston Strangler

Casey Sherman, the nephew of Mary Sullivan — the youngest known victim of the Boston Strangler — says newly released excerpts from previously unreleased audio recordings raise serious questions about whether Albert DeSalvo was the true killer.

Family doubts and new documentary

Sherman, who hosts the Oxygen documentary The Boston Strangler: Unheard Confession, told Fox News Digital: "I honestly don’t believe Albert DeSalvo did it." He pointed to a psychological profile compiled by Dr. Ames Robey, a psychologist who evaluated potential suspects, and said Robey told him he doubted DeSalvo was capable of homicide.

"Albert DeSalvo was a sexual predator. He was a con man. He was a thief," Sherman said. "He was certainly taking advantage of women in a physical way through these sexual assaults. But DeSalvo never murdered these women."

What the tapes show — and the controversy over interrogation

Sherman says he listened to portions of what he describes as roughly 60 hours of confession recordings preserved by one investigator. He claims the tapes contain confessions to events that never occurred and show "glaring mistakes" and inconsistencies. Sherman also criticized the interrogation led by John Bottomley, describing him as a real-estate lawyer with no formal criminal-investigation experience who used leading questions and even showed crime-scene photos — practices Sherman and veteran detectives say were improper.

"What you hear in the documentary is only a sample," Sherman said. "I shared the confession tapes with veteran homicide detectives, and they were shocked the interrogation was allowed to happen this way."

Evidence, DNA and lingering questions

DeSalvo confessed to the killings while a patient at Bridgewater State Hospital; however, authorities at the time lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute him for the slayings. In 1967 he was sentenced to life in prison for unrelated sexual assaults. DeSalvo later recanted his confessions and was stabbed to death in prison in 1973.

In 2013, investigators exhumed DeSalvo’s remains and reported that DNA linked him to Mary Sullivan’s murder and suggested he was likely responsible for other killings attributed to the Boston Strangler. Sherman says he initially accepted those findings but grew skeptical about how the DNA evidence was presented and interpreted.

Skeptics have long argued there may have been more than one perpetrator, noting discrepancies such as DeSalvo’s failure to match some witness descriptions, his absence from an early list of more than 300 suspects, and inconsistent statements. Sherman also points to DeSalvo’s association with convicted criminal George Nassar, suggesting Nassar may have influenced DeSalvo to confess — a claim for which Sherman says there is no conclusive proof.

Calls for renewed review

Sherman says he discovered letters DeSalvo wrote to a Massachusetts family who visited inmates at Walpole State Prison, in which DeSalvo reportedly planned to recant his confession publicly — a recantation he never had the chance to make. Sherman argues the victims' families deserve definitive answers and welcomes a reexamination of the case.

"The victims' families deserve answers and the truth behind the tragic murders of their loved ones," Sherman said. "There’s no statute of limitations on murder in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I do think the answer exists."

While several investigators, law-enforcement officials and forensic experts continue to maintain DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler or responsible for many of the murders, Sherman and other skeptics urge that the tapes, interrogation records and forensic evidence be carefully reexamined.