The Boston Strangler panic that made single women buy locks and fear their own apartments

She bought the lock on a Tuesday, the hardware store clerk remembered, because that was the day the papers printed the address.

The address was Beacon Hill, and the apartment was on the second floor, and the door had been locked when they found her.

She was the first widely attributed victim, found in her apartment on June 14, 1962.

Between June 1962 and January 1964, a series of murders of women in the Boston area — ultimately numbering 13 — became known as the work of the "Boston Strangler."

Not because anyone knew who he was.

Because the city decided he was out there, and the fear was easier to hold than the uncertainty.

Single women living alone bought locks.

They bought chain locks, deadbolts, slide bolts, and the kind that go across the door like a bar.

They bought them at hardware stores and department stores and from the door-to-door salesmen who started appearing in the neighborhoods.

Police issued safety warnings.

The warnings said keep your door locked, don't open it to strangers, don't tell callers you're alone.

The warnings were printed in the papers, read on the radio, repeated in the hallways of apartment buildings.

What was it like to be a single woman in Boston in 1962?

To hear the name on every broadcast, to see it on every front page, to check the lock twice before the light went out?

To lie awake and listen for footsteps that could be the superintendent, the mailman, the man who fixed the radiator?

That would require evidence.

The identity of the killer is not established at this point in the story.

That is what the record shows: a locked door, a city holding its breath, and a name that fit the panic.

She was on the ground below.

JUNE 1962 — JANUARY 1964

The first widely attributed victim was found in her apartment in Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood on June 14, 1962.

She had been strangled, and the police found her with her own stocking tied around her neck.

That was the detail the papers printed, and the papers printed it again and again.

The killings continued through 1963.

The final victim was found in January 1964.

The victims were strangled, often with their own clothing or stockings, and many were sexually assaulted.

The murders occurred in Boston and nearby communities, including Lynn and Lawrence.

Lynn was a factory town. Lawrence was a mill town. The danger was no longer downtown.

The Boston press covered the case extensively.

Every new body was a front-page story, and every front-page story named a new address.

The exact number of victims attributed to the Strangler is stated as 13 in the source.

That number is a claim, not a conviction. The official closure in 1964 came without an arrest.

Not because the killer was identified. But because the case was closed.

What did the police know in 1964? The record does not say they knew the killer's name.

What did the papers know? The papers knew the fear sold.

Women bought locks. Police issued safety warnings. Single women in apartments learned to check their doors twice.

The timeline ran from June 1962 to January 1964.

Nineteen months. Thirteen victims. One name that fit the panic.

The name was not a fact. The name was a headline.

THE CONFESSION

In 1965, Albert DeSalvo was already in custody for a series of sexual assaults.

He was a laborer, a former soldier, a man the police knew.