Judge Reinstates Boston Strangler Suit

BOSTON —  A federal judge has reinstated a lawsuit filed by families of the alleged Boston Strangler and the killer’s last victim seeking new evidence for their own investigation.

Relatives of Albert DeSalvo and victim Mary Sullivan believe someone else is the Strangler, the man who sexually assaulted and killed 11 women beginning in 1962.

DeSalvo confessed to the 11 murders, plus two others, but was never tried. He was sentenced to life in prison for another string of rapes and sexual assaults. DeSalvo recanted his confession before he was stabbed to death in prison in 1973.

His relatives and those of the 19-year-old Sullivan, who died in 1964, filed the joint lawsuit against state prosecutors last year seeking evidence to prove someone else is the Strangler.

A judge put the lawsuit on hold in December, urging the families and the government to work out an agreement on sharing evidence. On Tuesday, the families’ lawyer asked that the lawsuit be reopened.

On Friday, Judge William G. Young reinstated the lawsuit and put off until Wednesday a ruling on the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. He made defendants promise not to do any testing until that ruling that would destroy evidence in the case.

Prosecutors have agreed to do DNA tests on evidence in the Sullivan slaying. But the families want to do their own testing as well.

After a private investigation by Sullivan’s nephew, Casey Sherman, the two families now say they believe DeSalvo confessed to the Strangler murders because he believed he could get rich selling book and movie rights.

In October, the families exhumed Sullivan’s body and conducted forensic tests that found no sign of trauma to her head or a fragile neck bone that typically breaks during strangulation.

Sherman said the families “believe we know who the killer is” and are “very close” to identifying him.

“We don’t know why the state has put up so many roadblocks,” Sherman said. “We’re hoping for some answers, that’s all.”