What We Know
Boston Blue "The Crash": The Real Boston Strangler Case
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Spoilers for Boston Blue S02E01. Is Boston Blue's "The Crash" based on the real Boston Strangler case? Here is what the record shows.
CBS's synopsis says the season 2 premiere follows detectives chasing a killer whose murders mirror the Boston Strangler killings. The real record: eleven women killed in the Boston area, 1962-64; Albert DeSalvo's 1965 confession, a trial for those killings that never happened; and the 2013 DNA result that officials say ties him to one of them, Mary Sullivan. Officials were split on the rest: the attorney general, Martha Coakley, said the DNA most likely covers the other women he confessed to, while District Attorney Daniel Conley said it applies only to Sullivan. What is still unknown is who killed the other ten.
Update ·
Is it based on a real case?
Spoilers for Boston Blue S02E05.
Boston Blue's swatting death is fiction. In Tennessee, Mark Herring's was real: a 2020 hoax call over his @Tennessee Twitter handle, a fatal heart attack, and a federal swatting bill still in committee. Sources: U.S. Attorney's Office, W.D. Tenn. (July 27, 2021); AP/NYT via The Boston Globe; NBC News; GovInfo (H.R. 286 / S. 38).
Not affiliated with CBS.
Chapters
- 0:00Boston Blue and the Boston Strangler case
- 0:30Albert DeSalvo's 1965 confession
- 0:51Boston Strangler DNA: the 2013 result
- 1:17Coakley and Conley: officials split
- 1:58Mary Sullivan's family and DeSalvo's
Sources
- WBUR (July 11 and 19, 2013), CBS Boston (July 19, 2013), Boston.com (Jan. 18, 2017), CBS episode synopsis
The record · as of Nov. 9, 2026
How we know
Primary records are court and agency documents; reporting is news coverage we checked against them. How we report.
Verified timeline
- 1962-06-14Between 1962 and 1964, eleven Boston-area women were killed in the cases that became known as the Boston Strangler killings (some accounts count more). The cases were never prosecuted as a single solved series.Boston.com 2017-01-18; CBS News 2013-07-11; 6abc
- 1964-01-04Mary Sullivan, 19, was found killed in her Boston apartment; she is generally counted as the last victim of the series. (Outlets agree on January 1964; the Jan. 4 day appears in reference sources, not the news articles checked.)CBS News 2013-07-11; AJC/AP 2013-07-19; Boston.com 2017-01-18
- 1965-01-01Albert DeSalvo, hospitalized at Bridgewater State Hospital, confessed to the 11 killings (plus two others, per AP/CBS). Exact date not pinned down in sources checked; he later recanted. Police said they lacked evidence to try him for the killings.Boston.com 2017-01-18; CBS News 2013-07-11; AJC/AP
- 1967-01-18DeSalvo was convicted of unrelated assaults and sentenced to life in prison. He was never tried or convicted for the strangling murders.Boston.com 2017-01-18; CBS News 2013-07-11; 6abc
- 1973-11-25DeSalvo was stabbed to death by another inmate at Walpole state prison. (Year confirmed by Boston.com, CBS, AJC and 6abc; the Nov. 25 day is from reference sources only.)CBS News 2013-07-11; AJC/AP; Boston.com 2017-01-18
- 2013-07-11Boston police and Suffolk DA Daniel Conley announced a familial DNA match between evidence from the Sullivan case and a DeSalvo family member (from a discarded water bottle); a court was to be asked to exhume DeSalvo. DeSalvo family lawyer Elaine Sharp said earlier private testing found other male DNA that did not match DeSalvo; officials disputed that.WBUR 2013-07-11; CBS News 2013-07-11; 6abc
- 2013-07-12DeSalvo's remains were exhumed (about a week before the July 19 announcement) for direct DNA testing.AJC/AP 2013-07-19; WBUR 2013-07
- 2013-07-19AG Coakley: DNA 'leaves no doubt' DeSalvo murdered Mary Sullivan, 'and most likely' the other women he confessed to; odds another man left evidence 1 in 220 billion (joint Conley/Coakley/Davis announcement). Conley: applies to Sullivan only; some officials disagree on a single killer.WBUR 2013-07-19; CBS Boston 2013-07-19; Suffolk DA release
- 2013-07-19AG Martha Coakley, DA Daniel Conley and Boston police announced testing of exhumed remains matched crime-scene evidence in the Sullivan case; odds that another man contributed it were 1 in 220 billion. Coakley: it 'leaves no doubt that Albert DeSalvo was responsible for the brutal murder of Mary Sullivan.'AJC/AP 2013-07-19; CBS Boston 2013-07-19; WBUR 2013-07-19
Also in our research file
- Suffolk-DA-press-release-(2013-07-19)-primary,-only-reachable-via-search-snippet Primary recordarchive.suffolkdistrictattorney.com
- Suffolk-DA:Conley-remarks-on-Sullivan-homicide Primary recordarchive.suffolkdistrictattorney.com
- BPL-Digital-Commonwealth:Brearley-press-photos-DeSalvo-1967 Primary recorddigitalcommonwealth.org
- A half-century later, questions cloud Boston Strangler case ReportingBoston.com · Jan. 18, 2017
- DNA links Boston Strangler suspect to last victim ReportingAJC · July 19, 2013
- Longtime Boston Strangler suspect Albert DeSalvo's DNA tied to 1964 slaying, prosecutor says ReportingCBS News · July 11, 2013
- Dead suspect tied to '64 Boston Strangler case Reporting6abc · July 11, 2013
- WBUR:DNA-confirms-DeSalvo-link-(2013-07-19) Reportingwbur.org
- WBUR/AP:DNA-links-DeSalvo-(2013-07-11) Reportingwbur.org
- CBS-Boston:DNA-definitively-links-DeSalvo-(2013-07-19) Reportingcbsnews.com
- CBS-Boston:DNA-revelation-closure-for-family-(2013-07-11) Reportingcbsnews.com
- NPR:DNA-ends-years-of-doubt-(2013-07-11) Reportingnhpr.org
- Boston Blue 2x01 The Crash (CBS synopsis) SecondaryTVmaze · Oct. 10, 2026
Updates and corrections
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