BOSTON STRANGLER IS RECAPTURED: THE HERALD JOURNAL, FEBRUARY 26, 1967

For thirty hours in February 1967, the man the newspapers called the Boston Strangler was loose. Albert DeSalvo had escaped from Bridgewater State Hospital on a Friday with two other men, and by Saturday he was standing at the back of Simon's Uniform Co. in West Lynn, a shop that sold clothing "but mostly police uniforms." The manager knew his face from the newspapers and telephoned the police. A policeman named Vernon Foss walked to the rear of the store, saw him and asked, "What's your name." DeSalvo told him. He was unarmed and gave up without a struggle. The next morning Paul Robbins's UPI account led the front page of The Herald Journal in Logan, Utah.

Thousands of people lined the street outside police headquarters in Lynn while DeSalvo was questioned in a second-floor room, his hands manacled behind his back. The reporter describes him as speaking incoherently. He said he had fled the hospital to call public attention to his need for rehabilitation, and he insisted that he had harmed no one while he was out. "I didn't bother nobody and I never will," he said. Rewards for his capture had reached $15,000, and $10,000 of it had been put up by his own lawyer, F. Lee Bailey, whom he telephoned from the store minutes before he was seized.

The closing paragraphs turn to what came next. Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson said he would go to court to move DeSalvo from Bridgewater to Walpole State Prison, and called the reason "obvious": the hospital was not secure enough. Richardson could not say why his prisoner had given up so quietly. "He evidently expected to be picked up or surrender himself in due course," he said. The move went through. At Walpole, DeSalvo took back the confessions that had made him the Strangler, and on November 25, 1973, he was found stabbed to death in the prison infirmary.

This is a wire story printed the morning after the capture, and it carries the police and the attorney general's version of the day, not a court's. Later accounts tell the surrender differently: here the store manager's call brings the police, while other versions say DeSalvo phoned Bailey to give himself up and Bailey sent officers to Lynn. The paper calls him the "admitted killer of 13 women." He was never tried for any of the Boston stranglings. The Commonwealth judged his 1965 confession too unreliable to charge on, he recanted it, and he was serving life for the Green Man robberies and sexual assaults. In 2013 DNA tied him to one killing, the murder of Mary Sullivan, and to none of the others.

The Herald Journal of Logan, Utah, printed this on February 26, 1967. The scan comes from Utah Digital Newspapers, at the University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library, which rates the issue No Copyright - United States; the citation and that rating appear under the scan. The story is United Press International wire copy under Paul Robbins's byline, and a search of the issue's text found no copyright notice on the masthead or on this story. In 1967 a published work needed a notice to keep its copyright.

The ink on this front page is light and blurred, worst in the first two columns, and many periods and commas are barely visible; where a stop could not be seen, the transcription follows the sentence break the type itself shows. No word was illegible. The paper's own forms are kept, among them "Boston strangler" with a small s in the opening line, the hospital named in full in one paragraph and as "Bridgewater Hospital" in another, and the letter-spaced name in "transfer D e S a l v o." The story is complete in this single front-page block.

Transcription

Transcribed word for word from the page scan. Original spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and typographical errors have been kept exactly as printed. Unreadable words are marked [illegible]. Nothing has been modernised or corrected.

Boston Strangler Is Recaptured

By Paul Robbins

United Press International

LYNN, Mass. — Boston strangler Albert H. DeSalvo was captured in a police uniform store Saturday 30 hours after he escaped from Bridgewater State Mental Hospital.

The 35-year-old DeSalvo whose freedom flight terrorized women on the eastern seaboard said he "didn't bother nobody" after he escaped with two other convicts Friday.

Speaking incoherently, DeSalvo said he fled the hospital to call public attention to his need for rehabilitation.

"I didn't bother nobody and I never will," said DeSalvo, admitted killer of 13 women.

Thousands of persons lined the streets in front of police headquarters where DeSalvo was taken after his capture in Simon's Uniform Co. in West Lynn.

The manager of the store which sells clothing but mostly police uniforms telephoned police after he recognized DeSalvo from newspaper photographs.

DeSalvo was not armed though he earlier had been reported carrying a gun and was believed "high" on pep pills. He surrendered without a struggle.

He was brought to a second floor room under heavy guard for interrogation. His hands were manacled behind his back.

The policeman who seized DeSalvo was identified as Vernon Foss. Rewards totaling $15,000 had been posted for his capture including $10,000 put up by DeSalvo's lawyer, F. Lee Bailey.

Foss walked to the rear of the store, saw DeSalvo and said "What's your name." DeSalvo identified himself.

Asst. Atty. Gen. Donald L. Conn said DeSalvo had been in Lynn, 40 miles from the hospital, since Friday after allegedly being dropped off by a brother.

Atty. Gen. Elliot L. Richardson said that minutes before his arrest, DeSalvo called his attorney Bailey from the store.

The search concentrated on the Lynn area after one of DeSalvo's brothers told officials he had been left off in the area Friday — about two hours after his escape, Richardson said.

Richardson said he would seek a court order seeking to transfer DeSalvo from Bridgewater Hospital to Walpole State Prison.

The reason for the transfer, Richardson said, was "obvious." That is, security at Bridgewater was not tight enough.

Richardson highly praised all law enforcement officers connected with the capture.

"It is impossible for me to imagine a higher degree of cooperation," he said.

Richardson said DeSalvo did not say why he surrendered without a struggle.

"He evidently expected to be picked up or surrender himself in due course," the attorney general said.

Notes: The ink on this page is light and blurred, especially in columns 1 and 2. Most stops and commas are hard to see, and where a full stop was not visible I have followed the sentence break the type shows. "Boston strangler" has a lower-case "s" in the text. "DeSalvo" is letter-spaced in "transfer D e S a l v o". The paper says "admitted killer of 13 women". DeSalvo was never tried for the strangler murders, and the article says nothing of that. No words were illegible.