Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 12, Episode 5 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

tonight on unsolved mysteries for decades many believe that this man Albert DeSalvo was one of the most
notorious serial killers in history the Boston Strangler now shocking new DNA evidence seems to
dispute the Salvos guilt raising a disturbing question is the Boston Strangler still on the loose a 22 year
old college honors students seems to have it all until he is blamed for causing three deaths and a fatal traffic
accident free on bail has disappeared authorities need your help to bring him to trial an ambitious young mother
returns to the work force and crosses paths with a hot-tempered co-worker the woman is then brutally murdered and now
authorities need your help to catch her alleged killer Carlos birthday hi also doctor accused
of poisoning his patients and fleeing to Zimbabwe has been captured this update and more unsolved mysteries
[Applause] [Music] [Music] on a previous broadcast we brought you the story of one of the most infamous
serial killers in history the Boston Strangler at that time we questioned whether the man held responsible for
murdering eleven women Albert DeSalvo was in fact guilty recently major new information has come to light the
potentially prove the salvo did not commit at least one of the murders join us as we examine the latest theories and
evidence in this intriguing case perhaps the real identity of the Boston Strangler will finally be revealed today
it is quiet but 40 years ago these very streets exploded in horror the year 1962 the place Boston
Massachusetts the first known serial killer in American history was on the prowl victim number one anise lessers 55
strangled with her bathrobe and raped with a blood object victim number two Helen Blake 65 sexually mutilated and
strangled her bra twisted into an enormous bowl under the chin victim number three Nina Nichols 68 strangled
her nylons tied into yet another gruesome bow it was only the beginning over the next two years eight more women
fell victim to the psychopath all but one were brutally choked to death in their own homes their bodies posed and
hideous positions the city buckled under a frenzy of fear and paranoia stepping into this maelstrom was Albert DeSalvo
already facing a lengthy prison term for an unrelated series of rapes DeSalvo admitted that he was a Boston Strangler
a wave of relief and calm passed over the residents of Boston order had been restored the sadistic killer was finally
behind bars but many believe DeSalvo had reason to falsely confess first day yeah
put my arm around backwards me right and then I put the pillowcase around her neck
the first thing that Albert hoped to get out of being known as the Boston Strangler was the fame of it because he
desperately wanted to be famous even if it were something terrible his second goal was to avoid a prison
sentence he had apparently been convinced that if he confessed to the stranglings he would be sent not to
prison but to a very fancy private institution where doctors would study him do you remember tie any knots in it
yeah I did I did but if he was lying the Salvas confession was uncannily accurate
I think I am many investigators were convinced he had to be the killer nh-2 if he would have heard him go in a
detail and tell you exactly how the furniture was and what it was adjacent to and so forth
you know nobody could tell you that unless they were that after eight years of research on this
case one thing I'm certain of and that is that Albert DeSalvo was not the Boston Strangler there are a number of
very good suspects none of them happened to be Albert DeSalvo on November 24th 1973 Albert DeSalvo called his former
psychiatrist from prison stating he was ready to tell the truth about the Boston
Strangler but he was murdered that night before he could meet with a psychiatrist
now startling new DNA evidence suggests the real killer or killers were never actually caught was Albert DeSalvo the
Boston Strangler evidence found on the last victim suggest that the answer is No
Mary Mary On January 4 1964 Mary Sullivan was found by her roommate strangled to death and sexually
assaulted in a final morbid gesture a Happy New Year card was placed at her feet the killer left semen on Mary's
body that the police collected in 1964 forensic technology at the time wasn't capable of determining to whom it
belonged Mary Sullivan officially became the eleventh and final victim of the Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo later
confessed to her murder but recently two families have formed an unlikely alliance to challenge that assertion
more forcefully than ever before the family of Mary Sullivan and the family of her alleged killer Albert DeSalvo I
never believed my brother was the boss a strangle from day one I just want the name cleared that's all
Albert was not perfect Albert did some bad things Albert was not a murderer marry sister Diane also believes it
DeSalvo was not the killer I mainly come here to say hi to Mary and I'm gonna try to do my what I can I'm
gonna do everything I can to find her murderer to find the ax murderer marry [Music]
to the disabled and Sullivan families there was an obvious solution to the controversy one of the most powerful
forensic tools ever created DNA profiling if the Boston Police Department still have the biological
evidence from Mary Sullivan's crime scene her killer could be found I made several inquiries to the Boston Police
Department and they told me flat-out that they did not have any physical evidence left in the Boston Strangler
case to test for DNA evidence Casey Sherman and his mother Diane were then forced to turn to the only evidence
available to them the body of Mary Sullivan we had to do the exhumation of my aunt's body it was a horrible
experience we didn't want to do it but it was our last and only recourse we thought and it was the only chance to
find her killer to supervise the exhumation the Solomons asked for the help of world-renowned professor of law
and forensic science James II stars and a team of experts we were obviously looking for any seminal fluid and we do
know that seminal fluid will fluoresce under UV light so we looked and similar fluid for us and it also was in the
right location for seminal fluid it's on pubic hair could this be the evidence a team had
been hoping for a chilling clue reaching across decades to identify the killer a
sample of her pubic hair was transferred to a forensic molecular biologist David
foreign and his team so we examined that and went after that as far as could we getting any DNA from it we had to be
extra careful because obviously her hair is going to have her DNA in it so one of
the tricky parts becomes isolating DNA only from this material that's stuck in the pubic hair and not from the hair
itself dr. foreign successfully isolated a DNA sequence from the sample poor and
uncompetitive Albert DeSalvo z' by using DNA taken from his brother Richard the results were virtually indisputable the
DNA found on Mary Sullivan's body did not belong to Albert DeSalvo someone to our surprise in no instances did we find
anything from Albert DeSalvo it wasn't there on the other hand we did find DNA sequences that are from someone and
they're not someone we can account for despite how hard we tried a well of emotions came over me because a lot
there have been a lot of times where I didn't know if we had done the right thing but when he said that there was
DNA they believed from Mary's killer on her body and that DNA didn't match Albert DeSalvo it was just complete
vindication as far as I was concerned for those who say that Albert DeSalvo did do it if the shoe is on their foot
now it's for them to come forward and show the evidence to prove that Albert DeSalvo did do it as of now we've got
evidence indicating in all scientific probability that he didn't do it if Albert DeSalvo did not kill Mary
Sullivan than who did before disciples confession put an end to the investigation the police were pursuing a
number of promising suspects the original investigators of Mary's murder found a strange piece of evidence in her
bathroom implicating Mary's allegedly abusive ex-boyfriend but they found an ascot cut up in the toilet when my
sister dated this person that's all she bought him for presents where he loved ask gods so I could see him definitely
cutting that Ascot up in the bathroom and I could absolutely see him killing Mary
[Music] the second suspect is based on an eyewitness account a neighbor saw a man
in Mary's apartment at the approximate time of the murder so they're giving you a hard time at work huh yeah what'd they
say Mary Sullivan's roommate had a boyfriend who matched the neighbors description off what did you just beat
him up the roommates boyfriend may have also had access to Mary's apartment explaining why there were no signs of
forced entries at the height of the Boston Strangler case mine was well-versed in what was going on she
wouldn't let a stranger into the apartment she would have had to have known that man or that man who would
have had to have gotten into the apartment with a key so the day before Mary's murder her roommate had spent the
entire day with the prime suspect and Mary's killing I want to state what are these for the keys to the apartment next
to set at her apartment key had gone missing the day before she was killed now this key hadn't fallen off the
keychain it was taken off you live in Vermont no you know suspect was brought in for a
lie-detector test did you take a key from Mary Sullivan's apartment No you kill Mary Sullivan no face front
please according to police his responses were deemed untruthful once the cell will
confessed however were investigations into this suspect and Mary's ex-boyfriend were closed and what about
the other murders author Susan Kelly's extensive investigation has revealed that the police had promising suspects
in many of these cases as well if Albert wasn't the Boston Strangler who was the
Boston Strangler from what my research indicates there wasn't one there were many
On June 14th 1962 the maniac claimed his first victim 56 year old and slicers earlier that day
a painting crew was working at her apartment 16 days later the same painting crew arrived at the apartment
building of Helen Blake she became victim number two the only thing that connected those murders was a painting
crew working on the exteriors of the woman's apartment buildings at the approximate times they were killed two
of the members of the painting crew their alibis couldn't be corroborated by their boss or by their fellow workers
and that's an unusual connection as was first uncovered by Susan Kelly's research police also had a suspect for a
victim number six 20 year old Sophie Clark the suspect in the Sophie Clark case was
seen entering her apartment building he was seen fleeing her apartment building covered in sweat police identified the
man and learned that he had dated Sophie at least once he resided he was given lie-detector tests on two separate
occasions and according to authorities failed both victim number seven was 23 year-old Patricia Bisset in this case
two Susan Kelly discovered that police had a viable suspect Tricia Patricia's boss who discovered her body
detectives found out that Patricia Bassett was having an affair with her happily married boss at the time she was
killed while I found her autopsy report it shows that she was one month pregnant
when she was murdered not only do you have motive but you have a suspect there like the suspects and Mary Sullivan's
murder investigations into every one of these individuals stop cold when Albert DeSalvo confessed that there
were more than one strangler there's a possibility that some of the older women died at the hands of the same person
each of the young women who died was murdered by a different individual who had his own motives
[Music] if you hated a woman back in the early 1960s you could kill her loosely wrap a stocking around her neck
and hope that the police would think it was the Boston Strangler I mean clearly the killers that were
murdering these women they had a diagram on how to commit a Boston strangling because all the grisly details were
printed in the papers at the time if you wanted to commit a murder he or her diagram the Sullivan family continues to
hope that Mary's killer will one day be held accountable I want closure from my mother my mother
has had to live nearly 40 years without any answers in this case we want to publicly identify Mary's killer look him
in the eye and tell him what what he stole from us [Music] [Music] [Music] headlight came right right into the
driver's side window that's pretty much the last thing I remember and then I woke up about 10
minutes later eyeglass my eyes my reason I couldn't really see much just because
of all the glass and I just kind of looked around and kind of clicked to me that there's no way everybody could have
made it out of there and saw saw my friends on the road it was ugly yes real ugly Matt Wagner had somehow
survived a devastating for car accident on State Route 278 a Pullman Washington three of his closest friends were not so
lucky Brandon s Clemmons his best friend Ryan Sorensen Ryan's girlfriend Stacy Morin
Stacy was my daughter Stacy Gretchen tomorrow she was 21 17 22 student at Washington State University and just one
of the most beautiful young ladies I ever knew shortly after the fatal crash Stacy morose
along with Brandon and Ryan were honored at a Washington State University memorial I didn't know what to do and I
had mixtures of course a sadness and just raged that something like this would happen I mean nothing's been the
same since it was just a nightmare a nightmare that should have been you know that could have been a easily avoided
and was totally unnecessary police believe dat Frederic Russell a 22 year old honours student had recklessly
caused the accident he was charged on three counts of vehicular homicide and four counts of vehicular assault but
fred has his share of supporters do I believe that that accident was caused primarily by my son I don't I think
there were a lot of causes and I think there were a lot of people responsible for what happened on that road that
night that doesn't make it any better or any worse that's just an interpretation
of the facts my sense of what Greg gressil is doing in this case is that he is defending his son beyond a reasonable
amount and is making statements that are trying to cloud the issue spread the responsibility and excused his son to
try to get this young man off the hook for the deaths of my daughter and brandonandryan confront Russell the
innocent of the charges against him Russell is from a respected family whose father is a chair of the criminal
justice department of Washington State University he doesn't believe that is solely responsible for what happened
that night but the victims families vehemently disagree this tragic case has put the college town of Pullman
Washington in a warring camps many believe it only the driver that night Fred Russell can stop the outbursts of
rage and grief but Fred Russell is nowhere to be found okay investigators have pieced together
Fred's activities and the hours leading up to the deadly crash I think several witnesses claim they saw Fred and his
friend Jacob McFarland drinking at a local bar at approximately 10:15 p.m. Fred and Jacob were seen leaving the bar
Fred then got behind the wheel and headed onto Route 270 ridiculous lady pick it up according to
police reports Fred came upon a slower-moving vehicle in front of him although he was in a no passing zone
fred illegally tried to go around the car at 90 miles an hour police believe that friends Chevy Blazer
first truck a Geo Prizm heading in the opposite direction then a Cadillac carrying seven and college students
Brandon Clemens Ryan Sorensen and Stacey Mauro were killed on impact Matt Wagner
and three other students were critically injured but survived the Blazer then smashed into a third vehicle before
bursting into flames amazingly Fred Russell and his friend Jacob escaped relatively unscathed two hours after the
accident Fred's blood alcohol was tested at a nearby hospital it measured point one
two well above the legal limit later Fred Russell was arrested at his home and charged with three counts of
vehicular homicide Fred Russell's bail was set for $5,000 which his father Greg had no problem
posting Fred would remain free until his trial in fact he was even allowed to drive to and from work that was pretty
hard to take you know when you lose your three friends it feels like somebody murdered him kind of feel like the guy
should be behind bars right away and he shouldn't be able to be out be out in public anymore but the bail is so low as
to be nothing other than a slap on the wrist is almost insulting to victims and their families we believe that he poses
no flight risk and now whether there was a personal connection between judge Frasier and
Greg Russell the Dean of the school of Criminology at WSU I don't know I do believe though that Greg Russell's
standing in the community was one of the reasons why Frederick Russell was allowed to be out on bail and why that
bail was so low I would imagine that 99.9 percent of the time most judges in this country in the same situation would
have done the same thing public anger began to grow as Fred's team of lawyers prepared his defense a
motion was filed disputing the blood alcohol finding and challenges were made as to whether fred was really
responsible for the accident I was shown toxicology reports of the deceased driver of the Cadillac that indicated
there were drugs and alcohol in his system I was shown toxicology reports of other occupants that showed that there
were drugs and alcohol in their systems as well meth and marijuana there was absolutely nothing in the system of the
decedent's that contributed in any way either to the collision or to their subsequent death I think that the
accusation by Greg Russell that is clearly intended to cloud the issue of his son's responsibility in this case is
sinful within weeks Fred Russell and his supporters claimed that he became the target of the
community's growing outrage the death threats that he indicated that he received were two phone calls in July
early July and then we received information that a card was left at the front doorstep of the residents that he
was at indicating that he wouldn't live to see his trial four weeks later Fred Russell disappeared both his lawyers and
family claimed to have not heard from him since shortly after he jumped bail Greg Russell and several local
newspapers received a letter signed by Fred it read in part I left because I had no choice since the
first day after the tragic accident horrible things have been printed about me now people are so enraged that they
would rather see me dead than receive a fair trial I maintain my innocence but my life has been repeatedly threatened
so I cannot stay Fred Russell's whereabouts are currently unknown I think Fred has an expensive
lifestyle I think Fred's I'm accustomed to good things being able to go out and party
and drink and socialize I would find it impossible for Fred to make his ends meet without assistance in some manner
from some family member a friend since that letter nobody in the family to my knowledge has heard anything from him we
don't know anyone who has heard from him and I would hope that if anyone did if any of my friends know if anyone in the
family heard from him that they'd tell us what I would say to Frederick Russell is we'll get you
you can't hide forever and I've got a long time left in this life and I'll find you
[Music] [Music] [Music] ten-year-old Johanna Molina of Merced California will soon be reunited with
her mother Jean Jean Molina has recently moved to Tustin four hours to the south
and is now ready for her oldest child to join her Jean was real happy because Joanna was going to come and live with
her and we made it and we made arrangements to take her down that weekend two months earlier feeling a
need to take a sabbatical from her marriage Gena taken a job as a cook it would be a chance to assert some
independence however other forces may have prompted her move as well she'd had a dream that I was going to battle to
beat her up and she felt that she should get out of my house and I never understood why she would have a dream
like that and believe that dream but her Paris and Johanna stopped by G's new home no one was there
not knowing where else to turn the Hitchcock's checked the restaurant or Jean worked I was just really not sure
what to do because Jean if she said she was going to be there she would have been there the next morning the
Hitchcock's rushed to jeans room hoping to find a sign of her sadly there were no clues to where she might be it was
very difficult because at that point we were so worried and Joanna she kept watching me she wanted to see how I was
reacting how frightened I was her how bad the situation was by my reaction the Hitchcock's immediately went to the
Anaheim Police Department to file a missing-persons report yesterday we were supposed to meet with my daughter deep
down I didn't know that something was very wrong but I tried not to think about it because I knew that it would
just make things sores Thank You Joanna and the Hitchcock's returned home empty-handed without a
single clue to Jean Molina's whereabouts over the next several days he would anxiously wait by their phones hoping
for news that Jean was safe and unharmed sadly that car would never come Jean Malina was raised in Merced
California following a tour of duty with the Navy Jean returned home and began a
family she married Frank Reed and had three children Joanna Elizabeth and John though she and Frank had their ups and
downs it was a fulfilling marriage we had a lot of fun we had a lot of respect for each other
she just had all of the things that I have always wanted it I mean she was she made me want to be married for a long
time but what her youngest child was 2 years old Jean felt a need for some changes in her
life and decided to go back to work Mercedes such a small town and she didn't feel she could go far here so she
went to Southern California jeans experience as a cook in the Navy helped her land a job with a restaurant chain
within six weeks she had been promoted she was going to be training all of you of the new hires that each restaurant is
they opened up she had planned to take Johanna with her so it was kind of it's gonna be kind of a neat experience for
her she was really excited about it she was real happy then just when everything
was going so well for her 33 year old Jean Molina vanished the very day the hitchcock's drove to Tustin to see Jean
a gruesome discovery was made in Westminster a town ten miles away the badly battered body of an unidentified
woman was found near an abandoned construction site it was one of the more vicious crime scenes that we've
investigated and we've investigated an awful lot of homicides just after daybreak that Sunday a husband and wife
witnessed a man acting suspiciously near his car he picked up some type of large
objects and we later found that to be a piece of asphalt and with both hands above his head just
thrust it now hard and then looked up and saw her and in her words she panicked and jumped back in this compact
vehicle and sped off and was seen in highway to speak we didn't feel that robbery was a motive she had some money
on her she had a ring on her finger we felt that probably under the circumstances the suspects that did this
Neuer in some way they were trying to prevent us from finding out who she was she was so badly damaged that we
couldn't tell she's a female Asian white Hispanic an autopsy revealed that she had been sexually assaulted strangled
and bludgeoned before being run over by a car three days after jean molina vanished her landlord read a newspaper
article about the unidentified female victim found in Westminster and thought it might be Jean he immediately
contacted authorities who contacted jeans husband possibly the most difficult thing in my life I ever had to
do to go down and identify somebody who was beaten so badly she was unrecognizable it wasn't until Frank was
shown the ring the victim was wearing that he was certain his beloved Jean had been murdered
really sorry frança called me and told me that he had had to identify the body I didn't handle that very well - it was
a horrible week and I was the day was worse but somehow at least I can't say it was a relief it was just it made me
angry despite G's dream about her husband beating her investigators were able to
quickly eliminate Frank Reed as a suspect I kind of come to believe that the dream wasn't about me it was a dream
about something else and she had foreseen what was going to happen to her detectives went to the restaurant and
questioned jeans co-workers one of the things we found out was that she had worked on July 16th just about till 11
o'clock at night one witness stated that she did come back after signing out on the timecard
she did come back and talk to this particular individual for a few minutes that individual was short-order cook
Carlos Gardel investigators theorize Jean might have left with Brad AHA to celebrate her daughter's impending
arrival she already bought a bed for her daughter she already stocked up the refrigerator I mean this was a exciting
time for her this was something that she was really really looking forward to police would soon learn the Carlos
Verdejo reportedly admitted committing a previous murder he's got a temper okay can you tell me what that means
you know I was working one day and I was just joking around with him never go out
with you on account of your ugly the line cook thought it was just minuscule he was just kidding with him and he said
the guy just went off and pulled a butcher knife out and threatened him with a butcher knife
yeah I killed him me her hey de then came back in according to the person that we interviewed the next day and had
some kind of paperwork with him stating that he was wanted someplace in Mexico for an additional homicide he came in
the morning but he didn't show up at night jeans co-workers also inform police that
Carlos bodega had abruptly resigned from his job yes that was Sunday when investigators
went to bar de Haas residence they learned that he and his common-law wife had vacated the premises the day of the
murder left his clothes behind some of his claws that afternoon another neighbor caught Carlos Brad AHA behaving
oddly around his car her haida was then seen attempting to clean out parts of the vehicle
[Music] the sedan registered decorous bodega was later found abandoned near by the car
provided a wealth of physical evidence in the case evidence not only in the vehicle but on the undercarriage of the
vehicle that secured in my mind with beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was the vehicle have been used to run over
jean molina authorities have been searching for Connors body ha ever since they believe he may have additional
wives and families in Mexico who are helping him evade capture well I hope they catch him and I just hope to be
able to tell him what I think of him there is some kebab a test condors are who her father is - Madhuri you're a
coward and you hide beneath your mother's skirts Carlos Garcia Barajas wanted for the murder of Jean Molina
Barajas 37 years old 5 foot 7 inches tall and weighs 180 pounds he is adept of creating aliases and should be
considered extremely dangerous [Music] on a previous broadcast we profound a suspected serial killer who fled halfway
around the world to avoid being charged with murder in a remarkable twist of fate he is now in custody
the story of Michael Swango was a bizarre one as a medical student he used his hospital internship to secretly kill
when mysterious deaths occurred on his watch hospital officials became suspicious when co-workers became ill
they believed Swango was poisoning them Swango represents the ultimate betrayal we trust doctors we put our lives and
health in their hands and so Michael held himself out of someone who's willing to help but in fact he was
looking to hurt using various aliases the doctors spent years evading the law and when police began to close in he
quietly fled to Zimbabwe Africa soon after authorities issued a warrant for swango's arrests for the only thing they
could fraud he had lied on a federal job application that warrant would eventually come back to haunt him update
three years later Swango was fleeing Africa to Saudi Arabia but had to stop in the US to renew his visa at Chicago
O'Hare Airport an alert customs agent ran his name through the computer found the warrant and Swango was arrested it
was June 1997 and little did officials know that they had captured possibly the most prolific serial killer of the
century nothing compares to Swango the unbelievable strange motives that he had and the length of time for which he did
it and the number of times he got away with it I mean nothing compares while serving time on the fraud charge
federal prosecutors had three years to develop a murder case against Wingo that could put him away for life we had to
prove that there was a homicide normally that's not a problem in a murder case you have a dead body there's a bullet
there's a stabbing there's a strangling beating in this case people had been had
passed on and it had been assumed that they died naturally exhumed bodies complicated toxicology tests an
eyewitness and even swango's own Diaries sealed a deadly doctor's fate page after
page of his personal writings are filled with morose texts like I love it sweet husky clothes smell of an indoor
homicide we can tell from Michael swango's writings that he simply liked to kill people
for him the thrill was doing the killing and getting away with it and that's why
it was difficult to establish a pattern with him because he was something of an opportunistic killer he would kill
whenever he had the chance to kill [Music] join me next time more fascinating stories from the realm of unsolved
mysteries [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Brief Summary

New DNA evidence raises doubts about Albert DeSalvo's guilt as the Boston Strangler while a college student disappears after a fatal accident.

Key points

The Boston Strangler Mystery. New DNA evidence raises questions about Albert DeSalvo's guilt in the Boston Strangler case.
A Family's Fight for Justice. The family of Mary Sullivan seeks to clear her name and find her true killer.
Tragic Accident in Pullman. A devastating car crash leaves three students dead and sparks outrage in the community.
The Disappearance of Jean Molina. Jean Molina vanished on the day her daughter was set to join her, leading to a tragic discovery.
The Gruesome Discovery. A body is found near an abandoned construction site, raising alarms about Jean Molina's fate.
Michael Swango's Capture. After years of evading authorities, Michael Swango is arrested at an airport, revealing his dark past.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Is the Boston Strangler still on the loose?

A shocking question raised by new DNA evidence.

0:23WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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