AKA The Boston Strangler. Or was he? And come to that, was he really a plumber? His father Frank DeSalvo certainly was, although he let down the profession by being an alcoholic who knocked seven bells out of the missus, broke every one of her fingers, occasionally sold his children as slaves for $9 and made them watch him having sex with prostitutes in the front room. No wonder Albert went bad. In 1948 Albert joined the army straight from school and was stationed in occupied Germany where in Frankfurt he married a local girl. In 1956 DeSalvo left the army with an honourable discharge when it was claimed that he had sexually molested a nine-year old girl. He returned to Boston, Massachusetts. From June 1962 to January 1964 The Boston Strangler held the women residents of that city in fear for their lives as he claimed 13 victims in a 19-month reign of terror, talking or breaking his way into his victims apartment then strangling them to death. The Strangler sometimes passed himself off as a detective to gain entrance, sometimes as a plumber. He certainly was a plumber as played by Tony Curtis in the classic movie, The Boston Strangler. DeSalvo was arrested for sexual assault in 1964 and it was when he was in prison that he first boasted, then confessed to being The Boston Strangler, telling police in great detail about each killing. There are now grave doubts that he was indeed the killer. In November 1973, Albert DeSalvo was found dead in his prison cell, stabbed through the heart six times, although his killer was never caught.