The Boston Strangler, a new Keira Knightley thriller available on Hulu as of today, takes up a serial killer cold case that has fascinated true crime fans for decades. Many people believe that the killings of at least 13 women in the early 1960s, in which the victims were strangled to de@th with their own garments, remain unsolved because of a suspect confession from the alleged perpetrator.
Already brought to the big screen, The Boston Strangler, starring Tony Curtis in 1968, is based on the tragic murders. Matt Ruskin’s Boston Strangler, which he wrote and will direct in 2023, focuses less on solving the mystery as it does on celebrating the two women who broke the story.
As a native Bostonian, Ruskin was familiar with the legend of the Boston Strangler. A recent Zoom interview with Ruskin revealed that “but I didn’t actually know much about the case,” as he admitted to Decider. I dove into as many books as I could get my hands on. There were many facets of the case that were left out of the 1968 Tony Curtis film.
Who was the real Boston Strangler?
Based on true events, the Hulu film follows journalists Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley) and Jean Cole (Carrie Coon) as they investigate a serial killer in 1963 and publish a four-part series about him in the Record American (which would eventually merge with the Boston Herald to form the tabloid).
As a result, Ruskin was forced to conduct his own research to learn more about McLaughlin and Cole’s involvement in these high-profile murder cases. “I saw Jean Cole’s obituary [Cole died in 2015 at the age of 89] and it said that she had two daughters,” the director said. I decided to find them on social media. A Facebook profile with a single photo existed for one of them. And in the photo, she was holding my old friend’s arm!
Check out some additional films and series that are inspired by real events:
- Is Swarm Based on True Story? Reality Behind It
- True Story Behind Kyle Morgan Crime: The Reality of the Ritualistic and Brutal Killing
In regards to the True Story of the Boston Strangler, How Close is the upcoming 2023 Film Adaptation?
Ruskin claims that many of the elements of Boston Strangler are based on actual events, including the headlines atop McLaughlin and Cole’s articles (albeit some liberties were taken to produce a more efficient and exciting Hollywood film).
All of their accounts of the Boston Strangler, Ruskin told Decider, were available online. So I was able to read all the stories they’d ever written, both the ones that came before and the ones that came after. Listening to them discuss their findings in their own words and seeing how they choose to describe their findings in writing was tremendously illuminating.
The newspaper served as inspiration for several of the headlines. Some of Keira’s voiceover in the film is her genuine writing, and some of it was taken directly from their accounts.
But, for dramatic purposes, Ruskin also made certain alterations; Alessandro Nivola’s Detective Conley was the primary target. Conley is not based on any one specific investigator from the Boston Strangler investigation; rather, he is an amalgam of several detectives’ perspectives and experiences.
After hearing what Loretta and Jean were unearthing, “there were a couple of detectives who were these incredibly forward-thinking men,” Ruskin recalled. I think [Conley] was a combination of a few of them.
Ruskin continued, I felt a huge obligation to try to get it right. The folks they abandoned had real lives and genuine families.
What Happened to the Boston Strangler?
Several of the survivors of the so-called Boston Strangler incidents positively identified Albert DeSalvo (played in the film by David Dastmalchian) as their assailant after McLaughlin and Cole published their four-part investigation series in 1963. DeSalvo ultimately admitted to every single murder. A life sentence was handed down to DeSalvo in 1967.
But DeSalvo’s confession was contradictory in several key respects. During a brief prison break, he changed his story and was returned to maximum security. In 1973, a gang member in prison stabbed and k!lled DeSalvo. These facts prompted speculation that DeSalvo was not solely responsible for the murders and that the real killer(s) may still be at large.
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