Studying about Bundy for an essay – here you are!

Image via Wikipedia

Hi everyone, we’ve had a comment which unfortunately doesn’t show because we had to change our comment system but here it is:

thanks im doing an esa for school on him you gave me so new info if you post anything about ted bundy or charels manson that whould be great!!!

I certainly will ! Actually I have written a lot about Ted Bundy and I wanna direct you to a couple of the articles I wrote:

What is a psychopath?  Read here.

Where to find serial killer info online. Read here.

Burn, Bundy, Burn – On the twentieth anniversary of Ted Bundy’s execution. Read here.

I have never written about Charles Manson because he wasn’t really a serial killer and I never found him that interesting – but I hope you can use these links to study more for your essay.

Thanks for your nice comment!

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Christopher Wilder, Most Wanted picture, Image via Wikipedia

Hello peeps! Today I’m going to write about a killer named Christopher Wilder. He is rather typical of the kind of person I usually write about in that he was a sexual sadist but he is also atypical in that he was a serial killer who turned spree killer in the end of his rampage.

Let’s start going through his background. He was born in Australia and almost died at birth. His father was American and his mother was Australian. At age 2 he almost drowned in a swimming pool. In the 60s he was found guilty of taking part in a gang rape and he was put on probation and received electroshock therapy; it is believed that this therapy only increased his sexual aggressive appetite.

In 68 he married but his wife left – having been with him in married “bliss” for a week! He moved to Florida in 69 and actually made …

quite a lot of money in real estate and developed an interest in photography. However, his sexual problems were quite clear during the seventies where he went in and out of jail for different sexual offences. Already at this early stage, he had sort of an MO in place: He’d pretend to be a professional photographer and lure young women into his truck where he’d assault them. Oddly enough, he would never be jailed for these crimes.

Then in 1982, he was charged with forcing two teenage girls to pose nude. His parents posted bail and Wilder would never get sentenced for this offense. The hearing would be in 1984; Wilder was dead by then. Actually his murder spree was quite short – from February to April 84 – but the hunt for him was very intense because he’d kill at a high rate during this short time span.

Rosario Gonzalez was the first known victim. Wilder was racing a Porsche 911 in the IMSA GTU class and Gonzalez was a model. She has never been found – neither has Wilder’s former girlfriend Elizabeth Kenyon who disappeared shortly after Gonzalez. Because Wilder knew both victims, he thought it better to run.

21-year old Terry Ferguson would be the next victim. He kidnapped her from a mall in Satellite Beach and dumped her body. The next unfortunate young woman had declined to be photographed by him and he’d wrapped her up in a blanket and held her in a motel room where he glued her eyes shut and assaulted her numerous times. He applied copper wires to her feet and passed electric currents through them. This young lady was a fighter, however, and she managed to lock herself in the bathroom where she started screaming. Wilder quickly fled . The girl had to search for help herself as her screams incredibly went unnoticed.

Already the next day Wilder approached 24 year old Terry Walden and told her he was a pro photographer. She declined to be photographed but two days later she disappeared. After dumping her body, he transferred his stolen license plates to her Mercury Cougar and then he murdered 21 year old Suzanne Logan.

Next two victims were 18-year old Sheryl Bonaventura and 17-year old Michelle Korfman who were both tortured before death. Like all of Wilder’s victims, they were young and beautiful.

The next victim 16-year old Tina Marie Risico was special in that she was kept alive to help Wilder lure other victims into his truck. Her mind has been so damaged by Wilder’s assaults that she not only helped him catch a new victim but she didn’t even try to escape although she had to chance.

The next victim – lured to Wilder by Tina Marie – was 16-year old Dawnette Wilt. At this point Wilder was on the FBI’S Most Wanted List. Dawnette was raped numerous times and then taken into the woods where she was stabbed and shot. She miraculously survived and by the time Wilder returned to the scene to make sure she was really dead, she had disappeared.
Healing in the hospital where she could give police more clues. She said Wilder was heading for Canada.

33-year old Beth Dodge  was the last victim and she was murdered only because Wilder needed her vehicle. He then drove Tina Marie to Logan Airport in Boston and bought her a ticket to LA. Wilder’s vehicle description was now broadcast out to law enforcement officials and on April 13th – after a failed attempt to kidnap another woman – his luck ran out. He stopped at a gas station and were approached by two police officers who had recognized him. Wilder reached into the car for his .357 Magnum and one of the troopers grabbed Wilder from behind. Wilder shot himself in the stomach, also injuring the trooper.

That’s where Wilder’s insane spree ended. He died instantly from his wounds. He left a personal estate of $2 million and is thought to have murdered many more women than the eight ones described.

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"To catch a killer" deserves to be watched over and over

Quite frankly it’s gotta be the best serial killer movie ever made. It depicts the search for missing teenager Robert Piest who disappeared from outside the Nisson’s pharmacy in Des Plaines, Illinois in the late seventies. After a very intense investigation police would find a total of 28 bodies in local business man John Wayne Gacy‘s crawlspace and he claimed to have disposed of others in the nearby Des Plaines river, including the body of Robert Piest.

This movie is a must for true crime fans but also for regular film watchers. It’s exciting, thrilling, frightening and the actors (especially Brian Dennehy as John Wayne Gacy) do a fantastic job.

Thumbs up!

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About criminology

Criminology is the part of social science that deals with the study of crime both in society and in the individual.

It’s a big hobby of mine and I know that the readers who frequence this blog a lot might think I am just a normal (or abnormal) serial killer freak who likes the gory stuff and the pics and the VW Bug replicas you can collect online. That’s not the case though.

I am really interested in what makes a criminal. Environment, genetics ? Or an evil beyond our control? It’s fascinating to study about sadism, murder, people who do indespicable things.

Much much more on criminology later..

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Gerard Schaefer: Cop turned killer

I don’t know how many of you have heard about this guy but he is one of the most brutal serial killers I have ever read about. His name was Gerard Schaefer and he was born in Wisconsin and raised there until he moved with his family to Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

When I studied about him I noticed that his childhood resembles that of serial killer Ted Bundy. Both were peeping toms who liked to spy on girls as they undressed. Schaefer would kill animals in his youth and was also into cross dressing. He had a fairly high IQ as did Bundy.

Ted Bundy would at least on one location try to fool a victim into believing that he was a police officer and the scary thing about Gerard Schaefer is that he actually was a real police officer. He would cross around in his police car looking for hitchhikers and he would then warn them that it was dangerous to hitchhike. He would get them into the car and drive them to a remote spot in the woods where he would tie them to trees, gag and torture them until they died whereupon he would have intercourse with the dead bodies. Ted Bundy is also known to have returned to the site of a murder in order to have sex with the decaying bodies.

In 1972 Schaefer picked up two girls and left them in the woods planning to return later to finish the murders. These two girls escaped and went to the police station. Both Gerard Schaefer and the girls gave the same explanation to what had happened : The girls had been hitchhiking and he had taken them into the words to give them a scare so they wouldn’t hitchhike anymore. The girls however said that Schaefer was going to come back to kill them . They agreed to go with the police to react to reenact the scene. Schaefer posted bail and was released and he would go on to murder other girls .

The police eventually got a search warrant for Schaefer’s house and they found evidence connecting him to at least eight missing girls .

Schaefer was convicted of two murders and given two life sentences and in 1995 he was found dead – stabbed to death by another inmate.

Today I watched part of a French documentary about Gerard Schaefer and his crimes. There’s a very chilling interview with him where he describes having conversations with Ted Bundy and he explains how he would taunt Bundy about having murdered more women than him. He claims he only did it to annoy Bundy and he was really an innocent man locked up for crimes he didn’t do. He just loved ticking Bundy off. There is no doubt in mine or anybody else’s mind that Gerard Schaefer was guilty and he was a very evil individual who would shift between claiming his innocence and bragging about being the world’s most prolific serial killer.

Here is the part of the documentary where Schaefer talks about Bundy:

You can of course watch the rest on Youtube. Search “Serial killer Schaefer”.

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More than 15 true crime books I recommend

FBI Badge, Image via WikipediaThe wild, wacky, wonderful list of Gitte’s true crime books is here!

Ann Rule:

Empty Promises, a collection of true crime files
Kiss me, Kill me, another collection
Bitter Harvest, the case of doctor Debora Green who murdered her two kids
Every breath you take, the story about Allan Blackthorne who had his ex wife murdered by a hit man
The Want-Ad Killer, about serial killer Harvey Louis Carignan
Dead by Sunset, about attorney Cheryl Keeton who was killed by her ex
And never let her go, the story about Thomas Capano who also murdered an ex girlfriend
Last Dance, last chance, a collection of crime files
Small Sacrifices, about Diane Downs who shot her three kids
Everything she ever wanted, the story of a depraved Southern Belle
The stranger beside me, Ann Rule’s story about serial killer Ted Bundy who was her friend

John Douglas (with Mark Olshaker):

The Anatomy of Motive, sharing what motivates some of the most depraved killers of our time

Mindhunter, where Douglas explains how he established the practice of criminal profiling

Journey into darkness, crime cases and crime prevention/rehabilitation

Anyone you want me to be, about the world’s first internet killer John Robinson who found his victims online

Obsession, the FBI‘s legendary profiler probes the psyches of killers, rapists and stalkers and their victims and tells how to fight back

Terry Sullivan & Peter T. Maiken:

Killer Clown; The John Wayne Gacy Murders

Brian Masters:

Killing for company, the story of a man addicted to murder (Dennis Nilsen)
The shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer, looking into the mind of Dahmer

Harold Schechter:

Depraved, the story of America’s first serial killer H. H. Holmes and his castle of horror in Chicago

Thomas French:

Unanswered Cries, a true story of friends, neighbors and cold-blooded murder

Maria Eftimiades:

Lethal Lolita, the story about Amy Fisher who shot her lover’s wife

Robert Ressler (with Tom Shachtman):

I have lived in the monster; On the trail of the world’s deadliest serial killers
Whoever fights monsters, a brilliant FBI detective’s career-long war against serial killers

Don Davis:

The Milwaukee Murders, Nightmare in apartment 213, obviously about Jeffrey Dahmer

Robert Cullen:

The Killer Department, hunting Russia’s Hannibal Lecter: Andrei Chikatilo

Colin Wilson & Donald Seaman:

The serial killers, a study in the psychology of violence

Ken Englade:

Cellar of Horror, the true story about Gary Heidnik who kept women prisoners in his cellar

Nancy Gibbs, Richard Lacayo, Lance Morrow, Jill Smolowe and David Van Biema with the editorial staff of Time Magazine:

Mad Genius, The Odyssey, pursuit and capture of the Unabomber Suspect

Moira Martingale:

Cannibal Killers, a journey into the minds of cannibals

Katherine Ramsland, Ph.D. :

The Human Predator, a historical chronicle of serial murder and forensic investigation

And one that’s not really a true crime book but more of a self help category:

Gavin de Becker:

The Gift of Fear and other survival signals that protect us from violence

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Search every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse

Image via WikipediaFor the first time in my life, I have been held hostage. Sort of. I was returning from bringing back my son and as soon as the train pulled in to the station, they locked all the doors and 3-4 police officers searched the entire train. We – all the innocents – had to wait until they found the guy. It took around 15 minutes, then they walked him right past everyone. Handcuffed. For a second I thought “How weird that they would lock us all up with a crazy, depraved killer..” but it turned out he was neither depraved nor a killer. I think. With my luck he had simply bothered somebody on the train, been too loud or drunk or something like that. When will I ever get to see a real killer? God knows.

It was of course quite exciting for a true crime nerd like myself I doubt he was a mass murderer though and they wouldn’t allow me to profile him. Dammit.

Anyway, I was home late. Thirty minutes later than expected. I said goodnight to Kurt and then slept right until 1 PM today!

So what’s happening today? Hopefully some blog updating and some exercise. Churite.

Chikatilo: The evil man

This is somewhat of a daunting task but I’m going to attempt it anyway because the subject intrigues me.

I am going to write about Andrei Chikatilo, the serial killer accused of murdering 52 women and children in the Russian SFSR (Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika).

I have recently finished reading Robert Cullen’s “The Killer Department” and it is a fascinating story. Chikatilo is probably one of the most evil figures I have ever read about. The book concentrates on the hunt for one of the world’s most savage killers and the man who was determined to catch him: Viktor Burakov, head of the special investigative unit.

Chikatilo, also known as the red Ripper, was born in the Ukraine and suffered what you might call a typical childhood of a serial killer. He suffered physical abuse and was a bed wetter from early on. During the Ukrainian famine, Chikatilo’s mother told him that his older brother Stepan had been captured and eaten by starving neighbors and Chikatilo would also witness the effects of the German bombing raids.

He would grow up to be a dangerous young man, suffering from chronic impotence, feeling socially awkward and harboring a deep anger.

After getting out of the military in 1960, he worked as a telephone engineer and also had his first sexual experience, jumping a teenage girl and ejaculating while she struggled.

Despite of his social awkwardness, Chikatilo married in 1963 and fathered a son and a daughter. He then tried working as a teacher but he was let go after allegations of molestation.

It was in 1978 that Chikatilo moved to Shakhty which is a coal mining town near Rostov. Here he was to commit his first murder, that of a nine-year-old girl whom he attempted to rape and when he found himself unable to get an erection, he instead stabbed her as she struggled and found himself sexually aroused by the blood. An innocent man was sentenced and executed for this crime.

Chikatilo managed to control the urge until 1982 where he killed several times. He would approach children or young women at bus or railway stations and convince them to go with him for food or in the children’s cases candy. They would go together to a nearby forest where he would murder them. The big bad wolf luring children away from safety. Chikatilo murdered six times in 1983 but in 1984 the murders escalated to 15 , all killed in horrible, sadistic ways.

Close call:

It was also in 84 the Chikatilo was found to behave in a suspicious way at a Rostov railway station and when his past was undercovered, he was found guilty of theft and sentenced to one year in prison but he was free after serving only three months .

The incarceration may have scared Chikatilo a little bit because he would not kill again until August 85 and then commit yet another murder in 87 when he killed a little boy during a business trip.

The hunt had also intensified since Issa Kostoyev had taken over the case, railway stations were being watched carefully and witnesses were interviewed together with known sex offenders. Chikatilo followed the case closely and this may also have been the reason why he had his urges somewhat under control between 85 and 87. Chikatilo was far from a crazed monster who didn’t know what he was doing – he was not crazy, he was a human being able to resist murdering when the risk of getting caught was too great .

In 1988, however, the killings erupted again as Chikatilo would murder eight people that year alone and then again there was a lapse until between January to November of 1990 where another nine people died .

The police had uniformed officers at every major bus and railway station around the Rostov area thus forcing the killer to hunt a smaller stations where a number of female agents would dress as homeless people or prostitutes wandering around stations waiting for the killer to strike .

In 1990 Chikatilo could have been caught .

He was coming out of the woods having just killed a young woman. He was carrying a sports bag and had blood stains on his face. An undercover officer stopped Chikatilo, looked at his papers and let him go . Had he searched the sports bag , he would have found a severed breast . There was no reason to arrest a Chikatilo and therefore he was let go . It was another close call .

It was also what sparked the police’s interest in him and he was watched 24/7 from now on . The police found him wandering around town trying to strike up conversations with children. He was arrested while coming out of a café .

Naturally the police hoped the Chikatilo would confess and they used the strategy of mental illness, telling Chikatilo he was a very ill man who needed help and a psychiatrist was involved in questioning him . It was after a lot of talking that Chikatilo confessed to murdering 52 people which stunned the police who only knew of 36 murders until then. When Chikatilo showed the police some undiscovered grave sites, they were sure he was being truthful.

Chikatilo was imprisoned in a cell by himself because child abusers and murderers are equally loathed in the prisons around the world . He would act normally in his cell , eating well and exercising but his behavior would become bizarre in front of the investigators . This would also be the case during the trial where Chikatilo sat in a big cage to prevent relatives of his victims to attack him .

At one point Chikatilo would drop his pants and act crazy , going into long rambling speeches , a tactic used to convince the judge that he was indeed insane .

There was no doubt how the trial would end . Chikatilo was sentenced to death for each offense , the murder of 52 people . The audience applauded .

It was the end of a miserable life when Chikatilo was taken into a sound proof room in Rostov prison and killed by a gunshot behind the right ear.

I suppose I am fascinated by Chikatilo’s case because here is a man who was evil through the core. He seems to live in people’s minds as this crazy, depraved boogeyman luring children away from their parents when in fact he was a human being, able to resist killing when he was scared of getting caught. He was in total control of his urges, far from the beast foaming around the mouth, attacking in front of everybody.

Chikatilo was a man. A person. The only difference between him and us is that he was dominantly evil.

That’s absolutely fascinating.

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What is a psychopath?

For years now I have loved reading true crime stories. Behavioral science really interests me and I’m drawn to people’s dark side. Why do we do what we do? Most of the people I read about are defined as psychopaths and I’m going to explain a little about what that means.

A psychopath is a person who shows antisocial behavior and I’m going to explain more about what antisocial means in a bit. Psychopathy is a personality disorder, not to be confused with a psychotic disorder.The psychopath finds gratification in criminal behavior and cannot control his/her sexual or aggressive impulses. They are also unable to learn from past mistakes. Psychopaths are people lacking a conscience.

It is important to note that not all psychopaths grow up to be murderers – some psychopaths have grown up to be quite successful in many lines of work ( some would say lawyers – but jokes aside)

The antisocial personality also has a mental disorder. An antisocial person shows a disregard for the rights and feelings of others and this behavior often begins in childhood and continues into adulthood.

Most of the people I enjoy reading about and studying suffer from both antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy.

One such person is Theodore Robert Bundy who was an American serial killer. TedTacoma, Washington Image via Wikipedia Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont in 1946. His mother was Louise Cowell and she was unwed. Ted grew up thinking that his grandmother was his mother and his real mother was his sister. For the first few years of his life he lived in Philadelphia but in 1950 he moved to live with relatives in Tacoma, Washington.

At school he was shy and introverted and he later explained that he never understood social behavior. His mother married a man named Johnny Bundy and that’s how Ted turned into Ted Bundy . He grew fascinated by sex and violence and he turned into a thief and an amateur criminal – he stole his ski equipment and got arrested twice.

Bundy graduated in 1965 and earned a scholarship to the University of Puget Sound and he began taking courses in psychology and Oriental studies. He also began working as a night shift volunteer at a suicide hotline and that’s where he met crime writer Ann Rule. Rule would later describe him as gentle and polite. Bundy got a girlfriend called Stephanie Brooks but following her graduation she ended their relationship claiming that Bundy was immature and have no ambition. This seemed to change something in Bundy’s personality – he became more determined and dominant. He got involved in politics as a Republican. He began at the University of Washington majoring in psychology. In late 1973 Bundy enrolled in law school where he did very poorly and he dropped out in 1974.

He again befriended Stephanie Brooks until she agreed to marry him. But after a period of no contact she asked Ted what was wrong and he said he had no idea what she was talking about. It seems he had been planning the whole thing from the beginning.

It is thought that Ted Bundy’s killings began in Washington state with the disappearance of Ann Marie Burr. She disappeared when Ted was 14 and she lived on his paper route. In the mid-70s coeds began disappearing and the police were baffled that the young women could disappear in broad daylight. Some women had witnessed a young man asking for help to carry a briefcase to his VW. In July 1974 two women were abducted from the same place: Lake Sammamish State Park. Their remains were found a couple of months later.

In the autumn of 1974 Ted Bundy started law school in Salt Lake City and there the murders continued. But then a victim got away! Carol DaRonch was abducted from The Fashion Place Mall by a man claiming to be Officer Roseland – he said her car had been broken into and she needed to accompany him to the police headquarters. They drove for a while and then Bundy put his handcuffs on her and when she tried to escape from the car, he swung a crowbar at her but luckily she managed to get away and flag down a car.

On the same night in Bountiful, Utah Bundy abducted another woman and killed her. When he finished law school he moved on to Colorado to murder women there. In August 1975 he was stopped by a police officer in Salt Lake City and police found burglary tools in his car such as a ski mask, a crowbar and handcuffs. And Carol DaRonch was able to pick him out of a lineup.

Then in 1977 Bundy was taken to the Pitkin County Courthouse in Aspen where he was supposed to stand trial for a murder committed in Colorado. He managed to jump out of the law library window and he got all the way to the top of Aspen Mountain where he lived in a cabin for two days. Then he lost his sense of direction missing two trails that could have got him out safe. He stole a car and drove back to Aspen where he was apprehended.

As soon as he was back in custody he worked on a new escape plan – this time he saw his way through a metal plate in the ceiling. He got a ride into Vail and then caught a bus to Denver where he took a flight to Chicago – Bundy was free for 17 hours before anybody noticed he was gone .

After his arrival in Chicago he got a room at the YMCA in Ann Arbor, Michigan and then stole a car that he drove to Atlanta, Georgia where he would catch a bus to Tallahassee, Florida – he arrived there in January 1978 . He lived under the alias Chris Hagen.

By this point his sexual urges had been repressed for so long and they erupted on January 15 when he entered the Florida State University Chi Omega sorority house and killed two sleeping girls – he also bludgeoned two others, the whole thing in a matter of half an hour. Further down the street he attacked another girl who would survive.

Soon after that Bundy went to Lake City, Florida where he abducted and murdered a 12-year-old girl. He was caught on a traffic violation and went to trial for the Chi Omega murders in the summer of 1979, managing his own defense. An eyewitness at the Chi Omega house pointed him out in court as the murderer and Bundy was convicted also because of bite mark evidence found on the buttocks of one victim. He was sentenced to death by electrocution and in 1980 he was once again sentenced to death for the murder of 12-year-old girl. During this trial Bundy married and his wife had his daughter.

I find it very interesting how Bundy approached his victims. It usually happened in broad daylight, in a public place and he would ask for help and find numerous ways of gaining a person’s trust like feigning an injury or wearing a fake cast. Wouldn’t most people stop to help somebody in need? It is believed that Bundy killed as many as 35 women during his killing spree.

Ted Bundy suffered from both the psychopathic disorder and antisocial personality disorder. He was attracted to criminal behavior from a young age and he showed no regard for other people’s emotions or rights.

I have studied Bundy extensively and I can’t help thinking about what FBI agent and profiler Robert Ressler has stated: There is something that science has not yet recognized within these people and that is the element of pure evil. What do you think? Is it possible that evil is a force that is at work within us and it reflects our actions or are we products of our upbringing and our genes? Perhaps a mixture? I would love to hear your opinion because the subject interests me greatly.

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The Boston Strangler

I can’t help thinking if I should just stick to watching documentaries instead of movies. Whenever I get my little greedy hands on a serial killer movie based on facts, I get so excited. And then so disappointed.

Yesterday I watched The Boston Strangler with Tony Curtis as Albert De Salvo (the strangler suspect). Curtis plays brilliantly but I thought the movie was very, very loosely based on the facts of the crimes.

A little about this figure known as The Boston Strangler:

Albert De Salvo did confess to the crimes but he never stood trial for them due to lack of evidence. In fact there is still speculation whether De Salvo really was the strangler. The crimes may in fact have been committed by different people because the victims varied so much in age, appearances and even race.

A little about the crimes:

From the summer of 1962 to the beginning of 1964, 11 women were strangled in their apartments in the Boston area. The victims were between 19 and 80.
The murderer’s signature was to leave a big bow around the neck of his victim.
Victim number 11, 19 year old Mary Sullivan, was left in a sexual position, had a bow around her neck made of stockings and scarfs and between the toes of her left foot was a New Year’s card.

When the police had been on the case for 19 months, they were no closer to solving the case so they brought in a psychic called Peter Hurkos who arrived in January ’64 (after the last murder) and he gave the police a description of the killer. They arrested a suspect who proved not to be the killer and Hurgos left the country.

Albert De Salvo:

De Salvo was arrested in november 1964 for a series of sexual assaults committed by The Green Man (De Salvo wore green work trousers) and he was committed to Bridgewater State Hospital and then to Cambridge Prison where his mental health grew worse. He then was sent back to Bridgewater in February 1965, mentally ill, and waited to stand trial for the Green Man crimes.

It was while he was there that he boasted to another prisoner, George Nassar, about how he had killed 13 women in the Boston area and Nassar then contacted his lawyer Lee Bailey claiming that De Salvo wanted to talk to him.
During the interview between Bailey and De Salvo, Bailey became convinced that De Salvo was indeed the Boston Strangler. It seemed they had their man but there was no evidence, only a confession from a mentally ill man. The prosecution were unwilling to let De Salvo confess pleading insanity and so the case was dropped.

De Salvo was sentenced to life for the Green Man crimes (the series of sexual assaults) and was committed to Bridgewater again. De Salvo managed to escape once together with other prisoners and he claimed it was because he wanted people to notice that he wasn’t receiving enough psychiatric help.

He was transferred to Massachussets Walpole maximum security prison where he died six years later (in 1973) in a prison brawl.

The movie “The Boston Strangler” has him depicted as a sufferer of multiple personality disorder. De Salvo didn’t suffer from that.
Image via Wikipedia
And about this case, former FBI profiler Robert Ressler has said that “You’re putting together so many different patterns that it’s inconceivable behaviorally that all these could fit one individual.”

More about Albert De Salvo here.

And much more here.