Albert DeSalvo

Albert Henry DeSalvo (September 3, 1931 – November 25, 1973) was an American murderer and rapist who was active in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early 1960s. He is known to have confessed to being the "Boston Strangler", a serial killer who murdered 13 women in the Boston area between 1962–64. Due to physical evidence, DeSalvo's confession was believed, yet he was only prosecuted in 1967 for a series of unrelated rapes, for which he was convicted and imprisoned until his death in 1973. DeSalvo's claims to have murdered multiple women was disputed, and debates continued regarding which crimes he truly had committed.

By the early 21st century, techniques for DNA capture and analysis could allow for the re-investigation of some criminal cases. In July 2013, an analysis of semen found around the body of Mary Sullivan, the last of the Strangler's victims, was matched to DNA obtained from DeSalvo's nephew. Because men who are descended from a common male ancestor carry the same y-DNA, investigators believed that this finding linked DeSalvo to the killing of Sullivan. The DNA match excluded 99.9% of the remaining population. Later that month, authorities exhumed DeSalvo's body and found that his DNA was a match.