--- title: The Boston Strangler: Photos From a City Gripped by Fear, 1963 description: Fifty years after the Boston Strangler -- or perhaps several stranglers -- stalked the streets, LIFE recalls the era with chilling photos. canonical: https://time.com/3881127/the-boston-strangler-photos-from-a-city-gripped-by-fear-1963/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-07T01:13:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:35.746Z og:title: The Boston Strangler: Photos From a City Gripped by Fear, 1963 og:description: Fifty years after the Boston Strangler -- or perhaps several stranglers -- stalked the streets, LIFE recalls the era with chilling photos. og:url: https://time.com/3881127/the-boston-strangler-photos-from-a-city-gripped-by-fear-1963/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c735d169f8e2629/69884a732dce01dc259e31bc/boston_strangler_9.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Boston Strangler, 1963 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Boston Strangler: Photos From a City Gripped by Fear, 1963 twitter:description: Fifty years after the Boston Strangler -- or perhaps several stranglers -- stalked the streets, LIFE recalls the era with chilling photos. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c735d169f8e2629/69884a732dce01dc259e31bc/boston_strangler_9.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # City of Fear: Photos From the Boston Strangler Era, 1963 by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 7, 2014 1:13 AM UTC  Caption from LIFE. "Lighting a cigarette she could jam into an assailant's eye, a Boston student walks home with hatpin on her sleeve -- a deadly stilleto ready for fast thrust." Caption from LIFE. "Lighting a cigarette she could jam into an assailant's eye, a Boston student walks home with hatpin on her sleeve -- a deadly stilleto ready for fast thrust."Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 7, 2014 1:13 AM UTC News out of Massachusetts that police might be on the verge of [solving the last of the Boston Strangler killings](http://nation.time.com/2013/07/11/da-dead-suspect-tied-to-64-boston-strangler-case/)—using DNA collected from a relative of longtime suspect Albert DeSalvo—dragged the notorious half-century-old murders back into the headlines. DeSalvo, who confessed to 11 “Strangler” killings and two other murders in and around Boston between 1962 and 1964, was never charged in those crimes—although in 1967 he was tried for unrelated crimes, including rape, and received a life sentence. In 1973, he was stabbed to death after being transferred to Walpole State Prison from Bridgewater State Hospital in southeastern Massachusetts. In the years since his death, more than a few criminologists, journalists and law enforcement officials have expressed doubts that DeSalvo was, in fact, the Boston Strangler, citing (for example) the wide variety of ages and ethnicities of the 13 victims—most serial killers target a specific “type” of victim—as well as inconsistencies in his confessions. Whether or not DeSalvo was the Strangler, however, what’s beyond dispute is the terror that haunted Boston—and especially the women of Boston—at the time, when first one woman, then another, then another was found sexually assaulted and strangled to death. Here, 50 years after “fear walked home with the women” of Boston, as LIFE magazine put it in a 1963 story on the “sex stranglings,” LIFE.com recalls that chilling era with a series of photos illustrating the alarm—and the determination not to be the next victim—that gripped countless women in cities and towns across eastern Massachusetts in the early 1960s. ---  Caption from LIFE. "Lighting a cigarette she could jam into an assailant's eye, a Boston student walks home with hatpin on her sleeve -- a deadly stilleto ready for fast thrust." Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Girl barricading alley outside apartment during series of Boston stranglings, 1963. Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Dog training for attack during Boston stranglings scare, 1963. Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Boston woman sleeping with umbrella at hand for self-protection during strangling scare." Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Improvised means of self-protection brought about by Boston stranglings, including bottles in doorways as booby trap." Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Beacon Hill street at dusk has eerie aspect during wave of Boston stranglings, 1963. Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Scene during wave of stranglings in Boston area in 1963. Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Police whistle used for self-protection during Boston stranglings, 1963. Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Boston mounted police on patrol in area of stranglings, 1963. Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Karate expert George Mattson holds extra classes for women in the art of self-defense." Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Single girl's neighbor carries shotgun when he goes to investigate odd noises." Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Date ends with searching woman's apartment during wave of Boston stranglings, 1963. Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Boston woman sleeping with ski poles for protection, 1963. Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Police Commissioner Edmund L. McNamara at a community meeting during Boston stranglings scare, 1963. Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. A rainy Beacon Hill street at dusk during the era of the Boston stranglings, 1963. Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3881127/the-boston-strangler-photos-from-a-city-gripped-by-fear-1963/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3881127/the-boston-strangler-photos-from-a-city-gripped-by-fear-1963/"},"headline":"City of Fear: Photos From the Boston Strangler Era, 1963","datePublished":"2014-10-07T01:13:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:03:35.746Z","description":"LIFE.com recalls the chilling era of the Boston Strangler with a series of photos from a city gripped by fear in the early 1960s.","url":"https://time.com/3881127/the-boston-strangler-photos-from-a-city-gripped-by-fear-1963/","keywords":["Murder","Crime","Boston","1963","Ben Cosgrove"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c735d169f8e2629/69884a732dce01dc259e31bc/boston_strangler_9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c735d169f8e2629/69884a732dce01dc259e31bc/boston_strangler_9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Boston Strangler, 1963","caption":"Lighting a cigarette she could jam into an assailant's eye, a Boston student walks home with hatpin on her sleeve -- a deadly stilleto ready for fast thrust.","creditText":"Art Rickerby—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3881127/the-boston-strangler-photos-from-a-city-gripped-by-fear-1963/","name":"City of Fear: Photos From the Boston Strangler Era, 1963"}}]}] ```