Plot

A series of strangulation murders of Boston women sparks a protracted complex manhunt. Law professor John Bottomley leads a multi-jurisdictional task force in the investigation, with help from surviving victim Diane Cluny.

Boston is being terrorized by a series of seemingly random murders of women. Based on a true story, the film follows the investigators' path through several leads before introducing the Strangler as a character. It is seen almost exclusively from the point of view of the investigators who have very few clues to build a case upon.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

In 1962, elderly women are being strangled to death in their homes in the metropolitan Boston area. Panic ensues not only in the general population, but also within the police forces in the Boston area; they begin to apprehend and question every known sexual criminal. Things for the police departments start to get out of control when subsequent stranglings extend to younger women. To show the public that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is taking the matter seriously, the state attorney general appoints law professor John S. Bottomly to lead a multi-jurisdictional task force to apprehend the perpetrator. Bottomly feels ill-equipped to do so. Eventually he and his team come across two leads: one a victim, Dianne Cluny, who survives her strangling, and the other a man named Albert DeSalvo being detained for a seemingly unrelated crime. Bottomly notices that DeSalvo, who is institutionalized when he is diagnosed with a possible case of dissociative identity disorder, has an injury matching one that Cluny inflicted on the strangler. Beyond his mental disorder, DeSalvo seems like a decent man. Regardless, Bottomly wants to find out conclusively if DeSalvo is indeed the strangler, even if he will never be tried for the crimes, and even if it causes DeSalvo possible permanent injury to his psyche.—Huggo