Boston Strangler - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• The 1964 film, The Strangler was inspired by the (then unsolved) killings.
• The 1968 film The Boston Strangler starred Tony Curtis as Albert DeSalvo. Henry Fonda co-starred.
• A 2008 film The Boston Strangler - The Untold Story, stars David Faustino as De Salvo.
• The Boston Strangler became a central figure in the second episode of TNT's Rizzoli & Isles starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander; the episode was called "Boston Strangler Redux", featuring a new serial killer who killed women with the same names as the original Strangler's victims, and was eventually revealed to have been committed by one of the original detectives investigating the case attempting to 'frame' the man he believed to be the real Boston Strangler.
• Jack Valenti, former head of the MPAA compared the VCR to the Boston Strangler, by saying they had a comparable effect on the American public to the Strangler's effect on women.
• The Rolling Stones song "Midnight Rambler" is based on the story of the Boston Strangler.
• The Standells' song "Dirty Water" is an ode to Boston and asks listeners "have you heard about the Strangler?"
• The movie Art School Confidential was a fictional take on the Boston Strangler.
• Albert DeSalvo's ghost was summoned to kill another ghost in an episode of American Gothic entitled Strangler
• A waxwork of Albert DeSalvo featured in an episode of the British comedy series Psychoville. The waxwork (along with others of John George Haigh, John Christie and Jack the Ripper) comes to life in a fantasy sequence, trying to persuade the character David Sowerbutts to kill a man by strangling rather than methods suggested by the other waxworks. The others accused him of having several personalities, referencing the 1968 movie.
• In the episode of Childrens Hospital Staff Dance, Sy Middleton chooses The Boston Strangler as a nickname. When questioned about it, he states that he used to live in Boston and is smarter than the police.
• In the 13th episode of the second season of Crossing Jordan, titled Strangled, the characters have a Cold Case party where they role play the investigation into two murders that fit the MO of the Boston Strangler. Each character assumes the role of a major character in the investigation based on the case files of Jordan's father, Max Cavanaugh. The group determines that the two murders were copycats made to look like Boston Strangler killings.