The Boston Stranglers by Susan Kelly Page B

brother by five years, confirms the stories of Frank DeSalvo’s sadistic, almost insane, brutality: “I recall being under the bed a lot, because that was where I was safe.” Richard tells a story of how Frank, in an alcohol-fueled rage, began pummeling Charlotte. “He pushed her into the washing machine—it was the old-fashioned kind with a wringer—and she got cut badly and bruised.” Albert tried to intervene to protect his mother. “My father picked him up by the throat and shook him in the air.”
    Albert started grade school in September 1937 and in September 1943 was enrolled in a special class at the Williams School in Chelsea. Two months later had had racked up his first arrest—for assault and battery with intent to commit robbery. The take was $2.85. His victim was a boy approximately his own age.
    Albert was given a suspended sentence to the Lyman School, a reformatory for delinquent boys. He continued on at Williams, working after classes as a florist’s delivery boy, a shoeshine boy, and a dishwasher. He also got a paper route. He liked going to the movies, he told his social worker, although he didn’t “love” them.
    He feared walking alone at night. Dark streets held a special terror for him.
    Although Christmas that year was a good one for Albert (Santa was generous), four days afterward he was arrested again by the Chelsea police. Once more the charge was assault and battery and larceny. This time Albert’s sentence to the Lyman School was enforced.
    By September of 1944 the fortunes of Charlotte DeSalvo and her six children had improved measurably. Separated repeatedly, she and Frank had finally divorced, the decree becoming final that year. Charlotte, legally released from her bondage to the man who had made her so miserable for so long, became a new woman. A social worker who visited the divorcee and her children at 353 Broadway saw someone who “has taken renewed vigor in the bettering of her home and all that goes with it. She is receiving $31.31 from the mother’s aid program and, in addition, she has been working each morning for half a day at the Slade’s Photo Shop in Chelsea. Observation indicates that she is putting her resources to good use. She has not been bothered by her husband for a long time and seems considerably relieved because of former pressure. She is still keeping company with one Paul Kinosian and anticipates marriage in August of 1945. Mr. Kinosian has been exceptionally kind to the children, and she vows that the present affair is on the level. She feels that Albert should be with her.”
    The social worker and the trustees of the Lyman School agreed with Charlotte’s self-assessment. On October 26, 1944, Albert was paroled.
    He was thrilled to be back at home. He resumed his job as a florist’s delivery boy, and attended classes regularly at Williams. His first report card in 1945 was a very good one. He was enthusiastic about sports. Says Richard DeSalvo: “We used to go an hour or an hour and a half early to school so we could play softball or touch football, depending on the season.”
    All throughout 1945 and half of the following year Albert kept out of trouble. He left his after-school job at the florist’s to take another at the Gold Medal Tonic Company in Chelsea. He joined the Boys’ Town Club and hoped to go to summer camp. He worked for his stepfather Paul (whom Charlotte had indeed married on schedule in August 1945) at Shaffer’s Junk Shop in Chelsea.
    All this success his social worker attributed to a better home life. And it is true that Paul Kinosian, unlike Frank DeSalvo, worked hard to support his new family. But circumstances otherwise were not entirely rosy. Kinosian, according to Richard DeSalvo, was given to bursts of temper he directed at his stepchildren and the daughter he and Charlotte had together. As punishment for disobedience or insolence, Richard