I know, I know, your going to give this about 3 lines and say the heck with this. Your asking yourself just what the heck does the Boston Strangler have to do with Maine? Is this guy just attempting to piggyback on another famous serial killer, and get his name in the big lights by glorifying a mass murderer?

For those of you who know me, know better. What are my qualifications other then slightly obsessed, and a little off in the head, in a good way? Do I have half an alphabet after the end of my name, that is if I used my real name, and tried to see my name in the big lights. Absolutely not.

If I said, {and I have a habit of making huge unbelievable claims, that have to be completely false, but when called on them, prove to be 100% true}, that starting with a distant relative, who was the last woman to be hung in Massachusetts for murdering her husband, and throwing him down a well and working my way up through the years, including having 2 Great Aunts gunned down in the nearby Searsport, and having another Great Aunt and Uncle in a murder / suicide in the even closer town of Stockton Springs. Full of it you say, read on. How about being able to actually claim cousins being poisoned with arsenic in a church supper, upstate? I may not be a professional, but I think I earned the right to dwell on a Unsolved Murder or 2, try and get some answers to long thought of questions. Who killed Sarah Ware? Who killed Effie Macdonald? Effie Macdonald you ask? Need I say, "read on"?

First off, let me give a little background to just who the heck the Boston Strangler was or might be, is. Starting in 1962 and ending up in 64, 13 women were brutally murdered. 13 murders, the firsts ones were all older women, and the last ones were all younger women. Making it hard to pin it on just one man. The police had no clues, no suspects and no answers. Task forces were formed, sex offenders were rounded up and questioned. But still the murders kept happening.

One man, Albert DeSalvo became the front runner, for strangler suspects. He had made a name for himself in the Boston area as The Measuring Man. A sex offender, that would show up at woman's apartments claiming to be from a modeling agency and take measurements of the woman.

It is then said that DeSalvo progressed to being known as The Green Man. A more violent rapist and thief. Who would break in and rape and rob women. Desalvo went away for this and was released in 1962 just before the first Strangler Murders occurred.

Again DeSalvo was put away for the lesser crimes. Until in a psychiatric ward, he confessed to being the Strangler. In his confession, he detailed every crime scene, how the victims were found and what he did to them.

It is not as well known that DeSalvo had a photographic memory. Anything told to him, or read could be remembered exactly. I don't claim to have all the answers, or even some of them. But from what I have read, it is thought by most of the detectives involved that there was more then one Strangler.

DeSalvo confessed in prison, already up on charges. Was he fed evidence? Did the authorities need to have a murderer to get the Strangler out of the papers and peoples minds? A witness identified the man in the psychiatric ward, that came in with DeSalvo as the man who attacked her. Was DeSalvo fed information by this man, and by confessing, did he get the notoriety he so strived for? History may never know.

DeSalvo was sentenced to life in prison for the other non-Strangler crimes. In 1973 he was stabbed in the heart and died of his wounds. During his stay in prison, he did retract his confession. He was also said, to have been an informer for the prison authorities.

Before he was murdered he wrote this poem:

Here is the story of the Strangler, yet untold,

The man who claims he murdered thirteen women,

young and old.

The elusive Strangler, there he goes,

Where his wanderlust sends him, no one knows

He struck within the light of day,

Leaving not one clue astray.

Young and old, their lips are sealed,

Their secret of death never revealed.

Even though he is sick in mind,

He’s much too clever for the police to find.

To reveal his secret will bring him fame,

But burden his family with unwanted shame.

Today he sits in a prison cell,

Deep inside only a secret he can tell.

People everywhere are still in doubt,

Is the Strangler in prison or roaming about?

Any and all of the above information was obtained from the web, books and articles. In 2001 DeSalvo was exhumed and DNA testing was done, to see if he was the murderer of the last Strangler Victim. The Forensic Scientist virtually ruled out the evidence obtained from those found on the last victim. As for the other 12, if the same evidence was available, how many would point to DeSalvo as the only Strangler?

The last 3 lines in the poem, are what reach out and slap you as they read them. Secret he can tell.....or roaming about.

I for one am quick to mistrust. If he was ruled out on one that he confessed to, why not the others? In the confession, he got the descriptions of the last 2 wrong, but yet still confessed to them? Was there more then one killer? Was there copycat killers? Was DeSalvo a wannabee? My question, what if the killings didn't stop, after DeSalvo confessed?

Okay, so you've made it this far, only by the scruff of your neck. Where am I going with this. Sure the above is a pretty straight forward account of the Strangler, and DeSalvo. Certainly nothing supernatural and for certain nothing to do with Maine.

Overlooking the unconfirmed report that DeSalvo actually went to grade school in Searsport Maine, 10 miles from my home. On March 18, 1965 at the height of the Boston Strangler Murders. Effie MacDonald a chamber maid for the famous Bangor House was brutally raped and strangled to death with her Nylons.

She was a 54 year old woman, divorced for 9 years and lived alone. She was found on the third floor of the Hotel in a room that had been vacant for 2 days. She had last been seen alive at 12 pm, and was found dead at 2:45 pm.

Bangor police were called and they quickly informed Detectives from Boston. The Boston Detectives determined there was enough discrepancies to rule out the Boston Strangler. Even though she was murdered in the exact way as the early Strangler Victims.

Detective I might add, would be under a certain amount of pressure, to not find a new victim with a Suspect on the verge of being caught or in the process of confessing.

Bangor Detectives informed the Bangor Daily that a hundred witnesses were questioned. Also that they narrowed the list of suspects to one, but had no evidence with which to gain a conviction. A description of a man seen in the area, short brown hair, stalky about 5’10 with brown eyes, fit DeSalvo to a tee.

The Murderer of Effie MacDonald was never found, and to this day might still roam the streets of Bangor a free man. 42 years later would put a man of 30 at 72.

Sure I've only been obsessed with this case a little over a month. Doesn't help reading the book by Sebastian Junger, called A Death in Belmont. While I was casting around for a new unsolved murder to work, finding one a little to recent, with family still around. I cast again and came upon Effie MacDonald's murder. Hopefully 42 years later, family and people who knew her, (and of course the suspect) isn't still out there, or upset with my stirring of the fire.

Even today, it is said to be a well known Murder in Bangor. Most of the older generation, still around, still wonders who, and why. The questions that aren't being asked, and I feel should be are: 1. who was the suspect? 2. where was she buried? 3. As with Desalvo and the Sullivan Murder, can DNA be obtained from those involved, or compared to DeSalvo? 4. Where is Effie Buried?  5. Was DeSalvo out on the streets in March of that year?  6. Did the Carpentry Firm that DeSalvo worked for, work on the Bangor House that year? 

Now for the Supernatural part, if you made it this far. The Bangor House is still around, it's a senior apartment place, now. I had storyboarded an attempt to get us in under the guise of finding a place for my co-investigator, that was quickly dismissed. If not me, then can somebody go to the third floor and run an investigation, to see if anyone is willing to talk, EVP wise that is.

A little thin on the Supernatural but how bout this? Effie's last name was MacDonald. Sarah Ware's maiden name was MacDonald. They were both 54 when they were murdered. They both had jobs in the cleaning field. They were both divorced. They both died of neck wounds. Both murders were never solved, and both had 1 suspect that stood out. Both were said to not have a enemy in the world. Supernatural much?

Was the Bangor Strangling connected?  Did DeSalvo do it, or was he the copycat?  Did the countless of murders over the last 40 years have any connection?  Did the copycat, continue DeSalvo's work only to be hushed up by authorities?