In the summer of 1962, the community of Lynn, Massachusetts, was shaken by the discovery of a beloved resident's death. Helen Blake, a 65-year-old White female, was found in her apartment at 73 Newhall Street on June 30th. The scene that greeted investigators was one of violence and tragedy; she had been sexually molested and strangled with her own nylon stockings.
The brutality of the crime sent a wave of fear through the city and the greater Boston area.
Helen Blake was identified as one of the victims of a serial killer who was terrorizing the region, a man who would come to be known as the Boston Strangler. Her murder was one of a string of similar killings of women of various ages that had begun that June. The victims were all found in their homes, sexually assaulted and strangled with articles of their own clothing.
In the years that followed, a man named Albert DeSalvo confessed to being the Boston Strangler, providing details of the murders, including Helen Blake's. However, no physical evidence ever tied DeSalvo to the crime scenes. While he was imprisoned for a series of unrelated sexual assaults, he was never formally charged with or tried for the murders he claimed to have committed. Consequently, no one was ever arrested for or convicted of the murder of Helen Blake.
DeSalvo himself was stabbed to death in prison in 1973, taking with him any certainty of his role in the killings. The death of Helen Blake, like the other victims attributed to the Boston Strangler, officially remains an unsolved case, leaving a legacy of fear and unanswered questions in the quiet community of Lynn.
