In the spring of 1963, Beverly Samans, a 23-year-old female graduate student at Boston University, was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A talented mezzo-soprano and a graduate of the New England Conservatory, she was pursuing a career in music therapy while also preparing for an audition with the Metropolitan Opera. Beyond her studies, Samans was dedicated to helping others, working with children at the Fernald State School and undertaking her clinical practicum at Medfield State Hospital.
Her compassionate nature extended to allowing some of her former students, who had been released from institutional care, to visit her at her apartment.
Concerns for Beverly's welfare arose when she failed to attend choir practice on the evening of Wednesday, May 8, 1963. A friend, entrusted with a key to her apartment at 4 University Road, went to check on her. Upon opening the door, a grim scene was revealed. Beverly's body was discovered on a sofa bed. Her hands had been bound behind her back with one of her own scarves. A nylon stocking and two handkerchiefs were tied around her neck, and another piece of cloth was covering a second cloth that had been stuffed into her mouth.
An autopsy would later reveal the full horror of the attack. While it initially appeared she had been strangled, the cause of death was determined to be four stab wounds to her throat. In total, she had been stabbed 22 times, with 18 of the wounds forming a disturbing bull's-eye pattern on her left breast. Investigators speculated that her well-developed vocal muscles might have made strangulation difficult for her attacker. The bloody knife used in the murder was found in her kitchen sink. There was no evidence of sexual assault. It was estimated that she had been deceased for approximately 48 to 72 hours, placing her time of death sometime between the late evening of Sunday, May 5th, and the morning of Monday, May 6th.
The murder of Beverly Samans was one of a series of brutal killings that terrorized the Boston area in the early 1960s, attributed to a serial killer dubbed the "Boston Strangler." A man named Daniel Pennacchio was initially arrested in connection with her death, but a judge did not press charges. Later, a career criminal named Albert DeSalvo, who was already incarcerated for other offenses, confessed to being the Boston Strangler, providing details of Beverly's murder among others. However, there have always been doubts about whether DeSalvo acted alone, or if he was even responsible for all the murders he confessed to. Despite his detailed confession, some inconsistencies were noted, such as his claim of using a switchblade and discarding it, while the murder weapon was found at the scene. DeSalvo was never formally charged with Beverly Samans' murder and was later killed in prison. The investigation into her death, and the broader Boston Strangler case, has remained a subject of public fascination and debate for decades.
