How reliable is hypnosis? It was used in the case of the Boston Strangler– under hypnosis, Albert DeSalvo was able to recall precise details that only the murderer could have known.
Except that DeSalvo probably never was the Boston Strangler. DNA testing has shown decisively that he was not the man who raped and murdered the last known victim of the Boston Strangler, and many experts are now convinced that he probably did not commit any of the murders attributed to the Strangler.
[Update – 2013-07-11]
I just read that a new round of DNA analysis, using a sample from Albert De Salvo’s nephew, proves that he did rape Mary Sullivan (and, therefore, probably murdered her). I am confused, since DNA evidence allegedly cleared him decisively of that particular murder.
In any case, that remains the only case for which there is any real evidence of DeSalvo’s guilt. There is abundant evidence that DeSalvo did not know the details about the other crimes attributed to him, elicited under hypnosis, or that his accounts were inaccurate concerning timing and methods.
Incidentally, DeSalvo’s murder in prison, November 27, 1973, was the 11th in two years at that particular facility.
There was no prison-wide panic.