Boston Strangler, The (1968) Movie Script
[CHEERING]
TV ANNOUNCER:
This is John Cameron Swayze in Boston.
A turnout of Bostonians unsurpassed
in numbers and enthusiasm...
...roars its welcome for Al Shepard
followed by Gus Grissom...
...sharing the popular tribute with their
fellow astronauts of Project Mercury.
There's Johnny Glenn.
Joy in this usually reserved city
of Boston is unconfined.
Recognizing Glenn's
morale-boosting feat...
...that proved three men will have their
say in space when the chips are down.
There's a pandemonium of pride as the
Mercury astronaut arrives at City Hall...
...to be welcomed by the mayor
and other privileged dignitaries...
...a moment long to be remembered
by all who witness this stirring event.
Leaving the municipal center,
the tempo is stepped up...
...and the triumphal motorcade
is cheered by additional city multitudes.
At the Hilton, where the luncheon
in honor of Glenn...
...and his astronaut associates
will be held...
...a thousand notables are seated
to supplement the public tribute...
...as Boston toasts another "well done"
for Al Shepard and Johnny Glenn.
[SIREN WAILS]
Come in. We're all finished.
- How long has she been dead?
- Four or five hours.
Rape?
There's no semen,
but she's been mauled and bitten.
[PIANO PLAYING]
All these taxes, and they still
can't deliver the mail on time.
They're too busy
blowing everything up with money.
Well, I heard on TV that
they're cleaning up some African jungle.
Imagine, with parts of Boston
the way they look.
I guess Mara's stuck at the hospital
with another case.
No, she's home.
I heard her take the milk in.
Did I ever tell you, when I was nursing,
about Mr. Peavis?
- He was from Worcester, and I...
- You told me.
If... If she was home,
she'd come out and get her mail.
Mr. Harris, did you see Mrs. Edwards
go out this morning?
Nope.
The only thing he ever hears
is the racetrack reports.
Maybe she's sick.
You know she gets
those terrible migraines.
[DOORBELL BUZZES]
Mara? Are you there?
EDNA: She wouldn't leave her door open.
Mr. Harris!
Mr. Harris!
Usually in a homicide
where nothing's stolen...
...it's a personal enmity,
a grudge killing.
Two cases of personal enmity
against two harmless old ladies...
...in the same neighborhood in one week?
Come on, captain.
Looks like a nut's loose.
Nuts don't ransack apartments.
Nothing was stolen. Was there?
Oh, let him have his story.
Maybe the nut was looking
for something imaginary.
- Uh-huh. Like what?
- SOSHNICK: How do I know?
A fire engine he thinks
someone stole from him...
...when he was 3.
Don't you watch television?
You know what that's called?
Double-square knot. Surgeon's knot.
Not a very commonly used knot, is it?
So the women were strangled
with a double-square knot.
What are you trying to tell us,
that it was a doctor or an Eagle Scout?
Okay.
What about the sex?
What did he actually do to them?
- What's the difference?
- People like to read about it.
Let them read paperbacks. We
withhold till we check out confessions.
- Do you have any?
- We have a group we rely on...
...to confess to any homicide
committed in greater Boston.
I'll see you later.
Thanks, captain. Gentlemen.
Teletype from the Lynn Police.
They found a 68-year-old retired nurse
by the name of Louise Penny...
...strangled.
Was she raped?
With a wine bottle.
We've got a full-blown maniac
on our hands.
I've got him all set up for you.
Now, this regular, the one in the bar,
his name's Arnie Carr, isn't straight.
I don't have any real straight ones,
but he is special.
DINATALE: How special?
Well, what he does is...
...he talks the whole thing in dirty
words, you know, until he's ready.
DINATALE: That's not so unusual.
You're telling me.
But when he's ready, nothing happens...
...until he gets his hands on my throat
and squeezes.
- That's 20 bucks I gave you!
- Well, all right. Just wait a minute.
Saturday, when that nurse got it,
he was supposed to come around.
He didn't show.
And before, the day Mrs. Hodak
was killed, the same thing.
Now, that's never happened before.
He's never broken an appointment.
He's always exactly on the button.
He's the kind.
I'll try and talk to him.
Is he smart enough to know
he doesn't have to?
Hm. He's married. He's scared to death.
Mr. Carr, I'm Det. DiNatale.
I have some questions for you.
Questions?
Know a girl named Cloe?
- I don't know any hookers.
- I didn't say she was a hooker.
You broke two dates with her last week.
Yeah. Well, I went out of town.
- Where?
- Hyannis, Providence.
- What do you do, Mr. Carr?
- I sell paint.
Can anyone place you
in Providence and Hyannis...
...prove that you were up there?
Well, I don't know. I'd have to think.
Think.
I don't understand why it's so important
if I broke a couple of dates with a girl.
- Is that a crime?
- Adultery is.
I bet your wife would think so.
You leave my wife out of this.
Listen, is the girl
in any kind of trouble?
If you want anything from me,
as long as it's off the record...
...I'll give it to you.
- The girl's not in any trouble.
I want to know why you get turned on
by putting your hands around her throat.
- I don't hurt her.
- Then why do you do it?
I... I don't know.
Do you like to think
about women being frightened?
They know I don't mean it.
You pay them to pretend to be frightened?
They get plenty out of me for it.
Now, you write down for me
where you were...
...and who you talked to
on these two dates.
I want the names, the places
and the time...
...anything that you can remember.
[BUZZES]
- Who is it?
- DESALVO: The plumber.
The owner told me to come over
to look at your sink and your toilet.
- He said you might get new ones.
- They never said anything to me about it.
I don't know about that, lady,
but you're on my list.
I'll phone them.
Maybe you could come back.
I don't know when I'll get back.
But it's okay with me
if you don't want to be bothered.
No. No, it's all right.
So long as you're here, you should look.
[DOOR BUZZES]
Well, you know, you can't be too careful
these days.
COMMISSIONER: Emma Hodak, Mara
Edwards, Louise Penny, Bertha Blum...
...all highly respectable women...
...innocently admitted this deranged man
to their homes.
Allow no strangers to enter your home
under any pretext.
An emergency telephone number, RI2-1818...
...has been established.
This line is open 24 hours a day.
Do not be embarrassed nor afraid
to report any person...
...no matter how insignificant
you may feel your suspicions are.
Thank you.
All right.
I hope you've all got the picture.
Each of you is getting a list
of known sex offenders.
Bring in the people you usually ignore:
peepers, the men's-room queens...
...the exhibitionists, subway jostlers,
the dirty-word specialists.
I know it isn't easy to question habitual
sex offenders and certified nuts...
...but nail them and talk to them.
You don't have to have an ironclad case.
We're not interested
in misdemeanor convictions...
...only homicide suspects.
Now, let's get with this.
If we don't find this man, I'm afraid
this is going to keep happening.
That's it.
- MAN 1: All right. Everybody out!
- MAN 2: Get out of here!
Make a straight line. Get over there.
- Come on. Get out of there.
- MAN 3: Come on. Let's go.
Go on. Get out of here.
Get out of here!
Line up over here! Come on!
- All right, everybody out.
- MAN 4: Let's go.
Make a straight line. Come on, get out.
All right, baby. Come on.
NURSE: I called you 15 minutes ago
and they still aren't here.
I told you before, I'm a nurse.
Three of those women were nurses.
This man has been here
three nights in a row, peeking.
Please. Thank you.
[BUS HORN HONKS]
[GASPS]
[YELLING AND SHOOTING]
MCAFEE: At it again.
All right, pal, let's go.
I love you.
[PHONE RINGS]
Hello?
Is this Mae?
- This is she.
- How are you tonight, Mae?
Oh, it's you. Uh, I'm fine.
- I didn't recognize your voice.
- Why not?
Sergeant, this is Grace Lockwood
at 73 Grove.
We have him on the phone again.
She'll try and hold him
as long as she can.
You'll sit on a chair,
and I'll sit across the room.
You wear panties, Mae?
Sometimes.
What color?
Black.
Knit or solid?
Knit.
Then we'll have a drink, Mae.
What do you drink?
MAE: Martinis.
It's on group two, terminal 94.
I like a sweet drink. Maybe Kahla.
Do you know why, Mae?
MAE: No, why?
Because I got a special way of...
[SIREN WAILS]
I'd rather not say at this time.
There certainly seems to be
a little similarity.
Do the similarities appear to be striking?
Are there more than just one?
Yes. There are several factors involved...
...which appear to be similar
in all of the cases.
NEWSMAN:
This is the Cambridge police chief now.
Chief... Chief, could we talk with you
for a moment? Chief?
- Can you give us anything more on this?
- What else is there?
A 67-year-old nurse has been
sexually assaulted and strangled...
...by a Boston maniac.
Let's pass it around, Dave.
It's the fifth victim.
Two belong to Lawrence and Lynn.
I stand corrected.
This two-fifths Boston maniac.
Anne Nealy is another nurse.
Think it's someone working in a hospital?
Or someone who worked in an
old people's home. They're all old.
Or working in an orchestra.
They all liked music.
Someone in a laundry. They were all clean.
How did he tie the knot? Like the others?
Corroborative evidence.
We're holding it back.
- How did he tie it?
- Double half hitch.
Same as the others?
If there is more than one man operating,
they sure went to the same school.
This is the fifth strangling...
...and the fourth police department
to become involved.
And many of us wonder...
...if perhaps a split in jurisdiction
is less than helpful.
Is there a central file where
all investigating offices can consult?
And can detectives from one city
cross into the lines of another at will...
...to pursue investigations?
The answers to these
and other relevant questions...
...is an unhappy no.
[BELL RINGING]
NEWSCASTER: How do you feel
about the Boston Strangler?
WOMAN 1: I feel a little bit nervous.
I've been reading the papers and...
- NEWSCASTER: A lot of apprehension?
- WOMAN 1: A little. Yes.
- NEWSCASTER: How about the evening?
- WOMAN 1: I take every precaution.
No, after 9:00, I'm pretty close to home.
WOMAN 2: Well, I really think
that we should be well protected...
...and have our doors locked, everyone.
WOMAN 3: I make sure that I'm home
early, you know. So I close the doors.
- NEWSCASTER: If the doorbell rings?
- WOMAN 3: I won't answer it.
NEWSCASTER: You won't answer it?
WOMAN 3:
I answer it, but don't open the door.
Just what they told us to do
about the locks...
...not going out alone at night.
NEWSCASTER:
What is your personal feeling about it?
WOMAN 4: Well, of course I think
he's a sick man in the first place.
I mean, anybody in their right mind
wouldn't do anything like that.
NEWSCASTER:
What precautions are you taking?
WOMAN 4: I don't go out at night.
WOMAN 5:
I think it's a very, very sad situation.
- NEWSCASTER: How about the evening?
- WOMAN 5: I don't go out by myself.
NEWSCASTER:
Are you taking any precautions?
WOMAN 5: Yes, I am.
NEWSCASTER: It's a situation that
makes one very uneasy, is it not?
WOMAN 5: It certainly is.
- NEWSCASTER: We hope they find him.
- WOMAN 5: I hope so.
NEWSCASTER:
The police, are they doing their utmost?
- WOMAN 6: Oh, yeah.
- NEWSCASTER: Thank you very much.
It looks like she's been dead
for at least 24 hours.
Any rape?
KRAMER: No, but she's been mauled
just like the others.
And mutilated with this,
stabbed through the heart.
- I don't think she let him in this time.
- How do you know?
Burglar's tool.
He must have used it to slip the lock.
We found it under the body.
You know, that was beginning
to get to me...
...the way they let him in.
They're all scared,
but they still open their doors.
- Nobody thinks it'll happen to them.
- They don't want to get strangled.
KRAMER: That's not exactly
what they have in mind.
Old ladies in Boston?
In Boston.
Think what it must be like in New York.
BOTTOMLY:
"Taxation through payroll deduction...
...compulsory arbitration
of labor disputes...
...confiscatory taxation itself.
Yet, in the area of condemnation
of private property for public use...
...in the egalitarian tradition...
...of the greatest good
for the greatest number...
...the present administration
found widespread public resistance...
...vindictive and sometimes violent.
Today, under the leadership
of Attorney General Brooke...
...the very mention of eminent domain
no longer produces sentiments...
...in the most conservative citizens
verging on anarchy.
As his captain,
I've had the honor of working with him...
...to break the backlog in the courts
of land-damage cases...
...and to help persuade..."
- BROOKE: You're doing this on radio?
- Yes. What's wrong with it?
- Well, it's scholarly.
- I was trying to popularize it.
- What time do you go on, Jack?
- 8 a.m.
BROOKE: 8 a.m.?
Well, it might make
a nice valedictory address for you.
- Am I going somewhere?
- No, I want you right here.
Just an added bit to your duties,
that's all.
What added bit? I like eminent domain.
I know you do.
It's legal and technical
and orderly and remote.
- What have you got in mind for me?
- The stranglings.
- I beg your pardon?
- Oh, come on, Jack.
You must have some contact
with the everyday world.
- You do read the newspapers.
- Only the editorial pages.
- Don't you look at television?
- BOTTOMLY: Can't. It hurts my eyes.
Do you know I actually see that
electronic beam scanning the tube?
- What about the stranglings?
- They keep happening.
Of course, compulsive homicide,
inner-motivated.
- You only catch them by fluke.
- Not good enough.
Fortunately, you have four police
departments to absorb public criticism.
- Commonwealth can stay out of it.
- I don't intend for that.
There's an absolutely urgent need
to coordinate the investigations.
We've got to do it.
But what part do you want me to play
in this, Ed?
I want you to coordinate the
investigations for the commonwealth.
Set up a Strangler Bureau.
No.
This is not a favor I'm asking...
...and the budget hasn't any money
to pay you for it, but...
...I'm putting it to you as I see it:
public service.
BOTTOMLY: I teach law. I write about law.
My practice has almost disappeared
while I've been working with you.
That's my public service.
I'm not even remotely qualified for this.
You have one of the best minds I know.
You're highly respected.
You're a uniquely competent administrator.
In spite of that scholarly pose,
you're tough enough.
Forgetting all that,
I'm against it on principle.
- You want the stranglings to go on?
- That's not fair.
I don't want to throw out the baby
with the bath.
The more centralized police authority
becomes, the less I like it.
- Spoken like a scholar.
- Which is what I hope I am.
God sits on your shoulder, doesn't he?
That's a regional and ethnic disability
I inherit from my ancestors.
Well, shall we have some more tea?
- BETTY: It's so cold outside.
- CONNIE: It sure is.
BETTY: My hands are frozen.
I can hardly move my fingers.
CONNIE: I just hope it doesn't snow again.
I hope not either. Ruin the weekend.
That'll probably be ruined anyway.
I can't reach my keys. Are yours handy?
Yes, I have them in my pocket someplace.
Boy, these packages are heavy.
She's got it double-locked again.
She must have stepped out
to get the steak.
That butcher likes her.
I can understand
while she's in the house...
...but when she goes
for the mail or the garbage?
He's only interested in old ladies anyway.
NEWSCASTER:
The Strangler's seventh victim...
...Liza Gordon, was young,
unlike the others, who were old...
...Negro, unlike the others,
who were white...
...and living with two other girls...
...unlike the others, who lived alone.
From now on, no woman in greater Boston...
...regardless of who she is
or how she lives, can feel secure.
Let's go to the statehouse,
where Mr. John Bottomly...
...head of the newly-created
Strangler Bureau...
...is setting up headquarters.
Mr. Bottomly? How are you, sir?
Hello there, Mr. Dreier.
Mr. Bottomly, at this early stage
of the investigation...
...what will your first steps be?
Yes. Our first job is to copy the files
of each of the homicides...
...in each of the police departments
involved...
...Boston, Cambridge, Lynn,
Lawrence and Salem...
...and reconstruct them in master files
in these books here.
NEWSCASTER: I see.
Mr. Bottomly...
Mr. Bottomly, is there any significance
to the fact...
...that half of that bulletin board
is empty?
A medical psychiatric board is
one of three divisions of this operation.
I've talked informally with its members.
And they feel chances are these killings
will continue until we find our man.
There's talk of finding
these demented people...
...and treating them before they
get to the point of killing.
- Now, do you have an opinion on that?
- A lot of talk is exactly what it is.
What more can you expect from
a society that itself spends 44%...
...of its tax dollar on killing?
- Anything else?
- Yes. Why did you take this on?
I was ordered to by my employer,
the attorney general.
- NEWSCASTER: Ordered to, Mr. Bottomly?
- Don't you find that credible?
If you say so.
I'll amend it.
He challenged me and I was sucked in.
- NEWSCASTER: Thank you very much.
- Right.
Elsewhere in the nation on this day...
Miss Ridgeway owns the house
and rents rooms. Yankee family.
She lives with a lady, Alice Oakville.
They're married to each other.
The pigeon is a tenant named
Terence Huntley. He's a faggot.
I can't wait.
Good morning. I'm Det. DiNatale.
Detective, I'm simply delighted
to meet you.
And this is Sgt. McAfee.
And this is my good friend, Miss Oakville.
I'm not going to tell you anything first.
I want this to have the same effect
it had on me.
Alice, what did I say to you
the day Mr. Huntley hung that painting?
You said, "Alice, look at that.
You mark my words.
The next woman he strangles
is going to be a Negress."
That was the day before Liza Gordon
was strangled.
Did you have any reason to be suspicious
of Mr. Huntley previously?
Alice, tell the detective about seeing
Mr. Huntley on Gainsborough Street...
...where Mrs. Hodak lived.
I met him on Gainsborough Street...
...just three days before Mrs. Hodak
was strangled.
He was just staring into store windows
at those junk shops.
Isn't he an antique dealer?
What's that got to do with it?
Do all antique dealers
collect books like this?
The Collected Works
of the Marquis de Sade.
This and four others about Thuggees.
I'm sure you understand
the significance of that.
Absolutely.
What's a Thuggee and who is de Sade?
Thuggees are a sect of Indian ritual
murderers who strangle their victims.
The word "sadism"
comes from the Marquis de Sade.
All Terence Huntley is interested in
is strangling and torture.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I've seen some put-ons,
but that one's carrying it too far.
She's coming this way.
- Are you Terence Huntley?
- I am.
John Bottomly. We've been
having trouble contacting you.
- I heard you were trying to reach me.
- The Bottomly in the Strangler Bureau?
That's right.
Terry, you hound. You've been
hiding your lamp under a blanket.
Bushel.
This is Cedric Ewing, Harold Robin.
- Very happy to meet you, Mr. Bottomly.
- How are you?
And very impressed.
Excuse us, we have a date
with a gunnery sergeant.
Why didn't you answer my calls?
I didn't know who you were until just now.
I never answer calls
unless I know the people.
Why not?
Because I'm too vulnerable.
If you're rich and gay...
...people continually harass
and blackmail you.
BOTTOMLY: Have you any idea
why I want to talk to you?
Whenever there are unsolved sex crimes,
the police crack down on us.
I think it's ridiculous.
Be that as it may, we have an informant
who insists you're the Strangler.
Oh, my God. Miss Ridgeway.
Do you protect stoolies
even in this exotic atmosphere?
Every suspect has to be checked out.
I thought you'd prefer me to a detective.
The old school tie.
Or is it that you're really a little curious
about us?
Let's say I'm slumming.
I didn't think that you'd make a remark
like that.
I was rude. I'm sorry.
I believe you are.
What did you want to ask me?
Have you any business
on Gainsborough Street?
Oh, the flower.
I beg your pardon?
The one that plays the girl's role
is the flower. Alice Oakville.
Yes, she saw me on Gainsborough Street.
I buy things from secondhand shops there.
Here are the dates and times
of the seven stranglings.
List, as well as you remember,
where you were in each instance.
Send it to me at the statehouse.
You know that Miss Ridgeway
is a rejected lover?
I don't, frankly.
We were lovers. I broke it off.
She is a woman scorned.
Apparently, things aren't as upside down
as they seem.
I'm sorry to disappoint you.
She played the man's part, I the woman.
- [FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
- [DOOR CLOSES]
There was nothing I could say,
so I didn't say anything.
- See you after the credit-union meeting.
- BOBBIE: No, you get some sleep.
As a matter of fact, we both should.
- I'll see you tomorrow night at the plant.
- Okay.
- BOBBIE: Good night.
- LLOYD: Good night, sweet.
[DOORBELL BUZZES]
Now, Lloyd, I told...
[SCREAMING]
[BRAKES SCREECHING]
BOTTOMLY: Hello, Luis.
Has your attorney explained to you that
you don't have to answer our questions?
I don't mind answering
intelligent questions.
- What were you doing with this?
- Saving it.
Anyone who strangles a woman
can't be all bad.
Stop it, David.
- And this?
- I'm sick, you know.
More likely drunk. How much have you had?
That's what they teach in the academy:
Catch them off guard
with irrelevant questions.
DINATALE: Where did you buy this?
Also irrelevant.
Immaterial and incompetent.
What are you made up for, David? You
wouldn't be playing Othello, would you?
Bravo. Intellectual civil servant.
I am Othello.
Othello strangled his wife
because she was unfaithful to him.
Mine wouldn't have had time. We were
only married yesterday morning.
Then you would've had time for number
eight. She was killed in the afternoon.
Ah. Marry in the morning,
murder in the afternoon.
Of course. Sheer omnipotence.
You've been looking at my case history.
They say I have...
...mess... Mess... Messianic delusion.
- Do you think you have?
- Leave the matter of your sanity...
...to the doctors, David.
Are you prepared to charge him?
They're prepared to go on
in hope that I'm gonna spill something.
Don't you know desperate men
when you see them?
Jack?
- We'll hold him.
- For having a newspaper clipping on me?
Oh, don't be ridiculous.
For carrying a concealed weapon.
Also, assault and battery on your wife.
My wife won't charge me.
You want to bet?
BOTTOMLY: Ready for you, Mrs. Parker.
[YELLING AND SCREAMING]
Police brutality.
We don't do that anymore.
I'm sorry.
[KNOCKING]
- Who is it?
- BRUMLEY: It's me, Col. Brumley.
Oh, hi.
Well, um...
You're even prettier than I remember
from that party, Dana.
It's funny,
I can't seem to remember that party...
...but I do remember you.
Give me your coat.
There are so many parties
on Beacon Hill, aren't there?
It's just like one big sorority house,
isn't it?
Just like a big sorority house.
Will you have a drink, colonel?
Call me Lyonel. And Coca-Cola, please.
It's malaria, you know, from the Pacific.
It's doctor's orders.
Most of the doctors I know are
half-gassed by 5:00.
You have a lot of physician friends?
You're kidding.
Didn't I tell you I was a nurse?
I don't think so.
I'm attracted to nurses. They...
...have a nice sense of, um...
...reality.
My, you are a trim one.
What's that?
That's a gun, colonel.
You see, I'm a policewoman too.
Julian!
This is Lt. Soshnick and Sgt. McAfee.
In that case, I would like the drink.
So this is the famous Col. Brumley, huh?
My, my, my,
what a time we've had finding you.
Do you think he looks like a colonel?
I am not really a colonel, you know.
Wholesale groceries, isn't it?
Well, he doesn't look like a colonel...
...but he sure doesn't look like
a pickle salesman either.
Produce.
Lyonel, do you know that
impersonating an officer is a crime?
- Not if you don't wear the uniform.
- He may be right.
How do you find them?
Um, in the phone directory.
Or, uh, if they're pretty, like Dana,
I follow them home.
How long has this been going on?
About, um, six months.
One of the ladies says
you have a little black book.
Oh.
You have been a busy little beaver,
haven't you?
Gainsborough Street, Park Drive, Salem.
Mention any one of the neighborhoods,
he's been there.
How many names have you got in here?
About 500.
How many have you scored with?
At least two-thirds.
- In six months?!
- Uh-huh.
You have any idea why you do this?
Just sort of a hobby.
You know what gets me...
...is here is a city with the women in it
supposedly terrified of the Strangler...
...and this pickle salesman,
a total stranger...
...talks his way into their beds
without any trouble at all.
I wouldn't say that.
- He could've killed any of them.
- Maybe he did.
- I couldn't kill anything.
- We'll check you out.
Check him out, hell.
Find out what kind of diet he's on...
...and have it mimeographed
for the rest of us.
It's done. Better wake June up.
MARY: June?
June?
[SIREN WAILS]
Mr. Bottomly, would you like to make
a statement now?
No, I'm sorry. No comment.
Mr. Bottomly, this is the ninth victim.
Your office must have something to say.
- The same m.o.?
- WILLIS: The same.
My God, you'd think after eight of them
they'd stop opening the door.
June Williams, 19.
What do we tell the press?
We ought to tell them the way it is.
Horrify them
into keeping their doors closed.
I don't want the press to find out
about the broom business.
The only one who will know, outside
of us, has to be the Strangler.
He won't be in for a few minutes.
We've got time for a sandwich.
Yeah.
I've got to tell you,
I thought you were kidding about this.
I haven't found anything to kid about
since I left eminent domain.
But what the hell is ESP?
Extrasensory perception.
Seeing and hearing things that
have happened without being there.
Sort of like a delayed mental telepathy.
I don't believe
in ordinary mental telepathy.
Science takes it seriously.
I've checked Hurkos.
He's helped police around the world,
from Miami to Scotland Yard.
There are facts.
Coincidences. They could have got the
same thing by opening a fortune cookie.
We've got nine dead women...
...and every suspect and every clue
that 2600 police have come up with...
...has exploded in our faces.
Where's the money coming from?
The commonwealth can't be
springing for this.
BOTTOMLY: No, a rich friend
of the attorney general's paying Hurkos.
DINATALE: Rich and eccentric.
Look, I'd read the entrails of a crow
on the statehouse steps...
...if I thought we'd come up with
one lousy little clue.
This Mr. Chiari
has a cottage in Rockport...
...and Bobbie Eden was in Rockport
the night before she was killed.
- Does any of that check out?
- Absolutely.
Listen to the rest of it:
"I prayed for a sign that I was right
in accusing Mr. Chiari...
...and last night it came.
I woke up, and a blue ball of fire
was flying through my room...
...writing the name Chiari
on the ceiling."
Anything else?
This came in yesterday
from a Catholic nursing school.
They got it from a Eugene T. O'Rourke.
"My reason for writing
is to say that I'm a bachelor...
...and I would appreciate it
if you could suggest a nurse...
...who might like me
as much as I'd like her...
...and if so, we could begin a friendship
that might lead to the altar."
- Pathetic.
- Very sad.
Except...
...he's been fired from a ladies'
shoe store for groping a customer.
His landlady says he sleeps on
bed springs without a mattress.
Just the springs?
Some order of French Trappist monks
where he was living...
...threw him out for acting like a nut...
...trying to torture himself,
washing in the toilet, that kind of thing.
He's had shock therapy.
Spend some more time on him.
Which one is the swami?
Texas character is a bodyguard.
BOTTOMLY: I'm John Bottomly.
- Hurkos.
- Dick Matheson.
- Det. DiNatale.
- Everyone say Peter to me.
If you all don't mind,
I'd like to see your IDs.
No reporters, huh? How you manage that?
BOTTOMLY: All we had to do was
get every newspaper, radio network...
...TV station and international wire
service to look the other way.
That's why we brought you into Providence.
If Peter strike out, public don't know.
- Nobody yell "big fake," right?
- BOTTOMLY: Right.
Right this way.
Is this the way you want them?
Each pile covers one of the killings.
You got the ladies' stockings,
panties, bras, that stuff?
On the way.
Okay, we start on pictures?
All yours.
Tricks you play, huh?
This one phony-baloney. This not belong.
You show Peter up?
Now we try real one, eh?
This top one is house,
house where murder take place.
Underneath is dead woman.
Like this.
Pretty good, eh?
[KNOCKING]
- BOTTOMLY: It's all right.
- Sorry I'm late. Car wouldn't start.
This is Sgt. Phil Lisi.
- Phil.
- Hello.
You're not late because of car.
I tell you what happen.
You phone girlfriend.
"I can't come over this morning.
I've got to see this nut, Hurkos."
She say, "Come over for one cup coffee."
Right, Phil?
So you go there.
She bend over to get coffee...
...you grab her, push her on
kitchen table and zoink!
Then you come here.
That's why you're late, right?
- You're a dangerous man, Peter.
- I tell truth, what I see.
Hey, Phil, open that.
Let Peter see ladies' things.
Don't take so big, Phil.
Maybe half men in room
have girl on way to work.
Maybe Hurkos big fake, huh?
I see him.
Not too big.
Five feet six, seven...
...130, maybe 40, pounds.
He... He not sleep in bed.
He is on floor. No, no, no.
On mattress. No, no.
Just on springs, sleep on springs.
He loves handbags.
I see handbags, women's handbags.
Lots of handbags.
He use them for sex.
But it make... Make him feel bad,
not good.
He...
I need map. Boston, quick.
He live here.
Cambridge.
This man priest.
No, no, no, not priest,
but live with priest.
Dress like priest.
Priest, they... They care,
but he... he hurt himself.
He make dirty, he wash hands in toilet.
They throw him out. They...
[GRUNTS]
I stop now.
[PHONE RINGS]
SOSHNICK: Soshnick.
We need a search warrant
for a Eugene T. O'Rourke.
Here's a letter O'Rourke wrote...
...and these are my notes
after I checked him out.
Twenty-three-year-old girl in Cambridge.
- That's number 10.
- O'Rourke lives in Cambridge.
I got something, eh?
You got something.
Hey, look at this.
Strangler's knot.
Yeah. That would be one way
to tie them, wouldn't it?
Don't fight it too hard, Julian.
BOTTOMLY:
I don't recognize these floor plans, but...
...crosses have been placed
just about where the bodies were found.
It would be absolute insanity if the way
we got to break this was Peter Hurkos.
God, look at this book of yoga exercises.
Four, five, six, seven...
...eight, nine, 10 bodies!
What else do you want,
an invitation to the 11 Th?
Eugene T. O'Rourke.
Do you know an attorney?
Uh, my brother is a lawyer,
but he won't talk to me.
We'll get you one, if you want one.
It's your right.
It isn't a lawyer I need, I'm afraid.
I can't remember when I wasn't like this.
I...
I, uh...
Go on.
I can't. I can't.
I thought I could, but I can't.
I should be put away.
You know they gave me shock therapy?
You know they made me leave the monastery?
Why did they make you leave?
You don't know what it's like.
I know you've looked at everything here.
You looked in the closet.
You saw the handbags.
That's what I think of.
That's all I think of.
I know I'm unclean.
I wash in dirt...
...to punish myself.
I do other things too,
terrible, disgusting things.
What do these X's mean?
I took a correspondence course in art...
...and I had to put the X's down to see
where I'd have to do it over again.
Why did you blot out 10 of these women?
I didn't like those pictures.
Why do you have all those things
knotted together?
I'm collecting them
for Our Lady of Victories.
Where did you buy this?
- Oh, that's not mine.
- DINATLE: No, you lost it.
Where did you buy it?
What are you saying?
I never saw that before.
Listen, Eugene, we know all about you.
Everything.
Now, God wants you to tell us the truth.
God knows how you've been hurt,
and he wants you to tell us the truth.
God wants your salvation
as much as you do.
Now, tell us the truth.
But I'm trying.
This is very hard for me.
- It's a terrible, dirty thing...
- No, not about the handbags, Eugene.
But about what?
Start at the beginning.
How did you kill that first old lady,
Mrs. Hodak?
How did you get into her apartment?
You can't feel any worse
than you feel now.
You'll feel better.
Oh, you think that I...?
That I...?
Oh, I thought you wanted to help me!
We do want to help you.
Go away.
I never hurt anything in my life...
...except myself.
If I arrange it,
will you commit yourself to a hospital...
...so you can be helped?
No.
You don't really want to.
You're just tricking me.
BOTTOMLY: Under Massachusetts law,
Mr. O'Rourke...
...any doctor can commit you...
...for 10 days' observation
without your permission.
I can't stop you
if that's what you want to do.
We'll give Mr. O'Rourke
a chance to think things over.
- On your feet, Eugene.
- What are you doing?
- You said we should have him commit...
- I said a doctor can commit him.
We'll find one at Boston City.
He doesn't want to go.
The papers will be signed right here.
- But if we start now, we can get him in...
- You'll get what?
I'm developing my own ESP.
We've made a beautiful landing
at a wrong airport.
Phone in, get the doctor here.
You can come in now. We're all finished.
She was a student. Psychology.
Worked part-time in a hospital.
- Was she raped?
- The doc said no.
That's our man again for sure.
Everything locked from the inside,
Strangler's knot, no actual rape.
Stab wounds in a perfect circle
around the breast...
...and then a bull's-eye.
This kind of mutilation goes
with the queer.
Look at this.
She was doing her master's thesis.
Factors Pertaining to the Etiology
of Male Homosexuality.
She knew him. She let him in.
He sat in this chair talking to her.
These look like soot marks.
He must have brought it in on his shoes.
Did she have a boyfriend?
Three, but two of them are faggots.
We think the other one was banging her.
So what? Everyone's banging everybody.
It's a horny world.
Shake them down, you'll probably find
all three have good, solid alibis.
No, no. This is our man.
She let him in, all right,
but she didn't know him.
He's probably not a homosexual.
If we don't find him fast,
we'll all be riding three-wheel bikes...
...and emptying parking meters.
TV ANNOUNCER:
Thus was the life and the death...
...of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Leaders of a hundred nations
come in tribute:
De Gaulle of France...
...Prince Philip of Great Britain...
...Erhard of Germany...
...the great among men.
A gathering such as this
has never been seen...
- JUDY: Can't have it.
- ...in America.
- MICHAEL: Yes, I can.
- No, you can't.
- Yes, I can.
- No, you can't.
Oh, shh, shh, shh. Be quiet, Michael.
Don't be sad, Daddy.
Come here.
A riderless horse, stirrups backward
for the fallen chieftain.
- DESALVO: Irmgard...
- I just can't believe he's dead.
I can't either.
I'm going to check out the furnace.
I left when it happened.
Now, Al?
I might as well.
I want to get some air anyway.
Try to be back by 6:00.
Dinner will be ready.
Okay. See you later.
Kennedy's coffin,
borne on the same caisson...
...which carried the body
of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
It is a day of national mourning
in his own land.
It is a day when men around the world...
...wonder how this thing so needless
could have happened.
Men wonder...
...and find no answer.
They can only pause in silence
to mourn his passing.
- DESALVO: Hi.
- Yes?
Um, super sent me to check your bathroom.
I didn't think anyone was working today.
Yeah, isn't it awful?
But I had this house marked down
for today.
Can't you come back in a day or so?
Well, yeah, I guess so.
Sorry to bother you.
No, wait.
I don't want to miss
getting the bathroom fixed.
It's in there.
DESALVO: Uh-huh.
- Yeah. That looks kind of bad.
- I know. That's what I keep telling them.
DESALVO: Yeah.
Even the tile is falling apart.
[MUFFLED CRYING]
- WOMAN: Who is it?
- Painter.
Owner sent me over to look at your walls.
He didn't say anything to me.
- Well, you're on my list.
- Have the owner phone me you're okay.
If you don't want the work done,
it's all right by me.
All right, come up.
[DOOR BUZZES]
Hey, hey. What are you doing?
- Hey, is that your car?
- Yeah.
Will you do me a big favor and move it?
I got furniture to drop here.
Okay.
[NO BUZZING]
[BUZZES]
Hi. I'm looking for an apartment.
The manager's apartment's
over there, number three.
But there are no vacancies.
DESALVO: Now, don't scream,
and you won't get hurt.
[SOBBING SOFTLY]
[YELLING]
NAGY: Miss Cluny?
Yes?
This is John Bottomly,
who wants to talk to you.
I'm here because the man who attacked
you may be very important to us.
We think the man might have been
the Strangler.
Oh, my God.
You're very lucky to be alive.
What was the last thing you remember
before you woke up in this bed?
I was ironing.
I remember I was ironing
some small things.
I don't like ironing.
You don't remember anything until here?
Um, I remember that I couldn't move.
I kept trying to move and I couldn't.
- What stopped you?
- CLUNY: I don't know.
- It was like I was paralyzed.
- Paralyzed completely? Your whole body?
I don't think so.
I could move from side to side.
I kept trying.
Try to remember why you couldn't move
your hands and feet.
All right.
Miss Cluny...
[ELEVATOR RUNNING]
[MALE VOICE HEARD FAINTLY]
Hey!
Hey!
Hey!
He just broke into my house!
[CAR HORN HONKS]
[SIREN WAILING]
Mr. DeSalvo, your attorney,
Mr. Asgeirsson here...
...tells me you're resisting
his representing you.
I strongly urge you to follow his counsel.
But I don't need an attorney.
I haven't done anything.
How did you get here? You suppose
the officers have nothing to do...
...but go around framing innocent
people? Why should they?
Yeah. That's what I'd like to know.
Why should they?
LEARY: This standard burglar tool was
found on you when you were arrested.
- Do you deny it's yours?
- He admits it's his ruler.
Why shouldn't I admit it?
I bought it in Jordan Marsh.
Next thing I know...
...these cops knocked me down
for no reason at all.
Mr. DeSalvo, these officers, Mr. Taylor
and four other witnesses...
...state that you were pursued for
two blocks before being captured.
I don't care. They're lying.
Nobody chased me anywhere.
I, um... I think there's
a very strong possibility...
...that Mr. DeSalvo is mentally disturbed.
Do you agree?
It's possible.
Mr. DeSalvo, by law...
...you'd have a preliminary hearing
within the next 48 hours.
I don't think you're up to it.
The law provides that you may be
committed to a state institution...
...to determine if and when
you are competent to stand trial.
Boston City Hospital.
I dreamed about rags being torn,
just torn over and over again.
BOTTOMLY:
Were the rags tearing themselves up?
Were they in someone's hands?
No, they were just rags.
- You haven't minded being hypnotized?
- No. It makes me feel rested afterwards.
I'd like to put you under right now
while you're thinking of those rags.
Now, follow my hand with your eyes.
Keep it in focus.
Your eyes are getting tired.
You want to sleep.
You want to go back to your dream
to help us, to see those rags...
...and remember who was tearing them.
I bit his hand.
I can see it. I can taste it.
I bit his hand hard.
- Are you under now?
- No!
NAGY: Can you see beyond the hand,
his face, his body?
No.
Try.
I can't.
You know what I mean?
- But I don't belong here.
- Mm-hm.
- I guess everybody says that, don't they?
- Mm-hm.
You know how I got here?
Uh, some cop knocked me down
outside Jordan Marsh's...
...and they found this ruler on me.
They said it was a burglar's tool.
How do you like that? It was just a ruler.
I use it in my work.
You know, I'd like to be able
to tell this to somebody.
God, I'm afraid to breathe.
CLINICAL RECORD
NAGY: It's fascinating.
DeSalvo's preliminary diagnosis...
...indicates the possibility of
a classic multiple-personality situation.
In such cases, does the patient know
he has two personalities?
No.
You mean he actually doesn't know
what the other part of him is doing?
Well, "the other part of him"
is the wrong phrase.
It's hard to accept, but there are actually
two totally separate personalities.
I mean, literally, actually, two separate
people enclosed in one body.
And they take turns using the body.
[PHONE RINGS]
Excuse me.
Dr. Nagy.
Oh, it's the dispensary.
Thank you.
The wound was a human bite.
He claims he caught it in some machinery.
- DINATALE: He's lying.
- He may not be lying.
If this diagnosis is valid, he wasn't
bitten. The other man was.
One valid definition of sanity is
someone who isn't in an insane asylum.
Where does he work?
Pyne Furnace on Bradford Street.
There was soot on the floor
of Terry Evans' apartment.
It could have come from a furnace.
Check his work record
against the stranglings.
See when he was off work
or on outside jobs.
All right.
Number seven, October 5th...
...Liza Gordon, 215 Huntington Ave.,
Boston.
October 5th.
DeSalvo checked out from a job
at Rollins Place at 2 p.m.
That's 15 blocks from Huntington.
She died at approximately 2:30.
He could have made that easily.
Number eight, October 19th.
Bobbie Eden, 205 Park Dr., Boston.
Time of death, approximately 7:30 p.m.
He had an emergency repair job
a couple of blocks away.
405 Park Dr.
He checked out at 7 p.m.
That's eight out of eight
he was available for.
Number nine, November 1 st.
June Williams, 448 Charles St.
Approximate time of death was noon.
Worked all day in the shop.
Wait. Lunch, 11:30 to 12:45.
Killed her during lunch.
We're not a mile from Charles Street.
Number 10, November 10th.
Terry Evans, 24 Essex St. in Cambridge.
Time of death, approximately 1 p.m.
Worked in repair shop, 10 to 12 noon.
Serviced furnace at 38 Hudson St.,
Cambridge, 3 to 6 p.m.
He had time to squeeze in number 10.
Number 11, November 25th.
Pat Bruner, 4 University Rd., Boston.
November 25? That was the day
of the president's funeral.
Everything was closed.
He was available.
Call the hospital
and put more security on him.
What did you tell the children where I am?
They haven't asked.
What? What do you mean they haven't asked?
- They're only...
- Yeah?
They're only little children.
They accept things.
But...
...don't they miss me?
I talked to Mr. Asgeirsson.
- Why are you talking to him?
- Don't get excited.
Don't get excited?
They tell me he's gonna defend me.
For what?
Albert, I'm just telling you
what he said to me.
You want to know, don't you?
Don't. Don't get angry.
I'm not saying this.
I don't believe anything.
What did he say?
He asked me to try to talk to you.
He...
He thinks you should plead guilty
to housebreaking.
Cut it out!
You, uh...?
You believe them?
Albert, I don't believe anything.
I don't know what's happening.
He said...
...if you admit it,
it won't matter if they find out.
Find out what?
That you are sick.
You believe them, then?
I love you, Albert.
I love you, Irmgard.
Albert's survival depends on his
absolute certainty of his innocence.
If he accepts your interrogating him...
...it'll stir up all the terrible rumblings
going on inside of him.
Isn't that the idea?
To get him to hear those rumblings get
louder and louder until he can't stand it?
Phil's right. He's got to be questioned.
I think you want to question him
because you want to question him.
You got the smell of prey and want
to close in for the kill, just like any cop.
My motivations are my affair.
I wouldn't let you question him...
...if he was charged with the stranglings
and was in jail.
I won't allow it when he's in a hospital
and mentally incompetent.
- You don't care if he's the Strangler?
- Of course.
But I'm here to protect him,
not help send him to the electric chair.
Suppose I find out
without legal risk to Albert?
You can't.
I'm willing to sign a paper guaranteeing
that anything I get out of him...
...will never be used against him
in court.
- What's the point?
- I have to know if he's the Strangler.
We all have to know
so we can breathe again.
You would honor it, but what about
your successor or some gung-ho DA?
You sign for Albert, I sign for the state.
If another prosecutor tries to use any
evidence I get, or even a confession...
...it would be thrown out because
it was deceitfully exacted from Albert.
This is a medical problem,
not a legal one.
You don't appreciate the danger
to Albert as a patient in this hospital.
If you force Albert the family man...
...to acknowledge the existence
of Albert the Strangler...
...he'll go over the edge.
BOTTOMLY: We haven't got one piece
of evidence that can be used in court.
No fingerprints, no witnesses, nothing.
It's the only direction I can take.
He could become catatonic,
hide from himself...
...withdraw totally.
We've got a ward full of them.
Nobody knows where they withdraw to,
but they're not here with the rest of us.
That's quite a responsibility.
It's bad enough if he's guilty, but...
...what if he's innocent
and you push him over the edge?
Would it keep him in here
for the rest of his life?
Almost certainly.
Then it's the next best thing
to a conviction.
Mr. Asgeirsson was to see me.
He told me I don't have to talk to you.
He's right. You don't.
You don't have to talk to me.
And if you do talk, nothing you say
can be used outside this room.
- DESALVO: Bottomly is what you said?
- BOTTOMLY: That's right.
I'm sorry.
He doesn't make me remember anything.
He just looks like anyone else to me.
Look at his hand.
It makes me feel frightened somehow.
But he's still no one I've ever seen.
Is it the best you can do?
I'm sorry.
All right. Thank you for trying.
Do you remember what you did
the day before you were arrested?
Um, I worked.
Is that the day you hurt your hand?
What's my hand got to do with anything?
I'll be absolutely honest with you.
I want to hear what you say happened,
then we'll check what did happen.
If what you remember
is different from the facts...
...I'll assume the doctors are right,
that there's something wrong with you.
Go ahead and check.
I fixed this furnace in South Boston.
A lot of the hot-air pipes were leaking...
...a lot of hot air mixed with raw gas.
And the valve was jammed.
And I couldn't turn it off.
So I tore up some rags to try to...
I, uh...
...tore up some rags...
...to see if I could stop the leaks.
I could smell...
[CLUNY SCREAMING]
BOTTOMLY: What happened then?
DESALVO: I tried to force the valve shut
with my wrench.
I put it on the valve nut...
...and the wrench slipped off.
My hand...
BOTTOMLY: Go on.
What about your hand?
DESALVO: I guess it got caught in the fan.
BOTTOMLY: You guess? Don't you know?
Uh, yeah, I know. I...
I, um, got it caught in the fan.
Look, I'm tired.
Yeah, all right. That's enough for now.
But...
...understand your predicament. If the
hospital releases you, you'll stand trial.
I'm sure you'll be found guilty
of breaking and entering...
...the Taylor apartment even though
it's a miscarriage of justice.
If you don't stand trial, the hospital will
keep you because they think you're sick.
So one way or the other,
you're not going to be free.
Look, I'm not stupid.
Don't you suppose I know that?
What am I supposed to do?
I can't yell anymore.
My wife won't even listen to me.
Listen to me.
That's why I'm here.
Maybe the two of us
can find out what happened.
If I weren't so worried about how to
take care of Irmgard and the children...
...I don't think I would give a damn.
BOTTOMLY: Remember the day the
astronaut, Alan Shepard, came to town?
They had a big parade for him.
Yes. Yes, I remember.
Uh, I think I saw the parade.
Where were you?
Let's see. I think I was in front
of the Statler Hilton Hotel. Right.
Tell me what you saw.
What has that got to do with anything?
We've been through this before, Albert.
I want to check what you remember
about things with the facts.
We have your work record.
We can find out
if what you remember is true.
- Yes, but why would I lie?
- I'm not saying you would lie.
I'm saying if you do lie,
you don't mean to.
I think that may be
how you got yourself in trouble.
Oh.
Well, uh, let's see.
I was standing in front...
...of the Statler Hilton Hotel...
...a little back in the crowd.
[MUSIC PLAYING AND CROWD CHEERING]
I remember...
...I wanted to get home early
that day because...
...I promised Judy I'd fix her dollhouse.
So I left the parade before it was over.
I get in my car.
I wanted to get out of the parking lot
before the crowd broke.
Tell me about Judy's dollhouse.
It was just a kid's dollhouse.
You see, I, uh... I built this...
...kind of playroom in the basement...
...a couple of years before in my house.
And Judy...
...wanted the same thing...
...in her dollhouse.
Kids are...
...funny that way.
You know what I mean?
Was it much of a job?
Um...
Well...
You needed special tools.
Small, small ones.
- Do you feel ill?
- It's just that I can't remember things.
It's very tough.
Of course it is.
We won't do any more today.
Sit down, Albert.
All right.
How are you feeling?
I don't feel so good.
You've been walking and talking
in your sleep.
Yeah, I know.
They've told me, but I don't remember.
I don't remember it.
Do you want me to stop Mr. Bottomly
from seeing you?
I can, at least for a little while.
Let you catch your breath.
No.
It bothers you though, doesn't it?
It's awful.
- NAGY: Then why do you want to go on?
- DESALVO: I don't know.
Can you tell me what the feeling is
when you talk to Mr. Bottomly?
What's it like?
I don't know.
I'm always feeling like...
...something is going to happen
and it never does.
But you like the feeling?
Oh, yeah, I like the feeling.
It's all right.
It's just scary. It's...
...like driving a car too fast.
You know what I mean?
NAGY: When it doesn't happen...
...this something...
...how do you feel?
Well, then I feel lousy,
like the bottom is falling out...
...like everything is going away
and I can't reach it.
You know what I mean?
I mean...
Let me tell you. It...
I remember when I used to go
to confession when I was a kid.
I'd be walking toward the box,
feeling great...
...because I was gonna tell the Father
what I did...
...stealing out of my mother's purse
or something worse.
You know what I mean? I mean, for real.
And then, all of a sudden, I'd lose it.
I mean...
...I could actually...
I could see it coming out of my head,
kind of floating out of the box.
Then it'd be gone,
and I couldn't talk to him.
I'd feel awful,
and that's the way I feel...
...about Mr. Bottomly.
NAGY: But you do feel good...
...when you think you're going to be able
to tell him something, don't you?
But scared.
Well, like...
I suppose it's because I didn't
tell him anything.
Albert, tell me this. What
do you think would happen to you...
...if you found out what this something
is and you told him?
I'd die.
- Morning, Albert.
- Morning.
Let's go back to the day
of the president's funeral.
You remember what you did that day?
- I guess we all remember that day.
- Tell me about it.
What's the point?
I could tell you anything.
You got no facts to check. Pyne Furnace
was closed like everybody else.
What we did on days of crisis, Pearl
Harbor, V-J Day, the assassination...
...tell us a lot about ourselves.
That's a crock. You're not kidding me.
You got something I don't know about.
You've got something I don't know about.
- We're just trying to trade information.
- Suppose I call it off.
You won't do that, Albert.
You're an honest man.
You want to know, don't you?
Will it make me feel better?
Do you promise it'll make me feel better?
Of course it will.
Did you watch TV that day?
Yes.
- Did you feel very badly?
- At first, I didn't believe...
...that he was dead.
But after I knew it really happened,
I felt bad.
- Very, very bad.
- Did you watch it all day?
It seemed the only thing to do...
...to give respect.
BOTTOMLY: You didn't go out?
DESALVO: You're right.
I went out and drove around.
I didn't want to look anymore.
BOTTOMLY: Go on, Albert.
Well, I parked for some reason.
- Did you get out of the car?
- DESALVO: No.
Was there mail that day?
- BOTTOMLY: I think so. Why?
- DESALVO: I remember looking for it.
You looked for the mail when you
went home? Are you sure?
Where else could I look for my mail?
[WOMAN SCREAMING]
[GASPS]
BOTTOMLY: What's the matter?
I... I saw something.
BOTTOMLY: What?
I don't know what it was, but it...
It scared the hell out of me.
BOTTOMLY: What did it look like?
I don't know now. It came in my head
and it's flashed out again.
What's...?
What's happening to me?
BOTTOMLY: Something touched you off.
You're having an anxiety attack.
- Want the doctor?
- No.
I don't need a doctor.
I'll fight it out myself.
I must...
...be losing my marbles.
You're not, Albert.
But you know now there's something wrong.
- Will you admit that to me?
- Yeah.
Yeah, something. All right.
Something.
- Want some?
- MARY: Mm-mm.
What are you doing?
Reading law.
Just law generally?
I've always found it comforting.
Some people read automobile books
or rifle magazines.
MARY: But it isn't working?
Nope.
I think he's about to crack.
I'm glad.
He's suffering.
You don't seem to be
jumping for joy either.
No, but I don't have to face anything
that monstrous about myself.
That monstrous?
What are you facing in yourself
that's just a little bit monstrous?
At this hour of the night,
you look at yourself, and...
...the truth has a way of...
...lying there on the rug in front of you.
I'm enjoying this.
It's a big game on tonight.
Don't like myself for it.
Don't be too hard on yourself.
I know I didn't marry
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.
It's a hell of a thing
to find out at my age...
...you're not what you thought you were.
What time do you have to start on him
in the morning?
Early.
MARY: Then come to bed.
JUDY: Michael punched a boy in the nose.
Michael did that?
What did you tell the boy's mother?
I told her if he couldn't play
with Michael nicely...
...he couldn't come over anymore.
Michael picks fights. I saw him.
Judy, your mother didn't ask you.
Michael still picks fights.
- How are you doing in school?
- Show Daddy your report card.
Hey, not bad.
Thank you. I miss you, Daddy.
When are you going to not be crazy
anymore?
Who said Daddy was crazy?
Michael's friend. His father said
that Daddy was in the crazy place.
How's, uh...?
How's Mr. Pyne?
He said he'd write you. He knows
you couldn't do anything wrong...
...that you must have had some kind
of breakdown.
He's sending your salary anyway.
Wait!
- What's the matter?
- JUDY: You hurt Mommy!
- Where does the kid get ideas like that?
- JUDY: I saw you!
[BUZZES]
- BOTTOMLY: What are you going to do?
- Put him under sedation.
- BOTTOMLY: No, not now.
- You are looking at a sick animal.
BOTTOMLY: So did the women he strangled.
I want him now.
She's against me.
- BOTTOMLY: Why?
- I don't know. I don't know why.
She's afraid of me.
- BOTTOMLY: What did you say to her?
- Nothing.
BOTTOMLY: Did you touch her?
I saw myself touch her.
It popped into my head.
How could she know that?
BOTTOMLY: What popped into your head?
For a second, I...
Well, not... No, no, not really me.
I mean, it was...
Oh, it was...
It was someone inside of me, wanted...
Didn't want her there.
But...
Not me. Not... Not...
I mean, not me. I love Irmgard.
BOTTOMLY: And you saw this other
person, this other you, going for her?
- You told the doctor about this?
- No.
BOTTOMLY: You cut them off, don't you?
Well, I don't... I don't know if I do.
I try to. It...
It, uh...
These things keep popping in and out
of my head, you know.
They don't make sense.
BOTTOMLY: Albert, do you remember
what you did New Year's Eve?
New Year's Day?
Yeah, I watched the Rose Bowl parade
with the kids.
Then we had dinner around 2:00.
We usually...
...eat early on a holiday.
BOTTOMLY: Remember what you did
the day after New Year's Day?
- I worked.
- BOTTOMLY: Where?
On Charles Street. A furnace job.
- BOTTOMLY: What time did you quit?
- Oh, about 3:30 or so.
What did you do then?
Uh...
Then I went home.
- No?
- You sure you went home?
But...
I don't know, man. I don't know.
I don't know what's...
I don't know what's happening to me.
BOTTOMLY: These things you see
that pop into your head...
...now is the time
to make sense out of them.
- DESALVO: I know, but what if...?
- BOTTOMLY: You didn't go home.
DESALVO: Okay.
If you say so.
BOTTOMLY: What did you see
the other day when you felt sick in here?
- I can't.
- BOTTOMLY: You want to know?
You want to feel better?
Face it. What did you see?
Uh...
Mailboxes.
- BOTTOMLY: Yours?
- No.
BOTTOMLY: What else?
- A dark hall.
- BOTTOMLY: What else?
- I can't.
- BOTTOMLY: Come on!
I can't.
- A woman's breasts.
- BOTTOMLY: Whose?
- I don't know. I can't see her face.
- BOTTOMLY: What was she doing?
Her blouse came off in my hand.
BOTTOMLY: Albert, now.
Now is the time, Albert. Go back.
You left the furnace job.
Now what do you do? Think.
Reach out.
No, I can't. Nothing. No.
- BOTTOMLY: You don't want it to come.
- No.
- I'm trying.
- BOTTOMLY: No, you're not. Face it.
Where are you?
What did you do after you left the job?
Come on. Look at it.
Have some guts for once.
I'm, uh...
- I'm going down the street.
- BOTTOMLY: What?
In a car, I'm going down the street.
BOTTOMLY: Where are you going?
Anywhere. I just...
...find a place to park the car.
Right. I parked the car...
...and walked to the house that was there.
Miss McLean? Oh, Miss Williams.
I'm a plumber.
The landlord sent me over
to check a leak in the walls.
Well, I don't know
if I'll be back tomorrow.
Well, okay. Right.
Oh, fine. Great.
Oh, yeah. I can see the leak.
[PANTING]
Now, don't scream.
Nobody's gonna hurt you.
Take those off.
That too.
Turn around.
Turn around and give me your hands.
Uh, I don't want you to scratch me.
All right?
Now...
...lie down. Lie down.
All the way.
[PANTING]
[WHIMPERING]
BOTTOMLY: Albert?
Albert?
Albert?
BOTTOMLY: Albert?
Albert?
Albert?
TV ANNOUNCER:
This is John Cameron Swayze in Boston.
A turnout of Bostonians unsurpassed
in numbers and enthusiasm...
...roars its welcome for Al Shepard
followed by Gus Grissom...
...sharing the popular tribute with their
fellow astronauts of Project Mercury.
There's Johnny Glenn.
Joy in this usually reserved city
of Boston is unconfined.
Recognizing Glenn's
morale-boosting feat...
...that proved three men will have their
say in space when the chips are down.
There's a pandemonium of pride as the
Mercury astronaut arrives at City Hall...
...to be welcomed by the mayor
and other privileged dignitaries...
...a moment long to be remembered
by all who witness this stirring event.
Leaving the municipal center,
the tempo is stepped up...
...and the triumphal motorcade
is cheered by additional city multitudes.
At the Hilton, where the luncheon
in honor of Glenn...
...and his astronaut associates
will be held...
...a thousand notables are seated
to supplement the public tribute...
...as Boston toasts another "well done"
for Al Shepard and Johnny Glenn.
[SIREN WAILS]
Come in. We're all finished.
- How long has she been dead?
- Four or five hours.
Rape?
There's no semen,
but she's been mauled and bitten.
[PIANO PLAYING]
All these taxes, and they still
can't deliver the mail on time.
They're too busy
blowing everything up with money.
Well, I heard on TV that
they're cleaning up some African jungle.
Imagine, with parts of Boston
the way they look.
I guess Mara's stuck at the hospital
with another case.
No, she's home.
I heard her take the milk in.
Did I ever tell you, when I was nursing,
about Mr. Peavis?
- He was from Worcester, and I...
- You told me.
If... If she was home,
she'd come out and get her mail.
Mr. Harris, did you see Mrs. Edwards
go out this morning?
Nope.
The only thing he ever hears
is the racetrack reports.
Maybe she's sick.
You know she gets
those terrible migraines.
[DOORBELL BUZZES]
Mara? Are you there?
EDNA: She wouldn't leave her door open.
Mr. Harris!
Mr. Harris!
Usually in a homicide
where nothing's stolen...
...it's a personal enmity,
a grudge killing.
Two cases of personal enmity
against two harmless old ladies...
...in the same neighborhood in one week?
Come on, captain.
Looks like a nut's loose.
Nuts don't ransack apartments.
Nothing was stolen. Was there?
Oh, let him have his story.
Maybe the nut was looking
for something imaginary.
- Uh-huh. Like what?
- SOSHNICK: How do I know?
A fire engine he thinks
someone stole from him...
...when he was 3.
Don't you watch television?
You know what that's called?
Double-square knot. Surgeon's knot.
Not a very commonly used knot, is it?
So the women were strangled
with a double-square knot.
What are you trying to tell us,
that it was a doctor or an Eagle Scout?
Okay.
What about the sex?
What did he actually do to them?
- What's the difference?
- People like to read about it.
Let them read paperbacks. We
withhold till we check out confessions.
- Do you have any?
- We have a group we rely on...
...to confess to any homicide
committed in greater Boston.
I'll see you later.
Thanks, captain. Gentlemen.
Teletype from the Lynn Police.
They found a 68-year-old retired nurse
by the name of Louise Penny...
...strangled.
Was she raped?
With a wine bottle.
We've got a full-blown maniac
on our hands.
I've got him all set up for you.
Now, this regular, the one in the bar,
his name's Arnie Carr, isn't straight.
I don't have any real straight ones,
but he is special.
DINATALE: How special?
Well, what he does is...
...he talks the whole thing in dirty
words, you know, until he's ready.
DINATALE: That's not so unusual.
You're telling me.
But when he's ready, nothing happens...
...until he gets his hands on my throat
and squeezes.
- That's 20 bucks I gave you!
- Well, all right. Just wait a minute.
Saturday, when that nurse got it,
he was supposed to come around.
He didn't show.
And before, the day Mrs. Hodak
was killed, the same thing.
Now, that's never happened before.
He's never broken an appointment.
He's always exactly on the button.
He's the kind.
I'll try and talk to him.
Is he smart enough to know
he doesn't have to?
Hm. He's married. He's scared to death.
Mr. Carr, I'm Det. DiNatale.
I have some questions for you.
Questions?
Know a girl named Cloe?
- I don't know any hookers.
- I didn't say she was a hooker.
You broke two dates with her last week.
Yeah. Well, I went out of town.
- Where?
- Hyannis, Providence.
- What do you do, Mr. Carr?
- I sell paint.
Can anyone place you
in Providence and Hyannis...
...prove that you were up there?
Well, I don't know. I'd have to think.
Think.
I don't understand why it's so important
if I broke a couple of dates with a girl.
- Is that a crime?
- Adultery is.
I bet your wife would think so.
You leave my wife out of this.
Listen, is the girl
in any kind of trouble?
If you want anything from me,
as long as it's off the record...
...I'll give it to you.
- The girl's not in any trouble.
I want to know why you get turned on
by putting your hands around her throat.
- I don't hurt her.
- Then why do you do it?
I... I don't know.
Do you like to think
about women being frightened?
They know I don't mean it.
You pay them to pretend to be frightened?
They get plenty out of me for it.
Now, you write down for me
where you were...
...and who you talked to
on these two dates.
I want the names, the places
and the time...
...anything that you can remember.
[BUZZES]
- Who is it?
- DESALVO: The plumber.
The owner told me to come over
to look at your sink and your toilet.
- He said you might get new ones.
- They never said anything to me about it.
I don't know about that, lady,
but you're on my list.
I'll phone them.
Maybe you could come back.
I don't know when I'll get back.
But it's okay with me
if you don't want to be bothered.
No. No, it's all right.
So long as you're here, you should look.
[DOOR BUZZES]
Well, you know, you can't be too careful
these days.
COMMISSIONER: Emma Hodak, Mara
Edwards, Louise Penny, Bertha Blum...
...all highly respectable women...
...innocently admitted this deranged man
to their homes.
Allow no strangers to enter your home
under any pretext.
An emergency telephone number, RI2-1818...
...has been established.
This line is open 24 hours a day.
Do not be embarrassed nor afraid
to report any person...
...no matter how insignificant
you may feel your suspicions are.
Thank you.
All right.
I hope you've all got the picture.
Each of you is getting a list
of known sex offenders.
Bring in the people you usually ignore:
peepers, the men's-room queens...
...the exhibitionists, subway jostlers,
the dirty-word specialists.
I know it isn't easy to question habitual
sex offenders and certified nuts...
...but nail them and talk to them.
You don't have to have an ironclad case.
We're not interested
in misdemeanor convictions...
...only homicide suspects.
Now, let's get with this.
If we don't find this man, I'm afraid
this is going to keep happening.
That's it.
- MAN 1: All right. Everybody out!
- MAN 2: Get out of here!
Make a straight line. Get over there.
- Come on. Get out of there.
- MAN 3: Come on. Let's go.
Go on. Get out of here.
Get out of here!
Line up over here! Come on!
- All right, everybody out.
- MAN 4: Let's go.
Make a straight line. Come on, get out.
All right, baby. Come on.
NURSE: I called you 15 minutes ago
and they still aren't here.
I told you before, I'm a nurse.
Three of those women were nurses.
This man has been here
three nights in a row, peeking.
Please. Thank you.
[BUS HORN HONKS]
[GASPS]
[YELLING AND SHOOTING]
MCAFEE: At it again.
All right, pal, let's go.
I love you.
[PHONE RINGS]
Hello?
Is this Mae?
- This is she.
- How are you tonight, Mae?
Oh, it's you. Uh, I'm fine.
- I didn't recognize your voice.
- Why not?
Sergeant, this is Grace Lockwood
at 73 Grove.
We have him on the phone again.
She'll try and hold him
as long as she can.
You'll sit on a chair,
and I'll sit across the room.
You wear panties, Mae?
Sometimes.
What color?
Black.
Knit or solid?
Knit.
Then we'll have a drink, Mae.
What do you drink?
MAE: Martinis.
It's on group two, terminal 94.
I like a sweet drink. Maybe Kahla.
Do you know why, Mae?
MAE: No, why?
Because I got a special way of...
[SIREN WAILS]
I'd rather not say at this time.
There certainly seems to be
a little similarity.
Do the similarities appear to be striking?
Are there more than just one?
Yes. There are several factors involved...
...which appear to be similar
in all of the cases.
NEWSMAN:
This is the Cambridge police chief now.
Chief... Chief, could we talk with you
for a moment? Chief?
- Can you give us anything more on this?
- What else is there?
A 67-year-old nurse has been
sexually assaulted and strangled...
...by a Boston maniac.
Let's pass it around, Dave.
It's the fifth victim.
Two belong to Lawrence and Lynn.
I stand corrected.
This two-fifths Boston maniac.
Anne Nealy is another nurse.
Think it's someone working in a hospital?
Or someone who worked in an
old people's home. They're all old.
Or working in an orchestra.
They all liked music.
Someone in a laundry. They were all clean.
How did he tie the knot? Like the others?
Corroborative evidence.
We're holding it back.
- How did he tie it?
- Double half hitch.
Same as the others?
If there is more than one man operating,
they sure went to the same school.
This is the fifth strangling...
...and the fourth police department
to become involved.
And many of us wonder...
...if perhaps a split in jurisdiction
is less than helpful.
Is there a central file where
all investigating offices can consult?
And can detectives from one city
cross into the lines of another at will...
...to pursue investigations?
The answers to these
and other relevant questions...
...is an unhappy no.
[BELL RINGING]
NEWSCASTER: How do you feel
about the Boston Strangler?
WOMAN 1: I feel a little bit nervous.
I've been reading the papers and...
- NEWSCASTER: A lot of apprehension?
- WOMAN 1: A little. Yes.
- NEWSCASTER: How about the evening?
- WOMAN 1: I take every precaution.
No, after 9:00, I'm pretty close to home.
WOMAN 2: Well, I really think
that we should be well protected...
...and have our doors locked, everyone.
WOMAN 3: I make sure that I'm home
early, you know. So I close the doors.
- NEWSCASTER: If the doorbell rings?
- WOMAN 3: I won't answer it.
NEWSCASTER: You won't answer it?
WOMAN 3:
I answer it, but don't open the door.
Just what they told us to do
about the locks...
...not going out alone at night.
NEWSCASTER:
What is your personal feeling about it?
WOMAN 4: Well, of course I think
he's a sick man in the first place.
I mean, anybody in their right mind
wouldn't do anything like that.
NEWSCASTER:
What precautions are you taking?
WOMAN 4: I don't go out at night.
WOMAN 5:
I think it's a very, very sad situation.
- NEWSCASTER: How about the evening?
- WOMAN 5: I don't go out by myself.
NEWSCASTER:
Are you taking any precautions?
WOMAN 5: Yes, I am.
NEWSCASTER: It's a situation that
makes one very uneasy, is it not?
WOMAN 5: It certainly is.
- NEWSCASTER: We hope they find him.
- WOMAN 5: I hope so.
NEWSCASTER:
The police, are they doing their utmost?
- WOMAN 6: Oh, yeah.
- NEWSCASTER: Thank you very much.
It looks like she's been dead
for at least 24 hours.
Any rape?
KRAMER: No, but she's been mauled
just like the others.
And mutilated with this,
stabbed through the heart.
- I don't think she let him in this time.
- How do you know?
Burglar's tool.
He must have used it to slip the lock.
We found it under the body.
You know, that was beginning
to get to me...
...the way they let him in.
They're all scared,
but they still open their doors.
- Nobody thinks it'll happen to them.
- They don't want to get strangled.
KRAMER: That's not exactly
what they have in mind.
Old ladies in Boston?
In Boston.
Think what it must be like in New York.
BOTTOMLY:
"Taxation through payroll deduction...
...compulsory arbitration
of labor disputes...
...confiscatory taxation itself.
Yet, in the area of condemnation
of private property for public use...
...in the egalitarian tradition...
...of the greatest good
for the greatest number...
...the present administration
found widespread public resistance...
...vindictive and sometimes violent.
Today, under the leadership
of Attorney General Brooke...
...the very mention of eminent domain
no longer produces sentiments...
...in the most conservative citizens
verging on anarchy.
As his captain,
I've had the honor of working with him...
...to break the backlog in the courts
of land-damage cases...
...and to help persuade..."
- BROOKE: You're doing this on radio?
- Yes. What's wrong with it?
- Well, it's scholarly.
- I was trying to popularize it.
- What time do you go on, Jack?
- 8 a.m.
BROOKE: 8 a.m.?
Well, it might make
a nice valedictory address for you.
- Am I going somewhere?
- No, I want you right here.
Just an added bit to your duties,
that's all.
What added bit? I like eminent domain.
I know you do.
It's legal and technical
and orderly and remote.
- What have you got in mind for me?
- The stranglings.
- I beg your pardon?
- Oh, come on, Jack.
You must have some contact
with the everyday world.
- You do read the newspapers.
- Only the editorial pages.
- Don't you look at television?
- BOTTOMLY: Can't. It hurts my eyes.
Do you know I actually see that
electronic beam scanning the tube?
- What about the stranglings?
- They keep happening.
Of course, compulsive homicide,
inner-motivated.
- You only catch them by fluke.
- Not good enough.
Fortunately, you have four police
departments to absorb public criticism.
- Commonwealth can stay out of it.
- I don't intend for that.
There's an absolutely urgent need
to coordinate the investigations.
We've got to do it.
But what part do you want me to play
in this, Ed?
I want you to coordinate the
investigations for the commonwealth.
Set up a Strangler Bureau.
No.
This is not a favor I'm asking...
...and the budget hasn't any money
to pay you for it, but...
...I'm putting it to you as I see it:
public service.
BOTTOMLY: I teach law. I write about law.
My practice has almost disappeared
while I've been working with you.
That's my public service.
I'm not even remotely qualified for this.
You have one of the best minds I know.
You're highly respected.
You're a uniquely competent administrator.
In spite of that scholarly pose,
you're tough enough.
Forgetting all that,
I'm against it on principle.
- You want the stranglings to go on?
- That's not fair.
I don't want to throw out the baby
with the bath.
The more centralized police authority
becomes, the less I like it.
- Spoken like a scholar.
- Which is what I hope I am.
God sits on your shoulder, doesn't he?
That's a regional and ethnic disability
I inherit from my ancestors.
Well, shall we have some more tea?
- BETTY: It's so cold outside.
- CONNIE: It sure is.
BETTY: My hands are frozen.
I can hardly move my fingers.
CONNIE: I just hope it doesn't snow again.
I hope not either. Ruin the weekend.
That'll probably be ruined anyway.
I can't reach my keys. Are yours handy?
Yes, I have them in my pocket someplace.
Boy, these packages are heavy.
She's got it double-locked again.
She must have stepped out
to get the steak.
That butcher likes her.
I can understand
while she's in the house...
...but when she goes
for the mail or the garbage?
He's only interested in old ladies anyway.
NEWSCASTER:
The Strangler's seventh victim...
...Liza Gordon, was young,
unlike the others, who were old...
...Negro, unlike the others,
who were white...
...and living with two other girls...
...unlike the others, who lived alone.
From now on, no woman in greater Boston...
...regardless of who she is
or how she lives, can feel secure.
Let's go to the statehouse,
where Mr. John Bottomly...
...head of the newly-created
Strangler Bureau...
...is setting up headquarters.
Mr. Bottomly? How are you, sir?
Hello there, Mr. Dreier.
Mr. Bottomly, at this early stage
of the investigation...
...what will your first steps be?
Yes. Our first job is to copy the files
of each of the homicides...
...in each of the police departments
involved...
...Boston, Cambridge, Lynn,
Lawrence and Salem...
...and reconstruct them in master files
in these books here.
NEWSCASTER: I see.
Mr. Bottomly...
Mr. Bottomly, is there any significance
to the fact...
...that half of that bulletin board
is empty?
A medical psychiatric board is
one of three divisions of this operation.
I've talked informally with its members.
And they feel chances are these killings
will continue until we find our man.
There's talk of finding
these demented people...
...and treating them before they
get to the point of killing.
- Now, do you have an opinion on that?
- A lot of talk is exactly what it is.
What more can you expect from
a society that itself spends 44%...
...of its tax dollar on killing?
- Anything else?
- Yes. Why did you take this on?
I was ordered to by my employer,
the attorney general.
- NEWSCASTER: Ordered to, Mr. Bottomly?
- Don't you find that credible?
If you say so.
I'll amend it.
He challenged me and I was sucked in.
- NEWSCASTER: Thank you very much.
- Right.
Elsewhere in the nation on this day...
Miss Ridgeway owns the house
and rents rooms. Yankee family.
She lives with a lady, Alice Oakville.
They're married to each other.
The pigeon is a tenant named
Terence Huntley. He's a faggot.
I can't wait.
Good morning. I'm Det. DiNatale.
Detective, I'm simply delighted
to meet you.
And this is Sgt. McAfee.
And this is my good friend, Miss Oakville.
I'm not going to tell you anything first.
I want this to have the same effect
it had on me.
Alice, what did I say to you
the day Mr. Huntley hung that painting?
You said, "Alice, look at that.
You mark my words.
The next woman he strangles
is going to be a Negress."
That was the day before Liza Gordon
was strangled.
Did you have any reason to be suspicious
of Mr. Huntley previously?
Alice, tell the detective about seeing
Mr. Huntley on Gainsborough Street...
...where Mrs. Hodak lived.
I met him on Gainsborough Street...
...just three days before Mrs. Hodak
was strangled.
He was just staring into store windows
at those junk shops.
Isn't he an antique dealer?
What's that got to do with it?
Do all antique dealers
collect books like this?
The Collected Works
of the Marquis de Sade.
This and four others about Thuggees.
I'm sure you understand
the significance of that.
Absolutely.
What's a Thuggee and who is de Sade?
Thuggees are a sect of Indian ritual
murderers who strangle their victims.
The word "sadism"
comes from the Marquis de Sade.
All Terence Huntley is interested in
is strangling and torture.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I've seen some put-ons,
but that one's carrying it too far.
She's coming this way.
- Are you Terence Huntley?
- I am.
John Bottomly. We've been
having trouble contacting you.
- I heard you were trying to reach me.
- The Bottomly in the Strangler Bureau?
That's right.
Terry, you hound. You've been
hiding your lamp under a blanket.
Bushel.
This is Cedric Ewing, Harold Robin.
- Very happy to meet you, Mr. Bottomly.
- How are you?
And very impressed.
Excuse us, we have a date
with a gunnery sergeant.
Why didn't you answer my calls?
I didn't know who you were until just now.
I never answer calls
unless I know the people.
Why not?
Because I'm too vulnerable.
If you're rich and gay...
...people continually harass
and blackmail you.
BOTTOMLY: Have you any idea
why I want to talk to you?
Whenever there are unsolved sex crimes,
the police crack down on us.
I think it's ridiculous.
Be that as it may, we have an informant
who insists you're the Strangler.
Oh, my God. Miss Ridgeway.
Do you protect stoolies
even in this exotic atmosphere?
Every suspect has to be checked out.
I thought you'd prefer me to a detective.
The old school tie.
Or is it that you're really a little curious
about us?
Let's say I'm slumming.
I didn't think that you'd make a remark
like that.
I was rude. I'm sorry.
I believe you are.
What did you want to ask me?
Have you any business
on Gainsborough Street?
Oh, the flower.
I beg your pardon?
The one that plays the girl's role
is the flower. Alice Oakville.
Yes, she saw me on Gainsborough Street.
I buy things from secondhand shops there.
Here are the dates and times
of the seven stranglings.
List, as well as you remember,
where you were in each instance.
Send it to me at the statehouse.
You know that Miss Ridgeway
is a rejected lover?
I don't, frankly.
We were lovers. I broke it off.
She is a woman scorned.
Apparently, things aren't as upside down
as they seem.
I'm sorry to disappoint you.
She played the man's part, I the woman.
- [FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
- [DOOR CLOSES]
There was nothing I could say,
so I didn't say anything.
- See you after the credit-union meeting.
- BOBBIE: No, you get some sleep.
As a matter of fact, we both should.
- I'll see you tomorrow night at the plant.
- Okay.
- BOBBIE: Good night.
- LLOYD: Good night, sweet.
[DOORBELL BUZZES]
Now, Lloyd, I told...
[SCREAMING]
[BRAKES SCREECHING]
BOTTOMLY: Hello, Luis.
Has your attorney explained to you that
you don't have to answer our questions?
I don't mind answering
intelligent questions.
- What were you doing with this?
- Saving it.
Anyone who strangles a woman
can't be all bad.
Stop it, David.
- And this?
- I'm sick, you know.
More likely drunk. How much have you had?
That's what they teach in the academy:
Catch them off guard
with irrelevant questions.
DINATALE: Where did you buy this?
Also irrelevant.
Immaterial and incompetent.
What are you made up for, David? You
wouldn't be playing Othello, would you?
Bravo. Intellectual civil servant.
I am Othello.
Othello strangled his wife
because she was unfaithful to him.
Mine wouldn't have had time. We were
only married yesterday morning.
Then you would've had time for number
eight. She was killed in the afternoon.
Ah. Marry in the morning,
murder in the afternoon.
Of course. Sheer omnipotence.
You've been looking at my case history.
They say I have...
...mess... Mess... Messianic delusion.
- Do you think you have?
- Leave the matter of your sanity...
...to the doctors, David.
Are you prepared to charge him?
They're prepared to go on
in hope that I'm gonna spill something.
Don't you know desperate men
when you see them?
Jack?
- We'll hold him.
- For having a newspaper clipping on me?
Oh, don't be ridiculous.
For carrying a concealed weapon.
Also, assault and battery on your wife.
My wife won't charge me.
You want to bet?
BOTTOMLY: Ready for you, Mrs. Parker.
[YELLING AND SCREAMING]
Police brutality.
We don't do that anymore.
I'm sorry.
[KNOCKING]
- Who is it?
- BRUMLEY: It's me, Col. Brumley.
Oh, hi.
Well, um...
You're even prettier than I remember
from that party, Dana.
It's funny,
I can't seem to remember that party...
...but I do remember you.
Give me your coat.
There are so many parties
on Beacon Hill, aren't there?
It's just like one big sorority house,
isn't it?
Just like a big sorority house.
Will you have a drink, colonel?
Call me Lyonel. And Coca-Cola, please.
It's malaria, you know, from the Pacific.
It's doctor's orders.
Most of the doctors I know are
half-gassed by 5:00.
You have a lot of physician friends?
You're kidding.
Didn't I tell you I was a nurse?
I don't think so.
I'm attracted to nurses. They...
...have a nice sense of, um...
...reality.
My, you are a trim one.
What's that?
That's a gun, colonel.
You see, I'm a policewoman too.
Julian!
This is Lt. Soshnick and Sgt. McAfee.
In that case, I would like the drink.
So this is the famous Col. Brumley, huh?
My, my, my,
what a time we've had finding you.
Do you think he looks like a colonel?
I am not really a colonel, you know.
Wholesale groceries, isn't it?
Well, he doesn't look like a colonel...
...but he sure doesn't look like
a pickle salesman either.
Produce.
Lyonel, do you know that
impersonating an officer is a crime?
- Not if you don't wear the uniform.
- He may be right.
How do you find them?
Um, in the phone directory.
Or, uh, if they're pretty, like Dana,
I follow them home.
How long has this been going on?
About, um, six months.
One of the ladies says
you have a little black book.
Oh.
You have been a busy little beaver,
haven't you?
Gainsborough Street, Park Drive, Salem.
Mention any one of the neighborhoods,
he's been there.
How many names have you got in here?
About 500.
How many have you scored with?
At least two-thirds.
- In six months?!
- Uh-huh.
You have any idea why you do this?
Just sort of a hobby.
You know what gets me...
...is here is a city with the women in it
supposedly terrified of the Strangler...
...and this pickle salesman,
a total stranger...
...talks his way into their beds
without any trouble at all.
I wouldn't say that.
- He could've killed any of them.
- Maybe he did.
- I couldn't kill anything.
- We'll check you out.
Check him out, hell.
Find out what kind of diet he's on...
...and have it mimeographed
for the rest of us.
It's done. Better wake June up.
MARY: June?
June?
[SIREN WAILS]
Mr. Bottomly, would you like to make
a statement now?
No, I'm sorry. No comment.
Mr. Bottomly, this is the ninth victim.
Your office must have something to say.
- The same m.o.?
- WILLIS: The same.
My God, you'd think after eight of them
they'd stop opening the door.
June Williams, 19.
What do we tell the press?
We ought to tell them the way it is.
Horrify them
into keeping their doors closed.
I don't want the press to find out
about the broom business.
The only one who will know, outside
of us, has to be the Strangler.
He won't be in for a few minutes.
We've got time for a sandwich.
Yeah.
I've got to tell you,
I thought you were kidding about this.
I haven't found anything to kid about
since I left eminent domain.
But what the hell is ESP?
Extrasensory perception.
Seeing and hearing things that
have happened without being there.
Sort of like a delayed mental telepathy.
I don't believe
in ordinary mental telepathy.
Science takes it seriously.
I've checked Hurkos.
He's helped police around the world,
from Miami to Scotland Yard.
There are facts.
Coincidences. They could have got the
same thing by opening a fortune cookie.
We've got nine dead women...
...and every suspect and every clue
that 2600 police have come up with...
...has exploded in our faces.
Where's the money coming from?
The commonwealth can't be
springing for this.
BOTTOMLY: No, a rich friend
of the attorney general's paying Hurkos.
DINATALE: Rich and eccentric.
Look, I'd read the entrails of a crow
on the statehouse steps...
...if I thought we'd come up with
one lousy little clue.
This Mr. Chiari
has a cottage in Rockport...
...and Bobbie Eden was in Rockport
the night before she was killed.
- Does any of that check out?
- Absolutely.
Listen to the rest of it:
"I prayed for a sign that I was right
in accusing Mr. Chiari...
...and last night it came.
I woke up, and a blue ball of fire
was flying through my room...
...writing the name Chiari
on the ceiling."
Anything else?
This came in yesterday
from a Catholic nursing school.
They got it from a Eugene T. O'Rourke.
"My reason for writing
is to say that I'm a bachelor...
...and I would appreciate it
if you could suggest a nurse...
...who might like me
as much as I'd like her...
...and if so, we could begin a friendship
that might lead to the altar."
- Pathetic.
- Very sad.
Except...
...he's been fired from a ladies'
shoe store for groping a customer.
His landlady says he sleeps on
bed springs without a mattress.
Just the springs?
Some order of French Trappist monks
where he was living...
...threw him out for acting like a nut...
...trying to torture himself,
washing in the toilet, that kind of thing.
He's had shock therapy.
Spend some more time on him.
Which one is the swami?
Texas character is a bodyguard.
BOTTOMLY: I'm John Bottomly.
- Hurkos.
- Dick Matheson.
- Det. DiNatale.
- Everyone say Peter to me.
If you all don't mind,
I'd like to see your IDs.
No reporters, huh? How you manage that?
BOTTOMLY: All we had to do was
get every newspaper, radio network...
...TV station and international wire
service to look the other way.
That's why we brought you into Providence.
If Peter strike out, public don't know.
- Nobody yell "big fake," right?
- BOTTOMLY: Right.
Right this way.
Is this the way you want them?
Each pile covers one of the killings.
You got the ladies' stockings,
panties, bras, that stuff?
On the way.
Okay, we start on pictures?
All yours.
Tricks you play, huh?
This one phony-baloney. This not belong.
You show Peter up?
Now we try real one, eh?
This top one is house,
house where murder take place.
Underneath is dead woman.
Like this.
Pretty good, eh?
[KNOCKING]
- BOTTOMLY: It's all right.
- Sorry I'm late. Car wouldn't start.
This is Sgt. Phil Lisi.
- Phil.
- Hello.
You're not late because of car.
I tell you what happen.
You phone girlfriend.
"I can't come over this morning.
I've got to see this nut, Hurkos."
She say, "Come over for one cup coffee."
Right, Phil?
So you go there.
She bend over to get coffee...
...you grab her, push her on
kitchen table and zoink!
Then you come here.
That's why you're late, right?
- You're a dangerous man, Peter.
- I tell truth, what I see.
Hey, Phil, open that.
Let Peter see ladies' things.
Don't take so big, Phil.
Maybe half men in room
have girl on way to work.
Maybe Hurkos big fake, huh?
I see him.
Not too big.
Five feet six, seven...
...130, maybe 40, pounds.
He... He not sleep in bed.
He is on floor. No, no, no.
On mattress. No, no.
Just on springs, sleep on springs.
He loves handbags.
I see handbags, women's handbags.
Lots of handbags.
He use them for sex.
But it make... Make him feel bad,
not good.
He...
I need map. Boston, quick.
He live here.
Cambridge.
This man priest.
No, no, no, not priest,
but live with priest.
Dress like priest.
Priest, they... They care,
but he... he hurt himself.
He make dirty, he wash hands in toilet.
They throw him out. They...
[GRUNTS]
I stop now.
[PHONE RINGS]
SOSHNICK: Soshnick.
We need a search warrant
for a Eugene T. O'Rourke.
Here's a letter O'Rourke wrote...
...and these are my notes
after I checked him out.
Twenty-three-year-old girl in Cambridge.
- That's number 10.
- O'Rourke lives in Cambridge.
I got something, eh?
You got something.
Hey, look at this.
Strangler's knot.
Yeah. That would be one way
to tie them, wouldn't it?
Don't fight it too hard, Julian.
BOTTOMLY:
I don't recognize these floor plans, but...
...crosses have been placed
just about where the bodies were found.
It would be absolute insanity if the way
we got to break this was Peter Hurkos.
God, look at this book of yoga exercises.
Four, five, six, seven...
...eight, nine, 10 bodies!
What else do you want,
an invitation to the 11 Th?
Eugene T. O'Rourke.
Do you know an attorney?
Uh, my brother is a lawyer,
but he won't talk to me.
We'll get you one, if you want one.
It's your right.
It isn't a lawyer I need, I'm afraid.
I can't remember when I wasn't like this.
I...
I, uh...
Go on.
I can't. I can't.
I thought I could, but I can't.
I should be put away.
You know they gave me shock therapy?
You know they made me leave the monastery?
Why did they make you leave?
You don't know what it's like.
I know you've looked at everything here.
You looked in the closet.
You saw the handbags.
That's what I think of.
That's all I think of.
I know I'm unclean.
I wash in dirt...
...to punish myself.
I do other things too,
terrible, disgusting things.
What do these X's mean?
I took a correspondence course in art...
...and I had to put the X's down to see
where I'd have to do it over again.
Why did you blot out 10 of these women?
I didn't like those pictures.
Why do you have all those things
knotted together?
I'm collecting them
for Our Lady of Victories.
Where did you buy this?
- Oh, that's not mine.
- DINATLE: No, you lost it.
Where did you buy it?
What are you saying?
I never saw that before.
Listen, Eugene, we know all about you.
Everything.
Now, God wants you to tell us the truth.
God knows how you've been hurt,
and he wants you to tell us the truth.
God wants your salvation
as much as you do.
Now, tell us the truth.
But I'm trying.
This is very hard for me.
- It's a terrible, dirty thing...
- No, not about the handbags, Eugene.
But about what?
Start at the beginning.
How did you kill that first old lady,
Mrs. Hodak?
How did you get into her apartment?
You can't feel any worse
than you feel now.
You'll feel better.
Oh, you think that I...?
That I...?
Oh, I thought you wanted to help me!
We do want to help you.
Go away.
I never hurt anything in my life...
...except myself.
If I arrange it,
will you commit yourself to a hospital...
...so you can be helped?
No.
You don't really want to.
You're just tricking me.
BOTTOMLY: Under Massachusetts law,
Mr. O'Rourke...
...any doctor can commit you...
...for 10 days' observation
without your permission.
I can't stop you
if that's what you want to do.
We'll give Mr. O'Rourke
a chance to think things over.
- On your feet, Eugene.
- What are you doing?
- You said we should have him commit...
- I said a doctor can commit him.
We'll find one at Boston City.
He doesn't want to go.
The papers will be signed right here.
- But if we start now, we can get him in...
- You'll get what?
I'm developing my own ESP.
We've made a beautiful landing
at a wrong airport.
Phone in, get the doctor here.
You can come in now. We're all finished.
She was a student. Psychology.
Worked part-time in a hospital.
- Was she raped?
- The doc said no.
That's our man again for sure.
Everything locked from the inside,
Strangler's knot, no actual rape.
Stab wounds in a perfect circle
around the breast...
...and then a bull's-eye.
This kind of mutilation goes
with the queer.
Look at this.
She was doing her master's thesis.
Factors Pertaining to the Etiology
of Male Homosexuality.
She knew him. She let him in.
He sat in this chair talking to her.
These look like soot marks.
He must have brought it in on his shoes.
Did she have a boyfriend?
Three, but two of them are faggots.
We think the other one was banging her.
So what? Everyone's banging everybody.
It's a horny world.
Shake them down, you'll probably find
all three have good, solid alibis.
No, no. This is our man.
She let him in, all right,
but she didn't know him.
He's probably not a homosexual.
If we don't find him fast,
we'll all be riding three-wheel bikes...
...and emptying parking meters.
TV ANNOUNCER:
Thus was the life and the death...
...of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Leaders of a hundred nations
come in tribute:
De Gaulle of France...
...Prince Philip of Great Britain...
...Erhard of Germany...
...the great among men.
A gathering such as this
has never been seen...
- JUDY: Can't have it.
- ...in America.
- MICHAEL: Yes, I can.
- No, you can't.
- Yes, I can.
- No, you can't.
Oh, shh, shh, shh. Be quiet, Michael.
Don't be sad, Daddy.
Come here.
A riderless horse, stirrups backward
for the fallen chieftain.
- DESALVO: Irmgard...
- I just can't believe he's dead.
I can't either.
I'm going to check out the furnace.
I left when it happened.
Now, Al?
I might as well.
I want to get some air anyway.
Try to be back by 6:00.
Dinner will be ready.
Okay. See you later.
Kennedy's coffin,
borne on the same caisson...
...which carried the body
of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
It is a day of national mourning
in his own land.
It is a day when men around the world...
...wonder how this thing so needless
could have happened.
Men wonder...
...and find no answer.
They can only pause in silence
to mourn his passing.
- DESALVO: Hi.
- Yes?
Um, super sent me to check your bathroom.
I didn't think anyone was working today.
Yeah, isn't it awful?
But I had this house marked down
for today.
Can't you come back in a day or so?
Well, yeah, I guess so.
Sorry to bother you.
No, wait.
I don't want to miss
getting the bathroom fixed.
It's in there.
DESALVO: Uh-huh.
- Yeah. That looks kind of bad.
- I know. That's what I keep telling them.
DESALVO: Yeah.
Even the tile is falling apart.
[MUFFLED CRYING]
- WOMAN: Who is it?
- Painter.
Owner sent me over to look at your walls.
He didn't say anything to me.
- Well, you're on my list.
- Have the owner phone me you're okay.
If you don't want the work done,
it's all right by me.
All right, come up.
[DOOR BUZZES]
Hey, hey. What are you doing?
- Hey, is that your car?
- Yeah.
Will you do me a big favor and move it?
I got furniture to drop here.
Okay.
[NO BUZZING]
[BUZZES]
Hi. I'm looking for an apartment.
The manager's apartment's
over there, number three.
But there are no vacancies.
DESALVO: Now, don't scream,
and you won't get hurt.
[SOBBING SOFTLY]
[YELLING]
NAGY: Miss Cluny?
Yes?
This is John Bottomly,
who wants to talk to you.
I'm here because the man who attacked
you may be very important to us.
We think the man might have been
the Strangler.
Oh, my God.
You're very lucky to be alive.
What was the last thing you remember
before you woke up in this bed?
I was ironing.
I remember I was ironing
some small things.
I don't like ironing.
You don't remember anything until here?
Um, I remember that I couldn't move.
I kept trying to move and I couldn't.
- What stopped you?
- CLUNY: I don't know.
- It was like I was paralyzed.
- Paralyzed completely? Your whole body?
I don't think so.
I could move from side to side.
I kept trying.
Try to remember why you couldn't move
your hands and feet.
All right.
Miss Cluny...
[ELEVATOR RUNNING]
[MALE VOICE HEARD FAINTLY]
Hey!
Hey!
Hey!
He just broke into my house!
[CAR HORN HONKS]
[SIREN WAILING]
Mr. DeSalvo, your attorney,
Mr. Asgeirsson here...
...tells me you're resisting
his representing you.
I strongly urge you to follow his counsel.
But I don't need an attorney.
I haven't done anything.
How did you get here? You suppose
the officers have nothing to do...
...but go around framing innocent
people? Why should they?
Yeah. That's what I'd like to know.
Why should they?
LEARY: This standard burglar tool was
found on you when you were arrested.
- Do you deny it's yours?
- He admits it's his ruler.
Why shouldn't I admit it?
I bought it in Jordan Marsh.
Next thing I know...
...these cops knocked me down
for no reason at all.
Mr. DeSalvo, these officers, Mr. Taylor
and four other witnesses...
...state that you were pursued for
two blocks before being captured.
I don't care. They're lying.
Nobody chased me anywhere.
I, um... I think there's
a very strong possibility...
...that Mr. DeSalvo is mentally disturbed.
Do you agree?
It's possible.
Mr. DeSalvo, by law...
...you'd have a preliminary hearing
within the next 48 hours.
I don't think you're up to it.
The law provides that you may be
committed to a state institution...
...to determine if and when
you are competent to stand trial.
Boston City Hospital.
I dreamed about rags being torn,
just torn over and over again.
BOTTOMLY:
Were the rags tearing themselves up?
Were they in someone's hands?
No, they were just rags.
- You haven't minded being hypnotized?
- No. It makes me feel rested afterwards.
I'd like to put you under right now
while you're thinking of those rags.
Now, follow my hand with your eyes.
Keep it in focus.
Your eyes are getting tired.
You want to sleep.
You want to go back to your dream
to help us, to see those rags...
...and remember who was tearing them.
I bit his hand.
I can see it. I can taste it.
I bit his hand hard.
- Are you under now?
- No!
NAGY: Can you see beyond the hand,
his face, his body?
No.
Try.
I can't.
You know what I mean?
- But I don't belong here.
- Mm-hm.
- I guess everybody says that, don't they?
- Mm-hm.
You know how I got here?
Uh, some cop knocked me down
outside Jordan Marsh's...
...and they found this ruler on me.
They said it was a burglar's tool.
How do you like that? It was just a ruler.
I use it in my work.
You know, I'd like to be able
to tell this to somebody.
God, I'm afraid to breathe.
CLINICAL RECORD
NAGY: It's fascinating.
DeSalvo's preliminary diagnosis...
...indicates the possibility of
a classic multiple-personality situation.
In such cases, does the patient know
he has two personalities?
No.
You mean he actually doesn't know
what the other part of him is doing?
Well, "the other part of him"
is the wrong phrase.
It's hard to accept, but there are actually
two totally separate personalities.
I mean, literally, actually, two separate
people enclosed in one body.
And they take turns using the body.
[PHONE RINGS]
Excuse me.
Dr. Nagy.
Oh, it's the dispensary.
Thank you.
The wound was a human bite.
He claims he caught it in some machinery.
- DINATALE: He's lying.
- He may not be lying.
If this diagnosis is valid, he wasn't
bitten. The other man was.
One valid definition of sanity is
someone who isn't in an insane asylum.
Where does he work?
Pyne Furnace on Bradford Street.
There was soot on the floor
of Terry Evans' apartment.
It could have come from a furnace.
Check his work record
against the stranglings.
See when he was off work
or on outside jobs.
All right.
Number seven, October 5th...
...Liza Gordon, 215 Huntington Ave.,
Boston.
October 5th.
DeSalvo checked out from a job
at Rollins Place at 2 p.m.
That's 15 blocks from Huntington.
She died at approximately 2:30.
He could have made that easily.
Number eight, October 19th.
Bobbie Eden, 205 Park Dr., Boston.
Time of death, approximately 7:30 p.m.
He had an emergency repair job
a couple of blocks away.
405 Park Dr.
He checked out at 7 p.m.
That's eight out of eight
he was available for.
Number nine, November 1 st.
June Williams, 448 Charles St.
Approximate time of death was noon.
Worked all day in the shop.
Wait. Lunch, 11:30 to 12:45.
Killed her during lunch.
We're not a mile from Charles Street.
Number 10, November 10th.
Terry Evans, 24 Essex St. in Cambridge.
Time of death, approximately 1 p.m.
Worked in repair shop, 10 to 12 noon.
Serviced furnace at 38 Hudson St.,
Cambridge, 3 to 6 p.m.
He had time to squeeze in number 10.
Number 11, November 25th.
Pat Bruner, 4 University Rd., Boston.
November 25? That was the day
of the president's funeral.
Everything was closed.
He was available.
Call the hospital
and put more security on him.
What did you tell the children where I am?
They haven't asked.
What? What do you mean they haven't asked?
- They're only...
- Yeah?
They're only little children.
They accept things.
But...
...don't they miss me?
I talked to Mr. Asgeirsson.
- Why are you talking to him?
- Don't get excited.
Don't get excited?
They tell me he's gonna defend me.
For what?
Albert, I'm just telling you
what he said to me.
You want to know, don't you?
Don't. Don't get angry.
I'm not saying this.
I don't believe anything.
What did he say?
He asked me to try to talk to you.
He...
He thinks you should plead guilty
to housebreaking.
Cut it out!
You, uh...?
You believe them?
Albert, I don't believe anything.
I don't know what's happening.
He said...
...if you admit it,
it won't matter if they find out.
Find out what?
That you are sick.
You believe them, then?
I love you, Albert.
I love you, Irmgard.
Albert's survival depends on his
absolute certainty of his innocence.
If he accepts your interrogating him...
...it'll stir up all the terrible rumblings
going on inside of him.
Isn't that the idea?
To get him to hear those rumblings get
louder and louder until he can't stand it?
Phil's right. He's got to be questioned.
I think you want to question him
because you want to question him.
You got the smell of prey and want
to close in for the kill, just like any cop.
My motivations are my affair.
I wouldn't let you question him...
...if he was charged with the stranglings
and was in jail.
I won't allow it when he's in a hospital
and mentally incompetent.
- You don't care if he's the Strangler?
- Of course.
But I'm here to protect him,
not help send him to the electric chair.
Suppose I find out
without legal risk to Albert?
You can't.
I'm willing to sign a paper guaranteeing
that anything I get out of him...
...will never be used against him
in court.
- What's the point?
- I have to know if he's the Strangler.
We all have to know
so we can breathe again.
You would honor it, but what about
your successor or some gung-ho DA?
You sign for Albert, I sign for the state.
If another prosecutor tries to use any
evidence I get, or even a confession...
...it would be thrown out because
it was deceitfully exacted from Albert.
This is a medical problem,
not a legal one.
You don't appreciate the danger
to Albert as a patient in this hospital.
If you force Albert the family man...
...to acknowledge the existence
of Albert the Strangler...
...he'll go over the edge.
BOTTOMLY: We haven't got one piece
of evidence that can be used in court.
No fingerprints, no witnesses, nothing.
It's the only direction I can take.
He could become catatonic,
hide from himself...
...withdraw totally.
We've got a ward full of them.
Nobody knows where they withdraw to,
but they're not here with the rest of us.
That's quite a responsibility.
It's bad enough if he's guilty, but...
...what if he's innocent
and you push him over the edge?
Would it keep him in here
for the rest of his life?
Almost certainly.
Then it's the next best thing
to a conviction.
Mr. Asgeirsson was to see me.
He told me I don't have to talk to you.
He's right. You don't.
You don't have to talk to me.
And if you do talk, nothing you say
can be used outside this room.
- DESALVO: Bottomly is what you said?
- BOTTOMLY: That's right.
I'm sorry.
He doesn't make me remember anything.
He just looks like anyone else to me.
Look at his hand.
It makes me feel frightened somehow.
But he's still no one I've ever seen.
Is it the best you can do?
I'm sorry.
All right. Thank you for trying.
Do you remember what you did
the day before you were arrested?
Um, I worked.
Is that the day you hurt your hand?
What's my hand got to do with anything?
I'll be absolutely honest with you.
I want to hear what you say happened,
then we'll check what did happen.
If what you remember
is different from the facts...
...I'll assume the doctors are right,
that there's something wrong with you.
Go ahead and check.
I fixed this furnace in South Boston.
A lot of the hot-air pipes were leaking...
...a lot of hot air mixed with raw gas.
And the valve was jammed.
And I couldn't turn it off.
So I tore up some rags to try to...
I, uh...
...tore up some rags...
...to see if I could stop the leaks.
I could smell...
[CLUNY SCREAMING]
BOTTOMLY: What happened then?
DESALVO: I tried to force the valve shut
with my wrench.
I put it on the valve nut...
...and the wrench slipped off.
My hand...
BOTTOMLY: Go on.
What about your hand?
DESALVO: I guess it got caught in the fan.
BOTTOMLY: You guess? Don't you know?
Uh, yeah, I know. I...
I, um, got it caught in the fan.
Look, I'm tired.
Yeah, all right. That's enough for now.
But...
...understand your predicament. If the
hospital releases you, you'll stand trial.
I'm sure you'll be found guilty
of breaking and entering...
...the Taylor apartment even though
it's a miscarriage of justice.
If you don't stand trial, the hospital will
keep you because they think you're sick.
So one way or the other,
you're not going to be free.
Look, I'm not stupid.
Don't you suppose I know that?
What am I supposed to do?
I can't yell anymore.
My wife won't even listen to me.
Listen to me.
That's why I'm here.
Maybe the two of us
can find out what happened.
If I weren't so worried about how to
take care of Irmgard and the children...
...I don't think I would give a damn.
BOTTOMLY: Remember the day the
astronaut, Alan Shepard, came to town?
They had a big parade for him.
Yes. Yes, I remember.
Uh, I think I saw the parade.
Where were you?
Let's see. I think I was in front
of the Statler Hilton Hotel. Right.
Tell me what you saw.
What has that got to do with anything?
We've been through this before, Albert.
I want to check what you remember
about things with the facts.
We have your work record.
We can find out
if what you remember is true.
- Yes, but why would I lie?
- I'm not saying you would lie.
I'm saying if you do lie,
you don't mean to.
I think that may be
how you got yourself in trouble.
Oh.
Well, uh, let's see.
I was standing in front...
...of the Statler Hilton Hotel...
...a little back in the crowd.
[MUSIC PLAYING AND CROWD CHEERING]
I remember...
...I wanted to get home early
that day because...
...I promised Judy I'd fix her dollhouse.
So I left the parade before it was over.
I get in my car.
I wanted to get out of the parking lot
before the crowd broke.
Tell me about Judy's dollhouse.
It was just a kid's dollhouse.
You see, I, uh... I built this...
...kind of playroom in the basement...
...a couple of years before in my house.
And Judy...
...wanted the same thing...
...in her dollhouse.
Kids are...
...funny that way.
You know what I mean?
Was it much of a job?
Um...
Well...
You needed special tools.
Small, small ones.
- Do you feel ill?
- It's just that I can't remember things.
It's very tough.
Of course it is.
We won't do any more today.
Sit down, Albert.
All right.
How are you feeling?
I don't feel so good.
You've been walking and talking
in your sleep.
Yeah, I know.
They've told me, but I don't remember.
I don't remember it.
Do you want me to stop Mr. Bottomly
from seeing you?
I can, at least for a little while.
Let you catch your breath.
No.
It bothers you though, doesn't it?
It's awful.
- NAGY: Then why do you want to go on?
- DESALVO: I don't know.
Can you tell me what the feeling is
when you talk to Mr. Bottomly?
What's it like?
I don't know.
I'm always feeling like...
...something is going to happen
and it never does.
But you like the feeling?
Oh, yeah, I like the feeling.
It's all right.
It's just scary. It's...
...like driving a car too fast.
You know what I mean?
NAGY: When it doesn't happen...
...this something...
...how do you feel?
Well, then I feel lousy,
like the bottom is falling out...
...like everything is going away
and I can't reach it.
You know what I mean?
I mean...
Let me tell you. It...
I remember when I used to go
to confession when I was a kid.
I'd be walking toward the box,
feeling great...
...because I was gonna tell the Father
what I did...
...stealing out of my mother's purse
or something worse.
You know what I mean? I mean, for real.
And then, all of a sudden, I'd lose it.
I mean...
...I could actually...
I could see it coming out of my head,
kind of floating out of the box.
Then it'd be gone,
and I couldn't talk to him.
I'd feel awful,
and that's the way I feel...
...about Mr. Bottomly.
NAGY: But you do feel good...
...when you think you're going to be able
to tell him something, don't you?
But scared.
Well, like...
I suppose it's because I didn't
tell him anything.
Albert, tell me this. What
do you think would happen to you...
...if you found out what this something
is and you told him?
I'd die.
- Morning, Albert.
- Morning.
Let's go back to the day
of the president's funeral.
You remember what you did that day?
- I guess we all remember that day.
- Tell me about it.
What's the point?
I could tell you anything.
You got no facts to check. Pyne Furnace
was closed like everybody else.
What we did on days of crisis, Pearl
Harbor, V-J Day, the assassination...
...tell us a lot about ourselves.
That's a crock. You're not kidding me.
You got something I don't know about.
You've got something I don't know about.
- We're just trying to trade information.
- Suppose I call it off.
You won't do that, Albert.
You're an honest man.
You want to know, don't you?
Will it make me feel better?
Do you promise it'll make me feel better?
Of course it will.
Did you watch TV that day?
Yes.
- Did you feel very badly?
- At first, I didn't believe...
...that he was dead.
But after I knew it really happened,
I felt bad.
- Very, very bad.
- Did you watch it all day?
It seemed the only thing to do...
...to give respect.
BOTTOMLY: You didn't go out?
DESALVO: You're right.
I went out and drove around.
I didn't want to look anymore.
BOTTOMLY: Go on, Albert.
Well, I parked for some reason.
- Did you get out of the car?
- DESALVO: No.
Was there mail that day?
- BOTTOMLY: I think so. Why?
- DESALVO: I remember looking for it.
You looked for the mail when you
went home? Are you sure?
Where else could I look for my mail?
[WOMAN SCREAMING]
[GASPS]
BOTTOMLY: What's the matter?
I... I saw something.
BOTTOMLY: What?
I don't know what it was, but it...
It scared the hell out of me.
BOTTOMLY: What did it look like?
I don't know now. It came in my head
and it's flashed out again.
What's...?
What's happening to me?
BOTTOMLY: Something touched you off.
You're having an anxiety attack.
- Want the doctor?
- No.
I don't need a doctor.
I'll fight it out myself.
I must...
...be losing my marbles.
You're not, Albert.
But you know now there's something wrong.
- Will you admit that to me?
- Yeah.
Yeah, something. All right.
Something.
- Want some?
- MARY: Mm-mm.
What are you doing?
Reading law.
Just law generally?
I've always found it comforting.
Some people read automobile books
or rifle magazines.
MARY: But it isn't working?
Nope.
I think he's about to crack.
I'm glad.
He's suffering.
You don't seem to be
jumping for joy either.
No, but I don't have to face anything
that monstrous about myself.
That monstrous?
What are you facing in yourself
that's just a little bit monstrous?
At this hour of the night,
you look at yourself, and...
...the truth has a way of...
...lying there on the rug in front of you.
I'm enjoying this.
It's a big game on tonight.
Don't like myself for it.
Don't be too hard on yourself.
I know I didn't marry
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.
It's a hell of a thing
to find out at my age...
...you're not what you thought you were.
What time do you have to start on him
in the morning?
Early.
MARY: Then come to bed.
JUDY: Michael punched a boy in the nose.
Michael did that?
What did you tell the boy's mother?
I told her if he couldn't play
with Michael nicely...
...he couldn't come over anymore.
Michael picks fights. I saw him.
Judy, your mother didn't ask you.
Michael still picks fights.
- How are you doing in school?
- Show Daddy your report card.
Hey, not bad.
Thank you. I miss you, Daddy.
When are you going to not be crazy
anymore?
Who said Daddy was crazy?
Michael's friend. His father said
that Daddy was in the crazy place.
How's, uh...?
How's Mr. Pyne?
He said he'd write you. He knows
you couldn't do anything wrong...
...that you must have had some kind
of breakdown.
He's sending your salary anyway.
Wait!
- What's the matter?
- JUDY: You hurt Mommy!
- Where does the kid get ideas like that?
- JUDY: I saw you!
[BUZZES]
- BOTTOMLY: What are you going to do?
- Put him under sedation.
- BOTTOMLY: No, not now.
- You are looking at a sick animal.
BOTTOMLY: So did the women he strangled.
I want him now.
She's against me.
- BOTTOMLY: Why?
- I don't know. I don't know why.
She's afraid of me.
- BOTTOMLY: What did you say to her?
- Nothing.
BOTTOMLY: Did you touch her?
I saw myself touch her.
It popped into my head.
How could she know that?
BOTTOMLY: What popped into your head?
For a second, I...
Well, not... No, no, not really me.
I mean, it was...
Oh, it was...
It was someone inside of me, wanted...
Didn't want her there.
But...
Not me. Not... Not...
I mean, not me. I love Irmgard.
BOTTOMLY: And you saw this other
person, this other you, going for her?
- You told the doctor about this?
- No.
BOTTOMLY: You cut them off, don't you?
Well, I don't... I don't know if I do.
I try to. It...
It, uh...
These things keep popping in and out
of my head, you know.
They don't make sense.
BOTTOMLY: Albert, do you remember
what you did New Year's Eve?
New Year's Day?
Yeah, I watched the Rose Bowl parade
with the kids.
Then we had dinner around 2:00.
We usually...
...eat early on a holiday.
BOTTOMLY: Remember what you did
the day after New Year's Day?
- I worked.
- BOTTOMLY: Where?
On Charles Street. A furnace job.
- BOTTOMLY: What time did you quit?
- Oh, about 3:30 or so.
What did you do then?
Uh...
Then I went home.
- No?
- You sure you went home?
But...
I don't know, man. I don't know.
I don't know what's...
I don't know what's happening to me.
BOTTOMLY: These things you see
that pop into your head...
...now is the time
to make sense out of them.
- DESALVO: I know, but what if...?
- BOTTOMLY: You didn't go home.
DESALVO: Okay.
If you say so.
BOTTOMLY: What did you see
the other day when you felt sick in here?
- I can't.
- BOTTOMLY: You want to know?
You want to feel better?
Face it. What did you see?
Uh...
Mailboxes.
- BOTTOMLY: Yours?
- No.
BOTTOMLY: What else?
- A dark hall.
- BOTTOMLY: What else?
- I can't.
- BOTTOMLY: Come on!
I can't.
- A woman's breasts.
- BOTTOMLY: Whose?
- I don't know. I can't see her face.
- BOTTOMLY: What was she doing?
Her blouse came off in my hand.
BOTTOMLY: Albert, now.
Now is the time, Albert. Go back.
You left the furnace job.
Now what do you do? Think.
Reach out.
No, I can't. Nothing. No.
- BOTTOMLY: You don't want it to come.
- No.
- I'm trying.
- BOTTOMLY: No, you're not. Face it.
Where are you?
What did you do after you left the job?
Come on. Look at it.
Have some guts for once.
I'm, uh...
- I'm going down the street.
- BOTTOMLY: What?
In a car, I'm going down the street.
BOTTOMLY: Where are you going?
Anywhere. I just...
...find a place to park the car.
Right. I parked the car...
...and walked to the house that was there.
Miss McLean? Oh, Miss Williams.
I'm a plumber.
The landlord sent me over
to check a leak in the walls.
Well, I don't know
if I'll be back tomorrow.
Well, okay. Right.
Oh, fine. Great.
Oh, yeah. I can see the leak.
[PANTING]
Now, don't scream.
Nobody's gonna hurt you.
Take those off.
That too.
Turn around.
Turn around and give me your hands.
Uh, I don't want you to scratch me.
All right?
Now...
...lie down. Lie down.
All the way.
[PANTING]
[WHIMPERING]
BOTTOMLY: Albert?
Albert?
Albert?
BOTTOMLY: Albert?
Albert?
Albert?