Hulu’s new film tells the true story of how one tenacious journalist tracked the Boston Strangler.
Updated: Mar 24, 2023
For a self-professed crime junkie, I knew surprisingly little about the Boston Strangler, so I was intrigued by Hulu’s new film about the deadly crime spree that left 13 women dead.
This isn’t the first movie depicting the story, but it is the first time it’s been told from the perspective of Loretta McLaughlin (played by Keira Knightley), a tenacious journalist who linked the string of murders in 1960’s Boston.
Watch the trailer here.
McLaughlin was a reporter back in the day when female journalists were tethered to the lifestyles desk and hard news was left to the boys.
But the men covering the crime beat at the Record American back in the day when the women began turning up dead paid little attention to the crimes until McLaughlin began piecing together the similarities.
(Each of the victims had a ligature – usually a pair of stockings - tied around their necks in an ornamental bow.)
When the newspaper’s editor Jack MacLaine (played by Chris Cooper) initially balks at letting McLaughlin take on the story, she begins gathering information on her own until she finally has enough to convince MacLaine that a front-pager is in order.
(Ahhh, what a feeling!)
McLaughlin doesn’t let up on her reporting; she continues to stalk detectives for information and tracks the prime suspect Albert DeSalvo (played by David Dastmalchian).
But McLaughlin’s relentless pursuit of justice comes at a hefty personal price when her marriage unravels and enemies are made on the police force.
Hulu’s Boston Strangler is a gloomy, but fascinating story focusing on the behind-the-scenes hunt for the killer and is worth a watch.
Unlike the Boston Strangler’s victims, this true tale doesn’t come wrapped in a pretty bow.
There are still many unanswered questions that loom and the uncertainty that DeSalvo was solely responsible for all 13 murders will you unsettled.
