The Truth About Albert DeSalvo's Childhood

Defense attorney F. Lee Bailey spoke of Albert DeSalvo's early trauma: "One of several children, as a child he was cruelly, blatantly mistreated, that he was exposed to the most deviate conduct, that his ideas from early childhood were warped, and that although he appears to be as normal in appearance as you and I,

Defense attorney F. Lee Bailey spoke of Albert DeSalvo's early trauma: "One of several children, as a child he was cruelly, blatantly mistreated, that he was exposed to the most deviate conduct, that his ideas from early childhood were warped, and that although he appears to be as normal in appearance as you and I, that there is a facet to his personality that leaves him without control," according to The Boston Globe

History reported DeSalvo's dad would bring home prostitutes and have sex with them in front of he and his siblings, and that he "brutally beat" the kids and his wife. Once he knocked out DeSalvo's mother's teeth, then, as she lay unconscious from the blow, he broke her fingers. 

Bailey told the court that DeSalvo was taught to shoplift at 6-years-old and that he "exhibited extreme cruelty, first to animals, and then when he went to school," per the Boston Globe, yet Bailey also said, "During school hours he was a model child, a teacher's pet because the authority he was lacking at home was present."

According to History, DeSalvo and two of his sisters were at some point sold off to work as farm laborers. Eventually, he joined the military, where Biography says he was discharged from for disobeying orders. 

In the end, the man whose life was shaped by violence at the hands of his father, then became violent himself, was stabbed to death in his prison cell in 1973 when he was 40 years old, per The New York Times

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