A new film about the pursuit of notorious serial killer The Boston Strangler is on the way from Crown Heights writer/director Matt Ruskin, and Empire Magazine has debuted the first official look at leads Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon as crusading journalists Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole.
McLaughlin was a reporter for the Record-American newspaper, who becomes the first journalist to link the murders together. She joined forces with friend and colleague Cole (Coon) in an attempt to identify the ruthless killer, but the duo found themselves hindered at every turn by the rampant sexism of the era.
"Having grown up in Boston, I had always heard of the Strangler in a very abstract sense, but I didn’t really know anything about the details of the case and a few years ago, I started reading about it and discovered a really fascinating, layered serial killer story," says Ruskin. "I always loved journalism stories and in researching the case, I discovered these two journalists, starting with Loretta McLaughlin, the first journalist to connect the murders, and in her reporting, she actually gave the Boston Strangler his name. It was a really monumental story for her in her career in the early 1960s. She was a very ambitious reporter in a male-dominated field and this was a real turning point for her."
The Boston Strangler is believed to have been Albert Henry DeSalvo, who confessed to the murders after being arrested for a series of rapes. DNA evidence did link him to the final victim, but many still believe the killings - sometimes referred to as the "Silk Stocking Murders" - were committed by more than one person.
Boston Strangler will launch on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK on 17 March.
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