Buried Bones - a historical true crime podcast with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes · Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Blood on the Cobblestones PT 2

September 17, 2025·57 min·1 clip

The Boston Strangler's victim selection breaks every profiling rule.

Buried Bones pairs journalist and author Kate Winkler-Dawson with retired cold case investigator Paul Holes to apply modern forensic thinking to historical murders. In this second part covering the Boston Strangler case, they work through the 1962-1963 murders across Boston and surrounding areas. The first five victims were older white women between 56 and 75, all killed in their residences, often with their bodies posed and covered. Holes analyzes this consistency as intentional victim selection, likely tied to the offender's comfort level and opportunity. The case then deviated: Sophie, a 19-year-old Black woman, was killed in early December 1962. Holes discusses whether this represents genuine evolution toward a different preferred victim type or an opportunistic attack on an isolated target. The next victim, Patricia, 23, was covered in her bed, mimicking sleep — a covering behavior Holes notes appears with two of the younger victims. In 1963, the murders moved outside Back Bay Boston — to Lynn and Lawrence, roughly 30 miles out. Holes explains why these distances are unremarkable geographically and discusses what an anchor point analysis might reveal. The episode's most forensically significant victim is Mary Brown, 69, found with her clothing ripped off, a towel pushed halfway down her throat, stabbed with a meat fork still protruding from her chest, skull fractures, a face beaten beyond recognition, and evidence of sexual assault. Holes characterizes this as an anger-retaliatory attack: the level of violence against a victim who could not have resisted significantly suggests the offender was working out personal anger, while the continuing sexual assault component confirms strangulation remains core to the fantasy. The contrast between the covering behavior seen with other victims and the extreme post-mortem violence with Mary is the analytical focus.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Buried Bones - a historical true crime podcast with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes