George Nassar

George Henry Nassar[1][2] (June 7, 1932 – December 3, 2018) was an American murderer, known for his claim that Albert DeSalvo allegedly confessed to being the Boston Strangler to him in late 1965, while both were cellmates at a prison psychiatric ward.

Nassar contacted his lawyer F. Lee Bailey and informed him of this confession, which led to DeSalvo becoming the prime suspect in the unsolved Strangler murders.

[2] On the evening of April 15, 1948, then aged 15, Nassar and two friends, 16-year-olds Gennaro Pullino and William Kenney, committed a series of robberies in their hometown of Lawrence.

They stole $80 (equivalent to $1,015 in 2023) from three local businesses, but failed to rob fourth, a convenience store, when owner Victoria Borisek drove the robbers out with a broom after being threatened at gunpoint.

[7] The fifth and final business the trio robbed was a variety store on 99 Park Street, run by 59-year-old Lithuanian-born shop owner Dominic Kirmil.

[7] Kirmil was taken to Lawrence General Hospital, where he gave detailed descriptions of his assailants to police, although mistakenly describing the robbers as aged 18–20, before he died three hours later from the loss of blood.

The previous victim Victoria Borisek as well as several witnesses to Kirmil's murder described Nassar's distinct dark-colored trench coat to the police.

[1][7][8] On May 20, Nassar was picked up by Lawrence patrolmen Charles Keenan and Walter Sliva after crashing a stolen car on Route 110 in Ayer, Massachusetts.

During his incarceration, Nassar gained an interest in studying the Russian language and formed a friendship with Unitarian minister William Moors and joined the Prison's Debating Society.

[12][13] According to Ames Robey, medical director of Bridgewater State Hospital, Nassar became involved in the Irish Gang War in Charlestown, Boston, and was connected to at least 17 murders and possibly a total of 30.

[2] On September 29, 1964, Nassar murdered 44-year-old Texaco station owner Irvin Hilton in Andover, in full view of Rita Buote and her 14-year-old daughter Diane.

A truck driver, William King, and his passenger Reginald Mortimer wrote down the plate number, noting its Virginia registration, and called the police.

Psychological examiners assessed him as above average intelligence and diagnosed him as "paranoid schizophrenic with an extremely severe sociopathic personality disorder", and was put under observation, during which time he met DeSalvo.

They included two prominent locals: progressive WBZ radio host Paul Benzaquin and the minister of the Greater Lawrence Men’s Brotherhood of Temple Emmanuel, who was a colleague of Nassar's prison chaplain William Moors.

We perceive no error or abuse of discretion in declining to reopen the proceedings after such a long period of inaction.”[28] Nassar's appeal was denied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on February 15, 2008.

[5] After viewing the film, journalist Sarah Weinman contacted the Massachusetts Department of Correction for updates, finding it unlikely he would live so long after a terminal diagnosis.

[5] The New York Times subsequently reported that he died from prostate cancer at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital Correctional Unit in Boston on December 3, 2018, at the age of 86, just over a month after the interview aired.