Car Had Victim’s License Plate
Pair Seized in Strangling Case
Mon, Aug 27, 1962 – 1 · The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts)
Two South Boston youths were arrested in Norwood this morning near a stolen car which police said bore a license plate taken from the auto of one of the four Boston strangling victims.
The youths, 17-year-old cousins, allegedly told Norwood Patrolmen Thomas Michienzi and James Kelly they took the car from the parking lot of a Dorchester gasoline station last Wednesday.
They were turned over to Boston detectives and questioned in the strangling of Mrs. Nina Nichols, 60, in her apartment at 1940 Commonwealth av., Brighton, in June.
The license plate was hers.
Detectives, who have been working around the clock in an effort to solve the multiple slayings, are also questioning a 60-year-old South End man in the death of Mrs. Mary Davis, 60, of Blue Hill av., Roxbury, last month. She was found strangled in a South End hotel room.
Detectives said that the suspect admits being in a Tremont st, South End cafe the night of the slaying. Investigators said Mrs. Davis was in the same cafe shortly before she was murdered.
Police said the South End man fits the general description of the man who registered with Mrs. Davis at the hotel the night of the slaying. He and the South Boston youths were questioned at length regarding the murders of the two other Boston victims: Mrs. Ida Irga, 75, of 7 Grove st., Beacon Hill, murdered Aug. 19 and Mrs. Anna E. Slesers, 55, of 77 Gainsboro st., Back Bay. Lynn police also plan to question them in the slaying there on July 2, of Mrs. Helen E. Blake, 65, of 73 Newhall st.
The South Boston youths were taken into custody on Walpole st., Norwood when police said they attempted to flee in the stolen car which had stalled about 1 a. m. today.
They were grabbed by the officers who became suspicious when they spotted two different license plates on the auto.
Although the youthful suspects allegedly admitted taking the car from the parking, lot in Dorchester, police said they denied any knowledge of the stolen license plates.
Investigators said that the registration plate had been taken from Mrs. Nichols’ car after the slaying. The car was found parked and intact in front of her home the night of the murder, they said.
Detectives said neither license plates nor the car itself had been reported stolen.
The South Boston youths appeared in the lineup at Police Headquarters on charges of larceny of a vehicle.