Boston Strangler tells the stories of two women, Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole, who helped significantly contribute to the Boston Strangler case and uncover the mystery. It’s almost like Zodiac meets the Boston Strangler case. We at OTN were able to attend the press conference for the film and here’s 5 exciting things we learned from the cast and crew involved.

1.Keira Knightley credits Matt Ruskin’s “wonderful” Boston Strangler script for helping her learn about the topic

Keira Knightley plays Loretta McLaughlin, one of the journalists who is studying the Boston Strangler case. Although the case is an extremely famous one, Knightley says that she didn’t know much about it until reading the script from writer/director Matt Ruskin.

Well, I think for me, I had heard of the Boston Strangler. I really didn’t know anything about it. So I really came to it from Matt’s wonderful script. And I just thought it was a really interesting way of telling the story of a serial killer but through the point-of-view of these two female journalists. And the fact that you’ve kinda got a case where most people didn’t know that it was two women who broke the story, that they’ve largely sort of been erased from the history of this case, I thought was really interesting.

Keira Knightley

2. Matt Ruskin has a very personal connection to a particular Boston Strangler victim

Director Matt Ruskin shared during the press conference that one of his friends was the granddaughter of Jean Cole, one of the reporters who worked on the Boston Strangler case. He says if it wasn’t for Facebook, he would never have known this

I read Jean Cole’s obituary, and it mentioned that she had two daughters. And I looked them up, and one of them had a Facebook profile and in the Facebook profile, she had one photograph. And in the photo, she had her arm around an old friend of mine. So I called up my friend, and I said, “How do you know this woman?” And she explained to me that that was her mother and Jean Cole was her grandmother and someone that she absolutely revered before she passed away. So she introduced me to both families.

Matt Ruskin

3. Carrie Coon was shocked at how integral women were to solving the Boston Strangler case

Carrie Coon, who plays Jean Cole in Boston Strangler, said that she was shocked at how crucial women were to solving the case.

That was the most shocking part of it for me, that these women were so integral to breaking the case and to forcing the police departments to share information. And their names are never mentioned in association with it.

Carrie Coon

4. Chris Cooper was influenced by a Pulitzer Prize winner for his role

Chris Cooper, the Academy Award winning actor who plays Jack MacLaine in Boston Stranger, says that he was able to speak to a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who worked at the Boston Globe and was able to help Cooper play the role

I was lucky enough to rub shoulders with Eileen McNamara, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who worked on the Boston Globe in the 70s and 80s. Loretta was a mentor to Eileen, and Eileen directed me to exactly what I needed. And a little bit unorthodox, I followed Jack Maclaine, the character. Jack was never too interested in these murders, you know?

Chris Cooper

5. Matt Ruskin chose not to show the Boston Stangler’s face for a specific reason

In the film, the Boston Strangler, who is widely suspected to be Albert DeSalvo, was played by David Dastmalchian. However, despite the numerous pieces of evidence to prove DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler in real life, there has been no official confirmation. When asked why the killer’s face was never shown during the murder sequences, here’s what Ruskin had to say.

Well, you know, a big piece of the film is about identity and who is this killer or killers, so it was important to leave that as this unknown, as this gray area. And I also, you know, felt strongly about not depicting violence in a way that was gratuitous, so much of the violence, many of the attacks, happen offscreen for that reason as well.

Boston Strangler stars Keira Knightley, Carrie Coon, Alessandro Nivola, Chris Cooper, David Dastmalchian, and Morgan Spector. The film now streaming on Disney+.