Charles E. Terry

In 2014 Confessions of the Boston Strangler, a documentary from Northern Light Productions, investigated Charles E. Terry's life.

Seven days after the discovery of Clegg's body, a team of detectives led by Thomas J. Cavanagh, Jr. managed to track down Terry in a Greenwich Village bar. He was quickly arrested, and under interrogation by Cavanagh, Terry quickly confessed to the killing, describing it in graphic detail. For this, he was quickly charged with murder, convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair. However, taking into account his mental state, a judge later commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. On April 15, 1981, Terry, who was suffering from lung cancer, died in prison from pulmonary embolism.

According to his confession, on May 30, 1963, Terry and the 62-year-old Zenovia Clegg, a victim of cancer who wore scarves to cover the surgical scars on her neck, had arranged to have sex at a hotel in Times Square. However, Clegg humiliated Terry because of his impotence. The enraged man then began beating Clegg, strangling her with her scarf while on the bed, tying it into a bow afterwards. After that, he sexually assaulted her naked body with a liquor bottle, posing it in a sexual manner, before leaving the premises. A few days later, a maid discovered the body, as well as a pear placed next to the victim's right leg.

Although Theresa divorced Terry in 1961, after his release, the two became acquainted again, resulting in a son named Mark Shawn LaRochelle being born on July 26, 1962. Charles denied the claim of being the child's father. Over the following years, he had several jobs, including working as a truck driver, painter and laborer, but struggled to keep them. In 1962, he was fired from two jobs he held in his native Waterville: from the-then Crescent Hotel for not following orders, and from the Wyandotte Worsted Co. for having a criminal record. During this period, Terry was noted for having lived in several locations: New Orleans, New York, Waterville and Boston.

On December 17, 1962, stewardess Donna Kimmey was strangled in Kenner, Louisiana. Terry would later tell New York investigators that he had been in New Orleans in December 1962.

On June 3, 1958, 29-year-old Oakland native Patricia Wing was killed in a remote wooded area in Fairfield, allegedly after being picked up by a man with whom she was having an affair. Wing's lover, Augusta business executive Everett Savage, Jr., was charged with her murder, but was only convicted of assault and served his time in prison for it. However, it is believed that Terry had actually killed Wing.

Three months after his release, in April 1951, the now-21-year-old assaulted two women on the same evening in Kennebec County, raping one of them. He was quickly returned to prison for 8 years, where he was unpopular with fellow inmates, as he constantly destroyed property, drew obscene pictures and was a public disturbance. Terry was released in 1958, and on November 1 of that year, he married Theresa Lessard LaRochelle, from North Vassalboro, a divorceé with two children. The following year, Charles was arrested for assaulting a Maine woman in her 50s, breaking her jaw in two places and cutting her scalp. While serving his sentence in the Maine State Prison, he was diagnosed as an intelligent psychopath with a sexual sadism disorder.

On May 26, 1951, 24-year-old Shirley Coolen was found strangled with her own scarf in a flower garden in Brunswick. Charles Terry was suspected in her killing, but was never charged.

Standing tall at 6 feet, 5 inches (1, 95 meters) and very slim, the 17-year-old soon joined the Marine Corps, serving from 1947 to 1949. He was dishonorably discharged after he was arrested and convicted of stealing a vehicle while absent on leave. While incarcerated, Terry alleged that he was raped by other inmates.

In 1935, Terry enrolled into the North Grammar School, moving for a short time to Brookside Elementary before returning to North Grammar. On December 19, 1941, the family moved to Winslow, where Charles attended Winslow High School until the 10th grade, when he quit. At school, the youngster was often described as a misfit and a loner by his classmates, never getting along with teachers and infamous for stealing, especially from the boys' locker room.

Charles Edward Terry (May 26, 1930 – April 15, 1981) was an American murderer and suspected serial killer convicted of the 1963 strangling of Zenovia Clegg, and a suspect in two murders in his native Maine. It is also suggested that Terry could have perpetrated even more killings in Massachusetts (including several attributed to the Boston Strangler) and Louisiana. He died in prison in 1981, from pulmonary embolism, after suffering from lung cancer.

Charles was born on May 26, 1930, to parents Frank Terry and Oakland-born Susie Terry (née Pelkie). He also had an older sister, Frances. The Terry family managed a store selling hand-braided rugs on Pleasant Street, while Frank worked at the Kennobec Canoe Company, owned by his brother George. Little Charlie was regarded as a normal boy with a loving attitude towards his parents, but at the age of 4, he hit his head on a rock and nearly drowned in the Messalonskee Lake. He was found unconscious and floating face-down in the water, and was speedily resuscitated. According to his parents, this incident would later permanently change him.