‘Boston Strangler’

Matt Ruskin’s new film focuses on the female investigative journalists who broke the story,

Between June 1962 and January 1964, 13 single women ranging in age from 19 to 85 were sexually assaulted and strangled in Boston. A new film directed and written by Matt Ruskin follows the events of those fateful and fear-filled years in the city through the eyes of pioneering female newspaper journalists Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley) and Jean Cole (Carrie Coon). They were the first to piece together the clues linking the murders as serial killings. They dubbed him the Boston Strangler.

What drew you to this project?

Matt Ruskin: I grew up in Boston [and] had always heard about the Boston Strangler, but I didn’t know anything about the case. Several years ago I started reading everything I could and discovered this incredibly layered murder mystery full of twists and turns. In many ways it was a story about the city at the time. I was completely gripped by the case and when I discovered these reporters, McLaughlin and Cole, I found they were the first reporters to connect the murders. They gave the Boston Strangler his name during the course of their reporting. It was a compelling way to revisit this case.

Keira Knightley: I’d heard of the Boston Strangler, [but] I didn’t know anything about the story. I came to it from Matt’s wonderful script. I thought it was an interesting way of telling the story of a serial killer, through the point of view of two female journalists. Most people don’t know that it was two women who broke the story [and] that they’d largely been erased from the history of this case.

Carrie Coon: It was shocking for me that these women were integral to breaking the case and forcing the police departments to share information, but were never mentioned in association with it. The stories of how they became journalists were compelling. They echoed the lives of the women in my world who grew up in the Midwest. My mother was a nurse. One of my grandmothers was a teacher and the other was a homemaker — those were the opportunities available to women, aside from secretary, so Jean’s fight to become a journalist was moving to me.

What impressed you about these women and the struggles they faced during the investigation?

KK: The film is a love song to female investigative journalists and highlights how important it is to have women in positions of power in storytelling. It was these two women who said: “This is an important story. It’s information that needs to be in the public to keep women in Boston safe.” It was a story that had been, at that point, ignored by the male establishment. It highlights how important it is to have as many good female journalists as we can for the safety of our communities.

How does the relationship between the two reporters speak to issues about the relationships between women in maledominated workplaces?

CC: There’s a story built into the film about female allyship. These women warned the women of Boston about the danger and advised them how to protect themselves, which isn’t the story that’s often told. Jean’s conventional way of moving through that male-dominated world was challenged by Loretta’s doggedness and willingness to create controversy, which is something Jean avoided outside the arenas she was investigating. What Matt did is show how Jean’s reality was complicated by the presence of Loretta, which is why they were friends for the rest of their lives.