Santa Barbara resident Joanne Desmond is featured in the new movie ‘Boston Strangler’
Santa Barbara resident Joanne Desmond plans to write a book about her experiences as a TV news anchor and field reporter. She’s featured in the movie “Boston Strangler,” which will start streaming Friday on Hulu.
“The Strangler was stalking me!” Joanne Desmond exclaimed. “He would ask people where I live and eventually knew my address.”
Although she believes the Boston Strangler tried to break into her home, Ms. Desmond fortunately didn’t have a face-to-face confrontation with him. But she did report on him as the first female nightly news anchor in the 1960s at WBZ-TV in Boston.
Ms. Desmond, a current Santa Barbara resident, is featured in “Boston Strangler,” starring Kiera Knightley and Carrie Coon. The film will start streaming Friday on Hulu.
The Boston Strangler became known for murdering 13 women in the 1960s. He sexually assaulted his victims, then strangled them with the victims’ stockings. His identity was later revealed as Albert DeSalvo.
Ms. Desmond reported on the story various times during the 1960s, and a clip of her reporting is featured in the film.
This week, Ms. Desmond is on the East Coast for premieres of the movie — Monday in Boston and today in New York City.
The movie is centered around Loretta McLaughlin, played by Ms. Knightley, the Boston reporter who broke the story on the Boston Strangler. The movie follows her investigation of the killer and shows the sexism in the male-dominated news industry during the 1960s.
“It was interesting to see a woman’s angle to the story,” explained Ms. Desmond when talking about Ms. McLaughlin. “We knew Loretta. She was the only woman to show up. She was more than capable of covering the story.”
Ms. Desmond said what she appreciated most about the the movie was that it was “not ‘Here’s what happened,’ but more like ‘How did that event affect us today?’”
Even though the movie was specifically about Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Desmond had a huge part to play during the reporting of the murders.
And she plans to write a book based on her experiences as a TV news anchor and field reporter. She interviewed everyone from President John F. Kennedy to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the first astronauts, movie stars, Nobel Prize winners and more.
Ms. Desmond was a trailblazer for not only women in journalism, but also for all women around the country. She was one of the first women to be a nightly news anchor. This was huge for the industry of journalism, but it also showed women of the time that they could do whatever their hearts were set on.
“I brought a new perspective,” she said, “I was at the start of the media and a true changemaker.”
When asked about why she decided to be a part of the Boston Strangler movie, she explained that it is a “wonderful way to renew my energy” and she loved “staying connected.”
Besides the Boston Strangler, Ms. Desmond was involved in other hard-hitting stories during her time as an anchor. She noted that one of the toughest turnarounds in her journalism career was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. When the story broke, she was up all night and had to be ready for the camera in a matter of minutes.
Ms. Desmond has also been a part of many journalism pieces, including her work on “Eyes on Korea” and “Doctor’s House Call.” She has received multiple awards for her work, including the Pathfinders Award from Women in Communications Inc., “Typical Teen of Chicago” Designation from Chicago Chamber of Commerce, a CableACE Award for “Excellence in a Program Series,” a Wilson Award for medical writing and a Mutual Friendship Award for “Eyes on Korea.”
She was named one of Boston’s “Ten Outstanding Women of 1965” from the National Academy of Cable Television for her work during the Boston Strangler and other news productions of the time.
In addition to her long and illustrious career in media, Ms. Desmond has hobbies that have made an impact in Santa Barbara. She is into sustainable living, and specifically, she takes students from various colleges to learn sustainable travel in Europe. She is soon hoping to take UCSB students to do the same.
And Ms. Desmond gave some advice for young journalists wanting to join the business.
“Get yourself out there! Make eye contact and stay committed to the conversation. You need to be pounding pavements. Go out of your way to find your story.”
email: abahnsen@newspress.com
TUNE IN
The “Boston Strangler” will start streaming Friday on Hulu.
To see the trailer, go to https://youtu.be/COcsNVMxdqU.
