James McMorrow, Cottingham confessed last year to three other cold-case slayings of teenage school girls in Bergen County: Jacalyn (Jackie) Harp, 13, of Midland Park, who was walking home from school band practice on July 17, 1968 when she was strangled with the leather strap of her flag sling; Irene Blase, 18, of Bogota, who went missing from Hackensack on April 7, 1969 and was found strangled in Saddle River; Denise Falasca, 15, of Closter, who went missing from Westwood on July 14, 1969. K3nVxb;X)oxeHME~> They found an 18-year-old victim who'd been bitten and stabbed bound with handcuffs. A hotel worker arrived at Room 417 to find smoke and a horrible scene: the scorched remains of two women on a bed. The case also had parallels to a previously unsolved murder of nurse Maryann Carr, who was found dead in the same motel three years earlier. His crimes were discovered in May 1980, when a maid at a Hasbrouck Heights motel heard. The New York Times, p. 2. Before his arrest, he was a successful computer operator who worked at the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurance company in Midtown Manhattan. Everything that I was taught about evil was evident in his presence, in his demeanor, in the gaze of his eyes, Moye told The Post. It was just shock all the way around.. [7] In a 2009 interview, Cottingham admitted to the murders and claimed that he severed the heads and hands of the victims to prevent their identification, as he was acquainted with Goodarzi and had been seen with her in a bar the night before.[2]. After their drink, Cottingham offered to bring Blase back to the bus station where they had taken the bus. 0000002865 00000 n The predator, dubbed The Torso Killer, would strike again in May 1980. (1981, June 16). Did the old man kill those girls? But her light shines brightly against the backdrop of evil.. In 1948, Cottingham's family moved to Dumont, New Jersey, and in 1956 to River Vale, New Jersey, where he began his fascination with bondage pornography. I had long suspected that whoever killed Irene Blase also killed Denise Falasca, Mr. Anzilotti said. Just shy of his 21st birthday, Richard Cottingham began a vicious killing spree that tore through north New Jersey and New York City. He later detailed his brief 1979 encounter with Cottingham in Times Square Torso Ripper: Sex and Murder on The Deuce. His upcoming book on the vicious predator will be released next fall. And even though Harp ran, Cottingham soon overtook her and dragged her into a grouping of bushes where teens would often go to smoke and make out, he said. I was shocked that it was a serial killer, Moye said of his mothers confessed murderer. )' She had been a teenager when her sister was killed. Mr. Anzilotti insisted that this case be resolved in open court. But he eventually realized the years-long association, which involved countless state prison visits, was coming to an end. He was also extremely fidgety and unable to sit still. However, he started killing again in 1974, when he murdered Lorraine Marie Kelly and Mary Ann Pryor. Although Vogel was the earliest of Cottinghams murder victims, the killer has said she was not his first, according to Vronsky. Im leaving, he said. (1981, June 16). startxref Inmates were wagering everything from cash to cigarettes. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Moye, who traveled from Georgia to see Cottingham confess to killing his mother and four other women as part of a plea deal, said he leaned heavily on his Catholic faith as the unrepentant killer watched via video feed from South Woods State Prison in New Jersey, where hes serving multiple life sentences. In 1964, Cottingham graduated from Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, New Jersey. The sergeant was undeterred. But Mr. Anzilotti kept pressing him: You know youre going to tell me.. Cottingham murdered at least twelve women between 1967 and 1980. To this day, the other young female has never been identified. 21 0 obj <> endobj 0000001425 00000 n And for Cottingham, every night was a full moon.. Authorities executed a warrant on his Lodi home, which had a private room containing evidence linking him to the Torso Killer. I think it was just an evolution in his killing.. Six months later, Vronsky would learn that the man he encountered on the elevator was Cottingham as the killers face appeared in newspapers across the region. When they arrived, one firefighter attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a woman they found on the bed. Her glasses, a ring, a necklace, Ms. Mulder said. You can change your choice at any time by using the Privacy Center link in our footer. The girls, Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16, had last been seen days earlier at a nearby bus stop. The latitude and longitude coordinates for the house are: To view directions on how to get there, you can use the Google Maps shortcut below: 29 Vreeland StreetLodiNew JerseyNJ 07644United States. On one occasion, he dismembered two sex workers and set fire to their torsos at a hotel near Times Square. [18], During the early 1980s, Cottingham was convicted of five murders in two separate New Jersey trials in 1981[19] and 1982,[20] and in a single New York trial in 1984 for three murders. Ms. Falasca was a 15-year-old who left her familys house in July 1969 and never returned. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. But on May 22, 1980 Cottingham's life as a predator came to light. Harp was found strangled to death the next day. Following his arrest, police linked him to the murder of Valerie Streets. Anzilotti and BCPO subsequently confirmed the "exceptional closures" of these three murders.[13][8]. I have done many shows about serial killers, and I have always marveled at the fact that [Ted] Bundy, [John Wayne] Gacy, [Jeffrey] Dahmer and Berkowitz were all household names, perversely, Berlinger told The Post. Questioning Mr. Cottingham was complicated. 21 0 obj <> endobj Mr. Cottingham mentioned details of the killing that matched what Mr. Anzilotti knew from the case file. 0000007078 00000 n Getting to that point wasnt easy, Anzilotti said. Since his conviction, Cottingham has pleaded guilty to 12 murders. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. Cottingham was not charged with this murder until June 2022, when he was implicated by DNA.[10]. Despite the gruesome nature of his murders, the butcher, named Richard Cottingham, never warranted the breathless news coverage of David Son of Sam Berkowitz, who only three years prior paralyzed the Big Apple with fear. In April 1978, Cottingham's wife filed for divorce on the grounds of "abandonment" and "mental cruelty" (refusing to have sex with her after the birth of their third child, staying out until early morning, and leaving her with insufficient household funds). The third result is Richard Eric Cunningham age 50s in Skillman, NJ. The investigators handed Ms. Mulder possessions of Jackies from half a century past. When the 40th year since the killings arrived in 2014, the local police asked the public for any new information. Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/nyregion/new-jersey-serial-killer-cottingham-anzilotti.html. According to his neighbors, he seemed like a regular family man. This is a somber day as we revisit the horrific acts and terror this man brought upon Bergen County nearly 50 years ago, the prosecutor said Tuesday. [5] On May 15, 1980, Jean Reyner was strangled and her throat cut in New York's historic Seville Hotel. Then hed clear the room until only he and Mr. Cottingham faced each another, and begin with his questions. 0000009543 00000 n Cottingham, a Lodi man who moonlighted as one of New Jersey's most savage serial killers, had been convicted of murdering five women in New York and New Jersey. Cottingham primarily sought prostitutes who were petite blondes in their late teens to mid-twenties. The plea leaves the question: Will they be Cottinghams final admissions? Years after her sisters death, she had found some comfort speaking to another from her tribe, Karen Miller, a sister of Denise Falasca. . Goodarzi had come to the United States years prior from Iran. Mr. Cottingham left behind no clues. The murders committed by the Torso Killer bore little resemblance to the ones Mr. Anzilotti was investigating, but their timing matched up with Mr. Cottinghams settling in New Jersey. View Richard Cottingham's record in Manchester, NJ including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. On April 7, 1969, Cottingham saw Blase, 18, shopping in Hackensack, Vronsky said. Years ticked past, 1974 into 1975, into the 1980s, the 1990s. endstream endobj 22 0 obj <> endobj 23 0 obj <> endobj 24 0 obj <>/ColorSpace<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageC]/ExtGState<>>> endobj 25 0 obj <> endobj 26 0 obj <> endobj 27 0 obj <> endobj 28 0 obj [/ICCBased 41 0 R] endobj 29 0 obj <> endobj 30 0 obj <> endobj 31 0 obj <> endobj 32 0 obj <> endobj 33 0 obj <>stream But he told Mr. Cottingham. I took over handling the calls, the arrangements. Twenty years later, he was reinvestigating several cold cases involving girls and young women who had been abducted, sexually abused and killed. It was pure evil. Therefore, you should be respectful and not step foot on the property without permission. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. If they came forward and said theyd been assaulted, they would be arrested for prostitution, so there was no reason to come forward, Berlinger said. The weather worsened. Vogel was found dead in her own car in Ridgefield Park, nude and bound. Cottingham, a divorced father of three who previously lived in Lodi, NJ, also pleaded guilty to the February 1968 rape and murder of Diane Cusick, 23, a dance instructor from New Hyde Park, NY. 0000000016 00000 n He did a U-turn in a bank parking lot and approached, he said. His search for a killer led him to a man already locked away, in New Jersey State Prison, 75 miles from his office. 0000001412 00000 n The Google Street View image above was taken in May of 2022. But eventually, their old give-and-take resumed. Cottingham, a depraved killer already serving more than 200 years in prison, confessed to tossing the 22-year-old mother of two from a bridge ending her familys half-century quest for answers. [15] In December 2022, Cottingham was convicted of Diane Cusick's 1968 murder and, under a non-prosecution agreement, officially admitted to killing another four women during 19721973 in Long Island, New York: Mary Beth Heinz, Laverne Moye, Sheila Heiman, and Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves. A number of killings of young women and girls in New Jersey and New York had gone unsolved for years before a night in May 1980 when a maid at a Hasbrouck Heights hotel called police saying shed heard a woman screaming. The schoolgirl murder confessions increased that to to nine. Bergen County investigators realized there were numerous open sexual assault cases with similar hallmarks: Cottingham kidnapped them from Times Square, drugged and assaulted them. In April of 1979, he started living in the basement of the property after his wife initiated divorce proceedings against him for "abandonment" and "mental cruelty.". These include the Times Square Killer, the Torso Killer, and the Times Square Torso Ripper. Its Godlike almost. In other words, he may have been content and/or preoccupied. Vronsky and Weiss had been meeting with Cottingham in prison since the spring of 2017, counseling him to make the confession. You're a whore and you have to be punished." Cottingham had just raped, tortured and beheaded two sex workers in a room at the motel before setting it on fire. Richard Cottingham, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. Hes younger when all this is going on in Bergen County, he said. And considering the closure of yesterdays cases, I absolutely believe him.. He was imprisoned. They captured Cottingham soon after. In recent years, he had asked Mr. Cottingham about the case, and the inmate had simultaneously denied responsibility and let on that he knew more than he would share. He said, Youre welcome.. <<69EF7C237A736942AE760EBDB9B8F80B>]>> endstream endobj 22 0 obj<> endobj 23 0 obj<> endobj 24 0 obj<>/ColorSpace<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageC]/ExtGState<>>> endobj 25 0 obj<> endobj 26 0 obj<> endobj 27 0 obj<> endobj 28 0 obj[/ICCBased 41 0 R] endobj 29 0 obj<> endobj 30 0 obj<> endobj 31 0 obj<> endobj 32 0 obj<> endobj 33 0 obj<>stream Richard Cottingham, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. A real sick bastard did this, retired NYPD detective Jim Riegel, who was working as a beat cop that day, recalls his sergeant telling him in the new Netflix series Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer, out Wednesday. Then, in January of this year, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office made an announcement: The notorious serial killer Richard Cottingham, known as "The Torso Killer," had confessed to the murders. We've received your submission. 0000001982 00000 n The following is a chronological summary of Cottingham's seventeen identified murder victims and four identified survivors: Cottingham's case has been discussed in several books and documentaries on serial killers. trailer He lived with his wife and kids in. On February 15, 1968, Cottingham killed his second known victim. In a candid interview, the Bergen County chief who spent 20 years trying to wrangle new confessions out of serial killer Richard Cottingham revealed the 74-year-old prisoner has "regrets". Cottingham has confessed to murdering 12 women. And later that same month, a fifth woman was found mutilated in the former Hotel Seville near Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Cottingham was indicted in Cusicks killing in June after DNA evidence linked him to the cold-case slaying believed to be the oldest match to ever lead to a prosecution, Nassau County prosecutors said. The highly-respected law enforcement veteran knew the notorious killer was responsible for the deaths of the North Bergen teens, but Cottingham made him work for it. Cottingham has been given various nicknames over the years. Below, you will find the address and the GPS coordinates for this location. On August 21, 1972, he is charged and convicted of shoplifting at a Stern's department store in Paramus, New Jersey, and was sentenced to pay a $50 fine or ten days in jail. To this day, their remains have never been recovered. He said he wouldn't have done it if I wasn't retiring.. This murder was later linked to the 1977 murder of Maryann Carr, who was left in the same motel's parking lot. Again and again, for 15 years, Mr. Anzilotti met with the inmate, seeking the truth. 0000008501 00000 n 0000000016 00000 n Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. Feech La Manna's house from The Sopranos. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). Those cases were already closed. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, Times Square Torso Ripper: Sex and Murder on The Deuce, cataloging 17,000 years of pathological homicide. He then drowned them in a bathtub, he said, and dumped their bodies in the woods in a wooded area behind Rolling Ridge Road in Montvale. Cusicks daughter, Darlene Altman, told Nassau County Judge Caryn Fink her late grandparents raised her after her mothers shocking slaying. Her killer, Richard Cottingham, was a computer operator, married with three children of his own, living a seemingly normal life. It is situated at 29 Vreeland Street in Lodi, New Jersey. Peter Karas/The Record, via USA Today Network. %%EOF I asked them where they were going. The mall, they replied. Hes embarrassed by this case, he said. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Two focused entirely on him: Rod Leith's The Prostitute Murders: The People vs. Richard Cottingham (Lyle Stuart Inc., 1983) and Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer (Netflix, 2021). [6] In 2022, Cottingham officially confessed to the 1970 murder of Lorraine McGraw, under a non-prosecution agreement. The photographs are ordered from left to right and top to bottom. On Thursday, authorities told NJ Advance Media that Cottingham confessed to the murders of three Bergen County teenagers in the late 1960s - each a cold case for over 50 years. Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates. On Dec. 2, 1979, the murders that earned Cottingham the nickname the "Torso Killer took place in New York City. The bridge where Mallory Beach died in a boating accident. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. On April 14, in a recorded interview, Mr. Cottingham said he remembered Mary Ann Pryor and Lorraine Kelly, and Mr. Anzilotti asked why he knew their names, when he hadnt in past cases. After six years of visits, there was a break. Filming Location in Lodi, New Jersey, United States, Filming Location in Paterson, New Jersey, United States, Filming Location in Clifton, New Jersey, United States, Filming Location in Bloomfield, New Jersey, United States, Crime Location Wylie, Texas, United States, Crime Location Memphis, Tennessee, United States, Place of Interest Brooklyn, New York, United States, Crash Site Location Beaufort, South Carolina, United States. O'Dell's muffled cries of pain became so loud that the motel staff, already uneased by the previous two murders of Carr and Street, called police and then rushed to the room demanding that Cottingham open the door. Hackensack, Its not something you can ever get over, Altman, 58, told The Post. He didnt have the decency or the dignity to ask for forgiveness or to even address the victims families. He did not know the names of those he killed. The New York Times, p. 26.
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