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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. Although Vogel was the earliest of Cottinghams murder victims, the killer has said she was not his first, according to Vronsky. Cottingham was apprehended in the hallway by arriving police officers. That was less than a year after Cottingham and his wife had their first child. The victim's hands were tightly handcuffed behind her back and police would later lift a fingerprint matching Cottingham, the only fingerprint successfully found from any of his known murders. [1] He was nicknamed the New York Ripper, the Torso Killer and the Times Square Killer, since his crimes often targeted prostitutes and included mutilation. Cottingham is currently in state prison on a life sentence . Cottingham, 75, admitted before state Superior Court Judge Keith Bachmann in April 2021 that he had killed Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and her friend Lorraine Kelly, 16, when the pair went shopping for. I could feel it.. She was Nancy Pryor, and she was 19 when her sister, Mary Ann, was found dead. Anzilotti and BCPO subsequently confirmed the "exceptional closures" of these three murders.[13][8]. For years, the three confessions remained a secret, until January 2020, when a true-crime writer who had been visiting Mr. Cottingham in prison, Peter Vronsky, announced that the inmate had revealed his crimes in interviews for a forthcoming book. 0 He enjoys our relationship. 0000000991 00000 n But Cottingham had other victims, and he would later boast of killing 85 to 100 people. 0000006846 00000 n [2], In 2010, he pleaded guilty to the 1967 murder of Nancy Vogel. Those cases were already closed. Like a werewolf, Vronsky told The Post. She had been tied up and strangled, authorities said. 0000009543 00000 n This location belongs to the following categories: Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to see future locations. A hotel worker arrived at Room 417 to find smoke and a horrible scene: the scorched remains of two women on a bed. And for Cottingham, every night was a full moon.. The bodies of the women had no heads and no hands. But Cottingham flew under the radar precisely because of how he chose his victims and who his victims were. Vronsky, whose works also include an authoritative tome cataloging 17,000 years of pathological homicide, said Cottingham scouted his victims before transforming from a family man into a ferocious monster. The potential payoff in return felt almost too important to describe. The chief questioned Mr. Cottingham. 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 0000003451 00000 n 0000006081 00000 n I never thought I would get caught, he added. [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]. The Google Street View image on the right was taken 38 years later, in June of 2018. He would approach them in bars, drug them with the date rape drug Tuinal, take them to a remote locationtypically a motelwhere he would bind, gag, torture, and stab them before killing them by strangling them with a ligature. Crime: Cottingham, a Lodi resident, killed six women in New Jersey and New York between 1967 and 1980. %%EOF 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. But it was a way to get him comfortable to talk to me about murders.. The house was built in 1974one year before Cottingham and his wife, Janet, moved in. 0000007874 00000 n The brief encounter later inspired Vronsky to write his serial killer histories and paved the way for his prison meetings with Cottingham four decades later. It was a game to me. 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. The other girls did, you have to take it, too. And later that same month, a fifth woman was found mutilated in the former Hotel Seville near Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. He also claimed to have committed 80 perfect murders no one knows about. 0000008735 00000 n She, like members of the other families, agreed to forgo a guilty plea in open court. 0000002420 00000 n Seth Wenig/Associated Press By Ed Shanahan Dec. 5, 2022 On a. He worked hard on this., There were never any meaningful updates, until a Monday this April, when detectives knocked on her door in Ocean County, N.J., and said they had obtained a confession. It is my fervent hope that this arrest and conviction bring some semblance of closure to the friends and family of Mary Ann and Lorraine and a measure of justice to members of our communities, who have long feared this unknown actor.. There was also a lockbox filled with trophies from his murders, including Maryann Carrs apartment key and a necklace belonging to Jean Reyner. Other locations that are relatively close to this place. Vronsky and Weiss had been meeting with Cottingham in prison since the spring of 2017, counseling him to make the confession. 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 . Prosecutors had long believed that Cottingham abducted Mary Ann and Lorraine both North Bergen High School students whod been known to hitch-hike during a shopping trip to the Garden State Plaza on August 9, 1974. Richard Cottingham pleaded guilty to murder in the death of one Long Island woman and admitted under oath to killing four others. Justice was served and thats the end of it case closed. Later on, Richard took a job with Blue Cross Blue Shield in New York as a computer operator. There were at least five unsolved killings of girls, each an open wound for families seeking resolution. 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 considering the closure of yesterdays cases, I absolutely believe him.. 0000009992 00000 n [6] At Blue Cross, Cottingham worked in an office with Rodney Alcala, the fugitive child molester and future serial killer who lived in New York under the alias "John Berger". 0000003202 00000 n His wife withdrew the petition upon his arrest in May 1980, then completed the divorce after his 1981 conviction. The plea leaves the question: Will they be Cottinghams final admissions? Mary Anne and Lorraine deserve it, God rest their souls, Bergen County Prosecutors Chief of Detective Robert Anzilotti said Tuesday after Richard Cottingham of Lodi admitted killing both in 1974. He admitted that those two killings weighed on him more than the others. It would take about five months after the grisly Travel Inn slayings for investigators to arrest their man, a married father of three from Lodi, New Jersey, who preyed on sex workers in Times Square, then a seedy nucleus of pornography, prostitution and crime. Hours later, her parents drove to the mall and found Dianes Plymouth Valiant in the parking lot, where her body was discovered in the backseat. It represented the opportunity to let the entire world know that Laverne Moye was a human being. Although first responders encountered thick smoke in the room, one noticed the shape of bodies on the pair of twin beds and attempted to administer CPR. . Detective Anzilotti was startled to discover the same man killed all three. He remembers certain aspects of a person, Mr. Anzilotti said. His proclivity toward violence and the lack of solid profiling tactics for serial killers made Vronsky believe that Cottinghams claim of 100 victims was possible. The back and forth went on for weeks. To this day, the other young female has never been identified. The 22-year-old's death appeared brutal: she had been beheaded and set on fire and her skull has yet to be found. You're a whore and you have to be punished." 3. (1981, June 25). Feech La Manna's house from The Sopranos. Authorities believed it to be, thus far, the oldest criminal case to be solved and prosecuted by direct DNA evidence. A killing in Somerset County a week after Cottingham got his drivers license may have been one of his first victims, Vronsky said. Fifty years after his mother was strangled and thrown from a Long Island bridge, John Moye finally got a glimpse of the wickedness that altered his life forever. He began torturing her, nearly biting off one of her nipples. On December 15, 1977, the body of X-ray technician Maryann Carr, 26, was found brutally beaten and strangled in the parking lot of the Quality Inn motel in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, but police did not link the murder to Cottingham until his 1980 arrest at the same motel. The people listed below were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Lodi, New Jersey. If hes going to confess to some others, if they can get him to talk, just for those families if he can confess to those, that right there would be I dont know the right word to say, Ms. Mulder said. Cottingham primarily sought prostitutes who were petite blondes in their late teens to mid-twenties. I thought he could be responsible for some, Mr. Anzilotti said. For decades, a string of killings of teenage girls haunted suburban New Jersey. His additional confession to a 1974 murder was discounted by Rockland County police. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. Cottingham, whose attorney did not return messages seeking comment, has claimed to have killed as many as 100 women. But first, he wanted to return to those two murders from 47 years ago. The investigators handed Ms. Mulder possessions of Jackies from half a century past. 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. 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. Here are the nine victims Cottingham has confessed to or been convicted of killing: On Oct. 28, 1967, Vogel, 29, told friends she was going to play bingo at a local church. 0000001425 00000 n They captured Cottingham soon after. Cottingham has been given various nicknames over the years. In April 1978, after his wife had initiated divorce proceedings, he kept a locked room in a basement apartment of the house in which they lived in Lodi, New Jersey. %PDF-1.4 % Mr. Anzilotti and another investigator drove to the town of Reading, Vt., to deliver the news to Jackies older sister, Suzan Mulder, then 69. Her name was Nancy Schiava Vogel. That was roughly one month after his arrest. He married in 1970 and became a father of. He had three children, two boys and a girl, with his wife. He rented an apartment in Midtown and told his wife he worked nights. 0000010308 00000 n Then, with just days remaining before the chief retired, the inmate relented. Correctional officers found contraband and evidence of bookmaking and transferred Mr. Cottingham to solitary confinement. On Monday, July 13, 1969, at approximately 8:00 p.m., On March 1, 1970, a group of hikers came across a young woman's naked body in the woods to the west of Tweed Boulevard in, At approximately 7:00 a.m. on the morning of December 16, 1977, the body of X-ray technician, At 9:30 a.m. on May 22, 1980, police entered Room 117 at the same Quality Inn where Carr and Street were murdered and found 18-year-old, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 15:20. I was able to get almostany woman to do whatever I wanted them to do . Irene Blase, Denise Falasca and Jacalyn Harp all girls whose murders were unsolved. I asked them where they were going. The mall, they replied. xref Cottingham lived here with his wife, Janet, and their three children, Blair, Scott, and Jenny. Cottingham admitted during the plea hearing that he brought Mary Ann and Lorraine to a hotel, where he raped both and bound the girls to keep them from getting away. But in 2009, he surfaced to again make waves, when he gave a chilling interview to journalist Nadia Fezzani about his motivation and his body count. Richard Cottingham, 74, pleaded guilty Tuesday to murdering Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16, both of North Bergen. Vronsky, who frequently visits Cottingham in prison, said he had a freak, random elevator encounter with the serial killer on the early morning of Dec. 2, 1979, as he tried to check into the Travel Inn Motel near a seedy and sex-crazed Times Square. I didnt know what to expect. The picture in the top left corner shows Cottingham during one of his trials. For over 40 years, its been folklore in this county.. She, too, had been strangled. At the time, Cottingham, who had not been arrested or identified, was dubbed the "Times Square Ripper.. 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. On March 12, 1974, Cottingham was arrested in New York City for robbery and unlawful imprisonment on the complaint of another prostitute. With Ms. Pryor and a judge watching on Zoom that day, Mr. Cottingham pleaded guilty to the two murders. Then in exchange for immunity from prosecution, he confessed to murdering three New Jersey schoolgirls. To this day, their remains have never been recovered. Over the course of 13 years, beginning in 1967, Cottingham killed six women in New Jersey and New York. 0000000756 00000 n Cottingham murdered at least twelve women between 1967 and 1980. He had been dubbed the Times Square Torso Ripper setting off Vronskys lifelong fascination of serial killers. [5] On May 15, 1980, Jean Reyner was strangled and her throat cut in New York's historic Seville Hotel. However, his family moved to River Vale, New Jersey, when he was 12 years old. On December 2, 1979, firemen in New York responded to an alarm at the Travel Inn motel[11] near Times Square. After failing to return home from a trip to buy shoes at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York,[9] 23-year old Diane Cusick was found raped, beaten, and strangled to death in the back seat of her car, parked near the mall. Hes embarrassed by this case, he said. This is possibly due to the fact that he got married in 1970. Described as average and normal, New Jersey man Richard Cottingham was a father-of-three with a marriage that was slowly unravelling. 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[4][5], After his graduation, Cottingham worked for Metropolitan Life, where his father was a vice-president, starting in the mail room at the firm's Manhattan headquarters and eventually became a mainframe computer operator upon taking computer courses. Starting in 2014, Cottingham confidentially admitted to Detective Robert Anzilotti of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office (BCPO) to being the perpetrator of the murders of three teenage females between 1968 and 1969. It also left enormous holes in the souls of family and friends of Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16. He kept these "trophies" in a locked room in the basement. They have also lived in Whiting, IN. (1981, June 25). The Rent Zestimate for this home is $3,099/mo, which has increased by $3,099/mo in the last 30 days. She was a mother, she was a wife, a daughter and a grandmother taken far too early. During his trial, he testified that he had been fascinated by bondage since he was a young child. After his wife filed for divorce in April of 1979, it seems as though his killings became far more frequent. Thats why [authorities are] not going to make another statement. 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. (1981, June 16). Its been half my career, he said. 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. %PDF-1.4 % This is the house where the "Times Square Killer," Richard Cottingham, lived between 1975 and 1980. She was stunned. 0000007078 00000 n iP^ -KvWZvxhc'm$93tSz =oBTmD]+)bTJ T|u>/. New documentary The 12th Victim: Is Fugate a Natural Born Killer or Starkweather victim? He married in 1970 and had three children. Its Godlike almost. Responding officers found an 18-year-old victim whod been bitten, stabbed and bound with handcuffs. But then, four years ago, Mr. Cottingham stunned the chief. Cottingham has confessed to murdering 12 women. New Jersey . trailer [12] Both bodies had their hands and heads removed, and had been doused with lighter fluid and set on fire. But something a hunch, past investigative speculation, the proximity of the crimes drew Mr. Anzilotti to the prisoner. Hes been chief of detectives nearly five years. He said, Im going to give you one, Mr. Anzilotti recalled. The third result is Richard Eric Cunningham age 50s in Skillman, NJ. Then came Tuesdays pleas. 0000001982 00000 n I never broke my promise to him, all these years later, the chief said. The five victims addressed . The following is a list of his victims in chronological order. She later testified that he said, "You have to take it. Richard Cottingham, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. Anything that might close more cases, bring answers to more families. The bridge where Mallory Beach died in a boating accident. View Richard Cottingham's record in Manchester, NJ including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. The police pursued a welter of tips, rumors and false alarms, The New York Times reported at the time. After six years of visits, there was a break. A notorious New Jersey serial killer pleaded guilty Tuesday to the cold case murders of two teenage girls in 1974. Which is entirely possible, especially in those days.. Richard Cottingham who is already serving time in state prison for several . 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. My whole life has been this, she said. With an uncomplicated enthusiasm for his work, Detective Anzilotti rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the chief of detectives with a busy office to lead. Maintenance workers found her body covered in plastic bags and wrapped in a gray blanket near a Jones Beach bus stop. Much like John Moye, Altman, who now lives in Ocala, Fla., said she struggled to process Cottinghams savagery. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, How a retired detective snared his seventh Torso Killer confession, Expert reveals biological reason why were obsessed with true crime shows. When Mr. Cottingham entered prison in 1981, Robert Anzilotti was not yet a teenager. In this image taken from a New Jersey Courts virtual hearing, Richard Cottingham, center, known as the "Torso Killer," pleads guilty Tuesday, April 27, 2021, to two 1974 murders. 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. On Dec. 2, 1979, fire alarms rang out at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on West 42nd Street. In the new docuseries, the second in Netflixs Crime Scene anthology, director Joe Berlinger dissects the Torso Killers murder spree against the backdrop of the sexually charged, crime-ridden culture of 1970s Times Square and how it provided the predator with a fertile hunting ground. Since his conviction, Cottingham has pleaded guilty to 12 murders. For more details, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. 0000003125 00000 n He was also extremely fidgety and unable to sit still. Furthermore, one of the women that he murdered in 1979 is still unidentified. The family lived in Lodi, and Mr. Cottingham commuted to a job as a computer operator at Blue Cross Blue Shield in Manhattan. Anyone can read what you share. This time, at the Seville Hotel, where he strangled Jean Reyner, a 25-year-old mother working in the sex trade to finance a child custody battle. On February 15, 1968, Cottingham killed his second known victim. The New York Times, p. 2. 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. PB| He would describe to me certain routes he would drive, Vronsky said of Cottinghamm relaying his murderous spree in letters and interviews over the span of five years. Irene Blase, aged 18, vanished on April 7, 1969, in Hackensack and was found face down in four feet of water in the Saddle River, strangled with a wire, a cord, or perhaps the chain of a crucifix she was wearing. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. In the thirteen-year period during which he is known to have committed at least seventeen murders, only one fingerprint belonging to him was ever recovered, from the ratchet mechanism of handcuffs left behind on Valerie Street. A maid heard the teenagers guttural screams and called police. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. In May of 1980, police arrested Cottingham while he was torturing a sex worker at a motel room in New Jersey. Note that there seems to have been a "lull" between 1970 and 1973. In fact, Mr. Cottingham lurked around the fringes of a seedy Times Square and the prostitutes who worked its streets. Its hard to understand how someone could be like that. They sat at the kitchen table, very professional, very polite, very considerate, Ms. Mulder recalled. Select this result to view Richard P Cunningham's phone number, address, and more. I took over handling the calls, the arrangements. The predator, dubbed The Torso Killer, would strike again in May 1980. He tortured women before he killed them and did terrible things to them, and yet we still dont know who he is because he preyed on sex workers, Berlinger said, adding that he hopes this series helps destigmatize sex work and potentially solve more cold cases. 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. With Cottinghams next victim, a killers hunting ground of sorts began to form. Instead, she ended up shopping at one of Bergen Countys malls, according to Vronsky. Both men were keenly aware that it was their years-old relationship that had brought about this moment. What they want is an outright statement and a sign-off of Yes thats me,' Vronsky continued. Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. It took some effort to convince him to go to court and let me make it public, Anzilotti said Tuesday. These objects, along with his fingerprint on the handcuffs, were presented as evidence by prosecutors at his trial. Im leaving, he said. Instead, he drove her to the Quality Inn, where he tortured, beat and sexually assaulted her for hours, until a maid heard her scream. In October 1966, he became a computer operator for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, where he worked until his 1980 arrest. The girls, Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16, had last been seen days earlier at a nearby bus stop. [5][17], The charges listed in Cottingham's New Jersey indictment included kidnapping, attempted murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with deadly weapon, aggravated sexual assault while armed (rape), aggravated sexual assault while armed (sodomy), aggravated sexual assault while armed (fellatio), possession of a weapon (switchblade knife), and possession of controlled substances (secobarbital, amobarbital and diazepam). Cottinghamss name came up several times, but it didnt fit for me, she said. Its his fault this is out.. His yearbook photo shows a cross-country runner with blond hair slicked back. The chief pressed ahead with his list. 0000013001 00000 n It is situated at 29 Vreeland Street in Lodi, New Jersey. [8] Vogel's nude and bound body was found on October 31, under a blanket behind the passenger seat of her car parked in nearby Ridgefield Park. 0000001412 00000 n Goodarzi was later identified as the woman who had been tortured, killed, beheaded and had her hands cut off by Cottingham. The teenagers were last seen on Aug. 9, 1974, in North Bergen.