He said he wouldn't have done it if I wasn't retiring.. Where Is The Torso Killer Now? Richard Cottingham Is In Prison - Bustle Years ticked past, 1974 into 1975, into the 1980s, the 1990s. 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. ADVERTISEMENT. When you have a series of crimes today, everything goes through the computers, andwe have computer analysis and a wayof moving these through jurisdictionalboundaries. He did not want his family hassled by reporters or the police, and he vowed to Mr. Anzilotti that he would never again allow himself to be thrust into the spotlight. The chief agreed. [12] Both bodies had their hands and heads removed, and had been doused with lighter fluid and set on fire. Richard Cottingham, 74, pleaded guilty Tuesday to murdering Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16, both of North Bergen. Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/nyregion/new-jersey-serial-killer-cottingham-anzilotti.html. The schoolgirl murder confessions increased that to to nine. To this day, I dont even think they would have ever said anything. Later on, Richard took a job with Blue Cross Blue Shield in New York as a computer operator. Look her up, she looks like her. Others he remembered from a haircut.. 0000006151 00000 n 0 Soon, the chief closed that case two down. Between 1970 and 1974, Cottingham and his wife, Janet, lived at an apartment block called Ledgewood Terrace in Little Ferry, New Jersey. His name had floated around in the lore of Bergen County cold cases.. Much like John Moye, Altman, who now lives in Ocala, Fla., said she struggled to process Cottinghams savagery. He was eventually convicted of five murders in New Jersey and New York and sent to a New Jersey state prison in the early 1980s. Feech La Manna's house from The Sopranos. FPh_3Gj Nt%Q[r L`%/9QTh/| Q4_g8KI}u'?xbif`H>;wNQ|sd2(? His yearbook photo shows a cross-country runner with blond hair slicked back. I could feel it.. The motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. Richard Cottingham of Lodi (NJ) is sentenced to 173-179 years in prison. Sitting in a conference room, Mr. Cottingham calmly reached back more than 40 years and described how hed murdered a woman whose name he couldnt remember, a 29-year-old mother found strangled in her car in Ridgefield Park, N.J., in 1967. The man has no heart, no soul, no emotion whatsoever, she said. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a photograph of Jean Reyner. 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. Torso Killer: Ailing Richard Cottingham Confesses to More Murders 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. 0000005253 00000 n Once, he outright explained his hesitation: He said, I know once I give you that case, Ill never see you again, Mr. Anzilotti recalled last month. The 45th year passed in the same way. He said he would talk about other murders only on the condition that the revelations would be kept out of the papers. And he sat there with literally no remorse. In 2004, Vronsky published his first book on homicidal maniacs, Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, an exhaustive look at executioners slayings dating back to ancient Rome. 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. Cottingham has confessed to murdering 12 women. What Is 'Torso Killer' Richard Cottingham's Life Like Today? Investigators noted the crime scene was devoid of evidence and they were unable to identify the victims. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. He had three children, two boys and a girl, with his wife. [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 was apprehended in the hallway by arriving police officers. In March, looking back on 25 years with the office, Mr. Anzilotti decided it was time to move on from the job. Then hed clear the room until only he and Mr. Cottingham faced each another, and begin with his questions. 3. 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 He enjoys our relationship. Over time, though, one investigator was slowly developing a theory. I just ruled him out. While some serial killers claim murders they have not committed, Mr. Anzilotti didnt believe Mr. Cottingham was that type, but still he meticulously lined up details of the admissions with facts that only the killer would know. South Hackensack, Richard Cottingham, Lorraine Kelly, Mary Ann Pryor, Bergen County Prosecutor's Chief of Detectives Robert Anzilotti, Ecuadorian National Pleads Guilty To Brutal Stabbing Death Of Popular Bergen County Chef, Franklin Lakes Driver Indicted In Teaneck T-Bone Crash That Kil, Paterson Non-Violence Activist Shot Dead In Police Standoff Was, Man Killed By Amtrak Train In Central Jersey Was Family Breadwi, WATCH: YouTube Video Shows Rapper Assaulting Bergen Shop Rite W, Motel Guest Covered In Lotion Rescued From Knife-Wielding Woman, DWI Suspected In Horrific Route 80 Crash In Bergen County. 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. 0000001001 00000 n trailer For decades, a string of killings of teenage girls haunted suburban New Jersey. She was believed to have accepted a ride from a stranger, and her body was found on the side of a road near a cemetery. xb```"VV~g`0pt 9mzQ[2fXar9XcK',6=3Yb%^)= RZlr$:kX;e =_i& ` ?# A married father of three, he lived in the. Richard Cottingham in NJ - Address & Phone Number | Whitepages The chief contacted the Blase family and told them what they had ached to know for decades: He knew who had killed Irene. Serial Killer House in Lodi, New Jersey, United States. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. Richard Cottingham, Lorraine . Then came Tuesdays pleas. Everyone deserves justice under the law.. [3], Cottingham was arrested on several lesser charges throughout his killing spree. He also claims that his true victim count is at least 85. Ive never seen rain like that, he said. His "justification" for doing this was that he "didn't like anyone getting one over" on him. After dismembering Goodarzi, Cottingham lit her torso on fire, along with a second unidentified woman, who was found next to Goodarzi on the same bed. You are in complete control of somebodys destiny, he told Fezzani in footage shown in the series. 0000002847 00000 n Canadian author Peter Vronsky is now writing his second book on the horrifying killing spree that culminated in May 1980 at a New Jersey motel, where cops arrested Cottingham after he handcuffed, stabbed and bit an 18-year-old woman. They found an 18-year-old victim who'd been bitten and stabbed bound with handcuffs. Cottingham, a former computer programmer whose wrath of terror spanned from 1967 to 1980, also copped on Monday to strangling Mary Beth Heinz, 21, in May 1972, three months before he killed Moye and dumped her body in the same creek. And later that same month, a fifth woman was found mutilated in the former Hotel Seville near Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. And last week, three more were added to his grisly toll. About a week later, Big Apple authorities would find Reyners body, but still, no one in New Jersey connected them to the Times Square killer, says former NYPD detective Malcolm Reiman in the series. 0000001250 00000 n It represented closure, Moye said of this weeks hearing. 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. [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. It could only be Jackie Harp.. 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. 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. 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. %PDF-1.4 % The confessed killer then fatally bludgeoned Sheila Heiman, a 33-year-old mother of three, in July 1973, at her North Woodmere, NY, home, where her husband found her upon returning from shopping, authorities said. On December 2, 1979, firemen in New York responded to an alarm at the Travel Inn motel[11] near Times Square. Inmates were wagering everything from cash to cigarettes. endstream endobj 34 0 obj<>stream Cottingham had kept these items as souvenirs so that he could remember his victims and relive his attacks. Vogel was found dead in her own car in Ridgefield Park, nude and bound. 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Richard was arrested at a motel in Hasbrouck . Monday marked the first time Moye ever laid eyes on Cottingham, who dismembered some of victims, including two women whose bodies were found without their heads and hands in a Times Square motel in December 1979. Boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, family members all were questioned and cleared of suspicion. 0000001262 00000 n Soon, Cottingham persuaded Blase to go for a drink with him. Then in exchange for immunity from prosecution, he confessed to murdering three New Jersey schoolgirls. Defense attorney John Bruno recited the details, which the white-bearded, 74-year-old killer acknowledged. Over decades, through his rise from sergeant to detective to chief of detectives, Robert Anzilotti plugged away at cold cases in New Jersey involving young womens murders. NJ's infamous 'Torso Killer' confesses to 1974 murders of two Garden The inmate made it clear that pressure would not work. He did not know the names of those he killed. He soon realized the woman had no head, the Daily News reported. I just kind of looked at it and touched it and put it in a box where I had some dried flowers for my mother when she passed.. He was imprisoned. Jacalyn "Jackie" Harp, aged 13, was randomly ambushed as she walked home in the evening of July 17, 1968, from school band practice in Midland Park and strangled with the leather strap of her bag. The family lived in Lodi, and Mr. Cottingham commuted to a job as a computer operator at Blue Cross Blue Shield in Manhattan. In this case, instead, he removed her breasts and placed them on the headboard for shock value, former Commanding Officer of Bronx Homicide and criminal profiler Vernon Geberth says in the series, noting it convinced him of one thing: Still, at the time, no one suspected the scope of this sexual sadists homicidal footprint, which stretched into the Garden State and had started more than a decade prior. For more information, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. [16], In the early hours of May 22, 1980, Cottingham picked up 18-year-old Leslie Ann O'Dell, who was soliciting on the corner of Manhattan's Lexington Avenue and 25th Street. It was like a game to him, Anzilotti recently said. Cottingham had just raped, tortured and beheaded two sex workers in a room at the motel before setting it on fire. Cottinghamss name came up several times, but it didnt fit for me, she said. %PDF-1.4 % 0000001071 00000 n A hotel worker arrived at Room 417 to find smoke and a horrible scene: the scorched remains of two women on a bed. 0000003431 00000 n She agreed to have sex with him for money. Accused serial killer nurse allegedly tried to murder premature infant twice. [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. Did the old man kill those girls? I lost so much more than just my mother that day, Altman said. But the arrest in 1980 changed everything, exposing Richard's double life and deadly exploits. The sergeant was undeterred. Authorities believed it to be, thus far, the oldest criminal case to be solved and prosecuted by direct DNA evidence. Goodarzi was later identified as the woman who had been tortured, killed, beheaded and had her hands cut off by Cottingham. He began torturing her, nearly biting off one of her nipples. He continued to live here until the police eventually arrested him on May 22nd, 1980. He had come further in closing cases than his younger self could have imagined. HUMs@Wf~}m1`16N7NLf%=Io8. But her light shines brightly against the backdrop of evil.. Note that there seems to have been a "lull" between 1970 and 1973. A horrible scene, the police commissioner said that day. For a year, he refused to speak to Mr. Anzilotti. 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. He rented an apartment in Midtown and told his wife he worked nights. 0000001425 00000 n Therefore, you should be respectful and not step foot on the property without permission. 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". Among the other faces in separate windows on the Zoom screen was a 66-year-old woman, identified simply as Nancy. The following is a list of his victims in chronological order. Photos of the house and other related images. On Dec. 2, 1979, the murders that earned Cottingham the nickname the "Torso Killer took place in New York City. Where is Richard Cottingham Now? - The Cinemaholic The clever killer slipped up, leaving a fingerprint on the cuffs. As he moved through Midtown undetected, Cottingham, a successful computer operator at Blue Cross Blue Shield in Manhattan, was also committing sadistic sexual assault and sometimes murder at the Quality Inn, a motel in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. There were similarities in the two cases: the girls ages, the apparently hasty disposal of their bodies, even their appearance, both with long, dark hair. Falasca was walking by the side of the road in Emerson on July 14, 1969, when Cottingham pulled up beside her and offered her a ride. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 21 0 obj <> endobj Cottinghams luck began to unravel in early May 1980 when the maid at the Quality Inn found the naked corpse of a handcuffed woman under the bed. Victims' kids confront serial 'Torso' killer Richard Cottingham 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. He had his list of names, each one a dead girl and a crime long unsolved. Hes embarrassed by this case, he said. Since his incarceration, he has attempted suicide on two occasions. Mr. Cottingham at his virtual hearing on April 27 in Bergen County Superior Court, where he pleaded guilty to killing Mary Ann Pryor and Lorraine Kelly 47 years later. 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 was able to get almostany woman to do whatever I wanted them to do . Hackensack, 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. 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. Richard Cottingham was convicted of five murders and numerous counts of kidnapping and sexual assault using evidence found in his 'trophy room' combined with a matching fingerprint left on. 0000003451 00000 n Richard Cottingham, a family man who denied everything in court, was convicted of killing five women in the early 1980s. He called his detectives and gave the word: Bring in Cottingham. Those old enough to remember can recall the fear that many felt after the bodies of two girls from North Bergen whod gone missing after a shopping trip to Paramus were found raped, beaten and drowned in Bergen County. By all accounts, he seemed to be leading an everyday life in Lodi, New Jersey, with his wife and three kids. When they arrived, one firefighter attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a woman they found on the bed. He enjoys our time together., The chief also had another theory. Berlinger said well never truly know how many women died at Cottinghams hands, but his story had long fascinated the director, who sees a social justice component aspect to telling his story. 0000004535 00000 n View Richard Cottingham's record in Manchester, NJ including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. NJ serial killer 'haunted' by teens he tortured for 3 days in 1974
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