Cottingham severed the victim's breasts and posed them on the headboard of the bed, and set fire to the mattress under her body before fleeing, similar to the Travel Inn torso killings. Falasca, 15, accepted. But first, he wanted to return to those two murders from 47 years ago. Now 74, Cottingham, who claims responsibility for dozens of murders, has confessed to a. %PDF-1.4 % YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. Richard Cottingham pleaded guilty to murder in the death of one Long Island woman and admitted under oath to killing four others. The public in Bergen County deserved to know the outcome of those girls, he said. Cottingham has confessed to murdering 12 women. Richard Cottingham, 76, pleaded guilty to the February 1968 murder of Diane Cusick, 23, and admitted to strangling four additional women in the 1970s in Nassau County. Soon, the chief closed that case two down. Note that there seems to have been a "lull" between 1970 and 1973. And for Cottingham, every night was a full moon.. 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". He was locked away to serve several life sentences, aging into a portly man with a thick white beard. A killing in Somerset County a week after Cottingham got his drivers license may have been one of his first victims, Vronsky said. Once again, the victim did not appear in further proceedings and the case was dismissed.[6]. 0 But Cottingham flew under the radar precisely because of how he chose his victims and who his victims were. 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. A friend of one victim came forward and the slain woman was later positively identified through a cesarean-section scar and chest X-ray as 22-year-old prostitute Deedeh Goodarzi. I thought he could be responsible for some, Mr. Anzilotti said. Mr. Cottingham was summoned before a judge on April 27, remotely, via Zoom, sitting in a wheelchair in a conference room at the prosecutors office. He married in 1970 and became a father of three. What started in 1967 with the discovery of a Ridgefield Park woman dead, nude and bound in her own car continued until 1980, when the hulking Cottingham, then 33, was arrested after the screams of a would-be victim pierced the walls of a Hasbrouck Heights motel room. Its Godlike almost. He described in detail how, instead, he took the girls to a motel, held them captive and eventually drowned them in the bathtub. Soon, Cottingham persuaded Blase to go for a drink with him. Richard Cottingham, a family man who denied everything in court, was convicted of killing five women in the early 1980s. Denise Falasca, 15, of Closter, New Jersey. 0000002435 00000 n 0000009992 00000 n Her youth and difference in appearance, with a boyish haircut, set her apart from the other victims. I took over handling the calls, the arrangements. I was shocked that one human being was capable of all this carnage, Moye said of Cottingham. [6] In 2022, Cottingham officially confessed to the 1970 murder of Lorraine McGraw, under a non-prosecution agreement. It could only be Jackie Harp.. We've received your submission. He was the Torso Killer. This story has been shared 151,197 times. The New York Times, p. 2. It is situated at 29 Vreeland Street in Lodi, New Jersey. Richard Cottingham who is already serving time in state prison for several . 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. Cottingham, who is already serving a lifetime state prison sentence for killing several other women and girls, was brought to the office of Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella in Paramus to enter his pleas before Superior Court Judge Keith Bachmann in Hackensack. 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 police pursued a welter of tips, rumors and false alarms, The New York Times reported at the time. It was like a game to him, Anzilotti recently said. [2] Four surviving abduction-rape victims testified against Cottingham; he was convicted in three of the cases and acquitted in one. Mr. Anzilotti would arrange to have the inmate transported to his office more than hours drive from the prison. 0000001425 00000 n Cottingham had just raped, tortured and beheaded two sex workers in a room at the motel before setting it on fire. endstream endobj 34 0 obj<>stream F! He had pornographic artwork, adhesive tape, books about S&M, said Geberth. 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. The plea leaves the question: Will they be Cottinghams final admissions? She then grew up without a father because her grandparents did not like him, she said. 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. Then he shared his intentions to retire. I had long suspected that whoever killed Irene Blase also killed Denise Falasca, Mr. Anzilotti said. I lost so much more than just my mother that day, Altman said. [22][23] He pleaded guilty in a December court appearance, and also officially admitted killing four other women in Long Island: Mary Beth Heinz,[24] Laverne Moye,[16] Sheila Heiman,[25] and Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves.[26]. The chief pressed ahead with his list. Inmates were wagering everything from cash to cigarettes. Then came Tuesdays pleas. Furthermore, one of the women that he murdered in 1979 is still unidentified. On March 12, 1974, Cottingham was arrested in New York City for robbery and unlawful imprisonment on the complaint of another prostitute. Dont think youre going to mess with me and Im going to help you, Mr. Anzilotti recalled Mr. Cottingham saying. Stumped, the police used mannequins from nearby department stores and dressed them in the victims clothing, hoping to spark an identification from friends or family who recognized the outfits. Goodarzi was later identified as the woman who had been tortured, killed, beheaded and had her hands cut off by Cottingham. In October 1966, he became a computer operator for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, where he worked until his 1980 arrest. . Because I was with them for a couple of days, he replied, according to a transcript, and got to know them., It was raining that day in August 1974, and Mr. Cottingham, then 28, was driving to work in Manhattan when he passed the two girls walking in the opposite direction. Her breasts had been severed and torso had been set on fire, Vronsky said. When you have a series of crimes today, everything goes through the computers, andwe have computer analysis and a wayof moving these through jurisdictionalboundaries. In other words, he may have been content and/or preoccupied. Richard Cottingham, 74, appeared virtually in court Tuesday to admit to the slayings of 17-year-old Mary Ann Pryor and 16-year-old Lorraine Marie Kelly. 0000005280 00000 n Below, you will find the address and the GPS coordinates for this location. Although Vogel was the earliest of Cottinghams murder victims, the killer has said she was not his first, according to Vronsky. They have also lived in Manasquan, NJ and Ada, MI. On July 17, 1968, Harp, of Midland Park, was walking home from band practice when a strange man, Cottingham, tried to coax her into his car, Vronsky said. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. They have also lived in Whiting, IN. Defense attorney John Bruno recited the details, which the white-bearded, 74-year-old killer acknowledged. [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. I never thought I would get caught, he added. He would occasionally remove and dispose of his victims heads and hands, presumably to make identification more difficult. [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". It contains 0 bedroom and 0 bathroom. H|U0+(QvG`b08NbHlSoZ2CRSs=* \e~ 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. 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. Correctional officers found contraband and evidence of bookmaking and transferred Mr. Cottingham to solitary confinement. Richard Cottingham, the notorious North Jersey serial killer known for dismembering the young women who were so often his victims, publicly confessed Tuesday to drowning two North Bergen girls. Math-wise its possible," said Vronsky. Vogel was found dead in her own car in Ridgefield Park, nude and bound. At the time, Cottingham, who had not been arrested or identified, was dubbed the "Times Square Ripper.. He then left the scene with their severed heads and hands. They'd left home for a trip 13 miles (21 kilometers) north to . He pleaded guilty to the killing in 2010, but when the news got out, Mr. Cottingham, who evidently thought the hearing would be ignored, was furious. Ms. Inside they found the bodies of 22-year-old sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi[9] and an unidentified woman estimated between 16 and 22. Months later, in May 1980, another prostitute from Times Square was found dead, this time in a New Jersey motel; that murder was linked to yet another at the same location. For more information, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. 0000006081 00000 n I was shocked that it was a serial killer, Moye said of his mothers confessed murderer. There was also a lockbox filled with trophies from his murders, including Maryann Carrs apartment key and a necklace belonging to Jean Reyner. For decades, a string of killings of teenage girls haunted suburban New Jersey. 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. Moye, 55, stared down serial murderer and rapist Richard Cottingham in a Nassau County courtroom Monday as the 76-year-old notorious Torso Killer admitted to five more sadistic slayings decades earlier, bringing his known tally to 17 although experts believe that figure could be as high as 100 victims. Cottinghamss name came up several times, but it didnt fit for me, she said. The potential payoff in return felt almost too important to describe. By all accounts, he seemed to be leading an everyday life in Lodi, New Jersey, with his wife and three kids. Hearing prosecutors detail grisly crime scenes like where Laverne was found was especially difficult to endure, her son said. [2], In 2010, he pleaded guilty to the 1967 murder of Nancy Vogel. Cottingham lived here with his wife, Janet, and their three children, Blair, Scott, and Jenny. I think it was just an evolution in his killing.. HUMs@Wf~}m1`16N7NLf%=Io8. When the 40th year since the killings arrived in 2014, the local police asked the public for any new information. Therefore, you should be respectful and not step foot on the property without permission. The body of Laverne Moye, of St. Albans, Queens, was discovered in a Rockville Centre creek on July 20, 1972. 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. There were at least five unsolved killings of girls, each an open wound for families seeking resolution. Select this result to view Richard P Cunningham's phone number, address, and more. 0000003125 00000 n 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. He had his list of names, each one a dead girl and a crime long unsolved. [3], Cottingham was arrested on several lesser charges throughout his killing spree. But as he considered retirement, he kept returning to the two girls found dead in the woods. In 2000, as a young detective in the Bergen County prosecutors office, Robert Anzilotti was tasked with looking into the murders, along with a few other similar cold cases from the 1960s and 1970s. You're a whore and you have to be punished." To Mr. Anzilotti, what had once seemed like a great disparity between the two series of murders one a group of suburban teenagers and the other mostly sex workers in the city now made sense. Between 1970 and 1974, Cottingham and his wife, Janet, lived at an apartment block called Ledgewood Terrace in Little Ferry, New Jersey. It is not a public place. Richard Cottingham, 74, pleaded guilty Tuesday to murdering Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16, both of North Bergen. I can go all the way back to the first detective on the case. <<8BD7E4F5B15F3F4A8993EB3A0150F7AC>]>> Denise Falasca, aged 15, was abducted on July 14, 1969, in Emerson, while walking to a friend's home and found the next morning in Saddle Brook, by the side of a road next to a cemetery, strangled with the cord or the chain of her crucifix. He did not know the names of those he killed. 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. Authorities believed it to be, thus far, the oldest criminal case to be solved and prosecuted by direct DNA evidence. The victim, Valerie Street, had just been busted in Miami for prostitution, and was last seen getting picked up by a man in New York City. Cottingham was apprehended in the hallway by arriving police officers. And last week, three more were added to his grisly toll. And at. Mr. Cottingham mentioned details of the killing that matched what Mr. Anzilotti knew from the case file. The picture in the top left corner shows Cottingham during one of his trials. She knew that Mr. Anzilotti had solved Denises killing, too. It represented closure, Moye said of this weeks hearing. During his trial, he testified that he had been fascinated by bondage since he was a young child. The police were called and Cottingham was apprehended while trying to flee. A local investigator began to wonder: Could there be a link to a series of infamous Times Square murders? It will take her a while to forget the habit of calling the detectives for updates a lifetime constant, through the deaths of her parents, her marriage and divorce, her second marriage and widowhood. I just ruled him out. 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. Richard Francis Cottingham was born on November 25, 1946, in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City, the first of four children. That was roughly one month after his arrest. startxref But there was an even bigger problem. The people listed below were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Lodi, New Jersey. trailer The clever killer slipped up, leaving a fingerprint on the cuffs. More Local News to Love Start today for 50% off Expires 3/6/23, Rodrigo Torrejon | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, discovery of a Ridgefield Park woman dead, nude and bound. She had been tied up and strangled, authorities said. Prosecutors will seek dual life sentences to run alongside his current lifetime term when Cottingham is sentenced on July 9 for what Musella said were the willful, deliberate, and premediated murders of Mary Ann Prior and Lorraine Kelly. On Dec 15, 1977, Carr was found dead in the parking lot of a Quality Inn motel, in Hasbrouck Heights. 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 Again and again, for 15 years, Mr. Anzilotti met with the inmate, seeking the truth. He said, Im going to give you one, Mr. Anzilotti recalled. Cottingham has been given various nicknames over the years. It was Aug. 14, 1974, in Montvale, N.J., a suburb just over the New York state line. He was also known to threaten them with a plastic gun and leave it within their reach so they could try to grab it only to find out it was false, severely bite and scrape their nipples, cut around the breasts, and use other forms of torture. Richard Francis Cottingham (born November 25, 1946) is an American serial killer and rapist who murdered at least eighteen young women and girls in New York and New Jersey between 1967 and 1980. When Mr. Cottingham entered prison in 1981, Robert Anzilotti was not yet a teenager. Cottingham had kept these items as souvenirs so that he could remember his victims and relive his attacks. The sergeant was undeterred. That girl was found drowned, similar to Blases killing, he said. 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 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. 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. 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. Peter Karas/The Record, via USA Today Network. He didnt have the decency or the dignity to ask for forgiveness or to even address the victims families. He had come further in closing cases than his younger self could have imagined. The inmate made it clear that pressure would not work. When they arrived, one firefighter attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a woman they found on the bed. They found an 18-year-old victim who'd been bitten and stabbed bound with handcuffs. This murder was later linked to the 1977 murder of Maryann Carr, who was left in the same motel's parking lot. They captured Cottingham soon after. The Blase family agreed. 0000002847 00000 n He'd been a married father of three, but the Lodi resident - who would brutalize his victim's bodies, cutting off limbs, heads and breasts - would later become known as the "Torso Killer" for. He was imprisoned. Now I just have to go on with my life.. A case based on his "signature pattern" was built against him, combined with the testimony of four surviving victims, as well as pieces of his victims' jewellery and other items found in his possession after his arrest. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. My whole life has been this, she said. To this day, the other young female has never been identified. Over the course of 13 years, beginning in 1967, Cottingham killed six women in New Jersey and New York. 0000003431 00000 n Getting to that point wasnt easy, Anzilotti said. No leads were forthcoming. Questioning Mr. Cottingham was complicated. 0000007078 00000 n Ms. Falasca was a 15-year-old who left her familys house in July 1969 and never returned. Blase was 18 when she was found strangled in Saddle River in 1969. It was mainly psychological. In 2010, Bergen County authorities announced hed pleaded guilty to a sixth murder, a 1967 strangling in Bergen County. 21 0 obj <> endobj Richard was arrested at a motel in Hasbrouck . This location belongs to the following categories: Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to see future locations. The family lived in Lodi, and Mr. Cottingham commuted to a job as a computer operator at Blue Cross Blue Shield in Manhattan. But he eventually realized the years-long association, which involved countless state prison visits, was coming to an end. The series features interviews with former sex workers, including Barbara Amaya, who was raped and robbed at gunpoint by a man she believes was Cottingham, although she was inexplicably spared. Im leaving, he said. He was also extremely fidgety and unable to sit still. )' But in. Cottingham offered to give O'Dell a massage and she rolled onto her stomach. He kept his glasses case tucked in a vest pocket of his prison scrubs, beneath his white beard, and folded his hands over his broad belly. Did the old man kill those girls? 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.

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