It represented closure, Moye said of this weeks hearing. Soon, Cottingham persuaded Blase to go for a drink with him. It is situated at 29 Vreeland Street in Lodi, New Jersey. 0000008501 00000 n 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. Maywood, It doesnt bring my mother back, but at least I have answers now. He described things only the killer would know, like where hed thrown her car keys afterward. The police hunted for leads, questioning prostitutes about suspicious men, examining the handwriting of the guest who had checked into Room 417: Carl Wilson of Merlin, N.J., a fake name from a fake place. Jennifer Weiss Befriends Richard Cottingham, "The Torso Killer" | Crime The Google Street View image on the right was taken 38 years later, in June of 2018. Consequently, he was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping. Cottingham primarily sought prostitutes who were petite blondes in their late teens to mid-twenties. Then he shared his intentions to retire. 21 0 obj <> endobj He didnt have the decency or the dignity to ask for forgiveness or to even address the victims families. Again and again, for 15 years, Mr. Anzilotti met with the inmate, seeking the truth. He had pornographic artwork, adhesive tape, books about S&M, said Geberth. She, like members of the other families, agreed to forgo a guilty plea in open court. 0000003183 00000 n 0000007658 00000 n A third the killing of 13-year-old Jackie Harp seemed to be the work of another killer. Cottinghamss name came up several times, but it didnt fit for me, she said. Responding officers found an 18-year-old victim whod been bitten, stabbed and bound with handcuffs. Correctional officers found contraband and evidence of bookmaking and transferred Mr. Cottingham to solitary confinement. I had long suspected that whoever killed Irene Blase also killed Denise Falasca, Mr. Anzilotti said. 0000002831 00000 n Hes embarrassed by this case, he said. The schoolgirl murder confessions increased that to to nine. 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. 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. Morgan Wallen has best-selling album of 2021 despite his N Canadian teacher with size-Z prosthetic breasts placed on paid leave, Buster Murdaugh got 'very drunk' with dad 2 months after mom, brother murdered: source, What's next for Buster Murdaugh after dad's murder conviction, life sentence, I'm a professional cleaner ditch these 4 household products immediately, Prince Harry was scared to lose Meghan Markle after fight that led to therapy, Prince Harry says psychedelics are fundamental part of his life, Inside Scheana Shay, Raquel Leviss heated confrontation about Tom Sandoval affair, Kellyanne Conway and George Conway to divorce. The inmate, with no real incentive to say anything about that crime, had given the chief what amounted to a parting gift. But her light shines brightly against the backdrop of evil.. But on May 22, 1980 Cottingham's life as a predator came to light. 0000001071 00000 n According to his neighbors, he seemed like a regular family man. Now 74, Cottingham, who claims responsibility for dozens of murders, has confessed to a. Her glasses, a ring, a necklace, Ms. Mulder said. On April 7, 1969, Cottingham saw Blase, 18, shopping in Hackensack, Vronsky said. I was able to get almostany woman to do whatever I wanted them to do . She had been tied up and strangled, authorities said. 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. Richard Cottingham, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. Now I just have to go on with my life.. This is a private property. 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. In August 2022, with a non-prosecution agreement, officials in Rockland County, New York, corroborated and accepted Cottingham's confession to the murder of 26-year-old Lorraine McGraw, who was beaten and killed March 1, 1970. He enjoys our time together., The chief also had another theory. Instead, she ended up shopping at one of Bergen Countys malls, according to Vronsky. When a worker came to check on her, ODell cracked open the door and gave a hand signal asking for help. 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. The girls, Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16, had last been seen days earlier at a nearby bus stop. 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. The plea leaves the question: Will they be Cottinghams final admissions? I lost so much more than just my mother that day, Altman said. But then, four years ago, Mr. Cottingham stunned the chief. 0000006081 00000 n Hed been a married father of three, but the Lodi resident - who would brutalize his victims bodies, cutting off limbs, heads and breasts - would later become known as the Torso Killer" for what he left behind. N.J serial killer now linked to 9 victims, but will his murder toll My whole life has been this, she said. It is not a public place. I took over handling the calls, the arrangements. [4], On October 3, 1969, Cottingham was charged and convicted of drunk driving in New York City and was fined $50 (equivalent to $400 in 2021). Cottingham lived here with his wife, Janet, and their three children, Blair, Scott, and Jenny. The body of Laverne Moye, of St. Albans, Queens, was discovered in a Rockville Centre creek on July 20, 1972. 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. They have also lived in Whiting, IN. Crime: Cottingham, a Lodi resident, killed six women in New Jersey and New York between 1967 and 1980. Theyre pushing him on multiple other cases. Hes been interviewing Cottingham in state prison for years. %%EOF It was quite a shock to learn it was him.. On Tuesday, Richard Cottingham, 74, sat in a wheelchair in beige prison scrubs as he pleaded guilty to kidnapping the teenage girls and raping them for days before he drowned them in a motel room bathtub. 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. There were at least five unsolved killings of girls, each an open wound for families seeking resolution. Inside they found the bodies of 22-year-old sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi[9] and an unidentified woman estimated between 16 and 22. The police photograph on the left was taken in June of 1980. Vronsky and Weiss had been meeting with Cottingham in prison since the spring of 2017, counseling him to make the confession. Furthermore, one of the women that he murdered in 1979 is still unidentified. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. The teenagers were last seen on Aug. 9, 1974, in North Bergen. The Google Street View image above was taken in May of 2022. In 2009, decades after his first five murder convictions, Cottingham told a journalist that he had committed at least 80 to 100 "perfect murders" of women in various regions of the United States. And he sat there with literally no remorse. 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. 0000003431 00000 n 0000009992 00000 n 0000002420 00000 n Goodarzi was later identified as the woman who had been tortured, killed, beheaded and had her hands cut off by Cottingham. Its an ongoing process, Vronsky said. The chief pressed ahead with his list. 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. Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates. Instead, he drove her to the Quality Inn, where he tortured, beat and sexually assaulted her for hours, until a maid heard her scream. 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. Neither complainant appeared in further proceedings, however, and the case was dismissed. Little more than a week after Street was found, Reyner was found butchered in the Seville Motel in New York City. We use cookies to deliver personalized advertisements, improve your online experience, and to analyze our site's performance. What they want is an outright statement and a sign-off of Yes thats me,' Vronsky continued. He had come further in closing cases than his younger self could have imagined. Three days later, Mr. Anzilotti walked out of his office for good. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. [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. 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. He said, Im going to give you one, Mr. Anzilotti recalled. Netflix details Times Square torso killer Richard Cottingham who 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. He rented an apartment in Midtown and told his wife he worked nights. In October 1966, he became a computer operator for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, where he worked until his 1980 arrest. You're a whore and you have to be punished." Ms. She was found strangled to death the next day in Saddle Brook. Mr. Anzilotti, doing his best not to betray any emotion, slowly pulled out his Blackberry and took notes. Between 1970 and 1974, Cottingham and his wife, Janet, lived at an apartment block called Ledgewood Terrace in Little Ferry, New Jersey. (1981, June 16). 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). Cottingham has confessed to murdering 12 women. For more information, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. [5] On May 15, 1980, Jean Reyner was strangled and her throat cut in New York's historic Seville Hotel. Author Peter Vronsky, who has a forthcoming book on Cottingham, and was first to publicly announce that the imprisoned Cottingham was responsible for the three 50-year-old crimes, says authorities want to add more to the list. Its his fault this is out.. Those cases were already closed. Cusicks daughter, Darlene Altman, told Nassau County Judge Caryn Fink her late grandparents raised her after her mothers shocking slaying. Anzilotti and BCPO subsequently confirmed the "exceptional closures" of these three murders.[13][8]. New Jersey . 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. Altman, who was just 3 years old at the time, said her parents had separated prior to Cusicks killing. And at the time, it was beyond our capacity to look beyond New York City, he told The Post. You can change your choice at any time by using the Privacy Center link in our footer. Where is Richard Cottingham Now? - The Cinemaholic In early December 1979, firefighters were called to the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on 42nd Street as a fire burned in room 417. ADVERTISEMENT. He had his list of names, each one a dead girl and a crime long unsolved. A woman walking to her car found them: two teenage girls, naked and dead in a sliver of woods behind an apartment parking lot. He needed a way to approach Mr. Cottingham and found an opening in 2003, when he got a tip: Mr. Cottingham was taking bets on sporting events from his cell. Find NJ.com on Facebook. The Blase family agreed. [3], Cottingham was arrested on several lesser charges throughout his killing spree. Cottingham was serving time for five murders, following convictions in New Jersey and New York, when Bergen prosecutors detectives in 2010 tied him to the killing of 29-year-old Ridgefield Park mom Nancy Schiava Vogel, bringing the total then to six. Authorities tied him to the killings after police were called to a Hasbrouck Heights motel, where a maid had heard a woman screaming. In other words, he may have been content and/or preoccupied. 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.". He was the Torso Killer. Infamous New Jersey 'Torso Killer' admits to abducting, torturing and Richard Cottingham of Lodi (NJ) is sentenced to 173-179 years in prison. trailer The investigators handed Ms. Mulder possessions of Jackies from half a century past. And even worse, the rape laws were particularly onerous, and you had to provide a witness to bring an allegation of rape. Everyone deserves justice under the law.. Seth Wenig/Associated Press By Ed Shanahan Dec. 5, 2022 On a. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. 0000006151 00000 n [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]. All these factors created this crucible in the center of Manhattan for Richard Cottingham to flourish.. His "justification" for doing this was that he "didn't like anyone getting one over" on him. Richard Cottingham, Lorraine . Richard Cottingham, 74, pleaded guilty Tuesday to murdering Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16, both of North Bergen. The clever killer slipped up, leaving a fingerprint on the cuffs. Cottingham offered to give O'Dell a massage and she rolled onto her stomach. %PDF-1.4 % Eventually, Mr. Cottingham began to loosen up, and he spoke about killing the prostitutes. Irene Blase, Denise Falasca and Jacalyn Harp all girls whose murders were unsolved. Questioning Mr. Cottingham was complicated. The murder remained unsolved until Cottingham confessed and entered a guilty plea in August 2010.