Goodarzi was later identified as the woman who had been tortured, killed, beheaded and had her hands cut off by Cottingham. 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. Hes younger when all this is going on in Bergen County, he said. 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 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. She agreed to have sex with him for money. The house was built in 1974one year before Cottingham and his wife, Janet, moved in. He stood trial in New York and New Jersey in a coat and tie and denied everything, but he was convicted in all five killings. He was a coward.. The house is close to Lodi High School, the Riverside Cemetery and Interstate 80. 0000009543 00000 n [4], On May 3, 1970, Cottingham was married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village, Queens. There was also a lockbox filled with trophies from his murders, including Maryann Carrs apartment key and a necklace belonging to Jean Reyner. However, he started killing again in 1974, when he murdered Lorraine Marie Kelly and Mary Ann Pryor. I lost so much more than just my mother that day, Altman said. The bodies of the women had no heads and no hands. Little more than a week after Street was found, Reyner was found butchered in the Seville Motel in New York City. Mr. Cottingham left behind no clues. It contains 0 bedroom and 0 bathroom. 0000012661 00000 n 0000006081 00000 n Trophies like jewellery and other personal items belonging to his victims were taken by him. He said, Im going to give you one, Mr. Anzilotti recalled. The Rent Zestimate for this home is $3,099/mo, which has increased by $3,099/mo in the last 30 days. Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, List of serial killers in the United States, List of serial killers by number of victims, "New Jersey's 'Torso Killer' admits murdering 3 teenage girls over 50 years ago", "Justice Story: 'Times Square Ripper' revealed to be mild-mannered husband from suburban Jersey", "Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective", "First of Three Trials of Jerseyan in Prostitute Slayings Nears End", "Killer of 2 Is Guilty of 3 More Slayings", "Legislator Gaynor Honors Detectives Who Solved 50 Year Old Cold Case", "Mineola Woman's Murder 48 Years Ago Still Unsolved", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Cottingham&oldid=1142468060. He didnt have the decency or the dignity to ask for forgiveness or to even address the victims families. 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. With Ms. Pryor and a judge watching on Zoom that day, Mr. Cottingham pleaded guilty to the two murders. A maid heard the teenagers guttural screams and called police. 0000003707 00000 n View Richard Cottingham's record in Manchester, NJ including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. Getting to that point wasnt easy, Anzilotti said. 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. The photographs are ordered from left to right and top to bottom. 0000003686 00000 n [2], In 2010, he pleaded guilty to the 1967 murder of Nancy Vogel. In other words, he may have been content and/or preoccupied. "From the sense of other things that Im uncovering, he was a very busy boy., I think the math worked out to one every six weeks, Vronsky also said. He has been charged with 11 murders in all. 0000000016 00000 n Following his arrest, police linked him to the murder of Valerie Streets. [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". But it was a way to get him comfortable to talk to me about murders.. After his wife filed for divorce in April of 1979, it seems as though his killings became far more frequent. We use cookies to deliver personalized advertisements, improve your online experience, and to analyze our site's performance. 0000002831 00000 n No one could find any clues in the girls backgrounds: no drugs, no trouble with the law. I knew, he recalled, that was Irene Blase.. Notably, none of his crimes took place on the property. 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. They have also lived in Whiting, IN. As the New Jersey press reported on Cottinghams arrest, the NYPD started to take notice. On Dec. 2, 1979, fire alarms rang out at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on West 42nd Street. Cottingham lived here with his wife, Janet, and their three children, Blair, Scott, and Jenny. Therefore, you should be respectful and not step foot on the property without permission. A married father of three, he lived in the. How it ended was me literally shaking his hand and saying, Thank you, Mr. Anzilotti said. He soon realized the woman had no head, the Daily News reported. The chief questioned Mr. Cottingham. That girl was found drowned, similar to Blases killing, he said. Absolutely, its completely plausible. [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. But the killer was a clever bastard, too. A horrible scene, the police commissioner said that day. He enjoys our relationship. I was shocked that it was a serial killer, Moye said of his mothers confessed murderer. They have also lived in Manasquan, NJ and Ada, MI. Her youth and difference in appearance, with a boyish haircut, set her apart from the other victims. He married in 1970 and became a father of three. 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. 43 0 obj<>stream The public in Bergen County deserved to know the outcome of those girls, he 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]. 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. 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. When arrested, he had handcuffs, a leather gag, two slave collars, a switchblade knife, replica pistols, and a stockpile of prescription pills. The chief pressed ahead with his list. When Mr. Cottingham entered prison in 1981, Robert Anzilotti was not yet a teenager. Photos of the house and other related images. As Cottingham was fleeing the scene of the torso murders, he briefly encountered the 23-year-old Peter Vronsky, who was attempting to check into the Travel Inn while in New York on a film production assignment. Inside they found the bodies of 22-year-old sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi[9] and an unidentified woman estimated between 16 and 22. The motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. 21 0 obj <> endobj Richard Cottingham pleaded guilty to murder in the death of one Long Island woman and admitted under oath to killing four others. His additional confession to a 1974 murder was discounted by Rockland County police. Questioning Mr. Cottingham was complicated. This murder was later linked to the 1977 murder of Maryann Carr, who was left in the same motel's parking lot. [13][14] Anzilotti had spent 15 years interviewing Cottingham, working toward the confession. I asked them where they were going. The mall, they replied. 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. A hotel worker arrived at Room 417 to find smoke and a horrible scene: the scorched remains of two women on a bed. They captured Cottingham soon after. 0000002847 00000 n Cottingham was convicted of five murders in a series of three trials between 1981 and 1984 (two in New Jersey and one in New York). Hes embarrassed by this case, he said. Rochelle Park & He lived with his wife and kids in. A notorious New Jersey serial killer pleaded guilty Tuesday to the cold case murders of two teenage girls in 1974. Before his arrest, he was a successful computer operator who worked at the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurance company in Midtown Manhattan. On April 7, 1969, Cottingham saw Blase, 18, shopping in Hackensack, Vronsky said. Then came Tuesdays pleas. 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. These include the Times Square Killer, the Torso Killer, and the Times Square Torso Ripper. 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. He was also extremely fidgety and unable to sit still. Following his 1980 arrest, police found, in the locked room and in the trunk of his car, personal effects which they traced to several of his victims. He said he wouldn't have done it if I wasn't retiring.. A killing in Somerset County a week after Cottingham got his drivers license may have been one of his first victims, Vronsky said. He tried a different approach. Select this result to view Richard P Cunningham's phone number, address, and more. 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. 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. PB| startxref This story has been shared 151,197 times. 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. The weather worsened. Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/nyregion/new-jersey-serial-killer-cottingham-anzilotti.html. Blase was 18 when she was found strangled in Saddle River in 1969. And I said, Hop in., He drove to the mall. He did, however, leave behind their clothing, including a pair of Bonjour jeans, white leotards and a black fur coat, neatly folded in the bath tub. We've received your submission. 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. The New York Times, p. 26. In 1964, Cottingham graduated from Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, New Jersey. Authorities believed it to be, thus far, the oldest criminal case to be solved and prosecuted by direct DNA evidence. Neither complainant appeared in further proceedings, however, and the case was dismissed. 0000009992 00000 n 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. 0000001082 00000 n His search for a killer led him to a man already locked away, in New Jersey State Prison, 75 miles from his office. And even worse, the rape laws were particularly onerous, and you had to provide a witness to bring an allegation of rape. In the 1970s, he had preyed on prostitutes in Times Square 30 miles but a world away from Montvale not just killing them, but torturing and dismembering them. During a search of the house, investigators discovered personal items belonging to some of his victims. 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. Vogel was found dead in her own car in Ridgefield Park, nude and bound. 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. However, please be aware that not allowing certain cookies may impact your experience of the site. Geberth noted that this was a time before the proliferation of surveillance cameras and the use of computer analysis to establish patterns and share information across jurisdictions. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Cottingham was convicted of five murders and numerous counts of kidnapping and sexual assault and sentenced to 173 to 197 years, which he is serving in Trentons New Jersey State Prison. The newspapers called the murderer The Torso Killer. Then on May 22, 1980, a worker at a Quality Inn in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., heard a woman screaming. Serial Killer House in Lodi, New Jersey, United States. Hes been chief of detectives nearly five years. [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. But he carried those cold cases with him literally, his thick files in cardboard boxes that he moved from office to office chipping away at the false leads, seeking similarities in the victims and in the crime scenes. In April 2021, Cottingham confessed to the unsolved 1974 double-abduction, rape, and forcible drowning murders of Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16, and Mary Ann Pryor, 17, in Montvale, one of New Jersey's most notorious cold cases. 0000003202 00000 n Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. 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. Her attacker was caught as he ran away. 0000007874 00000 n He remembers certain aspects of a person, Mr. Anzilotti said. 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. And at the time, it was beyond our capacity to look beyond New York City, he told The Post. Twenty years later, he was reinvestigating several cold cases involving girls and young women who had been abducted, sexually abused and killed. This case was always haunting me.. )' 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. With Cottinghams next victim, a killers hunting ground of sorts began to form. Her name was Nancy Schiava Vogel. She was Nancy Pryor, and she was 19 when her sister, Mary Ann, was found dead. In this image taken from a New Jersey Courts virtual hearing, Richard Cottingham, center, known as the "Torso Killer," pleads guilty April 27, 2021, to two 1974 murders, finally closing the cold case deaths of teenage friends who had left home for a trip to the mall and never returned. But there was an even bigger problem. Its hard to understand how someone could be like that. She had been tied up and strangled, authorities said. It also left enormous holes in the souls of family and friends of Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16. He described things only the killer would know, like where hed thrown her car keys afterward. In 2010, Bergen County authorities announced hed pleaded guilty to a sixth murder, a 1967 strangling in Bergen County. He had been dubbed the Times Square Torso Ripper setting off Vronskys lifelong fascination of serial killers. 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. However, his family moved to River Vale, New Jersey, when he was 12 years old. Ms. It was quite a shock to learn it was him.. 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. Thats why [authorities are] not going to make another statement. It is not a public place. The investigators handed Ms. Mulder possessions of Jackies from half a century past. She knew that Mr. Anzilotti had solved Denises killing, too. When they arrived, one firefighter attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a woman they found on the bed. New Jersey . [12] Both bodies had their hands and heads removed, and had been doused with lighter fluid and set on fire. . A third the killing of 13-year-old Jackie Harp seemed to be the work of another killer. 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). I think sometimes he grapples with his own gruesomeness back then., On March 12, a Friday, Mr. Anzilotti summoned the inmate. Defense attorney John Bruno recited the details, which the white-bearded, 74-year-old killer acknowledged. He married in 1970 and had three children. Inmates were wagering everything from cash to cigarettes. Cottingham has been given various nicknames over the years. Investigators noted the crime scene was devoid of evidence and they were unable to identify the victims. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. [2] Four surviving abduction-rape victims testified against Cottingham; he was convicted in three of the cases and acquitted in one. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. The inmate, with no real incentive to say anything about that crime, had given the chief what amounted to a parting gift. You can set your cookie preferences below. And considering the closure of yesterdays cases, I absolutely believe him.. 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. 0000010308 00000 n In May of 1980, police arrested Cottingham while he was torturing a sex worker at a motel room in New Jersey. 0000001262 00000 n Its taken more than 46 years, but a Bergen County police veteran who is only days from retirement got one of the countrys most notorious serial killers to confess. Years ticked past, 1974 into 1975, into the 1980s, the 1990s. Look her up, she looks like her. Others he remembered from a haircut.. The 22-year-old's death appeared brutal: she had been beheaded and set on fire and her skull has yet to be found. On May 5, 1980, a motel housekeeper found the body of 19-year-old Valerie Ann Street in the Hasbrouck Heights Quality Inn. You're a whore and you have to be punished." 0000003183 00000 n 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. This is a "Then and Now" photograph of Cottingham's former house at 29 Vreeland Street. He was the Torso Killer. One day in 2014, the chief and a partner were driving the inmate back to prison when, from the back seat, Mr. Cottingham, who by then had spent almost half of his 68 years in prison, began describing a girl he once spotted near a store in Hackensack. WjgF\A9Ro9r/;l5Gh3h}NG2L -S$B{s"=z{ 0EaSe,&@yJQ>`n; ;dj7n (~>*}fEx*\W]xvpt]/k"0JTj4%`G?t$8I@FmYkr(_5_+ jfbXP{]~&I6"%}\STHD Ld2=ENhk$)HESdX,g o+IkRC~eC1 dm"GZBDM7~K&'/9"[{$AXH'my 0000004535 00000 n For decades, a string of killings of teenage girls haunted suburban New Jersey. But then, four years ago, Mr. Cottingham stunned the chief. According to one of his co-workers, he was smart, well-read, and up-to-date on current events. Harp was found strangled to death the next day. This number may increase in the future, as he has stated in the past that his victim count is much higher. 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. Richard Cottingham, New Jersey prison photo. By all accounts, he seemed to be leading an everyday life in Lodi, New Jersey, with his wife and three kids. Since his incarceration, he has attempted suicide on two occasions. The predator, dubbed The Torso Killer, would strike again in May 1980. Im leaving, he said. The police believed they had given up on the bus and were trying to hitchhike to a mall. Cottingham has confessed to murdering 12 women. The other girls did, you have to take it, too. I believe hes killed between 85 and 100, as he claims, Vronsky told The Post. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. Pages in category "People from Lodi, New Jersey" The following 21 pages are in this category, out of 21 total. But eventually, their old give-and-take resumed. He would let his guard down, Mr. Anzilotti said. New documentary The 12th Victim: Is Fugate a Natural Born Killer or Starkweather victim? Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. The 45th year passed in the same way. 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. He had come further in closing cases than his younger self could have imagined. 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. Mr. Cottingham had a vulnerability, the chief realized: After divulging nothing during hours of questioning, hed sometimes loosen up on the drive back to prison, sitting in the back seat and believing the day was done. He married in 1970 and became a father of. 0000001982 00000 n God rest their souls," Bergen County Prosecutor's Chief of Detective Robert Anzilotti said Tuesday after Richard Cottingham of Lodi admitted killing both in 1974. . Over time, though, one investigator was slowly developing a theory. For a year, he refused to speak to Mr. Anzilotti. Vronsky, who aided investigators in obtaining Junes indictment, is trying to coax as many confessions out of the aging, 300-pound serial killer as possible, but the clock is ticking since he suffers from diabetes and kidney disease, he said. He continued to live here until the police eventually arrested him on May 22nd, 1980. Did the old man kill those girls? The third result is Richard Eric Cunningham age 50s in Skillman, NJ. She later testified that he said, "You have to take it. 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. K3nVxb;X)oxeHME~> Both men were keenly aware that it was their years-old relationship that had brought about this moment. Cottingham offered to give O'Dell a massage and she rolled onto her stomach. Among the other faces in separate windows on the Zoom screen was a 66-year-old woman, identified simply as Nancy. He described in detail how, instead, he took the girls to a motel, held them captive and eventually drowned them in the bathtub. H|U0+(QvG`b08NbHlSoZ2CRSs=* \e~ Hearing prosecutors detail grisly crime scenes like where Laverne was found was especially difficult to endure, her son said. They were facedown, side by side, as if placed there with care. 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. 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.
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