I lost so much more than just my mother that day, Altman said. He tried a different approach. But as he considered retirement, he kept returning to the two girls found dead in the woods. 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. Serial killer Richard Cottingham made his admission in the cold case murders of the high school girls, acknowledging that he kidnapped, raped and finally drowned the pair inside a motel room. Responding officers found an 18-year-old victim whod been bitten, stabbed and bound with handcuffs. He did a U-turn in a bank parking lot and approached, he said. They were facedown, side by side, as if placed there with care. Pages in category "People from Lodi, New Jersey" The following 21 pages are in this category, out of 21 total. 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. HUMs@Wf~}m1`16N7NLf%=Io8. He had three children, two boys and a girl, with his wife. In 2010, Bergen County authorities announced hed pleaded guilty to a sixth murder, a 1967 strangling in Bergen County. 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. He described in detail how, instead, he took the girls to a motel, held them captive and eventually drowned them in the bathtub. Its his fault this is out.. Its an ongoing process, Vronsky said. He was the Torso Killer. Mr. Anzilotti would arrange to have the inmate transported to his office more than hours drive from the prison. It was Aug. 14, 1974, in Montvale, N.J., a suburb just over the New York state line. 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. Their heads and hands had been cut off. His additional confession to a 1974 murder was discounted by Rockland County police. 0000003431 00000 n 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 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. On March 12, 1974, Cottingham was arrested in New York City for robbery and unlawful imprisonment on the complaint of another prostitute. Thats not the natural order its supposed to go in.. That girl was found drowned, similar to Blases killing, he said. Cottingham was indicted in Cusicks killing in June after DNA evidence linked him to the cold-case slaying believed to be the oldest match to ever lead to a prosecution, Nassau County prosecutors said. Photos of the house and other related images. endstream endobj 34 0 obj<>stream But Cottingham had other victims, and he would later boast of killing 85 to 100 people. %%EOF Although Vogel was the earliest of Cottinghams murder victims, the killer has said she was not his first, according to Vronsky. On Thursday, authorities told NJ Advance Media that Cottingham confessed to the murders of three Bergen County teenagers in the late 1960s - each a cold case for over 50 years. [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. . And at. For over 40 years, its been folklore in this county.. Anything that might close more cases, bring answers to more families. At the mall, Cottingham, then a tall, brown-haired young man, met Vogel, a married mother of two. The back and forth went on for weeks. He had been dubbed the Times Square Torso Ripper setting off Vronskys lifelong fascination of serial killers. Everything that I was taught about evil was evident in his presence, in his demeanor, in the gaze of his eyes, Moye told The Post. 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.CreditBryan Anselm for The New York Times. 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. We've received your submission. Then came Tuesdays pleas. He continued to live here until the police eventually arrested him on May 22nd, 1980. 0000012661 00000 n He also claimed to have committed 80 perfect murders no one knows about. 0000005280 00000 n Since his incarceration, he has attempted suicide on two occasions. Cusick, an instructor at a dance school in the Oceanside community of Long Island, went to Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream to buy a pair of shoes. However, he started killing again in 1974, when he murdered Lorraine Marie Kelly and Mary Ann Pryor. The third result is Richard Eric Cunningham age 50s in Skillman, NJ. Just shy of his 21st birthday, Richard Cottingham began a vicious killing spree that tore through north New Jersey and New York City. 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.. 21 23 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. To bring Mr. Cottingham back to court, where the case would certainly draw attention, would stop him from talking about other open cases, the chief explained. 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. Blase was 18 when she was found strangled in Saddle River in 1969. 0000001262 00000 n But then, four years ago, Mr. Cottingham stunned the chief. Cottingham then confessed to more murders including Nancy Vogel, whom he killed in 1967, and five teenaged victims from New Jersey, none of whom were in the sex trade. 0000007658 00000 n [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 New York Times, p. 26. 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. The year 2020 arrived, and running his office through the coronavirus outbreak kept Mr. Anzilotti too busy for cold cases. In 1981, he was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to nearly 200 years in prison. Cottingham's reign of terror on both sides of the Hudson River is the subject of Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer, whose tale begins on Dec. 2, 1979, with New York City police and fire. Vogel was found dead in her own car in Ridgefield Park, nude and bound. 0000002882 00000 n Richard Cottingham, New Jersey prison photo. Cottingham primarily sought prostitutes who were petite blondes in their late teens to mid-twenties. [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. 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. When they arrived, one firefighter attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a woman they found on the bed. Her glasses, a ring, a necklace, Ms. Mulder said. Consequently, he was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping. And any new prison sentence would, practically speaking, be meaningless; Mr. Cottingham had no chance of ever being released. 0000008735 00000 n It is not a public place. Over the months that followed, Mr. Anzilotti cultivated an unusual relationship with Mr. Cottingham, sometimes testy, sometimes closer to a sort of warmth. A notorious New Jersey serial killer pleaded guilty Tuesday to the cold case murders of two teenage girls in 1974. H|U0+(QvG`b08NbHlSoZ2CRSs=* \e~ 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. [2], In 2010, he pleaded guilty to the 1967 murder of Nancy Vogel. On the way out, he bumped the author on the shins with a bag that felt like it contained bowling balls, Vronsky said. 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. 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. startxref They captured Cottingham soon after. So he would remember something on the way: a racetrack or a shopping mall. He kept these "trophies" in a locked room in the basement. 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. 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. This is the house where the "Times Square Killer," Richard Cottingham, lived between 1975 and 1980. The details stopped him cold. My whole life has been this, she said. 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. 0000000756 00000 n The chief pressed ahead with his list. Her breasts had been severed and torso had been set on fire, Vronsky said. I was shocked that it was a serial killer, Moye said of his mothers confessed murderer. 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. Furthermore, one of the women that he murdered in 1979 is still unidentified. A few days later, Mr. Anzilotti visited Mr. Cottingham in his new surroundings and told him, I put you here.. Mr. Cottingham left behind no clues. Now 74, Cottingham, who claims responsibility for dozens of murders, has confessed to a. Richard Cottingham of Lodi (NJ) is sentenced to 173-179 years in prison. 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. Zestimate Home Value: $598,600. 0000009992 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. . He had no relationship to his victims. 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. He rented an apartment in Midtown and told his wife he worked nights. Over time, though, one investigator was slowly developing a theory. 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. The police pursued a welter of tips, rumors and false alarms, The New York Times reported at the time. 0000005253 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. [13] In 2021, he pleaded guilty to the 1974 kidnapping, raping and drowning of Lorraine Marie Kelly and Mary Ann Pryor. Richard Cottingham seemed like a character from a pulp novel: the crazed killer and the family man. The police photograph on the left was taken in June of 1980. She later testified that he said, "You have to take it. For more details, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. Hackensack, It was an era when the sex worker was criminalized. 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. Notably, none of his crimes took place on the property. [3], 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. 21 0 obj <> endobj The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Again, he knew details from Ms. Falascas file. 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? We use cookies to deliver personalized advertisements, improve your online experience, and to analyze our site's performance. Mr. Anzilotti and another investigator drove to the town of Reading, Vt., to deliver the news to Jackies older sister, Suzan Mulder, then 69. )' The 22-year-old's death appeared brutal: she had been beheaded and set on fire and her skull has yet to be found. 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. Correctional officers found contraband and evidence of bookmaking and transferred Mr. Cottingham to solitary confinement. 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 said, Youre welcome.. Instead, she ended up shopping at one of Bergen Countys malls, according to Vronsky. "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. 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. The people listed below were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Lodi, New Jersey. In 1964, Cottingham graduated from Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, New Jersey. Following his arrest, police linked him to the murder of Valerie Streets. Mr. Anzilotti, by then a sergeant, arranged a surprise search of the inmates cell the day after the Super Bowl. 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. 0000002847 00000 n [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. The weather worsened. When arrested, he had handcuffs, a leather gag, two slave collars, a switchblade knife, replica pistols, and a stockpile of prescription pills. Inmates were wagering everything from cash to cigarettes. 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. Maintenance workers found her body covered in plastic bags and wrapped in a gray blanket near a Jones Beach bus stop. Then hed clear the room until only he and Mr. Cottingham faced each another, and begin with his questions. And he sat there with literally no remorse. It was like a game to him, Anzilotti recently said. Im leaving, he said. 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. Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. Cottingham murdered at least twelve women between 1967 and 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. 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. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. It took some effort to convince him to go to court and let me make it public, Anzilotti said Tuesday. The inmate, with no real incentive to say anything about that crime, had given the chief what amounted to a parting gift. This number may increase in the future, as he has stated in the past that his victim count is much higher. I had long suspected that whoever killed Irene Blase also killed Denise Falasca, Mr. Anzilotti said. At the time, Cottingham, who had not been arrested or identified, was dubbed the "Times Square Ripper.. Three days later, Mr. Anzilotti walked out of his office for good. Cottingham lived here with his wife, Janet, and their three children, Blair, Scott, and Jenny. But on May 22, 1980 Cottingham's life as a predator came to light. 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. Blase was found strangled to death in 4 feet of water in Saddle River the next day. Cottingham was apprehended in the hallway by arriving police officers. But first, he wanted to return to those two murders from 47 years ago. I never broke my promise to him, all these years later, the chief said. 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. 0000006151 00000 n Hes been chief of detectives nearly five years. On Dec. 2, 1979, the murders that earned Cottingham the nickname the "Torso Killer took place in New York City. 0000007874 00000 n Then he followed with an unusual request. Hes younger when all this is going on in Bergen County, he said. He also claims that his true victim count is at least 85. 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. He married in 1970 and had three children. Once again, the victim did not appear in further proceedings and the case was dismissed.[6]. 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. 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). 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. I never thought I would get caught, he added. The predator, dubbed The Torso Killer, would strike again in May 1980. 0000001082 00000 n Falasca, 15, accepted. He then left the scene with their severed heads and hands. Mr. Anzilotti had begun to believe, he said in a recent interview, that Mr. Cottingham, between his history and the suspicions of detectives that came before me, could be responsible for one or more of those deaths. With Cottinghams next victim, a killers hunting ground of sorts began to form. On February 15, 1968, Cottingham killed his second known victim. . Cottingham has claimed in the past he. 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. [3], Cottingham was arrested on several lesser charges throughout his killing spree. 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 Trenton's New Jersey State Prison. As the New Jersey press reported on Cottinghams arrest, the NYPD started to take notice. Its mind-boggling and very scary, especially to know theres more of them out there.. 0000006846 00000 n The murders committed by the Torso Killer bore little resemblance to the ones Mr. Anzilotti was investigating, but their timing matched up with Mr. Cottinghams settling in New Jersey. K3nVxb;X)oxeHME~> 0000006081 00000 n 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. Her body was found the next morning by the side of a road next to a cemetery in Saddle Brook. But something a hunch, past investigative speculation, the proximity of the crimes drew Mr. Anzilotti to the prisoner. Cottingham had stuffed Streets body under the bed for housekeeping to find, Vronsky said. 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. It is situated at 29 Vreeland Street in Lodi, New Jersey. Hes hedged around and all but confessed.. Ms. Falasca was a 15-year-old who left her familys house in July 1969 and never returned. She was Nancy Pryor, and she was 19 when her sister, Mary Ann, was found dead. Then in exchange for immunity from prosecution, he confessed to murdering three New Jersey schoolgirls. A judge sentenced him to 25 years to life after Cusicks brother and only child read emotional impact statements in court. Cottingham has confessed to murdering 12 women. His upcoming sentencing will add more time to a prison term that already extends beyond his remaining years. Mr. Anzilotti, doing his best not to betray any emotion, slowly pulled out his Blackberry and took notes. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. 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. You can change your choice at any time by using the Privacy Center link in our footer. He pleaded innocent and for decades insisted he was being "framed", until admitting in 2009 that he had actually perpetrated those five murders. 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. Cottingham was not charged with this murder until June 2022, when he was implicated by DNA.[10]. [7] On October 28, 1967, he strangled Nancy Schiava Vogel, a 29-year-old married mother of two, in Little Ferry, New Jersey. The New York Times, p. 26. startxref 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 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. He was locked away to serve several life sentences, aging into a portly man with a thick white beard. His yearbook photo shows a cross-country runner with blond hair slicked back.
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