richard cottingham lodi, nj address

Little more than a week after Street was found, Reyner was found butchered in the Seville Motel in New York City. Their heads and hands had been cut off. Absolutely, its completely plausible. Cottingham had stuffed Streets body under the bed for housekeeping to find, Vronsky said. [2], In 2010, he pleaded guilty to the 1967 murder of Nancy Vogel. This is a "Then and Now" photograph of Cottingham's former house at 29 Vreeland Street. 43 0 obj<>stream He pleaded innocent and for decades insisted he was being "framed", until admitting in 2009 that he had actually perpetrated those five murders. On May 22, Cottingham then picked up Leslie Ann ODell, a 19-year-old runaway desperate to escape her pimp something he promised to help her do over drinks in Midtown. I think it was just an evolution in his killing.. The chief contacted the Blase family and told them what they had ached to know for decades: He knew who had killed Irene. 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. It could only be Jackie Harp.. The police were called and Cottingham was apprehended while trying to flee. Ive never seen rain like that, he said. This girl did everything right, Vronsky said. Thats not the natural order its supposed to go in.. 0000008735 00000 n [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. 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. Straddling her back, he drew a knife and put it to her throat as he snapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists. 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 was originally from the Bronx in New York City. 0000002865 00000 n He was locked away to serve several life sentences, aging into a portly man with a thick white beard. The inmate, with no real incentive to say anything about that crime, had given the chief what amounted to a parting gift. I was shocked that it was a serial killer, Moye said of his mothers confessed murderer. 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. My parents couldnt handle it., She had called Bergen County every few months to ask about the case for 47 years, she said. 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). Which, of course, I wasnt overly interested in, the former chief said. I thought he could be responsible for some, Mr. Anzilotti said. The predator, dubbed The Torso Killer, would strike again in May 1980. This case was always haunting me.. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. He did not know the names of those he killed. He was the Torso Killer. Then he shared his intentions to retire. Cottingham had kept these items as souvenirs so that he could remember his victims and relive his attacks. When they arrived, one firefighter attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a woman they found on the bed. For years, the three confessions remained a secret, until January 2020, when a true-crime writer who had been visiting Mr. Cottingham in prison, Peter Vronsky, announced that the inmate had revealed his crimes in interviews for a forthcoming book. The third result is Richard Eric Cunningham age 50s in Skillman, NJ. The investigators handed Ms. Mulder possessions of Jackies from half a century past. On August 21, 1972, he is charged and convicted of shoplifting at a Stern's department store in Paramus, New Jersey, and was sentenced to pay a $50 fine or ten days in jail. (1981, June 16). But he told Mr. Cottingham. A horrible scene, the police commissioner said that day. He said, Im going to give you one, Mr. Anzilotti recalled. 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Consequently, he was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping. 0000003707 00000 n He was imprisoned. 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. 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. startxref Im leaving, he said. . 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, 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. 0000000756 00000 n Anything that might close more cases, bring answers to more families. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and was raised mostly in New Jersey, according to the The New York Times. 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. No leads were forthcoming. %%EOF He admitted that those two killings weighed on him more than the others. Years ticked past, 1974 into 1975, into the 1980s, the 1990s. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. PB| [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]. New Jersey . Vronsky, who frequently visits Cottingham in prison, said he had a freak, random elevator encounter with the serial killer on the early morning of Dec. 2, 1979, as he tried to check into the Travel Inn Motel near a seedy and sex-crazed Times Square. Vogel was found dead in her own car in Ridgefield Park, nude and bound. When arrested, he had handcuffs, a leather gag, two slave collars, a switchblade knife, replica pistols, and a stockpile of prescription pills. (1981, June 16). 0000003125 00000 n 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. Since his conviction, Cottingham has pleaded guilty to 12 murders. It was just shock all the way around.. Like two little dolls at Christmastime.. 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. [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. Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/nyregion/new-jersey-serial-killer-cottingham-anzilotti.html. 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. They sat at the kitchen table, very professional, very polite, very considerate, Ms. Mulder recalled. 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. All these factors created this crucible in the center of Manhattan for Richard Cottingham to flourish.. 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. Her body was found the next morning by the side of a road next to a cemetery in Saddle Brook. 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. Math-wise its possible," said Vronsky. Its mind-boggling and very scary, especially to know theres more of them out there.. The police believed they had given up on the bus and were trying to hitchhike to a mall. 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. She then grew up without a father because her grandparents did not like him, she said. He remembers certain aspects of a person, Mr. Anzilotti said. The girls, Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16, had last been seen days earlier at a nearby bus stop. Cusicks daughter, Darlene Altman, told Nassau County Judge Caryn Fink her late grandparents raised her after her mothers shocking slaying. 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. After their drink, Cottingham offered to bring Blase back to the bus station where they had taken the bus. He had his list of names, each one a dead girl and a crime long unsolved. 7{(~tm LB IBJ*ZB`0 Accused serial killer nurse allegedly tried to murder premature infant twice. Later on, Richard took a job with Blue Cross Blue Shield in New York as a computer operator. Those cases were already closed. The house is close to Lodi High School, the Riverside Cemetery and Interstate 80. 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. That man, Richard Cottingham, had been convicted of crimes that seemed to bear little resemblance to the murders of the girls. He began to speak about a particular case, he said. Getting to that point wasnt easy, Anzilotti said. Twenty years later, he was reinvestigating several cold cases involving girls and young women who had been abducted, sexually abused and killed. 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. In May of 1980, police arrested Cottingham while he was torturing a sex worker at a motel room in New Jersey. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. 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. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. She, like members of the other families, agreed to forgo a guilty plea in open court. The Blase family agreed. . Notably, none of his crimes took place on the property. His proclivity toward violence and the lack of solid profiling tactics for serial killers made Vronsky believe that Cottinghams claim of 100 victims was possible. And at the time, it was beyond our capacity to look beyond New York City, he told The Post. Between 1970 and 1974, Cottingham and his wife, Janet, lived at an apartment block called Ledgewood Terrace in Little Ferry, New Jersey. As the New Jersey press reported on Cottinghams arrest, the NYPD started to take notice. Eventually, Mr. Cottingham began to loosen up, and he spoke about killing the prostitutes. A third the killing of 13-year-old Jackie Harp seemed to be the work of another killer. Which is entirely possible, especially in those days.. 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. By all accounts, he seemed to be leading an everyday life in Lodi, New Jersey, with his wife and three kids. He said he would talk about other murders only on the condition that the revelations would be kept out of the papers. During his trial, he testified that he had been fascinated by bondage since he was a young child. He said he wouldn't have done it if I wasn't retiring.. 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. Richard Cottingham, a family man who denied everything in court, was convicted of killing five women in the early 1980s. 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. 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. On March 12, 1974, Cottingham was arrested in New York City for robbery and unlawful imprisonment on the complaint of another prostitute. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Goodarzi, of Trenton, was a sex worker who had been traveling to the then-seedy streets of midtown Manhattan, Vronsky said. In 1981, he was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to nearly 200 years in prison. I think sometimes he grapples with his own gruesomeness back then., On March 12, a Friday, Mr. Anzilotti summoned the inmate. [2] Four surviving abduction-rape victims testified against Cottingham; he was convicted in three of the cases and acquitted in one. And I said, Hop in., He drove to the mall. 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. iP^ -KvWZvxhc'm$93tSz =oBTmD]+)bTJ T|u>/. 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. Then, with just days remaining before the chief retired, the inmate relented. [13][14] Anzilotti had spent 15 years interviewing Cottingham, working toward the confession. 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. 0000009264 00000 n 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. Richard Cottingham, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. [5] On May 15, 1980, Jean Reyner was strangled and her throat cut in New York's historic Seville Hotel. The other girls did, you have to take it, too. Again and again, for 15 years, Mr. Anzilotti met with the inmate, seeking the truth. He also claims that his true victim count is at least 85. 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. 0000013001 00000 n He lived with his wife and kids in. 0000001968 00000 n Falasca, 15, accepted. His "justification" for doing this was that he "didn't like anyone getting one over" on him. Its Godlike almost. The back and forth went on for weeks. Over the course of 13 years, beginning in 1967, Cottingham killed six women in New Jersey and New York. Investigators noted the crime scene was devoid of evidence and they were unable to identify the victims. The details stopped him cold. On one occasion, he dismembered two sex workers and set fire to their torsos at a hotel near Times Square. Then in exchange for immunity from prosecution, he confessed to murdering three New Jersey schoolgirls. Responding officers found an 18-year-old victim whod been bitten, stabbed and bound with handcuffs. 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 New York Times, p. 2. She agreed to have sex with him for money. He described things only the killer would know, like where hed thrown her car keys afterward. 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. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. He recalled the exact place in the woods where he left the bodies. A local investigator began to wonder: Could there be a link to a series of infamous Times Square murders? A woman walking to her car found them: two teenage girls, naked and dead in a sliver of woods behind an apartment parking lot. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. Cottinghamss name came up several times, but it didnt fit for me, she said. And at. But beneath the veneer of normalcy was a heinous double-existence as a serial killer. He then left the scene with their severed heads and hands. [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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. Mr. Anzilotti and another investigator drove to the town of Reading, Vt., to deliver the news to Jackies older sister, Suzan Mulder, then 69. A killing in Somerset County a week after Cottingham got his drivers license may have been one of his first victims, Vronsky said. The clever killer slipped up, leaving a fingerprint on the cuffs. In the case of Diane Cusick, it was a drive-in that no longer exists there He remembers the victims characteristics, but he doesnt remember their names.. 0000007874 00000 n Her glasses, a ring, a necklace, Ms. Mulder said. Soon, Cottingham persuaded Blase to go for a drink with him. 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. 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. In his possession, the 33-year-old had a stash of handcuffs, tape and sedatives. She knew that Mr. Anzilotti had solved Denises killing, too. 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. That made 11 murders Cottingham that admitted since his arrest more than 30 years ago. But there was an even bigger problem. Hes hedged around and all but confessed.. Irene Blase, aged 18, vanished on April 7, 1969, in Hackensack and was found face down in four feet of water in the Saddle River, strangled with a wire, a cord, or perhaps the chain of a crucifix she was wearing. The sergeant was undeterred. 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.. 0000004535 00000 n [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). The bodies of the women had no heads and no hands. HUMs@Wf~}m1`16N7NLf%=Io8. I could feel it.. This is possibly due to the fact that he got married in 1970. They'd left home for a trip 13 miles (21 kilometers) north to . His wife withdrew the petition upon his arrest in May 1980, then completed the divorce after his 1981 conviction. It was quite a shock to learn it was him.. But in. Richard Cottingham, Lorraine . 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 0000001071 00000 n He married in 1970 and became a father of three. He would let his guard down, Mr. Anzilotti said. She was stunned. endstream endobj 34 0 obj<>stream 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. The house was built in 1974one year before Cottingham and his wife, Janet, moved in. 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. This story has been shared 151,197 times. trailer [5][17], The charges listed in Cottingham's New Jersey indictment included kidnapping, attempted murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with deadly weapon, aggravated sexual assault while armed (rape), aggravated sexual assault while armed (sodomy), aggravated sexual assault while armed (fellatio), possession of a weapon (switchblade knife), and possession of controlled substances (secobarbital, amobarbital and diazepam).