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. 0000009992 00000 n Goodarzi had come to the United States years prior from Iran. He called his detectives and gave the word: Bring in Cottingham. xb```"VV~g`0pt 9mzQ[2fXar9XcK',6=3Yb%^)= RZlr$:kX;e =_i& ` ?# In early December 1979, firefighters were called to the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on 42nd Street as a fire burned in room 417. Over the course of 13 years, beginning in 1967, Cottingham killed six women in New Jersey and New York. He was imprisoned. Boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, family members all were questioned and cleared of suspicion. 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. Pages in category "People from Lodi, New Jersey" The following 21 pages are in this category, out of 21 total. For over 40 years, its been folklore in this county.. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. I think it was just an evolution in his killing.. 0000001082 00000 n He also claimed to have committed 80 perfect murders no one knows about. He also claims that his true victim count is at least 85. Hearing prosecutors detail grisly crime scenes like where Laverne was found was especially difficult to endure, her son said. [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. Years ticked past, 1974 into 1975, into the 1980s, the 1990s. He admitted that those two killings weighed on him more than the others. Her name was Nancy Schiava Vogel. Premiering on Dec. 29, the three-part season explores the case of Richard Cottingham, a New Jersey man who was dubbed "The Torso Killer" and found guilty of killing 11 women between 1967 and 1980. He was locked away to serve several life sentences, aging into a portly man with a thick white beard. 0000007874 00000 n 0000007658 00000 n 0000000756 00000 n This is a "Then and Now" photograph of Cottingham's former house at 29 Vreeland Street. Blase was found strangled to death in 4 feet of water in Saddle River the next day. The year 2020 arrived, and running his office through the coronavirus outbreak kept Mr. Anzilotti too busy for cold cases. Straddling her back, he drew a knife and put it to her throat as he snapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists. Before his arrest, he was a successful computer operator who worked at the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurance company in Midtown Manhattan. [6] In 2022, Cottingham officially confessed to the 1970 murder of Lorraine McGraw, under a non-prosecution agreement. [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. Its hard to understand how someone could be like that. About a week later, Big Apple authorities would find Reyners body, but still, no one in New Jersey connected them to the Times Square killer, says former NYPD detective Malcolm Reiman in the series. His name had floated around in the lore of Bergen County cold cases.. Five months later, the serial slayer struck again, strangling Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves, an 18-year-old Manhattan woman originally from Puerto Rico. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. He later detailed his brief 1979 encounter with Cottingham in Times Square Torso Ripper: Sex and Murder on The Deuce. His upcoming book on the vicious predator will be released next fall. Authorities executed a warrant on his Lodi home, which had a private room containing evidence linking him to the Torso Killer. 0000001968 00000 n He described in detail how, instead, he took the girls to a motel, held them captive and eventually drowned them in the bathtub. Richard Cottingham, New Jersey prison photo. 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. I just ruled him out. 0000005280 00000 n Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. Cottingham has confessed to murdering 12 women. Richard Cottingham of Lodi (NJ) is sentenced to 173-179 years in prison. 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. The police photograph on the left was taken in June of 1980. Other locations that are relatively close to this place. You're a whore and you have to be punished." In April 1978, Cottingham's wife filed for divorce on the grounds of "abandonment" and "mental cruelty" (refusing to have sex with her after the birth of their third child, staying out until early morning, and leaving her with insufficient household funds). With Ms. Pryor and a judge watching on Zoom that day, Mr. Cottingham pleaded guilty to the two murders. Those old enough to remember can recall the fear that many felt after the bodies of two girls from North Bergen whod gone missing after a shopping trip to Paramus were found raped, beaten and drowned in Bergen County. Those cases were already closed. On Dec. 2, 1979, the murders that earned Cottingham the nickname the "Torso Killer took place in New York City. Although Vogel was the earliest of Cottinghams murder victims, the killer has said she was not his first, according to Vronsky. But he eventually realized the years-long association, which involved countless state prison visits, was coming to an end. All these factors created this crucible in the center of Manhattan for Richard Cottingham to flourish.. Just shy of his 21st birthday, Richard Cottingham began a vicious killing spree that tore through north New Jersey and New York City. Furthermore, one of the women that he murdered in 1979 is still unidentified. 0000006081 00000 n All rights reserved (About Us). Mr. Anzilotti, doing his best not to betray any emotion, slowly pulled out his Blackberry and took notes. Cottingham fled the scene with the victims heads and hands. 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. This number may increase in the future, as he has stated in the past that his victim count is much higher. This story has been shared 150,597 times. 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. HKo0l06CYf,Y(v (I?0c9 Mr. Anzilotti would arrange to have the inmate transported to his office more than hours drive from the prison. 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. But it was a way to get him comfortable to talk to me about murders.. 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. And at. He had pornographic artwork, adhesive tape, books about S&M, said Geberth. 0000005253 00000 n On May 5, 1980, a motel housekeeper found the body of 19-year-old Valerie Ann Street in the Hasbrouck Heights Quality Inn. 0000004577 00000 n [7] On October 28, 1967, he strangled Nancy Schiava Vogel, a 29-year-old married mother of two, in Little Ferry, New Jersey. The latitude and longitude coordinates for the house are: To view directions on how to get there, you can use the Google Maps shortcut below: 29 Vreeland StreetLodiNew JerseyNJ 07644United States. 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. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a photograph of Jean Reyner. Responding officers found an 18-year-old victim whod been bitten, stabbed and bound with handcuffs. Cottingham is currently in state prison on a life sentence . No leads were forthcoming. She was Nancy Pryor, and she was 19 when her sister, Mary Ann, was found dead. It was a game to me. . 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. Authorities believed it to be, thus far, the oldest criminal case to be solved and prosecuted by direct DNA evidence. Through the years, other people were assigned. Right up to Mr. Anzilotti. The police pursued a welter of tips, rumors and false alarms, The New York Times reported at the time. ADVERTISEMENT. 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. 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. 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. He soon realized the woman had no head, the Daily News reported. 0000001071 00000 n 0000002882 00000 n Im leaving, he said. 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. 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. It is not a public place. 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. 0000000756 00000 n It represented the opportunity to let the entire world know that Laverne Moye was a human being. Detective Anzilotti was startled to discover the same man killed all three. Three days later, Mr. Anzilotti walked out of his office for good. Feech La Manna's house from The Sopranos. But Cottingham flew under the radar precisely because of how he chose his victims and who his victims were. 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. 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. In December 2019, forensic historian and author Peter Vronsky, on the eve of publishing the revelation in his second edition of Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, publicized the confessions with the BCPO's cooperation, in a community meeting in Midland Park. The potential payoff in return felt almost too important to describe. Note that there seems to have been a "lull" between 1970 and 1973. 0000007078 00000 n 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. xref And thats what bothers me, because I probably didnt have to do anything to them., Mr. Anzilotti left the confession both exhausted and relieved. 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. Neither man has claimed to have been aware of the other, nor is there any evidence they were familiar with each other prior to their respective arrests. 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 had his list of names, each one a dead girl and a crime long unsolved. For more details, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. Soon, the chief closed that case two down. Altman, who was just 3 years old at the time, said her parents had separated prior to Cusicks killing. Much of Cottinghams crimes were not murders, but other violent crimes like abductions and rapes. It was Aug. 14, 1974, in Montvale, N.J., a suburb just over the New York state line. It was quite a shock to learn it was him.. Moye, who traveled from Georgia to see Cottingham confess to killing his mother and four other women as part of a plea deal, said he leaned heavily on his Catholic faith as the unrepentant killer watched via video feed from South Woods State Prison in New Jersey, where hes serving multiple life sentences. 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. She had been abducted while walking home from practice with her schools fife-and-drum team in 1968. [16], In the early hours of May 22, 1980, Cottingham picked up 18-year-old Leslie Ann O'Dell, who was soliciting on the corner of Manhattan's Lexington Avenue and 25th Street. Soon, Cottingham persuaded Blase to go for a drink with him. The bridge where Mallory Beach died in a boating accident. He said he would talk about other murders only on the condition that the revelations would be kept out of the papers. They were facedown, side by side, as if placed there with care. He enjoys our time together., The chief also had another theory. This case was always haunting me.. Hes been chief of detectives nearly five years. 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. 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). Over time, though, one investigator was slowly developing a theory. He described things only the killer would know, like where hed thrown her car keys afterward. Goodarzi, of Trenton, was a sex worker who had been traveling to the then-seedy streets of midtown Manhattan, Vronsky said. My parents couldnt handle it., She had called Bergen County every few months to ask about the case for 47 years, she said. Their murders shook the region. [4], On May 3, 1970, Cottingham was married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village, Queens. His crimes were discovered in May 1980, when a maid at a Hasbrouck Heights motel heard. Police were not aware of his murders at the time, nor were they aware that an active serial killer was at large in the New York-New Jersey area. The 45th year passed in the same way. 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. 0000008735 00000 n He lived with his wife and kids in. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. He recalled the exact place in the woods where he left the bodies. Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. 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. But Mr. Anzilotti kept pressing him: You know youre going to tell me.. The predator, dubbed The Torso Killer, would strike again in May 1980. Mr. Anzilotti insisted that this case be resolved in open court. However, his family moved to River Vale, New Jersey, when he was 12 years old. But something a hunch, past investigative speculation, the proximity of the crimes drew Mr. Anzilotti to the prisoner. . )' 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. His yearbook photo shows a cross-country runner with blond hair slicked back. He married in 1970 and became a father of. Cottingham had kept these items as souvenirs so that he could remember his victims and relive his attacks. A married father of three, he lived in the. 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. Then in exchange for immunity from prosecution, he confessed to murdering three New Jersey schoolgirls. Crime: Cottingham, a Lodi resident, killed six women in New Jersey and New York between 1967 and 1980. A few days later, Mr. Anzilotti visited Mr. Cottingham in his new surroundings and told him, I put you here.. The police were called and Cottingham was apprehended while trying to flee. There were at least five unsolved killings of girls, each an open wound for families seeking resolution. Look her up, she looks like her. Others he remembered from a haircut.. 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. 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. [3], Cottingham was arrested on several lesser charges throughout his killing spree. They'd left home for a trip 13 miles (21 kilometers) north to . On September 4, 1973, Cottingham was arrested in New York City for robbery, oral sodomy and sexual abuse on the complaint of a prostitute and her pimp. 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. During a search of the house, investigators discovered personal items belonging to some of his victims. 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. It was pure evil. Shed been abducted by Cottingham from the Ledgewood Terrace apartments, in Little Ferry, where Cottingham had previously lived, said Vronsky. After his wife filed for divorce in April of 1979, it seems as though his killings became far more frequent. 3. 0000001262 00000 n In fact, Mr. Cottingham lurked around the fringes of a seedy Times Square and the prostitutes who worked its streets. Richard Cottingham, a family man who denied everything in court, was convicted of killing five women in the early 1980s. During his trial, he testified that he had been fascinated by bondage since he was a young child. Did the old man kill those girls? Richard Cottingham, serial killer from New Jersey operating in New York between 1967 and 1980. I could feel it.. To this day, the other young female has never been identified. 0000003183 00000 n He asked to quietly close their daughters murder case without formally charging the killer. 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 said, Im going to give you one, Mr. Anzilotti recalled. He remembers certain aspects of a person, Mr. Anzilotti said. He said, Youre welcome.. Therefore, you should be respectful and not step foot on the property without permission. Her body was found the next morning by the side of a road next to a cemetery in Saddle Brook. PB| 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. 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. 0000003202 00000 n [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. Ive never seen rain like that, he said. This guy was particularly ruthless. The inmate, with no real incentive to say anything about that crime, had given the chief what amounted to a parting gift. On February 15, 1968, Cottingham killed his second known victim. Blase was 18 when she was found strangled in Saddle River in 1969. 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. Getting to that point wasnt easy, Anzilotti said. [15] In December 2022, Cottingham was convicted of Diane Cusick's 1968 murder and, under a non-prosecution agreement, officially admitted to killing another four women during 19721973 in Long Island, New York: Mary Beth Heinz, Laverne Moye, Sheila Heiman, and Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves. He married in 1970 and became a father of three. 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. 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. %PDF-1.4 % xref On Dec. 2, 1979, fire alarms rang out at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on West 42nd Street. F! They have also lived in Manasquan, NJ and Ada, MI. The motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. She, like members of the other families, agreed to forgo a guilty plea in open court. 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. 0000010308 00000 n He enjoys our relationship. 0000001425 00000 n Then he shared his intentions to retire. Although first responders encountered thick smoke in the room, one noticed the shape of bodies on the pair of twin beds and attempted to administer CPR. Inside they found the bodies of 22-year-old sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi[9] and an unidentified woman estimated between 16 and 22. Richard Cottingham who is already serving time in state prison for several . The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Ms. Falasca was a 15-year-old who left her familys house in July 1969 and never returned. No one could find any clues in the girls backgrounds: no drugs, no trouble with the law. 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. 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 Cottingham offered to give O'Dell a massage and she rolled onto her stomach. 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. [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]. 43 0 obj <>stream In 2004, Vronsky published his first book on homicidal maniacs, Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, an exhaustive look at executioners slayings dating back to ancient Rome. He kept these "trophies" in a locked room in the basement. Math-wise its possible," said Vronsky. 0000001412 00000 n Both men were keenly aware that it was their years-old relationship that had brought about this moment. But the killer was a clever bastard, too. When reporters ran with the story, Mr. Anzilotti considered himself absolved from keeping his silence about the cases. 0000013001 00000 n I was an immediate adult when it happened, she said later in an interview. It was an era when the sex worker was criminalized. New Jersey . 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. A judge sentenced him to 25 years to life after Cusicks brother and only child read emotional impact statements in court. <<69EF7C237A736942AE760EBDB9B8F80B>]>> 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. A hotel worker arrived at Room 417 to find smoke and a horrible scene: the scorched remains of two women on a bed. 0000009264 00000 n His murders were not the outcome of stalking or planning but of fleeting encounters. Maywood, Instead, he drove her to the Quality Inn, where he tortured, beat and sexually assaulted her for hours, until a maid heard her scream.

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