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. Shed been abducted by Cottingham from the Ledgewood Terrace apartments, in Little Ferry, where Cottingham had previously lived, said Vronsky. Eventually, Mr. Cottingham began to loosen up, and he spoke about killing the prostitutes. Richard Cottingham who is already serving time in state prison for several . The inmate made it clear that pressure would not work. And later that same month, a fifth woman was found mutilated in the former Hotel Seville near Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. He was imprisoned. She had been abducted while walking home from practice with her schools fife-and-drum team in 1968. 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. You're a whore and you have to be punished." They'd left home for a trip 13 miles (21 kilometers) north to . The items included necklaces, broaches, earrings, and other pieces of jewelry. It is my fervent hope that this arrest and conviction bring some semblance of closure to the friends and family of Mary Ann and Lorraine and a measure of justice to members of our communities, who have long feared this unknown actor.. At the time, Cottingham, who had not been arrested or identified, was dubbed the "Times Square Ripper.. 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 primarily sought prostitutes who were petite blondes in their late teens to mid-twenties. A third the killing of 13-year-old Jackie Harp seemed to be the work of another killer. The investigators handed Ms. Mulder possessions of Jackies from half a century past. Cottingham offered to give O'Dell a massage and she rolled onto her stomach. After his wife filed for divorce in April of 1979, it seems as though his killings became far more frequent. Below, you will find the address and the GPS coordinates for this location. Cusicks daughter, Darlene Altman, told Nassau County Judge Caryn Fink her late grandparents raised her after her mothers shocking slaying. [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. 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. Cottinghamss name came up several times, but it didnt fit for me, she said. Justice was served and thats the end of it case closed. ADVERTISEMENT. Mr. Anzilotti would arrange to have the inmate transported to his office more than hours drive from the prison. They were never able to fully recover from the monumental loss, she said. 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. He was also extremely fidgety and unable to sit still. He enjoys our time together., The chief also had another theory. 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. That girl was found drowned, similar to Blases killing, he said. (1981, June 16). Feech La Manna's house from The Sopranos. . I think sometimes he grapples with his own gruesomeness back then., On March 12, a Friday, Mr. Anzilotti summoned the inmate. They have also lived in Manasquan, NJ and Ada, MI. She was stunned. This is the house where the "Times Square Killer," Richard Cottingham, lived between 1975 and 1980. In his possession, the 33-year-old had a stash of handcuffs, tape and sedatives. The five victims addressed . 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. 0000005253 00000 n Hackensack, For a year, he refused to speak to Mr. Anzilotti. 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. After their drink, Cottingham offered to bring Blase back to the bus station where they had taken the bus. 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. He did a U-turn in a bank parking lot and approached, he said. Soon, the chief closed that case two down. I never thought I would get caught, he added. 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. 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. 0000007658 00000 n Maintenance workers found her body covered in plastic bags and wrapped in a gray blanket near a Jones Beach bus stop. [5] On May 15, 1980, Jean Reyner was strangled and her throat cut in New York's historic Seville Hotel. 7{(~tm LB IBJ*ZB`0 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. She, like members of the other families, agreed to forgo a guilty plea in open court. 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. 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. 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 had not yet put in for retirement, or even told his boss he planned to do that the following week. 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. Later on, Richard took a job with Blue Cross Blue Shield in New York as a computer operator. It represented closure, Moye said of this weeks hearing. This guy was particularly ruthless. [21] Cottingham was apparently "forensically aware" in the era before DNA analysis. 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.". But her light shines brightly against the backdrop of evil.. Goodarzi, of Trenton, was a sex worker who had been traveling to the then-seedy streets of midtown Manhattan, Vronsky said. 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. Cottingham admitted during the plea hearing that he brought Mary Ann and Lorraine to a hotel, where he raped both and bound the girls to keep them from getting away. 0000009543 00000 n 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 tried a different approach. Richard Cottingham, a family man who denied everything in court, was convicted of killing five women in the early 1980s. The potential payoff in return felt almost too important to describe. The series features interviews with former sex workers, including Barbara Amaya, who was raped and robbed at gunpoint by a man she believes was Cottingham, although she was inexplicably spared. 43 0 obj<>stream On one occasion, he dismembered two sex workers and set fire to their torsos at a hotel near Times Square. 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). But something a hunch, past investigative speculation, the proximity of the crimes drew Mr. Anzilotti to the prisoner. 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. The 45th year passed in the same way. These objects, along with his fingerprint on the handcuffs, were presented as evidence by prosecutors at his trial. 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. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Hours later, her parents drove to the mall and found Dianes Plymouth Valiant in the parking lot, where her body was discovered in the backseat. 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. Anyone can read what you share. Instead, she ended up shopping at one of Bergen Countys malls, according to Vronsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Her glasses, a ring, a necklace, Ms. Mulder said. The New York Times, p. 26. According to his neighbors, he seemed like a regular family man. For more details, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. He said, Youre welcome.. He would occasionally remove and dispose of his victims heads and hands, presumably to make identification more difficult. Richard Cottingham of Lodi (NJ) is sentenced to 173-179 years in prison. [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. On Dec. 2, 1979, the murders that earned Cottingham the nickname the "Torso Killer took place in New York City. Much like John Moye, Altman, who now lives in Ocala, Fla., said she struggled to process Cottinghams savagery. FPh_3Gj Nt%Q[r L`%/9QTh/| Q4_g8KI}u'?xbif`H>;wNQ|sd2(? When arrested, he had handcuffs, a leather gag, two slave collars, a switchblade knife, replica pistols, and a stockpile of prescription pills. Like two little dolls at Christmastime.. 0000012661 00000 n The Google Street View image above was taken in May of 2022. But as he considered retirement, he kept returning to the two girls found dead in the woods. F! She was believed to have accepted a ride from a stranger, and her body was found on the side of a road near a cemetery. His search for a killer led him to a man already locked away, in New Jersey State Prison, 75 miles from his office. HKo0l06CYf,Y(v (I?0c9 PB| 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.
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