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. 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. Blase was 18 when she was found strangled in Saddle River in 1969. 0000005280 00000 n F! Richard Cottingham, serial killer from New Jersey operating in New York between 1967 and 1980. Ive never seen rain like that, he said. He said he would talk about other murders only on the condition that the revelations would be kept out of the papers. FPh_3Gj Nt%Q[r L`%/9QTh/| Q4_g8KI}u'?xbif`H>;wNQ|sd2(? For more details, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. He said, Youre welcome.. The chief questioned Mr. Cottingham. 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. 'Crime Scene' reveals true depravity of 'Times Square Killer' [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. Justice was served and thats the end of it case closed. 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. But Mr. Anzilotti kept pressing him: You know youre going to tell me.. It would take about five months after the grisly Travel Inn slayings for investigators to arrest their man, a married father of three from Lodi, New Jersey, who preyed on sex workers in Times Square, then a seedy nucleus of pornography, prostitution and crime. On December 15, 1977, the body of X-ray technician Maryann Carr, 26, was found brutally beaten and strangled in the parking lot of the Quality Inn motel in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, but police did not link the murder to Cottingham until his 1980 arrest at the same motel. 0000007874 00000 n )' Hackensack, 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. 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. 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. 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. There was also a lockbox filled with trophies from his murders, including Maryann Carrs apartment key and a necklace belonging to Jean Reyner. 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. Richard Cottingham seemed like a character from a pulp novel: the crazed killer and the family man. [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). I asked them where they were going. The mall, they replied. On more than one occasion, he would openly talk about his experiences with sex workers. 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. 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. 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. A killing in Somerset County a week after Cottingham got his drivers license may have been one of his first victims, Vronsky said. After years in prison, Mr. Cottingham began to open up to the detective about past unsolved crimes. The Google Street View image above was taken in May of 2022. The sergeant was undeterred. He married in 1970 and had three children. A number of killings of young women and girls in New Jersey and New York had gone unsolved for years before a night in May 1980 when a maid at . He rented an apartment in Midtown and told his wife he worked nights. But on May 22, 1980 Cottingham's life as a predator came to light. 0000000756 00000 n Among the other faces in separate windows on the Zoom screen was a 66-year-old woman, identified simply as Nancy. The teenagers were last seen on Aug. 9, 1974, in North Bergen. Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon. A woman walking to her car found them: two teenage girls, naked and dead in a sliver of woods behind an apartment parking lot. Investigators noted the crime scene was devoid of evidence and they were unable to identify the victims. But something a hunch, past investigative speculation, the proximity of the crimes drew Mr. Anzilotti to the prisoner. She, like members of the other families, agreed to forgo a guilty plea in open court. Detective Anzilotti was startled to discover the same man killed all three. Then hed clear the room until only he and Mr. Cottingham faced each another, and begin with his questions. In his possession, the 33-year-old had a stash of handcuffs, tape and sedatives. Cottingham was not charged with this murder until June 2022, when he was implicated by DNA.[10]. xb```"VV~g`0pt 9mzQ[2fXar9XcK',6=3Yb%^)= RZlr$:kX;e =_i& ` ?# Hearing prosecutors detail grisly crime scenes like where Laverne was found was especially difficult to endure, her son said. His yearbook photo shows a cross-country runner with blond hair slicked back. After nearly 15 years of interviews by Anzilotti and Detective Capt. It was a game to me. All these factors created this crucible in the center of Manhattan for Richard Cottingham to flourish.. He had not yet put in for retirement, or even told his boss he planned to do that the following week. He would occasionally remove and dispose of his victims heads and hands, presumably to make identification more difficult. No one could find any clues in the girls backgrounds: no drugs, no trouble with the law. Location of first contact Maryann Carr = her apartment; Prostitutes = street or bar . Richard Cunningham in NJ - Address & Phone Number | Whitepages Peter Karas/The Record, via USA Today Network. The Rent Zestimate for this home is $3,099/mo, which has increased by $3,099/mo in the last 30 days. 0000002420 00000 n The chief contacted the Blase family and told them what they had ached to know for decades: He knew who had killed Irene. And considering the closure of yesterdays cases, I absolutely believe him.. Over time, though, one investigator was slowly developing a theory. The girls, Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16, had last been seen days earlier at a nearby bus stop. It represented closure, Moye said of this weeks hearing. When the 40th year since the killings arrived in 2014, the local police asked the public for any new information. 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. After his wife filed for divorce in April of 1979, it seems as though his killings became far more frequent. PDF Richard Francis Cottingham startxref I knew, he recalled, that was Irene Blase.. Her youth and difference in appearance, with a boyish haircut, set her apart from the other victims. 0000000991 00000 n Richard was arrested at a motel in Hasbrouck . 0000001071 00000 n I took over handling the calls, the arrangements. Ms. Falasca was a 15-year-old who left her familys house in July 1969 and never returned. Look her up, she looks like her. Others he remembered from a haircut.. 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. [6] The confession was extracted by Detective Anzilotti weeks before his retirement and was facilitated by historian Vronsky and by Jennifer Weiss, the daughter of Deedeh Goodarzi, one of Cottingham's later victims. 0000003707 00000 n She then grew up without a father because her grandparents did not like him, she said. Three days later, Mr. Anzilotti walked out of his office for good. 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). On February 15, 1968, Cottingham killed his second known victim. He had three children, two boys and a girl, with his wife. 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. Much of Cottinghams crimes were not murders, but other violent crimes like abductions and rapes. Denise Falasca, 15, of Closter, New Jersey. Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/nyregion/new-jersey-serial-killer-cottingham-anzilotti.html. But first, he wanted to return to those two murders from 47 years ago. It was like a game to him, Anzilotti recently said. To this day, their remains have never been recovered. But her light shines brightly against the backdrop of evil.. 29 Vreeland St, Lodi, NJ 07644 | Zillow New Jersey . This is a somber day as we revisit the horrific acts and terror this man brought upon Bergen County nearly 50 years ago, the prosecutor said Tuesday. This murder was later linked to the 1977 murder of Maryann Carr, who was left in the same motel's parking lot. It could only be Jackie Harp.. 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. Their heads and hands had been cut off. 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. It was pure evil. They sat at the kitchen table, very professional, very polite, very considerate, Ms. Mulder recalled. The police were called and Cottingham was apprehended while trying to flee. Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates. 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. 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. That was less than a year after Cottingham and his wife had their first child. You're a whore and you have to be punished." Instead, she ended up shopping at one of Bergen Countys malls, according to Vronsky. 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. He had pornographic artwork, adhesive tape, books about S&M, said Geberth. And I said, Hop in., He drove to the mall. Notably, none of his crimes took place on the property. The New York Times, p. 2. Jennifer Weiss Befriends Richard Cottingham, "The Torso Killer" | Crime Richard Cottingham of Lodi (NJ) is sentenced to 173-179 years in prison. Cottingham has confessed to murdering 12 women. Knowing better, Harp, just 13 years old, refused. It was mainly psychological. 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 enjoys our relationship. Between 1970 and 1974, Cottingham and his wife, Janet, lived at an apartment block called Ledgewood Terrace in Little Ferry, New Jersey. 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. And any new prison sentence would, practically speaking, be meaningless; Mr. Cottingham had no chance of ever being released. 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. It is situated at 29 Vreeland Street in Lodi, New Jersey. (1981, June 25). But beneath the veneer of normalcy was a heinous double-existence as a serial killer. Her glasses, a ring, a necklace, Ms. Mulder said. Mr. Anzilotti would arrange to have the inmate transported to his office more than hours drive from the prison. Its not something you can ever get over, Altman, 58, told The Post. When reporters ran with the story, Mr. Anzilotti considered himself absolved from keeping his silence about the cases. Cottingham is currently in state prison on a life sentence . 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). With Cottinghams next victim, a killers hunting ground of sorts began to form. 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 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. Photos of the house and other related images. It was quite a shock to learn it was him.. Shed been abducted by Cottingham from the Ledgewood Terrace apartments, in Little Ferry, where Cottingham had previously lived, said Vronsky. To this day, I dont even think they would have ever said anything. He said, Im going to give you one, Mr. Anzilotti recalled. 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.". Then in exchange for immunity from prosecution, he confessed to murdering three New Jersey schoolgirls. He asked to quietly close their daughters murder case without formally charging the killer. 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. 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. Goodarzi was later identified as the woman who had been tortured, killed, beheaded and had her hands cut off by Cottingham. 0000001982 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]. A local investigator began to wonder: Could there be a link to a series of infamous Times Square murders? This is possibly due to the fact that he got married in 1970. Absolutely, its completely plausible. And thats what bothers me, because I probably didnt have to do anything to them., Mr. Anzilotti left the confession both exhausted and relieved. 0000000756 00000 n 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. Since his conviction, Cottingham has pleaded guilty to 12 murders. . He remembers certain aspects of a person, Mr. Anzilotti said. He was imprisoned. 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. 'Torso Killer' Admits to '68 Strangling and 4 More Cold-Case Murders They were never able to fully recover from the monumental loss, she said. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. His name had floated around in the lore of Bergen County cold cases.. 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. She was a mother, she was a wife, a daughter and a grandmother taken far too early. All rights reserved (About Us). On December 2, 1979, firemen in New York responded to an alarm at the Travel Inn motel[11] near Times Square. They found an 18-year-old victim who'd been bitten and stabbed bound with handcuffs. The Blase family agreed. (1981, June 16). 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. 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). Soon, the chief closed that case two down. New documentary The 12th Victim: Is Fugate a Natural Born Killer or Starkweather victim? [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). 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. We use cookies to deliver personalized advertisements, improve your online experience, and to analyze our site's performance. 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. Richard Cottingham of Lodi (NJ) is sentenced to 173-179 years in prison. 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. Hes hedged around and all but confessed.. A friend of one victim came forward and the slain woman was later positively identified through a cesarean-section scar and chest X-ray as 22-year-old prostitute Deedeh Goodarzi. On April 7, 1969, Cottingham saw Blase, 18, shopping in Hackensack, Vronsky said. His crimes were discovered in May 1980, when a maid at a Hasbrouck Heights motel heard. He drove his car ahead of Harp, pulled over and walked back toward her, Vronsky said. Richard Cottingham, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective Eventually, Mr. Cottingham began to loosen up, and he spoke about killing the prostitutes. Questioning Mr. Cottingham was complicated. Category:People from Lodi, New Jersey - Wikipedia 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. Thats why [authorities are] not going to make another statement. For over 40 years, its been folklore in this county.. Im leaving, he said. He didnt have the decency or the dignity to ask for forgiveness or to even address the victims families. Again and again, for 15 years, Mr. Anzilotti met with the inmate, seeking the truth. 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. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. 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. 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. On May 4, 1980, the body of Street, a sex worker, was found at the same Quality Inn where Cottingham had dumped Carrs body. 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 A horrible scene, the police commissioner said that day. 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). His upcoming sentencing will add more time to a prison term that already extends beyond his remaining years. We've received your submission. 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. 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 I didnt know what to expect. He pleaded innocent and for decades insisted he was being "framed", until admitting in 2009 that he had actually perpetrated those five murders. 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. 0000001001 00000 n %PDF-1.4 % 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. [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. 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. 3. 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. That man, Richard Cottingham, had been convicted of crimes that seemed to bear little resemblance to the murders of the girls. Richard Cottingham, a family man who denied everything in court, was convicted of killing five women in the early 1980s. This story has been shared 150,597 times. 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. [4], The BCPO "exceptionally closed" the three cold case murders with agreement from the victims' families and evidence corroborating the confessions, but for several years kept this secret from the public to keep Cottingham talking about other cases. 0000002435 00000 n Mr. Anzilotti, doing his best not to betray any emotion, slowly pulled out his Blackberry and took notes. Responding officers found an 18-year-old victim whod been bitten, stabbed and bound with handcuffs. 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. [4], On May 3, 1970, Cottingham was married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village, Queens. <<69EF7C237A736942AE760EBDB9B8F80B>]>> He also claimed to have committed 80 perfect murders no one knows about. 21 0 obj <> endobj The little perks for the older man the pizza, the poker, the distraction from prison life were always in the service of the younger mans long game. trailer And even worse, the rape laws were particularly onerous, and you had to provide a witness to bring an allegation of rape. NJ serial killer 'haunted' by teens he tortured for 3 days in 1974
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