The man has no heart, no soul, no emotion whatsoever, she said. After six years of visits, there was a break. On Dec. 2, 1979, fire alarms rang out at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on West 42nd Street. He said, Youre welcome.. And last week, three more were added to his grisly toll. Select this result to view Richard P Cunningham's phone number, address, and more. 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). With Cottinghams next victim, a killers hunting ground of sorts began to form. In 2010, Bergen County authorities announced hed pleaded guilty to a sixth murder, a 1967 strangling in Bergen County. 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 [6] At Blue Cross, Cottingham worked in an office with Rodney Alcala, the fugitive child molester and future serial killer who lived in New York under the alias "John Berger". For over 40 years, its been folklore in this county.. Authorities believed it to be, thus far, the oldest criminal case to be solved and prosecuted by direct DNA evidence. The following is a list of his victims in chronological order. 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. 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. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a photograph of Jean Reyner. Defense attorney John Bruno recited the details, which the white-bearded, 74-year-old killer acknowledged. He said he wouldn't have done it if I wasn't retiring.. Again, he knew details from Ms. Falascas file. In early December 1979, firefighters were called to the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on 42nd Street as a fire burned in room 417. 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. But beneath the veneer of normalcy was a heinous double-existence as a serial killer. But in. And thats what bothers me, because I probably didnt have to do anything to them., Mr. Anzilotti left the confession both exhausted and relieved. The chief agreed. 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. In October 1966, he became a computer operator for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, where he worked until his 1980 arrest. 0000010308 00000 n To this day, I dont even think they would have ever said anything. Little more than a week after Street was found, Reyner was found butchered in the Seville Motel in New York City. [3], Cottingham was arrested on several lesser charges throughout his killing spree. However, please be aware that not allowing certain cookies may impact your experience of the site. There was also a lockbox filled with trophies from his murders, including Maryann Carrs apartment key and a necklace belonging to Jean Reyner. He was the Torso Killer. That was roughly one month after his arrest. Over the course of 13 years, beginning in 1967, Cottingham killed six women in New Jersey and New York. And I said, Hop in., He drove to the mall. 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. The girls, Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16, had last been seen days earlier at a nearby bus stop. It was pure evil. 0000000756 00000 n 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 He recalled the exact place in the woods where he left the bodies. A maid heard the teenagers guttural screams and called police. My parents couldnt handle it., She had called Bergen County every few months to ask about the case for 47 years, she said. 0000007874 00000 n Blase was found strangled to death in 4 feet of water in Saddle River the next day. View Richard Cottingham's record in Manchester, NJ including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. He enjoys our time together., The chief also had another theory. She had been tied up and strangled, authorities said. Among the other faces in separate windows on the Zoom screen was a 66-year-old woman, identified simply as Nancy. 0000001982 00000 n <<8BD7E4F5B15F3F4A8993EB3A0150F7AC>]>> Zestimate Home Value: $598,600. F! They captured Cottingham soon after. She was found strangled to death the next day in Saddle Brook. 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. Maintenance workers found her body covered in plastic bags and wrapped in a gray blanket near a Jones Beach bus stop. In April 2021, Cottingham confessed to the unsolved 1974 double-abduction, rape, and forcible drowning murders of Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16, and Mary Ann Pryor, 17, in Montvale, one of New Jersey's most notorious cold cases. 0000006151 00000 n He was imprisoned. Hes been chief of detectives nearly five years. 7{(~tm LB IBJ*ZB`0 That girl was found drowned, similar to Blases killing, he said. 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. 0000012661 00000 n A real sick bastard did this, retired NYPD detective Jim Riegel, who was working as a beat cop that day, recalls his sergeant telling him in the new Netflix series Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer, out Wednesday. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and was raised mostly in New Jersey, according to the The New York Times. At the time, Cottingham, who had not been arrested or identified, was dubbed the "Times Square Ripper.. 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. [5] On May 15, 1980, Jean Reyner was strangled and her throat cut in New York's historic Seville Hotel. 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. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. You can set your cookie preferences below. [4], On May 3, 1970, Cottingham was married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village, Queens. 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. In fact, Mr. Cottingham lurked around the fringes of a seedy Times Square and the prostitutes who worked its streets. 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. It also left enormous holes in the souls of family and friends of Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16. Ms. There were similarities in the two cases: the girls ages, the apparently hasty disposal of their bodies, even their appearance, both with long, dark hair. Richard Cottingham, New Jersey prison photo. 0000000016 00000 n 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, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. This case was always haunting me.. Years after her sisters death, she had found some comfort speaking to another from her tribe, Karen Miller, a sister of Denise Falasca. Altman, who was just 3 years old at the time, said her parents had separated prior to Cusicks killing. Knowing better, Harp, just 13 years old, refused. His wife withdrew the petition upon his arrest in May 1980, then completed the divorce after his 1981 conviction. He admitted that those two killings weighed on him more than the others. He abducted Vogel and took her to a field in Montvale, where he strangled her. 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. Soon, the chief closed that case two down. Years ticked past, 1974 into 1975, into the 1980s, the 1990s. Irene Blase, Denise Falasca and Jacalyn Harp all girls whose murders were unsolved. This murder was later linked to the 1977 murder of Maryann Carr, who was left in the same motel's parking lot. He pleaded innocent and for decades insisted he was being "framed", until admitting in 2009 that he had actually perpetrated those five murders. Cottingham has claimed in the past he. I could feel it.. So we just stayed in the car and we kept talking to each other, getting to know each other and so forth., If the rain wasnt there, they would have just went to the mall and that would have been it, he said, And I would have went to work.. He described things only the killer would know, like where hed thrown her car keys afterward. 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. On February 15, 1968, Cottingham killed his second known victim. 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. 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. But eventually, their old give-and-take resumed. The picture in the top left corner shows Cottingham during one of his trials. K3nVxb;X)oxeHME~> And he sat there with literally no remorse. Which, of course, I wasnt overly interested in, the former chief said. Mr. Anzilotti, doing his best not to betray any emotion, slowly pulled out his Blackberry and took notes. Cottingham severed the victim's breasts and posed them on the headboard of the bed, and set fire to the mattress under her body before fleeing, similar to the Travel Inn torso killings. 0000001071 00000 n 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. Mr. Anzilotti insisted that this case be resolved in open court. Instead, he drove her to the Quality Inn, where he tortured, beat and sexually assaulted her for hours, until a maid heard her scream. Serial Killer House in Lodi, New Jersey, United States. And later that same month, a fifth woman was found mutilated in the former Hotel Seville near Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Mr. Cottingham mentioned details of the killing that matched what Mr. Anzilotti knew from the case file. 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. She was stunned. [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]. %%EOF 0000001001 00000 n Note that there seems to have been a "lull" between 1970 and 1973. One day, Cottingham told his co-worker that he had stolen a sex worker's money and clothes while she was sleeping. 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. trailer 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. The schoolgirl murder confessions increased that to to nine. It took some effort to convince him to go to court and let me make it public, Anzilotti said Tuesday. He asked to quietly close their daughters murder case without formally charging the killer. 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. The teenagers were last seen on Aug. 9, 1974, in North Bergen. And even worse, the rape laws were particularly onerous, and you had to provide a witness to bring an allegation of rape. He had his list of names, each one a dead girl and a crime long unsolved. Other locations that are relatively close to this place. [6] In 2022, Cottingham officially confessed to the 1970 murder of Lorraine McGraw, under a non-prosecution agreement. 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. 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. 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. You're a whore and you have to be punished." Hes embarrassed by this case, he said. Over time, though, one investigator was slowly developing a theory. Cottingham was apprehended in the hallway by arriving police officers. His name had floated around in the lore of Bergen County cold cases.. 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. The predator, dubbed The Torso Killer, would strike again in May 1980. 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 [2] Four surviving abduction-rape victims testified against Cottingham; he was convicted in three of the cases and acquitted in one. The New York Times, p. 2. It is situated at 29 Vreeland Street in Lodi, New Jersey. 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. %%EOF 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. I lost so much more than just my mother that day, Altman said. The victim's hands were tightly handcuffed behind her back and police would later lift a fingerprint matching Cottingham, the only fingerprint successfully found from any of his known murders. Notably, none of his crimes took place on the property. She later testified that he said, "You have to take it. 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. Shed been abducted by Cottingham from the Ledgewood Terrace apartments, in Little Ferry, where Cottingham had previously lived, said Vronsky. Over the months that followed, Mr. Anzilotti cultivated an unusual relationship with Mr. Cottingham, sometimes testy, sometimes closer to a sort of warmth. My whole life has been this, she said. Then hed clear the room until only he and Mr. Cottingham faced each another, and begin with his questions. 0000009992 00000 n The back and forth went on for weeks. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, Times Square Torso Ripper: Sex and Murder on The Deuce, cataloging 17,000 years of pathological homicide. In 2009, decades after his first five murder convictions, Cottingham told a journalist that he had committed at least 80 to 100 "perfect murders" of women in various regions of the United States. xb```"WVf~g`0pt 9"~S?``Z V|bG!+N}TzYl@2 `QD2 @DACEDJaOs6x?+[Ihlrt ? Hes hedged around and all but confessed.. 0000013001 00000 n 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. Getting to that point wasnt easy, Anzilotti said. His upcoming sentencing will add more time to a prison term that already extends beyond his remaining years. 0000006846 00000 n And for Cottingham, every night was a full moon.. The girls vanished Aug. 9, 1974, while hitchhiking to a mall in . Math-wise its possible," said Vronsky. <<69EF7C237A736942AE760EBDB9B8F80B>]>> He forced his victims to address him as "master". H|U0+(QvG`b08NbHlSoZ2CRSs=* \e~ In 1981, he was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to nearly 200 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. I was able to get almostany woman to do whatever I wanted them to do . Ive never seen rain like that, he said. 0000002865 00000 n 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. This location belongs to the following categories: Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to see future locations. Richard Cottingham, 74, appeared virtually in court Tuesday to admit to the slayings of 17-year-old Mary Ann Pryor and 16-year-old Lorraine Marie Kelly. Richard Cottingham, Lorraine . This time, at the Seville Hotel, where he strangled Jean Reyner, a 25-year-old mother working in the sex trade to finance a child custody battle. He did not know the names of those he killed. Both men were keenly aware that it was their years-old relationship that had brought about this moment. She had been abducted while walking home from practice with her schools fife-and-drum team in 1968. 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. 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. 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. [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). The 45th year passed in the same way. ADVERTISEMENT. Look her up, she looks like her. Others he remembered from a haircut.. She then grew up without a father because her grandparents did not like him, she said. 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. 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. He continued to live here until the police eventually arrested him on May 22nd, 1980.

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