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In 2022, Cottingham also confessed to the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick after DNA evidence linked him to the crime. 0000006846 00000 n 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. Irene Blase, Denise Falasca and Jacalyn Harp all girls whose murders were unsolved. Her killer, Richard Cottingham, was a computer operator, married with three children of his own, living a seemingly normal life. 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. Mr. Anzilotti and another investigator drove to the town of Reading, Vt., to deliver the news to Jackies older sister, Suzan Mulder, then 69. Investigators noted the crime scene was devoid of evidence and they were unable to identify the victims. When you have a series of crimes today, everything goes through the computers, andwe have computer analysis and a wayof moving these through jurisdictionalboundaries. The photographs are ordered from left to right and top to bottom. 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. endstream endobj 34 0 obj<>stream Although Vogel was the earliest of Cottinghams murder victims, the killer has said she was not his first, according to Vronsky. She later testified that he said, "You have to take it. For a year, he refused to speak to Mr. Anzilotti. But her light shines brightly against the backdrop of evil.. She, like members of the other families, agreed to forgo a guilty plea in open court. A third the killing of 13-year-old Jackie Harp seemed to be the work of another killer. Accused serial killer nurse allegedly tried to murder premature infant twice. Therefore, you should be respectful and not step foot on the property without permission. [3], Cottingham was arrested on several lesser charges throughout his killing spree. 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. The weather worsened. Correctional officers found contraband and evidence of bookmaking and transferred Mr. Cottingham to solitary confinement. This murder was later linked to the 1977 murder of Maryann Carr, who was left in the same motel's parking lot. In fact, Mr. Cottingham lurked around the fringes of a seedy Times Square and the prostitutes who worked its streets. Mr. Cottingham left behind no clues. There was also a lockbox filled with trophies from his murders, including Maryann Carrs apartment key and a necklace belonging to Jean Reyner. 0000003431 00000 n 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. He was originally from the Bronx in New York City. [5] On May 15, 1980, Jean Reyner was strangled and her throat cut in New York's historic Seville Hotel. trailer Monday marked the first time Moye ever laid eyes on Cottingham, who dismembered some of victims, including two women whose bodies were found without their heads and hands in a Times Square motel in December 1979. 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. I lost so much more than just my mother that day, Altman said. The investigators handed Ms. Mulder possessions of Jackies from half a century past. He would let his guard down, Mr. Anzilotti said. 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. Inmates were wagering everything from cash to cigarettes. She knew that Mr. Anzilotti had solved Denises killing, too. xref Rochelle Park & It is situated at 29 Vreeland Street in Lodi, New Jersey. 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. 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. In his possession, the 33-year-old had a stash of handcuffs, tape and sedatives. Years ticked past, 1974 into 1975, into the 1980s, the 1990s. It was mainly psychological. I didnt know what to expect. After his wife filed for divorce in April of 1979, it seems as though his killings became far more frequent. His murders were not the outcome of stalking or planning but of fleeting encounters. But he eventually realized the years-long association, which involved countless state prison visits, was coming to an end. 0000003125 00000 n Cottingham, 75, admitted before state Superior Court Judge Keith Bachmann in April 2021 that he had killed Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and her friend Lorraine Kelly, 16, when the pair went shopping for. The plea leaves the question: Will they be Cottinghams final admissions? 0000003183 00000 n [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. He also claimed to have committed 80 perfect murders no one knows about. 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. [2] Four surviving abduction-rape victims testified against Cottingham; he was convicted in three of the cases and acquitted in one. The body of Laverne Moye, of St. Albans, Queens, was discovered in a Rockville Centre creek on July 20, 1972. Questioning Mr. Cottingham was complicated. 0000001262 00000 n Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/nyregion/new-jersey-serial-killer-cottingham-anzilotti.html. [6] In 2022, Cottingham officially confessed to the 1970 murder of Lorraine McGraw, under a non-prosecution agreement. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. 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.. With Ms. Pryor and a judge watching on Zoom that day, Mr. Cottingham pleaded guilty to the two murders. [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. Its been half my career, he said. It was an era when the sex worker was criminalized. %%EOF In early December 1979, firefighters were called to the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on 42nd Street as a fire burned in room 417. 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. The motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. On one occasion, he dismembered two sex workers and set fire to their torsos at a hotel near Times Square. It was Aug. 14, 1974, in Montvale, N.J., a suburb just over the New York state line. Falasca, 15, accepted. But eventually, their old give-and-take resumed. It represented the opportunity to let the entire world know that Laverne Moye was a human being. It represented closure, Moye said of this weeks hearing. trailer I thought he could be responsible for some, Mr. Anzilotti said. When they arrived, one firefighter attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a woman they found on the bed. Anzilotti and BCPO subsequently confirmed the "exceptional closures" of these three murders.[13][8]. Cottingham had kept these items as souvenirs so that he could remember his victims and relive his attacks. This is the house where the "Times Square Killer," Richard Cottingham, lived between 1975 and 1980. His upcoming sentencing will add more time to a prison term that already extends beyond his remaining years. Cottingham didnt like the idea, apparently wanting to continue their dialogue. Pages in category "People from Lodi, New Jersey" The following 21 pages are in this category, out of 21 total. However, he started killing again in 1974, when he murdered Lorraine Marie Kelly and Mary Ann Pryor. 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.. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a photograph of Jean Reyner. But the killer was a clever bastard, too. The Google Street View image above was taken in May of 2022. Then came Tuesdays pleas. I never broke my promise to him, all these years later, the chief said. 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. And before I go, I want to close out the Kelly-Pryor case., Mr. Cottingham urged the chief to reconsider leaving the force. Cottingham fled the scene with the victims heads and hands. We've received your submission. HKo0l06CYf,Y(v (I?0c9 To this day, I dont even think they would have ever said anything. 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.. 0000008735 00000 n Those cases were already closed. For more details, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. The man has no heart, no soul, no emotion whatsoever, she said. 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. 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. 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. Between 1970 and 1974, Cottingham and his wife, Janet, lived at an apartment block called Ledgewood Terrace in Little Ferry, New Jersey. Maywood, 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. Zestimate Home Value: $598,600. The girls, Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16, had last been seen days earlier at a nearby bus stop. 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. 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. 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 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. He said he would talk about other murders only on the condition that the revelations would be kept out of the papers. On February 15, 1968, Cottingham killed his second known victim. Straddling her back, he drew a knife and put it to her throat as he snapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists. I asked them where they were going. The mall, they replied. 0000000991 00000 n Cottingham, who grew up in River Vale, has been in prison since the 1980s, when he was convicted of the first five murders to which he was linked. 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. Cottingham's confirmed killings resulted in nine convictions and a further eight confessions under non-prosecution agreements, leading to him serving multiple life sentences in New Jersey prisons. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. The back and forth went on for weeks. The sergeant was undeterred. 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. Cottingham offered to give O'Dell a massage and she rolled onto her stomach. However, please be aware that not allowing certain cookies may impact your experience of the site. The New York Times, p. 26. Then he followed with an unusual request. Among the other faces in separate windows on the Zoom screen was a 66-year-old woman, identified simply as Nancy. 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. Knowing better, Harp, just 13 years old, refused. As the New Jersey press reported on Cottinghams arrest, the NYPD started to take notice. We've received your submission. But in 2009, he surfaced to again make waves, when he gave a chilling interview to journalist Nadia Fezzani about his motivation and his body count. He continued to live here until the police eventually arrested him on May 22nd, 1980. [18], During the early 1980s, Cottingham was convicted of five murders in two separate New Jersey trials in 1981[19] and 1982,[20] and in a single New York trial in 1984 for three murders. And thats what bothers me, because I probably didnt have to do anything to them., Mr. Anzilotti left the confession both exhausted and relieved. Im leaving, he said. 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? No leads were forthcoming. Goodarzi had come to the United States years prior from Iran. That night, city firefighters responded to a blaze at a motel in Times Square, the New York Daily News reported. Cottingham primarily sought prostitutes who were petite blondes in their late teens to mid-twenties. 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. My whole life has been this, she said. And last week, three more were added to his grisly toll. He worked hard on this., There were never any meaningful updates, until a Monday this April, when detectives knocked on her door in Ocean County, N.J., and said they had obtained a confession. 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. Feech La Manna's house from The Sopranos. I was able to get almostany woman to do whatever I wanted them to do . The murder remained unsolved until Cottingham confessed and entered a guilty plea in August 2010. The chief pressed ahead with his list. Again, he knew details from Ms. Falascas file. 0000003707 00000 n It doesnt bring my mother back, but at least I have answers now. 0000001250 00000 n K3nVxb;X)oxeHME~> Location of first contact Maryann Carr = her apartment; Prostitutes = street or bar . It took some effort to convince him to go to court and let me make it public, Anzilotti said Tuesday. The following is a list of his victims in chronological order. 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. 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. But there was an even bigger problem. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local.