richard cottingham lodi, nj address

But Cottingham had other victims, and he would later boast of killing 85 to 100 people. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The police hunted for leads, questioning prostitutes about suspicious men, examining the handwriting of the guest who had checked into Room 417: Carl Wilson of Merlin, N.J., a fake name from a fake place. These objects, along with his fingerprint on the handcuffs, were presented as evidence by prosecutors at his trial. Fifty years after his mother was strangled and thrown from a Long Island bridge, John Moye finally got a glimpse of the wickedness that altered his life forever. 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. 0000001082 00000 n It is not a public place. He married in 1970 and became a father of. The police were called and Cottingham was apprehended while trying to flee. 0000010308 00000 n Her name was Nancy Schiava Vogel. Over the course of 13 years, beginning in 1967, Cottingham killed six women in New Jersey and New York. On one occasion, he dismembered two sex workers and set fire to their torsos at a hotel near Times Square. Among the other faces in separate windows on the Zoom screen was a 66-year-old woman, identified simply as Nancy. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. Hes embarrassed by this case, he said. In April 1978, after his wife had initiated divorce proceedings, he kept a locked room in a basement apartment of the house in which they lived in Lodi, New Jersey. Cusicks daughter, Darlene Altman, told Nassau County Judge Caryn Fink her late grandparents raised her after her mothers shocking slaying. When Mr. Cottingham entered prison in 1981, Robert Anzilotti was not yet a teenager. Mr. Anzilotti would arrange to have the inmate transported to his office more than hours drive from the prison. Irene Blase, Denise Falasca and Jacalyn Harp all girls whose murders were unsolved. New documentary The 12th Victim: Is Fugate a Natural Born Killer or Starkweather victim? 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. He also claimed to have committed 80 perfect murders no one knows about. But as he considered retirement, he kept returning to the two girls found dead in the woods. 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. Investigators noted the crime scene was devoid of evidence and they were unable to identify the victims. In fact, Mr. Cottingham lurked around the fringes of a seedy Times Square and the prostitutes who worked its streets. She was found strangled to death the next day in Saddle Brook. The other girls did, you have to take it, too. 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. On May 5, 1980, a motel housekeeper found the body of 19-year-old Valerie Ann Street in the Hasbrouck Heights Quality Inn. Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. Following his arrest, police linked him to the murder of Valerie Streets. I lost so much more than just my mother that day, Altman said. He had pornographic artwork, adhesive tape, books about S&M, said Geberth. On May 4, 1980, the body of Street, a sex worker, was found at the same Quality Inn where Cottingham had dumped Carrs body. Soon, the chief closed that case two down. Twenty years later, he was reinvestigating several cold cases involving girls and young women who had been abducted, sexually abused and killed. Cottingham was not charged with this murder until June 2022, when he was implicated by DNA.[10]. 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. A third the killing of 13-year-old Jackie Harp seemed to be the work of another killer. It doesnt bring my mother back, but at least I have answers now. 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. 43 0 obj<>stream And considering the closure of yesterdays cases, I absolutely believe him.. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Her youth and difference in appearance, with a boyish haircut, set her apart from the other victims. I can go all the way back to the first detective on the case. He enjoys our relationship. Its his fault this is out.. 0000001412 00000 n Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. Five months later, the serial slayer struck again, strangling Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves, an 18-year-old Manhattan woman originally from Puerto Rico. Over the months that followed, Mr. Anzilotti cultivated an unusual relationship with Mr. Cottingham, sometimes testy, sometimes closer to a sort of warmth. Maintenance workers found her body covered in plastic bags and wrapped in a gray blanket near a Jones Beach bus stop. And even worse, the rape laws were particularly onerous, and you had to provide a witness to bring an allegation of rape. 0000001001 00000 n 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. 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. Bergen County investigators realized there were numerous open sexual assault cases with similar hallmarks: Cottingham kidnapped them from Times Square, drugged and assaulted them. He needed a way to approach Mr. Cottingham and found an opening in 2003, when he got a tip: Mr. Cottingham was taking bets on sporting events from his cell. Richard Cottingham of Lodi (NJ) is sentenced to 173-179 years in prison. The inmate made it clear that pressure would not work. The New York Times, p. 26. Little more than a week after Street was found, Reyner was found butchered in the Seville Motel in New York City. %PDF-1.4 % I didnt know what to expect. Again and again, for 15 years, Mr. Anzilotti met with the inmate, seeking the truth. The items included necklaces, broaches, earrings, and other pieces of jewelry. One would remind him of a TV actress. Cottingham was convicted of five murders and numerous counts of kidnapping and sexual assault and sentenced to 173 to 197 years, which he is serving in Trentons New Jersey State Prison. HKo0l06CYf,Y(v (I?0c9 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. Hed been a married father of three, but the Lodi resident - who would brutalize his victims bodies, cutting off limbs, heads and breasts - would later become known as the Torso Killer" for what he left behind. A killing in Somerset County a week after Cottingham got his drivers license may have been one of his first victims, Vronsky said. Mr. Anzilotti and another investigator drove to the town of Reading, Vt., to deliver the news to Jackies older sister, Suzan Mulder, then 69. 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. Photos of the house and other related images. 0000004535 00000 n A judge sentenced him to 25 years to life after Cusicks brother and only child read emotional impact statements in court. Richard is related to Rosemarie Marie Cunningham and Larry J Cunningham as well as 3 additional people. Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/nyregion/new-jersey-serial-killer-cottingham-anzilotti.html. 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. 0000003431 00000 n Cottingham has been given various nicknames over the years. 7{(~tm LB IBJ*ZB`0 (1981, June 25). 0000001262 00000 n In 2022, Cottingham also confessed to the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick after DNA evidence linked him to the crime. Her killer, Richard Cottingham, was a computer operator, married with three children of his own, living a seemingly normal life. 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. The teenagers were last seen on Aug. 9, 1974, in North Bergen. Cottingham was convicted of five murders and numerous counts of kidnapping and sexual assault and sentenced to 173 to 197 years, which he is serving in Trenton's New Jersey State Prison. F! It was quite a shock to learn it was him.. Mr. Anzilotti, by then a sergeant, arranged a surprise search of the inmates cell the day after the Super Bowl. Anything that might close more cases, bring answers to more families. %PDF-1.4 % That made 11 murders Cottingham that admitted since his arrest more than 30 years ago. 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. 0000004577 00000 n In 1948, Cottingham's family moved to Dumont, New Jersey, and in 1956 to River Vale, New Jersey, where he began his fascination with bondage pornography. 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. He was imprisoned. 0000002831 00000 n 0000006081 00000 n He began torturing her, nearly biting off one of her nipples. I knew, he recalled, that was Irene Blase.. On Dec 15, 1977, Carr was found dead in the parking lot of a Quality Inn motel, in Hasbrouck Heights. 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. Her body was found the next morning by the side of a road next to a cemetery in Saddle Brook. Furthermore, one of the women that he murdered in 1979 is still unidentified. Like a werewolf, Vronsky told The Post. 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. After his wife filed for divorce in April of 1979, it seems as though his killings became far more frequent. At the time, Cottingham, who had not been arrested or identified, was dubbed the "Times Square Ripper.. The motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. They'd left home for a trip 13 miles (21 kilometers) north to . On more than one occasion, he would openly talk about his experiences with sex workers. After years in prison, Mr. Cottingham began to open up to the detective about past unsolved crimes. 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. Harp was found strangled to death the next day. This is a private property. The inmate, with no real incentive to say anything about that crime, had given the chief what amounted to a parting gift. No one could find any clues in the girls backgrounds: no drugs, no trouble with the law. Dont think youre going to mess with me and Im going to help you, Mr. Anzilotti recalled Mr. Cottingham saying. Neither complainant appeared in further proceedings, however, and the case was dismissed. He had come further in closing cases than his younger self could have imagined. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. We've received your submission. 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. 0000001982 00000 n Its mind-boggling and very scary, especially to know theres more of them out there.. [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. Defense attorney John Bruno recited the details, which the white-bearded, 74-year-old killer acknowledged. But her light shines brightly against the backdrop of evil.. trailer The man has no heart, no soul, no emotion whatsoever, she said. When you have a series of crimes today, everything goes through the computers, andwe have computer analysis and a wayof moving these through jurisdictionalboundaries. Its hard to understand how someone could be like that. 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. He remembers certain aspects of a person, Mr. Anzilotti said. After those confessions, the two men barely spoke. During a search of the house, investigators discovered personal items belonging to some of his victims. But eventually, their old give-and-take resumed. Which is entirely possible, especially in those days.. 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. 0000001071 00000 n His yearbook photo shows a cross-country runner with blond hair slicked back. 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. His wife withdrew the petition upon his arrest in May 1980, then completed the divorce after his 1981 conviction. They were marginalized sex workers in a Times Square that was nearly lawless and when the police, at best, looked the other way.. The bridge where Mallory Beach died in a boating accident. Mr. Anzilotti, doing his best not to betray any emotion, slowly pulled out his Blackberry and took notes. In 1948, Cottingham's family moved to Dumont, New Jersey, and in 1956 to River Vale, New Jersey, where he began his fascination with bondage pornography. 0000000991 00000 n [2] Four surviving abduction-rape victims testified against Cottingham; he was convicted in three of the cases and acquitted in one. [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. It was pure evil. 0 It also left enormous holes in the souls of family and friends of Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16. 0000005253 00000 n The bodies of the women had no heads and no hands. Consequently, he was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping. Years after her sisters death, she had found some comfort speaking to another from her tribe, Karen Miller, a sister of Denise Falasca. These include the Times Square Killer, the Torso Killer, and the Times Square Torso Ripper. 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. Now 74, Cottingham, who claims responsibility for dozens of murders, has confessed to a. Correctional officers found contraband and evidence of bookmaking and transferred Mr. Cottingham to solitary confinement. He married in 1970 and had three children. Anzilottihas spent all but 4 years of his law enforcement career with the prosecutors office after coming over from the Woodcliff Lake Police Department. A woman walking to her car found them: two teenage girls, naked and dead in a sliver of woods behind an apartment parking lot. He drove his car ahead of Harp, pulled over and walked back toward her, Vronsky said. Because I was with them for a couple of days, he replied, according to a transcript, and got to know them., It was raining that day in August 1974, and Mr. Cottingham, then 28, was driving to work in Manhattan when he passed the two girls walking in the opposite direction. To this day, the other young female has never been identified. Cottingham murdered at least twelve women between 1967 and 1980. I had long suspected that whoever killed Irene Blase also killed Denise Falasca, Mr. Anzilotti said. Richard Cottingham of Lodi (NJ) is sentenced to 173-179 years in prison. He would occasionally remove and dispose of his victims heads and hands, presumably to make identification more difficult. 0000003125 00000 n He asked to quietly close their daughters murder case without formally charging the killer. It represented closure, Moye said of this weeks hearing. Richard Cottingham, Lorraine . All these factors created this crucible in the center of Manhattan for Richard Cottingham to flourish.. 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. Cottingham fled the scene with the victims heads and hands. 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. 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 a Hasbrouck Heights hotel called police saying shed heard a woman screaming. Cottingham lived here with his wife, Janet, and their three children, Blair, Scott, and Jenny. 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. 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.

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