[21] Cottingham was apparently "forensically aware" in the era before DNA analysis. And at the time, it was beyond our capacity to look beyond New York City, he told The Post. Once again, the victim did not appear in further proceedings and the case was dismissed.[6]. Hes been chief of detectives nearly five years. %PDF-1.4 % His yearbook photo shows a cross-country runner with blond hair slicked back. It took some effort to convince him to go to court and let me make it public, Anzilotti said Tuesday. After six years of visits, there was a break. 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. After years in prison, Mr. Cottingham began to open up to the detective about past unsolved crimes. Cottingham had kept these items as souvenirs so that he could remember his victims and relive his attacks. Cottingham is currently in state prison on a life sentence . Around dawn, they checked into the same Hasbrouck Heights Quality Inn where he had left Valerie Street's handcuffed body under a bed to be discovered by a housekeeper. Her breasts had been severed and torso had been set on fire, Vronsky said. 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. Inside they found the bodies of 22-year-old sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi[9] and an unidentified woman estimated between 16 and 22. But the arrest in 1980 changed everything, exposing Richard's double life and deadly exploits. 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.. On February 15, 1968, Cottingham killed his second known victim. 0000013001 00000 n 0 I think sometimes he grapples with his own gruesomeness back then., On March 12, a Friday, Mr. Anzilotti summoned the inmate. With Ms. Pryor and a judge watching on Zoom that day, Mr. Cottingham pleaded guilty to the two murders. But Cottingham flew under the radar precisely because of how he chose his victims and who his victims were. 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. 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. 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. 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. That was less than a year after Cottingham and his wife had their first child. The sergeant was undeterred. A maid heard the teenagers guttural screams and called police. Five months later, the serial slayer struck again, strangling Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves, an 18-year-old Manhattan woman originally from Puerto Rico. Thats why [authorities are] not going to make another statement. I was shocked that one human being was capable of all this carnage, Moye said of Cottingham. 0000002435 00000 n Straddling her back, he drew a knife and put it to her throat as he snapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists. 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. The chief agreed. 21 0 obj <> endobj 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. Neither complainant appeared in further proceedings, however, and the case was dismissed. 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. Blase was found strangled to death in 4 feet of water in Saddle River the next day. But something a hunch, past investigative speculation, the proximity of the crimes drew Mr. Anzilotti to the prisoner. Cottingham didnt like the idea, apparently wanting to continue their dialogue. She had been a teenager when her sister was killed. On December 2, 1979, firemen in New York responded to an alarm at the Travel Inn motel[11] near Times Square. 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. The police pursued a welter of tips, rumors and false alarms, The New York Times reported at the time. It was an era when the sex worker was criminalized. 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. 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. In early December 1979, firefighters were called to the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on 42nd Street as a fire burned in room 417. In 1964, Cottingham graduated from Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, New Jersey. 0000004535 00000 n Geberth noted that this was a time before the proliferation of surveillance cameras and the use of computer analysis to establish patterns and share information across jurisdictions. Goodarzi had come to the United States years prior from Iran. 0000001425 00000 n Over time, though, one investigator was slowly developing a theory. It is situated at 29 Vreeland Street in Lodi, New Jersey. 0000002831 00000 n 0000002865 00000 n The murder remained unsolved until Cottingham confessed and entered a guilty plea in August 2010. 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 said he would talk about other murders only on the condition that the revelations would be kept out of the papers. 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. 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. These include the Times Square Killer, the Torso Killer, and the Times Square Torso Ripper. By all accounts, he seemed to be leading an everyday life in Lodi, New Jersey, with his wife and three kids. 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. He rented an apartment in Midtown and told his wife he worked nights. (1981, June 25). Much of Cottinghams crimes were not murders, but other violent crimes like abductions and rapes. Again, he knew details from Ms. Falascas file. For more information, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. 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. Falasca was walking by the side of the road in Emerson on July 14, 1969, when Cottingham pulled up beside her and offered her a ride. The Rent Zestimate for this home is $3,099/mo, which has increased by $3,099/mo in the last 30 days. 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.. Consequently, he was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping. [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]. )' In March, looking back on 25 years with the office, Mr. Anzilotti decided it was time to move on from the job. For decades, a string of killings of teenage girls haunted suburban New Jersey. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. K3nVxb;X)oxeHME~> The chief pressed ahead with his list. New Jersey . He had come further in closing cases than his younger self could have imagined. That man, Richard Cottingham, had been convicted of crimes that seemed to bear little resemblance to the murders of the girls. 0000005253 00000 n Hearing prosecutors detail grisly crime scenes like where Laverne was found was especially difficult to endure, her son said. It was like a game to him, Anzilotti recently said. To this day, their remains have never been recovered. 0000002882 00000 n As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. One day in 2014, the chief and a partner were driving the inmate back to prison when, from the back seat, Mr. Cottingham, who by then had spent almost half of his 68 years in prison, began describing a girl he once spotted near a store in Hackensack. Richard Cottingham pleaded guilty to murder in the death of one Long Island woman and admitted under oath to killing four others. He was a coward.. It was mainly psychological. Goodarzi, of Trenton, was a sex worker who had been traveling to the then-seedy streets of midtown Manhattan, Vronsky said. And for Cottingham, every night was a full moon.. 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. The plea leaves the question: Will they be Cottinghams final admissions? Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. His wife withdrew the petition upon his arrest in May 1980, then completed the divorce after his 1981 conviction. Absolutely, its completely plausible. I thought he could be responsible for some, Mr. Anzilotti said. This case was always haunting me.. Did the old man kill those girls? When they arrived, one firefighter attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a woman they found on the bed. 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. And any new prison sentence would, practically speaking, be meaningless; Mr. Cottingham had no chance of ever being released. [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. 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. They have also lived in Manasquan, NJ and Ada, MI. 0000002420 00000 n Richard Cottingham seemed like a character from a pulp novel: the crazed killer and the family man. 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. [4], On May 3, 1970, Cottingham was married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village, Queens. The items included necklaces, broaches, earrings, and other pieces of jewelry. Richard is related to Rosemarie Marie Cunningham and Larry J Cunningham as well as 3 additional people. We use cookies to deliver personalized advertisements, improve your online experience, and to analyze our site's performance. I was shocked that it was a serial killer, Moye said of his mothers confessed murderer. Furthermore, one of the women that he murdered in 1979 is still unidentified. In 1981, he was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to nearly 200 years in prison. Its mind-boggling and very scary, especially to know theres more of them out there.. He had no relationship to his victims. Maintenance workers found her body covered in plastic bags and wrapped in a gray blanket near a Jones Beach bus stop. One would remind him of a TV actress. His additional confession to a 1974 murder was discounted by Rockland County police. In a candid interview, the Bergen County chief who spent 20 years trying to wrangle new confessions out of serial killer Richard Cottingham revealed the 74-year-old prisoner has "regrets". 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. 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. The chief questioned Mr. Cottingham. Detective Anzilotti was startled to discover the same man killed all three. Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. But the killer was a clever bastard, too. As he moved through Midtown undetected, Cottingham, a successful computer operator at Blue Cross Blue Shield in Manhattan, was also committing sadistic sexual assault and sometimes murder at the Quality Inn, a motel in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. Anzilottihas spent all but 4 years of his law enforcement career with the prosecutors office after coming over from the Woodcliff Lake Police Department. I believe hes killed between 85 and 100, as he claims, Vronsky told The Post. His upcoming sentencing will add more time to a prison term that already extends beyond his remaining years. Photos of the house and other related images. [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). 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. Richard Cottingham, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. Cottingham has claimed in the past he. But eventually, their old give-and-take resumed. 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 [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. Richard Cottingham, New Jersey prison photo. 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. The weather worsened. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. There was also a lockbox filled with trophies from his murders, including Maryann Carrs apartment key and a necklace belonging to Jean Reyner. 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. I was able to get almostany woman to do whatever I wanted them to do . For a year, he refused to speak to Mr. Anzilotti. 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. 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. He remembers certain aspects of a person, Mr. Anzilotti said. Described as average and normal, New Jersey man Richard Cottingham was a father-of-three with a marriage that was slowly unravelling. With an uncomplicated enthusiasm for his work, Detective Anzilotti rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the chief of detectives with a busy office to lead. However, he started killing again in 1974, when he murdered Lorraine Marie Kelly and Mary Ann Pryor. 0000001250 00000 n The year 2020 arrived, and running his office through the coronavirus outbreak kept Mr. Anzilotti too busy for cold cases. The picture in the top left corner shows Cottingham during one of his trials. Just shy of his 21st birthday, Richard Cottingham began a vicious killing spree that tore through north New Jersey and New York City. Little more than a week after Street was found, Reyner was found butchered in the Seville Motel in New York City. In May of 1980, police arrested Cottingham while he was torturing a sex worker at a motel room in New Jersey. 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. I took over handling the calls, the arrangements. A judge sentenced him to 25 years to life after Cusicks brother and only child read emotional impact statements in court. The bodies of the women had no heads and no hands. When arrested, he had handcuffs, a leather gag, two slave collars, a switchblade knife, replica pistols, and a stockpile of prescription pills. [8] Vogel's nude and bound body was found on October 31, under a blanket behind the passenger seat of her car parked in nearby Ridgefield Park. Cottingham, a Lodi man who moonlighted as one of New Jersey's most savage serial killers, had been convicted of murdering five women in New York and New Jersey. Its hard to understand how someone could be like that.
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