richard cottingham lodi, nj address

Authorities executed a warrant on his Lodi home, which had a private room containing evidence linking him to the Torso Killer. The photographs are ordered from left to right and top to bottom. Prosecutors had long believed that Cottingham abducted Mary Ann and Lorraine both North Bergen High School students whod been known to hitch-hike during a shopping trip to the Garden State Plaza on August 9, 1974. But the arrest in 1980 changed everything, exposing Richard's double life and deadly exploits. He said, Youre welcome.. [13] In 2021, he pleaded guilty to the 1974 kidnapping, raping and drowning of Lorraine Marie Kelly and Mary Ann Pryor. 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. Hes younger when all this is going on in Bergen County, he said. They were marginalized sex workers in a Times Square that was nearly lawless and when the police, at best, looked the other way.. Richard Cottingham seemed like a character from a pulp novel: the crazed killer and the family man. After six years of visits, there was a break. 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. %%EOF But there was an even bigger problem. [5] On May 15, 1980, Jean Reyner was strangled and her throat cut in New York's historic Seville Hotel. Richard was arrested at a motel in Hasbrouck . 0000004577 00000 n 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.. Little more than a week after Street was found, Reyner was found butchered in the Seville Motel in New York City. K3nVxb;X)oxeHME~> 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. A maid heard the teenagers guttural screams and called police. These meetings went on for months, and then years, on top of Mr. Anzilottis regular caseload. Bergen County investigators realized there were numerous open sexual assault cases with similar hallmarks: Cottingham kidnapped them from Times Square, drugged and assaulted them. )' Years after her sisters death, she had found some comfort speaking to another from her tribe, Karen Miller, a sister of Denise Falasca. Mr. Cottingham mentioned details of the killing that matched what Mr. Anzilotti knew from the case file. 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 . The Google Street View image above was taken in May of 2022. He tortured women before he killed them and did terrible things to them, and yet we still dont know who he is because he preyed on sex workers, Berlinger said, adding that he hopes this series helps destigmatize sex work and potentially solve more cold cases. But the killer was a clever bastard, too. Their murders shook the region. 21 23 [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. (1981, June 25). His additional confession to a 1974 murder was discounted by Rockland County police. The killer would suddenly recall picking a girl up from a store somewhere, and the chief, in the front passenger seat as a detective drove, surreptitiously took notes. Richard Cottingham, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. That night, city firefighters responded to a blaze at a motel in Times Square, the New York Daily News reported. It doesnt bring my mother back, but at least I have answers now. 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. 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. The back and forth went on for weeks. The public in Bergen County deserved to know the outcome of those girls, he said. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. Hes embarrassed by this case, he said. Five months later, the serial slayer struck again, strangling Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves, an 18-year-old Manhattan woman originally from Puerto Rico. When reporters ran with the story, Mr. Anzilotti considered himself absolved from keeping his silence about the cases. When the 40th year since the killings arrived in 2014, the local police asked the public for any new information. Authorities tied him to the killings after police were called to a Hasbrouck Heights motel, where a maid had heard a woman screaming. 0000002882 00000 n But as he considered retirement, he kept returning to the two girls found dead in the woods. But beneath the veneer of normalcy was a heinous double-existence as a serial killer. Now 74, Cottingham, who claims responsibility for dozens of murders, has confessed to a. Inside they found the bodies of 22-year-old sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi[9] and an unidentified woman estimated between 16 and 22. When arrested, he had handcuffs, a leather gag, two slave collars, a switchblade knife, replica pistols, and a stockpile of prescription pills. The 45th year passed in the same way. And any new prison sentence would, practically speaking, be meaningless; Mr. Cottingham had no chance of ever being released. That was less than a year after Cottingham and his wife had their first child. On Dec. 2, 1979, fire alarms rang out at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on West 42nd Street. 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. 0000002865 00000 n Then, with just days remaining before the chief retired, the inmate relented. For more details, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. [21] Cottingham was apparently "forensically aware" in the era before DNA analysis. 0000003451 00000 n 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. Mr. Anzilotti, doing his best not to betray any emotion, slowly pulled out his Blackberry and took notes. I didnt know what to expect. After those confessions, the two men barely spoke. The police photograph on the left was taken in June of 1980. Irene Blase, Denise Falasca and Jacalyn Harp all girls whose murders were unsolved. 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. The Google Street View image on the right was taken 38 years later, in June of 2018. The details stopped him cold. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. He admitted that those two killings weighed on him more than the others. [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. [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. On Dec. 2, 1979, the murders that earned Cottingham the nickname the "Torso Killer took place in New York City. She later testified that he said, "You have to take it. And considering the closure of yesterdays cases, I absolutely believe him.. She, like members of the other families, agreed to forgo a guilty plea in open court. He remembers certain aspects of a person, Mr. Anzilotti 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. 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. The police pursued a welter of tips, rumors and false alarms, The New York Times reported at the time. FPh_3Gj Nt%Q[r L`%/9QTh/| Q4_g8KI}u'?xbif`H>;wNQ|sd2(? Again, he knew details from Ms. Falascas file. 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. To this day, the other young female has never been identified. [7] On October 28, 1967, he strangled Nancy Schiava Vogel, a 29-year-old married mother of two, in Little Ferry, New Jersey. Zestimate Home Value: $598,600. 0000001982 00000 n Inmates were wagering everything from cash to cigarettes. I have done many shows about serial killers, and I have always marveled at the fact that [Ted] Bundy, [John Wayne] Gacy, [Jeffrey] Dahmer and Berkowitz were all household names, perversely, Berlinger told The Post. Select this result to view Richard P Cunningham's phone number, address, and more. He forced his victims to address him as "master". In 1964, Cottingham graduated from Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, New Jersey. trailer document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. Although Cottingham has formally admitted to eighteen killings and has claimed to have killed as many as 100, he is known to have only murdered seventeen girls between 1967 and 1980 and attempted to kill a further four. (1981, June 16). Cottingham committed his first known murder when he was 20-years-old, although he claims to have started as an adolescent. He enjoys our relationship. WjgF\A9Ro9r/;l5Gh3h}NG2L -S$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 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. 21 23 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. Seth Wenig/Associated Press By Ed Shanahan Dec. 5, 2022 On a. On February 15, 1968, Cottingham killed his second known victim. Getting to that point wasnt easy, Anzilotti said. 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. Described as average and normal, New Jersey man Richard Cottingham was a father-of-three with a marriage that was slowly unravelling. 0000003707 00000 n His crimes were discovered in May 1980, when a maid at a Hasbrouck Heights motel heard. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. 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. Pages in category "People from Lodi, New Jersey" The following 21 pages are in this category, out of 21 total. 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. In March, looking back on 25 years with the office, Mr. Anzilotti decided it was time to move on from the job. That made 11 murders Cottingham that admitted since his arrest more than 30 years ago. [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". 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. Both men were keenly aware that it was their years-old relationship that had brought about this moment. xref She had been abducted while walking home from practice with her schools fife-and-drum team in 1968. I think it was just an evolution in his killing.. Did the old man kill those girls? Absolutely, its completely plausible. 0000003107 00000 n [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). 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. I just ruled him out. 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. The bridge where Mallory Beach died in a boating accident. He drove his car ahead of Harp, pulled over and walked back toward her, Vronsky said. And later that same month, a fifth woman was found mutilated in the former Hotel Seville near Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Authorities believed it to be, thus far, the oldest criminal case to be solved and prosecuted by direct DNA evidence. This location belongs to the following categories: Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to see future locations. The teenagers were last seen on Aug. 9, 1974, in North Bergen. 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. Other locations that are relatively close to this place. But Mr. Anzilotti kept pressing him: You know youre going to tell me.. Dont think youre going to mess with me and Im going to help you, Mr. Anzilotti recalled Mr. Cottingham saying. However, please be aware that not allowing certain cookies may impact your experience of the site. On one occasion, he dismembered two sex workers and set fire to their torsos at a hotel near Times Square. 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. The confessed killer then fatally bludgeoned Sheila Heiman, a 33-year-old mother of three, in July 1973, at her North Woodmere, NY, home, where her husband found her upon returning from shopping, authorities said. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. [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]. Richard Francis Cottingham (born November 25, 1946) is an American serial killer and rapist who murdered at least eighteen young women and girls in New York and New Jersey between 1967 and 1980. Her glasses, a ring, a necklace, Ms. Mulder said. xref 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. Mr. Cottingham left behind no clues. And he sat there with literally no remorse. 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.

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