On July 17, 1968, Harp, of Midland Park, was walking home from band practice when a strange man, Cottingham, tried to coax her into his car, Vronsky said. (1981, June 16). 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. 0000004577 00000 n After those confessions, the two men barely spoke. He admitted that those two killings weighed on him more than the others. Richard Cunningham in NJ - Address & Phone Number | Whitepages About a week later, Big Apple authorities would find Reyners body, but still, no one in New Jersey connected them to the Times Square killer, says former NYPD detective Malcolm Reiman in the series. For more information, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. Math-wise its possible," said Vronsky. [2] Four surviving abduction-rape victims testified against Cottingham; he was convicted in three of the cases and acquitted in one. Richard is related to Rosemarie Marie Cunningham and Larry J Cunningham as well as 3 additional people. 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. 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. The Blase family agreed. It was Aug. 14, 1974, in Montvale, N.J., a suburb just over the New York state line. When they arrived, one firefighter attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a woman they found on the bed. 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 trailer [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. )' To this day, the other young female has never been identified. It is not a public place. Soon, Cottingham persuaded Blase to go for a drink with him. 0000005280 00000 n 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. In this image taken from a New Jersey Courts virtual hearing, Richard Cottingham, center, known as the "Torso Killer," pleads guilty April 27, 2021, to two 1974 murders, finally closing the cold case deaths of teenage friends who had left home for a trip to the mall and never returned. Richard Cottingham, a family man who denied everything in court, was convicted of killing five women in the early 1980s. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. In recent years, he had asked Mr. Cottingham about the case, and the inmate had simultaneously denied responsibility and let on that he knew more than he would share. [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". Bergen County investigators realized there were numerous open sexual assault cases with similar hallmarks: Cottingham kidnapped them from Times Square, drugged and assaulted them. 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 has confessed to murdering 12 women. Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. A killing in Somerset County a week after Cottingham got his drivers license may have been one of his first victims, Vronsky said. iP^ -KvWZvxhc'm$93tSz =oBTmD]+)bTJ T|u>/. New Jersey 'Torso Killer' Pleads Guilty to 1974 Cold Case Murders 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. No leads were forthcoming. 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. 0000005253 00000 n With Ms. Pryor and a judge watching on Zoom that day, Mr. Cottingham pleaded guilty to the two murders. Irene Blase, Denise Falasca and Jacalyn Harp all girls whose murders were unsolved. Everyone deserves justice under the law.. endstream endobj 34 0 obj<>stream But Mr. Anzilotti kept pressing him: You know youre going to tell me.. And at the time, it was beyond our capacity to look beyond New York City, he told The Post. In December 2019, forensic historian and author Peter Vronsky, on the eve of publishing the revelation in his second edition of Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, publicized the confessions with the BCPO's cooperation, in a community meeting in Midland Park. However, please be aware that not allowing certain cookies may impact your experience of the site. He called his detectives and gave the word: Bring in Cottingham. She was stunned. At the mall, Cottingham, then a tall, brown-haired young man, met Vogel, a married mother of two. He asked to quietly close their daughters murder case without formally charging the killer. Now 74, Cottingham, who claims responsibility for dozens of murders, has confessed to a. The details stopped him cold. He said he wouldn't have done it if I wasn't retiring.. For years, the three confessions remained a secret, until January 2020, when a true-crime writer who had been visiting Mr. Cottingham in prison, Peter Vronsky, announced that the inmate had revealed his crimes in interviews for a forthcoming book. 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.. He did, however, leave behind their clothing, including a pair of Bonjour jeans, white leotards and a black fur coat, neatly folded in the bath tub. 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. He was imprisoned. That made 11 murders Cottingham that admitted since his arrest more than 30 years ago. 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. Shed been abducted by Cottingham from the Ledgewood Terrace apartments, in Little Ferry, where Cottingham had previously lived, said Vronsky. 0000013001 00000 n Anzilottihas spent all but 4 years of his law enforcement career with the prosecutors office after coming over from the Woodcliff Lake Police Department. View Richard Cottingham's record in Manchester, NJ including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. The people listed below were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Lodi, New Jersey. Both men were keenly aware that it was their years-old relationship that had brought about this moment. Jennifer Weiss Befriends Richard Cottingham, "The Torso Killer" | Crime Infamous New Jersey 'Torso Killer' admits to abducting, torturing and 0000008501 00000 n The photographs are ordered from left to right and top to bottom. He had no relationship to his victims. Her killer, Richard Cottingham, was a computer operator, married with three children of his own, living a seemingly normal life. Richard Cottingham, 76, pleaded guilty to the February 1968 murder of Diane Cusick, 23, and admitted to strangling four additional women in the 1970s in Nassau County. There was also a lockbox filled with trophies from his murders, including Maryann Carrs apartment key and a necklace belonging to Jean Reyner. This is possibly due to the fact that he got married in 1970. Zestimate Home Value: $598,600. Goodarzi had come to the United States years prior from Iran. Mr. Anzilotti insisted that this case be resolved in open court. Soon, the chief closed that case two down. It is situated at 29 Vreeland Street in Lodi, New Jersey. One day, Cottingham told his co-worker that he had stolen a sex worker's money and clothes while she was sleeping. 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. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. It was pure evil. NJ's infamous 'Torso Killer' confesses to 1974 murders of two Garden In April of 1979, he started living in the basement of the property after his wife initiated divorce proceedings against him for "abandonment" and "mental cruelty.". 0000007078 00000 n 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. "From the sense of other things that Im uncovering, he was a very busy boy., I think the math worked out to one every six weeks, Vronsky also said. 7{(~tm LB IBJ*ZB`0 xref The back and forth went on for weeks. And I said, Hop in., He drove to the mall. 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. My whole life has been this, she said. In March, looking back on 25 years with the office, Mr. Anzilotti decided it was time to move on from the job. Other locations that are relatively close to this place. For decades, a string of killings of teenage girls haunted suburban New Jersey. 0000002831 00000 n Taking a bus to another location, Cottingham and Blase spent some time together. It was an era when the sex worker was criminalized. Richard Cottingham of Lodi (NJ) is sentenced to 173-179 years in prison. 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. Times Square Torso Killer: Grisly crimes of Richard Cottingham laid Cottingham primarily sought prostitutes who were petite blondes in their late teens to mid-twenties. Cottingham had just raped, tortured and beheaded two sex workers in a room at the motel before setting it on fire. After six years of visits, there was a break. This is a "Then and Now" photograph of Cottingham's former house at 29 Vreeland Street. When reporters ran with the story, Mr. Anzilotti considered himself absolved from keeping his silence about the cases. Her youth and difference in appearance, with a boyish haircut, set her apart from the other victims. Over the months that followed, Mr. Anzilotti cultivated an unusual relationship with Mr. Cottingham, sometimes testy, sometimes closer to a sort of warmth. She had been a teenager when her sister was killed. It was like a game to him, Anzilotti recently said. A maid heard the teenagers guttural screams and called police. 'Crime Scene' reveals true depravity of 'Times Square Killer' 0000010308 00000 n Three days later, Mr. Anzilotti walked out of his office for good. 'Torso Killer' Richard Cottingham Confessed To New Murders As - Yahoo! 0000001262 00000 n 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. 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. %%EOF 0000006846 00000 n Prosecutors will seek dual life sentences to run alongside his current lifetime term when Cottingham is sentenced on July 9 for what Musella said were the willful, deliberate, and premediated murders of Mary Ann Prior and Lorraine Kelly. 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. The other girls did, you have to take it, too. His "justification" for doing this was that he "didn't like anyone getting one over" on him. Mr. Anzilotti, doing his best not to betray any emotion, slowly pulled out his Blackberry and took notes. Cottingham then confessed to more murders including Nancy Vogel, whom he killed in 1967, and five teenaged victims from New Jersey, none of whom were in the sex trade. Her body was found the next morning by the side of a road next to a cemetery in Saddle Brook. 21 0 obj <> endobj During a search of the house, investigators discovered personal items belonging to some of his victims. The bridge where Mallory Beach died in a boating accident. 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. No one could find any clues in the girls backgrounds: no drugs, no trouble with the law. My parents couldnt handle it., She had called Bergen County every few months to ask about the case for 47 years, she said. Little more than a week after Street was found, Reyner was found butchered in the Seville Motel in New York City. On April 7, 1969, Cottingham saw Blase, 18, shopping in Hackensack, Vronsky said. <<69EF7C237A736942AE760EBDB9B8F80B>]>> 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. startxref 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. But on May 22, 1980 Cottingham's life as a predator came to light. Cottingham's reign of terror on both sides of the Hudson River is the subject of Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer, whose tale begins on Dec. 2, 1979, with New York City police and fire. 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. 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. 0000003451 00000 n Investigators noted the crime scene was devoid of evidence and they were unable to identify the victims. Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, List of serial killers in the United States, List of serial killers by number of victims, "New Jersey's 'Torso Killer' admits murdering 3 teenage girls over 50 years ago", "Justice Story: 'Times Square Ripper' revealed to be mild-mannered husband from suburban Jersey", "Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective", "First of Three Trials of Jerseyan in Prostitute Slayings Nears End", "Killer of 2 Is Guilty of 3 More Slayings", "Legislator Gaynor Honors Detectives Who Solved 50 Year Old Cold Case", "Mineola Woman's Murder 48 Years Ago Still Unsolved", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Cottingham&oldid=1142468060. I thought he could be responsible for some, Mr. Anzilotti said. 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. Rochelle Park & These objects, along with his fingerprint on the handcuffs, were presented as evidence by prosecutors at his trial. 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.
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