richard cottingham lodi, nj address

I think it was just an evolution in his killing.. Both men were keenly aware that it was their years-old relationship that had brought about this moment. On one occasion, he dismembered two sex workers and set fire to their torsos at a hotel near Times Square. 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. The schoolgirl murder confessions increased that to to nine. Her attacker was caught as he ran away. Hes been chief of detectives nearly five years. Now 74, Cottingham, who claims responsibility for dozens of murders, has confessed to a. Other locations that are relatively close to this place. 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. Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. Richard Cottingham, 74, pleaded guilty Tuesday to murdering Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16, both of North Bergen. 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. The New York Times, p. 2. She was a mother, she was a wife, a daughter and a grandmother taken far too early. Soon, Cottingham persuaded Blase to go for a drink with him. Serial Killer House in Lodi, New Jersey, United States. 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. They captured Cottingham soon after. Mr. Anzilotti, doing his best not to betray any emotion, slowly pulled out his Blackberry and took notes. 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. He pleaded guilty to the killing in 2010, but when the news got out, Mr. Cottingham, who evidently thought the hearing would be ignored, was furious. [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. Vronsky and Weiss had been meeting with Cottingham in prison since the spring of 2017, counseling him to make the confession. After 'Torso Killer' confession, NJ loved ones explain how 1960s 0000006081 00000 n Much of Cottinghams crimes were not murders, but other violent crimes like abductions and rapes. Mr. Anzilotti would arrange to have the inmate transported to his office more than hours drive from the prison. However, he started killing again in 1974, when he murdered Lorraine Marie Kelly and Mary Ann Pryor. 'The Torso Killer' Who Hunted Prostitutes in Times Square The following is a list of his victims in chronological order. 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 . O'Dell's muffled cries of pain became so loud that the motel staff, already uneased by the previous two murders of Carr and Street, called police and then rushed to the room demanding that Cottingham open the door. He was also known to threaten them with a plastic gun and leave it within their reach so they could try to grab it only to find out it was false, severely bite and scrape their nipples, cut around the breasts, and use other forms of torture. At the mall, Cottingham, then a tall, brown-haired young man, met Vogel, a married mother of two. View Richard Cottingham's record in Manchester, NJ including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. It doesnt bring my mother back, but at least I have answers now. Blase was 18 when she was found strangled in Saddle River in 1969. He did a U-turn in a bank parking lot and approached, he said. Defense attorney John Bruno recited the details, which the white-bearded, 74-year-old killer acknowledged. On Dec. 2, 1979, fire alarms rang out at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on West 42nd Street. 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. Cottingham lived here with his wife, Janet, and their three children, Blair, Scott, and Jenny. Inside they found the bodies of 22-year-old sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi[9] and an unidentified woman estimated between 16 and 22. Once again, the victim did not appear in further proceedings and the case was dismissed.[6]. 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. It was an era when the sex worker was criminalized. Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates. 21 0 obj <> endobj He was locked away to serve several life sentences, aging into a portly man with a thick white beard. 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. trailer Crime: Cottingham, a Lodi resident, killed six women in New Jersey and New York between 1967 and 1980. 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.. 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. He kept these "trophies" in a locked room in the basement. But Cottingham flew under the radar precisely because of how he chose his victims and who his victims were. She had been abducted while walking home from practice with her schools fife-and-drum team in 1968. I can go all the way back to the first detective on the case. 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. I just ruled him out. But the killer was a clever bastard, too. 0000007078 00000 n [12] Both bodies had their hands and heads removed, and had been doused with lighter fluid and set on fire. 21 0 obj <> endobj In April 2021, Cottingham confessed to the unsolved 1974 double-abduction, rape, and forcible drowning murders of Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16, and Mary Ann Pryor, 17, in Montvale, one of New Jersey's most notorious cold cases. 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. xref document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. 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 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. Between 1970 and 1974, Cottingham and his wife, Janet, lived at an apartment block called Ledgewood Terrace in Little Ferry, New Jersey. He kept his glasses case tucked in a vest pocket of his prison scrubs, beneath his white beard, and folded his hands over his broad belly. But he eventually realized the years-long association, which involved countless state prison visits, was coming to an end. 0000007874 00000 n <<8BD7E4F5B15F3F4A8993EB3A0150F7AC>]>> Its mind-boggling and very scary, especially to know theres more of them out there.. Straddling her back, he drew a knife and put it to her throat as he snapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists. Cottingham had kept these items as souvenirs so that he could remember his victims and relive his attacks. They were facedown, side by side, as if placed there with care. [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. He was originally from the Bronx in New York City. And for Cottingham, every night was a full moon.. Their murders shook the region. Mary Anne and Lorraine deserve it, God rest their souls, Bergen County Prosecutors Chief of Detective Robert Anzilotti said Tuesday after Richard Cottingham of Lodi admitted killing both in 1974. After those confessions, the two men barely spoke. He has been charged with 11 murders in all. Altman, who was just 3 years old at the time, said her parents had separated prior to Cusicks killing. She then grew up without a father because her grandparents did not like him, she said. On April 14, in a recorded interview, Mr. Cottingham said he remembered Mary Ann Pryor and Lorraine Kelly, and Mr. Anzilotti asked why he knew their names, when he hadnt in past cases. He pleaded innocent and for decades insisted he was being "framed", until admitting in 2009 that he had actually perpetrated those five murders. Cottingham offered to give O'Dell a massage and she rolled onto her stomach. 0000004535 00000 n When the 40th year since the killings arrived in 2014, the local police asked the public for any new information. 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 didnt like the idea, apparently wanting to continue their dialogue. 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. 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. 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. startxref Over time, though, one investigator was slowly developing a theory. Responding officers found an 18-year-old victim whod been bitten, stabbed and bound with handcuffs. Described as average and normal, New Jersey man Richard Cottingham was a father-of-three with a marriage that was slowly unravelling. In May of 1980, police arrested Cottingham while he was torturing a sex worker at a motel room in New Jersey. Absolutely, its completely plausible. With Cottinghams next victim, a killers hunting ground of sorts began to form. A maid heard the teenagers guttural screams and called police. 0000001982 00000 n When reporters ran with the story, Mr. Anzilotti considered himself absolved from keeping his silence about the cases. I believe hes killed between 85 and 100, as he claims, Vronsky told The Post. During a search of the house, investigators discovered personal items belonging to some of his victims. Her killer, Richard Cottingham, was a computer operator, married with three children of his own, living a seemingly normal life. Correctional officers found contraband and evidence of bookmaking and transferred Mr. Cottingham to solitary confinement. Her glasses, a ring, a necklace, Ms. Mulder said. After nearly 15 years of interviews by Anzilotti and Detective Capt. 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. The 'Torso Killer' dismembered her mother. So why did this - nj And even worse, the rape laws were particularly onerous, and you had to provide a witness to bring an allegation of rape. 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. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Richard Cottingham, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. 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. After the hearing, the cameras off, Mr. Anzilotti approached Mr. Cottingham. The house was built in 1974one year before Cottingham and his wife, Janet, moved in. 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. Mr. Cottingham mentioned details of the killing that matched what Mr. Anzilotti knew from the case file. He did not want his family hassled by reporters or the police, and he vowed to Mr. Anzilotti that he would never again allow himself to be thrust into the spotlight. 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. Its hard to understand how someone could be like that. When Mr. Cottingham entered prison in 1981, Robert Anzilotti was not yet a teenager. Boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, family members all were questioned and cleared of suspicion. He forced his victims to address him as "master". 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. They sat at the kitchen table, very professional, very polite, very considerate, Ms. Mulder recalled. A married father of three, he lived in the. The police were called and Cottingham was apprehended while trying to flee. Cottingham fled the scene with the victims heads and hands. You can change your choice at any time by using the Privacy Center link in our footer. 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