Like before, the murderous butcher had set the room on fire, which immediately tipped off authorities that they had a serial killer on their hands. You're in complete control of somebody's destiny.'. On Tuesday, Richard Cottingham, 74, sat in a wheelchair in beige prison scrubs as he pleaded guilty to kidnapping the teenage girls and raping them for days before he drowned them in a motel room bathtub. Did he intend on killing this poor girl? He will spend the rest of his years behind bars with the hope that he will never have the chance to act on his horrific urges again. On December 2, 1979, firemen in New York responded to an alarm at the Travel Inn motel[11] near Times Square. He seemed nice enough. He would be charged with robbery, sodomy, and sexual assault but all charges would ultimately be dismissed. Richard would dump her along a chain link fence near the apartment complex he once called home, the ligature still tied around her neck. This time it seems the police were able to link this crime. Richard Gere's wife Alejandra shares new photos of 73-year-old actor as they celebrate her 40th birthday in Mexico - after he was hospitalized with pneumonia Richard Gere is 'mostly recovered . At three different trials in New Jersey and New York, Richard was convicted for murdering Deedeh Goodarzi, Jane Doe, Jean Reyner, Valerie Street, and Maryann Carr (who was killed in 1977). Once inside, Richard would torture the girl repeatedly through various means; beatings, bites, cuts and rapes. Rehabilitation | Bring Back To Positive Condition, Capital Punishment | Killing Another As Punishment, A Writ of Habeas Corpus |That You Have The Body, Munchausen by Proxy | Factitious Disorder by Proxy, Histrionic Personality Disorder | Anti Social Disorder, Bipolar Personality Disorder | Manic Depression, Sociopathy | Antisocial Personality Disorder | Traits, Psychopathy | Antisocial Personality Disorder, Hanging | An Available Method of Execution Today, Parricide | The Act of Killing Ones Own Parents, Familicide | The Act of Family Annihilation, Maternal Filicide | Killing Ones Own Child/Children, Roger Kibbe / The I-5 Strangler of Sacramento, Anthony John Hardy / A Lust for Necrophilia, William George Bonin / Californias Freeway Killer / Hebephiliac Serial Killer, William Darrell Lindsey American Serial Killer, Daisuke Mori / Japanese Serial Killer / Medical Murder, Bevan Von Einem / Australian Serial Killer / The Family Murders, Jeff Doucet / The Pedophile Murdered in Baton Rouge Airport, Glenn Helzer and The Children of Thunder Murders, Grace Millane British Backpacker on Tinder Date With Death, Eugene Butler | Bones Under the House | Dead Men Dont Tell, William Parente / Methodical Murder/Suicide / AnomicFamilicide, Evan Ramsey / School Shooting / He Blamed Doom, Brenda Spencer / Juvenile Thrill Killer / School Shooting, James Bulger A Baby Boy Murdered By Two 10 Years Olds, David Brom / Juvenile Family Annihilator / Ax Murderer, Erin Caffey / Master Mind For Murder / Death and Flames, Michael McLendon / He Left A List Then Left To Kill, Ronald Lee Haskell / Mass Murder / Killing for Vengeance, George Jefferson Hassell / Mass Murder / Two Time Family Annihilator, George Emil Banks / Mass Murder in PA / Family Annihilator, Charles Merritt / The McStay Family Massacre / A Mystery Unraveled, Margaret Rudin / Did she really murder her husband then burn him in the desert, Stacey Castor Set Out To Frame Her Child For Murders She Herself Had Committed, Judy Buenoano / Floridas Female Serial Killer / The Black Widow, Patricia Columbo / Family Annihilator / Parricide To Inherit, Marie Noe / Serial Filicide / Murdered All 8 Of Her Babies, Amelia Dyer / Baby Farmer / Prolific Serial Murderer, Carroll Edward Cole / A Life of Murder and Mental Madness, John Crutchley / The Florida Vampire / Rapist and Serial Killer, Jack Unterweger / The Beloved Writer Who Committed Serial Murder. Police arrested 33-year-old Richard Cottingham at the scene. After this look at Richard Cottingham, The Torso Killer, read up on Ed Kemper, the Co-Ed Killer, and Rodney Alcala, the Dating Game Killer. Then, read the stories of Jack the Rippers victims. One detective said it was 'the cleanest crime scene he's ever seen.' Richard Cottingham has confessed to a number of other murders in recent years. [7] On October 28, 1967, he strangled Nancy Schiava Vogel, a 29-year-old married mother of two, in Little Ferry, New Jersey. 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. Three of those murders Cottingham later confessed to included Jacalyn Harp. This case was soon linked to his previous murder victim, Helen Sikes, letting police know they were dealing with a serial killer. The woman from the motel ended up surviving his torture, but police found her tied up and suffering from knife wounds and human teeth marks. On February 15, 1968, Cottingham killed his second known victim. He began torturing her, nearly biting off one of her nipples. You're a whore and you have to be punished." Police believe that Cusick left the dance studio where she taught and went into the nearby mall to buy some shoes. I think it was just an evolution in his killing.. North-jersey.comA father of three, Richard Cottingham seemed an unlikely killer. This murder was later linked to the 1977 murder of Maryann Carr, who was left in the same motel's parking lot. It was the same motel that a maid had discovered the mutilated body of Valerie Street just two weeks earlier, and the body of Maryann Car in 1977. Neither complainant appeared in further proceedings, however, and the case was dismissed. WickedWe is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. He is currently being held at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, NJ, and is not eligible for parole. Richards lust seemed to never fully be satisfied and in December of 1977, Maryann Carr would be claimed as his next victim. Stretched out on the beds were two headless corpses. 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. Police would eventually link Richard to the case because of a fingerprint found on the set of handcuffs. 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. Cops eventually tied him to the crime when they found Reyner's necklace among his 'trophies.' Richards wife filed for divorce in 1979, after years of affairs, but it was never finalized. The brief encounter later inspired Vronsky to write his serial killer histories and paved the way for his prison meetings with Cottingham four decades later. Was this man, the same man who committed the similar brutal crime? Richard Cottingham . The young lady explained how she had arrived in New York earlier that week and was quickly taken advantage of, becoming victim to the number of pimps in the area and trafficked into sex work. He said that uncountable times.. [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. He would graduate in 1964 and shortly afterwards, take a job with his father at the Met Life Insurance Company, working on the companys computers. Richard was arrested, and at the time, he had handcuffs, knives, prescription pills, and other suspicious items on him. When they forced their way inside and put the fire out they found something more than burnt furniture. In October 1966, he became a computer operator for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, where he worked until his 1980 arrest. She then screamed, and the muffled noises were heard by a maid, leading to the police being called. Over the years, he confessed to killing several more women, with his earliest known murder in 1967. He said the other girls took it and I had to take it, too. . Criminal profiling was still in its infancy and it was before CCTV footage was commonplace and the use of computers helped detectives share information across states. She later testified that he said, "You have to take it. But when first responders attempted CPR, they realized the bodies had no heads and no hands. Despondent in custody, Cottingham smashed a lens of his spectacles and attempted suicide by slashing his wrists with the glass. Crystal Ponti. He was sentenced to 173 to 197 years, which he is currently serving in Trenton's New Jersey State Prison. The first killing was that of Valerie Ann Street. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Her breasts had been hacked off and her body was set on fire. "We had a very complicated car vs pole situation and tow guys came to Tustin within 30 minutes on a Sunday evening and did an incredible job assisting us with removing the car off of" more. [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". Her arms were still handcuffed behind her back. With that in mind, many investigators as well as the hotel staff had a lingering question. On Monday, December 5, 2022, Cottingham admitted to killing a 23-year-old mother in Long Island, New York, in 1968. 'When you're looking for a killer in 1970s Times Square, you're looking for a needle in a haystack,' said Geberth. A famous pamphlet made by NYPD during the 1970s advised tourists to 'stay off the streets after 6pm,' 'do not walk,' and 'never ride the subway for any reason whatsoever', Cops apprehended Richard Cottingham on May 22, 1980 in a New Jersey Quality Inn after staff alerted police of screams coming from a room. But the arrest in 1980 changed everything, exposing Richards double life and deadly exploits. But it soon came out that the Torso Killer had murdered many more than five victims. Things started well, a nice massage to relax things. Today, Times Square is a glittering tourist attraction. 183 locals recently requested a quote. When hotel staff investigated further, Leslie Ann O'Dell cracked open the door and quietly signaled for help. Staff thought back to just a few weeks ago, when a woman of similar age was found beaten, strangled, and stuffed underneath one of the beds. The serial killer remains imprisoned in New Jersey. Police responded to a fire in Room 417, where two women had been discovered on a pair of twin beds. It wasn't until the advancements in DNA and forensic processing made it possible for investigators to run samples of inmates that they realized how many cases were connected to the killer. What drove this married father of three to kill? 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. And, thanks to a dogged New Jersey detective, the Times Square Killer has confessed to a number of additional murders. The 22-year-old's death appeared brutal: she had been beheaded and set on fire and her skull has yet to be found. They executed a search warrant on Cottingham's family home where they found a secret, locked 'trophy room' that stashed souvenirs of his evil deeds. The other, a 16-year-old, remains a Jane Doe to this day. Graduating, landing a solid job, marriage and having multiple children. As Cottingham was fleeing the scene of the torso murders, he briefly encountered the 23-year-old Peter Vronsky, who was attempting to check into the Travel Inn while in New York on a film production assignment. You're a whore and you have to be punished.". Their skulls and hands were never found. 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. In 1958, at 12 years of age, he and his family would move to River Vale, New Jersey. In the thirteen-year period during which he is known to have committed at least seventeen murders, only one fingerprint belonging to him was ever recovered, from the ratchet mechanism of handcuffs left behind on Valerie Street. 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. Soon after checking in, the 18-year-old girls screams began to echo throughout the halls of the hotel. 'It's God-like, almost. Her killer had cut her throat, left bite marks on her body, and severed her breasts. The man listened and suggested he could drive her to a different bus terminal in New Jersey to get her back home, away from her abusive pimp. Walter Leporati/Getty ImagesPornographic films are advertised in Manhattans Times Square in January 1971. Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer will stream on Netflix starting Dec. 29. He was also found guilty of kidnapping and assault, with his sentence going up to more than 200 years. On May 5, 1980, a motel housekeeper found the body of 19-year-old Valerie Ann Street in the Hasbrouck Heights Quality Inn. 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. On December 2, 1979, the authorities were called to a hotel room in New York City after a fire was reported. It was mainly psychological. [4], On May 3, 1970, Cottingham was married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village, Queens. Former FBI agent and criminal profiler Candice DeLong delves into Richard Cottingham, the Torso Killer. She had been restrained and ultimately strangled, ending the 26-year-olds short life. She agreed to have sex with him for money. Now 74, Cottingham, who claims responsibility for dozens of murders, has confessed to a handful. [21] Cottingham was apparently "forensically aware" in the era before DNA analysis. When found her head was hanging by a thread. Richard Cottingham's arrest in May 1980 closed the doors on one of the most violent crime sprees to have ever occurred. Weiss was given up for adoption when she was less than two weeks old. The other girls did, you have to take it too. [6] In 2022, Cottingham officially confessed to the 1970 murder of Lorraine McGraw, under a non-prosecution agreement. Richard Cottingham brutally murdered prostitutes he found on the seedy streets of 1970s New York, earning his horrifying legacy as the Times Square Torso Killer. Pornographic films are advertised in Manhattans Times Square in January 1971. A New Jersey serial killer known as the "Torso Killer" pleaded guilty Tuesday 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. One of Cottinghams only admissions of guilt was, I have a problem with women. Weeks after his arrest, his wife was able to finalize the divorce from the monster. the sexual predator with the perfect hunting ground. She was in hysterics, crapping on about what this guy had put her through. Thankfully, Cottingham's reign of terror would not last forever. The other headless corpse was never identified. 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. His murders were calculated and methodical, and he managed to evade . Once he spotted his prey he would attempt to slip drugs into their drinks, take them to a motel, then sexually torture the women for hours. Thanks to Anzilottis persistence, Richard Cottingham confessed to killing 29-year-old Nancy Vogel in 1967, 13-year-old Jackie Harp in 1968, 18-year-old Irene Blase and 15-year-old Denise Falasca in 1969, and 17-year-old Mary Ann Pryor and 16-year-old Lorraine Kelly in 1974. Cottingham had been in the process of torturing his latest victim, 19-year-old Leslie Ann O'Dell, who survived the attack and testified against him during his trial. 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. Though Cottingham resisted at first, he slowly began to reveal details of his past crimes. He would stalk the various bars in Manhattan preying on unsuspecting women, trying to unwind from a busy day. Their monster would end up being 33-year-old Richard Cottingham, a married milquetoast father of three from Lodi, New Jersey, who worked as a computer operator for BlueCross BlueShield in Manhattan. He would occasionally remove and dispose of his victims heads and hands, presumably to make identification more difficult. Jean Reyner was raped, stabbed, mutilated and tortured. Cottingham pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree murder in the case of Diane Cusick. [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. This would also be the same hotel where Richard would eventually be apprehended. When police arrived they caught a man trying to flee the room. In his possession police found a murder kit which consisted of handcuffs, leather gags, slave collars, knives, pistols, and pills. Richard Cottingham Research Paper. She would later be found in Queens horribly mutilated. Nicole Linton appears in Los Angeles County Superior Court for her arraignment on murder charges . Inside, they found the bodies of two women who were missing their heads and hands. Within his home, detectives were able to find his trophy room which contained multiple personal items and keepsakes which belonged to his victims. He has officially been charged with 11 murders but says he's killed over 100 women, Netflix's new 'Crime Scene' docuseries examines the notorious case of Richard Cottingham who left a bloody trail of victims between 1967 and 1980. One victim was recognized as Deedeh Goodarzi while the other slain woman remains unknown to this day, Deedeh Goodarzi was a 22-year-old high-end prostitute from Iran whose family immigrated to Long Island when she was a teenager. One of the unsolved cases was solved when he admitted guilt in the 1967 murder of Nancy Vogel, in 2010. He would commute daily to New York for his job, but once in a while, when the mood struck, Richard would not go home after work. Published: 09:02 EDT, 31 December 2021 | Updated: 09:02 EDT, 31 December 2021, A new Netflix documentary investigates Richard Cottingham, also known as the 'Times Square Killer' who said he raped and killed over 105 women and is currently serving a life sentence in New Jersey. Richard Cottingham was convicted of six murders and numerous counts of kidnapping and sexual assault using evidence found in his 'trophy room' combined with a matching fingerprint left on. His additional confession to a 1974 murder was discounted by Rockland County police. He raped, sodomized, killed and mutilated 6 prostitutes in New York and New Jersey. Cops had a lucky break in the case almost six months after the two headless torsos were first found in Times Square. one strange rock gasp quizlet New Lab; glider timetable dundonald park and ride; 12 gauge 100 round drum; ODell, whod survived her encounter with the Torso Killer, described how he tortured his victims. Its unclear what he was stealing, if he was short on money or so there was no trail of him purchasing a specific item. In a similar case, Richard killed Jean Reyner, a sex worker, in another hotel in New York. Cottingham is currently in state prison on a . 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. After one of the trials, Richard smashed his glasses and attempted to take his own life but was unsuccessful. After his arrest, NYPD drew comparisons to the numerous unsolved sexual assault cases with similar hallmarks to the New Jersey crimes. It was the era when the Big Apple was nicknamed 'Fear City' and Times Square was a deviant drain of illicit thrills, pornography, prostitution and crooks - providing the sexual predator with the perfect hunting ground. He was careful, and only one fingerprint was retrieved from a crime scene. The teenagers were last seen on Aug. 9, 1974, in North Bergen. Netflix's documentary Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer examines the notorious case of Richard Cottingham - also known as 'The Torso Killer' -who claimed to have raped, slaughtered and mutilated more than 100 women between 1967 and 1980. Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. In his possession were handcuffs, a leather gag, two slave collars, a switchblade, replica pistols and a stockpile of sedatives. He has officially been charged with 11 murders but according to Cottingham himself, has committed as many as 105 total slayings over the course of his homicidal career - 80 of which he described as 'perfect murders.'. Cottingham was caught in 1980 when a maid heard a woman's screams coming from his motel room. Inside they found the bodies of 22-year-old sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi[9] and an unidentified woman estimated between 16 and 22. Anzilotti and BCPO subsequently confirmed the "exceptional closures" of these three murders.[13][8]. Despite obvious similarities, 'no one in New Jersey connected them to the Times Square killer,' explained former NYPD detective Malcolm Reiman in the doc. Born in the Bronx on Nov. 25, 1946, Richard Cottingham lived an outwardly normal life. [4], The BCPO "exceptionally closed" the three cold case murders with agreement from the victims' families and evidence corroborating the confessions, but for several years kept this secret from the public to keep Cottingham talking about other cases. The daughter of one of serial killer Richard Cottingham's victims is helping to close other murder cases to which he is connected by using her relationship with him. He pleaded innocent and for decades insisted he was being "framed", until admitting in 2009 that he had actually perpetrated those five murders. Keep up to date with our latest articles, creepy news, info and products and receive promo material for great deals on all your wicked products. They increasingly became louder and louder as time went on. Who Were Richard Cottingham's Victims? To date, the Torso Killer himself claims that he could have as many as 100 victims. He also cut off her breasts and placed them on the headboard in the room. She had been beaten and strangled then stuffed under the bed of the room. A search of Cottinghams home turned up a bizarre trophy room, containing personal effects from several of the murdered prostitutes. In May 1981, Cottingham was convicted on fifteen felony counts related to the murder of Valerie Street, drawing a sentence of 173 to 197 years in prison. According to The Associated Press, Cottingham confessed to. Cottingham would confess to many murders after being put behind bars. He had three children, two boys and a girl, with his wife. When she was found, she'd suffered beatings to her head and body, but her ultimate cause of death was suffocation. 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