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. 21 23 When a worker came to check on her, ODell cracked open the door and gave a hand signal asking for help. The Zestimate for this house is $598,600, which has decreased by $7,680 in the last 30 days. (1981, June 25). But on May 22, 1980 Cottingham's life as a predator came to light. Authorities tied him to the killings after police were called to a Hasbrouck Heights motel, where a maid had heard a woman screaming. 0000001001 00000 n Despite the gruesome nature of his murders, the butcher, named Richard Cottingham, never warranted the breathless news coverage of David Son of Sam Berkowitz, who only three years prior paralyzed the Big Apple with fear. 0000006081 00000 n When you have a series of crimes today, everything goes through the computers, andwe have computer analysis and a wayof moving these through jurisdictionalboundaries. The public in Bergen County deserved to know the outcome of those girls, he said. A number of killings of young women and girls in New Jersey and New York had gone unsolved for years before a night in May 1980 when a maid at a Hasbrouck Heights hotel called police saying shed heard a woman screaming. But it was a way to get him comfortable to talk to me about murders.. 0000001082 00000 n Other locations that are relatively close to this place. I believe hes killed between 85 and 100, as he claims, Vronsky told The Post. It represented closure, Moye said of this weeks hearing. The picture in the top left corner shows Cottingham during one of his trials. [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. I thought he could be responsible for some, Mr. Anzilotti said. He kept his glasses case tucked in a vest pocket of his prison scrubs, beneath his white beard, and folded his hands over his broad belly. The clever killer slipped up, leaving a fingerprint on the cuffs. Those old enough to remember can recall the fear that many felt after the bodies of two girls from North Bergen whod gone missing after a shopping trip to Paramus were found raped, beaten and drowned in Bergen County. xb```"VV~g`0pt 9mzQ[2fXar9XcK',6=3Yb%^)= RZlr$:kX;e =_i& ` ?# On Thursday, authorities told NJ Advance Media that Cottingham confessed to the murders of three Bergen County teenagers in the late 1960s - each a cold case for over 50 years. On March 12, 1974, Cottingham was arrested in New York City for robbery and unlawful imprisonment on the complaint of another prostitute. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. At the time, Cottingham, who had not been arrested or identified, was dubbed the "Times Square Ripper.. You can change your choice at any time by using the Privacy Center link in our footer. I could feel it.. We use cookies to deliver personalized advertisements, improve your online experience, and to analyze our site's performance. On more than one occasion, he would openly talk about his experiences with sex workers. In his possession, the 33-year-old had a stash of handcuffs, tape and sedatives. endstream endobj 34 0 obj<>stream Cottingham, a former computer programmer whose wrath of terror spanned from 1967 to 1980, also copped on Monday to strangling Mary Beth Heinz, 21, in May 1972, three months before he killed Moye and dumped her body in the same creek. I couldnt even imagine losing a child. Goodarzi was later identified as the woman who had been tortured, killed, beheaded and had her hands cut off by Cottingham. And before I go, I want to close out the Kelly-Pryor case., Mr. Cottingham urged the chief to reconsider leaving the force. Hes been chief of detectives nearly five years. 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. Anzilotti and BCPO subsequently confirmed the "exceptional closures" of these three murders.[13][8]. Her breasts had been severed and torso had been set on fire, Vronsky said. 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.. She was found strangled to death the next day in Saddle Brook. HKo0l06CYf,Y(v (I?0c9 %%EOF I was shocked that one human being was capable of all this carnage, Moye said of Cottingham. In 2000, as a young detective in the Bergen County prosecutors office, Robert Anzilotti was tasked with looking into the murders, along with a few other similar cold cases from the 1960s and 1970s. On April 7, 1969, Cottingham saw Blase, 18, shopping in Hackensack, Vronsky said. He said he would talk about other murders only on the condition that the revelations would be kept out of the papers. Correctional officers found contraband and evidence of bookmaking and transferred Mr. Cottingham to solitary confinement. 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. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). Richard Cottingham, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. As the New Jersey press reported on Cottinghams arrest, the NYPD started to take notice. It took some effort to convince him to go to court and let me make it public, Anzilotti said Tuesday. 0000001262 00000 n 0000005253 00000 n Richard Cottingham seemed like a character from a pulp novel: the crazed killer and the family man. Through the years, other people were assigned. Right up to Mr. Anzilotti. After dismembering Goodarzi, Cottingham lit her torso on fire, along with a second unidentified woman, who was found next to Goodarzi on the same bed. When Mr. Cottingham entered prison in 1981, Robert Anzilotti was not yet a teenager. Years after her sisters death, she had found some comfort speaking to another from her tribe, Karen Miller, a sister of Denise Falasca. Mr. Anzilotti would arrange to have the inmate transported to his office more than hours drive from the prison. The sergeant was undeterred. 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. Thats not the natural order its supposed to go in.. By all accounts, he seemed to be leading an everyday life in Lodi, New Jersey, with his wife and three kids. On Dec. 2, 1979, fire alarms rang out at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on West 42nd Street. Richard Cottingham was convicted of five murders and numerous counts of kidnapping and sexual assault using evidence found in his 'trophy room' combined with a matching fingerprint left on. 0 Justice was served and thats the end of it case closed. 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. 43 0 obj<>stream In early December 1979, firefighters were called to the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on 42nd Street as a fire burned in room 417. 0000001968 00000 n In 1964, Cottingham graduated from Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, New Jersey. You're a whore and you have to be punished." 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. [2] Four surviving abduction-rape victims testified against Cottingham; he was convicted in three of the cases and acquitted in one. Her name was Nancy Schiava Vogel. 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. Its taken more than 46 years, but a Bergen County police veteran who is only days from retirement got one of the countrys most notorious serial killers to confess. The police were called and Cottingham was apprehended while trying to flee. For over 40 years, its been folklore in this county.. xb```"WVf~g`0pt 9"~S?``Z V|bG!+N}TzYl@2 `QD2 @DACEDJaOs6x?+[Ihlrt ? Vogel was found dead in her own car in Ridgefield Park, nude and bound. Trophies like jewellery and other personal items belonging to his victims were taken by him. <<8BD7E4F5B15F3F4A8993EB3A0150F7AC>]>> How it ended was me literally shaking his hand and saying, Thank you, Mr. Anzilotti said. I knew, he recalled, that was Irene Blase.. 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. Months later, in May 1980, another prostitute from Times Square was found dead, this time in a New Jersey motel; that murder was linked to yet another at the same location. 0000006846 00000 n 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. After nearly 15 years of interviews by Anzilotti and Detective Capt. He later detailed his brief 1979 encounter with Cottingham in Times Square Torso Ripper: Sex and Murder on The Deuce. His upcoming book on the vicious predator will be released next fall. 0000002831 00000 n %%EOF The Google Street View image above was taken in May of 2022. But Cottingham had other victims, and he would later boast of killing 85 to 100 people. It was pure evil. He worked hard on this., There were never any meaningful updates, until a Monday this April, when detectives knocked on her door in Ocean County, N.J., and said they had obtained a confession. He didnt have the decency or the dignity to ask for forgiveness or to even address the victims families. The investigators handed Ms. Mulder possessions of Jackies from half a century past. He began torturing her, nearly biting off one of her nipples. He soon realized the woman had no head, the Daily News reported. During a search of the house, investigators discovered personal items belonging to some of his victims. 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. Photos of the house and other related images. 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 can go all the way back to the first detective on the case. To Mr. Anzilotti, what had once seemed like a great disparity between the two series of murders one a group of suburban teenagers and the other mostly sex workers in the city now made sense. 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. 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. Im leaving, he said. Pages in category "People from Lodi, New Jersey" The following 21 pages are in this category, out of 21 total. But eventually, their old give-and-take resumed. He has been charged with 11 murders in all. Cottingham had kept these items as souvenirs so that he could remember his victims and relive his attacks. 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. Richard Cottingham, the notorious North Jersey serial killer known for dismembering the young women who were so often his victims, publicly confessed Tuesday to drowning two North Bergen girls. My parents couldnt handle it., She had called Bergen County every few months to ask about the case for 47 years, she said. He continued to live here until the police eventually arrested him on May 22nd, 1980. She had been abducted while walking home from practice with her schools fife-and-drum team in 1968. 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. The highly-respected law enforcement veteran knew the notorious killer was responsible for the deaths of the North Bergen teens, but Cottingham made him work for it. 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. Since his incarceration, he has attempted suicide on two occasions. Everyone deserves justice under the law.. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. His crimes were discovered in May 1980, when a maid at a Hasbrouck Heights motel heard. Which, of course, I wasnt overly interested in, the former chief said. Vronsky, who aided investigators in obtaining Junes indictment, is trying to coax as many confessions out of the aging, 300-pound serial killer as possible, but the clock is ticking since he suffers from diabetes and kidney disease, he said. 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. A killing in Somerset County a week after Cottingham got his drivers license may have been one of his first victims, Vronsky said. What they want is an outright statement and a sign-off of Yes thats me,' Vronsky continued. A few days later, Mr. Anzilotti visited Mr. Cottingham in his new surroundings and told him, I put you here.. But something a hunch, past investigative speculation, the proximity of the crimes drew Mr. Anzilotti to the prisoner. Goodarzi, of Trenton, was a sex worker who had been traveling to the then-seedy streets of midtown Manhattan, Vronsky said. 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. 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. 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. Cottingham was not charged with this murder until June 2022, when he was implicated by DNA.[10]. Inside they found the bodies of 22-year-old sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi[9] and an unidentified woman estimated between 16 and 22. FPh_3Gj Nt%Q[r L`%/9QTh/| Q4_g8KI}u'?xbif`H>;wNQ|sd2(? He had not yet put in for retirement, or even told his boss he planned to do that the following week. 29 Vreeland St, Lodi, NJ is a single family home that contains 2,716 sq ft and was built in 1974. 0000009543 00000 n [6] In 2022, Cottingham officially confessed to the 1970 murder of Lorraine McGraw, under a non-prosecution agreement. He drove his car ahead of Harp, pulled over and walked back toward her, Vronsky said. Questioning Mr. Cottingham was complicated. %PDF-1.4 % All rights reserved (About Us). Inmates were wagering everything from cash to cigarettes. He rented an apartment in Midtown and told his wife he worked nights. His wife withdrew the petition upon his arrest in May 1980, then completed the divorce after his 1981 conviction. I lost so much more than just my mother that day, Altman said. Absolutely, its completely plausible. 43 0 obj <>stream These objects, along with his fingerprint on the handcuffs, were presented as evidence by prosecutors at his trial. Its an ongoing process, Vronsky said. Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. 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. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. Investigators noted the crime scene was devoid of evidence and they were unable to identify the victims. He remembers certain aspects of a person, Mr. Anzilotti said. During his trial, he testified that he had been fascinated by bondage since he was a young child. 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. And later that same month, a fifth woman was found mutilated in the former Hotel Seville near Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. More Local News to Love Start today for 50% off Expires 3/6/23, Rodrigo Torrejon | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, discovery of a Ridgefield Park woman dead, nude and bound. [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). Cottinghams luck began to unravel in early May 1980 when the maid at the Quality Inn found the naked corpse of a handcuffed woman under the bed. It was a game to me. Following his 1980 arrest, police found, in the locked room and in the trunk of his car, personal effects which they traced to several of his victims. Cottingham didnt like the idea, apparently wanting to continue their dialogue.
Endobutton Acl Mri Safety, Disadvantages Of Government Reports, Sam Rapoport Related To Ian Rapoport, Articles R