[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. It doesnt bring my mother back, but at least I have answers now. F! Hed order pizza and play cards with the older man and other detectives. Select this result to view Richard P Cunningham's phone number, address, and more. Consequently, he was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping. Zestimate Home Value: $598,600. Her youth and difference in appearance, with a boyish haircut, set her apart from the other victims. Although Vogel was the earliest of Cottinghams murder victims, the killer has said she was not his first, according to Vronsky. 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. 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. Over the months that followed, Mr. Anzilotti cultivated an unusual relationship with Mr. Cottingham, sometimes testy, sometimes closer to a sort of warmth. 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 not something you can ever get over, Altman, 58, told The Post. He had not yet put in for retirement, or even told his boss he planned to do that the following week. With an uncomplicated enthusiasm for his work, Detective Anzilotti rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the chief of detectives with a busy office to lead. 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. 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. The chief agreed. Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. Richard Cottingham, a family man who denied everything in court, was convicted of killing five women in the early 1980s. Like a werewolf, Vronsky told The Post. Dont think youre going to mess with me and Im going to help you, Mr. Anzilotti recalled Mr. Cottingham saying. On more than one occasion, he would openly talk about his experiences with sex workers. 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 22-year-old's death appeared brutal: she had been beheaded and set on fire and her skull has yet to be found. [12] Both bodies had their hands and heads removed, and had been doused with lighter fluid and set on fire. 0000003431 00000 n 0000006081 00000 n 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. She then grew up without a father because her grandparents did not like him, she said. They have also lived in Whiting, IN. According to his neighbors, he seemed like a regular family man. Look her up, she looks like her. Others he remembered from a haircut.. In August 2022, with a non-prosecution agreement, officials in Rockland County, New York, corroborated and accepted Cottingham's confession to the murder of 26-year-old Lorraine McGraw, who was beaten and killed March 1, 1970. And thats what bothers me, because I probably didnt have to do anything to them., Mr. Anzilotti left the confession both exhausted and relieved. 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. The chief questioned Mr. Cottingham. 0000001262 00000 n In his possession, the 33-year-old had a stash of handcuffs, tape and sedatives. Her body was found the next morning by the side of a road next to a cemetery in Saddle Brook. In 2004, Vronsky published his first book on homicidal maniacs, Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, an exhaustive look at executioners slayings dating back to ancient Rome. 0000003202 00000 n 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. Cottingham is currently in state prison on a life sentence . 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.. He continued to live here until the police eventually arrested him on May 22nd, 1980. The New York Times, p. 2. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. Since his conviction, Cottingham has pleaded guilty to 12 murders. He kept these "trophies" in a locked room in the basement. They were never able to fully recover from the monumental loss, she said. But first, he wanted to return to those two murders from 47 years ago. The house was built in 1974one year before Cottingham and his wife, Janet, moved in. Maintenance workers found her body covered in plastic bags and wrapped in a gray blanket near a Jones Beach bus stop. After nearly 15 years of interviews by Anzilotti and Detective Capt. As the New Jersey press reported on Cottinghams arrest, the NYPD started to take notice. 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 0000002865 00000 n Its been half my career, he said. Mr. Anzilotti insisted that this case be resolved in open court. Justice was served and thats the end of it case closed. It is not a public place. [8] Vogel's nude and bound body was found on October 31, under a blanket behind the passenger seat of her car parked in nearby Ridgefield Park. FPh_3Gj Nt%Q[r L`%/9QTh/| Q4_g8KI}u'?xbif`H>;wNQ|sd2(? 7{(~tm LB IBJ*ZB`0 Which, of course, I wasnt overly interested in, the former chief said. ADVERTISEMENT. Then hed clear the room until only he and Mr. Cottingham faced each another, and begin with his questions. 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. 0000006846 00000 n 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.. She agreed to have sex with him for money. The body of Laverne Moye, of St. Albans, Queens, was discovered in a Rockville Centre creek on July 20, 1972. 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. Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/nyregion/new-jersey-serial-killer-cottingham-anzilotti.html. The inmate, with no real incentive to say anything about that crime, had given the chief what amounted to a parting gift. For over 40 years, its been folklore in this county.. They'd left home for a trip 13 miles (21 kilometers) north to . 0 It was Aug. 14, 1974, in Montvale, N.J., a suburb just over the New York state line. Richard Cottingham of Lodi (NJ) is sentenced to 173-179 years in prison. And even worse, the rape laws were particularly onerous, and you had to provide a witness to bring an allegation of rape. And later that same month, a fifth woman was found mutilated in the former Hotel Seville near Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Note that there seems to have been a "lull" between 1970 and 1973. After six years of visits, there was a break. The police photograph on the left was taken in June of 1980. 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. I asked them where they were going. The mall, they replied. But beneath the veneer of normalcy was a heinous double-existence as a serial killer. 21 23 It was quite a shock to learn it was him.. When arrested, he had handcuffs, a leather gag, two slave collars, a switchblade knife, replica pistols, and a stockpile of prescription pills. But he told Mr. Cottingham. He stood trial in New York and New Jersey in a coat and tie and denied everything, but he was convicted in all five killings. He abducted Vogel and took her to a field in Montvale, where he strangled her. This is a private property. On the way out, he bumped the author on the shins with a bag that felt like it contained bowling balls, Vronsky said. The sergeant was undeterred. The man has no heart, no soul, no emotion whatsoever, she said. Just shy of his 21st birthday, Richard Cottingham began a vicious killing spree that tore through north New Jersey and New York City. Blase was found strangled to death in 4 feet of water in Saddle River the next day. He said, Youre welcome.. The other girls did, you have to take it, too. 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. xb```"VV~g`0pt 9mzQ[2fXar9XcK',6=3Yb%^)= RZlr$:kX;e =_i& ` ?# Mr. Anzilotti and another investigator drove to the town of Reading, Vt., to deliver the news to Jackies older sister, Suzan Mulder, then 69. 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. On February 15, 1968, Cottingham killed his second known victim. Richard Cottingham of Lodi (NJ) is sentenced to 173-179 years in prison. Cottingham murdered at least twelve women between 1967 and 1980. Cottingham, who is already serving a lifetime state prison sentence for killing several other women and girls, was brought to the office of Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella in Paramus to enter his pleas before Superior Court Judge Keith Bachmann in Hackensack. [13][14] Anzilotti had spent 15 years interviewing Cottingham, working toward the confession. 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. Harp was found strangled to death the next day. Filming Location in Lodi, New Jersey, United States, Filming Location in Paterson, New Jersey, United States, Filming Location in Clifton, New Jersey, United States, Filming Location in Bloomfield, New Jersey, United States, Crime Location Wylie, Texas, United States, Crime Location Memphis, Tennessee, United States, Place of Interest Brooklyn, New York, United States, Crash Site Location Beaufort, South Carolina, United States. 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. She was stunned. Anzilotti and BCPO subsequently confirmed the "exceptional closures" of these three murders.[13][8]. Both men were keenly aware that it was their years-old relationship that had brought about this moment. But the killer was a clever bastard, too. Ive never seen rain like that, he said. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at [email protected]. She had been abducted while walking home from practice with her schools fife-and-drum team in 1968. They sat at the kitchen table, very professional, very polite, very considerate, Ms. Mulder recalled. She had been a teenager when her sister was killed. 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. My parents couldnt handle it., She had called Bergen County every few months to ask about the case for 47 years, she said. He lived with his wife and kids in. Richard Cottingham seemed like a character from a pulp novel: the crazed killer and the family man. Richard Cottingham, 74, appeared virtually in court Tuesday to admit to the slayings of 17-year-old Mary Ann Pryor and 16-year-old Lorraine Marie Kelly. The chief contacted the Blase family and told them what they had ached to know for decades: He knew who had killed Irene. 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. 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. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Fifty years after his mother was strangled and thrown from a Long Island bridge, John Moye finally got a glimpse of the wickedness that altered his life forever. Inmates were wagering everything from cash to cigarettes. K3nVxb;X)oxeHME~> 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. Richard Cottingham, New Jersey prison photo. So we just stayed in the car and we kept talking to each other, getting to know each other and so forth., If the rain wasnt there, they would have just went to the mall and that would have been it, he said, And I would have went to work.. 0000003686 00000 n I thought he could be responsible for some, Mr. Anzilotti said. 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. Altman, who was just 3 years old at the time, said her parents had separated prior to Cusicks killing. 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. Years after her sisters death, she had found some comfort speaking to another from her tribe, Karen Miller, a sister of Denise Falasca. 29 Vreeland St, Lodi, NJ is a single family home that contains 2,716 sq ft and was built in 1974. Accused serial killer nurse allegedly tried to murder premature infant twice. He was originally from the Bronx in New York City. 0000013001 00000 n I was able to get almostany woman to do whatever I wanted them to do . When Mr. Cottingham entered prison in 1981, Robert Anzilotti was not yet a teenager. In May of 1980, police arrested Cottingham while he was torturing a sex worker at a motel room in New Jersey. 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. The police were called and Cottingham was apprehended while trying to flee. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. 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. He had come further in closing cases than his younger self could have imagined. His wife withdrew the petition upon his arrest in May 1980, then completed the divorce after his 1981 conviction. He said, Im going to give you one, Mr. Anzilotti recalled. The family lived in Lodi, and Mr. Cottingham commuted to a job as a computer operator at Blue Cross Blue Shield in Manhattan. But Cottingham flew under the radar precisely because of how he chose his victims and who his victims were. I couldnt even imagine losing a child. They captured Cottingham soon after. Rochelle Park & [2], In 2010, he pleaded guilty to the 1967 murder of Nancy Vogel. The victim, Valerie Street, had just been busted in Miami for prostitution, and was last seen getting picked up by a man in New York City. %PDF-1.4 % Morgan Wallen has best-selling album of 2021 despite his N Canadian teacher with size-Z prosthetic breasts placed on paid leave, Buster Murdaugh got 'very drunk' with dad 2 months after mom, brother murdered: source, What's next for Buster Murdaugh after dad's murder conviction, life sentence, I'm a professional cleaner ditch these 4 household products immediately, Prince Harry was scared to lose Meghan Markle after fight that led to therapy, Prince Harry says psychedelics are fundamental part of his life, Inside Scheana Shay, Raquel Leviss heated confrontation about Tom Sandoval affair, Kellyanne Conway and George Conway to divorce. He said he would talk about other murders only on the condition that the revelations would be kept out of the papers. 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. The weather worsened. Cottingham, whose attorney did not return messages seeking comment, has claimed to have killed as many as 100 women. The little perks for the older man the pizza, the poker, the distraction from prison life were always in the service of the younger mans long game. It contains 0 bedroom and 0 bathroom. To this day, the other young female has never been identified. Cottingham severed the victim's breasts and posed them on the headboard of the bed, and set fire to the mattress under her body before fleeing, similar to the Travel Inn torso killings. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. 0000000016 00000 n For decades, a string of killings of teenage girls haunted suburban New Jersey. Later on, Richard took a job with Blue Cross Blue Shield in New York as a computer operator. He would occasionally remove and dispose of his victims heads and hands, presumably to make identification more difficult. Mr. Anzilotti would arrange to have the inmate transported to his office more than hours drive from the prison. Denise Falasca, aged 15, was abducted on July 14, 1969, in Emerson, while walking to a friend's home and found the next morning in Saddle Brook, by the side of a road next to a cemetery, strangled with the cord or the chain of her crucifix. I believe hes killed between 85 and 100, as he claims, Vronsky told The Post. We use cookies to deliver personalized advertisements, improve your online experience, and to analyze our site's performance. 0 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. To this day, I dont even think they would have ever said anything. Straddling her back, he drew a knife and put it to her throat as he snapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists. In a candid interview, the Bergen County chief who spent 20 years trying to wrangle new confessions out of serial killer Richard Cottingham revealed the 74-year-old prisoner has "regrets".
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