richard cottingham lodi, nj address

He began to speak about a particular case, he said. No one could find any clues in the girls backgrounds: no drugs, no trouble with the law. Richard Cottingham, New Jersey prison photo. Geberth noted that this was a time before the proliferation of surveillance cameras and the use of computer analysis to establish patterns and share information across jurisdictions. 0000003183 00000 n The police photograph on the left was taken in June of 1980. Ms. Falasca was a 15-year-old who left her familys house in July 1969 and never returned. 0000003707 00000 n Questioning Mr. Cottingham was complicated. [21] Cottingham was apparently "forensically aware" in the era before DNA analysis. 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. When Mr. Cottingham entered prison in 1981, Robert Anzilotti was not yet a teenager. 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. 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. And before I go, I want to close out the Kelly-Pryor case., Mr. Cottingham urged the chief to reconsider leaving the force. Their heads and hands had been cut off. He abducted Vogel and took her to a field in Montvale, where he strangled her. 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. Although Vogel was the earliest of Cottinghams murder victims, the killer has said she was not his first, according to Vronsky. 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. Over the course of 13 years, beginning in 1967, Cottingham killed six women in New Jersey and New York. But the killer was a clever bastard, too. Hackensack, Her breasts had been severed and torso had been set on fire, Vronsky said. His wife withdrew the petition upon his arrest in May 1980, then completed the divorce after his 1981 conviction. No leads were forthcoming. 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. Like two little dolls at Christmastime.. 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. 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. He needed a way to approach Mr. Cottingham and found an opening in 2003, when he got a tip: Mr. Cottingham was taking bets on sporting events from his cell. 0000007874 00000 n 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. In 2010, Bergen County authorities announced hed pleaded guilty to a sixth murder, a 1967 strangling in Bergen County. How it ended was me literally shaking his hand and saying, Thank you, Mr. Anzilotti said. [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". This guy was particularly ruthless. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and was raised mostly in New Jersey, according to the The New York Times. Getting to that point wasnt easy, Anzilotti said. On Dec. 2, 1979, the murders that earned Cottingham the nickname the "Torso Killer took place in New York City. 0000009992 00000 n Her youth and difference in appearance, with a boyish haircut, set her apart from the other victims. He would let his guard down, Mr. Anzilotti said. The picture in the top left corner shows Cottingham during one of his trials. The teenagers were last seen on Aug. 9, 1974, in North Bergen. On May 5, 1980, a motel housekeeper found the body of 19-year-old Valerie Ann Street in the Hasbrouck Heights Quality Inn. And thats what bothers me, because I probably didnt have to do anything to them., Mr. Anzilotti left the confession both exhausted and relieved. After their drink, Cottingham offered to bring Blase back to the bus station where they had taken the bus. Three days later, Mr. Anzilotti walked out of his office for good. startxref endstream endobj 34 0 obj<>stream You can change your choice at any time by using the Privacy Center link in our footer. Did the old man kill those girls? 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. 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. 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. You are in complete control of somebodys destiny, he told Fezzani in footage shown in the series. He married in 1970 and became a father of three. On one occasion, he dismembered two sex workers and set fire to their torsos at a hotel near Times Square. When a worker came to check on her, ODell cracked open the door and gave a hand signal asking for help. Authorities believed it to be, thus far, the oldest criminal case to be solved and prosecuted by direct DNA evidence. The murder remained unsolved until Cottingham confessed and entered a guilty plea in August 2010. Mr. Anzilotti had begun to believe, he said in a recent interview, that Mr. Cottingham, between his history and the suspicions of detectives that came before me, could be responsible for one or more of those deaths. Look her up, she looks like her. Others he remembered from a haircut.. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. When you have a series of crimes today, everything goes through the computers, andwe have computer analysis and a wayof moving these through jurisdictionalboundaries. 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. To this day, the other young female has never been identified. Therefore, you should be respectful and not step foot on the property without permission. 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. Hours later, her parents drove to the mall and found Dianes Plymouth Valiant in the parking lot, where her body was discovered in the backseat. He said, Youre welcome.. Then, with just days remaining before the chief retired, the inmate relented. I have done many shows about serial killers, and I have always marveled at the fact that [Ted] Bundy, [John Wayne] Gacy, [Jeffrey] Dahmer and Berkowitz were all household names, perversely, Berlinger told The Post. They have also lived in Manasquan, NJ and Ada, MI. She had been a teenager when her sister was killed. The series features interviews with former sex workers, including Barbara Amaya, who was raped and robbed at gunpoint by a man she believes was Cottingham, although she was inexplicably spared. 0000002831 00000 n Furthermore, one of the women that he murdered in 1979 is still unidentified. 0000000756 00000 n I think sometimes he grapples with his own gruesomeness back then., On March 12, a Friday, Mr. Anzilotti summoned the inmate. 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. The bridge where Mallory Beach died in a boating accident. They found an 18-year-old victim who'd been bitten and stabbed bound with handcuffs. 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. Before his arrest, he was a successful computer operator who worked at the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurance company in Midtown Manhattan. But then, four years ago, Mr. Cottingham stunned the chief. You're a whore and you have to be punished." (1981, June 16). 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. Everyone deserves justice under the law.. When arrested, he had handcuffs, a leather gag, two slave collars, a switchblade knife, replica pistols, and a stockpile of prescription pills. Author Peter Vronsky, who has a forthcoming book on Cottingham, and was first to publicly announce that the imprisoned Cottingham was responsible for the three 50-year-old crimes, says authorities want to add more to the list. She, like members of the other families, agreed to forgo a guilty plea in open court. Her glasses, a ring, a necklace, Ms. Mulder said. This case was always haunting me.. K3nVxb;X)oxeHME~> Location of first contact Maryann Carr = her apartment; Prostitutes = street or bar . The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. [13][14] Anzilotti had spent 15 years interviewing Cottingham, working toward the confession. 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. And I said, Hop in., He drove to the mall. The girls vanished Aug. 9, 1974, while hitchhiking to a mall in . What started in 1967 with the discovery of a Ridgefield Park woman dead, nude and bound in her own car continued until 1980, when the hulking Cottingham, then 33, was arrested after the screams of a would-be victim pierced the walls of a Hasbrouck Heights motel room. 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 described in detail how, instead, he took the girls to a motel, held them captive and eventually drowned them in the bathtub. 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. 43 0 obj <>stream Much of Cottinghams crimes were not murders, but other violent crimes like abductions and rapes. When reporters ran with the story, Mr. Anzilotti considered himself absolved from keeping his silence about the cases. On May 4, 1980, the body of Street, a sex worker, was found at the same Quality Inn where Cottingham had dumped Carrs body. A married father of three, he lived in the. [2] Four surviving abduction-rape victims testified against Cottingham; he was convicted in three of the cases and acquitted in one. Photos of the house and other related images. With Ms. Pryor and a judge watching on Zoom that day, Mr. Cottingham pleaded guilty to the two murders. Cottingham fled the scene with the victims heads and hands. We've received your submission. A horrible scene, the police commissioner said that day. When they arrived, one firefighter attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a woman they found on the bed. To this day, their remains have never been recovered. Again, he knew details from Ms. Falascas file. After his wife filed for divorce in April of 1979, it seems as though his killings became far more frequent. In October 1966, he became a computer operator for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, where he worked until his 1980 arrest. Cottingham is currently in state prison on a life sentence . [22][23] He pleaded guilty in a December court appearance, and also officially admitted killing four other women in Long Island: Mary Beth Heinz,[24] Laverne Moye,[16] Sheila Heiman,[25] and Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves.[26]. She later testified that he said, "You have to take it. The body of Laverne Moye, of St. Albans, Queens, was discovered in a Rockville Centre creek on July 20, 1972. They were facedown, side by side, as if placed there with care. The five victims addressed . 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. 0000002420 00000 n 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. The inmate made it clear that pressure would not work. According to one of his co-workers, he was smart, well-read, and up-to-date on current events. And at. The Google Street View image on the right was taken 38 years later, in June of 2018. Harp was found strangled to death the next day. trailer [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 will take her a while to forget the habit of calling the detectives for updates a lifetime constant, through the deaths of her parents, her marriage and divorce, her second marriage and widowhood. The murders committed by the Torso Killer bore little resemblance to the ones Mr. Anzilotti was investigating, but their timing matched up with Mr. Cottinghams settling in New Jersey. He then left the scene with their severed heads and hands. 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. After the hearing, the cameras off, Mr. Anzilotti approached Mr. Cottingham. His yearbook photo shows a cross-country runner with blond hair slicked back. What they want is an outright statement and a sign-off of Yes thats me,' Vronsky continued. There were at least five unsolved killings of girls, each an open wound for families seeking resolution. 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. On September 4, 1973, Cottingham was arrested in New York City for robbery, oral sodomy and sexual abuse on the complaint of a prostitute and her pimp. She knew that Mr. Anzilotti had solved Denises killing, too. Since his conviction, Cottingham has pleaded guilty to 12 murders. Her body was found the next morning by the side of a road next to a cemetery in Saddle Brook. [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). Hes embarrassed by this case, he said. Cottingham had kept these items as souvenirs so that he could remember his victims and relive his attacks. 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. 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. It was pure evil. Twenty years later, he was reinvestigating several cold cases involving girls and young women who had been abducted, sexually abused and killed. These objects, along with his fingerprint on the handcuffs, were presented as evidence by prosecutors at his trial. Six months later, Vronsky would learn that the man he encountered on the elevator was Cottingham as the killers face appeared in newspapers across the region. They'd left home for a trip 13 miles (21 kilometers) north to . Much like John Moye, Altman, who now lives in Ocala, Fla., said she struggled to process Cottinghams savagery. A third the killing of 13-year-old Jackie Harp seemed to be the work of another killer. Mr. Cottingham mentioned details of the killing that matched what Mr. Anzilotti knew from the case file. It doesnt bring my mother back, but at least I have answers now. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. 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. We use cookies to deliver personalized advertisements, improve your online experience, and to analyze our site's performance. 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.

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