He took the girls to a motel, where he tortured and sexually assaulted them for days before drowning them in a bathtub. [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. He would occasionally remove and dispose of his victims heads and hands, presumably to make identification more difficult. Despondent in custody, Cottingham smashed a lens of his spectacles and attempted suicide by slashing his wrists with the glass. He remained behind bars in a New Jersey prison during the hearing, where he received 25 years for Cusick's murder. Jean Reyner was raped, stabbed, mutilated and tortured. This case was soon linked to his previous murder victim, Helen Sikes, letting police know they were dealing with a serial killer. In 2010, Cottingham pleaded guilty tothe 1967 murder of Nancy Vogel. December of 1979, would be Richards most vicious attack to date. He returned back to the hotel to soak the crime scene in lighter fluid and set the room ablaze. Cottingham pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree murder in the case of Diane Cusick. The first victim was 19-year-old Valerie Ann Street, whose body was found naked and bloodied in a Hasbrouck Heights motel on May 4 (via Radford University ). Cottingham was caught in 1980 when a maid heard a woman's screams coming from his motel room. He brought them to a hotel room, tortured them, and dumped their nude bodies. Diane Cusick's daughter Darlene Altman is now 58 years old and was present in the courtroom as Cottingham admitted to killing her mother via video conference. NYPD realized they had a serial killer on their hands in December 1979, after they uncovered the charred, mutilated remains of two women at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel in Times Square. [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]. 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. Her throat had been cut so severely that he nearly severed her head. She then screamed, and the muffled noises were heard by a maid, leading to the police being called. She had been cut about the chest and legs, beaten with a blunt instrument, and covered in bites and bruises, A picture taken of the New Jersey Courts virtual hearing in April 2021, when Richard Cottingham pleaded guilty 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. Cottingham slipped the noose of law enforcement by deliberately preying on marginalized sex workers during a time when crime-ridden New York City descended into lawlessness. 'It was pretty much the hotel room from hell,' said detective Malcolm Reiman in the documentary. Richard Cottingham was born on November 25th, 1946 in the Bronx, New York. Today, Times Square is a glittering tourist attraction. 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. Emergency services. Inside they found the bodies of 22-year-old sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi[9] and an unidentified woman estimated between 16 and 22. The doc also spotlights a conversation with Jennifer Weiss, DeedahGoodarzi's biological daughter, who made headlines last year when she struck up an unlikely friendship with her mother's killer while he served his prison sentence. Deedeh Goodarzi and another unknown female had joined Richard in a hotel room near his stomping grounds of Times Square. Over the years, he confessed to killing several more women, with his earliest known murder in 1967. In addition to killing sex workers, Richard Cottingham had also killed a number of girls and women in New Jersey. Youre in complete control of somebodys destiny.. It contained many items that linked him to the murders. Jacalyn "Jackie" Harp, aged 13, was randomly ambushed as she walked home in the evening of July 17, 1968, from school band practice in Midland Park and strangled with the leather strap of her bag. [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). Once he had his fill, Richard decided to light the bodies on fire and flee the scene. Did he intend on killing this poor girl? Even before he confessed to additional killings after his conviction, Cottingham was given life in prison with a sentence of more than 300 years. Richard Francis Cottingham was linked with the brutal . [7] In a 2009 interview, Cottingham admitted to the murders and claimed that he severed the heads and hands of the victims to prevent their identification, as he was acquainted with Goodarzi and had been seen with her in a bar the night before.[2]. Though hes best known for killing sex workers, Richard Cottingham often killed whenever he had the opportunity. 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. Its God-like, almost. His fingerprint was found on the handcuffs on her arms when she was located in a motel. Within his home, detectives were able to find his trophy room which contained multiple personal items and keepsakes which belonged to his victims. 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. On May 5, 1980, police found another prostitute, Valerie Streets, dead in a motel room. Richard Cottingham wasconvicted 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 handcuffs used in the murder of Valerie Street. We dont know if hes the one who rented the room, Deputy Chief Richard Nicastro said at the time. 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. 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. Richard also had a self-described obsession with bondage and had had numerous extramarital affairs. Their skulls were never found. A married mother of 2, Nancy Vogel was found dumped in her car. [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. Former FBI agent and criminal profiler Candice DeLong delves into Richard Cottingham, Show Killer Psyche, Ep Richard Cottingham: The Torso Killer - Mar 7, 2023 union square hospitality group gift card; clubhouse baseball baseball; forest service lease cabin for sale utah. Once again, the victim did not appear in further proceedings and the case was dismissed.[6]. His name had floated around in the lore of Bergen County cold cases.. the Torso Killer pleaded guilty to the 1968 murder of Long Island mother Diane Cusick Monday in front of a Nassau County, New York judge, as . [6] The confession was extracted by Detective Anzilotti weeks before his retirement and was facilitated by historian Vronsky and by Jennifer Weiss, the daughter of Deedeh Goodarzi, one of Cottingham's later victims. Nobody at the time suspected that Cottingham's killing spree had began over a decade earlier with the murder ofNancy Vogel in 1967 and five New Jersey high school girls in 1968 and '69. On March 12, 1974, Cottingham was arrested in New York City for robbery and unlawful imprisonment on the complaint of another prostitute. After failing to return home from a trip to buy shoes at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York,[9] 23-year old Diane Cusick was found raped, beaten, and strangled to death in the back seat of her car, parked near the mall. Despite obvious similarities, 'no one in New Jersey connected them to the Times Square killer,' explained former NYPD detective Malcolm Reiman in the doc. Three of those murders Cottingham later confessed to included Jacalyn Harp. He was careful, and only one fingerprint was retrieved from a crime scene. I am proud of the growth and achievements of JRMA and the community of talented architects, engineers, and project . Richards wife filed for divorce in 1979, after years of affairs, but it was never finalized. But it soon came out that the Torso Killer had murdered many more than five victims. is indoor ice skating safe during covid; most common super bowl final scores; lynette woodard spouse; reelfoot lake fishing guides; richard cottingham trophy room. Confounded, investigators used mannequins from nearby department stores and dressed them in the victims' clothing, hoping someone might come forward with information. They had been doused with lighter fluid and set alight. The killer had registered at the hotel under a fake name with a fake address Carl Wilson of Merlin, N.J. and hotel employees had hardly interacted with him. Richard Francis Cottingham (born November 25, 1946) is an American serial killer and rapist who murdered at least seventeen young women and girls in New York and New Jersey between 1967 and 1980. Richard would become increasingly more deranged as time went on. Richards lust seemed to never fully be satisfied and in December of 1977, Maryann Carr would be claimed as his next victim. Most recently, in April 2021, Cottingham confessed and pleaded guilty to the double kidnapping and murdersof Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16 and Mary Ann Pryor, 17 in 1974. There easily could have been more crimes but its unknown. 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Homicide detectives linked the murder with that of the murder of teenage hooker Helen Sikes. 595 Words3 Pages. One slain woman was positively identified througha cesarean-section scar as 22-year-old, Iranian prostitute, Deedeh Goodarzi. One detective said it was 'the cleanest crime scene he's ever seen.' 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 pleaded innocent and for decades insisted he was being "framed", until admitting in 2009 that he had actually perpetrated those five murders. For about six months between 1979 and 1980, Cottingham murdered sex workers in brutal fashion. Richard Cottingham, 74, is currently in state prison on a life sentence for other murders. Its unclear what he was stealing, if he was short on money or so there was no trail of him purchasing a specific item. I founded J.R. Miller Associates over four decades ago. Over the years, he confessed to killing several more women, with his earliest known murder in 1967. So, if youre curious to know what happened to Richard, weve got you covered. Later on, the police also found a room in the basement of Richards home that served as his trophy room. Richard Cottingham . The divorce affidavits further alleged that Cottingham was an habitual, patron of gay bars and homosexual spas in Manhattan. 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. 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. 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. Police would eventually link Richard to the case because of a fingerprint found on the set of handcuffs. Haunted by a handful of unsolved New Jersey homicides, Detective Robert Anzilotti began to wonder if Cottingham had killed more people than police knew. A year later, conviction on second-degree murder charges in the death of Maryann Carr added another sentence of 20 years to life. 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 these cases was of Diane Cusick, a 23-year-old dance teacher. Her killer had cut her throat, left bite marks on her body, and severed her breasts. On Monday, July 13, 1969, at approximately 8:00 p.m., On March 1, 1970, a group of hikers came across a young woman's naked body in the woods to the west of Tweed Boulevard in, At approximately 7:00 a.m. on the morning of December 16, 1977, the body of X-ray technician, At 9:30 a.m. on May 22, 1980, police entered Room 117 at the same Quality Inn where Carr and Street were murdered and found 18-year-old, This page was last edited on 16 February 2023, at 09:15. Now she's accused of killing 5 in horrific Windsor Hills crash. Richard was arrested at a motel in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, in May 1980. Then in exchange for immunity from prosecution, he confessed to murdering three New Jersey schoolgirls. Richard Cottingham (1977-1980) was a 31-year old computer operator and valued employee of Blue Cross-Blue Shield in downtown New York City. FROM THE FOUNDER. Cottingham was convicted of five murders in a series of three trials between 1981 and 1984 (two in New Jersey and one in New York). At the time of his arrest, he was living in New Jersey with his family and spending his days working in New York as a computer operator at Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. It is believed that she was his first victim, In 2021Cottingham confessed and pleaded guilty to the double kidnapping and murders of Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16 and Mary Ann Pryor, 17 in 1974. [5] On May 15, 1980, Jean Reyner was strangled and her throat cut in New York's historic Seville Hotel. On December 2, 1979, firemen in New York responded to an alarm at the Travel Inn motel[11] near Times Square. We Know What Kind of Creeps Are Out There ! He had an apartment in New York City that he told Janet he needed for late nights at work. Richard Cottingham by his own admission claims to have killed upwards of 100 women and remains a suspect in dozens of unsolved cases. Among S&M books and pornographic artwork wereMaryann Carr's apartment key and jewelry that belonged to his other victims. According to The Associated Press, Cottingham confessed to. That included the 1977 slaying of a married 27-year-old nurse whose body was found dumped by a chain-link fence in the parking lot of the same Quality Inn where hed committed other atrocities three years later. Soon after checking in, the 18-year-old girls screams began to echo throughout the halls of the hotel. we respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously, Richard Francis Cottingham | Serial Killer, Incarcerated at the New Jersey State Prison. Leslie Ann ODell recalled what had happened and how things escalated so quickly. One was identified as 22-year-old Deedeh Goodarzi, a sex worker. An animal who lacked empathy for all and cared only for satisfying his sexual desires at any cost. She was positively identified through a cesarean-section scar after a friend recognized her clothing. Cottingham was not charged with this murder until June 2022, when he was implicated by DNA.[10]. The 22-year-old's death appeared brutal: she had been beheaded and set on fire and her skull has yet to be found. Richard had also kidnapped 17-year-old Mary Ann Pryor and 16-year-old Lorraine Marie Kelly in August 1974 Manhattan, New York. He subdued the helpless girl with handcuffs and began the torture session. Cottingham was eventually arrested in May 1980 after committing a string of grisly murders across Manhattan and New Jersey, with the same hallmark traits, Cottingham evaded law enforcement by deliberately preying on marginalized sex workers during a time when crime-ridden New York City was dubbed 'Fear City.' Cottingham committed his first known murder when he was 20-years-old, although he claims to have started as an adolescent. New Jersey Department of CorrectionsRichard Cottingham has confessed to a number of other murders in recent years. 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. 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. He would continue this line of work until his arrest. The Torso Killer seemed to be escalating fast. The women left in the room had been strangled, their heads and hands cut off, before the killer doused them both with lighter fluid and fled. Authorities believed it to be, thus far, the oldest criminal case to be solved and prosecuted by direct DNA evidence. Who is Richard Cottingham? Her throat was slashed and she was then set on fire. When they forced their way inside and put the fire out they found something more than burnt furniture. 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. When they entered the room they found a young girl handcuffed to the bed. He would stalk the various bars in Manhattan preying on unsuspecting women, trying to unwind from a busy day. [21] Cottingham was apparently "forensically aware" in the era before DNA analysis. Cottingham primarily sought prostitutes who were petite blondes in their late teens to mid-twenties. [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". They were raped and drowned in the bathtub of a New Jersey motel, In 2020, Cottingham admitted to murdering 13-year-old Jackie Harp (left) in 1968, and 15-year-old Denise Falasca (right) in 1969. Firefighters responded quickly to the room and put out the fire, and were stunned at the horrific site of these mutilated corpses. 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. He was also a married, respectable man with three children. For the murders of Mary and Lorraine, Richard was to. I was preparing to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, the firefighter said, when I suddenly noticed there was no head.. Soon, he was connected to a series of murders in New Jersey and New York that had occurred over the previous few months. In December 1979, Richard had tortured, raped, and killed Deedeh Goodarzi and an unidentified teenager (Jane Doe) in a hotel in New York. Police responded to a fire in Room 417, where two women had been discovered on a pair of twin beds. 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. richard cottingham trophy room. Were not ruling out the possibility that two men could have been involved.. 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 had also stabbed her and bit almost right through her nipples. He brought Cottingham to his office and offered him pizza and card games. Weiss was given up for adoption when she was less than two weeks old. He was also found guilty of kidnapping and assault, with his sentence going up to more than 200 years. Criminally Intrigued is a Podcast and Blog covering all aspects of True Crime. With only torsos, police were unable to identify the victims. [16], In the early hours of May 22, 1980, Cottingham picked up 18-year-old Leslie Ann O'Dell, who was soliciting on the corner of Manhattan's Lexington Avenue and 25th Street. In the early morning hours, a couple decided to check in to a Quality Inn Hotel. When she was found, she'd suffered beatings to her head and body, but her ultimate cause of death was suffocation. He was with Leslie ODell, a teenage sex worker. Adorable Skeleton Air Freshener Vent Clips for Car Interior, Novelty Hoodie Blood Splatter / Hooded Sweatshirt with Drawstrings, Novelty Hoodie Floral Skulls / Hooded Sweatshirt with Drawstrings 3D Drawing Unisex. Richards criminal activity continued in 1969 when he was convicted of driving while intoxicated in New York. A year after the previous charges he would then be charged with unlawful imprisonment and robbery. 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). Walter Leporati/Getty ImagesPornographic films are advertised in Manhattans Times Square in January 1971. The sexual predator prowled Times Square for his victims which was considered a deviant playground for pornography, prostitution and crooks, The documentary paints a terrifying portrait of a city overrun with crime, which allowed Cottingham to flourish and evade law enforcement. When found her head was hanging by a thread. By all accounts, he seemed to be leading an everyday life in Lodi, New Jersey, with his wife and three kids. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. She was a respected nurse. Her body, and dumped their nude bodies Jersey schoolgirls and hands, presumably to make identification more difficult beatings. Twin beds oldest criminal case to be, thus far, the firefighter,... 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