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In April of 1979, he started living in the basement of the property after his wife initiated divorce proceedings against him for "abandonment" and "mental cruelty.". 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. 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. And even though Harp ran, Cottingham soon overtook her and dragged her into a grouping of bushes where teens would often go to smoke and make out, he said. The motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. Justice was served and thats the end of it case closed. As you can see, he didn't always look like Santa Claus. And I said, Hop in., He drove to the mall. ,X3ieG(>]/TUW#gI" p&gGgy`Un(aE6e#./"e3 And last week, three more were added to his grisly toll. New Jersey 'Torso Killer' admits he tied up, raped, drowned - PIX11 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. %PDF-1.4 % [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. Hes been chief of detectives nearly five years. Hes younger when all this is going on in Bergen County, he said. Cusick, an instructor at a dance school in the Oceanside community of Long Island, went to Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream to buy a pair of shoes. 0000009992 00000 n But first, he wanted to return to those two murders from 47 years ago. Soon, Cottingham persuaded Blase to go for a drink with him. She had been a teenager when her sister was killed. On July 17, 1968, Harp, of Midland Park, was walking home from band practice when a strange man, Cottingham, tried to coax her into his car, Vronsky said. By all accounts, he seemed to be leading an everyday life in Lodi, New Jersey, with his wife and three kids. 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. She then grew up without a father because her grandparents did not like him, she said. But then, four years ago, Mr. Cottingham stunned the chief. A friend of one victim came forward and the slain woman was later positively identified through a cesarean-section scar and chest X-ray as 22-year-old prostitute Deedeh Goodarzi. Mr. Anzilotti, by then a sergeant, arranged a surprise search of the inmates cell the day after the Super Bowl. HKo0l06CYf,Y(v (I?0c9 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. This case was always haunting me.. That night, city firefighters responded to a blaze at a motel in Times Square, the New York Daily News reported. 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. This is a "Then and Now" photograph of Cottingham's former house at 29 Vreeland Street. Bergen County investigators realized there were numerous open sexual assault cases with similar hallmarks: Cottingham kidnapped them from Times Square, drugged and assaulted them. Following his arrest, police linked him to the murder of Valerie Streets. 21 23 Vronsky, who frequently visits Cottingham in prison, said he had a freak, random elevator encounter with the serial killer on the early morning of Dec. 2, 1979, as he tried to check into the Travel Inn Motel near a seedy and sex-crazed Times Square. On April 7, 1969, Cottingham saw Blase, 18, shopping in Hackensack, Vronsky said. Jennifer Weiss Befriends Richard Cottingham, "The Torso Killer" | Crime After those confessions, the two men barely spoke. Cottinghamss name came up several times, but it didnt fit for me, she said. For more details, please read our Privacy & Cookie Policy. Irene Blase, aged 18, vanished on April 7, 1969, in Hackensack and was found face down in four feet of water in the Saddle River, strangled with a wire, a cord, or perhaps the chain of a crucifix she was wearing. His search for a killer led him to a man already locked away, in New Jersey State Prison, 75 miles from his office. The 'Torso Killer' dismembered her mother. So why did this - nj Anything that might close more cases, bring answers to more families. 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. Among the other faces in separate windows on the Zoom screen was a 66-year-old woman, identified simply as Nancy. Cottingham, a depraved killer already serving more than 200 years in prison, confessed to tossing the 22-year-old mother of two from a bridge ending her familys half-century quest for answers. Goodarzi had come to the United States years prior from Iran. Cottingham, 75, admitted before state Superior Court Judge Keith Bachmann in April 2021 that he had killed Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and her friend Lorraine Kelly, 16, when the pair went shopping for. Mr. Cottingham had a vulnerability, the chief realized: After divulging nothing during hours of questioning, hed sometimes loosen up on the drive back to prison, sitting in the back seat and believing the day was done. But the killer was a clever bastard, too. As the New Jersey press reported on Cottinghams arrest, the NYPD started to take notice. I was able to get almostany woman to do whatever I wanted them to do . Blase was found strangled to death in 4 feet of water in Saddle River the next day. (1981, June 16). 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. This is possibly due to the fact that he got married in 1970. He remembers certain aspects of a person, Mr. Anzilotti said. 0000001250 00000 n In the new docuseries, the second in Netflixs Crime Scene anthology, director Joe Berlinger dissects the Torso Killers murder spree against the backdrop of the sexually charged, crime-ridden culture of 1970s Times Square and how it provided the predator with a fertile hunting ground. Getting to that point wasnt easy, Anzilotti said. It represented closure, Moye said of this weeks hearing. 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. When you have a series of crimes today, everything goes through the computers, andwe have computer analysis and a wayof moving these through jurisdictionalboundaries. Thats why [authorities are] not going to make another statement. 0000005280 00000 n 0000003183 00000 n Those cases were already closed. He was imprisoned. He described in detail how, instead, he took the girls to a motel, held them captive and eventually drowned them in the bathtub. Hed been a married father of three, but the Lodi resident - who would brutalize his victims bodies, cutting off limbs, heads and breasts - would later become known as the Torso Killer" for what he left behind. The photographs are ordered from left to right and top to bottom. Richard Cottingham who is already serving time in state prison for several . The investigators handed Ms. Mulder possessions of Jackies from half a century past. There was also a lockbox filled with trophies from his murders, including Maryann Carrs apartment key and a necklace belonging to Jean Reyner. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. [3], Cottingham was arrested on several lesser charges throughout his killing spree. 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. He lived with his wife and kids in. And at. He said he wouldn't have done it if I wasn't retiring.. This guy was particularly ruthless. 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. In his possession, the 33-year-old had a stash of handcuffs, tape and sedatives. However, please be aware that not allowing certain cookies may impact your experience of the site. On more than one occasion, he would openly talk about his experiences with sex workers. Its mind-boggling and very scary, especially to know theres more of them out there.. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Inside they found the bodies of 22-year-old sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi[9] and an unidentified woman estimated between 16 and 22. 0000008501 00000 n 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. They were never able to fully recover from the monumental loss, she said. Authorities tied him to the killings after police were called to a Hasbrouck Heights motel, where a maid had heard a woman screaming. Crime: Cottingham, a Lodi resident, killed six women in New Jersey and New York between 1967 and 1980. Thats not the natural order its supposed to go in.. The chief contacted the Blase family and told them what they had ached to know for decades: He knew who had killed Irene. However, his family moved to River Vale, New Jersey, when he was 12 years old. Trophies like jewellery and other personal items belonging to his victims were taken by him. On May 4, 1980, the body of Street, a sex worker, was found at the same Quality Inn where Cottingham had dumped Carrs body. 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. A married father of three, he lived in the. xref He'd been a married father of three, but the Lodi resident - who would brutalize his victim's bodies, cutting off limbs, heads and breasts - would later become known as the "Torso Killer" for. Find NJ.com on Facebook. 0000007078 00000 n 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. He asked to quietly close their daughters murder case without formally charging the killer. The body of Laverne Moye, of St. Albans, Queens, was discovered in a Rockville Centre creek on July 20, 1972. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. It also left enormous holes in the souls of family and friends of Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16. HUMs@Wf~}m1`16N7NLf%=Io8. Goodarzi was later identified as the woman who had been tortured, killed, beheaded and had her hands cut off by Cottingham. His name had floated around in the lore of Bergen County cold cases.. 0000003125 00000 n It is situated at 29 Vreeland Street in Lodi, New Jersey. The inmate made it clear that pressure would not work. Cottingham murdered at least twelve women between 1967 and 1980. 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. He tried a different approach. The house was built in 1974one year before Cottingham and his wife, Janet, moved in. The teenagers were last seen on Aug. 9, 1974, in North Bergen. [13][14] Anzilotti had spent 15 years interviewing Cottingham, working toward the confession. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. This story has been shared 150,597 times. 0000004535 00000 n Falasca was walking by the side of the road in Emerson on July 14, 1969, when Cottingham pulled up beside her and offered her a ride. Feech La Manna's house from The Sopranos. He drove his car ahead of Harp, pulled over and walked back toward her, Vronsky said. He said he would talk about other murders only on the condition that the revelations would be kept out of the papers. He had been dubbed the Times Square Torso Ripper setting off Vronskys lifelong fascination of serial killers. Cottingham had stuffed Streets body under the bed for housekeeping to find, Vronsky said. She was Nancy Pryor, and she was 19 when her sister, Mary Ann, was found dead. 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. [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). 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. [4], On May 3, 1970, Cottingham was married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village, Queens. 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. Her breasts had been severed and torso had been set on fire, Vronsky said. Starting in 2014, Cottingham confidentially admitted to Detective Robert Anzilotti of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office (BCPO) to being the perpetrator of the murders of three teenage females between 1968 and 1969. 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).