richard cottingham lodi, nj address richard cottingham lodi, nj address

[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. The following is a list of his victims in chronological order. In this image taken from a New Jersey Courts virtual hearing, Richard Cottingham, center, known as the "Torso Killer," pleads guilty Tuesday, April 27, 2021, to two 1974 murders. Its an ongoing process, Vronsky said. It was an era when the sex worker was criminalized. It also left enormous holes in the souls of family and friends of Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Kelly, 16. He was a coward.. 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 did, however, leave behind their clothing, including a pair of Bonjour jeans, white leotards and a black fur coat, neatly folded in the bath tub. 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. 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). Mr. Cottingham was summoned before a judge on April 27, remotely, via Zoom, sitting in a wheelchair in a conference room at the prosecutors office. Find NJ.com on Facebook. That was roughly one month after his arrest. 0000002420 00000 n . Cottingham, a Lodi man who moonlighted as one of New Jersey's most savage serial killers, had been convicted of murdering five women in New York and New Jersey. With Cottinghams next victim, a killers hunting ground of sorts began to form. When they arrived, one firefighter attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a woman they found on the bed. But as he considered retirement, he kept returning to the two girls found dead in the woods. He has been charged with 11 murders in all. 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. Crime: Cottingham, a Lodi resident, killed six women in New Jersey and New York between 1967 and 1980. And even worse, the rape laws were particularly onerous, and you had to provide a witness to bring an allegation of rape. F! A local investigator began to wonder: Could there be a link to a series of infamous Times Square murders? Cottingham is currently in state prison on a life sentence . She was found strangled to death the next day in Saddle Brook. One would remind him of a TV actress. He then left the scene with their severed heads and hands. 0000009543 00000 n xb```"WVf~g`0pt 9"~S?``Z V|bG!+N}TzYl@2 `QD2 @DACEDJaOs6x?+[Ihlrt ? 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. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. This story has been shared 150,597 times. 0000007658 00000 n Hearing prosecutors detail grisly crime scenes like where Laverne was found was especially difficult to endure, her son said. 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.". The details stopped him cold. Everything that I was taught about evil was evident in his presence, in his demeanor, in the gaze of his eyes, Moye told The Post. Richard Cottingham, Lorraine . Absolutely, its completely plausible. 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. Prosecutors had long believed that Cottingham abducted Mary Ann and Lorraine both North Bergen High School students whod been known to hitch-hike during a shopping trip to the Garden State Plaza on August 9, 1974. Its been half my career, he said. Richard Cottingham, 74, pleaded guilty Tuesday to murdering Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16, both of North Bergen. In fact, Mr. Cottingham lurked around the fringes of a seedy Times Square and the prostitutes who worked its streets. Eventually, Mr. Cottingham began to loosen up, and he spoke about killing the prostitutes. But Cottingham flew under the radar precisely because of how he chose his victims and who his victims were. He enjoys our time together., The chief also had another theory. 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. Richard Cottingham, a family man who denied everything in court, was convicted of killing five women in the early 1980s. 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. H|U0+(QvG`b08NbHlSoZ2CRSs=* \e~ Unfortunately, we were unable to find a photograph of Jean Reyner. But he eventually realized the years-long association, which involved countless state prison visits, was coming to an end. Falasca, 15, accepted. You can change your choice at any time by using the Privacy Center link in our footer. Cusicks daughter, Darlene Altman, told Nassau County Judge Caryn Fink her late grandparents raised her after her mothers shocking slaying. Denise Falasca, 15, of Closter, New Jersey. She had been abducted while walking home from practice with her schools fife-and-drum team in 1968. Her attacker was caught as he ran away. Hed order pizza and play cards with the older man and other detectives. They were facedown, side by side, as if placed there with care. They were never able to fully recover from the monumental loss, she said. 0000012661 00000 n After years in prison, Mr. Cottingham began to open up to the detective about past unsolved crimes. But eventually, their old give-and-take resumed. Zestimate Home Value: $598,600. 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 knew that Mr. Anzilotti had solved Denises killing, too. Richard Cottingham, serial killer from New Jersey operating in New York between 1967 and 1980. 0000000016 00000 n As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. I never thought I would get caught, he added. All these factors created this crucible in the center of Manhattan for Richard Cottingham to flourish.. What they want is an outright statement and a sign-off of Yes thats me,' Vronsky continued. It was mainly psychological. They found an 18-year-old victim who'd been bitten and stabbed bound with handcuffs. For decades, a string of killings of teenage girls haunted suburban New Jersey. I didnt know what to expect. Peter Karas/The Record, via USA Today Network. His wife withdrew the petition upon his arrest in May 1980, then completed the divorce after his 1981 conviction. HUMs@Wf~}m1`16N7NLf%=Io8. I never broke my promise to him, all these years later, the chief said. Furthermore, one of the women that he murdered in 1979 is still unidentified. This guy was particularly ruthless. 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. The Blase family agreed. Her breasts had been severed and torso had been set on fire, Vronsky said. Ive never seen rain like that, he said. Following his arrest, police linked him to the murder of Valerie Streets. [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. As the New Jersey press reported on Cottinghams arrest, the NYPD started to take notice. Thats why [authorities are] not going to make another statement. (1981, June 16). This murder was later linked to the 1977 murder of Maryann Carr, who was left in the same motel's parking lot. He pleaded innocent and for decades insisted he was being "framed", until admitting in 2009 that he had actually perpetrated those five murders. 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.. Boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, family members all were questioned and cleared of suspicion. 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. She had been a teenager when her sister was killed. He did a U-turn in a bank parking lot and approached, he said. Mr. Cottingham mentioned details of the killing that matched what Mr. Anzilotti knew from the case file. 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. Shed been abducted by Cottingham from the Ledgewood Terrace apartments, in Little Ferry, where Cottingham had previously lived, said Vronsky. When the 40th year since the killings arrived in 2014, the local police asked the public for any new information. The house was built in 1974one year before Cottingham and his wife, Janet, moved in. 0000006151 00000 n Those cases were already closed. The public in Bergen County deserved to know the outcome of those girls, he said. %%EOF endstream endobj 34 0 obj<>stream 0000002847 00000 n Which, of course, I wasnt overly interested in, the former chief said. But Mr. Anzilotti kept pressing him: You know youre going to tell me.. But Cottingham had other victims, and he would later boast of killing 85 to 100 people. He drove his car ahead of Harp, pulled over and walked back toward her, Vronsky said. 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. All rights reserved (About Us). He was also known to threaten them with a plastic gun and leave it within their reach so they could try to grab it only to find out it was false, severely bite and scrape their nipples, cut around the breasts, and use other forms of torture. [3], Cottingham was arrested on several lesser charges throughout his killing spree. Cottinghamss name came up several times, but it didnt fit for me, she said. . 21 0 obj <> endobj The bodies of the women had no heads and no hands. 0000002435 00000 n startxref Hackensack, 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. In his possession, the 33-year-old had a stash of handcuffs, tape and sedatives. I believe hes killed between 85 and 100, as he claims, Vronsky told The Post. I had long suspected that whoever killed Irene Blase also killed Denise Falasca, Mr. Anzilotti said. Mr. Anzilotti and another investigator drove to the town of Reading, Vt., to deliver the news to Jackies older sister, Suzan Mulder, then 69. Again and again, for 15 years, Mr. Anzilotti met with the inmate, seeking the truth. Anzilotti and BCPO subsequently confirmed the "exceptional closures" of these three murders.[13][8]. Twenty years later, he was reinvestigating several cold cases involving girls and young women who had been abducted, sexually abused and killed. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. [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. 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. Below, you will find the address and the GPS coordinates for this location. His upcoming sentencing will add more time to a prison term that already extends beyond his remaining years. This number may increase in the future, as he has stated in the past that his victim count is much higher. In other words, he may have been content and/or preoccupied. 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. 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. The family lived in Lodi, and Mr. Cottingham commuted to a job as a computer operator at Blue Cross Blue Shield in Manhattan. I can go all the way back to the first detective on the case. Serial Killer House in Lodi, New Jersey, United States. He forced his victims to address him as "master". And any new prison sentence would, practically speaking, be meaningless; Mr. Cottingham had no chance of ever being released. In May of 1980, police arrested Cottingham while he was torturing a sex worker at a motel room in New Jersey. He enjoys our relationship. K3nVxb;X)oxeHME~> That girl was found drowned, similar to Blases killing, he said. 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. I was able to get almostany woman to do whatever I wanted them to do . 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. 0000000756 00000 n The Rent Zestimate for this home is $3,099/mo, which has increased by $3,099/mo in the last 30 days. He had his list of names, each one a dead girl and a crime long unsolved. After those confessions, the two men barely spoke. On Dec 15, 1977, Carr was found dead in the parking lot of a Quality Inn motel, in Hasbrouck Heights. Which is entirely possible, especially in those days.. On May 5, 1980, a motel housekeeper found the body of 19-year-old Valerie Ann Street in the Hasbrouck Heights Quality Inn. Cottingham, a divorced father of three who previously lived in Lodi, NJ, also pleaded guilty to the February 1968 rape and murder of Diane Cusick, 23, a dance instructor from New Hyde Park, NY. But beneath the veneer of normalcy was a heinous double-existence as a serial killer. The Google Street View image above was taken in May of 2022. 0000003202 00000 n 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. A few days later, Mr. Anzilotti visited Mr. Cottingham in his new surroundings and told him, I put you here.. During a search of the house, investigators discovered personal items belonging to some of his victims. Hes embarrassed by this case, he said. Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and was raised mostly in New Jersey, according to the The New York Times. Much of Cottinghams crimes were not murders, but other violent crimes like abductions and rapes. Other locations that are relatively close to this place. Feech La Manna's house from The Sopranos. [4], On May 3, 1970, Cottingham was married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village, Queens. A killing in Somerset County a week after Cottingham got his drivers license may have been one of his first victims, Vronsky said. Irene Blase, Denise Falasca and Jacalyn Harp all girls whose murders were unsolved. 0000003183 00000 n Vronsky, whose works also include an authoritative tome cataloging 17,000 years of pathological homicide, said Cottingham scouted his victims before transforming from a family man into a ferocious monster. He was eventually convicted of five murders in New Jersey and New York and sent to a New Jersey state prison in the early 1980s. 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. Seth Wenig/Associated Press By Ed Shanahan Dec. 5, 2022 On a. We've received your submission. The New York Times, p. 26. 0000006081 00000 n 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.