Three days later, Mr. Anzilotti walked out of his office for good. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. Cottingham fled the scene with the victims heads and hands. Little more than a week after Street was found, Reyner was found butchered in the Seville Motel in New York City. No leads were forthcoming. Then in exchange for immunity from prosecution, he confessed to murdering three New Jersey schoolgirls. They'd left home for a trip 13 miles (21 kilometers) north to . A real sick bastard did this, retired NYPD detective Jim Riegel, who was working as a beat cop that day, recalls his sergeant telling him in the new Netflix series Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer, out Wednesday. Look her up, she looks like her. Others he remembered from a haircut.. 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. The New York Times, p. 2. Richard Cottingham, a family man who denied everything in court, was convicted of killing five women in the early 1980s. Richard Cottingham seemed like a character from a pulp novel: the crazed killer and the family man. New Jersey . Mr. Cottingham mentioned details of the killing that matched what Mr. Anzilotti knew from the case file. The Blase family agreed. We use cookies to deliver personalized advertisements, improve your online experience, and to analyze our site's performance. But eventually, their old give-and-take resumed. I had long suspected that whoever killed Irene Blase also killed Denise Falasca, Mr. Anzilotti said. He married in 1970 and became a father of. But the killer was a clever bastard, too. Blase was 18 when she was found strangled in Saddle River in 1969. One would remind him of a TV actress. Its not something you can ever get over, Altman, 58, told The Post. But beneath the veneer of normalcy was a heinous double-existence as a serial killer. The other girls did, you have to take it, too. 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. In fact, Mr. Cottingham lurked around the fringes of a seedy Times Square and the prostitutes who worked its streets. Location of first contact Maryann Carr = her apartment; Prostitutes = street or bar . I was shocked that one human being was capable of all this carnage, Moye said of Cottingham. [15] In December 2022, Cottingham was convicted of Diane Cusick's 1968 murder and, under a non-prosecution agreement, officially admitted to killing another four women during 19721973 in Long Island, New York: Mary Beth Heinz, Laverne Moye, Sheila Heiman, and Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves. The public in Bergen County deserved to know the outcome of those girls, he said. 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. 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. I was able to get almostany woman to do whatever I wanted them to do . It represented closure, Moye said of this weeks hearing. Ms. Falasca was a 15-year-old who left her familys house in July 1969 and never returned. 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.. Inmates were wagering everything from cash to cigarettes. Detective Anzilotti was startled to discover the same man killed all three. Much like John Moye, Altman, who now lives in Ocala, Fla., said she struggled to process Cottinghams savagery. After years in prison, Mr. Cottingham began to open up to the detective about past unsolved crimes. It took some effort to convince him to go to court and let me make it public, Anzilotti said Tuesday. The police were called and Cottingham was apprehended while trying to flee. His murders were not the outcome of stalking or planning but of fleeting encounters. Sitting in a conference room, Mr. Cottingham calmly reached back more than 40 years and described how hed murdered a woman whose name he couldnt remember, a 29-year-old mother found strangled in her car in Ridgefield Park, N.J., in 1967. He kept his glasses case tucked in a vest pocket of his prison scrubs, beneath his white beard, and folded his hands over his broad belly. [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. The following is a chronological summary of Cottingham's seventeen identified murder victims and four identified survivors: Cottingham's case has been discussed in several books and documentaries on serial killers. But her light shines brightly against the backdrop of evil.. Anything that might close more cases, bring answers to more families. It could only be Jackie Harp.. Retrieved April 2nd, 2007, from Factiva database. 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. 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. 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. Instead, she ended up shopping at one of Bergen Countys malls, according to Vronsky. I asked them where they were going. The mall, they replied. 0000004577 00000 n He did not know the names of those he killed. The girls vanished Aug. 9, 1974, while hitchhiking to a mall in . 0000006846 00000 n And at the time, it was beyond our capacity to look beyond New York City, he told The Post. Once again, the victim did not appear in further proceedings and the case was dismissed.[6]. 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. 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. Between 1970 and 1974, Cottingham and his wife, Janet, lived at an apartment block called Ledgewood Terrace in Little Ferry, New Jersey. Her killer, Richard Cottingham, was a computer operator, married with three children of his own, living a seemingly normal life. Then he followed with an unusual request. To bring Mr. Cottingham back to court, where the case would certainly draw attention, would stop him from talking about other open cases, the chief explained. 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. Getting to that point wasnt easy, Anzilotti said. 0000005253 00000 n Eventually, Mr. Cottingham began to loosen up, and he spoke about killing the prostitutes. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. The weather worsened. [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]. )' And he sat there with literally no remorse. Hes younger when all this is going on in Bergen County, he said. The Zestimate for this house is $598,600, which has decreased by $7,680 in the last 30 days. Serial killer Richard Cottingham made his admission in the cold case murders of the high school girls, acknowledging that he kidnapped, raped and finally drowned the pair inside a motel room. They sat at the kitchen table, very professional, very polite, very considerate, Ms. Mulder recalled. He was the Torso Killer. 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. Her breasts had been severed and torso had been set on fire, Vronsky said. The motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. With Ms. Pryor and a judge watching on Zoom that day, Mr. Cottingham pleaded guilty to the two murders. PB| Goodarzi had come to the United States years prior from Iran. %PDF-1.4 % 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. Richard Cottingham, New Jersey prison photo. Cottinghamss name came up several times, but it didnt fit for me, she said. The police pursued a welter of tips, rumors and false alarms, The New York Times reported at the time. It was just shock all the way around.. Since his incarceration, he has attempted suicide on two occasions. 0000002865 00000 n This story has been shared 151,197 times. 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. On Dec. 2, 1979, fire alarms rang out at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on West 42nd Street. Feech La Manna's house from The Sopranos. Which is entirely possible, especially in those days.. The police hunted for leads, questioning prostitutes about suspicious men, examining the handwriting of the guest who had checked into Room 417: Carl Wilson of Merlin, N.J., a fake name from a fake place. I was shocked that it was a serial killer, Moye said of his mothers confessed murderer. This is possibly due to the fact that he got married in 1970. Like two little dolls at Christmastime.. Five months later, the serial slayer struck again, strangling Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves, an 18-year-old Manhattan woman originally from Puerto Rico. Dont think youre going to mess with me and Im going to help you, Mr. Anzilotti recalled Mr. Cottingham saying. The inmate made it clear that pressure would not work. Cottingham murdered at least twelve women between 1967 and 1980. In 2010, Bergen County authorities announced hed pleaded guilty to a sixth murder, a 1967 strangling in Bergen County. Monday marked the first time Moye ever laid eyes on Cottingham, who dismembered some of victims, including two women whose bodies were found without their heads and hands in a Times Square motel in December 1979. This murder was later linked to the 1977 murder of Maryann Carr, who was left in the same motel's parking lot. [15], In 2022, Cottingham was arraigned from his prison hospital bed for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. 0000003431 00000 n He had come further in closing cases than his younger self could have imagined. <<69EF7C237A736942AE760EBDB9B8F80B>]>> Her glasses, a ring, a necklace, Ms. Mulder said. Prosecutors will seek dual life sentences to run alongside his current lifetime term when Cottingham is sentenced on July 9 for what Musella said were the willful, deliberate, and premediated murders of Mary Ann Prior and Lorraine Kelly. But first, he wanted to return to those two murders from 47 years ago. The New York Times, p. 26. Although first responders encountered thick smoke in the room, one noticed the shape of bodies on the pair of twin beds and attempted to administer CPR. He lived with his wife and kids in. 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. But then, four years ago, Mr. Cottingham stunned the chief. The man has no heart, no soul, no emotion whatsoever, she said. 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.. Knowing better, Harp, just 13 years old, refused. [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].