richard cottingham trophy room

Homicide detectives linked the murder with that of the murder of teenage hooker Helen Sikes. The following week on May 15th, 1980, another sex worker was lured into a Manhattan motel room under the guise of more work but was most likely ambushed when Cottingham locked the door. But beneath the veneer of normalcy was a heinous double-existence as a serial killer. Later on, the police also found a room in the basement of Richards home that served as his trophy room. 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. Surviving that attempt and two others, he was held under $250,000 bond while detectives built their overwhelming case against him. He was also a married, respectable man with three children. On May 5, 1980, police found another prostitute, Valerie Streets, dead in a motel room. Her killer, Richard Cottingham, was a computer operator, married with three children of his own, living a seemingly normal life. 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. Farm Heroes Saga, the #4 Game on iTunes. North-jersey.comA father of three, Richard Cottingham seemed an unlikely killer. Inside, they found the bodies of two women who were missing their heads and hands. The basement became known as the "trophy room." The "Torso Killer" had been found. One detective said it was 'the cleanest crime scene he's ever seen.' He said the other girls took it, and I had to take it, too. He had an apartment in New York City that he told Janet he needed for late nights at work. Vronsky and Weiss had been meeting with Cottingham in prison since the spring of 2017, counseling him to make the confession. [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). Cottingham was apprehended in the hallway by arriving police officers. Richard Cottingham, 74, is currently in state prison on a life sentence for other murders. 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 ). 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. Richard Cottingham, serial killer from New Jersey operating in New York between 1967 and 1980. Inside they found the bodies of 22-year-old sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi[9] and an unidentified woman estimated between 16 and 22. Her arms were still handcuffed behind her back. Richard would dump her along a chain link fence near the apartment complex he once called home, the ligature still tied around her neck. Richard Cottingham was found guilty of five murders and numerous counts of kidnapping and s*xual assault using evidence found in his 'trophy room' combined with a matching fingerprint left on the handcuffs used in the Valerie Street murder. The following year, in 1973, Richard would escalate his crimes when an early victim reported an attack. Over there, he began to torture and rape her repeatedly. Richards criminal activity continued in 1969 when he was convicted of driving while intoxicated in New York. As Cottingham was fleeing the scene of the torso murders, he briefly encountered the 23-year-old Peter Vronsky, who was attempting to check into the Travel Inn while in New York on a film production assignment. Prison records indicate that Richard, now about 74 years old, remains incarcerated at South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, New Jersey. [1] He was nicknamed the New York Ripper, the Torso Killer and the Times Square Killer, since his crimes often targeted prostitutes and included mutilation. The other female victim has never been identified and to this day remains a Jane Doe. 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. Biting, raping and beating the girl. Richard cut the womans breasts off and ended her life via strangulation. Thankfully, Cottinghams reign of terror would not last forever. Today, Times Square is a glittering tourist attraction. Once inside, Richard would bind both females and torture the two for hours. After this look at Richard Cottingham, The Torso Killer, read up on Ed Kemper, the Co-Ed Killer, and Rodney Alcala, the Dating Game Killer. Then, read the stories of Jack the Rippers victims. [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. 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. 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. At one point, Leslie grabbed Richards gun and pointed it at him, only to realize that it was fake. Like the other victims, she to had been bound with handcuffs and tortured, her body would be found covered in bite marks. Their skulls and hands were never found. 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. Cottingham targeted sex workers in Times Square before torturing and mutilating their bodies, often leaving only their torsos behind as evidence. This murder was linked to an earlier murder in the same motel. Crystal Ponti. But it had a much seedier reputation in the latter half of the 20th century. Soon, he was connected to a series of murders in New Jersey and New York that had occurred over the previous few months. 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. Cottingham murdered Jennifer Weiss' birth mom Deedeh Goodarzi in a Times Square motel room in 1979. He remained behind bars in a New Jersey prison during the hearing, where he received 25 years for Cusick's murder. Police believe that Cusick left the dance studio where she taught and went into the nearby mall to buy some shoes. Investigators were again able to quickly link this murder with many others due to the killers M.O. The divorce affidavits further alleged that Cottingham was an habitual, patron of gay bars and homosexual spas in Manhattan. Later, Cottingham claimed that Times Square cops stopped him as he carried the severed heads in a large potato sack to his car before letting him go. He will spend the rest of his years behind bars with the hope that he will never have the chance to act on his horrific urges again. He said the other girls took it and I had to take it, too. Who Were Richard Cottingham's Victims? I was able to get almost any woman to do whatever I wanted them to do, psychologically,' said the sinister 75-year-old in a recent jailhouse interview with journalistNadia Fezzani. 'So I maintain a relationship with Richard nowbecauseI want the names of the unidentified victims he took. Former FBI agent and criminal profiler Candice DeLong delves into Richard Cottingham, Show Killer Psyche, Ep Richard Cottingham: The Torso Killer - Mar 7, 2023 Cottingham later described his motives as a game and mainly psychological., I was able to get almost any woman to do whatever I wanted them to do, psychologically, he said decades after being found guilty of five murders. June 12, 2022 | tj maxx distribution center san antonio | Category: . But it had a much seedier reputation in the latter half of the 20th century. As they burst into room 417, they saw two badly burned bodies on the twin beds. His additional confession to a 1974 murder was discounted by Rockland County police. Street, a sex worker whod arrived from Florida just a few days earlier, had been beaten, bitten, bound, and strangled to death. 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. In the early morning hours, a couple decided to check in to a Quality Inn Hotel. Over the years, he confessed to killing several more women, with his earliest known murder in 1967. Jean Reyner was raped, stabbed, mutilated and tortured. On May 22, 1980, Cottingham picked up Leslie Ann O'Dell in Midtown Manhattan and dragged her back to the same New Jersey motel where he mutilated his last victim just 18 days earlier. Richard Cottingham (1977-1980) was a 31-year old computer operator and valued employee of Blue Cross-Blue Shield in downtown New York City. [4][5], After his graduation, Cottingham worked for Metropolitan Life, where his father was a vice-president, starting in the mail room at the firm's Manhattan headquarters and eventually became a mainframe computer operator upon taking computer courses. For the murders of Mary and Lorraine, Richard was to receive two life sentences that would run concurrently with the time hes been serving. The Full Story Of The Hamilton-Burr Duel And The Tragic Death Of Alexander Hamilton, The Full Story Behind Columbine High School Shooters Eric Harris And Dylan Klebold, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. By all accounts, he seemed to be leading an everyday life in Lodi, New Jersey, with his wife and three kids. In addition to killing sex workers, Richard Cottingham had also killed a number of girls and women in New Jersey. A year later, conviction on second-degree murder charges in the death of Maryann Carr added another sentence of 20 years to life. A few months later, on May 5, 1980, a housekeeper at a Quality Inn in New Jersey found the body of 19-year old Valerie Ann Street stuffed under the bed. A respected family man from Lodi, New Jersey, he ran computers for a major health insurance firm. Criminal profiling was still in its infancy and it was before CCTV footage was commonplace and the use of computers helped detectives share information across states. [2], In 2010, he pleaded guilty to the 1967 murder of Nancy Vogel. Jean Reyner was stabbed to death in a motel near Time Square. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. When hotel staff investigated further, Leslie Ann O'Dell cracked open the door and quietly signaled for help. And, thanks to a dogged New Jersey detective, the Times Square Killer has confessed to a number of additional murders. After the abduction of Leslie Ann ODell, authorities were able to quickly build a case against the deranged suspect. Richard kept things like jewelry and trinkets as souvenirs from the slayings. 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. Richard cut the woman's breasts off and ended her life via strangulation. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Cottingham is currently in state prison on a . They were three teenagers who became Cottingham's victims between 1968 and 1969. Cottingham primarily sought prostitutes who were petite blondes in their late teens to mid-twenties. Their skulls were never found. One was identified as 22-year-old Deedeh Goodarzi, a sex worker. 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. Cops had a lucky break in the case almost six months after the two headless torsos were first found in Times Square. Cottingham was not charged with this murder until June 2022, when he was implicated by DNA.[10]. Richard was born in Bronx, New York, in November 1946. Police responded to a fire in Room 417, where two women had been discovered on a pair of twin beds. I thought he could be responsible for some, Anzilotti said, explaining that while the methods and victims were different, the timing matched. "Richard Cottingham is a serial rapist and killer that used the streets of New York and New Jersey as his hunting ground in the 1970s. 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 . [21] Cottingham was apparently "forensically aware" in the era before DNA analysis. She taught and went richard cottingham trophy room the nearby mall to buy some shoes years old, remains at... To this day remains a Jane Doe & # x27 ; s victims another sentence of years! And women in New Jersey seemed to be leading an everyday life in,... His earliest known murder in the basement of Richards home that served as his room. 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