Richard Francis Cottingham (born November 25, 1946) is an American serial killer who committed ten murders in New York State between 1972 and 1980, plus a further ten murders in New Jersey between 1965 and 1980. He was nicknamed by media as the Torso Killer and the Times Square Ripper, since some of the murders he was convicted of included acts of mutilation and dismemberment.
Cottingham's confirmed killings resulted in nine convictions and a further eleven confessions under non-prosecution agreements, leading to him serving multiple life sentences in New Jersey prisons. In 2009, decades after his first murder convictions, Cottingham claimed that he had committed at least eighty "perfect murders" of women in various regions of the United States.
Early life and criminal history Background and career Richard Cottingham was born on November 25, 1946, in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City, the first of four children. In 1948, his family moved to Dumont, New Jersey, then twelve miles north to River Vale in 1956. Here Cottingham began his fascination with bondage pornography, later stating, "The whole idea of bondage had aroused and fascinated me since I was very young."
According to New York City-based writer and reporter, Adam Janos, in A&E Crime + Investigation — How to Explain Serial Killers Who Come from Good Homes
Cottingham had a close relationship with his mother growing up but reportedly had difficulty making friends as a teenager. In 1964 he graduated from Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, New Jersey. His graduation yearbook stated that he was a member of the school's cross country and track team.
After graduation, Cottingham found a job at the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, where his father was a vice president. He began his employment in the mail room at the firm's Manhattan headquarters, eventually becoming a mainframe computer operator upon taking computer courses.
In October 1966, Cottingham became a computer operator for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, continuing in this occupation until his 1980 arrest. At Blue Cross, Cottingham worked in an office with Rodney Alcala, a fugitive child molester and serial killer who lived in New York under the alias "John Berger." Neither man claimed to have been aware of the other, nor is there any evidence they were familiar with each other prior to their respective arrests.
On May 3, 1970, Cottingham was married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village, Queens. He had three children, two boys and a girl with his wife. In April 1978, Cottingham's wife filed for divorce on the grounds of "abandonment" and "mental cruelty." She withdrew the petition upon his arrest in May 1980, then completed the divorce after his 1981 conviction.
Early arrests Cottingham was arrested on several lesser charges throughout his killing spree. Police were not aware of his murders at the time, nor were they aware that a serial killer was active in the New York metropolitan area. On October 3, 1969, Cottingham was charged with and convicted of drunk driving in New York City and was fined $50. On August 21, 1972, he was charged with and convicted of shoplifting at a Stern's department store in Paramus, New Jersey, and was sentenced to pay a $50 fine or ten days in jail.
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. Neither complainant appeared in further proceedings, however, and the case was dismissed. On March 12, 1974, Cottingham was arrested in New York City for robbery and unlawful imprisonment on the complaint of another prostitute. Once again, the victim did not appear in further proceedings and the case was dismissed.
Final arrest and charges In the early morning hours of May 22, 1980, Cottingham picked up 18-year-old prostitute Leslie Ann O'Dell, who was soliciting on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 25th Street in Manhattan. The pair checked into a Quality Inn in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, at Room 117. O'Dell rolled onto her stomach when Cottingham offered a massage, only for Cottingham to draw a knife and put it to her throat as he snapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists. He proceeded to torture her, nearly biting off one of her nipples. O'Dell later testified that he said, "You have to take it. The other girls did, you have to take it, too. You're a whore and you have to be punished."
At one point, O'Dell reached under the bed for a fake gun that Cottingham had threatened her with, thinking it was real, and attempted to shoot him. When it did not fire, Cottingham came at her with the knife. She cried: "Oh, God, no!" Her screams brought motel employees to the room, and they summoned police. Cottingham was arrested in the hallway at gunpoint. A leather gag, two slave collars, a switchblade knife, replica pistols and a stockpile of prescription pills were found in his possession upon arrest.
The charges listed in Cottingham's subsequent indictment included kidnapping, attempted murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with deadly weapon, aggravated sexual assault while armed (rape), aggravated sexual assault while armed (sodomy), aggravated sexual assault while armed (fellatio), possession of a weapon (switchblade knife) and possession of controlled substances (secobarbital, amobarbital and diazepam).
In April 1978, after his wife had initiated divorce proceedings, Cottingham kept a locked room in a basement apartment of the house in which they lived in Lodi, New Jersey. Upon searching both the room and the trunk of his car following the 1980 arrest, police found personal effects which they traced to several of his victims.
Assaults During Cottingham's 1981 trial, three additional surviving abduction-rape victims testified in court along with O'Dell, claiming that they had also been sexually abused and tortured by the defendant. Two of the victims (Susan Geiger and Karen Schilt) identified Cottingham in a police line-up. He was ultimately convicted in three of the cases (Schilt, Geiger and O'Dell) and acquitted in one (Weisenfeld).
At 9 p.m. on March 22, 1978, 22-year-old pregnant waitress Karen Schilt met Cottingham on the way back to her apartment after exiting a bar on Third Avenue. Cottingham forced Schilt to ingest sleeping pills and transported her to New Jersey via Route 80, where he proceeded to sexually assault her. The following morning, near Cottingham's previous residence at the Ledgewood Terrace Apartments, a patrolman discovered Schilt in a sewer outlet with her breasts and genitalia exposed. On the night of October 10, 1978, Cottingham approached and propositioned 19-year-old prostitute Susan Geiger between Broadway and Seventh Avenue on West 47th Street. Although Geiger informed Cottingham that she had reservations for the remainder of the evening, she left him her contact information at the Alpine Hotel. The following evening, Cottingham called Geiger and asked her out for a date at midnight. After picking her up in his vehicle, he plied her with a number of drugged drinks. Geiger would later awaken covered in her own blood in Room 28 of the Airport Motel in South Hackensack, New Jersey. She had been tortured by Cottingham, who had injured her face, breasts, vagina and rectum. In addition, he had beaten her multiple times with a garden hose and torn out her gold earrings. On May 12, 1980, prostitute Pamela Weisenfeld was found beaten in a parking lot in Teaneck, New Jersey. According to police and medical reports, her attacker had bit her multiple times. After meeting Cottingham, Weisenfeld was drugged and brutally beaten, suffering several injuries all over her body.
Murders Cottingham claims to have started killing as an adolescent and to have killed as many as 100 women. He often sought sex workers in their late-teens to mid-twenties and has been linked to killings in Florida, Pennsylvania and Maryland in addition to Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. Cottingham would approach his victims in bars, drug them, take them to a remote location and would bind, gag, torture and stab them before killing them by strangulation or asphyxiation. He would then take trophies such as jewelry and other personal items from the victims.
New Jersey trials Over the course of two separate New Jersey trials in 1981, and 1982, Cottingham was convicted in three non-fatal assaults (Schilt, Geiger and O'Dell) and the murders of two women (Maryann Carr and Valerie Street) which occurred in Hasbrouck Heights. At approximately 7:00 a.m. on the morning of December 16, 1977, the body of 26-year-old X-ray technician Maryann "Marzi" Carr was found between a parked van and a chain-link fence in Little Ferry, New Jersey. She was still wearing her white nurse's uniform, but her shoes were missing. Carr was last seen on December 15 in the parking lot of the Ledgewood Terrance Apartments, from where he kidnapped her and transported her to the Hasbrouck Heights Quality Inn. Once inside, Cottingham beat, bit, slashed and raped Carr before strangling her with a ligature. Afterward he dumped her body in the parking lot of the Quality Inn, not far from the apartment complex. Carr exhibited handcuff-related bruises on her wrists and ankles, as well as remnants of adhesive tape on her mouth. Cottingham was convicted of her murder on October 12, 1982. On May 5, 1980, the body of 19-year-old prostitute Valerie Ann Street was found by a motel worker at the Hasbrouck Heights Quality Inn. Using an alias, Street checked into Room 122 with Cottingham, who killed her and stuffed her body under the bed for housekeeping to find. Investigators discovered Street handcuffed and with two ligature marks on her throat. They also determined that she had been gagged with white adhesive tape. Street's body had bite marks on her breasts, body and head, in addition to minor knife incisions on her breasts. One fingerprint belonging to Cottingham was recovered from the ratchet mechanism of the handcuffs left behind on Street. Cottingham was convicted of her murder on June 12, 1981.
New York trial In a single 1984 trial, Cottingham was convicted in the deaths of three additional women which occurred in New York City between 1979 and 1980. He was convicted of their murders on July 9, 1984. At around 9 a.m. on December 2, 1979, staff at the Travel Lodge Motor Inn made a call to the New York City Fire Department after significant smoke was observed inside Room 417. A "do not disturb" sign was hanging from the door latch of the room, which had been rented by "Carl Wilson" since November 29. Firefighters discovered two naked female bodies on two separate beds. Prior to their deaths, the women were brutalized, and their murderer burned their bodies. Both women's hands had been severed, and the killer had also beheaded them. The missing body parts were never found. A later autopsy revealed that both women had been tortured and sexually assaulted while still alive for several days. 22-year-old Deedeh Goodarzi, an Iranian immigrant who worked as a prostitute, was identified shortly afterward. The other victim remains unidentified and is estimated to be aged between 16 and 22. She is referred to as "Manhattan Jane Doe." 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. 25-year-old Mary Ann Jean Reyner was discovered on May 15, 1980, at the Seville Hotel in New York City. Investigators discovered that her attacker had cut her throat and removed both of her breasts, which were left on the headboard of the bed. Reyner's body had also been set on fire as part of the perpetrator's attempt to destroy evidence.
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