Nowadays, Times Square is a dazzling tourist destination, but its reputation was much darker during the latter part of the 20th century. The area was notorious for its abundance of porn shops, peep shows, and prostitution, and it also became the hunting ground for a notorious serial killer named Richard Cottingham, who was known as the Torso Killer.
Over a period of approximately six months between 1979 and 1980, Cottingham committed gruesome murders of sex workers in the area, leaving some of his victims without hands or heads. He quickly became known as the “Times Square Torso Killer” or “The New York Ripper.”
However, Cottingham’s heinous acts went even further than what the police initially uncovered upon his arrest. In addition to murdering sex workers in Times Square, Richard Cottingham had also taken the lives of several girls and women in New Jersey. Shockingly, he has claimed to have killed over 100 victims to this day.
Inside the Story
The story of the Torso Killer began on Dec. 2, 1979, when firefighters were called to the Travel Inn near Times Square. As they burst into room 417, they saw two badly burned bodies on the twin beds. A firefighter grabbed one in hopes of saving a life.
Travel Inn
“I was preparing to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,” the firefighter said, “when I suddenly noticed there was no head.”
As the smoke cleared, the firefighters realized they’d stumbled onto a gruesome crime scene. 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. One was identified as 22-year-old Deedeh Goodarzi, a sex worker. The other, a 16-year-old, remains a Jane Doe to this day.
The police were faced with a challenging investigation as they had very few clues to work with. The perpetrator had used a fake name and address – “Carl Wilson of Merlin, N.J.” – when checking into the hotel, and had minimal interaction with the hotel staff. The only description provided was of a man in his 30s, around 5’10” tall and weighing 175 pounds, with brown hair.
Deedeh Goodarzi was a 22-year-old high-end prostitute from Iran whose family immigrated to Long Island when she was a teenager. She was positively identified through a cesarean-section scar after a friend recognized her clothing.
“We don’t know if he’s the one who rented the room,” Deputy Chief Richard Nicastro said at the time. “We’re not ruling out the possibility that two men could have been involved.”
Several months later, on May 5, 1980, a housekeeper at a Quality Inn in New Jersey discovered the body of 19-year-old Valerie Ann Street hidden under a bed. Street, a sex worker who had recently arrived from Florida, had been brutally beaten, bitten, bound, and strangled to death.
Less than a month after this discovery, firefighters made yet another gruesome find near Times Square on May 15. They uncovered the body of 25-year-old sex worker Jean Reyner in the Seville Motel. Her killer had not only cut her throat, but also left bite marks on her body and removed her breasts.
Richard Cottingham arrested
The Torso Killer appeared to be rapidly escalating his violence. However, just a week later, police were finally able to capture him when his intended victim, Leslie Ann O’Dell, cried out for help at the Quality Inn. Richard Cottingham, aged 33 at the time, was apprehended by the police at the scene.
Despite his infamy as a serial killer, Richard Cottingham’s true identity remained shrouded in mystery.
Richard Cottingham’s Double Identity
Richard Cottingham was born on November 25, 1946, in the Bronx, and outwardly lived a seemingly normal life. He grew up in New Jersey, married his wife Janet in 1970, and had three children. At the time of his arrest, he was working as a computer operator at Blue Cross Blue Shield Association in New York and living with his family in New Jersey.
However, there were indications that Richard Cottingham had a secret double life. He maintained an apartment in New York City, which he claimed was necessary for late nights at work. Janet also discovered that Richard spent a significant amount of time in their basement, where she later found women’s clothing, shoes, and jewelry.
Valerie Ann Street who survived an attack from Torso Killer
Richard had a self-described obsession with bondage and engaged in numerous extramarital affairs. Janet even filed for divorce in 1979, though she reversed her decision the following year.
The heinous nature of Richard Cottingham’s crimes sent shockwaves through the communities of New York and New Jersey. Leslie Ann O’Dell, who survived her encounter with the Torso Killer, provided chilling details of how Cottingham would torment his victims.
“[Cottingham] told me to shut up, that I was a whore and I had to be punished,” O’Dell testified. “He said the other girls took it and I had to take it, too. He said that uncountable times.”
During one of his trials, it was revealed that Richard Cottingham had also killed a fifth victim, 28-year-old X-ray technician Maryanne Carr. Her body was discovered at the Quality Inn in 1977.
The question of what drove Cottingham, a married father of three, to commit these horrific acts of violence remains unanswered. Cottingham himself described his motives as “a game” and “mainly psychological,” providing little insight into the twisted psychology behind his crimes.
Richard Cottingham in court
“I was able to get almost any woman to do whatever I wanted them to do, psychologically,” he revealed decades after being convicted of five murders. “It’s God-like, almost. You’re in complete control of somebody’s destiny.”
Richard Cottingham was ultimately convicted of five murders and was sentenced to 300 years in prison. However, it later became evident that the Torso Killer had likely taken the lives of many more victims than the ones he was convicted for. Cottingham himself has claimed to have killed over 100 people, but the exact number of his victims remains unknown.
The Times Square Killer Makes Final Confession
While Richard Cottingham is primarily known for targeting sex workers, he was known to kill whenever the opportunity presented itself. In recent years, due to the persistence of New Jersey detective Robert Anzilotti, the Times Square Killer has confessed to committing additional murders.
Detective Anzilotti had been haunted by a few unsolved homicides in New Jersey and began to suspect that Cottingham had killed more individuals than previously known. Through relentless investigation and interrogation, Anzilotti was able to extract additional confessions from Cottingham, shedding new light on the full extent of his heinous crimes.
faces of some of his victims
“I thought he could be responsible for some,” Anzilotti said, explaining that while the methods and victims were different, the timing matched. “His name had floated around in the lore of Bergen County cold cases.”
Detective Anzilotti initially suspected that Cottingham may have been responsible for additional murders, even though the methods and victims differed from his known crimes. Cottingham’s name had circulated in discussions of unsolved cases in Bergen County, which prompted Anzilotti to investigate further.
Anzilotti began to build a rapport with Cottingham, offering him pizza and playing card games with him in his office. Despite initial resistance, Cottingham eventually began to open up about his past crimes.
Thanks to Anzilotti’s persistence, Cottingham eventually confessed to killing six additional victims: Nancy Vogel in 1967, Jackie Harp in 1968, Irene Blase and Denise Falasca in 1969, and Lorraine Kelly in 1974. In a disturbing pattern that would become familiar in his later crimes, Cottingham had lured Pryor and Kelly into his car and then brought them to a hotel room, where he tortured and killed them before dumping their naked bodies.
Richard Cottingham was arraigned from his hospital in 2022
In 2022, Richard Cottingham was arraigned from his hospital bed in prison for the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in Long Island, New York. This was believed to be the oldest criminal case to be solved and prosecuted by direct DNA evidence. Cottingham pleaded guilty in a December court appearance and also confessed to killing four other women in Long Island, including Mary Beth Heinz, Laverne Moye, Sheila Heiman, and Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves.
In March 2023, retired Chief of Detectives for the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, Robert Anzilotti, managed to elicit another confession from Cottingham. This time, Cottingham admitted to the murder of Mary Ann Della Sala, who had disappeared in January 1967 after finishing her shift at the Shop-Rite on Essex Street in Hackensack, New Jersey.