Richard Cottingham

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. 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.

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.

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 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. 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. In March 2023, Anzilotti elicited another confession from Cottingham: the murder of a 17-year-old who vanished in 1967.

At 9 p.m. on January 24, 1967, 17-year-old Mary Ann Della Sala Cottingham's additional confession to a 1974 murder was discounted by Rockland County police. He pleaded guilty in a court appearance on December 5, and also officially admitted killing four other women during 1972 and 1973 in Long Island, New York: Mary Beth Heinz, Laverne Moye, Sheila Heiman and Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves. Diane Martin Cusick (23), DNA from semen discovered at the crime scene was extracted, and it matched a sample retrieved from Cottingham. The Green Acres Mall stood near a drive-in theater that Cottingham frequented. Authorities believe Cottingham approached Cusick while pretending to be a mall security guard. 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 South Nyack, New York. The victim had marks around her neck indicating that she had been strangled. The FBI identified the decedent as Lorraine Montalvo McGraw (26),

In media Cottingham's case has been discussed in several books and documentaries on serial killers. Two focused entirely on him: Rod Leith's The Prostitute Murders: The People vs. Richard Cottingham (Lyle Stuart Inc., 1983) and Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer (Netflix, 2021). He was also featured in a two-hour special episode of People Magazine Investigates entitled “The Times Square Killer” (Investigation Discovery, 2023). Cottingham's subsequent prison confessions to cold case murders were the focus of the two-part The Torso Killer Confessions (Hulu, 2023). Denise Falasca's murder is the focus of the podcast "Denise Didn't Come Home." (2024). The victims' stories are honored in the podcast "Method & Madness"(2026) .