Richard Cottingham

Case overview

Richard Francis Cottingham was a serial killer from New Jersey who operated in New York between 1967 and 1980. He was nicknamed “the torso killer” due to his habit of dismembering his victims, usually leaving nothing but a torso behind. He was eventually convicted of murder in 1981 after being caught fleeing an attempted murder.

He was linked to the murders of six people. Cottingham claimed between 85 and 100 murders.

Background

Cottingham lived in suburban New Jersey and had been described as aloof and private but a doting father who always took his children out trick-or-treating on Halloween. He was the recently separated father of three children.

Neighbors described him as a doting father. He was the son of an insurance industry executive and had been a high school athlete but nonetheless was described as a lonely boy.

Cottingham had been steadily employed for the last sixteen years as a computer operator at Empire State Blue Cross–Blue Shield insurance company on Third Avenue in midtown Manhattan. He was described as a valued and dependable employee, and he chose the 3:00–11:00 P.M. shift so he could do his killing in the morning, after work at night, or on weekends.

Cottingham was a respected family man who ran computers for a major health insurance firm. He was also a known regular at certain gay bars.

In April 1980, Cottingham’s wife filed for divorce, charging him with “extreme cruelty” and refusing to engage in marital sex since late 1976. The divorce affidavits further alleged that Cottingham was an habitual patron of gay bars and homosexual “spas” in Manhattan.

Surviving a custody period, Cottingham smashed a lens of his spectacles and attempted suicide by slashing his wrists with the glass.

A search of Cottingham’s home after his arrest revealed a trophy room containing personal effects from several of the murdered prostitutes.

Investigators reported that Cottingham had two arrests for consorting with hookers in the early 1970s, with both cases dismissed.

The offence

Cottingham’s crimes included dismemberment and mutilation of victims, often removing heads and hands and setting motel rooms on fire.

In one case, he dismembered two prostitutes in a motel room, taking the hands and heads with him before setting the room on fire. In another case, he stabbed and set a victim on fire after hacking off breasts.

One survivor’s testimony described rape, sodomy, forced oral sex at knifepoint, and biting of the breasts until they bled.

A survivor described Cottingham’s conduct as including being beaten, raped, sodomized, and forced to perform oral sex while he was armed with a knife, with bites and near-severing damage to her nipples.

Cottingham’s victims were described as mostly prostitutes, but one victim was described as a radiologist rather than a prostitute.

Victims

Deedeh Goodarzi

One victim was identified through hospital X rays as Kuwaiti-born Deedeh Goodarzi, 22, or 22-year-old Deedeh Goodarzi, and she was described as a prostitute from New Jersey and mother of a four-month baby in one account. Her missing body parts were never found.

Unidentified headless companion

The other headless corpse from the same incident was never identified and was estimated to be in her late teens in one account.

Helen Sikes

Homicide detectives linked the murder with that of teenage hooker Helen Sikes, who disappeared from Times Square in January 1979. When she was found, her throat was slashed so deeply that she was nearly decapitated. Her severed legs were found a block away, laid side-by-side in ritual fashion, as if still attached to the body.

Valerie Streets / Valerie Street

On May 5, 1980, police found another prostitute dead in a motel room. The victim was named Valerie Streets or Valerie Street. She was described as being beaten and strangled and stuffed under the bed of the room. Her breasts had been gnawed so violently that one nipple was nearly severed.

The body of nineteen-year-old Valerie Ann Street was found in a Hasbrouck Heights Quality Inn by housekeeping staff after housekeeping staff found something jammed under the bed. Her hands were tightly handcuffed behind her back. She had bite marks and had been beaten across the shins. She died of asphyxiation and traces of adhesive tape were found on her mouth.

One account states that Cottingham “carefully took it away with him after killing the girl,” while another account states that one of the victim’s property clues included fingerprint evidence taken from the inner ratchet of the cuffs.

Maryann Carr / Mary Ann Carr

A young nurse, Maryann Carr, was described as having been brutally slain at the same motel on December 16, 1977. Another account described Mary Ann Carr as a 26-year-old radiologist, found dumped by a chain-link fence near the parking lot of the same New Jersey motel two years previously. She had been cut about the chest and legs, beaten with a blunt instrument, and covered in bites and bruises. Her wrists showed marks from handcuffs and her mouth had traces of adhesive tape. She had been strangled and suffocated by the adhesive tape.

Police could not positively link the crimes in one account.

A later account stated that a year later, conviction on second-degree murder charges in the death of Maryann Carr added another sentence of 20 years to life.

Jean Reyner / Jean Mary Ann Reyner

On May 15, a prostitute was found murdered in a motel room. Her name was Jean Reyner or Jean Mary Ann Reyner. She was stabbed to death in a motel near Times Square. Her breasts had been hacked off and her body was set on fire.

Young girl victim (handcuffed to the bed)

A week after May 15, police were called to the same motel after someone reported a girl screaming as if she was being tortured. When police arrived, they caught a man trying to flee the room and found a young girl handcuffed to the bed. She was described as being in hysterics and “crapping on” while telling police what had been done to her.

She had been beaten, raped, sodomized, and forced at knife point to give the man a blow job. The man had also stabbed her and bit almost right through her nipples.

Leslie Ann O’Dell

Cottingham was arrested on May 22, 1980 after picking up 18-year-old Leslie Ann O’Dell, who was soliciting on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 25th Street. She had arrived in New York on a bus from Washington State four days earlier and was turned to street prostitution by bus station pimps.

He bought her drinks, talked to her about his job and house in the suburbs, offered to take her to a bus terminal in New Jersey, and after crossing the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey, he bought her a steak at an all-night diner. She agreed to have sex with him for $100.

They checked into the Hasbrouck Heights Quality Inn at around dawn. He drove to the back of the motel and they entered through a rear entrance. After leaving her alone, he returned carrying a paper bag with whiskey and an attaché case, then offered to give a massage, put a knife to her throat, and snapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists. He began torturing her, nearly biting off one of her nipples.

She 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.”

Investigation

Homicide detectives linked the murder connected with the Times Square hotel bodies to the earlier unsolved case involving Helen Sikes.

Detectives recalled that a young nurse, Maryann Carr, had been brutally slain at the same motel on December 16, 1977, though police could not positively link the crimes in one account.

The investigation linked Cottingham to other attacks in north Jersey and New York City that had occurred during the previous three years.

Police found that Cottingham had handcuffs, a leather gag, two “slave” collars, a switchblade and replica pistol, plus several bottles of pills at the time of his arrest.

A search of Cottingham’s home turned up a bizarre “trophy room,” containing personal effects from several of the murdered prostitutes.

Arrest

On May 22, 1980, officers responded to reports of a woman screaming from the motel in Hasbrouck Heights. They bagged a man emerging from the room and entered to find a teenage victim naked, handcuffed to the bed, hysterical from pain and fear. The victim had been beaten, raped and sodomized, forced to perform oral sex at knifepoint, after which her assailant slashed her with his blade and bit her breasts until they bled. Richard Cottingham was described as the prisoner.

Cottingham had been arrested for the attack.

Another account also described police arresting Cottingham in the hallway after he dashed out of the room when motel staff called police. He was apprehended by arriving police officers in the hallway.

Cottingham denied committing any of the murders to the bitter end, despite property found in his home and a fingerprint found on the handcuffs restraining one of the victims. He admitted: “I have a problem with women.”

Cottingham was held under $250,000 bond while detectives built their case.

Timeline

• December 16, 1977 — Maryann Carr was found brutally slain at a motel in the Hasbrouck Heights area.
• January 1979 — Teenage hooker Helen Sikes disappeared from Times Square.
• December 2, 1979 — New York City firemen responded to an alarm at a seedy hotel on West 42nd Street near Times Square; they discovered two headless bodies with hands removed and bodies set on fire.
• May 5, 1980 — Police found Valerie Streets/Valerie Street dead in a motel room in Hasbrouck Heights; she was beaten and strangled and stuffed under the bed.
• May 15, 1980 — Prostitute Jean Reyner/Jean Mary Ann Reyner was found stabbed to death in a motel near Times Square; her breasts were hacked off and her body set on fire.
• May 22, 1980 — Officers were called to a motel in Hasbrouck Heights after reports of a girl screaming; Cottingham was caught fleeing and was arrested.

Trial and sentencing

In May 1981, Cottingham was convicted on fifteen felony counts related to the murder of Valerie Street/Streets and received a sentence of 173 to 197 years in prison.

In a year later account, conviction on second-degree murder charges in the death of Maryann Carr added another sentence of 20 years to life.

In 1984, Cottingham was convicted on three counts of second-degree murder involving Times Square prostitutes and earned a final sentence of 75 years to life.

Another account described that in two following trials he was found guilty of four second degree murders, with one conviction related to Valerie Streets.

Appeals and outcomes

Cottingham’s convictions resulted in multiple life terms, described as occurring between 1981 and 1984.

Aftermath

While in prison, Cottingham attempted suicide by slashing his wrists with the glass and later smashed his glasses. He survived the attempted suicide and he was held under bond while detectives built the case.

Cottingham’s property and forensic evidence were described as contributing to his conviction. His fingerprint was described as being found on the handcuffs restraining one of the victims.

A later report stated that Bergen County authorities say Cottingham pleaded guilty last month in the 1967 slaying of Nancy Schiava Vogel. The resolution described the “culmination of years of traveling to the prison” by County Prosecutor John Molinelli to talk with Cottingham and part of an ongoing effort to close unsolved murder cases. Cottingham received a life term for the Vogel slaying and had sentences totaling more than 200 years for other killings that would run concurrent to those sentences.

The prosecutor John Molinelli was quoted: “the culmination of years of traveling to the prison” and he also said: “We always look at many past defendants for possible connections with all cases, but we have nothing active at this time.”

Nancy Schiava Vogel was described as a 29-year-old married mother of two who was strangled and found nude and bound body in her car in nearby Ridgefield Park. She had been last seen three days earlier when she left home to play bingo with friends at a local church. Cottingham and Vogel were described as both Little Ferry residents, and it was “believed that he killed her inside her vehicle.”

Other details

Cottingham’s nickname was “the torso killer.”

The missing body parts from the December 2, 1979 incident were never found despite an extensive search by police of the river area nearby.

X-rays identified one victim as Deedeh Goodarzi and the other headless corpse was never identified.

In the account describing the elevator encounter, Michael Newton described encountering Cottingham on an early Sunday morning in New York City in December 1979. Newton later recognized him when seeing Cottingham’s picture in the paper. Newton stated: “I’ve never come across something like that. I hope I never do again.”

Newton described finding corpses and later connected the encounter to the arrest and trial for mutilation murders of young women, mostly prostitutes, including the two victims at the hotel.

Michael Newton’s published description included Cottingham’s age as thirty-four at the time he learned Cottingham’s details, with Cottingham described as the recently separated father of three children. Newton also stated: “I couldn’t care less about upscale accommodations.”

Newton also described Cottingham as carrying severed heads and hands, and Newton included an explicit statement attributed to a firefighter, as noted above.

The narrative included that Cottingham denied committing any of the murders to the bitter end despite evidence including property found in his home and fingerprint evidence, and he said: “I have a problem with women.”

The narrative included a bibliography item: Rod Leith wrote “The Prostitute Murders” and another work titled The Torso Killer, both written by Rod Leith, a newspaper writer and local historian who had covered Cottingham’s case from the beginning.

Another work named included “Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters” by Peter Vronsky, which included a portrayal of Cottingham with multiple life terms between 1981–84 and described motive and method as sex/sadistic-lust offender.