All language subtitles for The.Torso.Killer.Confessions.S01E01.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG

♪

[Monitor
continues beeping]

[Anzilotti] This is
Richard Cottingham.

By all accounts,
he's dying.

Personally, I think he's
like a cockroach and

he just lives forever.

In the world of
serial killers,

I would rank
Richard Cottingham

up there with the
worst of them.

[Reporter] ...firemen were
the first to arrive on the

scene at about
9:30 this morning.

Two women were
found decapitated,

with their hands
cut off as well.

♪

It could be up to 100
women that he's killed...

New Jersey,
and beyond.

He's flown under the
radar all this time...

because he's not given up
all of his crimes.

♪

After 18 years of time
with this savage...

I've been able to get a
number of confessions.

It was a flat-out negotiation.

He's the king of all deals.

It's all about, "What
are you gonna do for me?"

That was a big thing
for him, control.

♪

My game with him was to
get him to confess...

To bring a measure
of peace and

closure to the
victims' families.

Their minds,
over these decades,

race with theories and
race with suspects,

some of whom were in
their own families.

They want to know
what happened.

♪

Richard Cottingham is
responsible for a lot more.

♪

I was not done with him.

You can take all the serial
killers there's ever been.

There's not been
one like me.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

In the year 2000,

I was assigned a
series of cold cases.

The majority of them were
from 1974 through 1965.

♪

When I pulled the cases,
the evidence officer

gives me boxes and
boxes and boxes...

Report after report,

lab results after
lab results,

crime scene photo after
crime scene photo.

♪

I was pretty much the new guy
in the homicide squad and,

this was an overwhelming
and daunting task...

for somebody that
was kind of

green around the gills.

What I didn't know when I
first started digging through

those files was that it would
ignite a fire inside of me.

♪

There were twelve cases.

There were a number
of girls that were

either last seen
hitchhiking...

or had been picked up
by a stranger.

Ultimately, raped
and then murdered,

dumped in and around
Bergen County.

Bergen County is situated
in the northern part of

New Jersey, and it is just
across the Hudson River

from New York City.

♪

The whole community
was in shock.

Kids stopped walking
home from school.

All these girls were
innocent.

Innocent kids.

You know, they had a
life ahead of them.

There were a lot of theories.

They never found who did it.

And it went on
for a long time.

♪

Everybody was a suspect.

Even back in the
beginning days...

the priest of the
church was a suspect.

♪

It never seemed
to go anywhere.

Guy going around killing
girls from Bergen County,

you figure somebody
knew something.

My life changed immediately.

I had no more sister.

My family wanted answers.

Who, where, when, why?
We had no idea.

You go from one as
young as 13, and then,

you know, one as old
as 29 years old.

They're wildly different
in some aspects

of their victimology.

♪

At the time, the community of
Bergen County is just really

on edge, and the police
are just all-in trying to

figure out if there's
any commonalities

between these killings.

They're not finding any.

♪

They had several
main suspects...

who may or may not
have been involved.

♪

There was a convicted
rapist, Raymond Alves.

He claimed he'd
killed 15 women,

and he was up for parole.

There was Robert Reldan,
a former honor student

who had been
involved in rapes.

Another suspect
was Joe Kallinger,

who was known as 'The
Shoemaker' for a knife that

he used in a murder
spree in three states,

which ended in
Bergen County...

with the death of a nurse.

I went through all
these suspects.

I flew all over the
country following leads.

And they all went nowhere.

The one name that I
couldn't eliminate

was Richard Cottingham.

Richard Cottingham
In 1980,

had been convicted of
killing five women.

Three were in
New York City,

two were in Bergen County.

Those killings in
Times Square dubbed him

'The Torso Killer' by the
New York media.

Because several of
the victims had

their heads cut off,
their hands cut off,

and the room lit on fire.

♪

He ultimately got caught
in Bergen County

trying to rape and kill
another woman...

at a local motel in Hasbrouck
Heights, New Jersey.

[News] Cottingham is being
held in a jail adjacent to

the Bergen County Courthouse.

He was originally charged
with aggravated sexual

assault and attempted murder
of a woman thought to be

a prostitute on May 22nd,
in a Jersey motel.

[Anzilotti] Of these 12
cold case homicides that

I'm investigating,
some of them were

all centered
around this area.

Cottingham was incarcerated
since his arrest in 1980.

In the years that followed,
some NYPD detectives,

as well as Bergen County
detectives attempted to

gain his cooperation in
unsolved murders.

Unfortunately, it never
materialized into anything.

♪

Everything I knew about him
at that point was

focused in the late 70s,
up until 1980.

Had no idea if he could
have been operating

in the 60s or early 70s.

But certainly,
it was a possibility

just based on his age.

So, he was always just
lingering in the back of

my head as like, hey, one day,
I gotta get to this guy

Cottingham and see if he's
good for any of these.

♪

In 2003, I got
promoted to sergeant,

and that's when I moved on
to the street crimes unit.

It was known as the Special
Investigations Squad.

And as a sergeant,

I was responsible for a
number of detectives.

We were putting together
really big cases.

But in between there,
I made sure I always

found the time for my
cold case work.

There was many a
Sunday night

where I'd put the
kids to bed and,

I would take an A to Z file
full of reports and

crime scene photos...

and just pour a glass of
wine at my dining room table

and just...

spend hours poring over
the cases and taking notes,

just on my own time.

Doing these cold cases was
not my only job or

my only assignment,
by any stretch.

You've got a whole bunch of
cases that you're assigned to.

You've got other homicides,

you've got active organized
crime investigations.

Yet, you had to find time to
work the cold cases

because we never,
ever close them.

Never.

[Anzilotti]
Having daughters...

and then investigating the
rapes and murders of these

young girls, as teenagers,
really hit home for me.

And I wanted to give
these families

some sense of justice.

♪

I just grew so attached
to these cases.

I knew them inside and out.

I had been studying
them for years,

kind of on a
part-time basis,

and got very
passionate about it.

But I wasn't
making any inroads,

and that really
just nagged at me.

I never wanted
to forget them,

I never wanted to
give up on them.

♪

In just researching some
different suspects...

the name Richard Cottingham
kept coming up again.

♪

I was aware that other
detectives before me had

tried to speak to Cottingham,
and he never cooperated.

How am I going to get this
guy Cottingham to talk to me?

♪

By sheer coincidence,
Cottingham was housed in the

same prison, on the same
wing with 'The Iceman'.

♪

Besides these 12 cold cases
involving young females,

I was also looking
into a number of

other cold case homicides...

some of which involved
mob-style hits.

This led me to Richard
'The Iceman' Kuklinski.

The Iceman was at that time
incarcerated for

a number of homicides
that he had committed

in and around Bergen County.

He purported himself to
be a hitman for the mob.

He was very boastful
about his killings,

and his ties to the mafia.

It is New Jersey, and
we're certainly well-known,

especially back then, for our
traditional organized crime.

The typical La Cosa Nostra,

Soprano-style
organized crime cases:

loansharking,
illegal gambling,

extortion, prostitution.

Kuklinski got the nickname
'The Iceman'

because he actually
killed somebody,

put them in a freezer to
try and change the body

temperature to fool
the medical examiner.

♪

Well, he got caught
eventually for it so,

I don't know how
much it worked, but...

All these guys think
they're so ----ing smart.

♪

I spent hundreds
of hours with him.

I'd have him transported
up from the prison.

He'd stay at the
Bergen County Jail.

Eventually,
I developed a

relationship with him.
really good

He began to trust me enough
that I got a number of

unsolved homicides
out of him.

♪

Rob built such a relationship
with Kuklinski that

Kuklinski became
Rob's informant...

on anything that Kuklinski
could come up with.

I figured this might be a
way to get to Cottingham.

One particular interview,
I bring up his name.

And I'm like, "Hey, do you
know this guy, Cottingham?"

And Kuklinski had the most,
just vile reaction,

and he just was like,
"I hate that scumbag."

And he's like,
"What kind of an animal

does these things to women?"

♪

Richard Kuklinski,
known as 'The Iceman',

was housed in
New Jersey State Prison.

The Iceman is probably
one of the most foreboding

individuals I've ever
seen in my life.

He was like 6"8,

just a huge human being.

He had a hair-trigger temper.

This is unwarranted.

Unnecessary.

These guys watch
too many movies.

He could be a
really scary dude.

♪

The strange twist to my
relationship with The Iceman

is that during our
conversations...

when I asked Kuklinski
about Cottingham,

it became quickly evident
that he despised Cottingham.

To kind of get this from
this big, giant of a,

of a guy who kills people,

and now he's got his
own moral code

where he's disgusted by
this other killer.

So, he began to cooperate
with me and kind of

give me some dirt
on Cottingham.

Turns out- Kuklinski
explains to me-

Cottingham ran an
illegal gambling operation

within the prison.

♪

So, he used to run like, like
football and baseball and

all sorts of gambling through
these tickets, right?

Like, like an illegal lottery.

And I decided that
that would be my in.

♪

In early 2004,
the Super Bowl

that year was in
Houston, Texas.

I'd never been
to a Super Bowl.

♪

I thought it'd be really
cool if me and my dad

took the trip out there,
and took in the game.

I had amazing seats.

The only thing that detracted
from my Super Bowl experience

was the anxiousness
and the anxiety...

wondering whether
this plan that I had

was actually
going to work.

♪

Having years of
prior experience

in the Organized
Crime Squad,

investigating
illegal gambling,

doing undercover work,
purporting to be a bookmaker,

I understand there's no
crazier gambling day

than Super Bowl Sunday.

♪

In the weeks that led up
to that Super Bowl Sunday,

I made all the
arrangements with

the investigators
at the prison,

gave them all the
information they needed to...

enact my plan...

for Cottingham's cell to be
raided by prison officials

the morning after
Super Bowl Sunday.

When they
searched his cell,

they found evidence
of the gambling operation,

and Cottingham was
thrown into the hole.

In the prison system,
'the hole' was

basically solitary
confinement.

♪

You were removed
from your cell,

all your privileges
were revoked.

You didn't go outside,
you had no fresh air.

There's no air conditioning.

The New Jersey prison
at the time was old and,

it was not fun.

♪

Several days later,

I go down to the prison
with my partner.

♪

They pull him
out of the hole,

and bring him to
an interview room.

I see this nearly
60-year-old guy,

long white beard...
belly.

Looking like a Santa Claus
with a really bad hangover.

You know, his eyes
were bloodshot.

He's dripping in sweat.

And I just looked
at him and told him,

"I'm the reason
you're in there."

♪

He looked at me with
some pretty wild eyes.

And I didn't even give him
a chance to respond and was

just like, "I am going to
make your life a living hell

unless we have
a conversation."

He, of course, did not
confess to anything.

Didn't agree to anything.

The only thing he
would agree to is...

that he would be willing
to have continued

conversations with me
on one condition.

And that condition was,

if I ever tried to mess
with him again like this,

our relationship
would be over.

♪

Thankfully, my gut
intuition told me

that he wasn't bluffing,

and that the right move
was to just try and

begin to schmooze him and
begin to develop a trust.

I needed to

take a different tact than
that initial approach.

That the tough guy routine
wasn't going to work with him.

♪

♪

I started with Richard
Cottingham in early 2004.

I had no idea what cases he
might be responsible for.

It was just a feeling
that maybe he was

responsible for
some of them.

♪

I was visiting him
at the prison.

I just told him, "Hey, I think
you committed crimes

long before you
were arrested."

I spent a lot of time with
him to try and build a

relationship, but he refused
to talk about anything new.

Anzilotti understood he was
in it for the long game.

And that means he's going to
spend a lot of time and

come away with nothing,
time after time after time.

But, if he played it right
and he stayed vigilant

for the weak spots,

the openings...

he would be able
to get information.

♪

And it's difficult to...

spend hours with someone
and feel like

you're not
accomplishing anything.

But like water dropping
on a rock, okay...

eventually the rock begins
to smooth out and change.

You're going to crack it.

Rob was persistent,
he never gave up.

Rob Anzilotti was
handpicked because of

who Rob Anzilotti was.
He was just a great cop.

♪

I did not always
want to be a cop.

I was kind of a, you know,
confused, mixed up teenager.

I didn't know what the
hell I wanted to do.

My mom was a nurse.

I always kind of just had a
thing about helping people.

So, I became a paramedic.

Worked in Newark
for a while.

It was during the crack
epidemic, very violent city.

Saw a lot of,
lot of crazy stuff.

That's what brought me
to law enforcement,

just seeing how hard the
cops worked and

what they had to deal with.

I loved it from the minute
I put the uniform on.

♪

That same passion that I felt
when I first put the uniform

on was only amplified
and magnified

when I became a detective.

In 2004, I was a
sergeant in the

Special
Investigations Squad.

The new chief formed that
squad and hand-picked

the people that
go into it.

I was given a lot
of leeway to do...

whatever I felt,
without anyone

interrupting me dealing
with Cottingham.

♪

Once I was talking to
Richard Cottingham

for those early months,

he would give me
absolutely nothing.

It was worse than
pulling teeth,

it was like just hitting
a brick wall all the time.

There was no way
for me to let it go,

because at some point,
to let it go

would be a complete failure,

and I couldn't
accept failure.

I really saw these baby steps
as an opportunity to get

where I needed to go
with these 12 cold cases.

The best way to
get there was

to just get him talking
all the time,

and he grew comfortable
talking about crimes

that the world knew he
committed already,

crimes he went to trial on,
crimes he was convicted of.

Prior to his arrest, he went
on this murderous...

frenzy, in just a
handful of weeks,

when he was hunting
prostitutes.

♪

I was on routine
patrol that morning.

♪

And then, that first call
on the radio came through.

♪

"Go down to the Quality Inn.

There's a report of a
woman screaming in a room."

♪

As I pulled into the
motel parking lot,

there was a man
waving frantically.

He says, "There's
a man with a gun."

♪ [Suspenseful] ♪

We received a radio message

about a woman screaming
at the Quality Motel...

in Hasbrouck Heights,
on route 17.

♪

When I came into
the small lobby,

down the hallway from
around the corner,

I saw a man
running towards me.

He was carrying a satchel,

and he had a gun.

As he rounded the corner...

I yelled,
"Stop, don't move!"

He stopped approximately
one inch from the barrel.

Had he moved his right hand,

I would have pulled
the trigger.

There was no ifs,
ands, or buts.

He dropped all his
parcels on the ground.

He says, "I didn't
do anything.

I was with a hooker
and got scared."

His name was
Richard Cottingham.

♪

Inside the room,
they found a young female

identified as Leslie O'Dell.

Leslie O'Dell was naked.

She had handcuffs
on her ankles.

She recounted a story about

how she had met
a male in New York,

and he had taken
her to the motel.

Leslie O'Dell was working
as a streetwalker

in New York City.

Cottingham was able to
convince her to come with him

under the promise that he
would give her money so

she could get out of the
prostitution business.

So, she got into the
car with Cottingham,

they went to New Jersey.

♪

Next thing you know, they end
up in the Quality Inn Motel.

What started out as a
simple sexual encounter

suddenly escalated with
bondage and torture.

♪

He was just beginning.

♪

He handcuffed her on
her ankles because

he was afraid she was
going to escape.

She had adhesive
tape on her mouth.

♪

He cut her in the
area of her breasts,

burned her with a cigarette...

sodomized her.

At some point, he decides
he wants a tongue bath,

which means he wants her to
lick him all over his body.

But in order to do that,

he has to take the tape
off her mouth.

She saw an opportunity,
she lets out a scream.

♪

[Knocking]

Richard Cottingham is
standing behind

Leslie O'Dell with a
knife to her back:

"Tell her
everything's okay."

"Is everything okay?"
"Yes."

At this point, he realizes
the jig is up.

♪

Everything begins to collapse.

Richard Cottingham's
going to be under arrest.

♪

And now they have
a living witness.

♪

After Leslie Ann O'Dell
is rescued by the police,

they find a number of things.

They find a bottle of whiskey.

And he was known to
be a big drinker.

And encouraged his
victims to drink.

He would use drugs
to drug his victims,

barbiturates and other
downers, so to speak,

to kind of relax them,
and then get them to pass out.

You know, clearly,
this is a mouth gag.

Put it in, he would put
it in somebody's mouth,

tie the collar around.

And, that would be a
way to keep them silent.

These chokers that I
assume he would put on

his victim's neck.

So, these two
pair of handcuffs.

I have two daughters
and, and for me,

it comes to like I just
couldn't fathom, you know,

having one of my loved ones,
one of my daughters...

be brutally attacked
like this by an animal.

He's got kids.

He's got a girl, he has a
wife that he didn't abuse,

as far as I know.

And yet, look at what he's
doing to total strangers.

I think he thought
he was untouchable.

♪

Having looked at the
crime scene photos

of Leslie Ann O'Dell,

there were some similarities
to some of the unsolved

cold cases that I had
been looking at.

Some of the victims of these
cold cases had ligature marks

on their ankles,
on their wrists.

Some were found tied up.

By letting him just
talk and ramble,

I'm learning what
makes him tick...

and that was really,
really important

in those early years.

He would talk in
general terms about

what he would
call 'hunting'.

So, I began to
learn about, like,

some of his killing methods.

Does this guy have
a beef with women?

Is there something in
his past that led him

to become this
killer that he is?

I really had no idea.

♪

Richard Cottingham was
a young family man.

He lived in Lodi,
New Jersey.

A wife, three children...

had a good job in the
computer division of

Blue Cross Blue Shield
in New York.

He was a smart individual,
but very manipulative.

♪

His parents were
decent people.

He didn't come
from a bad home.

He comes from a
Catholic background.

He's always told me that

he's not your typical
serial killer.

Richard Cottingham
oversimplifies

what it means to be
a serial killer.

And he seems to think that
they all enjoy killing,

and that isn't true.

Only some of them
enjoy killing.

Many of them do exactly
what he did- or said he did-

which is to torture someone,
and then

remove the witness...

and that is a lot
of serial killers.

He fits that.

Because of the way that

Leslie O'Dell was abused...

made us suspect immediately

that there was
a connection to

a number of
unsolved homicides

that occurred at
the same motel.

♪

♪

A maid cleaning room 132,
while she's vacuuming,

bumps into something
under the bed.

She looks under the bed,
she lets out a scream.

♪

On May 22nd, 1980,

Cottingham is caught
at the Quality Inn in

Hasbrouck Heights as he
tries to flee the scene...

after attempting to
kill Leslie O'Dell.

Staff had been
totally on high alert,

as had the local police,
because just weeks earlier...

another dead body was found
stuffed under a bed

in that same
Quality Inn Motel.

What the investigators
find is 19-year-old,

Valerie Street...

a known prostitute who had
just recently been arrested

for prostitution offenses.

♪

Valerie Ann Street was naked.

She had what appeared to be

adhesive residue
around her mouth.

She had handcuffs
on her wrists.

There was a latent
fingerprint that was lifted

from the handcuffs,

and that print was retained.

Richard explained to me
that he graduated-

so to speak-

to really focusing on raping
and murdering prostitutes

because he felt
that they were

less accountable in society.

He has a story where,

"Women would do
anything I wanted."

Which just tells you

he would only go for women
that would yield to him-

for money or because they
were young and scared and

didn't know
what else to do.

♪

Because of the similarities
amongst those cases,

we weren't just interested
in what occurred with

O'Dell, we were
interested in other things.

Almost three years before
Valerie Ann Street's murder,

another homicide had
occurred at the Quality Inn.

♪

Maryann Carr was
a young, attractive

x-ray technician...

who lived with her husband
in an apartment

at Ledgewood Terrace
in Little Ferry.

Her husband had been
away on a business trip.

When he attempted to
get a hold of her,

he wasn't able to.

And after several tries
he became concerned.

♪

The next morning,
I was notified

that a body had been
found in the parking area

of the Quality Inn Motel in
Hasbrouck Heights.

♪

Maryann was lying
near the parking area,

next to a chain link fence.

She's wearing her white
x-ray tech uniform.

She is lying and
kind of curled up,

where she obviously
had been dumped.

♪

There are ligature marks
on her hands and her feet.

There are tears
in her uniform.

Somebody had sexually
assaulted her and then

redressed her.

She had been strangled.

♪

You know, of my 12 cold cases
involving these young women,

the overwhelming
majority of them were

either strangled
or suffocated.

♪

It was a mystery.

And there was no connection
whatsoever between

Maryann Carr and
Valerie Street...

♪

Until they caught
Richard Cottingham

running from the building.

♪

We compared
Cottingham's fingerprint to

the latent fingerprint on

Valerie Ann Street's
handcuffs.

♪

And it was a homerun.

We knew we had the right guy.

He would not admit
his guilt in any of it.

It was like a game of cat and
mouse between the two of us.

You can't feed anything
to them and

put thoughts in their head.

And that's also part of
what this whole

kind of grind is with him
because, you know,

he had no fear in talking
about the things

he was already convicted of,

but he refused to talk
about anything new.

♪

He's not just willing to just
sit there and say to me,

"In 1969, I remember
killing this 15-year-old."

It's not like that with him.

You kind of have to just get

these little bits and
pieces and put it together.

You're getting something,
but you don't want the guy

to know you're
getting something,

because he's trying
to control that

piece of information.

And you have to be
very cool about it...

because he could
shut it down and say,

"That's it,
no more talking."

'Cause he realizes he
just lost leverage.

That's not okay for
someone who needs control.

♪

We executed a search
warrant at his house...

and on his vehicles.

He had a locked room
in the basement.

His wife, Janet,
was asked about that,

and she said, "Yes,
that is his room.

I know nothing about it.
He keeps it locked,

and I'm not
allowed in there."

She was in the process of
filing for divorce from him.

They had trouble
in the marriage.

His wife had said she
was going to leave him and

take his three kids with her.

He blames that for the
reason why he got, "sloppy".

He doesn't want a
divorce, necessarily,

but that he cannot let her be
the one in charge of that...

and she was, she's the one
who made the first move.

Someone who is a
narcissist like he is,

his children are
extensions of himself.

There's an ownership
thing there.

She will not take them.

She will not take the
stability of his life.

♪

Inside that locked room
were a number of items:

money, some
pornography magazines,

women's jewellery,

some articles of
women's clothing.

♪

These were all books that
were found in Cottingham's

residence when the detectives
searched his house.

So, like, "Sex Victims:
Stories of Surrender".

There's,
"The Prisoner of the Sheik,"

and a woman tied up
on the cover.

"Tied Up Teasers," with
two women tied to a bed.

"The Boyfriend's Revenge".

Two men who look like they're
about to rape a woman.

So, finding these books,
I'm sure the detectives

when they found them
were like,

"Wow, we just
found gold here."

Once Bergen County
connected those cases...

they're going to
find out that

it was much bigger than
they thought it was.

Firemen were the first to
arrive at the scene

at about 9:30 this morning.

They were responding to
a report of a fire in

a west side hotel room.

They find two young,
nude bodies

with no heads and hands.

It was something out
of a horror movie.

♪

The New York City Fire
Department was called to the

Travel Inn Hotel on
West 42nd Street

on a report of a fire.

♪

They went into the room,
they dragged the

body of a nude female
from the room.

♪

Pulled it into the hallway,
was about to give

mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,
but there was no head.

♪ [Suspenseful] ♪

And in an effort to
cover up that homicide,

their heads and hands had
been removed and severed and

taken from the scene.

To this day,
they've never been found.

♪

There were marks on their
legs, arm, back, buttocks,

incised marks, but
also puncture marks.

♪

You're dealing with a
psychopathic sexual sadist.

This was pure evil.

[News] Today police search
for clues into the death of

the young women,
both white and about

19 to 20 years old.

A spokesman said the
cuts were very clean.

Probably inflicted
with a butcher's tool,

a surgical instrument,
or sword.

♪

These two women had been held
in that room for three days:

November 29th to
December 2nd.

♪

In an effort to
identify the victims

from the Travel Inn hotel,

they came up with the
creative idea of actually

putting the victims'
clothes on a mannequin...

and then putting a picture
of that in the newspaper.

The news was all
over the place.

♪

He was called the
'Torso Killer'.

♪

After two months,
someone from New Jersey

recognized the
clothing of one person

from the Midtown Torso case.

♪

That resulted in the
positive identification

of Deedeh Goodarzi.

She was a prostitute.

♪

[News] Miss Goodarzi was
born in Kuwait and

came to the US
when she was 14.

Her family lives
in Trenton, NJ.

Police are still looking for
information about the

other victim, last seen
wearing these clothes.

♪

Unfortunately, the second
victim- to this day-

remains a Jane Doe.

The investigators, despite
their best efforts,

have never been able
to identify her.

♪

Four months later, the body
of yet another prostitute is

found murdered at the Hotel
Seville in Times Square.

When the body was recovered,
there were no clothes.

He had taken the clothes.

[Sirens continue]

Firefighters were called
to the Hotel Seville,

which is at 29th Street
and Madison Avenue.

Once again, a hotel
room was on fire.

Inside the hotel room was
a nude body of a victim.

♪

The body had been burned

with the same type
of torture marks

that were on the girls
at the Midtown Torso case.

♪

And this time, the offender
had defeminized the victim,

removing both of her breasts.

And that was pretty shocking
because the breasts

were then put on
the headboard,

presented by the offender
to the authorities.

♪

That was a hotel
room from hell.

Only Satan could tell you
what went on in there.

The victim at the
Hotel Seville

was another prostitute.

She was identified
as Jean Ann Reyner.

♪

As I researched the cases
that Cottingham had been

convicted of, they were
all so brutal in nature.

Decapitation,
defeminizing.

And, those were very
different than

the 12 cold cases of these
young women in

Bergen County that I
was investigating.

So, at times I questioned:

Am I wasting my time
with Cottingham?

Is he even responsible
for any of these?

But, as the interviews
went on and on

over the months and years,

Cottingham would constantly
explain to me that

he always
changed up his MO.

So, he didn't want the
police to think

any of these killings
were related.

It didn't take the New York
authorities less than a

New York minute to
connect these cases.

And that's when New York
communicated

with Bergen County.

A New York detective
saw the paper, and said,

"Listen, this
might be our case."

The New York City
Homicide Task Force

wanted to come over and
view our evidence

to see if there was a
connection to three of

their open homicides
that occurred

within months of
Cottingham's arrest.

They had executed
a search warrant

at his house in
Lodi, New Jersey.

They came upon
a room that

even Cottingham's wife
was not allowed in.

His trophy room.

Serial killers,
they collect

trophies of their victims.

Kind of like a
hunting trophy,

proof of the kill.

That's how the cases
were linked to New York,

with the trophy room.

So, this was big.

Our evidence was
in New Jersey.

♪

After Cottingham's arrest,

a search of his
residence finds

a necklace that ultimately
is tied back to Jean Reyner.

♪

Jean Ann Reyner
had been arrested

a few days prior
to the homicide,

and in the BCI picture is
the necklace on her neck.

It's an exact match.

♪

There's still a very sick,
sick killer on the loose.

The man who cut off the,
the heads and hands

of two women in a
Manhattan hotel room.

Now, the police have a lot
more questions than answers.

It was three days ago that
News Center 4 told you

police in New Jersey believe
they had a suspect in

the brutal killings of
several prostitutes.

That report was
confirmed today,

with the arrest of a
man by the name of

Richard Cottingham.

[Laughing]

We never offered him a deal.

♪

We laid all of this out
before the grand jury,

and the grand jury
returned an indictment

for the crimes of assault
and kidnapping

against Leslie Ann O'Dell,

with crime of murder
against Valerie Ann Street.

♪

But it was entirely
circumstantial against

Maryann Carr, but her murder
was also included

in the same indictment.

♪

He pled not guilty and
took every case to trial.

Would not cooperate,
would not...

admit his guilt in any of it.

♪

The thing that put him at
the scene of the

Valerie Ann Street case
was the fingerprint

that had been taken off
of the handcuffs

that were on her body.

♪

We brought in
Leslie Ann O'Dell.

She was very reluctant
to come to testify,

but she was cooperative.

She was very matter of fact,
she remembered everything.

She got on the stand
and just levelled him.

"He drugged me,
raped me.

He, he cut my breasts."

And he just sat
there stone-faced.

But it didn't
seem to faze him.

He thought,
"Ain't gonna matter.

I'm going to testify, and
I'll explain all of this."

He was running the show,
it was his show.

♪

So, he did take the stand.

His demeanor was very calm.

Mr. Cottingham thought
somehow that

he was going to
beat the wrap.

♪

He admitted that
he engaged in

sadomasochistic
sexual activity.

He claimed it was
all consensual...

that this was all a game.

♪

He had lives within
lives within lives.

♪

His mother came in every day.

And his sister,
which was even worse,

because they still
believed in him.

And I'd say,
"Mrs. Cottingham,

this is not good."

"Oh, oh, no, no,
no, he's innocent,

he's innocent."
"Okay..."

♪

If Cottingham's
mother dismissed...

the things she's
learning that he did,

she is already the
role model for

his minimization
at what he did.

If it doesn't matter to her,
and that's the woman

who raised him, it certainly
does not matter to him.

If convicted on all counts,

Cottingham faces
a maximum of

274 years in prison,
plus life.

And he still faces trial in
New York City for the murders

and mutilations of two
Midtown prostitutes.

That trial comes after
this one's finished.

The jury was not
out very long,

about a day and a half.

The sentence he received
really ensured

that he would never
see the light of day.

After that, he was
taken over to New York,

where he was tried for
the homicides that

he had committed in
New York City.

♪

By 1984,
Richard Cottingham is

sentenced to
five life sentences

between New York
and New Jersey.

♪

Effectively put away for
the remainder of his days.

♪

♪

Fast forward to 2004.

I spent hundreds of hours
with him at the prison.

♪

I had these 12 cold cases.

I thought he could be
good for some of them.

And yet, I was just
making no progress.

I tried everything
I could think of.

Cottingham went to
Catholic grammar school.

I've tried to play the
religious theme on him

as well, knowing that he
had that background.

Told him to cleanse his soul.

This is another way
that he can...

kind of make peace with God.

I've played that theme
over and over and over.

Trying to draw an ounce of
empathy out of him

for the victims' families.

♪

The family members
have a tremendous

thirst for information.
It just never goes away.

They want to know
what happened.

Over the years
he would say,

"Why would I do that if it's
going to hurt me?"

♪

The three children were
obviously adults now.

He claimed that he had
a sensitivity towards

his children reading about
him in the newspaper.

Every time you think
you're making progress

with this guy he throws
another excuse on

why he's not willing to give
you what you need.

Eventually he complained...

he didn't like when I
visited him at the prison

because the other
inmates knew that

he was getting pulled out.

♪

It looks like he's a rat.

I thought for sure
at any given moment,

he's going to completely
tank on me and stop it.

♪

Early on, Richard was
complaining that

I was visiting him
at the prison.

There's a process
in a prison, right.

Just because I'm a detective,
I didn't just get to walk in

the prison and go up to
his cell and be like,

"Hey, Richard,
how are you?"

They'd have to get guards
to bring him down so,

he would walk past
the prison population.

You know, it doesn't go
over well with the

prison population, he's
cooperating with the police.

Even if all he's
telling on is himself.

He would have to
walk past The Iceman,

and The Iceman would
quietly chuckle to himself.

He knew exactly
where he was going.

He wanted me to get him
out of the prison and say,

you know, "Bring me up
to Bergen County

where these guys don't
see what I'm doing."

♪

It gave me an excuse to
bring him onto my home turf,

where I can control
the visit better.

♪

Just me and a partner
would go down, pick him up,

drive him up to
Bergen County,

talk to him for hours,
drive him back.

♪

I would keep him overnight.

We put him in our
own cellblock.

♪

The next morning, pull him
out and start all over again.

Feed him an egg sandwich,
a cup of coffee,

and we'd go at it again.

It was just a total cat and
mouse game that we would play.

♪

Each of us was trying
to play the other.

There was no way to
talk about murders

all day long and...

think I would get
anywhere with him.

If I was really going to
build trust with this guy,

there had to be times where
he felt like, you know,

I was just being his friend...

as despicable and
disgusting as that is.

♪

We'd have him up and,
sometimes just play cards.

♪

I'd have six detectives
in my office,

and we'd sit around
and play poker,

after we were done
interrogating him for a day.

♪

Even though he's treating
him like a human...

he's an animal.

It's hard to sit down
with the devil and

make believe
you're the same.

♪

He just kept putting obstacle
after obstacle in front of me

on why he wouldn't talk
about another case.

He's the type of offender
who trusts in language.

He thinks that if he
puts things into his

own narrative,
he will control reality,

he will control what
his crimes mean.

You're dealing with a clever,
malignant narcissist.

Richard Cottingham is
playing a game for,

"What can I get
out of this?"

So, he wanted
something back.

"What are you going
to do for me?"

There were a few staples
that Richard always wanted,

and that kept him happy.

And they were
relatively simple,

so why not give
them to him?

♪

He loved pizza from a
certain pizza place.

I'd send detectives go
pick up a couple of pies.

He loved sausage and
extra cheese pizza.

♪

He liked donuts
from Dunkin' Donuts.

There were times he'd
ask for cheeseburgers.

If it starts with a deck
of cards, or a pizza,

it's almost like a trading,
a horse trading going on.

After I met his demands...

he began to
cooperate with me.

He began to open up
about the past.

This is where I would sense
the opening to be like,

let me try and get
something from him.

We did one day get
to the point of

doing what we call like a
'queen for a day',

which is a proffer
agreement where we say,

"You're going to come in,
whatever you tell us today

is not going to be
used against you

in a court of law."

During that
proffer session,

he gave a little
bit of detail...

that he killed a housewife
in October of 1967.

He said that he believed
that she had children.

This was the break
I'd been waiting for.

♪

We're finally here.
We're finally at this moment.

♪

Of all the unsolved
homicides that

I had been looking at
involving young women...

Nancy Vogel was really the
only one that had children.

So, it was just that little
tidbit that made me then

go get the file,
look at it and

really start studying the
Vogel homicide.

Nancy Vogel was
a 29-year-old

married mother of two.

Her children were nine
and five years old.

♪

1967 was a, was a
different, different world.

♪

In Little Ferry,
we had a...

a typical Italian setup-
the two-family house

with the finished basement
where everyone ate and my

grandmother lived upstairs,
we lived in the middle.

♪

She was always happy,

she was always
doing things for us.

She always- you know,
she's the perfect mom.

We used to, every year,
go to Wildwood and

having fun on the beach.

Always laughing.

♪

And then, it was a day
or two before Halloween.

My life would change.

My sister went to my father
about 2, 3 o'clock

in the morning and said,
"Mommy's not home."

♪

By the time I woke up,
it was, you know,

8, 9 o'clock
in the morning.

People were at the house,
and it was frantic, chaos.

♪

My father and my uncle-
which is my mother's brother-

went to the
police department.

They were driving around
town looking for her,

calling friends and relatives
that she might have been with.

She was missing
for a day or two.

♪

I was in 6th grade,
and I came home

from Catholic school
with my friend.

And there was a car over here
that did not look familiar.

And, we looked into the car,
and we saw something

that looked like
a mannequin.

It was indeed
not a mannequin,

and it was a woman.

♪

She was wedged between the

back of the front seat
and on the floor.

Her arms were tied,
and she was naked.

♪

So, we ran in the house
to call the police.

They're like,
"A dead body?"

I'm like, "Yes, I think
there's a dead body

in the car in front
of my house."

They came immediately.

They dusted the
door for prints.

And, news people came, and
they were taking pictures.

♪

Neighbors from all over
the place were down,

asking questions.
Nothing happened here, ever.

So, it was huge.

♪

So my grandmother
was making us lunch.

♪

And my sister
opens the door,

and it was the
newspaper, saying,

"Now that you found out
that your mother's dead,

how do you feel about it?"

And my sister was
like, shocked.

And then, they came
into the house,

and they talked to my
grandmother, my nanny.

And, in Italian,

she sent them to hell and
cursed them out.

♪

It was bad.

I just remember just watching
everybody yelling and crying

and not really
understanding it.

So, that's how we found out.

♪

The cops, you know,
worked diligently

on the case
back in 1967.

Documentation of
what was done

wasn't up to
today's standards.

And we find this a lot of
times in our cold case files,

that there's just not a lot
of information about

what was done,
and what,

what wasn't done.
you know,

♪

She left her house,

telling her family
she was going to

the shopping center in
Little Ferry, New Jersey.

Three days later,
her body was found

in the back seat
of her car...

on a side street in
Ridgefield Park, New Jersey.

Raped, beaten,
and strangled.

In this case, we saw who
they were going after.

There was nothing obvious.

It was a big story
at the time,

and it also grew over time.

Cottingham was never
considered a suspect

in the murder of
Nancy Vogel,

until he directed me
to that case.

When you solve a cold case,
you don't just simply

take a person's
word that, "I did it."

There were quite a
few more details.

♪

She was acquainted with
Richard Cottingham.

Cottingham lived in
Little Ferry at the time.

In her own Rambler vehicle,
there were brown

shopping bags in the
back of the vehicle.

♪

There were relatively recent
purchases at the Valley Fair.

♪

We knew that there was a

sexual overtone
to the crime,

that she had been strangled.

Here was that
independent proof,

along with other things.

Despite the fact that he
pointed me in the direction

of the Nancy Vogel case and
gave me some details that...

convinced me he was
responsible for that murder,

he refused to give
the full confession.

It was such a game
of trying to be like,

who is in control of this
relationship that we have?

He did not want to
give this confession.

Every time I thought we
were going to get there,

he would say,

"Well, you didn't come
through with this for me.

What about the Attorney
General's office?

How do I know that
they won't step in?

What if...

What if your boss leaves and
there's a new boss and

he says, 'No, I want
to charge the guy'?"

And, "How are you going
to prove to me that

you're going to keep it
out of the media?

What about the
family members,

when you tell the family?

What if they go
to the press?"

It was constantly
this back and forth

like bickering between the
two of us over what the

"conditions" would
be of this confession.

I came through on my end
with all of his asks,

and it built up such a
level of trust,

and then finally
I was like,

"I'm not doing another
----ing thing for you

until we get one."

And then finally,
back in 2010, one visit,

I just broke him down
and he agreed to confess.

♪

We're going on
the record.

I was literally...

----ing in my pants.

♪

It's time to pay the piper.

I'm finally going to learn
how he killed this person,

in his own words.

It's now 2010.

I've spent the
last six years

grinding away with this guy,

trying to solve at
least one of these

12 cold cases that I have.

He balked and
balked and balked,

and then finally
I would say,

"We're doing it now.
We're doing it right now."

And I would flip the switch,
and be like,

"I've had enough,
let's go."

When I put the tape
recorder on the table,

he actually like, pushed his
chair back and began to sweat.

♪

It was a visceral
reaction on his part...

once we started going.

He looks like he's going to

back down from
confessing to it.

He's shying away
from the recorder.

It's six years in the making.

And now, you know,
I'm praying that

he doesn't panic so much
that he shuts down.

I kind of had to bring him
back on track to

make sure that he didn't
kind of, you know,

---- the bed on me and say,
"I don't want to do this."

He's very calm and
matter of fact,

and it's as if he has no
feelings about it whatsoever.

He doesn't seem to
have any remorse.

He doesn't seem
to have empathy.

So, to sit across
from somebody,

and hear them tell...

the story of a brutal rape
and murder as if it's

an everyday occurrence
in their life,

as if it's the same as me
telling you a story about

going to the grocery store
and buying a gallon of milk,

is, is disturbing.

♪

I didn't get him to confess
to that case until 2010.

Six frigging years later.

And in between there
was hundreds of hours.

And that's how obstinate the
guy could be and how stubborn.

♪

We talked to the family
after the confession.

I had Bill and
his sister Karen,

and some other
family members

come into the
prosecutor's office.

We wanted the family
to hear it first.

Never, ever, ever have them
read it in a newspaper.

And because of
this type of a case,

we wanted to meet
them personally.

I didn't know who Richard
Cottingham was or anything.

Rob reaches over,
he goes, "Bill,

don't go home and Google
Richard Cottingham.

Don't do that yet.
It's not the same thing."

♪

You're now able to answer
a lot of questions.

And sometimes I wonder...

Is it better sometimes to
have the questions unanswered?

Or to get the answers,
even though the

answers themselves may
cause you more pain?

My mom was always
watching out over me.

And that's my biggest thing,
I really feel that

she was taken
before her time.

And throughout the whole
thing, they just kept saying,

"You have to keep it quiet,
you have to keep it quiet.

You can't tell anybody."
And I agreed.

♪

Keeping quiet is a-
was hard.

Very, very hard.

♪

One of the reasons
why we want to

honor Cottingham's request,
as much as we don't

want to honor anything
the man has to say,

is we want to do this
for the next family,

for the next father,
for the next mother,

for the next sibling.

We want him to continue
to tell us things.

You always want to
solve these cold cases.

After getting that
first confession,

I was hoping that this
was finally the moment

that the dam would
break, and...

he would open up
about other cases.

To get him to go to court
was really important to me,

it was important to me
for the victim's family.

This was the first one,

and I just wanted that
foundation laid.

And that took some time
and some convincing.

♪

Richard Cottingham
was already serving

multiple life terms.

The plea deal was,

"You're going to get
another life term.

Nothing less.
A life for a life."

And he was
okay with that.

♪

You know, he just didn't
want to be in the public eye.

He didn't want his
kids to know

the real, true monster
that he was.

♪

I had to convince him that

we were not going to put
out a press release,

we weren't going
to make a big

dog and pony show about it.

♪

The actual court date
was in August of 2010.

♪

In an effort to really keep it
out of the newspapers and,

and quiet,
we made it late in the day.

We can't keep the public out

or we can't keep the
media out of the court,

but there was very, very
little likelihood that the

press would be lurking
around the courthouse at say,

4:30, 5 o'clock
in the afternoon.

The only people that were
really in the court was the

prosecutor, myself,

some other
homicide detectives,

the Vogel family...

Of course, Cottingham,
his defense attorney,

and Judge Venezia.

♪

My role was simple.

I was asked to take a plea.

And I was told,

"We'd like to make this
short and sweet.

The plea,
sentence, done."

And did I do that?
For the most part, I did.

♪

Ah, it didn't exactly
go as planned.

Your conduct and
your history

is beyond appalling.

♪

Judge Venezia started
really hammering him.

It doesn't detract from the
fact that I think you are

an absolutely despicable
human being,

and I use that
word sparingly.

♪

I thought at any given
moment he's gonna say,

"You know what,
Judge, I'm not guilty.

I didn't do this,"

or somehow sabotage
the confession he gave.

I was waiting for him
to turn to me and say,

"I'm not doing this."

♪

So, we bring him into court

in front of Judge
Donald Venezia.

♪

We explained it in no
uncertain terms that...

we were not looking for
fanfare in this thing.

We wanted to quietly give
closure to the family.

♪

We needed it just
quick and quiet.

♪

Bring him to the courtroom
at a set time that we had

made arrangements for,
sentence him right there.

Everything was perfect.

They want to get it
over with, I get it.

And I was told, "We'd like to
make this short and sweet."

♪

For the first time, I see
Richard Cottingham

walking down the hallway.

♪

He looks like Santa Claus
with his long, long beard.

He's overweight and whatnot.

This is nothing
that I imagined.

So, you know,
as a little kid,

you say your mother
was murdered,

you think it's like
a big monster, bad...

ugly,
terrible person.

And here's...
he's nothing.

He's a shell of a man.

It was, you know, kind of
both exhilarating and

frustrating all
at the same time.

It's hard to put into words.

The culmination of six
years' worth of work

coming down to this.

I never thought that I'd
have the opportunity there,

Mr. Cottingham,

to really witness somebody

who has the makeup
that you do.

Your conduct and
your history

is beyond appalling.

And that, very frankly,

when you end up
wherever you end up,

I suggest you dress with
light clothes 'cause it's

usually pretty hot where
I think you're going.

In the middle of the
court proceeding,

the judge just
begins to berate him,

and I'm watching it
go south.

And I'm just like,
this is so ----ing bad.

I don't think I've ever
had the ability

nor desire to ever, like...

witness the devil
in my courtroom.

But I think I see him
today in you.

You see me in the row,
right behind him,

and I'm like literally
slumping down

with the, "Oh, ----".

It doesn't detract from the
fact that I think you are

an absolutely despicable
human being and

I use that word sparingly.

Very difficult to look
people in the eye,

who lost a loved one,

because of the outrageous
deed of somebody

who's standing
twelve feet from you,

and twelve feet from them.

Whether you're a judge or not,
you're a human being.

♪

It wasn't, you know,
typically what you see

out of a judge
in a courtroom,

but I think in this
particular case,

he needed to hear that.

♪

I'm glad he did that,
I'm glad he stood up.

Then, the judge literally
forced him to turn around and

apologize to Bill Vogel
and his sister.

Why don't you turn
around and tell them,

'cause what's left of 'em are
in the audience over there.

Why don't you, why don't you
man up a little bit there?

I want you to look at them
in the eye and tell them.

Huh? How about that?
Why don't you do that?

I am very sorry for all
the pain I've caused you.

I really mean that.

His narrative is
reality to him,

and the judge in the
room punctures that...

because he was helpless.

♪

When it was all over,

I escorted him out.

Cottingham stopped,
turned to me...

and says, "You will never get
me to ----ing do this again."

♪

Six years of work.

2004 to 2010.

I finally get him
to confess...

and I just lost
this guy forever.

♪

After Cottingham confessed
to the murder of Nancy Vogel,

he told me that murder
was not his first.

It got my mind
thinking of...

how many could
be out there?

I'm convinced that he's good
for more than just

the one that he's
confessed to,

but I still have 11 of these
cases unsolved.

♪

She would have
fought for her life.

A rope was reportedly
tied around

one of the girls' necks.

There's this fear that
went through everybody.

She was just headed home.

Is there anything
more powerful than

believing you are God?

Once he had them in the car...

they were his.

I was not done with him.

I'm not letting this
guy get away with it.

It was the game.

It was like the perfect
murder every time.

How am I ever going
to get back on track?