All language subtitles for The.Torso.Killer.Confessions.S01E02.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG

♪

♪

[Anzilotti]
In the year 2000,

I was assigned a series
of 12 unsolved murders.

There were a
number of girls

that were either last
seen hitchhiking,

or had been picked up
by a stranger...

in and around
Bergen County.

I am born and raised
in Bergen County.

This is my home, and
this is my community.

And these cases hit home.

It absolutely became
my mission to

try and solve these cases,

and bring some justice
and some closure

to the people that
were left behind.

♪

By 2004,
I zeroed in on

convicted serial killer
Richard Cottingham,

known as 'The Torso Killer'.

It would take me
six more years,

but I finally got him to
confess to killing

married mother-of-two,
Nancy Vogel.

In the middle of the
court proceeding,

the judge just goes
off on Cottingham.

All that work and grind...

was just gone in an instant.

Someone hurt your feelings?
You're kidding me?

My mother was murdered.
He should feel like a freak.

He just completely
shut down on me.

And I'm just like,
this is so [bleep] bad.

I know this guy's
responsible for

more of these killings.

How am I gonna get
him to talk again?

♪

You could take all the serial
killers that's ever been.

And there's not
been one like me.

♪

Richard Cottingham
is a control freak and

a master manipulator.

♪

After he went to
court in 2010,

I made a point to kind
of let him just...

percolate and
sit in prison...

and leave him alone.

♪

This was the
cat-and-mouse game that

we played for
many, many years.

♪

And,
three weeks later,

boom,
it gets even worse.

I went to such lengths to

keep the court
appearance quiet.

But somehow the media
found out about it,

and there was a
newspaper article.

I was so [bleep] pissed.

♪

And, he somehow found
out about that and,

in typical Richard Cottingham
fashion, he's like,

"There's no scenario I'm
going back to court."

He didn't want his
kids to know the real,

true monster
that he was.

I don't know if after this,

this guy's ever gonna
talk to me again.

♪

I invested so many years
trying to solve these cases.

And I'm like, I can't give up
now because then he wins.

And all I could
think about is,

how do I bring justice
for these other girls?

♪

I dropped him a letter.

He went off on me in
his letter in response:

"You and your bosses
have had

your day of glory
at my expense.

Did you really believe
I wouldn't learn about

my name being splattered
all over the media?"

He claimed that
one of his kids,

I believe his daughter,
wrote him a letter saying,

"How could you
do this to us?"

"For us to continue
will be difficult.

First, a way will have to be
found to guarantee,

not 90%, not 95%,
not even 99%,

but 100% that nothing will
ever be made public

to the media
or the public."

♪

He's Richard being
Richard, which is...

making an excuse on why
I needed to do more...

to get something from him.

But he left the window
open just enough...

that I knew I was
going to get him again.

Anzilotti stayed vigilant.

He's always watching for,
"Where's the opening?

And how can I use that to
potentially get information?"

♪

I'm stuck with a killer
who's refusing to

ever be in a
courtroom again.

So, there's only
one choice left...

and that's what we call
'Exceptional Clearance'.

That is, as long as
the confession

is corroborated by
the evidence,

and the witness statements,

and we felt it was a
credible confession,

that we would simply tell
the family what we learned,

what happened to
their loved one,

and close the case without
any public fanfare and

without a courtroom.

It's a gamble.

You're making a
deal with the devil.

Because it's a
tough balancing act.

And the right for the
public to know, versus

the integrity of future
investigations, potentially.

I have no idea if Richard
was gonna go for it.

And while he agreed that
he was willing to have

discussions with me,
it is not as if

he suddenly became an open
book and gave me everything.

♪

In Richard's mind,

he thought he had
the upper hand.

So, he of course, was
making demands on me,

whether it be
food packages,

the TV Guide subscription.

Stupid stuff to you and I,
but things that are...

hard to come by in prison.

♪

Eventually, we went
down to New Jersey State Prision

in Trenton to pick him up.

We would bring him up from
New Jersey State Prison,

and we would keep him
for overnight or

maybe for the weekend.

♪

Jim McMorrow transferred
to the Bergen County

prosecutor's office
from the

Hackensack
Police Department.

He's a strong,
tough Irish cop and,

I always knew that
Jimmy had my back,

and he was a hell
of a detective.

So, that started Jimmy on a
journey to always be with me

when I would talk
to Cottingham.

♪

The car ride up from
New Jersey State Prison

was important because
during that time

was really when
we tried to

just kind of smooth him out.

I'm six years into this
strange relationship

with a serial killer,

and I still have 11 of
these cases unsolved.

I'm convinced that
Richard's good for more,

but was conscious not to
go too hard, too fast.

♪

During my time
with Richard,

I learned what was working.

And that was me making him
feel like a human being.

And, as disgusting as
that was to make this

sadistic killer feel good
about himself,

it was necessary to
get him to open up.

This became like a game.

But we didn't want to
offend him at this point.

You have to remember that at
any given time, if he gets...

annoyed, he's going
to shut down on us.

And we're starting
from square one.

Anzilotti would allow
Cottingham to drift...

but then he'd
pull him back in.

"No, we're here for this."

♪

So, in 2010, Rob and I
were bringing him

back to New Jersey
State prison.

Jim McMorrow was driving and
I'm in the passenger seat.

And, we're just
getting him to

talk about total nonsense.

I'm telling him, "Hey Rich,
it's been, been a while now.

You haven't really given
much of substance."

And he'd be like, "Well,
I didn't tell you that

we're going to talk about
another case."

And I'm like, "Well, let's
just say hypothetically

we're going to talk about
another case, you know.

Which, which...
which file should I pull?"

And obviously,
at this point

he's much more comfortable,
and he started to talk.

He goes, "Well, you know,
there was this one case."

And he goes, "I really
remember this girl.

And I remember her because
I watched this TV show

in my cell,
called Roswell.

And there's this actress,
Shiri Appleby."

And he's like,

"I've never been able to
forget this homicide

because this actress
reminds me of her so much."

He also said that he had
picked her up at

a bus stop in Hackensack.

♪

As he's saying it,

I'm furiously typing notes
on my Blackberry.

♪

I have no idea who she is.

I don't spell it right,
of course.

It's a little crumb that
he's thrown my way

without even realizing
he's throwing it.

And he's like, "Let's just
leave it alone for now."

♪

Jimmy and I couldn't get back
up the turnpike fast enough.

And sure enough, when I
got back to the office,

I went on the internet,
Googled Shiri Appleby,

the show,
and sure enough...

Bam.

She bore a striking
resemblance to Irene Blase.

♪

Irene Blase was murdered
in April of 1969.

That's nearly
two years after

the killing of Nancy Vogel.

This was huge.

This is the second female
from the 60s that

I'm thinking Cottingham
may be responsible for.

♪

We need detail,
we need detail that

only the killer's
gonna know.

♪

Anything that Richard
Cottingham gave us,

we had to be able to
support it by evidence.

And, the detectives
interviewed

hundreds of people.

So, we had to go through
each of these interviews,

their notes, to see if
there was anything

that we could match up with
what he would give us.

Irene Blase was an
18-year-old girl

when she went missing
in April of 1969.

And, she was last seen
at a bus stop

in Hackensack,
New Jersey.

♪

She was found the next
day in the Saddle River,

which is in Bergen County.

She has a stab
wound in her back.

♪

She had been strangled...

and she had been raped.

As I reviewed the case file,
one of the primary suspects

from the beginning was
her boyfriend at the time,

Richard Guadagno.

And I'm like, holy [bleep],

I've known this
person my entire life.

Richard Guadagno...

is my cousin.

♪

This is Irene.

That was in 1968,

about a year before
she was killed.

And I kept this
all these years.

I truly loved her
a lot, a real lot.

♪

She loved life,
you know?

She was 16 when I first
started going out with her.

I'm a motorcycle guy, and...

we used to go
everywhere together.

♪

The last time I saw Irene
was on a Saturday night.

We went to a
club in the city.

I had an argument
with her at the club.

I don't remember why, but...

I got mad,
and I went home.

And then...

I didn't hear nothing until...

late Monday.

♪

I was leaving work...

and two cop cars
cut in front of me.

Richard had already
a checkered past.

So, of course, the police
right away latched on to the

idea that he was already
somewhat of a bad guy,

and now his
girlfriend's dead.

So, of course,
they look hard at him.

They took me to the Teaneck,
New Jersey Police Department.

♪

The piece of garbage police
turned polaroids around and

slid them over to me and
showed me her dead body.

You know, she was
just dragged

out of the
Saddle Brook River.

♪

And I cried.

♪

They kept asking me,
"Why'd you choke her?

Did you want sex from her,

and she wouldn't
give it to you?

So, you beat it out of her?"

I knew I didn't do it.

But people always had it
in the back of their head,

"Was it Richie?"

Oh, her mother,
she thought it was me.

"He's not comin'
to the funeral."

And, I couldn't go.

That hurt.
I loved her so much.

♪

For nearly 50 years,

my cousin was suspected
in this killing.

But I needed a lot more
evidence than just

Richard Cottingham's passing
comment in the car about

an actress that reminds him
of a girl he killed.

♪

One of the really more
challenging aspects of

getting confessions
from Cottingham,

where decades have
gone by, is, you know,

that he doesn't know
the person's name.

He doesn't have immediate
recollection of

all of the facts.

And, at the same time,

you can't feed
anything to them and

put thoughts
in their head.

So, you know, you kind of
have to just

bring them back
in time without...

feeding them the
answers, right?

One of the things that
really stood out to me,

in the case file I had read
that there was

a witness account of the
man that was seen

with Irene Blase at
that bus stop...

seemed to have
a twitch where

he was pulling
on his ear lobe.

And sure enough,
he admitted to that.

That's what we needed
to know that he did it.

Those little bits
counted because

you need those details,

you need the specifics,
and you get enough,

you have what's called the
totality of circumstances.

It's like a tipping point-

you have enough
to make a case.

But Richard being Richard,
he wants something

or he's not going to
give you something.

And then he would throw another
obstacle in front of me

on why he wouldn't
go on record with it,

why I couldn't turn
the recorder on and

take a confession.

Listen, enough.
Enough bull-[bleep].

It's now back on you.

I've done everything
that you've asked of me.

I've told you that we're
gonna keep this quiet.

We're just gonna
talk to the family.

[Talking over each other]

And, just finally overcame him,
the resistance.

♪ [Suspenseful] ♪

♪

And he decided to let me
turn the tape recorder on,

and give me the detail of
the Irene Blase murder.

♪

Ultimately, he notices that
she walks to a bus stop.

♪

And she is last seen
by witnesses

talking to an
unknown white male.

And he starts pulling
on his ear lobe.

When Cottingham mentions

taking Irene Blase
to Little Ferry,

a light bulb goes
off in my head.

In 1967,
some two years earlier,

that's exactly where he met
Nancy Vogel and

abducted her from.

♪

Now, he's feeling that
some of the people in the

restaurant might
recognize him because

he's been there before.

So, he wants to get
her out of there.

Richard is out for
his own satisfaction.

And, when he attacked her,

his plan was to rape
Irene Blase.

He takes the scarf that
she purchased at Sears,

and he ties it around her
hands to prevent her

from trying to get
out of the car.

He liked to do what
we call Piquerism,

which is a
paraphilia where

you stick the knife in,
in very shallow ways.

He talks himself into,

"Oh, I wasn't forcing them
to do anything."

Well, you have a
knife in your hand,

and you're sticking
them with it.

And you're tying them up,

and you're keeping them
for hours and hours.

That's forcing!
You did rape them.

His demeanor when
he's confessing is

just pure lack of empathy,
lack of caring,

as if, as if he was just
as matter of fact

as you could be.

It's just disgusting.

♪ [Somber instrumental] ♪

He just leaves her there.

And that's ultimately
how she's found.

♪

There's no mistake about it,

Richard Cottingham is a
stone-cold sociopath.

♪

When Richard finally
confessed to the murder of

Irene Blase, this is now the
second confession I was able

to get out of him,
out of this original

12 cold case homicides that
I'd been investigating.

It was literally ten years
since the start of this

endeavor to get
Richard Cottingham to

speak about the murders
that he committed.

♪

We very quickly went
and notified the family.

We gave them the details
of the confession,

as painful as it was.

And then we had the
difficult conversation of

asking them to,
of course,

share it with any loved ones
that they felt appropriate,

but to keep it as tight a
circle as possible because

if it leaked out to the
press in any way,

it might be the last
confession we ever get

out of Cottingham.

♪

They knew that there were all
these other unsolved homicides

of teenage girls
just like Irene.

♪

A few days before
Christmas, my cousin Rob...

called me and invited me to a
Christmas party at his house.

And, he said,

"I know who killed
Irene Blase."

I said,
"How do you know?"

He goes, "Because the guy
that we thought might have

done it finally confessed to
me that he did do it."

He was genuinely stunned.

And that was really the first
time I heard him tell me

about how affected he
was as a young man

of being accused of murder
by the police.

That was like 50 years
before I found out,

but that's 50 years
too late.

♪

I always think what
could have been.

You know?

Had a stupid argument
and now she's dead.

♪

Closure, to me, is me

getting my hands
on him for five minutes.

And I was told not
to say that to you.

♪

But I don't
care who knows.

Given the opportunity...

He would get
what he gave.

She was just a little,
petite girl.

Tough guy...
You know?

Tough guy.

♪

After Cottingham confessed to
the killing of Irene Blase,

I began talking to him about
the 15-year-old girl

who was last seen walking in
Westwood, New Jersey,

just months after
Irene Blase's body's found.

The following morning,
on July 15th of 1969,

a man that was out walking
his dog finds the body

five or six feet
off the road,

just behind a cemetery in
Saddle Brook, New Jersey.

♪

The medical examiner
determined that

she had been strangled
with a ligature,

possibly with the actual
crucifix and chain

that was around her
neck at the time.

And her body was found
not far from where

Irene Blase's body
had been found.

It's Denise Falasca.

♪

♪

Denise Falasca was very
similar in appearance

to Irene Blase.

Good-looking,
typical teenage girl,

slender, brunette.

So, the victimology,

the looks of the two
victims, and...

the proximity and time of
when these murders occurred

made me feel like it
was the same killer.

♪

Denise was going into her
sophomore year at

Northern Valley Regional
High School in Demarest.

And she was an active girl.

She played field hockey,
basketball.

♪

Denise was headed out
that summer night

to meet her boyfriend.

And then the next thing
you know, she was gone.

Getting confessions out of
Richard Cottingham is, is...

grinding, time after
time after time.

At that point in
the interview,

he didn't want to
go any further.

And, that was the
hardest part for us.

Then if communication
shut down,

then it shut down.

And it could
shut down for years.

♪

My relationship with
Richard Cottingham

has ebbed and flowed
over the years.

There are times when we
get mad at each other.

There's times when
he gets stubborn and

doesn't want to talk.

And then I had
everyday life in between.

♪

I had an obsession
for these cases, and...

that certainly impacted
my home life.

I would talk to Cottingham
for hours and hours

and days and days
sometimes,

and, as focused as I was,
and as obsessed as I was,

I have three beautiful
children and a family at home

to, to worry about
and care for.

I think I was probably
overly more overprotective

than most
parents would be.

♪

It made it a little extra
special to get a hug,

or a kiss from my
daughters and my son,

just knowing what
can happen, right?

♪

And I think that really
drove my resolve

to get this done.

Because the more I spoke to
Richard, the more I'm like,

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

♪

Shortly after I got him
to confess to Irene Blase,

I was promoted to
the rank of captain,

overseeing the operations of
all our investigative squads.

♪

There was still no
cold case unit, per se,

that I could pass
Cottingham off to.

So, I needed to make sure I
continued this relationship.

I never wanted to forget
these unsolved murders

of these young women.

I never wanted to
give up on them.

♪

So, we're writing
each other letters.

Every time I got promoted,

he would write me a letter
congratulating me.

He just started to get this
very weird attachment to me.

♪

So, by 2017,
I, by now,

was the
chief of detectives.

And I literally said to him,

"The only person that
ever believed..."

Ah, ah, excuse me.

"The only person that
ever believed that

I'd be the chief was
my grandfather."

He was dead by the time
it happened, but...

Pop used to say to me
all the time,

"You know what, Robert,

you're going to run that
place one day."

♪

And, I told Richard,
and he's like,

'You're wrong,
you're wrong.

I told you you were going
to run this place one day."

And he said it with this
weird fatherly like pride

that was a little creepy.

♪

It's not really a
father-son thing.

It's, "Without me, you'd be
an ordinary detective.

And now, you've got a
little bit of immortality

thanks to me."

So, Cottingham wants
to keep the game going.

And that means he's gonna have
to give up another case.

♪

It's now three years since
the last confession that

I've gotten from
Richard, and...

I was getting tired of the
cat-and-mouse game

that we continually play.

So, on this particular day,
I'm interviewing Richard,

and I said, "Let's stop
bull-[bleep] each other.

Let's talk about
a real case."

And, he would
ultimately confess to

the murder and rape
of Denise Falasca,

a 15-year-old girl that he
picked up on Old Hook Road

in Westwood, New Jersey.

And this time around,
although the tape recorder

was flowing, Richard
seemed more at ease.

Remember,
we're talking late 1960s,

hitchhiking and young girls,
young teenage girls

thought nothing of jumping
in a car with a stranger.

Richard used a car like
a vessel for killing.

Once he had them
in the car...

they were his.

And he ultimately takes her
down to St. Andrew's School.

And St. Andrew's School is
important because

that's where Mr. Cottingham
went to school.

So, he knows this area.

When I pushed him hard
for some detail

about the rape,
itself, he said

he forced her to
commit oral sex on him.

And he just kind of sat
back for a minute...

and casually looked at me,
and he goes,

"Well... she wasn't
very good at it."

And it took every ounce of
energy in my body to not

leap across that table
and be like,

"She's 15 [bleep]
years old, [bleep]!"

It was very difficult
to listen to.

You know, I always had
an endgame in mind.

Everything he's ever done,
I want him to spit out.

So, I wasn't about to
blow that endgame

by, by losing my
cool with him.

He drives her down
to Saddle Brook...

to an area that, again,
he's familiar with.

And, he pulls over to
the side of the road,

by the cemetery.

He dragged her body
out of the car,

and just disposed of her
body like it was nothing.

His confession of
Denise Falasca was

tough to get over,
to be honest with you.

I've seen a lot, but all I
could envision was somebody

knocking on my door and
having to tell me, as a dad,

that my daughter
was found like that.

Denise Falasca was now
the third confession that

I obtained from
Richard Cottingham,

with all three of these
murders occurring in a

two-year timeframe between
October of 1967 and

July of 1969.

♪

I'm beginning to see
a pattern emerge

in Cottingham's victimology.

♪

The killings were
very different

than what he
became known for.

Remember, this is more than
a decade before

Richard becomes
known as 'The Torso Killer'

for mutilating and
decapitating prostitutes.

♪

In June of 2017,

We went down to
New Jersey State prison

picked him up,

And I had him back up at the
prosecutor's office to now

see who else he might be
responsible for out of these

unsolved killings
that I'm looking at.

I got him to say that he'd
be willing to look at

some pictures of
different victims.

And, he pointed to one
of the pictures and said,

"It's, that's not her, but
kind of that same haircut."

Sure enough,
who wasn't pictured

in that newspaper article,

but who had a very, very
short, boyish haircut...

was Jacalyn Harp.

Of all the cold case
homicides I've investigated

over the years,

Jacalyn Harp was by
far the youngest,

just 13 years' old
when she was murdered.

♪

In 1968,

someone assaulted her
and strangled her.

♪

I was blown away that
Richard Cottingham

could be responsible for
Jackie Harp's murder,

for a number of reasons.

One, she didn't fit the
victimology of the other ones.

The tall, very feminine,
long brown hair.

Jackie Harp was
a very tomboyish,

like short blonde hair,
and very young.

There was no mistaking
Jackie Harp for anything

other than a 12 or
13-year-old child.

And also, it occurred in
Midland Park, New Jersey,

which is not
the usual areas

that he talked
about...

hunting
for victims.

But this was in 1968,

and it's at the beginning of
his killing curve.

♪

Jackie Harp had just
finished band practice

with the local
school band.

♪

And, she was
the flag holder.

♪

This is the harness she had
worn during band practice.

So, it wraps around your
body, I guess, kinda-

and around your
shoulder and then, the,

the actual flag goes-
is held in here.

They must've been
individually assigned

because it has the
name "J. Harp."

♪

And, as she was
walking home, she was...

dragged into an alleyway...

and murdered.

♪

I remember I went
out that night,

looking for my
sister, Jackie.

Calling out her name.

And we did go right on
past where she was found.

♪

This picture is of Jackie
in her uniform, obviously,

going to a practise
or to a meet.

So, it was the Imperial
Knights Drum and Bugle Corp.

She was very proud of it.

Of course,
being the youngest,

she had four big sisters and

always wanted to be
around all of us.

We were all close.

It was all about family.

Jackie was just walking
home that night,

she was just
headed home.

That's when the hair on the
back of my neck stood up,

and I recognized
that this is Jackie.

She was wearing moccasins.

♪

So, once we got him to
line up those details,

and he was
comfortable with it,

we took his statement
of the murder.

♪

♪

It was November, 'cause
it was my birthday.

The message was that
they would like to

come to the house
and speak to me.

Your heart does start
pounding and you do think,

oh, my God.

♪

In a cold case homicide,
these folks have been

living with this forever.

So, you don't know how
they're going to take it.

We sat in the kitchen
at the kitchen table,

and Rob and James returned
my sister's possessions that

was, what was on her,
when she was found.

And this is a box.
It was my mother's.

And when my mother died,

I put Jackie's belongings
in this box.

♪

I haven't opened this
box in a long time.

Her glasses
that she had on.

A medal from the
Imperial Knights.

♪

And then, Rob told us that
Richard Cottingham

confessed to
killing my sister.

[Suzan]
He offered her a ride and

she said no, and
turned around,

started walking back into
town and she had thought that

he had just drove off.

♪ [Sinister] ♪

[Suzan] I just kind
of was like,

"Oh, my God,"
you know...

I walked that path
many times, myself.

She's screaming
at that point.

♪

He sees lights on in the
houses around the area.

So, he gets nervous.

Now, remember,
this is 1968.

This is a young
Richard Cottingham.

So, panic would set in.

He hasn't really
honed his craft yet.

Jackie Harp was wearing
her parade belt

that held the flag.

This was found wrapped
around her neck.

It sickens me.

It really does,
it sickens me.

♪

Any kind of asphyxiation
or strangulation

requires up close.

It's very intimate.

It's really about being
pretty much close to the

individual, so you
can watch them die.

I know he says he
didn't enjoy killing.

I think he did.

♪

By this point,
I had gotten Richard

to confess to four murders,

three of which we closed
through exceptional clearance.

The Blase family,
the Falasca family,

and the family
of Jacalyn Harp,

all agreed to
keep this quiet.

♪

Suzan understood the
longer-term mission ahead.

And, it was never
disclosed to the press

or to the community.

I agreed to that.

You do have to
accept a deal...

and, and go on
with your life.

I wasn't even filling in
the local police in the

jurisdictions where
these crimes occurred.

It was just us as the
prosecutor's office

dealing with these cases.

And this, if it
ever came out,

would surely cause all
sorts of hell for me.

But imagine the angst and
the anxiety of the community

of Bergen County.

We have all of these
killings of young women.

These are big deals in
our county's history and

folklore, in our
crime folklore.

♪

In 1968, when I was
15 years old,

I lived around the corner
from Jacalyn Harp.

And after Jacalyn Harp's
murder...

there's this fear that
went through everybody.

♪

This went on and on.

And when it got to
the 50th anniversary,

it was on Facebook.

Everybody was just
discussing this again,

and saying how,

"Remember how it changed
everything in town?"

And then there was
another posting.

And, it was from an author
of serial killer books.

♪

[Anzilotti] I always knew
that it was a gamble,

keeping these cases to myself
and closed from the community.

♪

And, sure enough,
one day...

[News] And a serial killer
confessing to three more

murders after more
than 50 years.

All of a sudden,
it all blew up.

In an odd twist of events,
Richard Cottingham

was befriended by an author,

and they began cooperating
in this author

writing a book
about his life.

Richard had told him that
he had confessed

to these cases to me.

♪

I was thinking more about,

how am I going to get
closure for my town...

because he's writing a book.

I got in touch
with him, I said,

"How about a public meeting?
I'll put it on Facebook.

I'll make it known."

And so, that's how
the meeting in

December of 2019
came about.

In 2018, I learned that

three of the cases have
been actually closed

by the Bergen County
prosecutor's office.

Jackie Harp,
Irene Blase...

and Denise Falasca.

He announced it,
in public, you know,

to an audience of people
at the public library.

And that quickly
made the newspaper.

[News] And a serial killer
confessing to three more

murders after more
than fifty years.

Of course,
once it was public,

we obviously confirmed that
these cases had been cleared.

There were a lot of people
that criticized the fact that

we kept it quiet.

And all that criticism
was squarely at my feet.

I understand where
they're coming from.

I could see why,
you know,

the communities want
to know about it.

But, I was looking at
this more globally.

♪

It's a strange thing to learn
that a serial killer did it.

A lot of people did not
want to believe that

it was that simple.

So, they, they were very,
very shocked at that.

♪

The blow to me with
the whole thing was,

for all these years that he
used the potential publicity

as a roadblock for me to
get confessions out of him,

here he is now letting
it out to everybody.

I was pretty pissed off.

I was like, "This is
all on you, man.

You're the one cooperating
on this book, and,

and your boy is
who let this out."

It was a bit of a betrayal.

♪

Fast forward to 2020,
and the pandemic hits.

And then, we just weren't
able to see each other.

♪

I wrote him a few
letters here and there.

Then,
in March of 2021...

I made the rather difficult
decision to retire,

effective May 1st.

♪

It wasn't easy for me because
I really loved the job,

loved the place.

But I had completed nearly
30 years in law enforcement.

And, I just felt in my heart
it was time to move on.

But once I put
that in motion,

I decided there was
one last thing that

I really wanted to
do before I left.

I had made a very
conscious decision that

I was going to use my
retirement as leverage

to get Richard to
cooperate one last time.

[News] The bodies of
Mary Ann Pryor and

Lorraine Marie Kelly were here,
in a wooded area

near the Ridgemont
Apartments in Montvale.

♪

The Lorraine Kelly,
Mary Ann Pryor case

in August of 1974

was really one of
our most gruesome...

and haunting cases
in Bergen County.

They're found nude.

They're face down.

And they've been
sexually assaulted.

[Reporter] Where?

It was clear that they
had been tortured,

and then just tossed
away like trash.

♪

Everybody loved Mary Ann.

Everybody loved her.

She had a lot of friends.

She had such a kind heart.

I was the last person to
see Mary Ann that day.

She wanted to go to Macy's
to buy a new swimsuit

for her trip to the shore.

She said, "I'm going to
the mall with Lorraine.

And I'll see you later."
I'm like, "Okay, have fun."

♪

Lorraine Kelly and
Mary Ann Pryor

were two best friends,
16 and 17 years' old.

They left their respective
houses to take a bus

up to a mall in
Bergen County.

But they never
returned home.

♪

One of the big points
that Richard

always made to me was...

how, in his mind,

he was the smartest killer
that ever walked the earth.

"I always killed
differently.

I always mixed things up,
that's why the police

never figured me out."

And he bragged about it.

So, I challenged him:
"Convince me,

convince me that you were
so smart back in the day."

And he's like, "I can give
you details about a murder

that even fooled the
medical examiner."

♪

And he said, "You're
never gonna be able to

guess how I did it."

He's like, "Well, because
they were left outside

in the hot summer
for a few days,

the medical examiner didn't
find water in their lungs."

Cottingham doesn't say
who these girls are,

but he is dumb enough
to use the plural.

And, I only had one
double homicide

that I was looking at.

♪

And sure enough,
the autopsy showed

both girls had congestion
in their lungs.

We consulted with our
medical examiners.

Would something like that
in the bodies of these girls

lead us to believe that
they were in fact drowned?

And he agreed that,
that we would.

And it was at that moment
that I first realize

he was the killer of
Lorraine Kelly and

Mary Anne Pryor.

Over the years, I,
of course,

would try and prod him
for more information.

And he'd shut down
because he told me,

"You'll never be able
to keep it quiet.

That case is too
famous around here."

♪

So, after I put in
my retirement papers,

I only had about six weeks to
put this idea I had in motion

to get Richard to confess to
the murders of

Lorraine Kelly and
Mary Anne Pryor.

The clock was
definitely ticking.

And I was on a mission
to get this done.

Richard never agreed to
anything until it was time to

actually cross the line
and get that confession.

So, I sat with him
by myself and

told him that I was leaving.

And he was
stunned and...

tried to talk me
out of retiring.

Think of the irony of
a serial killer

trying to talk a cop
out of leaving.

I told him I was adamant,
I was insistent.

I wanted to go out
on a high.

I watched too many
chiefs stay too long.

And then hit him with like,

"There's one thing left,
Richard."

"I'm asking you
to do this for me.

Confess to the murders of

Lorraine Kelly and
Mary Ann Pryor."

He was hesitant.

And I just put the tape
recorder down, and I said,

'Stop [bleep] around
and let's do this."

And, in the end,
almost like, you know,

a retirement gift
to me, he said,

"I want to do this."

And that's how the
confession started.

[Thunder]

On this particular
day in 1974,

he claims that he
drove them to the mall.

And it was pouring rain.

He decided that he was
going to kidnap them and

take them for
his own pleasure.

♪

So, he drove to an
area motel that

he had used before
to rape women.

♪ [Sinister] ♪

When Richard
claimed that...

the girls were laughing and

he was joking
around with them,

I was just flat-out disgusted
by what he was saying

because I knew
it was not true.

In typical Richard
Cottingham fashion,

he was minimizing the
brutality of his crime.

I didn't get home
until about 10 PM.

And my mother said,
"Where's your sister?"

I'm like, "I don't know,
I just got in."

So, then we
started panicking.

We started calling
Lorraine's family.

They hadn't heard
from Lorraine.

♪

We called the
police department,

and they said, "Oh,
they're just runaways."

♪

I stayed up all night,
driving around, searching.

Yelling, "Mary Ann,
Mary Ann!"

Of course, we're imagining
all kinds of different things.

They were hogtied, right,
hogtied while

he was sleeping, so they
wouldn't go anywhere.

And according to him,
they never cried,

they weren't afraid.

That's, that's
the twisted mind.

♪

This became a huge
story in the area.

My mother was
pleading on camera:

"Mary Ann, if you're out there
and you can hear this,

please come home."

For all the days that
Mary Ann was missing,

we had the radio on,
for the news.

And then, I can remember we
were sitting in the kitchen,

and they interrupted the
broadcast to say,

"Two girls were found in
Montvale, New Jersey."

♪

And right away, we all
looked at each other, like,

disbelief that,
could it be?

A couple seconds later,

there were knocks
on the door...

and it was the detectives
coming to tell us.

♪

My mother passed out.

She held her heart and
she just kind of, like,

passed out on the floor.

This is the magnitude of the
monster that Cottingham is.

♪ [Sinister] ♪

After keeping the girls
for nearly three days,

he decided that he
had to kill them.

The haunting
things that I'll,

I'll never get out of my
head is just the cavalier and

callous way that
he talks about...

drowning one while the
other girl is still alive.

I said to him, "Could you
imagine the fear that,

you know, the one
left there had?"

♪

But he has a way of
minimizing the brutality

that he inflicted on
all of his victims.

That's a highly sadistic act

that would make him
feel very powerful.

He wanted to experience
their deaths at his hands.

♪

[Nancy] She would have
fought for her life.

She would have bit,
kicked, punched,

grabbed for hair,
anything.

I'm sure she was calling for
my mother, my father, me.

And fighting 'til the end.

♪

And that's when those bodies
are dumped a short distance

from the hotel,
into the woods.

♪

This particular confession was

one of the worst
I've ever heard.

I can't wait to go home
and take a shower and

wash the stink of his...

sins off my body,
from listening to it.

♪

After we got the
confession from Cottingham,

I was trying to leverage my
retirement as a means to

try and get Richard
to go to court

the way we did with Vogel,
ten years prior.

He was afraid that our
relationship was

going to be over because
of my retirement.

And I promised him
that it would not be.

And in the end, I convinced
him to go to court.

It was his way of keeping
the relationship going.

Because of the pandemic,
it was a virtual proceeding.

More than a decade earlier,

he literally looked
at me and said,

"You'll never get me in
a courtroom again."

And hearing him give details
to the judge in a courtroom

with the victims' families
looking on,

that, for me,
was a huge victory.

He was given another
two life sentences.

♪

I'm so grateful for Chief
Anzilotti for pursuing this.

He's an angel.

For me, it was the
culmination of nearly

20 years of work trying to
bring justice for these girls.

[Sirens]

♪

My last day...

[Sighing]
...was emotional.

It was crazy.

It was just an amazing
tribute to my career.

There were hundreds of people
waiting to clap me out.

[Applauding]

It was wild,
it was wild.

[Applauding]

I was lucky enough,
not only to work with Rob,

but be part of the
command staff with him.

He had an uncanny ability

to get to the bottom
of a, of a crime.

And he inspired
people to work harder,

not just because of the
threat of authority,

but because of who he was.

I never thought I'd leave as

the Chief of Detectives
of the county.

You know, I always just wanted
to be a really good cop.

♪

Six days after Cottingham
appeared in court,

admitting his guilt...

I retired.

♪

I had solved 6 out of these

original 12 cold case homicides.

That left 6 more
still to be solved.

And it made me wonder
whether Richard was

responsible for all
or any of those 6.

♪

We started emailing
each other, really,

almost on a weekly
basis once I first left.

♪

And to the credit of
the new administration,

they were adamant
that I stay involved.

♪

That is just who Rob is.

He's not going to let
his retirement

get in the way of finding
closure for a family.

♪

The case that
came to my mind

was Mary Ann Della Sala.

On January 24th of 1967,

she left her place
of employment

at the local ShopRite
in Hackensack.

And, she was never
seen alive again.

♪

11 weeks later, her body
was found floating in the

Passaic River in
Hawthorne, New Jersey.

♪

She was 18 years' old at
the time of her death.

Brunette, pretty girl, and...

knowing what I now
know about Cottingham,

for what he was hunting
back in those days,

the 60s and early 70s,

she fit his look to a tee.

Mary Ann's cause of death
was never really

made clear by the
medical examiner.

There was some speculation
that maybe she jumped off of

a nearby bridge and
that's how her body

floated up where it did.

♪

But her family insisted that

Mary Ann would have
never taken her own life.

♪

And, the investigators
came across a diary

that Mary Ann had.

And in that diary,
they found an entry...

a week or so prior to her
disappearance in which

she describes a white male
driving a Chevy who had

been stalking her from the
ShopRite at times.

This was a huge clue.

Richard had previously
told me that

he had a Chevy
in the late 60s.

And he also told me that

there was a girl that
was found in the river

that he may have
been responsible for.

I had always been convinced
that his first victim

was Nancy Vogel.

Now, I begin to develop
this hunch that

Mary Ann Della Sala may have
been his first victim.

♪

[Monitor beeping]

The reality is...

I retired, but...

I wasn't done with
Richard Cottingham.

Richard is now bedridden

with a lot of
health ailments.

He's been moved to
South Woods State Prison,

in a long-term infirmary.

♪

So, Sergeant Kevin Dempsey,

who's with the BCPO
cold case unit, and I,

take the ride down
there to interview Richard.

♪

Richard can't
get out of bed.

He needs help sitting up.

I was like, wow,
this guy looks like

he's gonna die
at any minute.

I really wanted to give one
last shot to see

if I could get a
confession out of him.

But he's of sound mind.

And, Kevin and I sat
by his bedside and...

interviewed him.

It was still our
typical back and forth,

him telling me why he doesn't
want to cooperate and,

"What have you done
for me lately?"

And, same old Richard
being Richard.

But in the end, I got him
talking about this

beautiful young girl that he
used to have an eye for

in a ShopRite
in Hackensack.

In January of 1967,

when Mary Anne Della Sala
was last seen alive,

Richard Cottingham
was going on 21 years' old.

He had just started working
at Blue Cross Blue Shield

in New York City.

He told me that on the
night of her disappearance,

he stalked her
leaving the store.

Her dad had actually
stopped in at the store,

and asked her,

"Do you want me to give you a
ride at the end of your shift?"

But it was an
unusually warm night,

and she told her dad that
she was going to walk home.

He wasn't certain the
exact spot that he put her

in the water, but he knew
it wasn't where

the body had been found.

And that would be
consistent with a body

being in the water for
a period of time...

as Mary Ann's was.

What Richard didn't realize,
while he was confessing

about the Mary Ann
Della Sala case,

was I was actually recording
the conversation.

He didn't see a
tape recorder,

so he thought we were just
having a conversation.

The reality is that was a
tape-recorded confession.

When it comes to these
exceptional clearances,

the manner in which
we record the

actual confession
is irrelevant.

All that matters is that
it's documented properly.

And that it's irrefutable
that these

words came out of his mouth.

There was information
provided by Mr. Cottingham

that we believe were
specific enough that

only the killer would know.

And, the team felt
as though there was

sufficient evidence
to charge him.

♪

♪

I don't just like
solving cold cases,

I love solving cold cases.

♪

I love the
satisfaction and the

emotional pride
that it gives me...

to knock on someone's door
that hasn't had answers

in 30, 40, 50 years.

I don't think I can
put it into words,

to be quite honest.

I think you have to walk
in these shoes

to know what it feels like.

And every homicide detective
out there

knows exactly what
I'm talking about.

♪

Cottingham confessing to the

Mary Anne Della Sala homicide

brings his timeline of
killing even earlier.

♪

She went missing
in January of 1967,

so that's some ten months
before Nancy Vogel is killed.

And, who knows if Mary Ann
Della Sala was his first?

♪

♪

Then, in June of 2022,
something I had always

hoped would happen,
finally did.

[News] A woman's family
finally getting some answers

after she was found strangled
in the back seat of her car

more than 50 years ago.

Yeah, prosecutors say the
so-called 'Torso Killer'

who's been convicted
in 11 other deaths

is responsible.

Jennifer McLobin shows us
how they were able to

tie him to this case.

♪

During my last visit
at his bedside,

Richard explained to me that
Nassau County detectives

had come to visit him.

I'm like, "Well, then
cooperate with them."

"There's no reason not to."

"If you did it,
then tell them you did it."

"What, you know,
what, what are you...

holding out for?"

"At this point in your life,

look at the state of
health you're in."

"Don't take these cases
to the grave with you."

"Just... man up
and admit it."

♪

[News] Emotions spilled over for
the family of Diane Cusick.

A cold case breakthrough after a
chilling murder

more than 5 decades ago.

Prosecutors blame...

I learned through the news
media that Nassau County

indicted Cottingham
on DNA evidence.

[News] Diane Cusick, of New Hyde
Park,a dance teacher

left her 4 year old daughter
with her parents

and drove to the
Green Acres Mall

and never came home.

We believe this may
be the oldest DNA hit

to lead to a prosecution
in the United States.

♪

This case prompted the
Nassau District Attorney's

office to review all
unsolved homicides

involving women
from 1967 to 1980,

and police tell us so far
they've submitted DNA for

an additional five cases to
see if there's any connection.

♪

Today is one of the most
emotional days we've ever had

in the Nassau County
District Attorney's Office.

This morning, serial killer
Richard Cottingham

pleaded guilty to
23-year-old

Diane Cusick's murder
in February of 1968.

Cottingham also admitted
to the murders of

Mary Beth Heinz,

Laverne Moy,
Sheila Hyman,

and Maria Emerita
Rosado Nieves.

♪

As more jurisdictions learn
just how active he was

in the 60s and 70s,
in killing women,

I'm sure more crimes
can be connected to him.

♪

If this guy's not
arrested until 1980...

holy [bleep], how many
could be out there?

He says it could be up to
100 women that he's killed.

I have no idea.

But he went out
and hunted women,

from the 60s until he
was caught in 1980.

I've done the math.

Even just four or
five a year

adds up to an
astronomical number.

The reality is,
he liked to kill.

There are more.

I know there are.

I'm hoping...

as his days grow shorter
and a little darker,

he, himself,
realizes that...

his time to allow
these families to

close those chapters
is running out.

♪

You never stop
thinking about it.

All these girls
were innocent kids.

You know, they had a
life ahead of them.

"To the person who
killed my sister,

The depths of depravity

necessary for
you to plan and

commit a crime of
this nature

against helpless
teenage girls

is beyond the capacity
of human comprehension

to adequately understand.

Before you burn in hell,

I wish for you a slow,
painful death."

♪

Years later, I bumped
into Rob and his family.

And, I just had to go up
and say, you know,

I wanted to thank him
because after that point,

I had the closure
and I felt good.

And I turned to his son,
and I said,

"You know, your dad's
a real hero.

He's a good man, he helped
my family out a lot."

He's like an unsung hero.

♪

18 years of Richard Cottingham
and Rob Anzilotti.

♪

The toll that it took on me
was just having to

kind of eat my
own conscience...

and my own moral code to
sit and listen to this guy,

and take in just
how vicious he was.

But no matter what kind
of scars it's left for me,

it's been well
worth the ride,

you know,
for these families.

It really has been.

♪

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

Each of us was trying
to play the other.

♪

That was his way of keeping
the whole game going.

And as long as
Richard Cottingham

has air in his lungs,

he has more
confessions to give.

I'm convinced of that.

♪