1
00:00:13,806 --> 00:00:18,603
In 1980, I was a beat reporter
in Bergen County with The Record,
2
00:00:18,686 --> 00:00:23,357
covering Hasbrouck Heights,
covering Lodi, New Jersey.
3
00:00:25,777 --> 00:00:28,404
The call came
that there was an incident
4
00:00:28,488 --> 00:00:30,531
at the Quality Inn in Hasbrouck Heights.
5
00:00:32,283 --> 00:00:35,328
And of course,
it was my responsibility to respond to it.
6
00:00:39,248 --> 00:00:44,962
A woman screamed loud enough
for the hotel personnel, uh, to hear it
7
00:00:45,046 --> 00:00:48,049
and to, uh,
come to the room and knock on the door.
8
00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:55,473
She managed to make a hand signal
9
00:00:57,100 --> 00:00:59,268
to whoever was there in the hallway.
10
00:01:01,813 --> 00:01:04,565
The hotel staff realized
that she was in trouble.
11
00:01:06,943 --> 00:01:09,153
And so, right away, they call the police.
12
00:01:09,904 --> 00:01:12,740
At this point, he's in a panic.
13
00:01:12,824 --> 00:01:14,951
He knows the jig is up.
He's gotta get out of there.
14
00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:19,372
He attempts
to make a run for it down the hallway.
15
00:01:19,997 --> 00:01:21,332
All of a sudden,
16
00:01:21,415 --> 00:01:25,002
a Hasbrouck Heights police officer
came in, threw him down…
17
00:01:25,086 --> 00:01:28,214
…told him to stop,
raise his hands,
18
00:01:28,297 --> 00:01:30,925
said, "If you don't stop,
I'm gonna blow you away."
19
00:01:33,386 --> 00:01:34,512
He did stop,
20
00:01:36,013 --> 00:01:38,099
and he dropped everything in the hallway.
21
00:01:40,768 --> 00:01:43,020
When they grabbed this perpetrator,
22
00:01:43,771 --> 00:01:47,483
in his possession, he's got… tape.
23
00:01:48,192 --> 00:01:50,111
He's got handcuffs.
24
00:01:50,194 --> 00:01:52,488
He's got bondage restraints.
25
00:01:52,572 --> 00:01:54,407
He's got sedatives.
26
00:01:55,658 --> 00:01:58,202
Police question Leslie Ann O'Dell,
27
00:01:58,286 --> 00:02:01,789
and she told the police
everything that he was doing to her.
28
00:02:01,873 --> 00:02:04,167
She accused him of sexual assault
29
00:02:04,250 --> 00:02:08,796
and said it was when
he put handcuffs on her and threatened her
30
00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:11,299
that she was afraid
she was gonna be killed.
31
00:02:11,382 --> 00:02:14,260
But when police question the suspect,
32
00:02:14,343 --> 00:02:17,930
he made it sound like
he wasn't really at fault.
33
00:02:18,014 --> 00:02:21,058
He said that she was there willingly,
34
00:02:21,142 --> 00:02:23,936
so there was no crime
that had been committed.
35
00:02:24,020 --> 00:02:26,606
But for the police
in New Jersey,
36
00:02:26,689 --> 00:02:28,774
right away, alarm bells are ringing.
37
00:02:29,650 --> 00:02:31,694
This is the same hotel.
38
00:02:31,777 --> 00:02:35,156
Two women, they were killed there earlier.
39
00:02:35,990 --> 00:02:37,408
This has gotta be the same guy.
40
00:02:38,743 --> 00:02:41,162
So the police
put him under arrest,
41
00:02:41,245 --> 00:02:44,707
and they took him to police headquarters…
42
00:02:47,084 --> 00:02:48,920
{\an8}
43
00:02:49,003 --> 00:02:52,715
{\an8}…and learned that his name
was Richard Cottingham.
44
00:02:52,798 --> 00:02:54,800
{\an8}
45
00:02:56,219 --> 00:02:57,220
{\an8}
46
00:03:31,712 --> 00:03:35,216
In New York City,
with the Midtown torso case,
47
00:03:37,051 --> 00:03:40,263
the case
was basically stalled in the water.
48
00:03:46,269 --> 00:03:47,937
There was no further information…
49
00:03:51,023 --> 00:03:53,067
because the investigation
50
00:03:53,651 --> 00:03:56,070
{\an8}didn't lead to any… any suspects.
51
00:03:57,613 --> 00:04:00,700
Now, you gotta remember something.
It's the early '80s.
52
00:04:00,783 --> 00:04:03,411
There wasn't any communication
between agencies.
53
00:04:05,079 --> 00:04:08,791
And so just a few days
after the murder of Jean Ann Reyner,
54
00:04:09,792 --> 00:04:11,627
authorities in New York City,
55
00:04:11,711 --> 00:04:16,716
they had no idea that a suspect
with the same MO as the Torso Killer
56
00:04:17,383 --> 00:04:21,262
had been arrested for assaulting
a prostitute across the river
57
00:04:21,345 --> 00:04:22,638
in New Jersey.
58
00:04:26,392 --> 00:04:30,563
Richard Cottingham
had been locked up in Bergen County
59
00:04:30,646 --> 00:04:33,774
{\an8}for the attack against,
uh, Leslie Ann O'Dell.
60
00:04:36,819 --> 00:04:40,823
And Jersey police thought
that he might be the serial killer
61
00:04:40,906 --> 00:04:42,700
they had been looking for,
62
00:04:43,534 --> 00:04:48,622
{\an8}who murdered Valerie Street
and Maryann Carr at the Quality Inn.
63
00:04:50,416 --> 00:04:52,293
So Bergen County
64
00:04:52,376 --> 00:04:54,295
began building their case,
65
00:04:55,046 --> 00:04:58,549
connecting him with earlier crimes.
66
00:04:59,175 --> 00:05:04,055
They learned that Richard Cottingham
was living in nearby Lodi, New Jersey,
67
00:05:05,097 --> 00:05:07,475
which is adjacent to Hasbrouck Heights,
68
00:05:08,517 --> 00:05:11,020
where the Quality Inn was located.
69
00:05:12,938 --> 00:05:15,274
Police had also learned
70
00:05:16,150 --> 00:05:18,861
that Maryann Carr was abducted
71
00:05:18,944 --> 00:05:22,573
from the same apartment complex
where Richard Cottingham lived
72
00:05:22,656 --> 00:05:25,576
{\an8}about five years earlier
before her abduction.
73
00:05:26,702 --> 00:05:30,456
In all these cases,
there's the use of handcuffs,
74
00:05:31,374 --> 00:05:34,293
two victims with strangulation,
75
00:05:34,377 --> 00:05:38,464
two victims with adhesive remains
around their mouths.
76
00:05:38,547 --> 00:05:40,216
So we're having a pattern here.
77
00:05:41,008 --> 00:05:44,220
And they felt very confident
this guy might be related.
78
00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:47,348
But there's a lot of things
working against the investigators.
79
00:05:48,224 --> 00:05:52,103
They didn't have enough evidence
to support the prosecutor's case.
80
00:05:52,603 --> 00:05:56,065
'Cause you not only wanna arrest this guy,
you need to convict him.
81
00:05:56,148 --> 00:06:00,611
{\an8}You have to build a solid case
of credible information…
82
00:06:02,196 --> 00:06:05,408
…using evidence and statements
83
00:06:05,491 --> 00:06:09,036
from surviving victims,
like Leslie Ann O'Dell.
84
00:06:10,496 --> 00:06:13,499
Because this
is a serial killer case, in particular,
85
00:06:13,582 --> 00:06:15,042
detectives are looking into
86
00:06:15,126 --> 00:06:17,169
if something similar happened
to someone else.
87
00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:21,006
Because if you have other survivors,
88
00:06:21,090 --> 00:06:22,800
then you have more witnesses,
89
00:06:23,843 --> 00:06:28,931
which would help determine a pattern
of what this guy does and how he does it.
90
00:06:30,099 --> 00:06:31,809
How did he approach her?
91
00:06:31,892 --> 00:06:33,269
What did he say?
92
00:06:33,894 --> 00:06:35,646
How did the evening progress?
93
00:06:36,147 --> 00:06:37,648
When did it go bad?
94
00:06:37,731 --> 00:06:39,567
These little details
95
00:06:39,650 --> 00:06:41,777
can link different crimes together.
96
00:06:41,861 --> 00:06:43,737
It can make or break the case.
97
00:06:45,030 --> 00:06:50,161
The Bergen County investigators
found a lot of unsolved rape-assault cases
98
00:06:50,244 --> 00:06:52,746
where they were picked up
from New York City,
99
00:06:52,830 --> 00:06:55,624
brought to New Jersey, and almost killed.
100
00:07:05,176 --> 00:07:06,635
{\an8}When I became conscious,
101
00:07:06,719 --> 00:07:11,307
{\an8}I was lying naked in a sewer
at an apartment complex.
102
00:07:11,891 --> 00:07:16,353
The night before, she was approached
at a bar in New York City.
103
00:07:17,563 --> 00:07:19,273
{\an8}He started talking to me,
104
00:07:20,191 --> 00:07:22,443
{\an8}and he asked me
what I was doing there alone.
105
00:07:22,943 --> 00:07:24,945
He offered to buy her a drink.
106
00:07:26,197 --> 00:07:28,449
He asked me
if I was a working girl.
107
00:07:28,532 --> 00:07:30,743
I told him that I was a waitress.
108
00:07:31,285 --> 00:07:34,497
The drink was loaded,
and she began to feel ill.
109
00:07:34,580 --> 00:07:37,625
She left the bar, he followed her,
offered her a ride home.
110
00:07:38,209 --> 00:07:39,460
She got into the car,
111
00:07:40,002 --> 00:07:42,880
and before you know it,
they were driving into New Jersey.
112
00:07:43,547 --> 00:07:45,299
I kept passing out.
113
00:07:45,799 --> 00:07:47,551
When she came conscious,
114
00:07:47,635 --> 00:07:51,013
she had been severely,
uh, bitten on the breast.
115
00:07:51,096 --> 00:07:54,058
She had been beaten
and sexually assaulted.
116
00:07:54,558 --> 00:07:57,353
I woke up in a dark area,
117
00:07:57,436 --> 00:08:01,857
and he told me,
"Don't worry, I used to live here."
118
00:08:13,494 --> 00:08:16,330
{\an8}When I came to,
my attacker was gone.
119
00:08:17,081 --> 00:08:18,624
{\an8}He took my jewelry.
120
00:08:18,707 --> 00:08:20,084
{\an8}I could barely move.
121
00:08:20,584 --> 00:08:22,211
{\an8}I hurt all over.
122
00:08:23,337 --> 00:08:24,713
The night before,
123
00:08:24,797 --> 00:08:27,424
a female prostitute named Susan Geiger
124
00:08:28,133 --> 00:08:30,719
was approached near Broadway in Manhattan.
125
00:08:31,595 --> 00:08:33,472
{\an8}He asked me
if I was a working girl.
126
00:08:33,556 --> 00:08:35,641
{\an8}I told him I was. I needed the money.
127
00:08:36,308 --> 00:08:40,271
This individual asked her
to come with him, and she was busy.
128
00:08:40,354 --> 00:08:43,190
Gets her to agree
to meet him the next night,
129
00:08:44,191 --> 00:08:45,693
and she does. She comes.
130
00:08:46,610 --> 00:08:49,029
He says,
"Let's go have a couple drinks."
131
00:08:49,113 --> 00:08:51,615
He knew of a nice place, Flanagans.
132
00:08:53,742 --> 00:08:57,371
He said he worked with computers,
lived in New Jersey.
133
00:08:58,372 --> 00:09:01,709
And once he had her, he drugged her.
134
00:09:01,792 --> 00:09:04,503
He drugged her,
and he brought her to New Jersey…
135
00:09:04,587 --> 00:09:08,215
I started feeling drowsy,
tired, sleepy.
136
00:09:08,299 --> 00:09:13,929
…where the assailant bit her breasts
and caused horrendous injuries.
137
00:09:14,513 --> 00:09:16,515
She'd been sexually assaulted.
138
00:09:17,141 --> 00:09:19,476
Susan Geiger was left for dead,
139
00:09:20,060 --> 00:09:22,062
and by the grace of God, she lived.
140
00:09:33,907 --> 00:09:38,078
{\an8}I woke up in a parking lot
and had no idea what had happened.
141
00:09:38,704 --> 00:09:39,955
The night before,
142
00:09:40,039 --> 00:09:43,000
the offender spotted her
on the street in Times Square.
143
00:09:43,751 --> 00:09:46,128
{\an8}He had a big fat bankroll.
144
00:09:46,211 --> 00:09:48,505
{\an8}He told me it was $3,000,
145
00:09:49,048 --> 00:09:52,426
{\an8}and he said, "I want
to spend the whole night with you."
146
00:09:52,509 --> 00:09:55,179
{\an8}This guy was waving these wads of cash,
147
00:09:56,388 --> 00:09:58,265
asking for sex acts.
148
00:09:59,475 --> 00:10:02,770
In the bar, he kept insisting
that I drink with him.
149
00:10:02,853 --> 00:10:05,939
He kept touching my breasts
the whole time.
150
00:10:06,607 --> 00:10:07,941
He was rough.
151
00:10:08,776 --> 00:10:11,737
And then he drugged her,
and he brought her to New Jersey,
152
00:10:13,447 --> 00:10:17,368
where she reported
a horrific beating and sexual assault.
153
00:10:22,206 --> 00:10:23,916
All of these cases…
154
00:10:25,209 --> 00:10:26,752
had several parallels.
155
00:10:28,045 --> 00:10:30,255
The victims found
in New Jersey
156
00:10:30,339 --> 00:10:34,843
were abducted from an area
in New York City
157
00:10:34,927 --> 00:10:38,430
where Richard Cottingham worked
at Blue Cross.
158
00:10:39,890 --> 00:10:43,102
Karen Schilt,
she was found in the parking lot
159
00:10:43,185 --> 00:10:46,480
of the Ledgewood apartments
in Little Ferry,
160
00:10:47,523 --> 00:10:49,650
which was Maryann Carr's apartment,
161
00:10:50,901 --> 00:10:52,695
where Cottingham used to live.
162
00:10:55,406 --> 00:10:57,783
The attack of Pamela Weisenfeld
163
00:10:57,866 --> 00:11:00,703
was a couple days
before the assault of Leslie O'Dell.
164
00:11:02,454 --> 00:11:06,041
Also, this perpetrator,
he was drugging them.
165
00:11:07,209 --> 00:11:11,880
And Richard Cottingham
had sedatives in his possession.
166
00:11:13,841 --> 00:11:16,760
And all the injuries were so similar.
167
00:11:18,262 --> 00:11:21,724
Now, Bergen County investigators
need each new victim
168
00:11:21,807 --> 00:11:26,562
to try to identify Richard Cottingham
as their attacker and rapist.
169
00:11:28,605 --> 00:11:30,482
But it's sometimes difficult.
170
00:11:32,234 --> 00:11:35,279
Previously,
in the 1970s,
171
00:11:35,362 --> 00:11:39,742
many women would be wary to come forward
172
00:11:39,825 --> 00:11:43,203
{\an8}because rape victims
were treated horribly by the law.
173
00:11:43,287 --> 00:11:45,414
{\an8}New York law was particularly onerous.
174
00:11:45,497 --> 00:11:47,750
Even if a woman could identify the rapist,
175
00:11:47,833 --> 00:11:51,420
if you did not have a witness to your rape
who was willing to get on the stand
176
00:11:51,503 --> 00:11:53,797
and say, "Yes, I saw this person raped,"
177
00:11:53,881 --> 00:11:56,175
then they could not get a conviction.
178
00:11:56,258 --> 00:11:58,761
But also, if you're a sex worker,
179
00:11:58,844 --> 00:12:01,388
the police officer would arrest you
180
00:12:01,889 --> 00:12:04,892
for having said you were a sex worker.
181
00:12:04,975 --> 00:12:07,561
And at the time in New York,
182
00:12:07,644 --> 00:12:10,063
they were cracking down
on the sex industry.
183
00:12:11,273 --> 00:12:14,359
The main focus of the Office
of Midtown Enforcement in Times Square
184
00:12:14,443 --> 00:12:16,779
is the elimination of prostitution.
185
00:12:18,197 --> 00:12:20,908
For so long,
only women were arrested
186
00:12:20,991 --> 00:12:23,327
for the crime of prostitution.
187
00:12:23,410 --> 00:12:24,620
Men would not be,
188
00:12:24,703 --> 00:12:28,916
even though the law said that soliciting
was a non-gendered offense.
189
00:12:29,500 --> 00:12:33,545
{\an8}The girl is taking the brunt
of the entire bust.
190
00:12:34,296 --> 00:12:36,006
Double standard? Absolutely.
191
00:12:38,759 --> 00:12:42,054
I was arrested all these dozens
of times in New York City.
192
00:12:42,554 --> 00:12:45,891
{\an8}The men, the clients, the johns,
the tricks, whatever you wanna call them,
193
00:12:47,017 --> 00:12:48,393
{\an8}they were never rounded up.
194
00:12:48,477 --> 00:12:51,355
The traffickers or pimps,
they were never rounded up.
195
00:12:51,980 --> 00:12:54,691
In most cases,
a summons was issued,
196
00:12:54,775 --> 00:12:56,735
and the violator was on his way.
197
00:12:58,111 --> 00:13:01,615
But in the late 1970s, early 1980s…
198
00:13:03,158 --> 00:13:05,994
…the feminist movement was getting bigger.
199
00:13:06,078 --> 00:13:08,247
Today's marchers
were celebrating the growth
200
00:13:08,330 --> 00:13:11,542
of the women's movement
from a small band of dedicated feminists
201
00:13:11,625 --> 00:13:15,546
into a full-scale movement
involving women of all kinds.
202
00:13:16,255 --> 00:13:18,882
And so, as a result,
203
00:13:18,966 --> 00:13:23,387
there were lots of new developments
in the way of policing,
204
00:13:23,470 --> 00:13:28,433
and what began to happen was let's catch
the men who are doing all of this.
205
00:13:29,351 --> 00:13:32,563
By the new law,
it is now a misdemeanor.
206
00:13:32,646 --> 00:13:35,983
When arrested,
a so-called john will be fingerprinted,
207
00:13:36,066 --> 00:13:39,152
photographed, and held in a cell
until his arraignment.
208
00:13:40,112 --> 00:13:44,116
-What do you think of that law?
-Well, uh, it's fair, but being a man,
209
00:13:44,199 --> 00:13:46,827
I'm a little biased
as to how I feel about it.
210
00:13:46,910 --> 00:13:48,328
But, uh, definitely fair
211
00:13:48,412 --> 00:13:50,455
if you wanna cut down the traffic
in Times Square.
212
00:13:50,539 --> 00:13:52,249
Well, there should be equity
under the law.
213
00:13:52,332 --> 00:13:54,209
What goes for the woman
ought to go for the man.
214
00:13:54,293 --> 00:13:57,754
One of the things
that happened with the women's movement
215
00:13:57,838 --> 00:14:01,300
was that women now
were feeling that they could
216
00:14:01,383 --> 00:14:05,137
and should determine sexual consent.
217
00:14:06,179 --> 00:14:08,515
Rape laws began to be changed,
218
00:14:08,599 --> 00:14:12,185
and women understood now
that what was happening to them
219
00:14:12,269 --> 00:14:14,229
was not right,
220
00:14:14,813 --> 00:14:18,066
and they began to advocate for themselves.
221
00:14:18,150 --> 00:14:22,905
And rape crimes could no longer
be swept under the rug, forgotten.
222
00:14:24,865 --> 00:14:27,200
And so in Bergen County…
223
00:14:28,660 --> 00:14:30,495
…these other victims
224
00:14:30,579 --> 00:14:33,916
who were also attacked
by Richard Cottingham
225
00:14:33,999 --> 00:14:38,086
now feel it is the right time
226
00:14:38,170 --> 00:14:41,131
to come forward and give their story
227
00:14:41,214 --> 00:14:44,301
as to what happened to them,
that they will be listened to.
228
00:14:49,264 --> 00:14:51,308
And so, uh, they came forward
229
00:14:51,391 --> 00:14:54,895
to try and identify the guy
who attacked them.
230
00:14:56,021 --> 00:14:58,690
However, by the time
it came time for the lineup,
231
00:14:59,691 --> 00:15:01,443
Cottingham shaved off his mustache
232
00:15:01,526 --> 00:15:03,737
and looks
like a completely different person.
233
00:15:04,571 --> 00:15:06,573
He was trying to prevent identification.
234
00:15:07,908 --> 00:15:11,536
Tell you the truth, if I wasn't a cop,
I'd have trouble ID'ing him in the lineup.
235
00:15:11,620 --> 00:15:13,288
He looked completely different.
236
00:15:14,790 --> 00:15:20,003
But Susan Geiger,
Pamela Weisenfeld, and Karen Schilt
237
00:15:20,087 --> 00:15:22,881
were able to identify Richard Cottingham.
238
00:15:30,639 --> 00:15:32,849
And now in New Jersey,
239
00:15:33,558 --> 00:15:37,354
the media was reporting
on Richard Cottingham as the suspect
240
00:15:37,437 --> 00:15:40,357
with the victims found in Bergen County.
241
00:15:46,113 --> 00:15:48,699
Very quickly, the NYPD
242
00:15:49,741 --> 00:15:54,037
sees Richard Cottingham
being written about.
243
00:15:55,122 --> 00:15:59,209
They discover similarities
between the two cases
244
00:16:00,252 --> 00:16:01,712
and start thinking
245
00:16:02,421 --> 00:16:05,924
maybe Richard Cottingham's
the Times Square Torso Killer.
246
00:16:06,591 --> 00:16:08,135
This is what broke the case.
247
00:16:08,719 --> 00:16:10,762
Now these detectives are working together.
248
00:16:10,846 --> 00:16:13,306
They're talking, cooperating,
249
00:16:13,390 --> 00:16:17,019
examining everything,
comparing everything,
250
00:16:17,102 --> 00:16:18,520
putting the cases together.
251
00:16:18,603 --> 00:16:22,899
So the Bergen County prosecutor's
office executed a search warrant
252
00:16:22,983 --> 00:16:25,485
on the home of Richard Cottingham.
253
00:16:27,946 --> 00:16:31,283
When they entered his house
in Lodi, New Jersey,
254
00:16:31,366 --> 00:16:35,245
the investigators uncovered
a private room in his house,
255
00:16:35,328 --> 00:16:37,664
and that was a big, big find.
256
00:16:38,665 --> 00:16:41,668
It was a room that was down
in the basement of the house.
257
00:16:42,169 --> 00:16:45,589
{\an8}He could go there.
He… he could lock the door and be alone,
258
00:16:46,381 --> 00:16:49,634
away from his wife,
who had filed for divorce.
259
00:16:50,510 --> 00:16:54,347
And what they found
made everybody's head spin.
260
00:16:55,474 --> 00:16:57,476
He had pornographic artwork,
261
00:16:59,144 --> 00:17:00,395
adhesive tape,
262
00:17:02,147 --> 00:17:03,732
books about S&M.
263
00:17:06,026 --> 00:17:10,614
They find
all these women's clothing, purses…
264
00:17:12,491 --> 00:17:15,577
Inside that room, he had a vault.
265
00:17:16,286 --> 00:17:18,747
A lockbox, uh, that he kept things in.
266
00:17:20,332 --> 00:17:23,168
They found what turned out
to be the actual key
267
00:17:23,251 --> 00:17:26,505
for Maryann Carr's apartment,
which he wouldn't have had access to
268
00:17:26,588 --> 00:17:28,840
unless he had gotten access
to Maryann Carr.
269
00:17:30,592 --> 00:17:35,055
They found a little koala bear.
It belonged to Valerie Ann Street.
270
00:17:36,515 --> 00:17:40,769
The police had discovered
what became known as the trophy room.
271
00:17:42,104 --> 00:17:45,148
A trophy is evidence
of a successful hunt.
272
00:17:46,483 --> 00:17:49,361
And lo and behold, there was a necklace
273
00:17:50,612 --> 00:17:52,030
of Jean Ann Reyner,
274
00:17:52,531 --> 00:17:54,908
{\an8}the victim found at the Hotel Seville.
275
00:17:55,575 --> 00:17:58,578
{\an8}The same necklace
from her arrest photograph
276
00:17:58,662 --> 00:18:00,163
{\an8}is right there.
277
00:18:03,750 --> 00:18:07,129
All of a sudden,
they had evidence linking this guy
278
00:18:07,212 --> 00:18:10,215
who was torturing and killing women
in Bergen County, New Jersey,
279
00:18:10,298 --> 00:18:13,760
to the famous Torso Killer of New York.
280
00:18:14,886 --> 00:18:17,389
And now, for Richard Cottingham,
281
00:18:17,889 --> 00:18:20,183
his house of cards began to collapse.
282
00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:26,148
Last winter, we told you about
several especially brutal murders
283
00:18:26,231 --> 00:18:28,066
of alleged prostitutes here in New York,
284
00:18:28,150 --> 00:18:29,943
And so far,
the murders have gone unsolved.
285
00:18:30,026 --> 00:18:32,821
But now there may be
a major break in that case.
286
00:18:33,488 --> 00:18:36,074
The man they want
is 33-year-old Richard Cottingham,
287
00:18:36,158 --> 00:18:38,535
a Lodi, New Jersey computer operator.
288
00:18:38,618 --> 00:18:42,330
And right now, Cottingham
is being held on $350,000 bail
289
00:18:42,414 --> 00:18:44,916
in connection with the murder
of an alleged prostitute
290
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:47,919
at the Quality Inn
in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
291
00:18:55,302 --> 00:18:56,720
When I came to work,
292
00:18:56,803 --> 00:19:00,348
and we found out
that Richie was arrested in New Jersey,
293
00:19:01,141 --> 00:19:02,475
we were all shocked.
294
00:19:03,310 --> 00:19:06,771
{\an8}And we just kept learning about
more killings and more killings.
295
00:19:06,855 --> 00:19:08,398
{\an8}Not just the murders,
296
00:19:08,481 --> 00:19:11,526
{\an8}but the taking apart the body
and… and things like that.
297
00:19:11,610 --> 00:19:13,195
{\an8}I-- It was horrific.
298
00:19:13,778 --> 00:19:16,615
Thinking back
to all the stories about the prostitutes
299
00:19:16,698 --> 00:19:18,992
and how he would lure them to New Jersey,
300
00:19:19,075 --> 00:19:21,077
we didn't hear of him hurting them.
301
00:19:21,161 --> 00:19:24,414
Nobody reported him on any--
We didn't know what was going on with him.
302
00:19:24,915 --> 00:19:26,750
All we know is what he told us.
303
00:19:26,833 --> 00:19:30,378
As days went by, when the shock wore off,
304
00:19:30,462 --> 00:19:33,089
after I was questioned by the police,
305
00:19:34,299 --> 00:19:35,717
then the bell went off in my head.
306
00:19:36,301 --> 00:19:38,970
This diagram that he drew for me,
307
00:19:40,639 --> 00:19:43,350
I cannot explain why I kept it.
308
00:19:43,850 --> 00:19:45,227
It was just there,
309
00:19:46,019 --> 00:19:49,564
laying with a bunch of crap in a drawer.
310
00:19:49,648 --> 00:19:51,274
And I gave it to them.
311
00:19:52,192 --> 00:19:53,860
I wanted to get him bad.
312
00:19:55,111 --> 00:19:58,114
{\an8}There are 19 charges pending
against Richard Cottingham,
313
00:19:58,198 --> 00:20:01,785
{\an8}a 34-year-old computer programmer
from Lodi, New Jersey.
314
00:20:01,868 --> 00:20:03,161
{\an8}The major charge is murder.
315
00:20:03,245 --> 00:20:06,915
{\an8}The murder of Valerie Ann Street,
a 19-year-old prostitute,
316
00:20:06,998 --> 00:20:09,793
{\an8}who Cottingham
allegedly picked up in New York City
317
00:20:09,876 --> 00:20:11,628
{\an8}on May 4th of 1980.
318
00:20:12,212 --> 00:20:15,674
The charges are as long
as your arm, you know.
319
00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:20,971
In New Jersey, there was
administrating noxious substances.
320
00:20:21,054 --> 00:20:25,642
There was possession
of illegal prescriptions, pharmaceuticals.
321
00:20:25,725 --> 00:20:28,895
There was possession of, um… a knife.
322
00:20:29,604 --> 00:20:32,983
And, of course,
there was the rape, abduction, and assault
323
00:20:33,066 --> 00:20:37,279
of Leslie O'Dell,
Susan Geiger, Karen Schilt,
324
00:20:37,362 --> 00:20:40,323
and the abduction of Pamela Weisenfeld,
325
00:20:40,865 --> 00:20:43,535
and the murder of Valerie Street.
326
00:20:48,540 --> 00:20:50,292
At the risk of sounding vain,
327
00:20:50,375 --> 00:20:52,961
my reputation was I was the best lawyer,
328
00:20:53,044 --> 00:20:56,047
not only in Bergen County,
but North Jersey for sure.
329
00:20:57,215 --> 00:21:02,971
{\an8}Every time a newspaper article would refer
to a significant crime in the county,
330
00:21:03,054 --> 00:21:04,806
I was waiting for my phone to ring.
331
00:21:05,598 --> 00:21:09,894
I remember the initial contact
that Mrs. Cottingham made with me.
332
00:21:09,978 --> 00:21:11,479
She said right at the outset,
333
00:21:11,563 --> 00:21:14,858
"Mr. Conway, I've been referred to you
to represent my son."
334
00:21:14,941 --> 00:21:18,194
"My son did not do anything wrong."
335
00:21:18,695 --> 00:21:23,742
Mr. Cottingham was so determined
to prove that he's innocent,
336
00:21:23,825 --> 00:21:25,493
he insisted on going to trial.
337
00:21:39,966 --> 00:21:42,927
What makes this historically
an interesting trial,
338
00:21:43,011 --> 00:21:45,764
{\an8}it's one of the first trials
that I know of
339
00:21:45,847 --> 00:21:49,893
{\an8}where signature evidence was presented.
340
00:21:49,976 --> 00:21:54,230
Um… Dennis Calo,
the prosecutor at that time,
341
00:21:54,314 --> 00:21:57,525
was arguing that
342
00:21:58,735 --> 00:22:02,989
Cottingham's signature
was the abduction, the handcuffing,
343
00:22:03,073 --> 00:22:06,368
the taping of his victims,
344
00:22:07,369 --> 00:22:08,828
the mutilation.
345
00:22:09,662 --> 00:22:13,583
He would run that knife
along the body of the women,
346
00:22:13,666 --> 00:22:18,963
um… in order to, uh, bring,
uh, them into a state of fear.
347
00:22:19,047 --> 00:22:22,967
You know, the signature is the same
even though the MO is different.
348
00:22:24,344 --> 00:22:27,597
One victim is stabbed,
another one is strangled.
349
00:22:28,139 --> 00:22:30,725
Some were found outside.
350
00:22:30,809 --> 00:22:33,103
Other victims are found inside.
351
00:22:33,603 --> 00:22:37,482
He may commit these crimes
in different ways,
352
00:22:37,565 --> 00:22:39,067
but the signature is the same.
353
00:22:39,150 --> 00:22:42,904
And that was very advanced at that time.
354
00:22:47,033 --> 00:22:49,452
And then
the prosecutor brought out
355
00:22:49,536 --> 00:22:52,122
a number of victims who lived to testify.
356
00:22:52,872 --> 00:22:54,791
And… and their testimony was crucial.
357
00:22:56,042 --> 00:23:01,423
{\an8} I have the vague memory
of, like, being burnt on my breast.
358
00:23:01,506 --> 00:23:02,757
{\an8}Like, really hurting.
359
00:23:04,008 --> 00:23:05,593
{\an8}I felt like I was dead.
360
00:23:06,803 --> 00:23:11,850
{\an8}He said I was going
to pay for being a whore, like the others.
361
00:23:12,684 --> 00:23:14,894
{\an8}And if I did anything
he didn't want me to,
362
00:23:15,645 --> 00:23:17,522
{\an8}he would… kill me.
363
00:23:19,190 --> 00:23:21,317
{\an8}I remember being in a hotel room
364
00:23:21,818 --> 00:23:25,738
{\an8}and waking up to him beating me
with a hose and biting me.
365
00:23:26,573 --> 00:23:27,532
{\an8}Jim.
366
00:23:28,491 --> 00:23:30,160
{\an8}He said his name was Jim.
367
00:23:30,785 --> 00:23:32,537
The name didn't mean a damn thing.
368
00:23:33,037 --> 00:23:36,791
The prosecutor would say, "Do you see,
uh, the man who attacked you?"
369
00:23:36,875 --> 00:23:38,877
"Yes. There he is."
370
00:23:44,716 --> 00:23:48,887
And then the prosecutor
entered forensic evidence,
371
00:23:48,970 --> 00:23:52,223
such as the jewelry
372
00:23:52,307 --> 00:23:54,225
that was taken from victims
373
00:23:54,309 --> 00:23:56,102
and was in his possession,
374
00:23:56,644 --> 00:23:57,979
and the fingerprints.
375
00:24:00,356 --> 00:24:03,234
In the case
in the murder of Valerie Street,
376
00:24:03,318 --> 00:24:08,740
the perpetrator had left a print
on the ratchet of the handcuff.
377
00:24:08,823 --> 00:24:12,118
They never found a match for that print
378
00:24:12,202 --> 00:24:14,704
until, of course,
they arrested Richard Cottingham.
379
00:24:16,664 --> 00:24:21,002
Richard Cottingham actually took
the stand in his own defense.
380
00:24:22,170 --> 00:24:25,089
Richard Cottingham's defense was,
"I didn't do it."
381
00:24:27,967 --> 00:24:30,428
{\an8}Most of the stuff never happened that way.
382
00:24:31,095 --> 00:24:35,558
{\an8}See, the police, they're the most
corrupt people in the world.
383
00:24:35,642 --> 00:24:37,894
{\an8}They will plant evidence on you.
384
00:24:37,977 --> 00:24:40,438
{\an8}They will hide evidence
that's in your favor.
385
00:24:40,939 --> 00:24:42,273
{\an8} Later, he said,
386
00:24:42,357 --> 00:24:48,488
"You guys put my fingerprint
on that handcuff
387
00:24:48,571 --> 00:24:51,115
when you were cuffing my hands up
behind my back,
388
00:24:51,199 --> 00:24:53,660
and that's how you got that, uh, print."
389
00:24:54,786 --> 00:24:56,496
{\an8}When police found the room,
390
00:24:56,579 --> 00:25:00,250
{\an8}they made it out to be
like they were mementos from victims.
391
00:25:00,333 --> 00:25:02,418
{\an8}He also said, "The jewelry that you found,
392
00:25:02,502 --> 00:25:05,713
you could buy on Canal Street.
It's a coincidence."
393
00:25:05,797 --> 00:25:08,007
He says he wasn't getting along
with his wife,
394
00:25:08,091 --> 00:25:09,926
so he frequented with ladies of the night.
395
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:12,095
I was a lousy husband.
396
00:25:12,178 --> 00:25:13,805
I was into that nightlife,
397
00:25:13,888 --> 00:25:16,182
and I went out with women every night.
398
00:25:16,266 --> 00:25:19,018
He said they would like
some unusual kind of sex.
399
00:25:19,102 --> 00:25:21,688
That's what he enjoyed,
and that's what he was paying for.
400
00:25:22,647 --> 00:25:25,817
He said Leslie Ann O'Dell
permitted him to do the things
401
00:25:25,900 --> 00:25:26,985
that he did to her.
402
00:25:27,068 --> 00:25:29,737
Look at her crime scene photos.
403
00:25:30,572 --> 00:25:32,657
You're not gonna see a beat-up person.
404
00:25:32,740 --> 00:25:34,659
He said, well,
"She misunderstood his intentions."
405
00:25:34,742 --> 00:25:37,704
"She's supposed to take pain
because I paid her for a bondage session."
406
00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:43,084
In terms of the other women
who had identified him,
407
00:25:43,167 --> 00:25:45,169
he said the women were lying.
408
00:25:45,753 --> 00:25:48,006
Hookers will say anything
to the police
409
00:25:48,089 --> 00:25:49,882
that the police want them to say.
410
00:25:50,383 --> 00:25:53,761
No hooker is gonna remember
a person two years before,
411
00:25:53,845 --> 00:25:55,763
but she'll come and say,
"Oh, that's the man,"
412
00:25:55,847 --> 00:25:58,182
'cause that's what the police
want them to say.
413
00:25:58,891 --> 00:26:02,103
His defense
was that he was at work
414
00:26:02,729 --> 00:26:04,606
at the time of these, uh, crimes,
415
00:26:04,689 --> 00:26:07,150
and that he has time sheets.
416
00:26:07,233 --> 00:26:11,654
I went to work every day. I ne--
I worked sometimes 200 days straight.
417
00:26:11,738 --> 00:26:13,573
I worked all kinds of overtime.
418
00:26:14,198 --> 00:26:17,410
But it turned out
that some of his co-workers
419
00:26:17,493 --> 00:26:19,078
at Blue Cross Blue Shield
420
00:26:20,288 --> 00:26:22,832
were willing to come forward and testify.
421
00:26:24,417 --> 00:26:27,879
Other guys in the office
were afraid to testify against Richie
422
00:26:28,630 --> 00:26:30,798
because they were in fear
423
00:26:30,882 --> 00:26:33,635
that Richie might do something
to them or their family.
424
00:26:34,510 --> 00:26:36,554
But I wanted to hang him by his balls,
425
00:26:36,638 --> 00:26:40,683
and that… and that's the reason
that, uh, I… I wasn't afraid to testify.
426
00:26:40,767 --> 00:26:44,354
His alibi for a lot
of these murders was, "I was working."
427
00:26:45,271 --> 00:26:46,230
"I was working."
428
00:26:47,023 --> 00:26:49,067
And then I told the prosecutors,
429
00:26:49,150 --> 00:26:51,694
I said, "Look, I can tell you
why he wasn't there."
430
00:26:53,363 --> 00:26:54,822
He was cheating the clock,
431
00:26:54,906 --> 00:26:57,200
and I told them how he did it.
432
00:27:00,036 --> 00:27:05,667
Richard and I knew how to change
the internal clock on the computer.
433
00:27:06,250 --> 00:27:07,919
As soon as you start the job,
434
00:27:08,002 --> 00:27:10,088
you move the clock ten hours ahead,
435
00:27:10,171 --> 00:27:13,841
and when the job prints out on the log,
436
00:27:13,925 --> 00:27:15,593
it prints that time.
437
00:27:17,053 --> 00:27:19,806
So ten minutes was ten hours.
438
00:27:21,140 --> 00:27:24,936
I had no idea what he was doing
when he was cheating the clock.
439
00:27:25,019 --> 00:27:28,314
Murder would have been
the last thing on my… on the list.
440
00:27:28,981 --> 00:27:31,734
Nothing more I wanted to do
than to put this man away.
441
00:27:32,694 --> 00:27:34,445
I didn't care what happened to me.
442
00:27:37,448 --> 00:27:41,244
At this point, prosecution
had overwhelming evidence against him.
443
00:27:42,495 --> 00:27:46,416
The jury came back and, of course,
found him guilty of the several charges.
444
00:27:47,667 --> 00:27:50,670
I think people really feared
445
00:27:51,379 --> 00:27:53,297
to let him out.
446
00:27:53,381 --> 00:27:57,885
This guy was a menace, um,
that he had to be taken off the street,
447
00:27:57,969 --> 00:28:00,888
and I think the jury
were persuaded of that.
448
00:28:00,972 --> 00:28:05,685
When the jury returned a verdict,
Cottingham didn't, uh, cry out.
449
00:28:05,768 --> 00:28:07,937
He didn't, uh, show any emotion at all.
450
00:28:09,313 --> 00:28:12,275
{\an8}His mother certainly did,
and his sister, oh yes.
451
00:28:12,942 --> 00:28:15,570
{\an8}She was upset,
like I-- It was all my fault.
452
00:28:17,321 --> 00:28:18,364
After that trial,
453
00:28:19,490 --> 00:28:21,367
they brought up a homicide committed
454
00:28:21,451 --> 00:28:24,120
to a former neighbor
of his in Little Ferry,
455
00:28:24,704 --> 00:28:29,125
Maryann Carr,
who was not abducted from New York.
456
00:28:30,543 --> 00:28:33,129
Sure enough,
he was found guilty of killing her too.
457
00:28:34,714 --> 00:28:38,050
Richard Cottingham, he faces
another murder trial here in New York.
458
00:28:38,134 --> 00:28:41,012
That case involves
three prostitutes who were killed.
459
00:28:49,187 --> 00:28:51,147
During the New York trial,
460
00:28:52,815 --> 00:28:55,067
{\an8}my mother's pimp, James Thomas,
461
00:28:55,651 --> 00:29:00,531
{\an8}was waiting
for court to be in session again
462
00:29:01,532 --> 00:29:02,700
in the hallway.
463
00:29:04,994 --> 00:29:09,707
I guess Cottingham
was in the hallway at the same time.
464
00:29:09,791 --> 00:29:11,918
They get into a physical altercation
465
00:29:12,001 --> 00:29:17,632
where James is just pummeling Cottingham
466
00:29:17,715 --> 00:29:21,636
and punching him repeatedly saying,
"Let me punch him one more time."
467
00:29:32,271 --> 00:29:35,233
Richard was sentenced
to almost 200 years total
468
00:29:36,108 --> 00:29:37,318
in Trenton State.
469
00:29:40,446 --> 00:29:42,949
In 1984, I went down to Trenton
470
00:29:43,908 --> 00:29:46,452
to ask him to identify the Jane Doe
471
00:29:47,078 --> 00:29:49,789
from the Travel Inn homicide.
472
00:29:49,872 --> 00:29:53,167
It's very important to bring closure
to the families. They have nothing else.
473
00:29:53,251 --> 00:29:56,546
When I was there, he was real arrogant.
474
00:29:57,588 --> 00:30:00,633
{\an8}And he had a kind of smirk on his face
like he was… he was playing with me.
475
00:30:01,968 --> 00:30:04,762
Bottom line, he wasn't giving anything up.
476
00:30:08,474 --> 00:30:12,645
Cottingham sat
in prison for 30 years.
477
00:30:13,729 --> 00:30:19,735
Not a letter, not a word,
not a single comment to anybody…
478
00:30:23,990 --> 00:30:25,533
until 2009.
479
00:30:59,817 --> 00:31:00,902
Hi.
480
00:31:01,402 --> 00:31:02,612
Hello.
481
00:31:02,695 --> 00:31:04,906
I'm Nadia Fezzani. I'm a journalist.
482
00:31:04,989 --> 00:31:08,743
{\an8}I interview serial killers
to discover the deeper side of them,
483
00:31:08,826 --> 00:31:10,703
{\an8}the psychological aspect.
484
00:31:10,786 --> 00:31:14,206
Richard Cottingham
had never confessed before.
485
00:31:14,790 --> 00:31:19,795
So when I asked him about the reason why
he had killed so many women,
486
00:31:19,879 --> 00:31:22,256
I was surprised that he actually told me.
487
00:31:23,883 --> 00:31:26,469
It was a game to me. It was…
488
00:31:27,261 --> 00:31:29,680
It was mainly psychological.
489
00:31:30,264 --> 00:31:31,182
Uh…
490
00:31:34,894 --> 00:31:40,733
I was able to get almost any woman
to do whatever I wanted them to do…
491
00:31:42,193 --> 00:31:43,611
psychologically.
492
00:31:43,694 --> 00:31:47,239
You know, or through the… the threat,
or the implied threat…
493
00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:49,200
uh…
494
00:31:50,076 --> 00:31:51,160
of being hurt,
495
00:31:51,827 --> 00:31:53,704
of being killed sometimes.
496
00:31:54,372 --> 00:31:57,083
It's godlike, almost.
497
00:31:57,583 --> 00:32:02,004
It's-- I mean, you're… you're
in complete control of somebody's destiny.
498
00:32:02,797 --> 00:32:05,257
Cottingham claims that
499
00:32:06,801 --> 00:32:10,846
one reason why he chose to kill
was when he believed
500
00:32:11,430 --> 00:32:15,267
that some of the women
would report him to the police.
501
00:32:15,851 --> 00:32:20,398
The murders were 99%
of the time just to protect myself.
502
00:32:20,982 --> 00:32:23,025
The Maryann Carr case,
503
00:32:23,818 --> 00:32:26,904
she wanted to leave, and I wouldn't
let her leave at some point.
504
00:32:27,405 --> 00:32:30,157
And then she said the fatal sentence,
505
00:32:30,241 --> 00:32:32,201
"I'll talk to the cops in the morning."
506
00:32:33,327 --> 00:32:36,706
Just that sentence. If she didn't
say that sentence, she'd be alive.
507
00:32:37,373 --> 00:32:40,668
But by her saying that,
I knew she had to die.
508
00:32:41,544 --> 00:32:43,504
Before I interviewed him,
509
00:32:43,587 --> 00:32:47,508
Richard Cottingham
had never confessed to the two murders
510
00:32:47,591 --> 00:32:51,637
he had committed
in the Travel Inn Lodge in Times Square.
511
00:32:52,346 --> 00:32:55,141
He revealed to Nadia
512
00:32:55,224 --> 00:32:57,893
that he knew Deedeh Goodarzi
513
00:32:57,977 --> 00:33:02,398
and that he had severed her head
and both her hands
514
00:33:02,481 --> 00:33:05,401
because he had been seen with her,
515
00:33:05,484 --> 00:33:08,112
and he was worried
that he would've been connected to her.
516
00:33:11,407 --> 00:33:15,202
He said that he left the hotel
at 3:30 in the morning,
517
00:33:16,579 --> 00:33:19,874
and he was just walking in Times Square.
518
00:33:21,417 --> 00:33:25,046
He was carrying the heads in a bag.
519
00:33:27,965 --> 00:33:32,261
And two police officers stopped him, said,
"Hey, where are you going this late?"
520
00:33:33,554 --> 00:33:36,474
He said,
"I'm just going to get something to eat."
521
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:39,143
And they let him go,
522
00:33:40,644 --> 00:33:42,480
so he just continued walking.
523
00:33:45,524 --> 00:33:47,818
I would keep pushing
the limit of the law,
524
00:33:47,902 --> 00:33:51,655
keep pushing what I could get away with.
525
00:33:51,739 --> 00:33:54,492
The more you get away,
the more you wanna get away with.
526
00:33:55,785 --> 00:34:00,372
Cottingham claimed later
that he put them in the trunk of his car,
527
00:34:00,456 --> 00:34:03,709
then returned back to that hotel room…
528
00:34:05,878 --> 00:34:07,963
and then set the torsos on fire.
529
00:34:14,970 --> 00:34:17,598
What was happening
was always gonna happen.
530
00:34:18,641 --> 00:34:21,060
That was the separate life I lived.
531
00:34:23,270 --> 00:34:25,314
Today, do you feel any remorse?
532
00:34:26,607 --> 00:34:27,650
Of course.
533
00:34:28,150 --> 00:34:30,402
If, uh, I had to do it over,
534
00:34:30,486 --> 00:34:32,530
probably none…
none of it would ever happen.
535
00:34:32,613 --> 00:34:34,698
I never thought I would get caught.
536
00:34:36,158 --> 00:34:39,578
We've been discussing
only basically the ones I was caught for.
537
00:34:40,204 --> 00:34:42,456
How many people
did you really kill?
538
00:34:43,833 --> 00:34:48,504
I mean, they talk about
there's no such thing as a perfect murder.
539
00:34:49,296 --> 00:34:53,676
Well, I had over 80 perfect murders
they never even knew about.
540
00:34:56,762 --> 00:35:00,933
Cottingham said that he killed
more people than he was found guilty of.
541
00:35:03,102 --> 00:35:05,187
He said he was killing women
542
00:35:05,771 --> 00:35:09,024
every other week for 13 years.
543
00:35:10,568 --> 00:35:14,530
Altogether, that's 85 up to 100.
544
00:35:16,240 --> 00:35:19,160
It was just
a constant type of thing.
545
00:35:20,661 --> 00:35:23,539
While Mr. Cottingham's claims
seem outlandish,
546
00:35:23,622 --> 00:35:25,332
it's entirely possible.
547
00:35:26,083 --> 00:35:28,043
I flew under the radar.
548
00:35:28,127 --> 00:35:29,378
Nobody knew.
549
00:35:30,087 --> 00:35:33,174
I think Richard Cottingham
was gonna kill anywhere,
550
00:35:33,257 --> 00:35:36,010
but Times Square in the '70s did not help
551
00:35:36,802 --> 00:35:40,181
for someone like Richard,
who's a sexual sadist,
552
00:35:40,264 --> 00:35:44,602
to walk through and see sex workers
and peep shows
553
00:35:44,685 --> 00:35:49,481
and all sorts of dark,
erotic, sexual stuff.
554
00:35:50,274 --> 00:35:53,110
There was too much temptation.
555
00:35:53,194 --> 00:35:56,071
With every step,
the opportunity was there.
556
00:35:56,697 --> 00:35:59,366
It gave him
a kind of almost immunity.
557
00:35:59,450 --> 00:36:01,285
Everybody is doing this.
558
00:36:01,368 --> 00:36:04,705
Everybody is using everybody else.
559
00:36:04,788 --> 00:36:10,336
Everyone is degraded
in the sex industry part of Times Square.
560
00:36:14,340 --> 00:36:17,468
Pornography is not frowned upon,
you could say,
561
00:36:17,551 --> 00:36:19,637
like it was a few years ago.
562
00:36:20,137 --> 00:36:25,559
{\an8}Today, it's, uh, it's looked upon,
um… you know, as perfectly normal.
563
00:36:26,143 --> 00:36:28,479
Pornography is considered
to be normal.
564
00:36:28,979 --> 00:36:32,107
I mean, there are judges
and lawyers and media figures in this town
565
00:36:32,191 --> 00:36:33,817
who thought Deep Throat was terrific.
566
00:36:33,901 --> 00:36:40,115
{\an8}It was humiliating,
disgusting, sick, sadistic.
567
00:36:40,199 --> 00:36:43,661
Shut it down!
Shut it down!
568
00:36:43,744 --> 00:36:46,121
Thousands of angry women
marched down Broadway
569
00:36:46,205 --> 00:36:47,122
to Times Square today.
570
00:36:47,206 --> 00:36:49,667
The heart
of the billion-dollar porn industry.
571
00:36:49,750 --> 00:36:52,253
They say
it promotes violence against women.
572
00:36:52,336 --> 00:36:54,838
They've made porn a feminist target.
573
00:36:54,922 --> 00:36:57,758
In the late '70s,
Women Against Pornography
574
00:36:57,841 --> 00:37:02,763
was a campaign of reform
in trying to combat the rise of porn,
575
00:37:02,846 --> 00:37:04,932
not only in Times Square,
but throughout the country.
576
00:37:05,015 --> 00:37:09,645
What we're objecting to in pornography
is the use and abuse of women.
577
00:37:09,728 --> 00:37:12,064
It's the violent images of women.
578
00:37:12,147 --> 00:37:17,778
Uh, images of women being bound,
beaten, raped, tortured, and murdered
579
00:37:17,861 --> 00:37:20,531
for stimulation, entertainment, or profit.
580
00:37:21,115 --> 00:37:23,450
And so Women Against Pornography
581
00:37:23,534 --> 00:37:27,496
joined the ranks of people who wanted
to clean up Times Square and 42nd Street.
582
00:37:28,497 --> 00:37:30,624
{\an8}The Midtown Enforcement Project,
583
00:37:30,708 --> 00:37:32,876
{\an8}and the work that we did over the years,
584
00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:35,212
I think made a big difference.
585
00:37:35,296 --> 00:37:39,508
But what I think did more
to stop the sex business in Times Square
586
00:37:40,467 --> 00:37:41,468
was AIDS.
587
00:37:42,136 --> 00:37:45,514
For months now, we've been telling you
about the disease called A.I.D.S.,
588
00:37:45,597 --> 00:37:47,975
or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome,
589
00:37:48,058 --> 00:37:51,186
and about half of all the cases
happened here in New York.
590
00:37:51,979 --> 00:37:58,027
The AIDS epidemic,
we became aware of it around 1981.
591
00:37:59,236 --> 00:38:03,532
It was, uh,
like a science-fiction scenario of death.
592
00:38:05,909 --> 00:38:10,205
There was a lot
of concern about the sex businesses
593
00:38:10,289 --> 00:38:12,374
and the sex workers in Times Square.
594
00:38:13,125 --> 00:38:15,294
{\an8}The live sex acts stopped onstage.
595
00:38:15,377 --> 00:38:17,087
{\an8}You didn't see that anymore,
596
00:38:17,171 --> 00:38:19,340
{\an8}because that was just too… too dangerous.
597
00:38:22,134 --> 00:38:23,260
In an overwhelming vote,
598
00:38:23,344 --> 00:38:25,554
members of the New York State
Public Health Council
599
00:38:25,637 --> 00:38:27,389
today gave local authorities the power
600
00:38:27,473 --> 00:38:30,517
to close
any establishment catering to the public
601
00:38:30,601 --> 00:38:33,604
that allows what it calls "dangerous sex."
602
00:38:33,687 --> 00:38:36,106
Places such as gay bathhouses,
adult bookstores,
603
00:38:36,190 --> 00:38:37,900
and heterosexual sex clubs.
604
00:38:38,859 --> 00:38:40,486
On a Friday night at 11 p.m.,
605
00:38:40,569 --> 00:38:44,615
there are usually 50 heterosexual couples
inside Plato's Retreat,
606
00:38:44,698 --> 00:38:46,450
but tonight at 8:40,
607
00:38:46,533 --> 00:38:49,328
just 20 minutes before
their usual opening time,
608
00:38:49,411 --> 00:38:52,081
the city shut down this sexual playpen.
609
00:38:52,164 --> 00:38:55,209
So the sex businesses
and the sex workers on the street
610
00:38:55,292 --> 00:38:58,629
were getting kicked out,
and AIDS was pushing that along.
611
00:39:02,424 --> 00:39:05,928
A cleanup of Times Square has been one
of City Hall's promises over the years,
612
00:39:06,011 --> 00:39:09,014
and New Yorkers might be forgiven
some healthy skepticism by this time.
613
00:39:09,098 --> 00:39:11,600
But if you've taken a stroll
through the area lately,
614
00:39:11,683 --> 00:39:14,645
you might have known that, uh,
some real change has taken place there.
615
00:39:14,728 --> 00:39:17,898
The number of peep shows,
massage parlors, and porno shops
616
00:39:17,981 --> 00:39:20,401
has been cut almost in half
in the past seven years.
617
00:39:20,484 --> 00:39:23,362
Crime in the Times Square area
is down too, the report said.
618
00:39:27,032 --> 00:39:29,410
We learned tonight
the Koch administration
619
00:39:29,493 --> 00:39:33,038
is considering a plan to turn the center
of the Times Square porno district
620
00:39:33,122 --> 00:39:34,957
into a kind of amusement park.
621
00:39:37,042 --> 00:39:40,462
{\an8}New development began in the early 1980s
622
00:39:40,546 --> 00:39:43,340
{\an8}with major office towers,
623
00:39:43,424 --> 00:39:46,260
hotels, legitimate theaters.
624
00:39:46,343 --> 00:39:50,055
{\an8}The city condemned
a very large swath of territory.
625
00:39:51,682 --> 00:39:55,602
But some historic theaters
on 42nd Street were preserved.
626
00:39:56,687 --> 00:39:58,897
The New Amsterdam Theater,
627
00:39:58,981 --> 00:40:01,442
where the Ziegfeld Follies opened in 1903,
628
00:40:01,525 --> 00:40:03,652
was going to be torn down.
629
00:40:05,070 --> 00:40:08,949
Somehow, between Disney
and the city of New York,
630
00:40:09,032 --> 00:40:10,576
for 30 or 40 million dollars,
631
00:40:10,659 --> 00:40:13,912
they were able to renovate that
into what it is today.
632
00:40:16,373 --> 00:40:19,334
The New Amsterdam
is where you first saw The Lion King.
633
00:40:20,502 --> 00:40:21,837
It's gorgeous.
634
00:40:22,671 --> 00:40:26,008
Times Square is now Disneyfied,
635
00:40:26,675 --> 00:40:29,636
so it has really had quite an evolution
636
00:40:30,262 --> 00:40:33,390
over the last 20, 30 years.
637
00:40:34,183 --> 00:40:36,018
Crime has come down so much,
638
00:40:37,436 --> 00:40:40,022
and tourism has exploded.
639
00:40:40,981 --> 00:40:46,320
I think something like 85% of people
who visit New York from elsewhere
640
00:40:46,403 --> 00:40:47,488
come to Times Square.
641
00:40:48,697 --> 00:40:52,409
Tourists love it,
but it sanitized the area.
642
00:40:52,993 --> 00:40:55,245
{\an8}Times Square became
just like every other city.
643
00:40:56,455 --> 00:40:58,373
It's so generic.
644
00:41:00,167 --> 00:41:03,420
The old Times Square was extraordinary.
645
00:41:03,504 --> 00:41:04,880
There's nothing like it.
646
00:41:06,965 --> 00:41:09,593
And yet,
I understand why it's gone.
647
00:41:16,099 --> 00:41:17,726
The old Times Square
648
00:41:18,894 --> 00:41:21,021
was not a good place.
649
00:41:22,898 --> 00:41:26,777
It really ruined a lot of people's lives.
650
00:41:29,321 --> 00:41:34,368
I was out in the street
being trafficked… for 13 years.
651
00:41:35,911 --> 00:41:39,540
{\an8}I've seen one study that said
the average lifespan of someone…
652
00:41:41,583 --> 00:41:44,419
{\an8}that's experienced what I have
is seven years.
653
00:41:44,503 --> 00:41:46,088
I've never met anyone
654
00:41:46,171 --> 00:41:49,550
that was out
in the street of New York when I was
655
00:41:49,633 --> 00:41:51,426
that's alive today.
656
00:41:53,887 --> 00:41:54,846
I never have.
657
00:41:56,557 --> 00:41:58,976
So the whole time I was in New York City,
658
00:41:59,059 --> 00:42:02,145
I had no identification,
no Social Security number,
659
00:42:02,229 --> 00:42:05,315
uh, no birth certificate, nothing.
No identifying anything.
660
00:42:09,194 --> 00:42:13,031
If I died,
nobody would have ever known who I was.
661
00:42:13,115 --> 00:42:15,200
I just would have been a Jane Doe.
662
00:42:18,495 --> 00:42:21,540
In the 1970s
and into the 1980s,
663
00:42:21,623 --> 00:42:26,670
many sex workers' bodies
who have been found
664
00:42:26,753 --> 00:42:29,006
were listed as NHI,
665
00:42:29,923 --> 00:42:32,217
and that is "No Human Involved."
666
00:42:32,718 --> 00:42:37,639
{\an8}In other words, they lacked
so little respect and status in society,
667
00:42:37,723 --> 00:42:39,057
{\an8}according to the police,
668
00:42:39,141 --> 00:42:44,187
{\an8}that it was not worth pursuing the crime
that had been committed against them.
669
00:42:46,481 --> 00:42:49,192
The police wouldn't go after
the perpetrator.
670
00:42:50,569 --> 00:42:51,987
I find it appalling.
671
00:42:54,990 --> 00:42:58,744
{\an8}I think it's awful
when a killer kills someone
672
00:42:58,827 --> 00:43:00,996
{\an8}and thinks they're gonna get away with it.
673
00:43:01,079 --> 00:43:05,709
And if there's up to a hundred women
and children that Richard killed,
674
00:43:06,460 --> 00:43:10,380
he was gonna go to the grave
with all these cold-case stories,
675
00:43:10,464 --> 00:43:13,383
and I just can't fathom that.
676
00:43:14,176 --> 00:43:17,012
So I wanted to learn more,
677
00:43:17,095 --> 00:43:21,016
and I knew I could only find out more
from Richard himself.
678
00:43:24,186 --> 00:43:26,772
That's how my relationship
started with him.
679
00:43:29,316 --> 00:43:31,109
We aren't friends.
680
00:43:32,903 --> 00:43:35,530
He is a real sick individual.
681
00:43:36,406 --> 00:43:40,452
And as I… began to visit him more,
682
00:43:41,411 --> 00:43:43,413
he revealed details
683
00:43:43,497 --> 00:43:47,209
about really traumatic experiences
with young girls.
684
00:43:48,335 --> 00:43:50,128
Deaths he's responsible for.
685
00:43:51,713 --> 00:43:57,177
It kind of snowballed
into working with police officers
686
00:43:57,260 --> 00:44:00,722
to help close some cold cases.
687
00:44:02,099 --> 00:44:06,561
Investigators have now started
multi-jurisdictional efforts
688
00:44:06,645 --> 00:44:10,482
looking into other cases
that this guy could be responsible for.
689
00:44:10,982 --> 00:44:12,859
But in 2010,
690
00:44:12,943 --> 00:44:16,113
Cottingham confessed
to the murder of Nancy Vogel.
691
00:44:16,780 --> 00:44:19,032
October in 1967,
692
00:44:19,116 --> 00:44:21,618
Nancy Vogel, a young mother,
693
00:44:21,702 --> 00:44:24,454
she went to go play bingo
694
00:44:24,538 --> 00:44:28,792
and disappeared in suburban New Jersey.
695
00:44:29,626 --> 00:44:33,588
{\an8}Three days later, she's naked,
found dead in her car.
696
00:44:34,339 --> 00:44:36,883
{\an8}She'd been strangled, sexually assaulted.
697
00:44:37,509 --> 00:44:39,928
Her clothes were neatly folded.
698
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:43,682
He pled guilty to that
699
00:44:43,765 --> 00:44:47,269
and took another life sentence
on that case.
700
00:44:47,352 --> 00:44:50,147
{\an8}Mr. Cottingham,
you did commit the offenses
701
00:44:50,230 --> 00:44:51,940
{\an8}you're pleading guilty to today?
702
00:44:52,941 --> 00:44:54,025
Yes.
703
00:44:54,109 --> 00:44:56,403
Cottingham confessed
to other killings.
704
00:44:57,696 --> 00:44:59,990
Five murders in Bergen County
705
00:45:00,073 --> 00:45:03,660
that have been unsolved since 1968,
706
00:45:04,578 --> 00:45:06,079
1969,
707
00:45:07,414 --> 00:45:09,249
and 1974.
708
00:45:10,417 --> 00:45:13,628
They were schoolgirls
in their teenage years.
709
00:45:14,504 --> 00:45:19,551
It looks like he started out
with young women and girls
710
00:45:19,634 --> 00:45:23,096
in the suburbs, not far away from him,
711
00:45:23,180 --> 00:45:25,432
and that's how he started out.
712
00:45:26,433 --> 00:45:27,809
Maryann Carr,
713
00:45:28,310 --> 00:45:29,686
Nancy Vogel,
714
00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:32,647
and the schoolgirls,
715
00:45:32,731 --> 00:45:36,777
did not match his original profile
716
00:45:37,652 --> 00:45:40,071
because they weren't sex workers.
717
00:45:41,031 --> 00:45:43,784
Traditionally,
most serial killers,
718
00:45:43,867 --> 00:45:46,286
the first killings
are usually close to home.
719
00:45:47,537 --> 00:45:49,790
But when they see
the extent of the investigation
720
00:45:49,873 --> 00:45:51,958
and they realize
the possibility of being caught,
721
00:45:52,042 --> 00:45:53,710
they distance themselves.
722
00:45:54,920 --> 00:46:00,592
For him, it was a progression
to targeting prostitutes in Times Square.
723
00:46:02,761 --> 00:46:06,515
Serial killers
often tend to target
724
00:46:06,598 --> 00:46:09,684
those people that society devalues.
725
00:46:10,769 --> 00:46:16,525
And so sex workers, of course,
are… are universally devalued by society.
726
00:46:17,859 --> 00:46:20,904
Times Square aided
and abetted Richard Cottingham
727
00:46:20,987 --> 00:46:23,198
in the sense
that it gave him a victim pool.
728
00:46:26,743 --> 00:46:32,332
The problem that sex workers identify
as the most problematic
729
00:46:32,833 --> 00:46:35,252
is the illegality of their trade.
730
00:46:35,335 --> 00:46:38,755
That is why sex workers call
for decriminalization
731
00:46:38,839 --> 00:46:42,717
as a first step
towards creating regulations of…
732
00:46:42,801 --> 00:46:45,679
on their own terms, by themselves,
733
00:46:46,346 --> 00:46:49,432
in conditions that provide safety,
734
00:46:50,767 --> 00:46:52,435
paving the way eventually
735
00:46:52,519 --> 00:46:55,897
for the stigma
of being a sex worker to erode.
736
00:46:56,481 --> 00:46:59,025
The biggest takeaway from this case
737
00:46:59,109 --> 00:47:02,237
is maybe as many
as a hundred people were murdered,
738
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:03,697
and we don't know about it.
739
00:47:07,409 --> 00:47:12,956
All of the women
that Richard killed…
740
00:47:14,958 --> 00:47:18,461
left this world in a horrific way.
741
00:47:19,462 --> 00:47:22,132
It always weighs heavily over me.
742
00:47:22,924 --> 00:47:24,050
A dark cloud.
743
00:47:24,968 --> 00:47:30,599
So I maintain a re… relationship
with Richard now
744
00:47:30,682 --> 00:47:34,060
because I want the names
745
00:47:34,144 --> 00:47:37,689
of the unidentified victims
whose lives he took.
746
00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:43,695
Lives that… never came to fruition.
747
00:47:44,529 --> 00:47:46,948
I think we need to remember them
748
00:47:47,032 --> 00:47:51,202
because they… deserve justice.