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00:00:07,137 --> 00:00:17,451
♪

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00:00:17,973 --> 00:00:20,237
[Monitor
continues beeping]

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00:01:01,713 --> 00:01:03,802
[Anzilotti] This is
Richard Cottingham.

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00:01:03,932 --> 00:01:06,935
By all accounts,
he's dying.

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00:01:07,022 --> 00:01:08,676
Personally, I think he's
like a cockroach and

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00:01:08,807 --> 00:01:10,243
he just lives forever.

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In the world of
serial killers,

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I would rank
Richard Cottingham

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00:01:27,086 --> 00:01:28,957
up there with the
worst of them.

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

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scene at about
9:30 this morning.

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Two women were
found decapitated,

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with their hands
cut off as well.

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♪

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

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00:01:42,928 --> 00:01:45,104
New Jersey,
and beyond.

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00:01:45,235 --> 00:01:48,760
He's flown under the
radar all this time...

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

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♪

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00:01:54,722 --> 00:02:00,380
After 18 years of time
with this savage...

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

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It was a flat-out negotiation.

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He's the king of all deals.

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

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That was a big thing
for him, control.

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♪

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

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To bring a measure
of peace and

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closure to the
victims' families.

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Their minds,
over these decades,

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race with theories and
race with suspects,

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some of whom were in
their own families.

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They want to know
what happened.

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00:02:37,591 --> 00:02:39,593
♪

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00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:42,335
Richard Cottingham is
responsible for a lot more.

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00:02:42,422 --> 00:02:45,947
♪

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00:02:46,078 --> 00:02:47,688
I was not done with him.

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

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There's not been
one like me.

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00:02:57,611 --> 00:03:04,009
♪

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00:03:04,314 --> 00:03:10,494
♪

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00:03:10,624 --> 00:03:16,587
♪

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00:03:16,717 --> 00:03:21,505
♪

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00:03:21,635 --> 00:03:25,291
♪

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00:03:25,422 --> 00:03:27,598
♪

46
00:03:27,685 --> 00:03:28,903
In the year 2000,

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I was assigned a
series of cold cases.

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The majority of them were
from 1974 through 1965.

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♪

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When I pulled the cases,
the evidence officer

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gives me boxes and
boxes and boxes...

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00:03:48,706 --> 00:03:50,621
Report after report,

53
00:03:50,708 --> 00:03:52,840
lab results after
lab results,

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00:03:52,971 --> 00:03:54,799
crime scene photo after
crime scene photo.

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00:03:54,929 --> 00:03:57,541
♪

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

57
00:04:01,327 --> 00:04:03,982
this was an overwhelming
and daunting task...

58
00:04:04,069 --> 00:04:06,898
for somebody that
was kind of

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00:04:06,985 --> 00:04:10,075
green around the gills.

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00:04:10,205 --> 00:04:12,773
What I didn't know when I
first started digging through

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

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♪

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There were twelve cases.

64
00:04:22,609 --> 00:04:25,482
There were a number
of girls that were

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either last seen
hitchhiking...

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or had been picked up
by a stranger.

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Ultimately, raped
and then murdered,

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dumped in and around
Bergen County.

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00:04:38,016 --> 00:04:40,714
Bergen County is situated
in the northern part of

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New Jersey, and it is just
across the Hudson River

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from New York City.

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♪

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The whole community
was in shock.

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Kids stopped walking
home from school.

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All these girls were
innocent.

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Innocent kids.

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You know, they had a
life ahead of them.

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There were a lot of theories.

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They never found who did it.

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00:05:05,957 --> 00:05:07,872
And it went on
for a long time.

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♪

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Everybody was a suspect.

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00:05:11,179 --> 00:05:13,356
Even back in the
beginning days...

84
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the priest of the
church was a suspect.

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♪

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00:05:18,709 --> 00:05:20,754
It never seemed
to go anywhere.

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Guy going around killing
girls from Bergen County,

88
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you figure somebody
knew something.

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My life changed immediately.

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I had no more sister.

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My family wanted answers.

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

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

94
00:05:41,384 --> 00:05:45,083
you know, one as old
as 29 years old.

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00:05:45,213 --> 00:05:46,824
They're wildly different
in some aspects

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00:05:46,954 --> 00:05:48,739
of their victimology.

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♪

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

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

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figure out if there's
any commonalities

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between these killings.

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They're not finding any.

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♪

104
00:06:04,015 --> 00:06:06,583
They had several
main suspects...

105
00:06:06,713 --> 00:06:08,672
who may or may not
have been involved.

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00:06:08,802 --> 00:06:11,283
♪

107
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There was a convicted
rapist, Raymond Alves.

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00:06:15,156 --> 00:06:18,072
He claimed he'd
killed 15 women,

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and he was up for parole.

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00:06:21,293 --> 00:06:24,731
There was Robert Reldan,
a former honor student

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00:06:24,818 --> 00:06:27,734
who had been
involved in rapes.

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00:06:27,821 --> 00:06:29,997
Another suspect
was Joe Kallinger,

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

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he used in a murder
spree in three states,

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which ended in
Bergen County...

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with the death of a nurse.

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I went through all
these suspects.

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I flew all over the
country following leads.

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And they all went nowhere.

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The one name that I
couldn't eliminate

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was Richard Cottingham.

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Richard Cottingham
In 1980,

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had been convicted of
killing five women.

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Three were in
New York City,

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two were in Bergen County.

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Those killings in
Times Square dubbed him

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'The Torso Killer' by the
New York media.

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Because several of
the victims had

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their heads cut off,
their hands cut off,

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and the room lit on fire.

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♪

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He ultimately got caught
in Bergen County

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trying to rape and kill
another woman...

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at a local motel in Hasbrouck
Heights, New Jersey.

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

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the Bergen County Courthouse.

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He was originally charged
with aggravated sexual

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assault and attempted murder
of a woman thought to be

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00:07:43,070 --> 00:07:46,378
a prostitute on May 22nd,
in a Jersey motel.

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[Anzilotti] Of these 12
cold case homicides that

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I'm investigating,
some of them were

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all centered
around this area.

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Cottingham was incarcerated
since his arrest in 1980.

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In the years that followed,
some NYPD detectives,

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00:08:02,176 --> 00:08:04,744
as well as Bergen County
detectives attempted to

146
00:08:04,875 --> 00:08:08,835
gain his cooperation in
unsolved murders.

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00:08:08,966 --> 00:08:11,055
Unfortunately, it never
materialized into anything.

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00:08:11,185 --> 00:08:17,931
♪

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Everything I knew about him
at that point was

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00:08:19,977 --> 00:08:22,936
focused in the late 70s,
up until 1980.

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Had no idea if he could
have been operating

152
00:08:24,416 --> 00:08:26,853
in the 60s or early 70s.

153
00:08:26,940 --> 00:08:28,289
But certainly,
it was a possibility

154
00:08:28,420 --> 00:08:30,335
just based on his age.

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00:08:30,422 --> 00:08:32,467
So, he was always just
lingering in the back of

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00:08:32,555 --> 00:08:34,818
my head as like, hey, one day,
I gotta get to this guy

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

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♪

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00:08:42,086 --> 00:08:44,567
In 2003, I got
promoted to sergeant,

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00:08:44,697 --> 00:08:46,351
and that's when I moved on
to the street crimes unit.

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It was known as the Special
Investigations Squad.

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And as a sergeant,

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I was responsible for a
number of detectives.

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We were putting together
really big cases.

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But in between there,
I made sure I always

166
00:08:57,057 --> 00:09:00,844
found the time for my
cold case work.

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00:09:00,974 --> 00:09:02,759
There was many a
Sunday night

168
00:09:02,889 --> 00:09:04,978
where I'd put the
kids to bed and,

169
00:09:05,109 --> 00:09:07,154
I would take an A to Z file
full of reports and

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00:09:07,285 --> 00:09:10,244
crime scene photos...

171
00:09:10,331 --> 00:09:12,116
and just pour a glass of
wine at my dining room table

172
00:09:12,246 --> 00:09:13,944
and just...

173
00:09:14,031 --> 00:09:15,815
spend hours poring over
the cases and taking notes,

174
00:09:15,946 --> 00:09:17,991
just on my own time.

175
00:09:18,122 --> 00:09:20,167
Doing these cold cases was
not my only job or

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00:09:20,298 --> 00:09:22,909
my only assignment,
by any stretch.

177
00:09:23,040 --> 00:09:26,304
You've got a whole bunch of
cases that you're assigned to.

178
00:09:26,391 --> 00:09:28,262
You've got other homicides,

179
00:09:28,349 --> 00:09:32,005
you've got active organized
crime investigations.

180
00:09:32,136 --> 00:09:35,443
Yet, you had to find time to
work the cold cases

181
00:09:35,574 --> 00:09:39,186
because we never,
ever close them.

182
00:09:39,317 --> 00:09:41,058
Never.

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00:09:41,145 --> 00:09:43,451
[Anzilotti]
Having daughters...

184
00:09:43,582 --> 00:09:46,367
and then investigating the
rapes and murders of these

185
00:09:46,454 --> 00:09:49,370
young girls, as teenagers,
really hit home for me.

186
00:09:49,457 --> 00:09:50,937
And I wanted to give
these families

187
00:09:51,024 --> 00:09:52,722
some sense of justice.

188
00:09:52,852 --> 00:09:58,336
♪

189
00:09:58,423 --> 00:10:00,904
I just grew so attached
to these cases.

190
00:10:00,991 --> 00:10:03,210
I knew them inside and out.

191
00:10:03,341 --> 00:10:05,256
I had been studying
them for years,

192
00:10:05,386 --> 00:10:07,040
kind of on a
part-time basis,

193
00:10:07,171 --> 00:10:10,043
and got very
passionate about it.

194
00:10:10,174 --> 00:10:11,958
But I wasn't
making any inroads,

195
00:10:12,045 --> 00:10:15,788
and that really
just nagged at me.

196
00:10:15,875 --> 00:10:17,007
I never wanted
to forget them,

197
00:10:17,137 --> 00:10:18,748
I never wanted to
give up on them.

198
00:10:18,878 --> 00:10:21,272
♪

199
00:10:21,359 --> 00:10:26,146
In just researching some
different suspects...

200
00:10:26,233 --> 00:10:28,758
the name Richard Cottingham
kept coming up again.

201
00:10:28,888 --> 00:10:31,456
♪

202
00:10:31,543 --> 00:10:34,024
I was aware that other
detectives before me had

203
00:10:34,111 --> 00:10:38,071
tried to speak to Cottingham,
and he never cooperated.

204
00:10:38,202 --> 00:10:39,943
How am I going to get this
guy Cottingham to talk to me?

205
00:10:40,073 --> 00:10:44,687
♪

206
00:10:44,774 --> 00:10:47,472
By sheer coincidence,
Cottingham was housed in the

207
00:10:47,602 --> 00:10:50,780
same prison, on the same
wing with 'The Iceman'.

208
00:10:50,910 --> 00:10:55,175
♪

209
00:10:55,262 --> 00:10:59,266
Besides these 12 cold cases
involving young females,

210
00:10:59,397 --> 00:11:01,312
I was also looking
into a number of

211
00:11:01,399 --> 00:11:04,402
other cold case homicides...

212
00:11:04,532 --> 00:11:08,275
some of which involved
mob-style hits.

213
00:11:08,362 --> 00:11:12,540
This led me to Richard
'The Iceman' Kuklinski.

214
00:11:12,627 --> 00:11:15,239
The Iceman was at that time
incarcerated for

215
00:11:15,326 --> 00:11:16,980
a number of homicides
that he had committed

216
00:11:17,067 --> 00:11:18,982
in and around Bergen County.

217
00:11:19,112 --> 00:11:22,289
He purported himself to
be a hitman for the mob.

218
00:11:22,420 --> 00:11:24,378
He was very boastful
about his killings,

219
00:11:24,509 --> 00:11:26,990
and his ties to the mafia.

220
00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:29,340
It is New Jersey, and
we're certainly well-known,

221
00:11:29,470 --> 00:11:31,864
especially back then, for our
traditional organized crime.

222
00:11:31,995 --> 00:11:33,474
The typical La Cosa Nostra,

223
00:11:33,605 --> 00:11:35,955
Soprano-style
organized crime cases:

224
00:11:36,042 --> 00:11:37,304
loansharking,
illegal gambling,

225
00:11:37,435 --> 00:11:41,091
extortion, prostitution.

226
00:11:41,221 --> 00:11:43,615
Kuklinski got the nickname
'The Iceman'

227
00:11:43,746 --> 00:11:46,531
because he actually
killed somebody,

228
00:11:46,661 --> 00:11:48,489
put them in a freezer to
try and change the body

229
00:11:48,620 --> 00:11:50,187
temperature to fool
the medical examiner.

230
00:11:50,317 --> 00:11:53,364
♪

231
00:11:53,494 --> 00:11:55,061
Well, he got caught
eventually for it so,

232
00:11:55,192 --> 00:11:56,497
I don't know how
much it worked, but...

233
00:11:56,628 --> 00:11:58,282
All these guys think
they're so ----ing smart.

234
00:11:58,412 --> 00:12:00,632
♪

235
00:12:00,763 --> 00:12:02,373
I spent hundreds
of hours with him.

236
00:12:02,503 --> 00:12:04,636
I'd have him transported
up from the prison.

237
00:12:04,767 --> 00:12:06,899
He'd stay at the
Bergen County Jail.

238
00:12:06,986 --> 00:12:08,466
Eventually,
I developed a

239
00:12:08,596 --> 00:12:11,512
relationship with him.
really good

240
00:12:11,599 --> 00:12:13,601
He began to trust me enough
that I got a number of

241
00:12:13,688 --> 00:12:15,212
unsolved homicides
out of him.

242
00:12:15,342 --> 00:12:17,344
♪

243
00:12:17,431 --> 00:12:20,173
Rob built such a relationship
with Kuklinski that

244
00:12:20,304 --> 00:12:23,002
Kuklinski became
Rob's informant...

245
00:12:23,089 --> 00:12:27,180
on anything that Kuklinski
could come up with.

246
00:12:27,311 --> 00:12:30,705
I figured this might be a
way to get to Cottingham.

247
00:12:30,836 --> 00:12:33,578
One particular interview,
I bring up his name.

248
00:12:33,708 --> 00:12:35,362
And I'm like, "Hey, do you
know this guy, Cottingham?"

249
00:12:35,493 --> 00:12:39,192
And Kuklinski had the most,
just vile reaction,

250
00:12:39,323 --> 00:12:42,500
and he just was like,
"I hate that scumbag."

251
00:12:42,630 --> 00:12:44,241
And he's like,
"What kind of an animal

252
00:12:44,328 --> 00:12:46,112
does these things to women?"

253
00:12:56,035 --> 00:12:59,691
♪

254
00:12:59,778 --> 00:13:01,824
Richard Kuklinski,
known as 'The Iceman',

255
00:13:01,911 --> 00:13:04,522
was housed in
New Jersey State Prison.

256
00:13:04,609 --> 00:13:07,655
The Iceman is probably
one of the most foreboding

257
00:13:07,742 --> 00:13:10,528
individuals I've ever
seen in my life.

258
00:13:10,615 --> 00:13:12,704
He was like 6"8,

259
00:13:12,791 --> 00:13:15,272
just a huge human being.

260
00:13:15,402 --> 00:13:17,230
He had a hair-trigger temper.

261
00:13:17,317 --> 00:13:19,319
This is unwarranted.

262
00:13:19,406 --> 00:13:21,626
Unnecessary.

263
00:13:21,713 --> 00:13:24,542
These guys watch
too many movies.

264
00:13:24,672 --> 00:13:26,457
He could be a
really scary dude.

265
00:13:26,544 --> 00:13:29,373
♪

266
00:13:29,460 --> 00:13:31,462
The strange twist to my
relationship with The Iceman

267
00:13:31,549 --> 00:13:34,378
is that during our
conversations...

268
00:13:34,465 --> 00:13:37,337
when I asked Kuklinski
about Cottingham,

269
00:13:37,424 --> 00:13:41,646
it became quickly evident
that he despised Cottingham.

270
00:13:41,733 --> 00:13:44,518
To kind of get this from
this big, giant of a,

271
00:13:44,649 --> 00:13:46,259
of a guy who kills people,

272
00:13:46,346 --> 00:13:49,175
and now he's got his
own moral code

273
00:13:49,262 --> 00:13:51,395
where he's disgusted by
this other killer.

274
00:13:51,482 --> 00:13:54,528
So, he began to cooperate
with me and kind of

275
00:13:54,615 --> 00:13:56,139
give me some dirt
on Cottingham.

276
00:14:27,518 --> 00:14:29,302
Turns out- Kuklinski
explains to me-

277
00:14:29,433 --> 00:14:31,435
Cottingham ran an
illegal gambling operation

278
00:14:31,522 --> 00:14:33,176
within the prison.

279
00:14:33,263 --> 00:14:35,830
♪

280
00:14:35,918 --> 00:14:39,399
So, he used to run like, like
football and baseball and

281
00:14:39,486 --> 00:14:41,532
all sorts of gambling through
these tickets, right?

282
00:14:41,619 --> 00:14:44,578
Like, like an illegal lottery.

283
00:14:44,665 --> 00:14:47,016
And I decided that
that would be my in.

284
00:14:47,146 --> 00:14:51,846
♪

285
00:14:51,934 --> 00:14:54,414
In early 2004,
the Super Bowl

286
00:14:54,501 --> 00:14:57,722
that year was in
Houston, Texas.

287
00:14:57,809 --> 00:14:59,376
I'd never been
to a Super Bowl.

288
00:14:59,506 --> 00:15:01,639
♪

289
00:15:01,726 --> 00:15:03,728
I thought it'd be really
cool if me and my dad

290
00:15:03,815 --> 00:15:06,513
took the trip out there,
and took in the game.

291
00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:09,429
I had amazing seats.

292
00:15:09,516 --> 00:15:11,779
The only thing that detracted
from my Super Bowl experience

293
00:15:11,866 --> 00:15:15,435
was the anxiousness
and the anxiety...

294
00:15:15,522 --> 00:15:17,394
wondering whether
this plan that I had

295
00:15:17,481 --> 00:15:19,265
was actually
going to work.

296
00:15:19,352 --> 00:15:21,137
♪

297
00:15:21,267 --> 00:15:24,575
Having years of
prior experience

298
00:15:24,662 --> 00:15:26,359
in the Organized
Crime Squad,

299
00:15:26,446 --> 00:15:27,795
investigating
illegal gambling,

300
00:15:27,926 --> 00:15:30,755
doing undercover work,
purporting to be a bookmaker,

301
00:15:30,842 --> 00:15:33,584
I understand there's no
crazier gambling day

302
00:15:33,714 --> 00:15:35,412
than Super Bowl Sunday.

303
00:15:35,499 --> 00:15:39,372
♪

304
00:15:39,503 --> 00:15:42,810
In the weeks that led up
to that Super Bowl Sunday,

305
00:15:42,897 --> 00:15:44,682
I made all the
arrangements with

306
00:15:44,812 --> 00:15:46,553
the investigators
at the prison,

307
00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:49,513
gave them all the
information they needed to...

308
00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:52,820
enact my plan...

309
00:15:52,907 --> 00:15:55,954
for Cottingham's cell to be
raided by prison officials

310
00:15:56,041 --> 00:16:00,611
the morning after
Super Bowl Sunday.

311
00:16:00,698 --> 00:16:02,526
When they
searched his cell,

312
00:16:02,613 --> 00:16:04,397
they found evidence
of the gambling operation,

313
00:16:04,528 --> 00:16:08,532
and Cottingham was
thrown into the hole.

314
00:16:08,619 --> 00:16:10,534
In the prison system,
'the hole' was

315
00:16:10,664 --> 00:16:12,666
basically solitary
confinement.

316
00:16:12,753 --> 00:16:14,712
♪

317
00:16:14,842 --> 00:16:16,322
You were removed
from your cell,

318
00:16:16,409 --> 00:16:17,889
all your privileges
were revoked.

319
00:16:17,976 --> 00:16:19,934
You didn't go outside,
you had no fresh air.

320
00:16:20,022 --> 00:16:22,067
There's no air conditioning.

321
00:16:22,154 --> 00:16:25,288
The New Jersey prison
at the time was old and,

322
00:16:25,418 --> 00:16:27,333
it was not fun.

323
00:16:27,420 --> 00:16:29,422
♪

324
00:16:29,553 --> 00:16:30,858
Several days later,

325
00:16:30,945 --> 00:16:33,470
I go down to the prison
with my partner.

326
00:16:33,557 --> 00:16:36,864
♪

327
00:16:36,951 --> 00:16:38,388
They pull him
out of the hole,

328
00:16:38,518 --> 00:16:40,868
and bring him to
an interview room.

329
00:16:40,999 --> 00:16:44,524
I see this nearly
60-year-old guy,

330
00:16:44,611 --> 00:16:48,789
long white beard...
belly.

331
00:16:48,876 --> 00:16:52,793
Looking like a Santa Claus
with a really bad hangover.

332
00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:54,360
You know, his eyes
were bloodshot.

333
00:16:54,491 --> 00:16:57,581
He's dripping in sweat.

334
00:16:57,668 --> 00:16:59,409
And I just looked
at him and told him,

335
00:16:59,539 --> 00:17:00,671
"I'm the reason
you're in there."

336
00:17:00,758 --> 00:17:05,806
♪

337
00:17:05,937 --> 00:17:08,809
He looked at me with
some pretty wild eyes.

338
00:17:08,896 --> 00:17:10,550
And I didn't even give him
a chance to respond and was

339
00:17:10,637 --> 00:17:12,857
just like, "I am going to
make your life a living hell

340
00:17:12,944 --> 00:17:14,554
unless we have
a conversation."

341
00:17:34,139 --> 00:17:36,010
He, of course, did not
confess to anything.

342
00:17:36,098 --> 00:17:37,751
Didn't agree to anything.

343
00:17:37,838 --> 00:17:39,971
The only thing he
would agree to is...

344
00:17:40,102 --> 00:17:42,800
that he would be willing
to have continued

345
00:17:42,887 --> 00:17:45,368
conversations with me
on one condition.

346
00:17:45,455 --> 00:17:46,978
And that condition was,

347
00:17:47,065 --> 00:17:48,719
if I ever tried to mess
with him again like this,

348
00:17:48,806 --> 00:17:50,373
our relationship
would be over.

349
00:17:50,460 --> 00:17:53,027
♪

350
00:17:53,115 --> 00:17:54,986
Thankfully, my gut
intuition told me

351
00:17:55,073 --> 00:17:57,641
that he wasn't bluffing,

352
00:17:57,728 --> 00:18:00,034
and that the right move
was to just try and

353
00:18:00,165 --> 00:18:04,604
begin to schmooze him and
begin to develop a trust.

354
00:18:04,691 --> 00:18:06,519
I needed to

355
00:18:06,606 --> 00:18:08,695
take a different tact than
that initial approach.

356
00:18:08,782 --> 00:18:10,741
That the tough guy routine
wasn't going to work with him.

357
00:18:10,828 --> 00:18:15,398
♪

358
00:18:15,485 --> 00:18:20,664
♪

359
00:18:20,751 --> 00:18:24,798
I started with Richard
Cottingham in early 2004.

360
00:18:24,885 --> 00:18:27,192
I had no idea what cases he
might be responsible for.

361
00:18:27,279 --> 00:18:29,455
It was just a feeling
that maybe he was

362
00:18:29,542 --> 00:18:31,414
responsible for
some of them.

363
00:18:31,501 --> 00:18:34,504
♪

364
00:18:34,634 --> 00:18:38,072
I was visiting him
at the prison.

365
00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:41,032
I just told him, "Hey, I think
you committed crimes

366
00:18:41,163 --> 00:18:42,773
long before you
were arrested."

367
00:19:13,673 --> 00:19:15,632
I spent a lot of time with
him to try and build a

368
00:19:15,719 --> 00:19:17,634
relationship, but he refused
to talk about anything new.

369
00:19:38,132 --> 00:19:41,745
Anzilotti understood he was
in it for the long game.

370
00:19:41,832 --> 00:19:45,575
And that means he's going to
spend a lot of time and

371
00:19:45,662 --> 00:19:49,622
come away with nothing,
time after time after time.

372
00:19:49,709 --> 00:19:52,930
But, if he played it right
and he stayed vigilant

373
00:19:53,017 --> 00:19:55,585
for the weak spots,

374
00:19:55,672 --> 00:19:57,543
the openings...

375
00:19:57,630 --> 00:19:59,850
he would be able
to get information.

376
00:19:59,937 --> 00:20:02,461
♪

377
00:20:02,548 --> 00:20:04,898
And it's difficult to...

378
00:20:05,029 --> 00:20:06,900
spend hours with someone
and feel like

379
00:20:06,987 --> 00:20:08,554
you're not
accomplishing anything.

380
00:20:08,641 --> 00:20:12,689
But like water dropping
on a rock, okay...

381
00:20:12,819 --> 00:20:15,866
eventually the rock begins
to smooth out and change.

382
00:20:15,953 --> 00:20:19,130
You're going to crack it.

383
00:20:19,217 --> 00:20:22,786
Rob was persistent,
he never gave up.

384
00:20:22,916 --> 00:20:25,223
Rob Anzilotti was
handpicked because of

385
00:20:25,310 --> 00:20:29,227
who Rob Anzilotti was.
He was just a great cop.

386
00:20:29,488 --> 00:20:34,145
♪

387
00:20:34,232 --> 00:20:36,756
I did not always
want to be a cop.

388
00:20:36,843 --> 00:20:41,195
I was kind of a, you know,
confused, mixed up teenager.

389
00:20:41,326 --> 00:20:43,850
I didn't know what the
hell I wanted to do.

390
00:20:43,937 --> 00:20:46,026
My mom was a nurse.

391
00:20:46,157 --> 00:20:49,073
I always kind of just had a
thing about helping people.

392
00:20:49,203 --> 00:20:52,076
So, I became a paramedic.

393
00:20:52,163 --> 00:20:53,904
Worked in Newark
for a while.

394
00:20:54,034 --> 00:20:56,254
It was during the crack
epidemic, very violent city.

395
00:20:56,341 --> 00:20:59,257
Saw a lot of,
lot of crazy stuff.

396
00:20:59,344 --> 00:21:00,954
That's what brought me
to law enforcement,

397
00:21:01,041 --> 00:21:03,130
just seeing how hard the
cops worked and

398
00:21:03,217 --> 00:21:04,828
what they had to deal with.

399
00:21:04,915 --> 00:21:06,917
I loved it from the minute
I put the uniform on.

400
00:21:07,047 --> 00:21:09,398
♪

401
00:21:09,485 --> 00:21:12,139
That same passion that I felt
when I first put the uniform

402
00:21:12,226 --> 00:21:14,620
on was only amplified
and magnified

403
00:21:14,751 --> 00:21:16,840
when I became a detective.

404
00:21:16,970 --> 00:21:18,145
In 2004, I was a
sergeant in the

405
00:21:18,276 --> 00:21:20,670
Special
Investigations Squad.

406
00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:22,933
The new chief formed that
squad and hand-picked

407
00:21:23,020 --> 00:21:25,152
the people that
go into it.

408
00:21:25,239 --> 00:21:27,241
I was given a lot
of leeway to do...

409
00:21:27,329 --> 00:21:29,331
whatever I felt,
without anyone

410
00:21:29,418 --> 00:21:31,768
interrupting me dealing
with Cottingham.

411
00:21:31,855 --> 00:21:34,248
♪

412
00:21:34,379 --> 00:21:36,076
Once I was talking to
Richard Cottingham

413
00:21:36,163 --> 00:21:38,165
for those early months,

414
00:21:38,252 --> 00:21:40,864
he would give me
absolutely nothing.

415
00:21:40,994 --> 00:21:43,040
It was worse than
pulling teeth,

416
00:21:43,127 --> 00:21:46,086
it was like just hitting
a brick wall all the time.

417
00:21:46,173 --> 00:21:47,827
There was no way
for me to let it go,

418
00:21:47,914 --> 00:21:50,047
because at some point,
to let it go

419
00:21:50,134 --> 00:21:51,701
would be a complete failure,

420
00:21:51,831 --> 00:21:54,007
and I couldn't
accept failure.

421
00:21:54,094 --> 00:21:57,228
I really saw these baby steps
as an opportunity to get

422
00:21:57,315 --> 00:22:00,840
where I needed to go
with these 12 cold cases.

423
00:22:00,927 --> 00:22:03,016
The best way to
get there was

424
00:22:03,103 --> 00:22:04,888
to just get him talking
all the time,

425
00:22:04,975 --> 00:22:07,891
and he grew comfortable
talking about crimes

426
00:22:07,978 --> 00:22:10,110
that the world knew he
committed already,

427
00:22:10,197 --> 00:22:14,245
crimes he went to trial on,
crimes he was convicted of.

428
00:22:14,332 --> 00:22:18,118
Prior to his arrest, he went
on this murderous...

429
00:22:18,249 --> 00:22:21,383
frenzy, in just a
handful of weeks,

430
00:22:21,513 --> 00:22:23,080
when he was hunting
prostitutes.

431
00:22:44,928 --> 00:22:51,151
♪

432
00:22:51,238 --> 00:22:53,676
I was on routine
patrol that morning.

433
00:22:53,763 --> 00:22:55,373
♪

434
00:22:55,504 --> 00:22:58,681
And then, that first call
on the radio came through.

435
00:22:58,768 --> 00:23:01,031
♪

436
00:23:01,118 --> 00:23:03,990
"Go down to the Quality Inn.

437
00:23:04,077 --> 00:23:06,036
There's a report of a
woman screaming in a room."

438
00:23:06,123 --> 00:23:08,430
♪

439
00:23:08,517 --> 00:23:11,302
As I pulled into the
motel parking lot,

440
00:23:11,389 --> 00:23:14,392
there was a man
waving frantically.

441
00:23:14,479 --> 00:23:17,134
He says, "There's
a man with a gun."

442
00:23:17,221 --> 00:23:20,616
♪ [Suspenseful] ♪

443
00:23:25,795 --> 00:23:28,362
We received a radio message

444
00:23:28,493 --> 00:23:32,410
about a woman screaming
at the Quality Motel...

445
00:23:32,497 --> 00:23:35,065
in Hasbrouck Heights,
on route 17.

446
00:23:35,152 --> 00:23:37,763
♪

447
00:23:37,894 --> 00:23:40,331
When I came into
the small lobby,

448
00:23:40,418 --> 00:23:42,855
down the hallway from
around the corner,

449
00:23:42,986 --> 00:23:46,119
I saw a man
running towards me.

450
00:23:46,250 --> 00:23:48,905
He was carrying a satchel,

451
00:23:49,035 --> 00:23:51,168
and he had a gun.

452
00:23:51,255 --> 00:23:53,300
As he rounded the corner...

453
00:23:53,387 --> 00:23:56,390
I yelled,
"Stop, don't move!"

454
00:23:56,478 --> 00:24:00,743
He stopped approximately
one inch from the barrel.

455
00:24:00,830 --> 00:24:03,354
Had he moved his right hand,

456
00:24:03,485 --> 00:24:05,008
I would have pulled
the trigger.

457
00:24:05,138 --> 00:24:07,358
There was no ifs,
ands, or buts.

458
00:24:07,445 --> 00:24:10,796
He dropped all his
parcels on the ground.

459
00:24:10,883 --> 00:24:13,407
He says, "I didn't
do anything.

460
00:24:13,495 --> 00:24:16,759
I was with a hooker
and got scared."

461
00:24:16,846 --> 00:24:18,761
His name was
Richard Cottingham.

462
00:24:18,848 --> 00:24:23,026
♪

463
00:24:23,156 --> 00:24:26,116
Inside the room,
they found a young female

464
00:24:26,203 --> 00:24:30,207
identified as Leslie O'Dell.

465
00:24:30,294 --> 00:24:34,341
Leslie O'Dell was naked.

466
00:24:34,428 --> 00:24:38,345
She had handcuffs
on her ankles.

467
00:24:38,432 --> 00:24:41,174
She recounted a story about

468
00:24:41,305 --> 00:24:44,047
how she had met
a male in New York,

469
00:24:44,177 --> 00:24:48,312
and he had taken
her to the motel.

470
00:24:48,399 --> 00:24:51,141
Leslie O'Dell was working
as a streetwalker

471
00:24:51,228 --> 00:24:53,230
in New York City.

472
00:24:53,317 --> 00:24:56,276
Cottingham was able to
convince her to come with him

473
00:24:56,363 --> 00:24:58,235
under the promise that he
would give her money so

474
00:24:58,322 --> 00:25:01,934
she could get out of the
prostitution business.

475
00:25:02,065 --> 00:25:03,414
So, she got into the
car with Cottingham,

476
00:25:03,501 --> 00:25:05,416
they went to New Jersey.

477
00:25:05,764 --> 00:25:07,984
♪

478
00:25:08,114 --> 00:25:12,423
Next thing you know, they end
up in the Quality Inn Motel.

479
00:25:12,554 --> 00:25:15,252
What started out as a
simple sexual encounter

480
00:25:15,339 --> 00:25:18,647
suddenly escalated with
bondage and torture.

481
00:25:18,777 --> 00:25:21,301
♪

482
00:25:21,432 --> 00:25:23,652
He was just beginning.

483
00:25:23,782 --> 00:25:26,393
♪

484
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:30,049
He handcuffed her on
her ankles because

485
00:25:30,136 --> 00:25:33,270
he was afraid she was
going to escape.

486
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:35,881
She had adhesive
tape on her mouth.

487
00:25:35,968 --> 00:25:38,580
♪

488
00:25:38,667 --> 00:25:42,018
He cut her in the
area of her breasts,

489
00:25:42,105 --> 00:25:44,281
burned her with a cigarette...

490
00:25:44,368 --> 00:25:47,501
sodomized her.

491
00:25:47,589 --> 00:25:51,027
At some point, he decides
he wants a tongue bath,

492
00:25:51,114 --> 00:25:54,030
which means he wants her to
lick him all over his body.

493
00:25:54,117 --> 00:25:55,466
But in order to do that,

494
00:25:55,597 --> 00:25:58,687
he has to take the tape
off her mouth.

495
00:25:58,774 --> 00:26:01,864
She saw an opportunity,
she lets out a scream.

496
00:26:01,951 --> 00:26:07,086
♪

497
00:26:07,173 --> 00:26:09,262
[Knocking]

498
00:26:09,349 --> 00:26:11,090
Richard Cottingham is
standing behind

499
00:26:11,177 --> 00:26:13,266
Leslie O'Dell with a
knife to her back:

500
00:26:13,353 --> 00:26:17,053
"Tell her
everything's okay."

501
00:26:17,140 --> 00:26:20,970
"Is everything okay?"
"Yes."

502
00:26:21,057 --> 00:26:23,233
At this point, he realizes
the jig is up.

503
00:26:23,363 --> 00:26:26,062
♪

504
00:26:26,149 --> 00:26:28,978
Everything begins to collapse.

505
00:26:29,065 --> 00:26:30,936
Richard Cottingham's
going to be under arrest.

506
00:26:31,023 --> 00:26:34,026
♪

507
00:26:34,157 --> 00:26:35,898
And now they have
a living witness.

508
00:26:35,985 --> 00:26:41,207
♪

509
00:26:41,294 --> 00:26:44,080
After Leslie Ann O'Dell
is rescued by the police,

510
00:26:44,167 --> 00:26:46,082
they find a number of things.

511
00:26:46,169 --> 00:26:48,127
They find a bottle of whiskey.

512
00:26:48,214 --> 00:26:50,477
And he was known to
be a big drinker.

513
00:26:50,564 --> 00:26:53,002
And encouraged his
victims to drink.

514
00:26:53,132 --> 00:26:56,092
He would use drugs
to drug his victims,

515
00:26:56,179 --> 00:26:58,268
barbiturates and other
downers, so to speak,

516
00:26:58,398 --> 00:27:01,140
to kind of relax them,
and then get them to pass out.

517
00:27:01,227 --> 00:27:03,229
You know, clearly,
this is a mouth gag.

518
00:27:03,360 --> 00:27:05,405
Put it in, he would put
it in somebody's mouth,

519
00:27:05,492 --> 00:27:07,581
tie the collar around.

520
00:27:07,712 --> 00:27:10,236
And, that would be a
way to keep them silent.

521
00:27:10,367 --> 00:27:12,064
These chokers that I
assume he would put on

522
00:27:12,151 --> 00:27:13,370
his victim's neck.

523
00:27:13,500 --> 00:27:15,241
So, these two
pair of handcuffs.

524
00:27:15,328 --> 00:27:17,461
I have two daughters
and, and for me,

525
00:27:17,591 --> 00:27:20,420
it comes to like I just
couldn't fathom, you know,

526
00:27:20,507 --> 00:27:23,206
having one of my loved ones,
one of my daughters...

527
00:27:23,293 --> 00:27:25,077
be brutally attacked
like this by an animal.

528
00:27:25,164 --> 00:27:26,644
He's got kids.

529
00:27:26,775 --> 00:27:30,169
He's got a girl, he has a
wife that he didn't abuse,

530
00:27:30,256 --> 00:27:31,605
as far as I know.

531
00:27:31,693 --> 00:27:34,043
And yet, look at what he's
doing to total strangers.

532
00:27:34,130 --> 00:27:35,348
I think he thought
he was untouchable.

533
00:27:35,435 --> 00:27:40,049
♪

534
00:27:40,136 --> 00:27:41,441
Having looked at the
crime scene photos

535
00:27:41,528 --> 00:27:43,226
of Leslie Ann O'Dell,

536
00:27:43,313 --> 00:27:45,707
there were some similarities
to some of the unsolved

537
00:27:45,794 --> 00:27:48,448
cold cases that I had
been looking at.

538
00:27:48,535 --> 00:27:51,625
Some of the victims of these
cold cases had ligature marks

539
00:27:51,713 --> 00:27:53,932
on their ankles,
on their wrists.

540
00:27:54,019 --> 00:27:57,283
Some were found tied up.

541
00:27:57,370 --> 00:27:59,590
By letting him just
talk and ramble,

542
00:27:59,721 --> 00:28:03,202
I'm learning what
makes him tick...

543
00:28:03,289 --> 00:28:04,943
and that was really,
really important

544
00:28:05,030 --> 00:28:07,380
in those early years.

545
00:28:07,467 --> 00:28:08,904
He would talk in
general terms about

546
00:28:09,034 --> 00:28:10,732
what he would
call 'hunting'.

547
00:28:10,862 --> 00:28:12,646
So, I began to
learn about, like,

548
00:28:12,734 --> 00:28:14,170
some of his killing methods.

549
00:28:40,849 --> 00:28:43,199
Does this guy have
a beef with women?

550
00:28:43,286 --> 00:28:45,767
Is there something in
his past that led him

551
00:28:45,897 --> 00:28:48,204
to become this
killer that he is?

552
00:28:48,291 --> 00:28:50,032
I really had no idea.

553
00:28:50,119 --> 00:28:52,251
♪

554
00:28:52,338 --> 00:28:56,255
Richard Cottingham was
a young family man.

555
00:28:56,342 --> 00:29:00,085
He lived in Lodi,
New Jersey.

556
00:29:00,216 --> 00:29:02,740
A wife, three children...

557
00:29:02,827 --> 00:29:06,439
had a good job in the
computer division of

558
00:29:06,526 --> 00:29:10,182
Blue Cross Blue Shield
in New York.

559
00:29:10,269 --> 00:29:14,404
He was a smart individual,
but very manipulative.

560
00:29:14,491 --> 00:29:16,580
♪

561
00:29:16,667 --> 00:29:19,583
His parents were
decent people.

562
00:29:19,670 --> 00:29:22,499
He didn't come
from a bad home.

563
00:29:22,586 --> 00:29:25,502
He comes from a
Catholic background.

564
00:29:25,589 --> 00:29:26,808
He's always told me that

565
00:29:26,895 --> 00:29:28,244
he's not your typical
serial killer.

566
00:30:08,719 --> 00:30:11,330
Richard Cottingham
oversimplifies

567
00:30:11,417 --> 00:30:13,811
what it means to be
a serial killer.

568
00:30:13,942 --> 00:30:17,423
And he seems to think that
they all enjoy killing,

569
00:30:17,510 --> 00:30:18,555
and that isn't true.

570
00:30:18,685 --> 00:30:21,384
Only some of them
enjoy killing.

571
00:30:21,471 --> 00:30:25,431
Many of them do exactly
what he did- or said he did-

572
00:30:25,518 --> 00:30:29,435
which is to torture someone,
and then

573
00:30:29,522 --> 00:30:31,698
remove the witness...

574
00:30:31,785 --> 00:30:34,266
and that is a lot
of serial killers.

575
00:30:34,397 --> 00:30:36,051
He fits that.

576
00:31:06,516 --> 00:31:08,822
Because of the way that

577
00:31:08,910 --> 00:31:13,523
Leslie O'Dell was abused...

578
00:31:13,610 --> 00:31:17,266
made us suspect immediately

579
00:31:17,396 --> 00:31:19,442
that there was
a connection to

580
00:31:19,572 --> 00:31:22,445
a number of
unsolved homicides

581
00:31:22,575 --> 00:31:25,361
that occurred at
the same motel.

582
00:31:25,491 --> 00:31:30,540
♪

583
00:31:30,627 --> 00:31:37,460
♪

584
00:31:37,547 --> 00:31:41,681
A maid cleaning room 132,
while she's vacuuming,

585
00:31:41,768 --> 00:31:44,902
bumps into something
under the bed.

586
00:31:44,989 --> 00:31:47,209
She looks under the bed,
she lets out a scream.

587
00:31:47,296 --> 00:31:50,255
♪

588
00:31:59,438 --> 00:32:01,701
On May 22nd, 1980,

589
00:32:01,832 --> 00:32:05,357
Cottingham is caught
at the Quality Inn in

590
00:32:05,444 --> 00:32:08,317
Hasbrouck Heights as he
tries to flee the scene...

591
00:32:08,404 --> 00:32:13,452
after attempting to
kill Leslie O'Dell.

592
00:32:13,539 --> 00:32:15,759
Staff had been
totally on high alert,

593
00:32:15,889 --> 00:32:19,371
as had the local police,
because just weeks earlier...

594
00:32:19,458 --> 00:32:22,679
another dead body was found
stuffed under a bed

595
00:32:22,809 --> 00:32:25,812
in that same
Quality Inn Motel.

596
00:32:25,899 --> 00:32:28,772
What the investigators
find is 19-year-old,

597
00:32:28,902 --> 00:32:31,383
Valerie Street...

598
00:32:31,470 --> 00:32:33,298
a known prostitute who had
just recently been arrested

599
00:32:33,429 --> 00:32:35,083
for prostitution offenses.

600
00:32:35,213 --> 00:32:38,303
♪

601
00:32:38,390 --> 00:32:41,611
Valerie Ann Street was naked.

602
00:32:41,698 --> 00:32:43,569
She had what appeared to be

603
00:32:43,656 --> 00:32:47,965
adhesive residue
around her mouth.

604
00:32:48,052 --> 00:32:52,404
She had handcuffs
on her wrists.

605
00:32:52,491 --> 00:32:55,886
There was a latent
fingerprint that was lifted

606
00:32:55,973 --> 00:32:57,627
from the handcuffs,

607
00:32:57,714 --> 00:33:01,848
and that print was retained.

608
00:33:01,935 --> 00:33:04,677
Richard explained to me
that he graduated-

609
00:33:04,764 --> 00:33:06,157
so to speak-

610
00:33:06,288 --> 00:33:11,380
to really focusing on raping
and murdering prostitutes

611
00:33:11,510 --> 00:33:14,383
because he felt
that they were

612
00:33:14,470 --> 00:33:18,735
less accountable in society.

613
00:33:18,822 --> 00:33:21,564
He has a story where,

614
00:33:21,651 --> 00:33:24,436
"Women would do
anything I wanted."

615
00:33:24,567 --> 00:33:26,612
Which just tells you

616
00:33:26,699 --> 00:33:30,964
he would only go for women
that would yield to him-

617
00:33:31,095 --> 00:33:33,837
for money or because they
were young and scared and

618
00:33:33,924 --> 00:33:35,665
didn't know
what else to do.

619
00:33:35,752 --> 00:33:37,754
♪

620
00:33:37,841 --> 00:33:41,584
Because of the similarities
amongst those cases,

621
00:33:41,671 --> 00:33:44,761
we weren't just interested
in what occurred with

622
00:33:44,848 --> 00:33:48,678
O'Dell, we were
interested in other things.

623
00:33:48,808 --> 00:33:53,422
Almost three years before
Valerie Ann Street's murder,

624
00:33:53,509 --> 00:33:57,034
another homicide had
occurred at the Quality Inn.

625
00:33:57,295 --> 00:34:02,561
♪

626
00:34:02,648 --> 00:34:05,651
Maryann Carr was
a young, attractive

627
00:34:05,738 --> 00:34:09,568
x-ray technician...

628
00:34:09,655 --> 00:34:13,572
who lived with her husband
in an apartment

629
00:34:13,659 --> 00:34:16,532
at Ledgewood Terrace
in Little Ferry.

630
00:34:16,619 --> 00:34:20,927
Her husband had been
away on a business trip.

631
00:34:21,014 --> 00:34:22,799
When he attempted to
get a hold of her,

632
00:34:22,886 --> 00:34:24,888
he wasn't able to.

633
00:34:24,975 --> 00:34:27,195
And after several tries
he became concerned.

634
00:34:27,325 --> 00:34:31,808
♪

635
00:34:31,938 --> 00:34:35,464
The next morning,
I was notified

636
00:34:35,551 --> 00:34:39,990
that a body had been
found in the parking area

637
00:34:40,077 --> 00:34:43,080
of the Quality Inn Motel in
Hasbrouck Heights.

638
00:34:43,341 --> 00:34:50,609
♪

639
00:34:50,696 --> 00:34:55,048
Maryann was lying
near the parking area,

640
00:34:55,136 --> 00:34:58,835
next to a chain link fence.

641
00:34:58,922 --> 00:35:02,839
She's wearing her white
x-ray tech uniform.

642
00:35:02,969 --> 00:35:05,885
She is lying and
kind of curled up,

643
00:35:05,972 --> 00:35:07,757
where she obviously
had been dumped.

644
00:35:07,844 --> 00:35:10,716
♪

645
00:35:10,803 --> 00:35:14,546
There are ligature marks
on her hands and her feet.

646
00:35:14,677 --> 00:35:17,027
There are tears
in her uniform.

647
00:35:17,114 --> 00:35:18,724
Somebody had sexually
assaulted her and then

648
00:35:18,855 --> 00:35:20,465
redressed her.

649
00:35:20,596 --> 00:35:22,772
She had been strangled.

650
00:35:22,859 --> 00:35:24,861
♪

651
00:35:27,342 --> 00:35:31,172
You know, of my 12 cold cases
involving these young women,

652
00:35:31,259 --> 00:35:32,782
the overwhelming
majority of them were

653
00:35:32,869 --> 00:35:35,611
either strangled
or suffocated.

654
00:35:35,698 --> 00:35:40,355
♪

655
00:35:40,442 --> 00:35:44,576
It was a mystery.

656
00:35:44,663 --> 00:35:48,189
And there was no connection
whatsoever between

657
00:35:48,319 --> 00:35:50,800
Maryann Carr and
Valerie Street...

658
00:35:50,930 --> 00:35:54,499
♪

659
00:35:54,586 --> 00:35:57,067
Until they caught
Richard Cottingham

660
00:35:57,154 --> 00:35:59,635
running from the building.

661
00:35:59,722 --> 00:36:01,898
♪

662
00:36:01,985 --> 00:36:05,989
We compared
Cottingham's fingerprint to

663
00:36:06,119 --> 00:36:08,513
the latent fingerprint on

664
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:10,820
Valerie Ann Street's
handcuffs.

665
00:36:10,907 --> 00:36:13,910
♪

666
00:36:13,997 --> 00:36:16,826
And it was a homerun.

667
00:36:16,956 --> 00:36:18,567
We knew we had the right guy.

668
00:36:42,765 --> 00:36:46,159
He would not admit
his guilt in any of it.

669
00:36:46,247 --> 00:36:48,423
It was like a game of cat and
mouse between the two of us.

670
00:37:27,070 --> 00:37:28,811
You can't feed anything
to them and

671
00:37:28,898 --> 00:37:31,030
put thoughts in their head.

672
00:37:31,161 --> 00:37:33,903
And that's also part of
what this whole

673
00:37:33,990 --> 00:37:36,166
kind of grind is with him
because, you know,

674
00:37:36,297 --> 00:37:38,037
he had no fear in talking
about the things

675
00:37:38,124 --> 00:37:39,604
he was already convicted of,

676
00:37:39,691 --> 00:37:41,737
but he refused to talk
about anything new.

677
00:37:41,824 --> 00:37:43,304
♪

678
00:37:43,391 --> 00:37:45,697
He's not just willing to just
sit there and say to me,

679
00:37:45,784 --> 00:37:48,657
"In 1969, I remember
killing this 15-year-old."

680
00:37:48,744 --> 00:37:50,746
It's not like that with him.

681
00:37:50,833 --> 00:37:51,964
You kind of have to just get

682
00:37:52,051 --> 00:37:56,273
these little bits and
pieces and put it together.

683
00:37:56,404 --> 00:38:00,103
You're getting something,
but you don't want the guy

684
00:38:00,190 --> 00:38:02,018
to know you're
getting something,

685
00:38:02,105 --> 00:38:04,020
because he's trying
to control that

686
00:38:04,107 --> 00:38:05,848
piece of information.

687
00:38:05,935 --> 00:38:08,198
And you have to be
very cool about it...

688
00:38:08,285 --> 00:38:10,156
because he could
shut it down and say,

689
00:38:10,243 --> 00:38:12,071
"That's it,
no more talking."

690
00:38:12,202 --> 00:38:17,207
'Cause he realizes he
just lost leverage.

691
00:38:17,294 --> 00:38:19,775
That's not okay for
someone who needs control.

692
00:38:19,862 --> 00:38:26,216
♪

693
00:38:26,303 --> 00:38:30,046
We executed a search
warrant at his house...

694
00:38:30,133 --> 00:38:33,658
and on his vehicles.

695
00:38:33,745 --> 00:38:37,836
He had a locked room
in the basement.

696
00:38:37,923 --> 00:38:40,361
His wife, Janet,
was asked about that,

697
00:38:40,448 --> 00:38:42,972
and she said, "Yes,
that is his room.

698
00:38:43,059 --> 00:38:45,714
I know nothing about it.
He keeps it locked,

699
00:38:45,844 --> 00:38:48,194
and I'm not
allowed in there."

700
00:38:48,281 --> 00:38:51,807
She was in the process of
filing for divorce from him.

701
00:38:51,894 --> 00:38:53,548
They had trouble
in the marriage.

702
00:39:10,391 --> 00:39:13,176
His wife had said she
was going to leave him and

703
00:39:13,263 --> 00:39:15,787
take his three kids with her.

704
00:39:15,874 --> 00:39:20,662
He blames that for the
reason why he got, "sloppy".

705
00:39:48,385 --> 00:39:50,518
He doesn't want a
divorce, necessarily,

706
00:39:50,605 --> 00:39:54,957
but that he cannot let her be
the one in charge of that...

707
00:39:55,044 --> 00:39:58,439
and she was, she's the one
who made the first move.

708
00:39:58,526 --> 00:40:01,093
Someone who is a
narcissist like he is,

709
00:40:01,180 --> 00:40:03,966
his children are
extensions of himself.

710
00:40:04,096 --> 00:40:05,924
There's an ownership
thing there.

711
00:40:06,055 --> 00:40:08,884
She will not take them.

712
00:40:08,971 --> 00:40:11,887
She will not take the
stability of his life.

713
00:40:11,974 --> 00:40:17,196
♪

714
00:40:17,327 --> 00:40:21,418
Inside that locked room
were a number of items:

715
00:40:21,505 --> 00:40:27,163
money, some
pornography magazines,

716
00:40:27,250 --> 00:40:29,339
women's jewellery,

717
00:40:29,426 --> 00:40:32,124
some articles of
women's clothing.

718
00:40:32,211 --> 00:40:35,084
♪

719
00:40:35,214 --> 00:40:37,869
These were all books that
were found in Cottingham's

720
00:40:37,956 --> 00:40:41,220
residence when the detectives
searched his house.

721
00:40:41,307 --> 00:40:45,964
So, like, "Sex Victims:
Stories of Surrender".

722
00:40:46,051 --> 00:40:47,400
There's,
"The Prisoner of the Sheik,"

723
00:40:47,488 --> 00:40:50,578
and a woman tied up
on the cover.

724
00:40:50,665 --> 00:40:52,928
"Tied Up Teasers," with
two women tied to a bed.

725
00:40:55,931 --> 00:40:57,149
"The Boyfriend's Revenge".

726
00:40:57,236 --> 00:40:59,587
Two men who look like they're
about to rape a woman.

727
00:40:59,674 --> 00:41:01,327
So, finding these books,
I'm sure the detectives

728
00:41:01,458 --> 00:41:03,025
when they found them
were like,

729
00:41:03,155 --> 00:41:06,071
"Wow, we just
found gold here."

730
00:41:06,202 --> 00:41:09,292
Once Bergen County
connected those cases...

731
00:41:09,379 --> 00:41:11,033
they're going to
find out that

732
00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:13,862
it was much bigger than
they thought it was.

733
00:41:13,949 --> 00:41:15,864
Firemen were the first to
arrive at the scene

734
00:41:15,951 --> 00:41:17,866
at about 9:30 this morning.

735
00:41:17,996 --> 00:41:19,650
They were responding to
a report of a fire in

736
00:41:19,781 --> 00:41:22,305
a west side hotel room.

737
00:41:22,392 --> 00:41:25,395
They find two young,
nude bodies

738
00:41:25,482 --> 00:41:28,050
with no heads and hands.

739
00:41:28,137 --> 00:41:30,182
It was something out
of a horror movie.

740
00:41:37,755 --> 00:41:46,198
♪

741
00:41:46,285 --> 00:41:48,287
The New York City Fire
Department was called to the

742
00:41:48,418 --> 00:41:51,116
Travel Inn Hotel on
West 42nd Street

743
00:41:51,247 --> 00:41:52,901
on a report of a fire.

744
00:41:53,031 --> 00:41:56,469
♪

745
00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:58,863
They went into the room,
they dragged the

746
00:41:58,950 --> 00:42:00,909
body of a nude female
from the room.

747
00:42:01,039 --> 00:42:03,912
♪

748
00:42:03,999 --> 00:42:06,044
Pulled it into the hallway,
was about to give

749
00:42:06,131 --> 00:42:08,873
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,
but there was no head.

750
00:42:09,004 --> 00:42:13,530
♪ [Suspenseful] ♪

751
00:42:13,661 --> 00:42:15,619
And in an effort to
cover up that homicide,

752
00:42:15,706 --> 00:42:18,840
their heads and hands had
been removed and severed and

753
00:42:18,927 --> 00:42:19,971
taken from the scene.

754
00:42:20,102 --> 00:42:21,756
To this day,
they've never been found.

755
00:42:21,886 --> 00:42:24,497
♪

756
00:42:24,585 --> 00:42:27,936
There were marks on their
legs, arm, back, buttocks,

757
00:42:28,066 --> 00:42:30,242
incised marks, but
also puncture marks.

758
00:42:30,329 --> 00:42:33,158
♪

759
00:42:33,245 --> 00:42:35,900
You're dealing with a
psychopathic sexual sadist.

760
00:42:36,031 --> 00:42:38,686
This was pure evil.

761
00:42:38,773 --> 00:42:41,166
[News] Today police search
for clues into the death of

762
00:42:41,297 --> 00:42:43,081
the young women,
both white and about

763
00:42:43,212 --> 00:42:45,083
19 to 20 years old.

764
00:42:45,170 --> 00:42:47,564
A spokesman said the
cuts were very clean.

765
00:42:47,651 --> 00:42:50,001
Probably inflicted
with a butcher's tool,

766
00:42:50,088 --> 00:42:52,264
a surgical instrument,
or sword.

767
00:42:52,351 --> 00:42:56,573
♪

768
00:42:56,704 --> 00:43:00,751
These two women had been held
in that room for three days:

769
00:43:00,882 --> 00:43:02,797
November 29th to
December 2nd.

770
00:43:37,005 --> 00:43:41,183
♪

771
00:43:41,270 --> 00:43:43,054
In an effort to
identify the victims

772
00:43:43,141 --> 00:43:45,274
from the Travel Inn hotel,

773
00:43:45,404 --> 00:43:48,103
they came up with the
creative idea of actually

774
00:43:48,233 --> 00:43:52,498
putting the victims'
clothes on a mannequin...

775
00:43:52,585 --> 00:43:58,417
and then putting a picture
of that in the newspaper.

776
00:43:58,504 --> 00:44:00,855
The news was all
over the place.

777
00:44:00,985 --> 00:44:03,248
♪

778
00:44:03,379 --> 00:44:05,555
He was called the
'Torso Killer'.

779
00:44:05,903 --> 00:44:10,212
♪

780
00:44:10,299 --> 00:44:12,997
After two months,
someone from New Jersey

781
00:44:13,084 --> 00:44:15,304
recognized the
clothing of one person

782
00:44:15,391 --> 00:44:17,872
from the Midtown Torso case.

783
00:44:18,002 --> 00:44:21,397
♪

784
00:44:21,484 --> 00:44:23,486
That resulted in the
positive identification

785
00:44:23,616 --> 00:44:26,141
of Deedeh Goodarzi.

786
00:44:26,271 --> 00:44:28,056
She was a prostitute.

787
00:44:28,186 --> 00:44:30,058
♪

788
00:44:30,145 --> 00:44:32,016
[News] Miss Goodarzi was
born in Kuwait and

789
00:44:32,103 --> 00:44:34,279
came to the US
when she was 14.

790
00:44:34,366 --> 00:44:36,368
Her family lives
in Trenton, NJ.

791
00:44:36,455 --> 00:44:38,414
Police are still looking for
information about the

792
00:44:38,501 --> 00:44:40,895
other victim, last seen
wearing these clothes.

793
00:44:41,025 --> 00:44:43,506
♪

794
00:44:43,636 --> 00:44:45,943
Unfortunately, the second
victim- to this day-

795
00:44:46,030 --> 00:44:47,336
remains a Jane Doe.

796
00:44:47,466 --> 00:44:49,077
The investigators, despite
their best efforts,

797
00:44:49,207 --> 00:44:51,079
have never been able
to identify her.

798
00:44:51,209 --> 00:44:53,081
♪

799
00:44:53,211 --> 00:44:55,518
Four months later, the body
of yet another prostitute is

800
00:44:55,648 --> 00:44:59,391
found murdered at the Hotel
Seville in Times Square.

801
00:44:59,478 --> 00:45:03,091
When the body was recovered,
there were no clothes.

802
00:45:03,178 --> 00:45:05,006
He had taken the clothes.

803
00:45:05,136 --> 00:45:08,096
[Sirens continue]

804
00:45:13,536 --> 00:45:15,712
Firefighters were called
to the Hotel Seville,

805
00:45:15,843 --> 00:45:19,107
which is at 29th Street
and Madison Avenue.

806
00:45:19,194 --> 00:45:22,458
Once again, a hotel
room was on fire.

807
00:45:22,545 --> 00:45:26,288
Inside the hotel room was
a nude body of a victim.

808
00:45:26,418 --> 00:45:30,031
♪

809
00:45:30,161 --> 00:45:32,163
The body had been burned

810
00:45:32,250 --> 00:45:35,166
with the same type
of torture marks

811
00:45:35,297 --> 00:45:38,300
that were on the girls
at the Midtown Torso case.

812
00:45:38,430 --> 00:45:42,217
♪

813
00:45:42,304 --> 00:45:45,481
And this time, the offender
had defeminized the victim,

814
00:45:45,611 --> 00:45:48,179
removing both of her breasts.

815
00:45:48,310 --> 00:45:50,268
And that was pretty shocking
because the breasts

816
00:45:50,399 --> 00:45:52,227
were then put on
the headboard,

817
00:45:52,357 --> 00:45:54,316
presented by the offender
to the authorities.

818
00:45:54,446 --> 00:45:58,363
♪

819
00:45:58,450 --> 00:46:00,583
That was a hotel
room from hell.

820
00:46:00,713 --> 00:46:02,411
Only Satan could tell you
what went on in there.

821
00:46:22,866 --> 00:46:24,346
The victim at the
Hotel Seville

822
00:46:24,433 --> 00:46:26,000
was another prostitute.

823
00:46:26,130 --> 00:46:28,002
She was identified
as Jean Ann Reyner.

824
00:46:28,132 --> 00:46:33,050
♪

825
00:46:33,137 --> 00:46:35,357
As I researched the cases
that Cottingham had been

826
00:46:35,444 --> 00:46:38,490
convicted of, they were
all so brutal in nature.

827
00:46:38,621 --> 00:46:41,406
Decapitation,
defeminizing.

828
00:46:41,537 --> 00:46:45,280
And, those were very
different than

829
00:46:45,367 --> 00:46:47,195
the 12 cold cases of these
young women in

830
00:46:47,325 --> 00:46:50,067
Bergen County that I
was investigating.

831
00:46:50,154 --> 00:46:51,721
So, at times I questioned:

832
00:46:51,852 --> 00:46:53,679
Am I wasting my time
with Cottingham?

833
00:46:53,766 --> 00:46:56,247
Is he even responsible
for any of these?

834
00:46:56,378 --> 00:46:58,641
But, as the interviews
went on and on

835
00:46:58,771 --> 00:47:00,295
over the months and years,

836
00:47:00,425 --> 00:47:02,558
Cottingham would constantly
explain to me that

837
00:47:02,688 --> 00:47:05,213
he always
changed up his MO.

838
00:47:05,300 --> 00:47:07,258
So, he didn't want the
police to think

839
00:47:07,389 --> 00:47:09,130
any of these killings
were related.

840
00:47:14,439 --> 00:47:15,745
It didn't take the New York
authorities less than a

841
00:47:15,876 --> 00:47:18,400
New York minute to
connect these cases.

842
00:47:18,530 --> 00:47:19,662
And that's when New York
communicated

843
00:47:19,792 --> 00:47:22,273
with Bergen County.

844
00:47:22,404 --> 00:47:24,754
A New York detective
saw the paper, and said,

845
00:47:24,885 --> 00:47:28,801
"Listen, this
might be our case."

846
00:47:28,932 --> 00:47:32,327
The New York City
Homicide Task Force

847
00:47:32,414 --> 00:47:36,157
wanted to come over and
view our evidence

848
00:47:36,287 --> 00:47:38,811
to see if there was a
connection to three of

849
00:47:38,942 --> 00:47:42,598
their open homicides
that occurred

850
00:47:42,728 --> 00:47:46,776
within months of
Cottingham's arrest.

851
00:47:46,863 --> 00:47:49,344
They had executed
a search warrant

852
00:47:49,431 --> 00:47:51,433
at his house in
Lodi, New Jersey.

853
00:47:51,563 --> 00:47:53,348
They came upon
a room that

854
00:47:53,478 --> 00:47:56,220
even Cottingham's wife
was not allowed in.

855
00:47:56,307 --> 00:47:58,701
His trophy room.

856
00:47:58,831 --> 00:48:01,138
Serial killers,
they collect

857
00:48:01,225 --> 00:48:03,314
trophies of their victims.

858
00:48:03,401 --> 00:48:04,707
Kind of like a
hunting trophy,

859
00:48:04,837 --> 00:48:07,318
proof of the kill.

860
00:48:07,449 --> 00:48:09,320
That's how the cases
were linked to New York,

861
00:48:09,407 --> 00:48:11,192
with the trophy room.

862
00:48:11,322 --> 00:48:12,584
So, this was big.

863
00:48:12,715 --> 00:48:14,282
Our evidence was
in New Jersey.

864
00:48:14,412 --> 00:48:15,936
♪

865
00:48:24,248 --> 00:48:26,207
After Cottingham's arrest,

866
00:48:26,294 --> 00:48:28,687
a search of his
residence finds

867
00:48:28,774 --> 00:48:33,562
a necklace that ultimately
is tied back to Jean Reyner.

868
00:48:33,649 --> 00:48:37,958
♪

869
00:48:38,088 --> 00:48:39,872
Jean Ann Reyner
had been arrested

870
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:42,484
a few days prior
to the homicide,

871
00:48:42,571 --> 00:48:46,662
and in the BCI picture is
the necklace on her neck.

872
00:48:46,749 --> 00:48:48,403
It's an exact match.

873
00:48:48,490 --> 00:48:51,406
♪

874
00:48:51,536 --> 00:48:54,061
There's still a very sick,
sick killer on the loose.

875
00:48:54,191 --> 00:48:56,498
The man who cut off the,
the heads and hands

876
00:48:56,585 --> 00:48:58,804
of two women in a
Manhattan hotel room.

877
00:48:58,891 --> 00:49:01,851
Now, the police have a lot
more questions than answers.

878
00:49:01,938 --> 00:49:03,592
It was three days ago that
News Center 4 told you

879
00:49:03,722 --> 00:49:05,724
police in New Jersey believe
they had a suspect in

880
00:49:05,855 --> 00:49:07,683
the brutal killings of
several prostitutes.

881
00:49:07,813 --> 00:49:09,337
That report was
confirmed today,

882
00:49:09,424 --> 00:49:10,686
with the arrest of a
man by the name of

883
00:49:10,773 --> 00:49:12,166
Richard Cottingham.

884
00:49:31,446 --> 00:49:34,623
[Laughing]

885
00:49:34,710 --> 00:49:36,625
We never offered him a deal.

886
00:49:36,755 --> 00:49:40,368
♪

887
00:49:40,498 --> 00:49:43,719
We laid all of this out
before the grand jury,

888
00:49:43,806 --> 00:49:46,026
and the grand jury
returned an indictment

889
00:49:46,113 --> 00:49:48,811
for the crimes of assault
and kidnapping

890
00:49:48,941 --> 00:49:50,943
against Leslie Ann O'Dell,

891
00:49:51,031 --> 00:49:54,643
with crime of murder
against Valerie Ann Street.

892
00:49:54,773 --> 00:49:57,472
♪

893
00:49:57,559 --> 00:49:59,909
But it was entirely
circumstantial against

894
00:49:59,996 --> 00:50:02,651
Maryann Carr, but her murder
was also included

895
00:50:02,781 --> 00:50:04,479
in the same indictment.

896
00:50:04,566 --> 00:50:06,916
♪

897
00:50:07,047 --> 00:50:09,440
He pled not guilty and
took every case to trial.

898
00:50:09,571 --> 00:50:11,486
Would not cooperate,
would not...

899
00:50:11,573 --> 00:50:13,488
admit his guilt in any of it.

900
00:50:13,575 --> 00:50:15,925
♪

901
00:50:16,012 --> 00:50:18,580
The thing that put him at
the scene of the

902
00:50:18,667 --> 00:50:21,887
Valerie Ann Street case
was the fingerprint

903
00:50:21,974 --> 00:50:24,455
that had been taken off
of the handcuffs

904
00:50:24,542 --> 00:50:27,328
that were on her body.

905
00:50:27,415 --> 00:50:30,070
♪

906
00:50:30,200 --> 00:50:32,985
We brought in
Leslie Ann O'Dell.

907
00:50:33,116 --> 00:50:35,336
She was very reluctant
to come to testify,

908
00:50:35,423 --> 00:50:37,555
but she was cooperative.

909
00:50:37,642 --> 00:50:41,820
She was very matter of fact,
she remembered everything.

910
00:50:41,951 --> 00:50:44,606
She got on the stand
and just levelled him.

911
00:50:44,693 --> 00:50:46,216
"He drugged me,
raped me.

912
00:50:46,347 --> 00:50:50,481
He, he cut my breasts."

913
00:50:50,568 --> 00:50:53,615
And he just sat
there stone-faced.

914
00:50:53,745 --> 00:50:56,792
But it didn't
seem to faze him.

915
00:50:56,922 --> 00:50:59,055
He thought,
"Ain't gonna matter.

916
00:50:59,186 --> 00:51:03,103
I'm going to testify, and
I'll explain all of this."

917
00:51:03,190 --> 00:51:05,366
He was running the show,
it was his show.

918
00:51:05,453 --> 00:51:08,456
♪

919
00:51:08,543 --> 00:51:10,936
So, he did take the stand.

920
00:51:11,023 --> 00:51:14,592
His demeanor was very calm.

921
00:51:14,679 --> 00:51:16,942
Mr. Cottingham thought
somehow that

922
00:51:17,073 --> 00:51:18,727
he was going to
beat the wrap.

923
00:51:18,857 --> 00:51:21,382
♪

924
00:51:21,469 --> 00:51:23,949
He admitted that
he engaged in

925
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:28,519
sadomasochistic
sexual activity.

926
00:51:28,650 --> 00:51:32,654
He claimed it was
all consensual...

927
00:51:32,741 --> 00:51:34,743
that this was all a game.

928
00:51:34,830 --> 00:51:37,528
♪

929
00:51:37,659 --> 00:51:40,444
He had lives within
lives within lives.

930
00:51:40,531 --> 00:51:42,925
♪

931
00:51:43,012 --> 00:51:44,622
His mother came in every day.

932
00:51:44,709 --> 00:51:47,669
And his sister,
which was even worse,

933
00:51:47,799 --> 00:51:50,976
because they still
believed in him.

934
00:51:51,063 --> 00:51:52,848
And I'd say,
"Mrs. Cottingham,

935
00:51:52,935 --> 00:51:54,850
this is not good."

936
00:51:54,980 --> 00:51:56,852
"Oh, oh, no, no,
no, he's innocent,

937
00:51:56,939 --> 00:51:59,594
he's innocent."
"Okay..."

938
00:51:59,681 --> 00:52:02,640
♪

939
00:52:02,771 --> 00:52:06,470
If Cottingham's
mother dismissed...

940
00:52:06,601 --> 00:52:09,691
the things she's
learning that he did,

941
00:52:09,821 --> 00:52:11,867
she is already the
role model for

942
00:52:11,997 --> 00:52:15,218
his minimization
at what he did.

943
00:52:15,305 --> 00:52:18,656
If it doesn't matter to her,
and that's the woman

944
00:52:18,787 --> 00:52:23,922
who raised him, it certainly
does not matter to him.

945
00:52:24,009 --> 00:52:25,968
If convicted on all counts,

946
00:52:26,055 --> 00:52:27,665
Cottingham faces
a maximum of

947
00:52:27,752 --> 00:52:32,148
274 years in prison,
plus life.

948
00:52:32,235 --> 00:52:35,760
And he still faces trial in
New York City for the murders

949
00:52:35,891 --> 00:52:38,763
and mutilations of two
Midtown prostitutes.

950
00:52:38,894 --> 00:52:42,811
That trial comes after
this one's finished.

951
00:52:42,898 --> 00:52:44,682
The jury was not
out very long,

952
00:52:44,813 --> 00:52:47,032
about a day and a half.

953
00:52:47,119 --> 00:52:49,644
The sentence he received
really ensured

954
00:52:49,731 --> 00:52:53,604
that he would never
see the light of day.

955
00:52:53,735 --> 00:52:56,781
After that, he was
taken over to New York,

956
00:52:56,912 --> 00:52:58,696
where he was tried for
the homicides that

957
00:52:58,783 --> 00:53:00,655
he had committed in
New York City.

958
00:53:00,742 --> 00:53:06,138
♪

959
00:53:06,226 --> 00:53:09,229
By 1984,
Richard Cottingham is

960
00:53:09,359 --> 00:53:10,926
sentenced to
five life sentences

961
00:53:11,056 --> 00:53:12,667
between New York
and New Jersey.

962
00:53:12,797 --> 00:53:15,278
♪

963
00:53:15,365 --> 00:53:17,846
Effectively put away for
the remainder of his days.

964
00:53:17,933 --> 00:53:22,198
♪

965
00:53:22,459 --> 00:53:27,464
♪

966
00:53:27,551 --> 00:53:30,119
Fast forward to 2004.

967
00:53:30,206 --> 00:53:32,121
I spent hundreds of hours
with him at the prison.

968
00:53:32,469 --> 00:53:37,953
♪

969
00:53:38,040 --> 00:53:39,868
I had these 12 cold cases.

970
00:53:39,955 --> 00:53:41,826
I thought he could be
good for some of them.

971
00:53:41,957 --> 00:53:44,742
And yet, I was just
making no progress.

972
00:53:44,829 --> 00:53:47,963
I tried everything
I could think of.

973
00:53:48,050 --> 00:53:50,313
Cottingham went to
Catholic grammar school.

974
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:53,273
I've tried to play the
religious theme on him

975
00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:55,187
as well, knowing that he
had that background.

976
00:53:55,275 --> 00:53:57,755
Told him to cleanse his soul.

977
00:53:57,842 --> 00:53:59,888
This is another way
that he can...

978
00:53:59,975 --> 00:54:01,542
kind of make peace with God.

979
00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:32,660
I've played that theme
over and over and over.

980
00:54:32,747 --> 00:54:34,662
Trying to draw an ounce of
empathy out of him

981
00:54:34,749 --> 00:54:36,577
for the victims' families.

982
00:54:36,664 --> 00:54:38,230
♪

983
00:54:38,318 --> 00:54:39,841
The family members
have a tremendous

984
00:54:39,928 --> 00:54:41,843
thirst for information.
It just never goes away.

985
00:54:41,973 --> 00:54:44,933
They want to know
what happened.

986
00:54:45,020 --> 00:54:46,848
Over the years
he would say,

987
00:54:46,935 --> 00:54:48,023
"Why would I do that if it's
going to hurt me?"

988
00:55:09,871 --> 00:55:14,876
♪

989
00:55:15,006 --> 00:55:17,226
The three children were
obviously adults now.

990
00:55:17,313 --> 00:55:20,229
He claimed that he had
a sensitivity towards

991
00:55:20,316 --> 00:55:22,797
his children reading about
him in the newspaper.

992
00:55:45,254 --> 00:55:46,255
Every time you think
you're making progress

993
00:55:46,342 --> 00:55:47,909
with this guy he throws
another excuse on

994
00:55:47,996 --> 00:55:52,130
why he's not willing to give
you what you need.

995
00:55:52,217 --> 00:55:54,437
Eventually he complained...

996
00:55:54,524 --> 00:55:56,308
he didn't like when I
visited him at the prison

997
00:55:56,396 --> 00:55:58,746
because the other
inmates knew that

998
00:55:58,833 --> 00:56:00,008
he was getting pulled out.

999
00:56:00,138 --> 00:56:02,314
♪

1000
00:56:02,402 --> 00:56:03,751
It looks like he's a rat.

1001
00:56:18,983 --> 00:56:21,943
I thought for sure
at any given moment,

1002
00:56:22,073 --> 00:56:24,772
he's going to completely
tank on me and stop it.

1003
00:56:35,304 --> 00:56:38,307
♪

1004
00:56:38,394 --> 00:56:39,787
Early on, Richard was
complaining that

1005
00:56:39,917 --> 00:56:42,572
I was visiting him
at the prison.

1006
00:56:42,659 --> 00:56:45,532
There's a process
in a prison, right.

1007
00:56:45,619 --> 00:56:47,838
Just because I'm a detective,
I didn't just get to walk in

1008
00:56:47,925 --> 00:56:49,361
the prison and go up to
his cell and be like,

1009
00:56:49,449 --> 00:56:50,667
"Hey, Richard,
how are you?"

1010
00:56:50,754 --> 00:56:53,322
They'd have to get guards
to bring him down so,

1011
00:56:53,409 --> 00:56:56,760
he would walk past
the prison population.

1012
00:56:56,847 --> 00:56:58,501
You know, it doesn't go
over well with the

1013
00:56:58,588 --> 00:57:00,764
prison population, he's
cooperating with the police.

1014
00:57:00,851 --> 00:57:03,767
Even if all he's
telling on is himself.

1015
00:57:03,854 --> 00:57:05,508
He would have to
walk past The Iceman,

1016
00:57:05,595 --> 00:57:07,467
and The Iceman would
quietly chuckle to himself.

1017
00:57:07,554 --> 00:57:08,946
He knew exactly
where he was going.

1018
00:57:20,654 --> 00:57:22,482
He wanted me to get him
out of the prison and say,

1019
00:57:22,569 --> 00:57:24,222
you know, "Bring me up
to Bergen County

1020
00:57:24,353 --> 00:57:26,268
where these guys don't
see what I'm doing."

1021
00:57:26,355 --> 00:57:31,360
♪

1022
00:57:31,447 --> 00:57:34,189
It gave me an excuse to
bring him onto my home turf,

1023
00:57:34,276 --> 00:57:36,452
where I can control
the visit better.

1024
00:57:36,583 --> 00:57:39,237
♪

1025
00:57:39,324 --> 00:57:40,500
Just me and a partner
would go down, pick him up,

1026
00:57:40,630 --> 00:57:42,502
drive him up to
Bergen County,

1027
00:57:42,589 --> 00:57:44,460
talk to him for hours,
drive him back.

1028
00:57:44,591 --> 00:57:48,682
♪

1029
00:57:48,769 --> 00:57:50,684
I would keep him overnight.

1030
00:57:50,814 --> 00:57:53,164
We put him in our
own cellblock.

1031
00:57:53,251 --> 00:57:54,949
♪

1032
00:57:55,036 --> 00:57:56,864
The next morning, pull him
out and start all over again.

1033
00:57:56,951 --> 00:57:58,561
Feed him an egg sandwich,
a cup of coffee,

1034
00:57:58,648 --> 00:58:02,260
and we'd go at it again.

1035
00:58:02,347 --> 00:58:04,959
It was just a total cat and
mouse game that we would play.

1036
00:58:05,089 --> 00:58:07,570
♪

1037
00:58:07,657 --> 00:58:10,138
Each of us was trying
to play the other.

1038
00:58:42,649 --> 00:58:44,259
There was no way to
talk about murders

1039
00:58:44,346 --> 00:58:46,217
all day long and...

1040
00:58:46,304 --> 00:58:48,480
think I would get
anywhere with him.

1041
00:58:48,568 --> 00:58:50,439
If I was really going to
build trust with this guy,

1042
00:58:50,526 --> 00:58:52,484
there had to be times where
he felt like, you know,

1043
00:58:52,572 --> 00:58:54,443
I was just being his friend...

1044
00:58:54,530 --> 00:58:56,532
as despicable and
disgusting as that is.

1045
00:58:56,619 --> 00:59:00,492
♪

1046
00:59:00,580 --> 00:59:03,539
We'd have him up and,
sometimes just play cards.

1047
00:59:03,626 --> 00:59:06,281
♪

1048
00:59:06,411 --> 00:59:07,587
I'd have six detectives
in my office,

1049
00:59:07,674 --> 00:59:09,458
and we'd sit around
and play poker,

1050
00:59:09,545 --> 00:59:11,547
after we were done
interrogating him for a day.

1051
00:59:11,634 --> 00:59:14,463
♪

1052
00:59:14,550 --> 00:59:17,684
Even though he's treating
him like a human...

1053
00:59:17,814 --> 00:59:20,774
he's an animal.

1054
00:59:20,861 --> 00:59:22,689
It's hard to sit down
with the devil and

1055
00:59:22,776 --> 00:59:24,865
make believe
you're the same.

1056
00:59:25,169 --> 00:59:26,954
♪

1057
00:59:27,084 --> 00:59:28,956
He just kept putting obstacle
after obstacle in front of me

1058
00:59:29,043 --> 00:59:31,306
on why he wouldn't talk
about another case.

1059
00:59:48,453 --> 00:59:54,329
He's the type of offender
who trusts in language.

1060
00:59:54,416 --> 00:59:56,940
He thinks that if he
puts things into his

1061
00:59:57,027 --> 01:00:01,292
own narrative,
he will control reality,

1062
01:00:01,379 --> 01:00:05,949
he will control what
his crimes mean.

1063
01:00:06,080 --> 01:00:09,866
You're dealing with a clever,
malignant narcissist.

1064
01:00:09,997 --> 01:00:12,477
Richard Cottingham is
playing a game for,

1065
01:00:12,608 --> 01:00:14,654
"What can I get
out of this?"

1066
01:00:14,784 --> 01:00:16,394
So, he wanted
something back.

1067
01:00:16,481 --> 01:00:20,660
"What are you going
to do for me?"

1068
01:00:20,747 --> 01:00:22,879
There were a few staples
that Richard always wanted,

1069
01:00:22,966 --> 01:00:24,533
and that kept him happy.

1070
01:00:24,664 --> 01:00:25,752
And they were
relatively simple,

1071
01:00:25,839 --> 01:00:27,623
so why not give
them to him?

1072
01:00:27,710 --> 01:00:30,582
♪

1073
01:00:30,713 --> 01:00:33,020
He loved pizza from a
certain pizza place.

1074
01:00:33,107 --> 01:00:35,544
I'd send detectives go
pick up a couple of pies.

1075
01:00:35,631 --> 01:00:37,459
He loved sausage and
extra cheese pizza.

1076
01:00:37,546 --> 01:00:39,504
♪

1077
01:00:39,635 --> 01:00:43,378
He liked donuts
from Dunkin' Donuts.

1078
01:00:43,465 --> 01:00:46,816
There were times he'd
ask for cheeseburgers.

1079
01:00:46,903 --> 01:00:50,515
If it starts with a deck
of cards, or a pizza,

1080
01:00:50,602 --> 01:00:53,301
it's almost like a trading,
a horse trading going on.

1081
01:00:55,607 --> 01:00:59,655
After I met his demands...

1082
01:00:59,742 --> 01:01:02,310
he began to
cooperate with me.

1083
01:01:37,519 --> 01:01:40,043
He began to open up
about the past.

1084
01:01:40,174 --> 01:01:42,742
This is where I would sense
the opening to be like,

1085
01:01:42,829 --> 01:01:45,657
let me try and get
something from him.

1086
01:01:45,745 --> 01:01:48,138
We did one day get
to the point of

1087
01:01:48,269 --> 01:01:50,401
doing what we call like a
'queen for a day',

1088
01:01:50,488 --> 01:01:52,926
which is a proffer
agreement where we say,

1089
01:01:53,013 --> 01:01:54,797
"You're going to come in,
whatever you tell us today

1090
01:01:54,884 --> 01:01:56,320
is not going to be
used against you

1091
01:01:56,407 --> 01:01:58,670
in a court of law."

1092
01:01:58,758 --> 01:02:00,411
During that
proffer session,

1093
01:02:00,498 --> 01:02:03,632
he gave a little
bit of detail...

1094
01:02:03,763 --> 01:02:08,637
that he killed a housewife
in October of 1967.

1095
01:02:08,724 --> 01:02:10,291
He said that he believed
that she had children.

1096
01:02:37,492 --> 01:02:39,450
This was the break
I'd been waiting for.

1097
01:02:39,537 --> 01:02:42,062
♪

1098
01:02:42,149 --> 01:02:43,803
We're finally here.
We're finally at this moment.

1099
01:03:00,210 --> 01:03:07,304
♪

1100
01:03:07,391 --> 01:03:09,698
Of all the unsolved
homicides that

1101
01:03:09,785 --> 01:03:13,310
I had been looking at
involving young women...

1102
01:03:13,397 --> 01:03:17,749
Nancy Vogel was really the
only one that had children.

1103
01:03:17,837 --> 01:03:20,622
So, it was just that little
tidbit that made me then

1104
01:03:20,709 --> 01:03:22,406
go get the file,
look at it and

1105
01:03:22,537 --> 01:03:26,193
really start studying the
Vogel homicide.

1106
01:03:26,323 --> 01:03:27,716
Nancy Vogel was
a 29-year-old

1107
01:03:27,803 --> 01:03:30,284
married mother of two.

1108
01:03:30,414 --> 01:03:32,460
Her children were nine
and five years old.

1109
01:03:32,590 --> 01:03:35,724
♪

1110
01:03:35,811 --> 01:03:38,292
1967 was a, was a
different, different world.

1111
01:03:38,422 --> 01:03:45,603
♪

1112
01:03:45,734 --> 01:03:47,867
In Little Ferry,
we had a...

1113
01:03:47,954 --> 01:03:50,957
a typical Italian setup-
the two-family house

1114
01:03:51,044 --> 01:03:53,481
with the finished basement
where everyone ate and my

1115
01:03:53,611 --> 01:03:55,483
grandmother lived upstairs,
we lived in the middle.

1116
01:03:55,613 --> 01:03:58,138
♪

1117
01:03:58,268 --> 01:03:59,530
She was always happy,

1118
01:03:59,617 --> 01:04:00,662
she was always
doing things for us.

1119
01:04:00,749 --> 01:04:04,840
She always- you know,
she's the perfect mom.

1120
01:04:04,971 --> 01:04:06,755
We used to, every year,
go to Wildwood and

1121
01:04:06,842 --> 01:04:08,452
having fun on the beach.

1122
01:04:08,583 --> 01:04:10,846
Always laughing.

1123
01:04:11,107 --> 01:04:13,936
♪

1124
01:04:14,023 --> 01:04:17,505
And then, it was a day
or two before Halloween.

1125
01:04:17,592 --> 01:04:21,422
My life would change.

1126
01:04:21,509 --> 01:04:24,642
My sister went to my father
about 2, 3 o'clock

1127
01:04:24,773 --> 01:04:27,515
in the morning and said,
"Mommy's not home."

1128
01:04:27,602 --> 01:04:32,259
♪

1129
01:04:32,346 --> 01:04:33,825
By the time I woke up,
it was, you know,

1130
01:04:33,913 --> 01:04:36,698
8, 9 o'clock
in the morning.

1131
01:04:36,828 --> 01:04:39,527
People were at the house,
and it was frantic, chaos.

1132
01:04:39,614 --> 01:04:42,312
♪

1133
01:04:42,399 --> 01:04:44,401
My father and my uncle-
which is my mother's brother-

1134
01:04:44,488 --> 01:04:45,533
went to the
police department.

1135
01:04:45,620 --> 01:04:47,404
They were driving around
town looking for her,

1136
01:04:47,535 --> 01:04:51,800
calling friends and relatives
that she might have been with.

1137
01:04:51,931 --> 01:04:54,194
She was missing
for a day or two.

1138
01:04:54,281 --> 01:05:01,462
♪

1139
01:05:01,549 --> 01:05:04,595
I was in 6th grade,
and I came home

1140
01:05:04,682 --> 01:05:07,033
from Catholic school
with my friend.

1141
01:05:07,120 --> 01:05:10,471
And there was a car over here
that did not look familiar.

1142
01:05:10,558 --> 01:05:13,561
And, we looked into the car,
and we saw something

1143
01:05:13,648 --> 01:05:16,564
that looked like
a mannequin.

1144
01:05:16,651 --> 01:05:18,218
It was indeed
not a mannequin,

1145
01:05:18,305 --> 01:05:20,568
and it was a woman.

1146
01:05:20,655 --> 01:05:22,526
♪

1147
01:05:22,613 --> 01:05:24,311
She was wedged between the

1148
01:05:24,441 --> 01:05:27,488
back of the front seat
and on the floor.

1149
01:05:27,575 --> 01:05:29,925
Her arms were tied,
and she was naked.

1150
01:05:30,186 --> 01:05:32,014
♪

1151
01:05:32,101 --> 01:05:35,278
So, we ran in the house
to call the police.

1152
01:05:35,409 --> 01:05:36,497
They're like,
"A dead body?"

1153
01:05:36,584 --> 01:05:37,715
I'm like, "Yes, I think
there's a dead body

1154
01:05:37,802 --> 01:05:40,240
in the car in front
of my house."

1155
01:05:40,327 --> 01:05:42,372
They came immediately.

1156
01:05:42,459 --> 01:05:45,462
They dusted the
door for prints.

1157
01:05:45,593 --> 01:05:48,074
And, news people came, and
they were taking pictures.

1158
01:05:48,204 --> 01:05:51,512
♪

1159
01:05:51,599 --> 01:05:53,601
Neighbors from all over
the place were down,

1160
01:05:53,688 --> 01:05:56,386
asking questions.
Nothing happened here, ever.

1161
01:05:56,517 --> 01:05:58,432
So, it was huge.

1162
01:05:58,519 --> 01:06:01,870
♪

1163
01:06:01,957 --> 01:06:04,264
So my grandmother
was making us lunch.

1164
01:06:04,351 --> 01:06:07,354
♪

1165
01:06:07,484 --> 01:06:08,703
And my sister
opens the door,

1166
01:06:08,833 --> 01:06:10,705
and it was the
newspaper, saying,

1167
01:06:10,792 --> 01:06:13,316
"Now that you found out
that your mother's dead,

1168
01:06:13,447 --> 01:06:15,492
how do you feel about it?"

1169
01:06:15,579 --> 01:06:17,538
And my sister was
like, shocked.

1170
01:06:17,625 --> 01:06:19,061
And then, they came
into the house,

1171
01:06:19,148 --> 01:06:21,542
and they talked to my
grandmother, my nanny.

1172
01:06:21,629 --> 01:06:22,891
And, in Italian,

1173
01:06:23,022 --> 01:06:25,111
she sent them to hell and
cursed them out.

1174
01:06:25,241 --> 01:06:27,417
♪

1175
01:06:27,504 --> 01:06:29,767
It was bad.

1176
01:06:29,854 --> 01:06:33,510
I just remember just watching
everybody yelling and crying

1177
01:06:33,597 --> 01:06:36,948
and not really
understanding it.

1178
01:06:37,036 --> 01:06:39,473
So, that's how we found out.

1179
01:06:39,560 --> 01:06:45,392
♪

1180
01:06:45,479 --> 01:06:47,481
The cops, you know,
worked diligently

1181
01:06:47,568 --> 01:06:49,961
on the case
back in 1967.

1182
01:06:50,049 --> 01:06:51,572
Documentation of
what was done

1183
01:06:51,702 --> 01:06:53,791
wasn't up to
today's standards.

1184
01:06:53,878 --> 01:06:56,098
And we find this a lot of
times in our cold case files,

1185
01:06:56,185 --> 01:06:58,405
that there's just not a lot
of information about

1186
01:06:58,535 --> 01:06:59,797
what was done,
and what,

1187
01:06:59,884 --> 01:07:01,669
what wasn't done.
you know,

1188
01:07:01,799 --> 01:07:05,629
♪

1189
01:07:05,716 --> 01:07:06,935
She left her house,

1190
01:07:07,066 --> 01:07:08,589
telling her family
she was going to

1191
01:07:08,676 --> 01:07:12,897
the shopping center in
Little Ferry, New Jersey.

1192
01:07:12,984 --> 01:07:14,377
Three days later,
her body was found

1193
01:07:14,508 --> 01:07:16,771
in the back seat
of her car...

1194
01:07:16,858 --> 01:07:19,991
on a side street in
Ridgefield Park, New Jersey.

1195
01:07:20,079 --> 01:07:22,255
Raped, beaten,
and strangled.

1196
01:07:25,867 --> 01:07:28,783
In this case, we saw who
they were going after.

1197
01:07:28,870 --> 01:07:31,916
There was nothing obvious.

1198
01:07:32,047 --> 01:07:33,527
It was a big story
at the time,

1199
01:07:33,614 --> 01:07:37,792
and it also grew over time.

1200
01:07:37,879 --> 01:07:40,011
Cottingham was never
considered a suspect

1201
01:07:40,099 --> 01:07:41,665
in the murder of
Nancy Vogel,

1202
01:07:41,752 --> 01:07:46,540
until he directed me
to that case.

1203
01:07:46,670 --> 01:07:49,586
When you solve a cold case,
you don't just simply

1204
01:07:49,673 --> 01:07:52,676
take a person's
word that, "I did it."

1205
01:07:52,763 --> 01:07:55,723
There were quite a
few more details.

1206
01:07:55,810 --> 01:07:57,464
♪

1207
01:07:57,551 --> 01:07:59,901
She was acquainted with
Richard Cottingham.

1208
01:07:59,988 --> 01:08:02,469
Cottingham lived in
Little Ferry at the time.

1209
01:08:21,836 --> 01:08:24,839
In her own Rambler vehicle,
there were brown

1210
01:08:24,926 --> 01:08:26,754
shopping bags in the
back of the vehicle.

1211
01:08:26,884 --> 01:08:31,062
♪

1212
01:08:31,150 --> 01:08:34,762
There were relatively recent
purchases at the Valley Fair.

1213
01:08:34,849 --> 01:08:37,721
♪

1214
01:08:37,808 --> 01:08:39,810
We knew that there was a

1215
01:08:39,897 --> 01:08:42,770
sexual overtone
to the crime,

1216
01:08:42,857 --> 01:08:44,511
that she had been strangled.

1217
01:09:13,670 --> 01:09:16,760
Here was that
independent proof,

1218
01:09:16,847 --> 01:09:19,807
along with other things.

1219
01:09:19,937 --> 01:09:22,636
Despite the fact that he
pointed me in the direction

1220
01:09:22,723 --> 01:09:26,901
of the Nancy Vogel case and
gave me some details that...

1221
01:09:26,988 --> 01:09:29,686
convinced me he was
responsible for that murder,

1222
01:09:29,773 --> 01:09:32,950
he refused to give
the full confession.

1223
01:09:33,081 --> 01:09:35,170
It was such a game
of trying to be like,

1224
01:09:35,301 --> 01:09:37,781
who is in control of this
relationship that we have?

1225
01:09:37,912 --> 01:09:40,393
He did not want to
give this confession.

1226
01:09:57,236 --> 01:09:58,802
Every time I thought we
were going to get there,

1227
01:09:58,933 --> 01:10:00,108
he would say,

1228
01:10:00,239 --> 01:10:01,805
"Well, you didn't come
through with this for me.

1229
01:10:01,936 --> 01:10:03,720
What about the Attorney
General's office?

1230
01:10:03,807 --> 01:10:04,721
How do I know that
they won't step in?

1231
01:10:04,808 --> 01:10:06,070
What if...

1232
01:10:06,157 --> 01:10:07,289
What if your boss leaves and
there's a new boss and

1233
01:10:07,376 --> 01:10:09,770
he says, 'No, I want
to charge the guy'?"

1234
01:10:09,857 --> 01:10:11,162
And, "How are you going
to prove to me that

1235
01:10:11,293 --> 01:10:13,600
you're going to keep it
out of the media?

1236
01:10:13,730 --> 01:10:14,775
What about the
family members,

1237
01:10:14,862 --> 01:10:15,819
when you tell the family?

1238
01:10:15,906 --> 01:10:17,908
What if they go
to the press?"

1239
01:10:17,995 --> 01:10:20,694
It was constantly
this back and forth

1240
01:10:20,824 --> 01:10:23,174
like bickering between the
two of us over what the

1241
01:10:23,305 --> 01:10:25,612
"conditions" would
be of this confession.

1242
01:10:47,068 --> 01:10:49,940
I came through on my end
with all of his asks,

1243
01:10:50,027 --> 01:10:51,899
and it built up such a
level of trust,

1244
01:10:51,986 --> 01:10:53,074
and then finally
I was like,

1245
01:10:53,161 --> 01:10:54,597
"I'm not doing another
----ing thing for you

1246
01:10:54,684 --> 01:10:58,166
until we get one."

1247
01:10:58,253 --> 01:11:01,822
And then finally,
back in 2010, one visit,

1248
01:11:01,909 --> 01:11:05,391
I just broke him down
and he agreed to confess.

1249
01:11:05,521 --> 01:11:07,915
♪

1250
01:11:08,002 --> 01:11:09,177
We're going on
the record.

1251
01:11:09,264 --> 01:11:11,875
I was literally...

1252
01:11:11,962 --> 01:11:13,747
----ing in my pants.

1253
01:11:13,877 --> 01:11:16,837
♪

1254
01:11:16,924 --> 01:11:20,014
It's time to pay the piper.

1255
01:11:20,101 --> 01:11:23,496
I'm finally going to learn
how he killed this person,

1256
01:11:23,583 --> 01:11:24,932
in his own words.

1257
01:11:46,040 --> 01:11:47,955
It's now 2010.

1258
01:11:48,042 --> 01:11:50,523
I've spent the
last six years

1259
01:11:50,653 --> 01:11:52,655
grinding away with this guy,

1260
01:11:52,742 --> 01:11:55,179
trying to solve at
least one of these

1261
01:11:55,266 --> 01:11:57,747
12 cold cases that I have.

1262
01:11:57,878 --> 01:11:59,532
He balked and
balked and balked,

1263
01:11:59,662 --> 01:12:00,794
and then finally
I would say,

1264
01:12:00,924 --> 01:12:02,970
"We're doing it now.
We're doing it right now."

1265
01:12:03,057 --> 01:12:05,059
And I would flip the switch,
and be like,

1266
01:12:05,189 --> 01:12:06,539
"I've had enough,
let's go."

1267
01:12:46,317 --> 01:12:48,015
When I put the tape
recorder on the table,

1268
01:12:48,145 --> 01:12:50,670
he actually like, pushed his
chair back and began to sweat.

1269
01:12:50,757 --> 01:12:52,585
♪

1270
01:12:52,672 --> 01:12:54,674
It was a visceral
reaction on his part...

1271
01:12:54,804 --> 01:12:57,720
once we started going.

1272
01:12:57,851 --> 01:12:58,634
He looks like he's going to

1273
01:12:58,721 --> 01:13:00,810
back down from
confessing to it.

1274
01:13:00,941 --> 01:13:03,944
He's shying away
from the recorder.

1275
01:13:04,074 --> 01:13:05,859
It's six years in the making.

1276
01:13:05,946 --> 01:13:08,427
And now, you know,
I'm praying that

1277
01:13:08,514 --> 01:13:10,951
he doesn't panic so much
that he shuts down.

1278
01:13:29,317 --> 01:13:30,884
I kind of had to bring him
back on track to

1279
01:13:30,971 --> 01:13:33,190
make sure that he didn't
kind of, you know,

1280
01:13:33,277 --> 01:13:34,801
---- the bed on me and say,
"I don't want to do this."

1281
01:14:16,495 --> 01:14:18,801
He's very calm and
matter of fact,

1282
01:14:18,932 --> 01:14:21,891
and it's as if he has no
feelings about it whatsoever.

1283
01:14:22,022 --> 01:14:23,371
He doesn't seem to
have any remorse.

1284
01:14:23,458 --> 01:14:25,199
He doesn't seem
to have empathy.

1285
01:15:01,191 --> 01:15:03,106
So, to sit across
from somebody,

1286
01:15:03,237 --> 01:15:05,108
and hear them tell...

1287
01:15:05,239 --> 01:15:07,937
the story of a brutal rape
and murder as if it's

1288
01:15:08,068 --> 01:15:09,939
an everyday occurrence
in their life,

1289
01:15:10,026 --> 01:15:11,462
as if it's the same as me
telling you a story about

1290
01:15:11,550 --> 01:15:13,247
going to the grocery store
and buying a gallon of milk,

1291
01:15:13,334 --> 01:15:15,205
is, is disturbing.

1292
01:15:15,292 --> 01:15:19,993
♪

1293
01:15:52,329 --> 01:15:56,203
I didn't get him to confess
to that case until 2010.

1294
01:15:56,333 --> 01:15:59,902
Six frigging years later.

1295
01:15:59,989 --> 01:16:02,513
And in between there
was hundreds of hours.

1296
01:16:02,601 --> 01:16:05,255
And that's how obstinate the
guy could be and how stubborn.

1297
01:16:05,342 --> 01:16:09,956
♪

1298
01:16:10,043 --> 01:16:13,176
We talked to the family
after the confession.

1299
01:16:13,263 --> 01:16:15,918
I had Bill and
his sister Karen,

1300
01:16:16,049 --> 01:16:17,311
and some other
family members

1301
01:16:17,441 --> 01:16:20,183
come into the
prosecutor's office.

1302
01:16:20,314 --> 01:16:22,838
We wanted the family
to hear it first.

1303
01:16:22,925 --> 01:16:26,276
Never, ever, ever have them
read it in a newspaper.

1304
01:16:26,363 --> 01:16:27,974
And because of
this type of a case,

1305
01:16:28,104 --> 01:16:31,673
we wanted to meet
them personally.

1306
01:16:31,760 --> 01:16:35,155
I didn't know who Richard
Cottingham was or anything.

1307
01:16:35,285 --> 01:16:37,636
Rob reaches over,
he goes, "Bill,

1308
01:16:37,723 --> 01:16:40,290
don't go home and Google
Richard Cottingham.

1309
01:16:40,377 --> 01:16:43,903
Don't do that yet.
It's not the same thing."

1310
01:16:43,990 --> 01:16:46,079
♪

1311
01:16:46,209 --> 01:16:48,298
You're now able to answer
a lot of questions.

1312
01:16:48,385 --> 01:16:50,431
And sometimes I wonder...

1313
01:16:50,561 --> 01:16:54,174
Is it better sometimes to
have the questions unanswered?

1314
01:16:54,261 --> 01:16:56,219
Or to get the answers,
even though the

1315
01:16:56,350 --> 01:17:01,311
answers themselves may
cause you more pain?

1316
01:17:01,398 --> 01:17:04,445
My mom was always
watching out over me.

1317
01:17:04,575 --> 01:17:07,143
And that's my biggest thing,
I really feel that

1318
01:17:07,274 --> 01:17:10,712
she was taken
before her time.

1319
01:17:10,799 --> 01:17:12,583
And throughout the whole
thing, they just kept saying,

1320
01:17:12,671 --> 01:17:14,411
"You have to keep it quiet,
you have to keep it quiet.

1321
01:17:14,542 --> 01:17:16,326
You can't tell anybody."
And I agreed.

1322
01:17:16,413 --> 01:17:19,460
♪

1323
01:17:19,547 --> 01:17:22,289
Keeping quiet is a-
was hard.

1324
01:17:22,376 --> 01:17:24,204
Very, very hard.

1325
01:17:24,334 --> 01:17:26,075
♪

1326
01:17:26,162 --> 01:17:28,077
One of the reasons
why we want to

1327
01:17:28,164 --> 01:17:30,993
honor Cottingham's request,
as much as we don't

1328
01:17:31,080 --> 01:17:33,430
want to honor anything
the man has to say,

1329
01:17:33,561 --> 01:17:36,477
is we want to do this
for the next family,

1330
01:17:36,564 --> 01:17:38,914
for the next father,
for the next mother,

1331
01:17:39,001 --> 01:17:40,307
for the next sibling.

1332
01:17:40,437 --> 01:17:42,962
We want him to continue
to tell us things.

1333
01:17:43,092 --> 01:17:46,617
You always want to
solve these cold cases.

1334
01:17:46,748 --> 01:17:49,098
After getting that
first confession,

1335
01:17:49,229 --> 01:17:51,144
I was hoping that this
was finally the moment

1336
01:17:51,231 --> 01:17:53,320
that the dam would
break, and...

1337
01:17:53,407 --> 01:17:57,150
he would open up
about other cases.

1338
01:17:57,280 --> 01:17:59,239
To get him to go to court
was really important to me,

1339
01:17:59,326 --> 01:18:02,068
it was important to me
for the victim's family.

1340
01:18:02,155 --> 01:18:03,286
This was the first one,

1341
01:18:03,417 --> 01:18:07,421
and I just wanted that
foundation laid.

1342
01:18:07,508 --> 01:18:09,249
And that took some time
and some convincing.

1343
01:18:09,379 --> 01:18:12,252
♪

1344
01:18:12,382 --> 01:18:14,210
Richard Cottingham
was already serving

1345
01:18:14,341 --> 01:18:16,473
multiple life terms.

1346
01:18:16,604 --> 01:18:18,562
The plea deal was,

1347
01:18:18,649 --> 01:18:20,303
"You're going to get
another life term.

1348
01:18:20,434 --> 01:18:23,176
Nothing less.
A life for a life."

1349
01:18:23,263 --> 01:18:25,091
And he was
okay with that.

1350
01:18:25,221 --> 01:18:27,571
♪

1351
01:18:27,658 --> 01:18:30,226
You know, he just didn't
want to be in the public eye.

1352
01:18:30,313 --> 01:18:32,663
He didn't want his
kids to know

1353
01:18:32,794 --> 01:18:34,448
the real, true monster
that he was.

1354
01:18:58,428 --> 01:19:03,259
♪

1355
01:19:03,390 --> 01:19:04,608
I had to convince him that

1356
01:19:04,695 --> 01:19:06,088
we were not going to put
out a press release,

1357
01:19:06,175 --> 01:19:07,089
we weren't going
to make a big

1358
01:19:07,220 --> 01:19:09,048
dog and pony show about it.

1359
01:19:09,135 --> 01:19:10,832
♪

1360
01:19:10,919 --> 01:19:14,314
The actual court date
was in August of 2010.

1361
01:19:14,444 --> 01:19:16,795
♪

1362
01:19:16,925 --> 01:19:19,667
In an effort to really keep it
out of the newspapers and,

1363
01:19:19,798 --> 01:19:23,540
and quiet,
we made it late in the day.

1364
01:19:23,627 --> 01:19:25,194
We can't keep the public out

1365
01:19:25,325 --> 01:19:26,543
or we can't keep the
media out of the court,

1366
01:19:26,674 --> 01:19:29,459
but there was very, very
little likelihood that the

1367
01:19:29,590 --> 01:19:32,027
press would be lurking
around the courthouse at say,

1368
01:19:32,158 --> 01:19:36,336
4:30, 5 o'clock
in the afternoon.

1369
01:19:36,423 --> 01:19:38,425
The only people that were
really in the court was the

1370
01:19:38,555 --> 01:19:41,384
prosecutor, myself,

1371
01:19:41,471 --> 01:19:43,430
some other
homicide detectives,

1372
01:19:43,560 --> 01:19:45,693
the Vogel family...

1373
01:19:45,780 --> 01:19:48,435
Of course, Cottingham,
his defense attorney,

1374
01:19:48,565 --> 01:19:50,698
and Judge Venezia.

1375
01:19:51,046 --> 01:19:53,135
♪

1376
01:19:53,266 --> 01:19:55,181
My role was simple.

1377
01:19:55,311 --> 01:19:58,967
I was asked to take a plea.

1378
01:19:59,098 --> 01:20:00,534
And I was told,

1379
01:20:00,664 --> 01:20:04,625
"We'd like to make this
short and sweet.

1380
01:20:04,755 --> 01:20:09,151
The plea,
sentence, done."

1381
01:20:09,238 --> 01:20:11,197
And did I do that?
For the most part, I did.

1382
01:20:11,327 --> 01:20:14,156
♪

1383
01:20:14,243 --> 01:20:17,377
Ah, it didn't exactly
go as planned.

1384
01:20:17,507 --> 01:20:21,294
Your conduct and
your history

1385
01:20:21,381 --> 01:20:24,123
is beyond appalling.

1386
01:20:24,210 --> 01:20:26,386
♪

1387
01:20:26,473 --> 01:20:29,476
Judge Venezia started
really hammering him.

1388
01:20:29,606 --> 01:20:31,739
It doesn't detract from the
fact that I think you are

1389
01:20:31,870 --> 01:20:34,611
an absolutely despicable
human being,

1390
01:20:34,698 --> 01:20:37,049
and I use that
word sparingly.

1391
01:20:37,179 --> 01:20:40,400
♪

1392
01:20:40,487 --> 01:20:42,402
I thought at any given
moment he's gonna say,

1393
01:20:42,532 --> 01:20:44,012
"You know what,
Judge, I'm not guilty.

1394
01:20:44,143 --> 01:20:45,231
I didn't do this,"

1395
01:20:45,318 --> 01:20:48,147
or somehow sabotage
the confession he gave.

1396
01:20:48,277 --> 01:20:49,975
I was waiting for him
to turn to me and say,

1397
01:20:50,105 --> 01:20:51,324
"I'm not doing this."

1398
01:20:59,767 --> 01:21:05,512
♪

1399
01:21:05,599 --> 01:21:06,948
So, we bring him into court

1400
01:21:07,035 --> 01:21:08,863
in front of Judge
Donald Venezia.

1401
01:21:08,994 --> 01:21:11,953
♪

1402
01:21:12,040 --> 01:21:14,825
We explained it in no
uncertain terms that...

1403
01:21:14,913 --> 01:21:17,785
we were not looking for
fanfare in this thing.

1404
01:21:17,872 --> 01:21:20,527
We wanted to quietly give
closure to the family.

1405
01:21:20,614 --> 01:21:23,573
♪

1406
01:21:23,660 --> 01:21:26,881
We needed it just
quick and quiet.

1407
01:21:26,968 --> 01:21:29,188
♪

1408
01:21:29,318 --> 01:21:31,277
Bring him to the courtroom
at a set time that we had

1409
01:21:31,364 --> 01:21:34,671
made arrangements for,
sentence him right there.

1410
01:21:34,758 --> 01:21:38,806
Everything was perfect.

1411
01:21:38,893 --> 01:21:41,374
They want to get it
over with, I get it.

1412
01:21:41,461 --> 01:21:45,900
And I was told, "We'd like to
make this short and sweet."

1413
01:21:46,031 --> 01:21:51,079
♪

1414
01:21:51,166 --> 01:21:53,081
For the first time, I see
Richard Cottingham

1415
01:21:53,212 --> 01:21:54,735
walking down the hallway.

1416
01:21:54,822 --> 01:21:56,693
♪

1417
01:21:56,780 --> 01:21:58,782
He looks like Santa Claus
with his long, long beard.

1418
01:21:58,869 --> 01:22:00,784
He's overweight and whatnot.

1419
01:22:00,915 --> 01:22:03,613
This is nothing
that I imagined.

1420
01:22:03,744 --> 01:22:04,875
So, you know,
as a little kid,

1421
01:22:04,963 --> 01:22:05,920
you say your mother
was murdered,

1422
01:22:06,051 --> 01:22:09,576
you think it's like
a big monster, bad...

1423
01:22:09,706 --> 01:22:12,753
ugly,
terrible person.

1424
01:22:12,840 --> 01:22:15,190
And here's...
he's nothing.

1425
01:22:15,277 --> 01:22:19,020
He's a shell of a man.

1426
01:22:19,107 --> 01:22:21,762
It was, you know, kind of
both exhilarating and

1427
01:22:21,849 --> 01:22:23,242
frustrating all
at the same time.

1428
01:22:23,329 --> 01:22:25,374
It's hard to put into words.

1429
01:22:25,505 --> 01:22:27,550
The culmination of six
years' worth of work

1430
01:22:27,637 --> 01:22:30,771
coming down to this.

1431
01:22:30,901 --> 01:22:32,903
I never thought that I'd
have the opportunity there,

1432
01:22:33,034 --> 01:22:36,559
Mr. Cottingham,

1433
01:22:36,646 --> 01:22:39,127
to really witness somebody

1434
01:22:39,214 --> 01:22:42,652
who has the makeup
that you do.

1435
01:22:42,739 --> 01:22:46,047
Your conduct and
your history

1436
01:22:46,134 --> 01:22:48,658
is beyond appalling.

1437
01:22:48,745 --> 01:22:49,833
And that, very frankly,

1438
01:22:49,964 --> 01:22:52,227
when you end up
wherever you end up,

1439
01:22:52,314 --> 01:22:55,709
I suggest you dress with
light clothes 'cause it's

1440
01:22:55,796 --> 01:22:58,886
usually pretty hot where
I think you're going.

1441
01:22:58,973 --> 01:23:01,193
In the middle of the
court proceeding,

1442
01:23:01,280 --> 01:23:03,151
the judge just
begins to berate him,

1443
01:23:03,282 --> 01:23:04,805
and I'm watching it
go south.

1444
01:23:04,935 --> 01:23:07,938
And I'm just like,
this is so ----ing bad.

1445
01:23:08,069 --> 01:23:11,290
I don't think I've ever
had the ability

1446
01:23:11,377 --> 01:23:14,728
nor desire to ever, like...

1447
01:23:14,858 --> 01:23:18,688
witness the devil
in my courtroom.

1448
01:23:18,775 --> 01:23:23,389
But I think I see him
today in you.

1449
01:23:23,476 --> 01:23:26,696
You see me in the row,
right behind him,

1450
01:23:26,783 --> 01:23:27,915
and I'm like literally
slumping down

1451
01:23:28,002 --> 01:23:31,353
with the, "Oh, ----".

1452
01:23:31,484 --> 01:23:33,877
It doesn't detract from the
fact that I think you are

1453
01:23:33,964 --> 01:23:36,750
an absolutely despicable
human being and

1454
01:23:36,837 --> 01:23:39,970
I use that word sparingly.

1455
01:23:40,101 --> 01:23:41,929
Very difficult to look
people in the eye,

1456
01:23:42,016 --> 01:23:43,409
who lost a loved one,

1457
01:23:43,496 --> 01:23:46,020
because of the outrageous
deed of somebody

1458
01:23:46,151 --> 01:23:48,196
who's standing
twelve feet from you,

1459
01:23:48,327 --> 01:23:50,068
and twelve feet from them.

1460
01:23:50,155 --> 01:23:52,853
Whether you're a judge or not,
you're a human being.

1461
01:23:52,940 --> 01:23:57,162
♪

1462
01:23:57,292 --> 01:23:59,077
It wasn't, you know,
typically what you see

1463
01:23:59,207 --> 01:24:00,382
out of a judge
in a courtroom,

1464
01:24:00,469 --> 01:24:01,818
but I think in this
particular case,

1465
01:24:01,905 --> 01:24:03,864
he needed to hear that.

1466
01:24:03,951 --> 01:24:05,866
♪

1467
01:24:05,953 --> 01:24:10,088
I'm glad he did that,
I'm glad he stood up.

1468
01:24:10,175 --> 01:24:12,829
Then, the judge literally
forced him to turn around and

1469
01:24:12,960 --> 01:24:15,963
apologize to Bill Vogel
and his sister.

1470
01:24:16,050 --> 01:24:17,530
Why don't you turn
around and tell them,

1471
01:24:17,617 --> 01:24:20,010
'cause what's left of 'em are
in the audience over there.

1472
01:24:20,098 --> 01:24:22,535
Why don't you, why don't you
man up a little bit there?

1473
01:24:22,665 --> 01:24:25,103
I want you to look at them
in the eye and tell them.

1474
01:24:25,190 --> 01:24:27,322
Huh? How about that?
Why don't you do that?

1475
01:24:27,409 --> 01:24:30,151
I am very sorry for all
the pain I've caused you.

1476
01:24:30,238 --> 01:24:32,936
I really mean that.

1477
01:24:33,067 --> 01:24:36,070
His narrative is
reality to him,

1478
01:24:36,157 --> 01:24:39,987
and the judge in the
room punctures that...

1479
01:24:40,074 --> 01:24:43,904
because he was helpless.

1480
01:24:43,991 --> 01:24:45,862
♪

1481
01:24:45,949 --> 01:24:47,821
When it was all over,

1482
01:24:47,908 --> 01:24:49,953
I escorted him out.

1483
01:24:50,084 --> 01:24:53,609
Cottingham stopped,
turned to me...

1484
01:24:53,696 --> 01:24:56,090
and says, "You will never get
me to ----ing do this again."

1485
01:24:56,177 --> 01:24:59,093
♪

1486
01:24:59,180 --> 01:25:01,008
Six years of work.

1487
01:25:01,095 --> 01:25:03,837
2004 to 2010.

1488
01:25:03,967 --> 01:25:06,840
I finally get him
to confess...

1489
01:25:06,970 --> 01:25:09,103
and I just lost
this guy forever.

1490
01:25:09,190 --> 01:25:12,062
♪

1491
01:25:12,193 --> 01:25:15,718
After Cottingham confessed
to the murder of Nancy Vogel,

1492
01:25:15,849 --> 01:25:17,981
he told me that murder
was not his first.

1493
01:25:27,339 --> 01:25:28,992
It got my mind
thinking of...

1494
01:25:29,079 --> 01:25:30,907
how many could
be out there?

1495
01:25:30,994 --> 01:25:32,996
I'm convinced that he's good
for more than just

1496
01:25:33,083 --> 01:25:35,347
the one that he's
confessed to,

1497
01:25:35,434 --> 01:25:38,132
but I still have 11 of these
cases unsolved.

1498
01:25:38,219 --> 01:25:44,399
♪

1499
01:25:44,486 --> 01:25:47,228
She would have
fought for her life.

1500
01:25:47,315 --> 01:25:48,925
A rope was reportedly
tied around

1501
01:25:49,012 --> 01:25:50,579
one of the girls' necks.

1502
01:25:50,666 --> 01:25:53,452
There's this fear that
went through everybody.

1503
01:25:53,539 --> 01:25:56,106
She was just headed home.

1504
01:25:56,194 --> 01:25:58,108
Is there anything
more powerful than

1505
01:25:58,196 --> 01:26:01,111
believing you are God?

1506
01:26:01,199 --> 01:26:03,288
Once he had them in the car...

1507
01:26:03,418 --> 01:26:05,290
they were his.

1508
01:26:05,420 --> 01:26:07,944
I was not done with him.

1509
01:26:08,075 --> 01:26:10,077
I'm not letting this
guy get away with it.

1510
01:26:10,164 --> 01:26:11,948
It was the game.

1511
01:26:12,079 --> 01:26:14,864
It was like the perfect
murder every time.

1512
01:26:14,951 --> 01:26:17,215
How am I ever going
to get back on track?