The Times Square Ripper

Staff at the Travel Lodge Motor Inn in New York City, New York, made a call to the nearby fire department on December 2, 1979, at around 9 a.m. The call was made as a result of the personnel discovering significant smoke inside Room 417. A “Do Not Disturb” sign was hanging from the door latch of the room, which had been rented by “Carl Wilson” since November 29, 1979. Two naked female bodies were discovered by the firefighters on two different beds.

Fig.1 Two naked female bodies were discovered by the firefighters on two different beds.

Fig.2 Both women’s hands had been severed, and the killer had also beheaded them.

Prior to their deaths, the women were brutalized, and their murderer burned their bodies. Both women’s hands had been severed, and the killer had also beheaded them. The missing body parts were never found. A later autopsy revealed that both women had been tortured and sexually assaulted while still alive for several days. Deedeh Goodarzi, 22, an Iranian immigrant who worked as a prostitute, was identified shortly afterward. The other victim remains unidentified and is estimated to be aged between 16 and 22. She is referred to as Manhattan Jane Doe.

Fig.3 Deedeh Goodarzi, 22, an Iranian immigrant who worked as a prostitute, was identified as one of the victims.

On May 5, 1980, the body of Valerie Ann Street, 19, a sex worker, was found by a motel worker at the Quality Inn in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Street was killed and her body was stuffed under the bed for housekeeping to find. Investigators discovered Street handcuffed and with two ligature marks on her throat. They also determined that she had been gagged with white adhesive tape. Street had bite marks on her breasts in addition to being bitten all over her body and head. She also had numerous minor knife incisions on her breasts.

Fig.4 A female victim of the same serial killer in the New York City cases was found beneath a bed in a New Jersey motel.

Fig.5 The body of Valerie Ann Street, 19, a sex worker, was found by a motel worker at the Quality Inn in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.

On May 15, 1980, the body of Mary Ann Jean Reyner, 25, was discovered at the Seville Hotel in New York City, New York. Investigators discovered that Reyner’s attacker had cut her throat and removed both of her breasts. The murderer had left the breasts on the headboard of the bed. Reyner’s body had also been set on fire as part of the perpetrator’s attempt to get rid of evidence.

Fig.6 The offender had removed the breasts of the victim and placed them on the bed headboard to shock the police.

Fig.7 The body of Mary Ann Jean Reyner, 25, was discovered at the Seville Hotel in New York City, New York.

A week later the police were called to the Quality Inn Motel in Hasbrouck Heights responding to cries for help coming from one of the rooms. A white male, 33 years of age and identified as Richard Cottingham, was arrested by police as he attempted to flee from the motel. An 18-year-old prostitute from New York City was found in the room. She had been bound with handcuffs and sadistically tortured by Cottingham. Her screams for help were heard by the motel staff, who immediately called the police. Cottingham tried to talk his way out of the assault by stating he had “paid for this service from a prostitute” and that he was not trying to kill her. He feigned cooperation, readily admitting to sadomasochistic activities with the prostitute but steadfastly denying any involvement with the 3-week-old murder. However, Bergen County detectives were convinced that they had just apprehended a killer. The New Jersey officials secured a search warrant for Cottingham’s house in Lodi, New Jersey.

Fig.8 Richard Francis Cottingham (born November 25, 1946) is an American serial killer.

Police were shocked to discover that Cottingham maintained a private room that even his wife was not allowed to enter. It became known as the “Trophy Room.” Cottingham would take souvenirs from his victims, which are referred to as trophies. In this room was the crucial evidence linking Cottingham to the New Jersey and New York City homicides. In addition to the murders, he also became the primary suspect in a series of abductions and rapes of New York City prostitutes who had been drugged and then brought to New Jersey motels, where he would torture and sexually abuse them.

Fig.9 Cottingham maintained a private room in his house that his wife was not allowed to enter. Note the bondage books.

The latent print on the handcuffs was matched to Richard Cottingham. The evidence recovered in the Trophy Room became the basis of the New York City investigation and the victims of the abductions and sex torture were able to identify Cottingham in the subsequent line-ups conducted by Bergen County Prosecutor’s detectives. Bergen County detectives were convinced that Cottingham had killed before in New Jersey. In fact, 3 years earlier, the body of a 27-year-old nurse had been found in the parking lot of the Quality Inn Motel in Hasbrouck Heights. She had died of asphyxiation from a gag as she was being abducted. Ironically, this victim had been a neighbor of Cottingham when he lived in Little Ferry, New Jersey.

Fig.10 This piece of jewelry recovered in the trophy room was matched to one of the murder victims.

Fig.11 Victim identified and matched to jewelry.

Fig.12 Many of the trophies that the killer took were innocuous objects, such as nail polish and polish remover, along with costume jewelry.

Cottingham’s confirmed killings resulted in nine convictions and a further eight confessions under non-prosecution agreements, leading to him serving multiple life sentences in New Jersey prisons. In 2009, decades after his first five murder convictions, Cottingham told a journalist he had committed at least 80 “perfect murders” of women in various regions of the United States. He was nicknamed by media as the Torso Killer and the Times Square Ripper, since some of the murders he was convicted of included mutilation.