The Binge Cases: Denise Didn't Come Home - 3. The Torso Killer

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Host Anthony Scalia looks into the unsolved murders of young women in Bergen County. Could their deaths be the work of a gruesome serial killer? Binge all episodes of Denise Didn’t Come Home, ad-free today by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge Cases show page on Apple Podcasts and hit ‘subscribe’ or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access.  The Binge – feed your true crime obsession. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault, so please take extra care when listening. I'll never forget that moment, sitting in the basement of the Hackensack Library, going through the microfilm, and stumbling across all these murders of young women. January 24th, 1967. Marianne Della Sala disappears in Hackensack, New Jersey. They find her body in the Passaic River. October 28th, 1967. Mary Ann Della Sala disappears in Hackensack, New Jersey.

They find her body in the Passaic River. October 28, 1967. Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. Nancy Vogel, 29 years old, strangled. July 17, 1968. Jacqueline Harp, 13 years old, strangled. And then the craziest one. April 8th, 1969, just a few months before Denise Velasco was killed, Irene Blase, 18, was found strangled in Saddlebrook, about a mile away from where

Denise's body was found. The newspapers were drawing connections between these murders. I wondered if the police at the time had too. And if they had, why did so many of these murders stay unsolved? These unsolved female cases haunted the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and the Homicide for many years. This is Alan Greco. I'm a retired detective

from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. I was a senior investigator assigned to the Homicide Squad. Greco joined the squad back in 1977. And by that time, these murder cases of young women in Bergen County had already turned cold. Although they remained unsolved, they were never not thought of. There was a time connection. There was a location connection. There was the MO connection. Why can't we come up with somebody responsible for these cases? What happened here? Greco was there at the very beginning, when everything started to change. When a routine homicide would lead him to half a dozen others,

and ultimately, to a suspect who would make him look at those cold cases with fresh eyes. We knew we had a guy that was responsible for a whole bunch of things, a predator, a sexual predator, a serial killer that was out there almost on a daily basis. My name is Anthony Scalia. From Truth Media and Sony Music Entertainment, this is Denise Didn't Come Home. The body of a teenage girl found strangled

in Saddlebrook, New Jersey yesterday was identified as that of 15-year-old Denise Velasco. There's some real people to look at right under our nose. I think I know who killed her.

We saw Max making threats up to the window. I heard him say, I will kill you, bitch. I saw this really deep dash of a wound on his hand. It was an open, gaping wound on the palm of his hand. It's not that I have this wild imagination. I swear to you, I really don't. This could be the work of one man.

There could be a serial killer roaming the streets of Bergen County that no one has found. Chapter 3. The Torso Killer. You have to understand what I'm going to tell you is something that took place approximately 40 years ago. So forgive me if my memory is not up to snuff, but it has been many years. Detective Alan Greco told me that on the morning of December 16, 1977, he got a call. I was contacted by my supervisor, who advised me of a female body that was found behind the Quality Inn Motel in Hasbro Kites, New Jersey. Uniformed officers were already on the scene, and I was directed to an area in the parking lot near a chain-link fence where I observed the body of a young white female.

She was clothed in a white top and white bottom, and she was laying on the ground partially on her side. A closer examination of her at the scene appeared to show ligature marks on her ankles and some type of residue around her mouth suggesting that there might have been tape on her mouth. The marks on her ankles were caused by a set of handcuffs. We identified her as being Mary Ann Carr, a young x-ray technician from Little Ferry, New Jersey. An autopsy revealed she died from asphyxiation

caused by strangulation. She did have a very thin ligature mark, most likely caused by a chain that was around her neck. Greco and his partner interviewed everyone who knew Carr, but no one he spoke to could understand how she ended up dead in a motel parking lot. It does become frustrating when you cannot begin to come up with a possible motive for the crime, nor a possible suspect. Growing up in New Jersey, I'd heard a lot of stories from my parents about what New York was like in the 70s.

Times Square was the city's sleaziest block, ground zero for every vice you can think of. 42nd Street, known as the Deuce, was lined with porno theaters, strip clubs, and peep shows. Drugs were bought and sold out in the open. And sex workers walked 8th Avenue in fishnets, shivering in the winter cold, and turning tricks in fleabag hotel rooms rented by the hour. It's December 2nd, 1979, almost two years after the Mary Ann Carr murder, at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel

just west of Times Square. Firefighters are responding to a report of smoke pouring from room 417. The firemen break down the door to discover a room set ablaze. And that's when they see them. Two naked female bodies lying on the bed in pools of blood. They've been beaten and cut all over.

Tortured. Their heads and hands are cut off. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was.

Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. Hello? Hello, is this Ellie? Yes, it is. Hi, my name is Anthony. Yes, yes.

Okay. This is Ellie Cyquick. So, um, I don't know if you've ever heard of a podcast. If it has to do with computers, no. Oh, kind of. Back in 1980, Ellie was working as a housekeeper at the Quality Inn in Hasbro Kites, New Jersey. The same Quality Inn where Marianne Carr's body was found in the parking lot. When they portrayed maids on TV, they put them in these dresses and they're old chubby ladies, you know.

But, no, I was 29 years old. And I had blonde hair. And a lot of us were young that worked there. We wore jeans and a jacket to work. Ellie told me that one night, she was out in the parking lot, waiting to get a ride home from work. And this car pulls up, and the guy starts smirking and smiling at me, asking me questions if I work in there and telling me to come here near the car and if I live in the apartments that were there

and I kept telling him, none of your business. And then I tried to get behind his car so I could run back into the motel and he starts backing the car into me. I was like, oh, my God. And I ran in and told Delia, there's some crazy guy out there trying to get me. And we ran back to the door, and the car was gone.

But that stupid, smirky smile. Ugh. So then about a week later, I come into work in the morning i go upstairs into the office start having my coffee and next thing you know delia comes running up white as a ghost shaking oh my god oh my god i what? She goes, I saw her in the arm. I saw her in the arm. I go, what do you mean you saw her in the arm? She goes under the bed. It's at 132. I was vacuuming, and I saw her in the arm.

Ellie says she ran down to room 132. The motel maintenance man was standing outside the door. I go, let me go in and see. He goes, no. He said, the police are on their way. I go, why? maintenance man was standing outside the door. As Detective Alan Greco pulled his cruiser into the parking lot, he recognized the Quality Inn immediately. He'd been here before, investigating the murder of Marianne Carr. He opened the door to room 132 to find the body of a young woman shoved under the bed.

She appeared to be assaulted and sexually abused. Wrists were bound with a set of handcuffs. Her name was Valerie Street, a prostitute who had been working the area of New York City. The circumstances was very different from that of the Mary Ann Clark case. But naturally, the location and the use of handcuffs was of primary interest to us. While Greco processed the crime scene, another detective was talking to Ellie Cykwick. And they go, we think this guy might be coming back.

Ellie, you got to listen for everything. You work in there all day, so you listen for everything. Okay, listen for everything. We'll get him. We were determined to get this guy. You come back to the Quality Inn, we're going to get you. Two women had now been murdered at the Quality Inn. The housekeepers started to work in pairs so that they would never be alone. Two women had now been murdered at the Quality Inn. The housekeepers started to work in pairs so that they would never be alone.

But just two weeks after Valerie Street's body was found, the motel was short-staffed. There wasn't enough girls to work two girls together. So I was working by myself. I start heading down the hallway to do my room check. And I was by around room 120, and I hear this commotion coming from 117. So I put my ear to the door, and I start listening into the room. Then I hear this girl, oh my God, oh my God,

and then a commotion and something about a gun. I go, oh my God. So I go running up the hall and I get Pam. And I said, Pam, Pam, 117, the girl's going to be murdered. Ellie and Pam ran to get the manager and brought him back to room 117. He asked if everything was okay. She did go to the door and opened it a little bit. And she stuck her little hand out and moving her eyes like, you know, it's not okay. And then he calls the police.

Back in the office, Ellie and Pam try to think of what to do next. Pam's telling me to come back to the room with her to make sure he doesn't get away. And she has a spray bottle of Windex. I go, he comes out with a gun. You're not going to get him with Windex, that's for sure. So we head out of the office, go downstairs, and about to step in the hallway when this guy comes running past us with an attaché case and a gun. And the guy turns around and points the gun at us. So he's running up the hall.

I was the first one on the scene, and when I pulled up in front of the Quality Motel, the manager of the hotel came over and he said, there's a man with a gun. Stan Melowick was a patrolman with the Hasbro Kites Police Department. So I took out the shotgun from the police car and walked into this little lobby. So I could hear somebody running towards me.

And I heard some jingling and sound of rattling. So what I did, I just backed up so he couldn't see me where he was going to round the bend. So I stood there. And as he rounded the corner, I yelled, police, hold it right there. I had the shotgun pointed at his chest at that time, and he just stopped dead in his tracks. The man in front of Melowick was white, about 5'10", maybe 35 years old. He was dressed like a businessman, in a jacket and tie, holding an attaché case in one hand and a gun in the other.

I told him, turn around, and he turned around, and I yanked the gun out of his hand, threw it on the floor, away from him. He went up against the wall, and I always distinctly remember he said, I didn't do anything. I was with a hooker and got scared. Took out my service revolver, went over to him, and I patted him down.

He had a sports jacket on. On one side he had a roll of first aid masking tape. And then I reached down into his pants pockets and I remember he had a knife which I pulled out about four or five inches long. So I took that and I threw that over by the pistol. Then Meliwick opened up the attaché case and dumped it on the ground. And I was floored. Holy smoke. I caught one hell of a guy. He had like a ball gag, a couple slave collars, you know, studded chrome collars. There were a set of keys attached to a set of handcuffs. And then he had two more pair of silver handcuffs there.

And that's what was giving us all the jingling sound. There were a couple of bottles of pills. They weren't even labeled, but they just fell on the ground. I remember hearing stories. There had been another murder earlier on at the quality also. Somebody had been bound and gagged and he had killed that person. Holy smoke, this is the guy that's been causing all these problems, these murders in the past. Melowick looked the guy over.

He just seemed average. He was cool as a cucumber. Very calm. There was no conversation or anything. He just stood there, you know. While he was standing there in a corner, I asked him for his name. He mentioned his name was Richard Cottingham.

My partner and I responded to the Hasbrokite's police department to find out who the person was that they had under arrest and to possibly speak with him. Detective Alan Greco got the call early in the morning. Someone had been arrested for trying to murder a woman at the Quality Inn Motel. We were told that the person gave the name of Richard Cottingham and that he was an employee of Blue Cross Blue Shield of New York as a computer operator. We entered the holding cell where Cottingham was. He seemed extremely upset, emotionally upset. Kept his head down, was not very verbal.

His eyes were watery. Just appeared like he was under a great deal of emotional stress, but yet in control. A question was posed to him, Richard, do you have a problem with women? He put his head down and there was a period of silence where he didn't look at us and he kept his head down and he did well up, tears coming down his cheeks. Myself and my partner looked at one another as if, you know, wow, maybe this is a point where this guy is going to open up to us and we're going to find out just what he's been

up to. He picked his head up, said, I have a problem with women, but I'd be crazy to speak to you guys about it. That was the last time that we had any face-to-face contact with him for a very long period of time. Not long after that Greco executed a search warrant of Cottingham's house in New Jersey where he lived with his wife and three children. We found a locked door which led to a small storage area. We found some items related to women and possibly our case. There were pieces of jewelry and little trinkets Cottingham had stolen from his victims. A miniature toy koala that belonged to Valerie Street, the woman found under the bed at the Quality Inn. And there was a set of keys to the apartment building where Marianne Carr lived.

She was found dead in the Quality Inn parking lot. And that's when we really began to find out who Richard Cottingham really was. Greco and his partner started looking into Cottingham's life. On the surface, he was a husband and a father of three, a family man. But Greco found that Cottingham's wife had filed for divorce a year earlier, saying he had abandoned her, staying out all night until the early morning without explanation. Hints of what Cottingham was doing on those nights showed up on his arrest record. In 1973 and 74, he was booked for beating, robbing, and unlawfully imprisoning prostitutes.

But his victims failed to appear in court, and the charges were dropped. He was a person that was very much into picking up prostitutes on a nightly basis. They described Cottingham's interests in different types of sexual-related entertainment, sadomasochism shows, pornography. Through those interviews, we began to get a really different picture of the person we originally were told was a family man from New Jersey, but we later learned that he was an extremely active sexual predator. But Greco was about to find out just how extensive Cottingham's murder spree had been.

It was back last December that two carefully decapitated female bodies were found at a Westside motel. The room was then set on fire. New York police believe it was the work of one man. Today, they announced they want a New Jersey man to appear in a lineup here in connection with those murders. Witnesses who had seen a man fleeing the scene of the grisly murders at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel near Times Square identified Cottingham in a lineup. Suddenly, this was a multi-state investigation, and Cottingham became known as the torso killer. The expansion of the case against Cottingham began to grow and grow. A number of victims identified Cottingham through photographs. Victims that he

had met in New York City had taken them to Bergen County and had sex with them, assaulted them, drugged them, and then left them for dead alongside the highway or in a motel room. On top of the murders, Cottingham would be charged and ultimately convicted of three non-lethal assaults of women in New Jersey. Investigators believed there were many, many more.

In 1981, Cottingham stood trial in Bergen County and was convicted for the murder of Valerie Street. He was sentenced to a minimum of 173 years in prison. Later, he went on trial for the murder of Mary Ann Carr. I saw Cottingham all during the trial. I would say he was somber, quiet, was not very verbal, did not act out in the courtroom. During one particular session, we broke for lunch, and then after lunch we would go back upstairs and resume the court proceedings. As I opened the door to the courtroom, I heard a commotion coming from near the judge's chambers.

And it turned out to be one of the court matrons running across the back of the courtroom in a state of panic. The first thing I thought of, oh my God, Cottingham escaped. I stopped what I was doing and immediately turned around and ran out the courtroom door. I could see Cottingham running across the street near the courthouse. I proceeded to run after him, chasing him. There was a sheriff's officer that was also now in pursuit. Almost simultaneously, we caught up with Cottingham and tackled him to the ground

and began to put handcuffs on him. I recall as we did, he said, just shoot me or something to that effect. Cottingham wasn't going to get off that easy. He was brought back to the courthouse and found guilty of the murder of Marianne Carr. He was sentenced to 25 years to life. In New York,

he was convicted of the murders at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel near Times Square and another murder at the Seville Hotel. But the investigation wasn't over. We began to explore what he could have been responsible for before he was ever arrested. We had a number of homicides of young females that were never solved. Greco looked back at the Bergen County cold cases from the 1960s,

a string of murders of young girls like Jacqueline Harp, Irene Blaze, and Denise Velasca. I felt strongly that he had connections to several of those other victims because of the locations of where they were found and the way in which they were killed by strangulation primarily. There was not a great deal of physical evidence in any of these cases. Fingerprints, blood, semen, saliva, hairs, things of that nature. Nothing that connected Cottingham to these open cases in Bergen County. We simply had our beliefs or gut feelings that it could be him. Greco and his partner started visiting Cottingham in prison,

hoping he would tell them about his other murders. Cottingham toyed with them for a while, but ultimately, he didn't give them anything. And that was a degree of frustration, that we couldn't push this case forward without his cooperation. And he just wouldn't give it to us. Then, in 1996,

when Cottingham had been in prison for 16 years, Greco received a letter from him. Cottingham was in trouble. He'd been running a massive gambling operation in the prison, and he'd been caught. Prison authorities told us that he was the biggest bookmaker in Trenton State Prison. Now he was willing to give us specific information if we would help him. It was exciting. When we first went into the cell, we said to him, hey Rich, how you doing?

You've been down here for quite a while now. I don't know if you remember us. He responds by saying, oh yeah, I certainly remember you guys. He said, I have to say, you guys did a really good job on my case. But you missed one thing. I was involved in things long before you were aware of. He didn't go back far enough. Didn't go back far enough. He's telling us that he was active long before the date of the first

crime that we became aware of which was was Mary Ann Carr in 1977. And he says in 1967, he took his first victim. 1967. Cottingham was killing women two years before the murder of Denise Velasco. 1967. Oh, my god. This guy goes back 13 years before we actually arrested him.

13 years, he's out on the street. Nobody even knows who he is. He could be responsible for hundreds of victims. Now, Cottingham had Greco right where he wanted him. Cottingham wanted to make a deal. He would give Greco information on his unsolved murders, but he wanted something in return. We had to provide him with certain foods

that he wanted to have brought in from the outside, and he gave us a list of these things. The little bits of information he continued to give us, we'd come back for more and more and more. And he could ask for more and more and more. He acknowledged he was going to string us along as long as he possibly could. Greco left empty-handed that day,

but he was hopeful that finally he might be able to get closure for the families of Cottingham's victims. He submitted a request with the New Jersey Attorney General to formalize his deal with Cottingham. My hopes was that this was a home run, this was a done deal. Much to my surprise, they would not approve our request. They did not want to get involved in a situation where they were giving special treatment to a prisoner. We were advised to terminate our contact with Cunningham. Not long after that, Greco retired. And with the end of his career, the unsolved cases of the murdered women of Bergen County would go cold once again.

Cottingham would sit in prison for almost a decade before another detective would visit him. So what was it for us? Control? It was the game. The stalking. I'd done this to 30 other girls. I was out there every night. Like an animal. Don't want to wait for that next episode?

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Denise Didn't Come Home is a production of Truth Media in partnership with Sony Music Entertainment. I'm your host, Anthony Scalia. The show is produced by Ryan Swiker and me. Story editing by Mark Smerling. Kevin Shepard is our associate producer. Scott Curtis is our production manager. From Sony, our executive producers are Jonathan Hirsch and Catherine St. Louis.

Fact-checking by Dania Suleiman. George Drabing-Hicks did the mix. Sound design by George Drabing-Hicks and Ryan Swiker. Music by Kenny Kusiak, Epidemic Sound, and Marmoset. Our title track is Gimme Some by Weevil. If you're enjoying Denise Didn't Come Home, don't forget to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It really helps other people find the show.

And thanks for listening. Thank you. you