A 79-year-old serial killer serving life for murdering almost a half-dozen ladies and ladies in New Jersey and New York because the Sixties has confessed to killing one other girl within the Backyard State virtually 60 years in the past, authorities introduced Tuesday.
Richard Cottingham, at the moment serving a life sentence in New Jersey state jail for his previous convictions, confessed to killing 18-year-old Alys Eberhardt, a Honest Garden girl who was discovered stabbed and bludgeoned to loss of life in her household house on Sept. 24, 1965. Investigators say it might have been amongst his earliest crimes.
The case was reopened in 2021.
The Eberhardt household says the confession brings long-awaited solutions and a way of peace, almost six many years after the crime.
Convicted serial killer, Richard Cottingham, confesses to killing 5 ladies on Lengthy Island almost 50 years in the past. Pei-Sze Cheng stories.
Although he has been behind bars for many years, prosecutors say they proceed to work to carry closure to households. A number of years in the past, they introduced closure to the household of Diane Cusick, a 23-year-old mom who known as her mother and father one evening in 1968 to say she was going shoe buying and by no means got here again house.
He additionally confessed to 4 different slayings. As a part of a plea deal, Cottingham acquired immunity for these. He will not be charged within the Eberhardt case as a part of that earlier settlement with prosecutors.
Considered one of New Jersey’s most infamous serial killers, Cottingham was nicknamed “The Torso Killer” as a result of he was recognized for dismembering his victims, in keeping with NorthJersey.com. He has admitted to killing at the least a dozen ladies because the Sixties.
Although solely convicted of some, he has claimed accountability for as much as 100 murders over the many years.
Within the early Eighties, Cottingham was convicted of killing 5 ladies — three in New York and two in Bergen County. He has since confessed to different killings and been jailed since 1981.
