Did 'Torso Killer' Have More Victims In NJ And NY? As Killer Ages, Sleuth Tracks New Leads

NORTH JERSEY, NJ — In 2015, the daughter of a woman murdered by New Jersey-based serial killer Richard Cottingham reached out to historian Peter Vronsky to help find her mother's severed head.

Jennifer Weiss hoped that Dr. Vronsky, who had published books about serial killers, could provide closure regarding her mom, Deedeh Goodarzi, who was burned and mutilated in a Times Square hotel in 1979.

The killer, who lived in North Jersey and worked in New York at the time of the slaying, was convicted in July 1984 of killing Goodarzi and two other women in Manhattan hotels. Besides those three victims, he has also confessed to or been convicted of killing at least ten other women in New Jersey and New York.

Currently serving a life sentence in South Woods State Prison in Trenton, the "Torso Killer" or "Times Square Killer" — as he's been called — was known to behead and dismember his victims.

In a recent interview with Patch, Dr. Vronsky — a historian with a doctorate in criminal justice — talked about why time is running out to link Cottingham to the mysterious deaths of other young women in New Jersey and New York between 1960 and 1980.

Most Recent Confession

As reported by Patch in January, Cottingham confessed in December to the long-unsolved murder of Alys Eberhardt of Fair Lawn, an 18-year-old nursing student who was found beaten to death in her family's home in 1965.

Vronsky told Patch that since last year, he had been pushing law enforcement to interview Cottingham, because the killer is 79 years old and suffered a major health scare last October.

Vronsky — who says he talks to Cottingham nearly every day — told Patch that he began looking into the crimes after Jennifer Weiss reached out to him a decade ago.

The pair never did find the severed head, believed to be buried in the Palisade hills in Bergen County. But Vronsky and Weiss began talking to Cottingham about other crimes, tracking down clues to help victims' families.

After Weiss died at 45 in 2023 of brain cancer, Vronsky, who lives in Canada, is continuing her legacy.

Now, he's looking into a few specific cases from the 1960s that Cottingham may be linked to, particularly in northern New Jersey.

Pascack High School Case

Late last year, Vronsky posted in a social media group that he was looking for any recollections that might help with a 1963 case.

Vronsky wrote in a Facebook group for residents of River Vale — where the killer lived from 1958 to 1970 — that he sought "to identify a female who attended Pascack High School around 1960-1964 whose mother mysteriously disappeared in 1963-1964 and was told by police that she 'probably abandoned the family.' DM me on Facebook here or in confidentiality."

Cottingham grew up on Cleveland Avenue in River Vale, according to biographies of him. He attended St. Andrews Catholic Parochial School in Westwood as a boy in the 1950s, then Pascack High from 1960 to 1964.

Vronsky said he is looking for the "Holy Grail," Cottingham's first killing.

When Cottingham was initially arrested in May 1980 and charged in several women's deaths, he was living a quiet life in Lodi with his wife and three kids, and commuting to New York City to work as a computer programmer, the New York Times reported.

Cottingham was convicted in 1981 in the death of a New Jersey young woman at a Hasbrouck Heights hotel. In 1984, he was convicted of killing three different women at hotels in Manhattan, including Goodarzi.

More recently, Cottingham was implicated in 2021 and 2022 in seven unsolved deaths in New Jersey and Long Island.

Richard Cottingham makes a remote appearance at a courtroom in Mineola, N.Y., Dec. 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

In 2021, Cottingham admitted to detectives that back in 1974, he kidnapped two North Bergen teenagers who were on the way to the mall. According to news reports, the killer took the 16- and 17-year-old girls, Lorraine Kelly and Mary Ann Pryor, to a hotel and drowned them in a bathtub. Then he dumped their bodies in the woods in Montvale, in northern Bergen County. A woman who was walking to her car found them.

Cottingham's confession ended a three-decade-old mystery in the Hudson County town, which shares a border with Bergen County.

The following year, in late 2022, Cottingham confessed to five murders of women on the South Shore of Long Island, from 1968 to 1972.

Vronsky said that since then, Cottingham has given him hints about other crimes, but doesn't remember all the details.

The Severed Head

Vronsky believes there are many mysteries that could be solved by talking to Cottingham.

He'd still like find Weiss's mother's head. He says Cottingham told him he buried it in a "vinyl valise."

He also said that a woman was found dead in the hotel room with Goodarzi in 1979, but she has never been identified.

"[If] there's any family out there with a missing sister, and they entered their DNA [into a database], maybe she can still be identified," he said.

Vronsky said he believes Cottingham's first killing may have been as early as 1963.

"That first murder was [possibly] close to his house," he said, "the mother of a girl he was casually dating in high school."

Vronsky said that detectives are running out of time to solve the cases.

"I hear so many times, 'Oh, this is not Cottingham's M.O.," he said. "Everyone assumes Cottingham was only killing sex workers. [But] he was killing housewives and schoolgirls, and a nurse. He wasn't just targeting sex workers."

The Fair Lawn case was an example, he noted. Alys Eberhardt was attending nursing school in Hackensack when she stopped at home and was killed.

After the Fair Lawn case was closed in January, Vronsky explained why he thinks it's worth pursuing these cases even though Cottingham is in prison for life.

"While there is no such thing as closure, there is at least resolution and a quieting of the unquiet grave," he said. "This is my 11th Cottingham case closure that my late investigative partner Jennifer Weiss and I assisted law enforcement with since 2021."

He added, "Jennifer is in the heavens with her murdered mother Deedeh and with murdered student nurse Alys; they are by each other's side today embraced in peace and love."

Alys Eberhardt's nephew, Michael Smith, commented in January, "Our family has waited since 1965 for the truth. To receive this news during the holidays—and to be able to tell my mother, Alys’s sister, that we finally have answers—was a moment I never thought would come. Richard Cottingham is the personification of evil, yet I am grateful that even he has finally chosen to answer the questions that have haunted our family for decades."

A website lists dozens of unsolved murders of young women or teen girls in New Jersey from 1960 through 1980, including a few cases that have become infamous or inspired recent reporting. One of those is the case of a Maplewood waitress who was found strangled in a driveway after work. READ MORE: Sister Of Strangled Maplewood Teen Still Wants Answers

Another infamous case on the list is that of Wendy Sue Wolin, 7, who was stabbed outside her home in Elizabeth 60 years ago this month, by a man who ran away.

Several of the cases now include notes saying Cottingham or another serial killer was recently linked to the crime.

Anyone with information can reach out to Vronsky at info@nynjpd.org.

READ MORE: NJ Serial Killer Confesses To Nursing Student’s Murder

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