Serial killer confesses to Little Ferry murder
Richard Cottingham
LITTLE FERRY – A 63-year-old serial killer serving life in prison has confessed to the murder of a borough housewife in 1967, prosecutors said.
Richard Cottingham – who was first convicted in 1981 for the slaying of a prostitute in a Hasbrouck Heights motel room and the following year for an earlier murder in New Jersey, and in two years later for three murders in New York, in addition to convictions for kidnapping and assaulting three women – admitted he strangled Nancy Schiava Vogel, 29, and left her bruised body in her car in Ridgefield Park. All of Mr. Cottingham’s victims were female, including four slain prostitutes.
On Wednesday, Aug. 25, state Superior Court Judge Donald R. Venezia sitting in Hackensack sentenced Mr. Cottingham to a concurrent life sentence for Ms. Vogel’s murder. Mr. Cottingham, a prisoner at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, has attempted suicide and escape.
The second of his Bergen County victims was Maryann Carr, a nurse from Little Ferry, whose bruised and handcuffed body was found behind the same motel where later Mr. Cottingham murdered one prostitute and stuffed her under a bed and attempted to murder and rape another.
Prosecutors said the solving of the cold case came about through repeated visits to the prison to interview Mr. Cottingham and is part of an effort to resolve lingering cases in the county.
Tweet This
Digg This
Stumble it
RSS Feed
2 Comments
this guy should just be executed.when i was a teenager he was my downstairs neighbor in lodi.He was very creepy and strange
the night the police raided his apartment i was just comming home with friends…His wife was even crazier trying to lie when they were there removing things that belonged to the dead girls from his apartment…The book about him is The Prostitute Murders..