On December 5, 2022, serial killer Richard Cottingham (73) pleaded guilty to the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick in New York. He also admitted to the murders of four other women in Nassau County between 1972 and 1973. Cottingham, known as both “The Torso Killer” and “The Times Square Killer” currently serves a life sentence in New Jersey for murder and has claimed 17 murders.
“Times Square Killer” Richard Cottingham Pleads Guilty to 1968 Nassau County Murder
Cottingham used his job as a mall security guard to approach his eventual victims before attacking them in the parking lot. Diane Cusick had gone to the Green Acres Mall to get dance shoes for her daughter but never returned home.
A missing person’s report was filed by her parents but her father would find her remains on February 16, 1968. She had been beaten and raped before being left in the backseat of her car at Green Acres Mall.
Richard Cottingham also admitted to the murders of Mary Bert Heinz (21) and Laverne Move (23) in 1972 as well as the 1973 slayings of Sheila Herman (33) and Marita Emerita Rosado Nieves (18). He would appear remotely for his hearing at the Nassau County Court and was given 25 years to life.
In June 2022, when the DNA breakthrough was announced, Cusick’s daughter Darlene Altman expressed relief to have an important question in her mother’s murder answered:
“I never thought I would see this day, but all these people got justice for my mom. It was overwhelming to see him on video in court with a dead stare.”
Last year, Cottingham—who claims responsibility for almost 100 murders in New York and New Jersey —pleaded guilty to the 1974 slayings of Mary Ann Pryor (17) and her friend Lorraine Marie Kelly (16) in New Jersey. Earlier in 2022, Cottingham confessed to the 1970 murder of Lorraine McGraw in Rockland County.
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