NEWARK, N.J. – A New Jersey serial killer known as the “Torso Killer” pleaded guilty Tuesday to two 1974 murders, finally closing the cold-case deaths of teenage friends who had left home for a trip to the mall and never returned.
Richard Cottingham, 74, is currently in state prison on a life sentence for other murders. He has claimed he was responsible for up to 100 murders, but authorities in New York and New Jersey have linked him to nine so far – not including the two 1974 murders – though they believe the death toll is higher.
Cottingham has been in prison since 1981 but confessed to three of the murders, dating back to the late 1960s, last year.