Who is Richard Cottingham? Notorious 'Torso killer' to confess chilling murders of 5 Long Island women

On Monday, December 5, the notorious serial killer—also known as the "Torso Killer" because of the way he dismembered several of his victims—is expected to plead guilty to the gruesome murders of five Long Island women. Richard Cottingham, 76, has already been serving a life sentence in New Jersey after being found responsible for the murders of six more women between 1967 and 1980. Newsday reports that the father of three and former computer programmer is now expected to confess to the 1968 rape and murder of dance instructor Diane Cusick as well as the 1972 and 1973 murders of four additional women in Nassau County. To buy shoes, 23-year-old Cusick traveled to Valley Stream's Green Acres Mall, but she never came back. Her murder was uncovered. Cottingham was ultimately linked to her death by the DNA study. Charges were brought against the mass killer in connection with the passing of Cusick in June. [caption id="attachment_68531" align="aligncenter" width="2000"] Cottingham claims to have murdered as many as 100 women during his bloody spree.[/caption] Anne Donnelly, the district attorney for Nassau County, said at the time that she thought the DNA match was the oldest one to result in a prosecution in the nation. According to the New York Post, Cottingham will enter a plea on Monday in a courtroom in Mineola, New York, while appearing remotely from the New Jersey prison where he is presently serving a life term. He has admitted to being responsible for up to 100 murders, but the majority of those have not been directly attributed to him. One of the murders to which Cottingham has been linked is the killing of two women, whose dismembered bodies were found at a motel near Times Square in December 1979 missing their heads and hands. Cottingham had three kids, was married, and worked as a computer programmer for a health insurance company in New York when he was detained in 1980. After hearing a woman screaming inside his room at a motel in New Jersey, the man was found. The 18-year-old victim was discovered by police bound, alive, and with bite marks and knife wounds to her breasts. The Netflix series "Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer," which launched in December 2021, detailed his heinous acts. The South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, New Jersey is housing Cottingham. According to AEtv, Cottingham, who had a shaggy white beard and a full stomach, appeared remarkably like Santa Claus in a court photo from April 2021. The New York Daily News described Cottingham as "too ridiculously normal to be a serial killer."