MURDER SPREE

New York ‘Torso Killer’ Admits to Slaying Five More Women

The 76-year-old, who has been in prison since 1980, claims to have killed more than 100 women.

Richard Cottingham, who has claimed to have killed at least 100 women, admitted Monday to five more deaths as part of a decades-old murder spree that earned him the nicknames the Torso Killer and the Times Square Killer. Cottingham pleaded guilty to killing Long Island dance instructor Diane Cusick. As part of a plea deal, he also admitted to the deaths of Sheila Hyman and Marita Rosado Nieves in 1970, Mary Beth Heinz in May 1972, and Laverne Moy in July 1972. Appearing virtually in Nassau County Court, the 76-year-old was sentenced to an additional 25 years. Cottingham, who has been in prison since 1980 after being linked to roughly a dozen homicides so far, had a habit of dismembering his victims. Advances in DNA technology allowed Cottingham to be arrested in Cusick’s death after 54 years, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in June. “We make a promise to her surviving daughter today: we will bring her mother’s killer to justice,” she said.