MINEOLA, N.Y. — A serial killer known as “The Torso Killer,” who has already been convicted of 11 slayings, admitted Monday that he also killed five women on Long Island earlier in the decade. 1960’s and early 1970’s.
Richard Cottingham was sentenced Monday to between 25 years and life in prison for killing 23-year-old Diane Cusick, who was murdered in February 1968 after shopping for shoes at the Green Acres mall in Nassau County.
As part of a plea deal, Cottingham was granted immunity from prosecution for the other four murders. The 76-year-old inmate was at the hearing via video call from a New Jersey prison.
“Today is one of the most emotional days we have ever had at the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office,” District Attorney Anne Donnelly said at a news conference where she was joined by several relatives of the Cottingham victims. “In the case of Diane Cusick, her family has waited nearly 55 years for someone to be held accountable for her death.”
Donnelly said Cottingham, who is believed to be one of America’s most prolific serial killers, “has caused irreparable harm to so many people and so many families, there’s not much I can tell them to find comfort.”
Cottingham has claimed that he was responsible for up to 100 homicides. He has been behind bars since 1980. He is known as the “Torso Killer” because he allegedly lopped off the heads and limbs of some of his victims, authorities have said.
Authorities believe Cusick left her job at a children’s dance school and then stopped at the mall to buy a pair of shoes when Cottingham followed her to her car. They believe she posed as a security guard or police officer, accused her of robbery and then subdued the 98-pound (44-kilogram) woman. Cusick’s body was found on February 16, 1968.
The medical examiner concluded that Cusick had been struck in the face and head and that she had suffocated. She had defense wounds on her hands and police were able to collect DNA evidence at the scene. However, at that time there were no DNA tests.
Cottingham’s DNA was entered into a national database in 2016 when he pleaded guilty to a murder in New Jersey. In 2021, the Nassau County police re-ran DNA tests on the cases of murdered women and found a match to Cottingham.
At the time Cusick was murdered, Cottingham was working as a computer programmer for a health insurance company in New York.
The other four women Cottingham confessed to on Monday were murdered in 1972 and 1973.
Donnelly said that when detectives questioned Cottingham at the prison, he gave them information about those four cases that only the killer could know.