New Jersey's 'Torso Killer' confesses to 3 cold case murders

Fox News Flash top headlines for Jan. 4

Fox News Flash top headlines for Jan. 4 are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com

A notorious New Jersey serial killer who is serving more than 200 years in prison has confessed to three cold-case slayings of local teenage girls from the 1960s.

Richard Cottingham, 73 – known as the “Torso Killer” for the way he dismembered his victims – has copped to strangling Irene Blase, 18, of Bogota; Denise Falasca, 15, of Closter; and Jacalyn Harp, 13, of Midland Park, between 1968 and 1969, officials with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to The Post Friday.

“The Prosecutor’s Office investigations revealed that Richard Cottingham committed these homicides,” Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Rebein said.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE NEW YORK POST

Richard Cottingham, 73 was known as the “Torso Killer” for the way he dismembered his victims
(NJ Dept of Corrections)

Rebein added that the families of the three victims “were immediately and confidentially notified when the cases were solved.”

CALIFORNIA COLD CASE MURDERS OF COUSINS SOLVED USING DNA THAT WAS 'ALL OVER BOTH CRIME SCENES', POLICE SAY

“There were no previous public announcements so as not to imperil continuing investigations,” said Rebein. “For similar reasons, there will be no further public comment on these or other similar continuing investigations by this office.”

IDAHO COLD CASE OF OUTLAW MISSING SINCE 1916 SOLVED BY DNA, GENETIC GENEALOGY

Prosecutors would not say when they were able to get a confession out of Cottingham or when Cottingham made the admission.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

This story originally appeared in the New York Post. For more from the Post, click here.

Source: Read Full Article