FAIR LAWN, NJ – A 60-year-old cold case finally has answers after one of America’s most prolific serial killers admitted to murdering an 18-year-old woman in this quiet Manhattan suburb back in 1965.
Richard Cottingham, the 79-year-old convicted murderer known as the “Torso Killer” for his gruesome habit of dismembering victims, confessed to killing Alys Eberhardt, according to the Fair Lawn Police Department. Investigators say Cottingham provided details about the crime “that were never publicly known,” leaving little doubt about his involvement.
Eberhardt was found dead in her family’s home nearly six decades ago. Her murder went unsolved for generations, leaving relatives with nothing but questions and grief. That changed when Cottingham, already serving three life sentences at South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, decided to come clean.
The confession adds yet another victim to Cottingham’s horrifying tally. He’s claimed responsibility for as many as 100 homicides dating back to the 1960s, though authorities have officially linked him to roughly a dozen killings across New York and New Jersey.
Cottingham earned his chilling nickname through the brutal way he disposed of some victims, dismembering their bodies in ways that haunted investigators for years. He was finally arrested in 1980 and has been behind bars ever since.
This isn’t the first time Cottingham has confessed to additional murders from prison. In April 2021, he admitted to the 1974 killings of Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16, telling investigators he kidnapped and raped the teenagers before drowning them in a motel bathtub. The following year, he confessed to killing five more women in the New York City area during the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Diane Cusick, 23, whose 1968 death earned him another 25-years-to-life sentence.
For Eberhardt’s family, the confession brings a painful kind of closure. Michael Smith, her nephew, said he never expected this day would come.
“Our family has waited since 1965 for the truth,” Smith said. “This was a moment I never thought would come.”
Cottingham remains incarcerated at South Woods State Prison, where he’ll spend the rest of his life.
