A WOMAN whose mother was tortured, beheaded, and burned by the Times Square Killer has formed an unlikely alliance with the murderer in an attempt to find out about other victims.
Deedeh Goodarzi was one of two women killed by serial killer Richard Cottingham in a New York City hotel room on December 2, 1979.
Also known as the Torso Killer, Cottingham cut off the heads and hands of Goodarzi and his other unidentified 16-year-old victim and took them with him as he escaped.
The women’s skulls have never been found.
As Cottingham remains in a New Jersey prison for their deaths and the murders of at least nine other women and girls, he has found a companion in Goodarzi’s biological daughter Jennifer Weiss.
“The magnitude of what he did is unfathomable,” Weiss told NewJersey.com. “But I became friends with Richard for my mother’s sake and for my quest.
“I’m doing this for the mothers who lost their daughters and my own mother. And for these girls that their lives were ended one night or day by Richard playing God,” said Weiss.
“I’m not going to rest easy until we figure out who they were. So that’s why I do what I do.”
Adopted by a New Jersey family when she was four years old, Weiss found out the truth about her mom’s death when she was 24, she told PIX11.
First writing letters to now 75-year-old Cottingham in prison, she began to visit him in 2017 and has since met with her mom’s killer more than 30 times.
“I felt fearless,” Weiss told NewJersey.com.
“I felt invincible. I started to write Richard and ask him to put me on his guest list. I made it light-hearted and funny and made it really comfortable for him to say ‘Yes.’
“That he would accept my friendship in return for information about my mom,” she added, stating that she believed the only way she could get anything from Cottingham was to be kind to him.
Her decision to meet with him came after he apologized to her for the murder in a letter, she said, adding that she did not feel scared to speak to the infamous killer as he was the only person who could answer her questions.
“I just don’t know what to say to you, or how to say it,” said Cottingham in the handwritten letter.
“I can only tell you what’s in my heart and pray that you believe me. I am truly and deeply sorry, so very sorry, for all the pain I have brought into your life.”
“On Mother’s Day, I went [to prison], and he apologized again,” she told Pix11 in April.
“He’s not thinking like a regular individual. He’s a psychopath.”
‘BLOOD-RELATED?’
Weiss was reportedly given up for adoption by Goodarzi, an Iranian high-priced call girl, when she was less than two weeks old and there was no information given on her biological father.
Yet Weiss told Pix11 that Cottingham said he knew her mother for two years, leading her to question whether he may be her dad.
“He said he knew her for two years, and so, that raised questions in my mind: Is it possible we could be blood-related?” she said.
“That’s something, unfortunately, I might have to deal with.”
Weiss added that Cottingham has expressed willingness to take a DNA test.
While her friendly relationship with Cottingham may appear strange to some, the mother-of-four says it’s essential to learn more about her mom’s death and potentially unearthing other victims.
“I usually forget about everything else when it comes to finding out about my mom,” she said.
“So if I’m even a little scared or apprehensive, once the questions start rolling that have to do with my mother, I become stronger.”
FIRST MEETING
Weiss has said that Cottingham smiled when she first visited him and that they exchanged small talk before she asked her questions.
“I knew what I wanted and I made it abundantly clear,” said Weiss. “I’m giving you my friendship for details of the crimes.”
Cottingham was originally convicted in the early 80s for five murders but over the past 40 years has admitted to six other killings while claiming to have gotten away with slaying between 80 and 100 people in a 17-year spree.
As recently as April 2021, he admitted to abducting, torturing, and drowning Mary Ann Pryor, 17, and Lorraine Marie Kelly, 16, in 1974.
This admission came with the help of Weiss who has reportedly befriended the serial killer enough to encourage him to speak about other murders.
“Once I started to find out details about my mother’s crime, that’s when he opened the door to talking about other women that he killed,” Weiss told PIX11.
“I believe we’ve got up to 75 cold cases,” she added.
The killing of Pryor and Kelly is thought to be the only time that Cottingham has ever shown any sign of remorse for his heinous crimes, stating that he believes he did not need to kill the girls as they would not have spoken about what he had done.
“I believe he’s embarrassed about all of his crimes,” Weiss said in April as the latest admission came, “because they’re all horrific.”
TARGETING SEX WORKERS
She has also been able to get Cottingham to open up about his childhood as they try to understand his brutal actions.
“He had a sex drive that couldn’t be satiated and he wasn’t getting sleep,” Weiss told NewJersey.com.
“[He thought]that he could do whatever he wanted to. He could have prostitutes. He could go home to his family.
“He could take a shower, wake up in the morning, and act like nothing happened yesterday.”
The killer targeted sex workers in many of his attacks as it was believed he wanted to “punish” them but other victims have also included teenage girls, pregnant women, and young mothers.
As well as removing Goodarzi’s head, he removed another victim’s breasts and all were found naked and battered.
Some had cigarette burns and injuries caused by a knife, while almost all had been strangled.
“He cared about himself and his needs,” said Weiss.
“He wanted to get over on people, he wanted to win. He wanted to cheat. He wanted to steal. He just wanted to thrash through every day and think he was in charge of his own life.”
DOUBLE LIFE
Cottingham managed to avoid detection until 1980 more than a decade after his first known murder – the killing of 29-year-old mother-of-two Nancy Vogel who was found naked and strangled in her car.
He only admitted to this killing in 2010.
Scouting for victims around Times Square, Cottingham worked a 3pm to 11pm shift in a health insurance company in Manhattan while living with his wife and three children in New Jersey.
He successfully didn’t leave any evidence at crimes scenes to connect the murders, leaving authorities unaware they were dealing with a serial killer.
The murderer was eventually arrested in 1980 after his wife filed for divorce and his killing spree appeared to ramp up
Cottingham was caught in the act in a hotel in New Jersey in May 1980 after the tortured screams of one of his victims alerted staff.
He had killed a woman in the very same hotel just over two weeks before.
CLOSING CASES
As Cottingham’s health fails, Weiss said earlier this year that she is determined to keep speaking to him to find out as much as she can before it’s too late.
“His health is just failing him. He’s not in a good way,” she said.
“I want to get as many closures as I can.”
She is now working with Dr. Peter Vronsky, an investigative criminal historian, to map out other unsolved murders in New Jersey and has reportedly given Cottingham an ultimatum.
“I said ‘If I’m going to continue to come and visit you, I’m not going to be able to visit you unless we close cases,” Weiss claimed.
Cottingham is serving a life sentence with no hope of parole in the New Jersey State prison.
It is believed the actual death toll of his murderous rampage will never be fully known or verified.
He story will be explored in the Netflix documentary “Crime Scene: The Times Square Torso Killer” released on December 29.
This story first appeared in The Sun
