Richard Cottingham

MURDER INC. EXCLUSIVE: The Torso Killer’s Early Murders

On October 21 1964 Jocelyn Carr’s dismembered torso was found dumped at W 43rd St in New York City. More of her body parts were later found on 35th and 28th St. Jocelyn Carr, 32, worked as a clerk for an advertising agency on Madison Ave. Two weeks later on November 4, 67 year old Martha Owens was reported missing from the Bronx. Her dismembered torso was found at Jones Beach on Long Island on November 12. Three days later on November 15, the dismembered remains of Carmen Rodriguez were found in a Bronx lot. She’d been strangled to death and is believed to have been a sex worker. On the back of her right hand was a tattoo of the word “puta”. The murders of Jocelyn Carr, Martha Owens and Carmen Rodriguez were never solved. Serial killer Richard Cottingham was 18 years old and, like Jocelyn Carr, was working on Madison Ave in Manhattan at the time. Richard Cottingham was born in the Bronx and had relatives living there. In 1979, he murdered and dismembered Deedeh Goodarzi and Jane Doe in a Times Square hotel around the corner from where Jocelyn Carr’s torso was found in 1964.

In 1964 Jocelyn Carr’s torso was found under a stairway at 43rd and 10th Ave. In 1979 Deedeh Goodarzi and Jane Doe were murdered by Richard Cottingham around the corner at 42nd and 10th Ave.