Netflix's latest true-crime documentary, Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer, landed on the streaming platform on Wednesday, and follows the apprehension of the serial killer Richard Cottingham. So what happened to him after he was arrested, and where is he now? Get the details…
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The documentary looks at the hunt for the vicious serial killer, who "preyed upon sex workers operating within Time Square's then-booming, anything-goes sex industry". The synopsis reads: "The three-part series takes viewers deep into the investigation, detailing the social and systemic forces at play in a near-lawless area in the centre of Manhattan that allowed multiple horrific crimes to go unnoticed for too long."
WATCH: Will you be watching the true-crime documentary?
Richard Cottingham was apprehended in May 1980, after checking in to a hotel where he had previously murdered one of his victims, with 18-year-old Leslie Ann O'Dell. During their stay, he assaulted her, and motel staff heard her cries in the room and called the police, who found the perpetrator with several different items including handcuffs and a switchblade.
Cottingham confessed to two more murders in 2021
He was indicted on over ten charges including kidnapping and attempted murder, and was later found guilty for the murder of Valerie Ann Street in 1980, and sentenced to over 173 years in prison. Since his sentence, he has been found guilty of several more murders committed since 1967, and most recently confessed to the kidnap, rape and murder of two teenage girls back in 1974 in 2021. He has claimed to have killed up to 100 people.
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The true-crime show is now on Netflix
According to his attorney, John Bruno, Cottingham confessed to the murders of Mary Ann Pryor and Lorraine Kelly after experiencing "deep regrets". According to NorthJersey.com, he said: "Cottingham told me this weighs heavily on him because he doesn't know why he did the things he did. He has deep regrets. He still doesn't understand why he did these things. But he feels relief knowing he has come clean for the families and for himself."
Cottingham is currently serving a life sentence at the New Jersey State Prison, where he has been incarcerated since 1981.
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