[Richard Cottingham: The True Story of The Torso Killer: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers] by [Jack Rosewood] is part of a 30 book series of [True Crime by Evil Killers]. Richard Cottingham was known as "The Times Square Killer" and the "Torso Killer" because he often cut off the heads and hands of the victims to hinder body identification. A short, gruesome read; not for the faint-hearted. . 173 pages 3.5 stars (it might have been better, but the explicit details of the crimes made me squeamish ( )

Richard Cottingham was a sadistic sexual serial killer. He tortured the women he picked up. Most of his victims were prostitutes, since he did not consider them to be real people. His crimes were heinous, and have traumatized the victims and their loved ones forever. His family as well. This book talks about each known victim and their lives, and then their deaths. It is straight and to the point, no extra fluff. It is interesting and talks about serial killers in general as well. I liked this book very much. ( )

Richard Cottingham: The True Story of The Torso Killer: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers (True Crime by Evil Killers Book 20) by Jack Rosewood is a gruesome by interesting book. I didn't know anything about this serial killer before I started this book and now I know too much, ugh! Great background on the killers life and on the murders themselves. The only fault I had with the book is it had no pictures at all. None of the killer who is still in prison and doing over 200 yrs. No picture of the victim when they were alive, none of the sites, nothing. So, these are things readers like to know. ( )

Another great read by Jack Rosewood. This particular sadistic killer was one that I do not remember hearing about before listening to Mr. Rosewood’s book. It is a disturbing story about Richard Cottingham, an unassuming Blue Cross Blue Shield employee and family man who, by his own admission, killed over 85 women. But, he doesn't just murder these poor women, he tortures them for his own sexual sadism.
I was provided a copy of this book for my honest review. ( )

Living in the NYCity metropolitan area I can remember the days in Times Square when there was a huge number of sex stores, many of them next to each other, each selling the same selection of pornographic magazines, sex toys and those inflatable dolls for sex driven men who could have their fantasies with. You didn’t have to go into any of these stores to see what they were selling; everything was invisible from the streets through the windows, and especially during the summer when the doors to these stores had been kept wide open. There was a wide range of men constantly walking in and out of these stores, from an ordinary looking guys to well-dressed businessmen.

At the same time there were scores of prostitutes applying their trade in the Times Square area, and just as many seedy, cheap hotel rooms where they could do it. But when the word got out that a possible John, an unbalanced, depraved man was picking them up and then torturing them mercilessly, they became increasingly nervous about who they were picking up.

Once tortured he would then mutilate and dissect them, removing their breasts and other parts of their bodies, including their heads, so what had been left was basically their torso, hence the nickname this sadistic serial killer got. If what he did wasn’t enough, to remove possible evidence that he was the one responsible, he set his victims and the hotel rooms afire.

A major problem regarding Richard Cottingham, is that he was able to easily melt into the crowd of people and tourists who constantly inhabited the Times Square area.

And to make sure his victims didn’t resist his actions he gave them drug cocktails. Luckily there were survivors who were found bleeding, but were too traumatized due to the drugs and sadistic torture they had endured to recall any definitive details of what had happened.

Usually all of his victims screams were ignored and went unanswered until his last intended victim’s screams were loud enough that he fled and in the process got caught.

Once again, Mr. Rosewood succeeds in not only telling his readers the story of this depraved individual and his victims, the author dwells into the psyche of an intelligent, normal looking individual who had a job as an IT technician working for an insurance company; which proves you don’t really know who’s working right next to you on your job, as they might have secrets they don’t want anyone else to know about.

For having written another informative, insightful expose of another mass murderer/serial killer, I’m happy to give this endeavor 5 STARS. ( )