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Times Square Torso Ripper

by Peter Vronsky

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911,976,628 (3.5)None
The story of Richard Cottingham, the "Times Square Ripper" or "Times Square Torso Killer," one of America's most sadistically depraved serial killers. A shocking case of unbridled sex, sadism, prostitution, porn, singles bars, date-rape drugs, abduction, bondage, handcuffs, duct tape, torture, sexploitation, perverted paraphilic fetishes, serial killing and dismemberment on New York's notorious Times Square and the Forty-Deuce in the 1970s. Historian Peter Vronsky describes his brief encounter with serial killer Cottingham in a seedy New York hotel in 1979 that later inspired him to write his bestseller history "Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters." In "Times Square Torso Ripper" Vronsky explores the history of the notorious Forty-Deuce strip on 42nd Street near Times Square and how it spawned the sadistic monster Richard Cottingham in an era before the term "serial killer" had been coined in popular culture. Renowned serial homicide expert Dr. Robert D. Keppel said of Richard Cottingham, "I kept asking myself what it was that ultimately intrigued me about the Cottingham case. Partly it was the level of sadistic torture that Cottingham acted out on his victims. He didn't kill them and desecrate their bodies; he forced them to experience pain and humiliation before he killed them. Then he desecrated their bodies." Includes 50 photographs WARNING: SOME FORENSIC CRIME SCENE EVIDENCE PHOTOS, EXPLICIT LANGUANGE AND GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF EXTREME SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND DEPRAVITY THAT SOME MAY FIND HIGHLY DISTURBING… (more)
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This book starts out slow with Dr. Vronsky stating how on a cold, grey, overcast Sunday morning in NYC he bumps into a man coming out of the elevator in a seedy hotel in Times Square. The man was carrying a bag with hard round objects in them that felt like bowling balls. He later learns the man is Richard Cottingham and the hard round objects were his victims heads.

He then goes on to discuss the term 'serial killer' for another chapter, then Richard Cottingham's conviction, like I said the book starts out slow, but as long as he takes to get to the "point" so to say, his prolonged introduction is not boring. He writes a lot about how Times Square was in those years, making the city a character in the book, but then it is New York City.

There is a lot of information in this book, what I like is the information is not repetitive, the trial is covered briefly.

Vronsky spends a lot of time on the psychology of killer using the phrase "reptilian brain", not as an excuse, but as an explanation.

Overall I found this to be a very readable book and I recommend it to True Crime Fans. ( )
  BellaFoxx | Nov 26, 2017 |
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The story of Richard Cottingham, the "Times Square Ripper" or "Times Square Torso Killer," one of America's most sadistically depraved serial killers. A shocking case of unbridled sex, sadism, prostitution, porn, singles bars, date-rape drugs, abduction, bondage, handcuffs, duct tape, torture, sexploitation, perverted paraphilic fetishes, serial killing and dismemberment on New York's notorious Times Square and the Forty-Deuce in the 1970s. Historian Peter Vronsky describes his brief encounter with serial killer Cottingham in a seedy New York hotel in 1979 that later inspired him to write his bestseller history "Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters." In "Times Square Torso Ripper" Vronsky explores the history of the notorious Forty-Deuce strip on 42nd Street near Times Square and how it spawned the sadistic monster Richard Cottingham in an era before the term "serial killer" had been coined in popular culture. Renowned serial homicide expert Dr. Robert D. Keppel said of Richard Cottingham, "I kept asking myself what it was that ultimately intrigued me about the Cottingham case. Partly it was the level of sadistic torture that Cottingham acted out on his victims. He didn't kill them and desecrate their bodies; he forced them to experience pain and humiliation before he killed them. Then he desecrated their bodies." Includes 50 photographs WARNING: SOME FORENSIC CRIME SCENE EVIDENCE PHOTOS, EXPLICIT LANGUANGE AND GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF EXTREME SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND DEPRAVITY THAT SOME MAY FIND HIGHLY DISTURBING

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