THREE LIES OFF THE TOP TOLD IN A&E'S "TORSO KILLER CONFESSIONS" Without diminishing the righteous work done by retired Chief Robert Anzilotti in closing murders committed by Richard Cottingham - he has not had the class and dignity to raise himself above his ego to share credit for the good work he has done, and has even chosen to state mistruths in the TV show recently aired on A&E, which he executive-produced. Here are three examples (of many) bullshit claims off the top:

1. Anzilotti implies he first developed in 2004-2010, Cottingham's confession to the murder of Nancy Vogel. That he had to brilliantly figure out who that victim might be.

BULLSHIT.

Cottingham confessed to the murder of Nancy Vogel in 1997 to Detective Alan Grieco of the Bergen County Prosecutors Office (BCPO) who was working with Charles Buckley, the Deputy-Attorney General assigned to BCPO at the time, and a deal had been made for the case to be closed and the Vogel family were to be informed.  But they never were.  The deal was cancelled, apparently for political reasons at the behest of the then New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman for political, who was concerned appearing "tough on crime" - no deals were going to be made. The A&E show even had retired Detective Grieco on as a guest, without mentioning that he had developed, confirmed and all-but-closed Cottingham's confession to the murder of Nancy Vogel back in the 1990s, when Anzilotti was still wet-behind-the-ears as a cop. The confession of Nancy Vogel was delivered to Anzilotti like room service on a platter by another senior cop's work (someone who actually was his mentor godfather in BCPO) who A&E refuses to acknowledge.

2. Anzilotti claims in his TV show he was surprised by my (I am the "true crime" author A&E refers to without the respect of mentioning me by name) public announcement in a church (not "a library" the way A&E gets it wrong) in Midland Park in December 2019 and implies that my making that public I somehow perhaps imperilled his investigation and any future forthcoming confessions from Cottingham.

BULLSHIT

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: Robert Anzilotti approved the text of my announcement in AUGUST 2019, six months before the December 2019 public meeting. It was scheduled to be published in February 2020, in the new updated second edition of my book Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monster - and Anzilotti and BCPO approved the text that would appear in the book. When John Bandstra, who also appears in the A&E documentary invited me to attend a public meeting on the murder of Jackie Harp he was hosting in the church basement in late December 2019, I met with Chief Anzilotti personally two weeks earlier, and reviewed with him what I would state in that meeting.

Right up to the morning of the meeting, Chief Anzilotti was contemplating appearing with me at the community meeting but three hours before it was scheduled to begin, he called me to say he decided not to attend the meeting because he was afraid to face "some of the questions that might be asked of him". Chief Anzilotti, myself, and John Bandstra agreed not to invite any members of the press to the meeting, however, Anzilotti on the morning of the meeting, confirmed to me that should the press attend or report on the meeting, any inquiries made by the press to BCPO, they will confirm the names of the three victims from 1968-1969, Jacalyn (Jackie) Harp, Irene Blase, and Denise Falasca, were exceptionally closed, their cause of death, and that Richard Cottingham confessed in their murders but will not be prosecuted. It was not a shock or surprise to Anzilotti, the way the bullshit A&E show makes it out to be.

It was done in coordination with Chief Anzilotti's and BCPO and was integral to the subsequent confessions by Cottingham to the murders of Kelly & Pryor and Della Sala.

 

3. Jennifer and I did not participate or assist in the four case closures 2004-2017.

Whether they were closed by the genius work of this one-man-band serial killer whisperer all by his genius lonesome Anzilotti self... I don't know... I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The world is full of geniuses. I know I'm not one. Maybe he is.

I know in the case of Nancy Vogel, all the work for Rob to figure out WHO the victim was, the way he claims he had to "Sherlock Holmes" it -- is bullshit because BCPO Detective Alan Grieco had done it all in the 1990s... but Anzilotti, earns due credit for reviving the case and getting it into a courtroom and closing it in 2010. BRAVO! Job well done, Detective Anzilotti. The 2014-2017 confession to Jacalyn (Jackie) Harp, Irene Blase, and Denise Falasca. I wasn't there. I will take retired Chief Anzilotti's word that it was all his genius work (and I am glad to see he at least for once credited his partner Jimmy McMorrow in the A&E show.)

BUT AFTER 2018... Lorraine Marie Kelly & Mary Ann Pryor 1974 Mary Ann Della Sala 1967 would NOT HAVE BEEN CLOSED without Jennifer Weiss's assistance.

Shame on Anzilotti for not even a nod of thanks to the work done by Jennifer Weiss, face to face with the man who cut off her mother's head, assisting BCPO in getting Cottingham moving again on the eve of Anzilotti's retirement. I know. I was there. I mediated the three confession in 2021 and 2022 between Cottingham on one side, a host of tripping over themselves geniuses like retired Chief Anzilotti, the new Chief Jason Love, Detectives Kevin Dempsey and Kelly Krenn. All hot-dog one-man-band geniuses.  BCPO seems to be full of them these days. The TRUE story of how those confessions were extracted and at WHAT COST will be told in my forthcoming book from Penguin Random House in the fall and the subsequent TV series.