Serial Killer Richard Cottingham Confesses to 1965 Murder of Alys Jean Eberhardt
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On September 4, 1965, Alys Jean Eberhardt, an 18-year-old student nurse at Hackensack Hospital, was found dead in her home.
Her body, which had been stabbed dozens of times, was discovered by her father in her home on Saddle River Road, Fair Lawn. Contemporary newspapers reported 61 stab wounds to the chest and throat at the hands of a butcher-knife-wielding assailant.
On the day of her murder, Alys had left work between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. and headed home as usual.
Alys was home alone that day. Her mother had travelled to upstate New York for the funeral of a relative, and Alys’s sister had joined her.
Alys’s father, Ross, a decorator, was supposed to join his wife that night together with Alys, but when he pulled up to the home at around 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., as usual, Alys did not greet him.
In a state of shock, he followed the path of disarray leading to his daughter’s body in a blood-stained room at the back of the home and called the local police. It didn’t take them long to arrive, along with local reporters hoping to get details of what had happened.
Although her injuries were extensive, it was blunt force trauma to the skull that was listed as the cause of death. According to investigators at the time, a struggle had ensued in a bedroom on the upper floor and down the staircase before finally ending at the back of the residence on the ground floor, where the victim was found with a knife protruding from her throat.
Although she had not been sexually assaulted, she was found naked from the waist up.
There were no signs of forced entry to the home, and the Eberhardts were known to keep their doors unlocked.
Alys had been dating a seventeen-year-old rock-and-roll guitarist named Louis Hemseyat—he was not considered a suspect.
At the time of the murder, Bergen County Prosecutor Guy W. Calissi said:
“We have no suspects at this time. The girl was murdered by stab wounds, multiple stab wounds. Obviously, she was beaten. There were signs of real struggle, but there were no signs of forced entry. We’re not ruling out anything.”
According to newspapers at the time, one of the knives used in the attack, which was left behind at the crime scene, was traced back to a shop located at the New York World’s Fair. Although no more than 1,000 units had been produced, investigators reported that the knives could be bought from a couple of other stores in New York and an additional store in Arizona.
This knife was described in reports as “a curved oriental dagger.”
After interviewing hundreds of people, police admitted they had come to a dead end.
With no suspect arrested, rumors about who the killer was began to swirl.
Some people in the local community, accused Alys’s own father of murdering her- which was untrue.
In an interview with The News in the fall of 1965, Ross Eberhardt went on to explain that the rumor allegedly circulated on a radio station and falsely claimed he had given himself up to police.
He later said of the false rumors:
“The rumors around town are almost unbelievable. There are many people who still go around saying that I am the suspect in my daughter’s murder. Can you imagine the callousness and the heartlessness of these individuals?”
The following year, in 1966, newspapers began to speculate that Richard Speck could have been responsible for the slaying. In July 1966, The Record wrote that Speck “was probably in the New York–New Jersey area” around the time of Alys’s murder, and that police said they would “work to connect the unsolved crimes” with the killer.
Richard Speck was a murderer who killed eight student nurses at a residence in South Deering, Chicago, in the summer of 1966.
Speck also had a tattoo of a dagger and sickle, which investigators at the time speculated looked similar to a curved dagger used in the attack.
No link was ever made, and the case went cold for decades- until earlier this month, when Richard Cottingham, also known as the “Torso Killer,” confessed to the murder of Alys Eberhardt.
Cottingham, who is currently incarcerated at South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, New Jersey, is responsible for the deaths of at least 20 victims, although he claims to be responsible for upward of 100.
His crimes took place between 1965 and 1980 and ended with his arrest on May 22, 1980.
Earlier this month, New Jersey police announced that Alys Eberhardt’s case has been closed following Cottingham’s confession.
Detective Brian Rypkema of the Fair Lawn Police said in an interview that Cottingham claimed he had met Alys two weeks prior to the murder.
Rypkema told PIX11 that Cottingham had said:
“There was just something about her that drew his attention to her, that all the girls were talking to her, she carried herself well, and that’s why he picked her out of the group of girls.”
Cottingham was also able to give details about the murder that were not publicly released, media outlets report.
After over 50 hours of interviewing and questioning Cottingham, investigators said they were confident he was responsible for the 1965 murder of Alys Jean Eberhardt and that the case was officially closed.