Suffolk County’s district lawyer says he’s weighing choices after a grieving household requested him to grant a serial killer immunity of their beloved one’s case in trade for particulars about what occurred to her.
Linda Greco started corresponding with infamous serial killer Richard Cottingham in 2022 after he confessed to 5 murders on Lengthy Island. She needed to know if he was chargeable for the homicide of her mom, Marilyn Simons, discovered useless in her automotive in Suffolk County in 1966 whereas out procuring.
Cottingham has been definitively linked to 19 murders in New York and New Jersey, and is serving a number of life sentences. He’s presently housed at South Woods Jail in Bridgeton, New Jersey, for murders dedicated in that state. He has additionally confessed to comparable crimes in New York, together with 5 in Nassau County. In December 2022, he pleaded responsible to the 1968 homicide of a younger mother, Diane Cusick.
However his well being has declined in recent times. This previous December, Cottingham wrote a cryptic message to Greco: “I am truly sorry for all of the grief I have brought to you and your family.”
He has not confessed to killing Simons, however her daughter believes he would if given immunity by the DA’s workplace. She has been corresponding with Cottingham, who has given her robust hints about his involvement.
Determined for solutions, Greco has requested District Legal professional Ray Tierney grant the killer’s ask.
In an unique interview, Tierney mentioned his workplace doesn’t promise immunity “in a vacuum.” He added that detectives are actively re-examining the Simons case, together with practically 300 others.
“There are reasons to offer immunity, but in any investigation, that’s not the first thing you go to. There are other things you look at,” Tierney mentioned. “I don’t think it’s just simply a matter of we’re going to get an immunity statement from someone and then just rely on that immunity statement. What we’re going to do is work out the entire investigation.”
The DA mentioned his chilly case unit — fashioned final yr after the arrest of Rex Heuermann within the Gilgo Seashore murders — is re-examining 300 chilly instances. Amongst these, the Simons homicide has been made a precedence.
“You don’t automatically take people’s words for it. You have to do the investigation. And that’s what we’re going to do,” mentioned Tierney, including that he would sit down with Simons’ household to “communicate our thoughts.”
Tierney mentioned no choice had but been made relating to whether or not to convey Cottingham to Suffolk County to talk with him in particular person.
Greco mentioned she was known as to a gathering on the district lawyer’s workplace the day after the I-Staff’s sit-down interview with Tierney, however she says Tierney appeared reticent to enlist the assistance of forensic historian Peter Vronsky. Vronsky has turn out to be a longtime confidant of Cottingham’s and is writing a e-book after he aided Nassau County detectives with their instances relating to Cottingham.
“I assisted in those closures. He strangled some, he drowned some. He battered. Some he suffocated,” Vronsky mentioned of the ladies. “There’s certain things he does. For example, a lot of his victims were abducted while they were shopping. They’re found in their own cars.”
Cottingham acquired immunity for 4 different murders, together with in Nassau and Rockland counties in New York, and in Bergen County, New Jersey. The sister of certainly one of his victims in Nassau County says Vronsky’s involvement helped get the immunity deal that allowed her household to lastly heal.
“It’s life-changing for me, knowing that Richard Cottingham killed my sister. But it’s way worse not knowing,” mentioned Jeanne Heinz. “And why would Linda not want that?”
As for Greco, she’s not seeking to have Cottingham face extra sentencing. She desires solutions for her mother.
“I don’t want him prosecuted. I just need to know so my mother can rest in peace,” mentioned Greco.
