A New Jersey inmate, known as the Torso Killer, pleaded guilty to a 1968 murder near New York City and admitted to four other homicides, prosecutors said Monday.
According to officials, Richard Cottingham, believed to be one of America's most prolific serial killers, admitted to strangling 23-year-old Diane Cusick on February 15, 1968 at the Green Acres Mall in Nassau County.
He also confessed to four other Long Island slayings, as well as Cusick's case, officials said.
Today is one of the most emotionally-charged days we've had the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, District Attorney Anne Donnelly told reporters in Mineola.
Cusick had left her job at a children's dance school and stopped at the mall to buy a pair of shoes when she was strangled in her car, authorities said.
In the case of Diane Cusick, her family has waited nearly 55 years for someone to be held accountable for her death, Donnelly said. She fought back tears at points of a 40-minute meeting with reporters.
Cottingham is in poor health and living in a New Jersey prison, serving multiple life sentences on other murders, officials said.
Nassau County investigators said Cottingham could be responsible for as many as 13 homicides in their jurisdiction, but these slayings are the only ones that they can positively link him to now.
These are the five we could be certain he committed to, Donnelly said.