UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast

Who is the Times Square Killer—and how many people did Richard Cottingham actually kill?
In this episode of UNMARKED, we reconstruct the timeline of Cottingham’s crimes across New York and New Jersey—tracking his early escalation, his use of deception and control, and how he was able to evade detection for years.
Featuring criminologist Peter Vronsky, who has spent over 700 hours in direct conversation with Cottingham, this episode draws on firsthand interviews, police records, and cold case developments to separate fact from fiction.
We examine:

Cottingham’s early violent escalation in the 1960s

His movement across jurisdictions and how it prevented linkage

His use of authority ruses, manipulation, and control

The Times Square environment in the 1970s and its role in victim selection

Ongoing efforts to identify unknown victims and close cold cases

This is not a retelling—it’s an analysis of the evidence itself. Because with Cottingham, the story isn’t just what happened.
It’s what’s missing.
If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday
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If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.
Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7
For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.
Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

In 1992, I wrote to the Milwaukee Police Department and asked for the Jeffrey Dahmer case files. Weeks later, they mailed me his full confession.
In this episode of UNMARKED, I go inside Jeffrey Dahmer’s confession—page by page—to understand how one of the most notorious serial killers in history developed, escalated, and ultimately got caught.
Using Dahmer’s own words, police reports, and expert insight from forensic psychologist Dr. Eric Hickey, this episode examines:

How Dahmer’s childhood isolation and psychological profile shaped his behavior

The role of fantasy, control, and fear of abandonment in his crimes

Why victims were targeted—and why many disappearances went uninvestigated

The failures of law enforcement that allowed Dahmer to continue killing

What Dahmer says—and what he leaves out of his confession

This is not a retelling of the crimes. It’s an analysis of the mind behind them.
If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.
Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7
For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.
Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday
UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

Ted Bundy didn’t begin with murder. Long before the headlines, before the trials, before the mythology took hold, there were patterns—behaviours that escalated, fractures that widened, and warning signs that, in hindsight, feel impossible to ignore.
In this episode of UNMARKED, we step back from the crimes themselves and examine Bundy at the point of origin. Drawing from psychological analysis, original records, and the work of those who studied him closely, this isn’t a retelling—it’s an investigation into how someone like Bundy takes shape.
Because the public story often begins at the moment of violence. But the real story starts much earlier.
Through the lens of his psychologist, we look at the early formation of control, manipulation, and detachment, traits that would later define one of the most studied serial killers in modern history.
This episode doesn’t mythologize Bundy. It strips the story back to behaviour, evidence, and pattern—so you can see where it actually begins.
If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.
Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7
For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.
Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday
UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

Danny Rolling’s murders in Gainesville shocked the country. But they didn’t begin there. In this episode, I travel to Florida to investigate the Gainesville Ripper — speaking with journalists, authors, and witnesses who lived through the panic — and trace the case back to where it really starts.
Long before the murders, there were warning signs: documented abuse, escalating behavior, and multiple points where intervention could have happened… but didn’t.
This isn’t just the story of what Danny Rolling did. It’s the story of how he got there — and how those failures followed him across state lines.
Featuring interviews with Emmy-winning investigative journalist Mike Deeson and author J.T. Hunter, this episode examines the psychology, the escalation, and the systemic blind spots behind one of the most disturbing cases in modern true crime.
If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.
Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7
For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.
Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday
UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

In the final year of his life, I spoke with Charles Manson on the phone multiple times. Those conversations became the foundation of a decade-long investigation into the people who once called themselves the Manson Family.
In this episode, I track down the surviving members of the Manson Family — speaking with former followers, examining trial records, and revisiting the places where the group formed, radicalized, and ultimately collapsed.
What emerges is a story far more complicated than the word “cult.” The Manson Family began as a loose commune of runaways and outsiders drifting through the counterculture of the late 1960s. Over time, isolation, fear, and loyalty transformed that group into something far more dangerous.
Through interviews with former members, firsthand witnesses, and people who knew Charles Manson personally, we examine how the Family formed, why people followed him, and what became of them after the murders.
The research behind this episode comes from years of interviews with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself. I document that investigation in my book Charles Manson: The Last Words.
Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7
For those who want to examine the Manson material directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.
Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.