Rodney Alcala – Dating Game Killer

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Rodney Alcala - Dating Game Killer

Rodney Alcala came off as an intelligent charismatic man who presented himself as a professional photographer to lure unsuspecting women to their deaths.  He was even so bold as to go on the popular game show The Dating Game when he had already sexually assaulted two young girls and murdered two women. How would a sketch of a suspect in a 12-year-old girl’s murder and a storage locker bring him to justice?  Listen to find out!

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Rodney Alcala

He is a convicted serial rapist and murderer. He was convicted of killing 8 girls/teens/women, but is suspected of raping or even murdering up to 130 victims. What makes him so monstrous was that he toyed with his victims.  He would strangle them until they lost consciousness. Then when they would revive he would strangle them again and would repeat this several times until he finally killed them.  

Rodney Alcala was born August 23, 1943, in San Antonio, TX.

Alcala’s Early Life

In 1951 Alcala’s father moved the family to Mexico. This included his mother, two sisters, and a brother. Three years later his father abandoned the family. After that, his mother moved the family back to the Los Angeles suburbs by 1954.

In 1961 Rodney Alcala joined the US Army where he served in a clerk position. Due to possible a nervous breakdown, he went AWOL from Ft. Bragg. Subsequently, military authorities found him at his mother’s house.

He was diagnosed with an antisocial personality disorder. This is also known as sociopathy. In other words, a person who consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. They show no guilt or remorse for their actions. Alcala was diagnosed by a military psychiatrist and received a medical discharge from the Army.

Other psychiatrists who evaluated him during his various trials have diagnosed him with:

  • Narcissistic personality disorder – inflated sense of self-importance
  • Borderline personality disorder – extreme emotions and impulsiveness
  • Malignant personality disorder with psychopathy and narcissistic sexual sadism comorbidities

1968 – Graduates from UCLA

Alcala graduates from the UCLA School of Fine Arts in 1968. This is also the year he commits his first known sexual assault on an 8-year-old girl named Tali Shapiro.

One morning in September 1968 the authorities received a call from a concerned citizen. They witnessed a beige color car with no license plate following a young girl. Eventually, she gets into his car. This good Samaritan follows the car to an apartment and subsequently contacts the police with his concerns. LA Police officer Chris Camacho receives the call and makes his way to the apartment. When he knocks on the door a man answers and says that he’s in the shower and needs to get dressed. Camacho said you have 10 seconds to open the door and then he kicks in the door. At the same time, the officer was coming through the front, Alcala was running out the back.

Camacho found Tali Shapiro on the kitchen floor having been raped, beaten, and covered in blood with a steel bar across her neck. Thinking she was dead due to the amount of blood all around her, he removes the pipe and continues to search the apartment for the perp. As a result of searching the residence, he finds photographic equipment and a large number of photographs of “very young girls.” In addition, there was a picture ID for Rodney Alcala, an undergrad student at UCLA.

When Camacho returns to the kitchen Tali is gasping for air, clearly not dead. She is immediately rushed to the hospital. After Tali recovers her family moves to Mexico to get her away. Alcala is in the wind and police have no clue to his whereabouts. He’s considered a fugitive. Detective Steve Hodel from the LAPD Homicide unit is assigned to the case.

Black Dahlia

Detective Steve Hodel was assigned to the Rodney Alcala case. His father was Dr. George Hodel of Black Dahlia fame
Dr. George Hodel circa 1950 Steve Hodel [CC BY-SA]

An interesting side note is Steve Hodel has a connection to the Black Dahlia case. He wrote a book Black Dalia Avenger which was published in 2003 as he believes that his father Dr. Steve Hodel was responsible for the Elizabeth Short (aka Black Dahlia) murder.

Police talked to friends and professors at UCLA who couldn’t believe the friendly and intelligent Alcala could do such a thing. What police didn’t know was that Rodney Alcala had traveled to NY City where he enrolled in the NYU Film School under the name of John Berger.

1969 – Added to Most Wanted Fugitives

In 1969 the FBI add Rodney Alcala to the Most Wanted Fugitives list.

1971 – Works At All Girls Camp As Camp Counselor

In 1971, Rodney Alcala worked as a camp counselor at an all-girls art camp in New Hampshire using the alias John Berger. Michel Crilley, a 23-year-old flight attendant for TWA would found raped and strangled in her Manhattan apartment in 1971.  

Early in 1971, two girls who attended the art camp recognized Alcala’s photo at the post office and told the dean of the program. The dean contacted the police. As a result, Alcala is arrested and extradited back to California to stand trial for the rape and attempted murder of Tali Shapiro. Tali’s parents refused to allow her to testify so authorities were unable to convict him on the more serious charges. They offered a plea deal for a lesser charge of child molestation per 48 hours or assault per Wikipedia.

Alcala was incarcerated in 1971 under the indeterminate sentencing guidelines from 1 year to life. Indeterminate sentencing is where the length of one’s sentence in determined by their conduct behind bars. It is no longer used as of 1984 under the Sentencing Reform Act. Rodney Alcala ended up serving 34 months.

1974 – Re-Arrested

Two months after he was released in 1974 he was re-arrested after assaulting a 13-year-old girl, identified in court records as Julie J – who thought she was just accepting a ride to school. Once again he ended up serving a short jail term of just under 2 years until 1977.

1977 – Allegedly Kills Dean Martin’s God-Daughter

With the permission of his parole office in 1977, Alcala traveled to New York City. It is believed that upon arriving in NYC Alcala killed Ellen Jane Hover, age 23 in July 1977.  She was a gifted pianist and aspiring orchestra conductor. Ellen was the daughter of the owner of the popular West Hollywood nightclub Ciro’s on Sunset Boulevard.  Stars such as Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, and Frank Sinatra were frequent guests. She was also the god-daughter of Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. It is now known as The Comedy Store.

This information comes from her cousin who later became her step-sibling.  She had written down in her date book a name of a photographer, John Berger, who had graduated from UCLA Film School, had studied under Roman Polanski, and had taught at a summer camp.  According to friends, this man was pressuring her to have lunch with him and because she was too nice to say no, she agreed.

CDP Life Tip #2

She never came back from that lunch date. Her remains were found on the grounds of the Rockefeller Estate 11 months later.  This estate was a favorite photo-shoot location of Acala’s.

1978 – Appears On The Dating Game

Rodney Alcala was on The Dating Game
The Dating Game circa 1968

During this time Alcala appeared as a contestant on the popular game show The Dating Game. This show ran from 1965 to about 1980 through syndication.  Jim Lange was the host. Rodney Alcala was introduced as a successful photographer.

At the end of the game the bachelorette, Cheryl Bradshaw,  picked Bachelor #1 out of the 3 contestants. Bachelor #1 was Alcala, who was 35 at the time. She refused to go out on a date with him saying that she found him creepy.

1979 – Twelve-Year-Old Girl Disappears

On June 20, 1979, a 12-year-old girl named Robin Samsoe disappeared on her way to ballet class in Huntington Beach, California. When she didn’t return home by 5 pm that night her parents couldn’t find any trace of her or her bike. Her body was found 12 days later. A fire crew was conducting routine fire prevention maintenance in the Los Angeles foothills about 40 miles from her home. Due to being left out in the elements and animals they only found skeletal remains.

Through the police investigation, they talked to Robin’s friend, Bridget Wilvert, who had been with her earlier that day at the beach.  At the beach, they were approached by a man who offered to take their photograph. When a neighbor approached the small group the man had walked away.  

A Sketch is Circulated

A sketch is circulated based upon the description of Robin’s friend. Alcala’s former parole officer recognizes the sketch and consequently notifies authorities working on Robin’s case. On July 24, 1979, Alcala is arrested and held without bail. A search warrant was obtained for Alcala’s mother’s home with whom he was living at that time.  

Police found a receipt for a storage locker in Seattle, Washington. While Alcala was in jail his sister visited him and their conversations were of course recorded. Alcala asked his sister to go to Seattle, Washington, and clear out his storage locker. He didn’t believe the police knew about the storage locker and didn’t know they had the receipt.

Police beat the sister there and found hundreds of photographs of young girls in various poses, some nude and very sexualized. There were also pictures of young boys. You can find some of these photos online by searching for “serial killer’s secret photos” at cbsnews.com. Police also found Samsoe’s earrings, which Alcala tried to claim were his, but later DNA testing would show that he was lying.

1980 – Sentenced To Death

In February 1980 Rodney Alcala was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Robin Samsoe. In 1984, by a 5 to 1 decision the California Supreme Court overturned his conviction because jurors had been improperly informed of Alcala’s prior sex crimes.

1986 – Tried Again

In 1986 Alcala went on trial again with the prosecution laying out a case that was identical to the first trial, but this time without the mention of his previous sex crimes. Alcala was again convicted and sentenced to death. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals nullified the conviction in part because a witness was not allowed to support Alcala’s contention that the park ranger who found the body had been hypnotized by police.

1994 – Writes A Book

Rodney Alcala wrote a book “You, The Jury” between his 2nd and 3rd trials that was self-published regarding the murder of Robin Samsoe and to get alternative theories out about who the real killer might be. One review on Amazon by Doctor JoeE states “interesting in a perverse sort of way….twisted, politically incorrect kind of way.” It does give a rare glimpse into the thought process of a serial murderer. This book helped the prosecution by tying Alcala to a set of facts long before DNA testing was done.

2004 – DNA Matches Cold Case Files

By 2004 technology had advanced such that DNA matches from cold-case files lead to his indictment on 4 additional rape/murder victims.

  • Jill Barcomb (18) – NY runaway was found in Los Angeles ravine in 1977.
  • Georgia Wixted (27) was found bludgeoned in her Malibu apartment in 1977.  She was a cardiac-care nurse.
  • Charlotte Lamb (31) was found raped and strangled in the laundry room of her apartment complex in 1978.  She was a legal secretary. Her earrings were also found in the storage locker.
  • Jill Parenteau (21) was killed in her Burbank apartment in 1979

All four of their bodies were found posed in what police described as “carefully chosen positions, beaten and had trauma to their heads.” Each body had been strangled with ligatures marks that were similar.

2006 – Supreme Court Ruling

In 2006 the California Supreme Court ruled that the prosecution could join all five cases.

2010 – Alacala Stands Trial

Alcala stood trial in January 2010 on all 5 murders. This was 31 years after Robin’s murder. Rodney Alcala acted as his own attorney. Alcala spent five hours cross-examining himself using a different tone of voice when he was playing the part of the defense attorney. Alcala didn’t address the four murders that his DNA matched, but instead focused on Robin’s murder stating he was on a job interview.

As part of his closing argument, he played a song by Arlo Guthrie “Alice’s Restaurant” which was from his 1967 debut album of the same name. The portion that he played was: I wanna kill, I wanna kill, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth, eat dead burnt bodies, kill, kill, kill. This song was a deadpan protest of the Vietnam war draft that was 18 minutes long.

The jury deliberated for little over 1 day and convicted him on all five counts. During the penalty phase, Tali Shapiro gave an impact statement. On March 2010 Alcala was sentenced to death for the 3rd time.

Also in March 2010, the Huntington Beach and NYC Police Department released over 120 Alcala photographs (this was out of over 1,000).  These were the only ones that were not too explicit. After the first few weeks, about 21 women contacted the police letting them know they had seen their photos.

Seattle Police Name Alcala Person Of Interest

In 2010 Seattle police named Acala as a person of interest in the unsolved murders of:

  • Antionette Wittaker (13) who was murdered in July 1977
  • Joyce Gaunt (17) murdered in February 1978

Evidence had been found in the storage locker linking him to these murders.

New York Detectives Get Dental Impression

In 2003, NYC Detectives armed with a warrant flew to California to visit Rodney Alcala to get a dental impression from him. In January 2011 Manhattan Grand Jury indicted Acala for 2 more murders:

  • Cornelia Crilley, TWO Flight Attendant in 1971
  • Ellen Hoover, Ciro’s heiress in 1977
Death Penalty

In June 2012 Acala was extradited back to NYC, where he initially pleaded not guilty on both counts of first-degree murder, but in December 2012 he changed his plea to guilty because he wanted to return to California to work on his death penalty appeals. In January 2013 a Manhattan judge sentenced Acala to an additional 25 years to life. Since 2007 there has been no death penalty option in NY.

San Francisco, California

In March 2011 Investigators were “confident” Alcala was responsible for the 1977 murder of 19-year-old, Pamela Jean Lambson, who disappeared after making a trip to Fisherman’s Warf to meet a man who offered to take photographs of her. Her body was found battered and naked near a hiking trail in Marin County, but with no prints or DNA there is insufficient evidence to charge.

Wyoming Murder Victim Recognized

A family member recognized the photo of Christine Thornton (28) in 2013. In September 2016, Alcala was charged with the murder of Christine Ruth Thornton (28) who disappeared in 1977. Her body had been found in 1982, but not identified until 2015 when DNA supplied by Thornton’s relatives matched tissue samples from her remains. She was 6 months pregnant when she was murdered. Alcala admits to taking her picture, but not to the murder. At 73, he is “too ill” to make the trip from California to Wyoming to stand trial on the new charges. Rodney Alcala remains in California State Prison in Corcoran pending further appeals of his death sentences.

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