Dating Game Serial Killer Rodney Alcala

[Lux1969]

Photo descriptions:
#1 The devil in the fleshl, Rodrigo Alcala.
#2-4: Tali Shapiro and the scene of her attempted murder
#5: Cornelia Crilley
#6: Ellen Jane Hover
#7-10: Jill Barcomb murder scene
#11-13: Georgia Marie Wixted and murder scene.
#14-17: Charlotte Lee Lamb and murder scene
#18: Jill Marie Parenteau
#19-20: Robin Christine Samsoe

Rodney James Alcala (born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala; August 23, 1943 – July 24, 2021) was an American serial killer, rapist, and convicted sex offender who was sentenced to death in California for five murders committed between 1977 and 1979. He also pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 25 years to life for two further murders committed in New York. He was also indicted for a murder in Wyoming, although the charges filed there were dropped.[2] While Alcala has been conclusively linked to eight murders, the true number of victims remains unknown and could be as high as 130.

On September 25, 1968, a passing motorist named Donald Haines called police after witnessing Alcala lure Tali Shapiro, aged eight, into his Hollywood apartment. Shapiro, who was residing at the Chateau Marmont with her family, was approached by Alcala on her way to school when he pulled up beside her in his car and asked if she needed a ride. Shapiro initially refused, but when she heard him say that he knew her parents, she got into his car. Alcala then took her to his apartment, where he told Shapiro he wanted to show her a picture. When the police arrived, Shapiro was found alive in a pool of her blood, having been raped and beaten with a steel bar; Alcala had fled. Shapiro was in a coma for 32 days and spent months in recovery.

Crilley Murder
To evade the arrest warrant stemming from the Shapiro assault, Alcala left California and enrolled at NYU, using the name "John Berger."[16] Cornelia Crilley, a 23-year-old Trans World Airlines flight attendant, was found raped and murdered in her Manhattan apartment on June 12, 1971. Alcala had strangled her with her own nylon stockings, leaving her dead in her apartment at 427 East 83rd Street.[17] It is believed that Crilley met Alcala as she moved into her new apartment and she accepted his help in moving some furniture. Her murder remained unsolved until 2011.

During this time Alcala is arrested, released and doesn't stand trial for the attempted murder and rape of Tali Shapiro because her parents don't want her to have to endure trial.

Hover disappearance
After Alcala's second release in 1977, his Los Angeles parole officer made the unusual choice of permitting a repeat offender— and known flight risk — to travel to New York City. New York Police Department investigators now believe that a week after returning to Manhattan, Alcala killed Ellen Jane Hover, 23-year-old daughter of nightclub owner Herman Hover and goddaughter of Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. Hover was last seen at her New York apartment on July 15, 1977. Her datebook showed that she had an appointment to meet with one "John Berger" that same day.

Move to Los Angeles
In 1977, Alcala worked briefly at the Los Angeles Times as a typesetter, and was interviewed by members of the Hillside Strangler task force as part of their investigation of known sex offenders. Although Alcala was ruled out as the Strangler, he was arrested and served a brief sentence for marijuana possession.[14] During this period, Alcala convinced hundreds of young men and women that he was a professional fashion photographer and took pictures of them for his "portfolio".

Dating Game appearance
In 1978, in the midst of his killing spree, Alcala was a contestant on the popular game show The Dating Game. Host Jim Lange introduced him as a "successful photographer...[B]etween takes you might find him skydiving or motorcycling." Jed Miles, a fellow "bachelor" contestant on the episode, later described Alcala as a "very strange guy" with "bizarre opinions".[9] Alcala won the competition, and a date with the episode's bachelorette, Cheryl Bradshaw, who subsequently refused to go out with him because she found him "creepy".[5][9]

California crime spree
On November 9, 1977, Alcala murdered Jill Terry Barcomb, an 18-year-old girl from Oneida, New York, and disposed of her body on a dirt path near Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. Barcomb was found in a knee-to-chest position and naked from the waist down. There were signs of sexual assault, and she had been strangled with a pair of blue rope ties and beaten. Her skull had been crushed with a bloodied rock found nearby. She also had three bite marks on her right breast. Initially, authorities believed Barcomb was a victim of the Hillside Strangler. However, after the arrests of Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono—neither of whom confessed to or were convicted of her murder — authorities determined that her case was unrelated.[citation needed]
On December 16, 1977, 27-year-old nurse Georgia Marie Wixted was discovered dead in her Malibu apartment. She was last seen when she drove another nurse, Barbara Gale, home from a bar. When Wixted did not show up for work the next day, Gale and their co-workers reported her missing. Police arrived at Wixted's apartment to find signs of forced entry. Wixted was posed naked on her bedroom floor, strangled with her nylons. She had been sexually assaulted, her skull had been bashed in by a hammer she kept by her bedside for protection and her genitals had been mutilated. Prosecutors later used DNA evidence and a handprint found at the scene to convict Alcala.[29]
On June 24, 1978, Charlotte Lee Lamb, a 31-year-old legal secretary from Santa Monica, was found dead in the laundry room of the apartment complex where she was living in El Segundo. She had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled with a shoelace and was posed with her hands behind her back. DNA at the scene would match that of Alcala and DNA on a pair of earrings found in his storage locker after Robin Christine Samsoe's 1979 murder would eventually prove to match Lamb's DNA.[29][14]
On February 14, 1979, Alcala picked up 15-year-old hitchhiker Monique Hoyt in Riverside County.[30] He drove Hoyt to his apartment, where he raped her. They then traveled to a secluded mountainous area in Joshua Tree, California, where Alcala took photos of her in her underwear as well as photos of him raping her once again. He bound and gagged her and began a sustained assault, which included further rape and sodomy. Alcala bludgeoned Hoyt in the head with a rock, but Hoyt escaped when Alcala entered a gas station bathroom on the drive back to Riverside County. Hoyt filed a police report about her ordeal, and Alcala was arrested, but his mother posted his bail.[30]
On June 13, 1979, Jill Marie Parenteau, a 21-year-old computer keypunch operator, left work early to go to a baseball game. When she did not make it to work the following morning, police went to her Burbank apartment and found signs of forced entry. Parenteau was dead, naked on her bathroom floor. She was posed with pillows under her shoulders. She had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled. Her killer cut himself crawling through a window and blood evidence would later identify Alcala as the perpetrator. Parenteau's friend, Katharine Bryant, testified that she and Parenteau had met Alcala at a club several times before.[5][29]
On June 20, 1979, Robin Christine Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl from Huntington Beach, disappeared as she rode a borrowed bicycle from her Huntington Beach home to her ballet class. Her decomposing body was found 12 days later in the Los Angeles foothills, dumped off Santa Anita Canyon Road.[31][32] She had been beaten, raped and stabbed with a knife. Samsoe's friends told police that a stranger had approached them on the beach asking to take their pictures. Detectives circulated a sketch of the photographer, and Alcala's parole officer recognized him.

Alcala was arrested in July 1979 and held without bail. He went on trial for Samsoe's murder, was found guilty in May 1980 and sentenced to death in June.[33][34] However, the verdict was overturned by the California Supreme Court in 1984 because jurors had been improperly informed of his prior sex crimes. In May 1986, after a second trial virtually identical to the first except for omission of the prior criminal record testimony, he was again convicted and sentenced to death in August

[Lux1969]

order got messed up, here are:

#2-4: Tali Shapiro and the scene of her attempted murder
#5: Cornelia Crilley

[jennyt]

I’ve never seen so many blurred photos on here.. ever.

[Lux1969]

not hard to get uncensored photos when all you post are randos in third world countries. this site has no content on this case... at all. submit an FOA if you're so bothered.

[akham]

Originally Posted by jennyt

I’ve never seen so many blurred photos on here.. ever.

That's a pretty shitty thing to say to someone who made a contribution to the site.

[Lux1969]

Originally Posted by akham

That's a pretty shitty thing to say to someone who made a contribution to the site.

Thank you! It's a super high-profile case. As I responded to her, it's super easy to get uncensored pics of randoms in third-world countries that no one cares about. These pictures weren't easy to find.

[wyldrozez]

Great finds! I tried to find more information on this case a while back, I didn't get even close to this amount of photos! Thanks for the deep dive!

[Caveman5150]

Where do you find all this good shit all time Lux?... damn

[mr_feelgood]

It is very nice to see this forum updated with new material. I know it'll get hard because after a while you run out of stuff to pick from history so I'm always appreciative for this

[Lux1969]

Originally Posted by mr_feelgood

It is very nice to see this forum updated with new material. I know it'll get hard because after a while you run out of stuff to pick from history so I'm always appreciative for this

Thank you!