Biography of Rodney Alcala (1943–)

  Rodney Alcala is an American serial killer whose beauty and high IQ helped to lure victims.  Her appearance on the 1978 television show The Dating Game earned her the nickname "The Dating Game Killer".

  Who is Rodney Alcala?

  Serial killer Rodney James Alcala killed at least nine women and girls in the 1970s, although his actual death toll could be more than 100.  He spent time in prison in the 1970s for sexual abuse and other crimes, but was repeatedly raped and killed while he was free.  At the autopsies of some alcohol victims he strangled the women and then waited for them to regain consciousness before the final murder.  Al-Qala sometimes arranged for the bodies of the women he had murdered to pose.  In 2010, photos taken decades ago by Al Qaeda were made public to try to identify other victims.  He has been in prison since being arrested in July 1979 for kidnapping and murdering a 12-year-old girl.  Al-Qala was sentenced to death in California, but is unlikely to face the death penalty as the government has suspended all executions.

  Early life

  Alcala was born August 23, 1943 in San Antonio, Texas as Rodrigo Jack Alcala-Bucor.  He emigrated to Mexico with his family when he was 8 years old, and his father abandoned the family while he was in Mexico.  Alkala, his siblings and mother later moved to Los Angeles.

  At the age of 17 he joined the Al Qaeda army.  In 1964, he was released after suffering a fracture and being diagnosed with an antisocial personality disorder.

  He studied at California State University and later transferred to UCLA.  He graduated in 1968 with a degree in Fine Arts.  After leaving California that year, Alcala used his John Berger alias to join New York University, where he took classes with Roman Polanski.

  First arrest

  After escaping his 1968 attack on 8-year-old Tali Shapiro, Al Qaeda sailed to the east coast.  In 1971 he was added to the FBI's Most Wanted list.  Some of the girls at an art camp in New Hampshire recognized their counselor using the name John Berger from this list.  They told the camp dean that Alkala was soon arrested, although he was able to plead guilty to a lesser charge of child abuse and served only 34 months.

  Although he was a registered sex offender, he was able to get a job as a typewriter for the Alcala The Los Angeles Times in September 1977.

  Another set of homicides in California in the 1970s prompted California police to interview Alcala in March 1978 as a suspect in the Hillside Strongler murders.  Al Qaeda was acquitted of those crimes, and the police did not realize that they were actually talking to another serial killer.

  'Dating Game Killer'

  In September 1978, Alkala appeared as the bachelor No. 1 in The Dating Game, a television show that interviewed men and women with cheek-to-date dates, unseen vision.  He was a convicted child sex offender at the time, but the show did not conduct a background check.

  Alcala "was introduced as a successful photographer, who got his start when his father saw him in a dark room at the age of 13, and he was fully grown."  When asked about her future date Cheryl Bradshaw to describe what kind of food she would like, she replied, "I'm called 'banana', I'm so beautiful ... peel me."

  The charm and innovation of Alcala won a date with Bradshaw.  However, when they met face to face, Alkala realized she was "too primitive" and did not want to go out with him.

  Victims

  Alkala is a tall and handsome man, he often told women that he was a fashion photographer and he wanted to take photos for a competition.  His ingenuity and charm may make him tempting.  A woman who missed a date with Alcala since her arrest in 1979 later told people, "He was so easy to believe, he had a way to talk to people, and it was so relaxing for them."

  In the 1970s, Alcala killed Cornelia Grilli, 23, and Ellen Hoover, 23, of New York City.  Grilli was raped and strangled in her apartment in June 1971.  Hoover disappeared on July 15, 1977, leaving behind a calendar in which he said he would meet "John Berger".  His remains were discovered in 1978 in Westchester County, New York.  Al-Qaeda pleaded guilty in 2012 to the killings.  He was sentenced to 25 life terms, but that would only be granted if California released him from custody.

  Alkala was arrested in July 1979 for kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Robin Samso from Huntington Beach, California.  He was convicted of these charges in 1980.  The sentence was overturned four years later after the arbitral tribunal misrepresented Alkala's criminal record.  Another trial in 1986 resulted in a second conviction, but in 2001 it was overturned on a technical basis.  While in custody, he wrote the book Alkala Yu, Jury (1994) in which he argued that he was innocent.

  Before Al Qaeda's retrial for a third time for Samso's death, advances in the DNA world and other crime scenarios provided evidence linking him to more crimes (he was forced to provide a DNA sample).  At his next trial in 2010, Al Qaeda was again accused of killing Samso.  As part of the lawsuit against him, a pair of gold earrings attached to Samso were found in his Seattle storage locker.  He read alkalo clips from The Dating Game in 1978 that proved he already wore gold earrings, but these were not trusted by the jury.

  In addition, he faces charges of assaulting and strangling four women in California in the late 1970s: 18-year-old Jill Barcamp, 27, Georgia Wickstead, 27, was raped, assaulted, and strangled to death in June 1978 at the age of 32.  Lamp and parents of 21-year-old Jill, who was killed in June 1979.  Al-Qaeda wanted to represent itself during court proceedings.  In February 2010 he was convicted of five counts of murder.  He was sentenced to death in March 2010.

  Alcala was charged with the murder of Christine Ruth Thornton in Wyoming in 1977, although prosecutors did not want to extradite him.  Authorities believe he killed Pamela Lampson in the fall of 1977 in the San Francisco Bay Area.  However, the DNA collected in that crime case was very substandard, so he was not charged.

  Some of the Al Qaeda victims escaped his attacks.  In 1968, a witness was seen driving with Al Qaeda Shapiro.  Concerned, he followed them to an apartment and called the police.  The responding officer found Shapiro, who had been raped and beaten with a steel bar, but he was still alive.  In February 1979, 15-year-old Monique Hoyt escaped after being raped by an alcoholic.

  The exact death toll from the algae is unknown.  Some officials believe he killed 50 people, while others think he may have taken 130 lives.

  Final arrest

  Following Samso's disappearance, a portrait of the suspect was released.  Alcala's parole officer looked at it and recognized him.  Al Qala was arrested on July 24, 1979 by police.

  Following Al Qaeda's arrest in July 1979, police found hundreds of photographs of him in a Seattle storage locker.  These pictures, some of which are obvious, may have other alcohol victims as well.

  Police shared the photos with the public in 2010 in hopes of identifying those in the pictures.  Some were alive, came before.  The photos helped identify Thornton as one of the alcohol victims.