Shownotes Transcript
If you're fascinated by the darker sides of humanity, join us every week on our podcast, Serial Killers, where we go deep into notorious true crime cases. With significant research and careful analysis, we examine the psyche of a killer, their motives and targets, and law enforcement's pursuit to stop their spree. Follow Serial Killers wherever you get your podcasts and get new episodes every Monday.
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Rodney James Alcala was a man with darkness in him. He killed seven women between 1977 and 1979, and was sentenced to death in California. Two more were killed in New York, where he got 25 years to life. His victims were many, but the real number remains uncertain. Some estimates say as high as 130.
Alcala would photograph his victims, rape them, then strangle them, letting them slip into unconsciousness. Only to wait and watch them revive. Then he would do it again. Some called him a killing machine. Others put him on par with Ted Bundy. But he would be remembered as the dating game killer. The man who smiled on television in 1978 while carrying on a murder spree behind the scenes. Part 1: The Making of a Monster
Rodney was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1943. He was one of four children to parents Raul and Ana. When he was young, his family moved to Mexico, but by 1954, his father had taken off. Alcala's mother moved the family to Los Angeles, where they settled. He was smart, excelling in school, joining track, cross-country, and the yearbook committee.
After graduating from Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary High School, Alcala enlisted in the army, serving as a paratrooper. His behavior though was erratic. Officers described him as manipulative and insubordinate. He was disciplined multiple times, often for assaults on women. He had a breakdown and went AWOL in 1964, hitchhiking to California from Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
A military psychiatrist estimated his IQ at 135, and he was discharged based on a diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder. After his discharge, he studied fine arts at UCLA. He later went to New York University, studying film under Roman Polanski. Any academic success he may have had would soon be overshadowed by his horrific crimes, which began in 1968.
On September 25th, 8-year-old Tally Shapiro's life took a devastating turn when Alcala convinced her to get into his car as she was walking to school. Shapiro had initially rejected his offer for a ride until he claimed to know her parents, and she reluctantly climbed into the vehicle. Alcala drove to his Hollywood apartment, telling the young girl he had a photo to show her.
Luckily, passing motorist Donald Haynes witnessed the abduction and alerted the police. If he hadn't, Shapiro surely would have been dead. Former Los Angeles police officer Chris Camacho arrived at the scene and knocked on the door, announcing his presence. A man appeared. Camacho described him as looking evil. Alcala claimed to be in the shower and needed time to get dressed. Sensing something was off, Camacho gave him a brief window before forcing open the door.
What he saw inside would haunt him forever. In the kitchen, the young girl lay motionless on the floor, surrounded by a sea of blood. Her body bruised from a savage beating with a steel bar. At first glance, there were no signs of life. The overwhelming silence in the room made it seem like the worst had already happened. But then, something incredible occurred. She gasped for air, struggling to breathe. Against all odds, Shapiro was still alive.
Paramedics rushed the girl to the hospital, where she remained in a coma for over a month. Investigators combed through the apartment, uncovering a chilling collection of photographs. There were countless images of young girls, many of them far too young. Among the items was an identification card belonging to Rodney Alcala, then a UCLA student. Despite the horrifying scene, the suspect had managed to slip away.
While officers stormed through the front door, Alcala had already escaped out the back, vanishing before he could be caught. The hunt for one of the most dangerous predators of the era had only just begun. Part 2: A Disturbing Double Life To escape the arrest warrant, Alcala fled California and enrolled at New York University.
Not long after, on June 12th, 1971, 23-year-old flight attendant Cornelia Crilley was found dead in her new Manhattan apartment, strangled with her own nylon stockings. The investigation into Cornelia's murder initially stalled, lost among the nearly 2,000 homicides that plagued New York City in 1971. Without forensic advancements or solid leads, detectives did what they could
But the case eventually went cold for four decades. At the time, Alcala didn't even make the suspect list. After the murder, he reinvented himself, adopting the name John Berger. He also relocated to New Hampshire, where he horrifyingly secured a position as a counselor at a girls' arts and drama camp. His cover might have remained intact if not for two observant campers.
While at the post office, they spotted a familiar face staring back at them from the FBI's "10 Most Wanted" list. The realization struck instantly. The man in the photo was none other than their counselor, Mr. Berger. Their discovery set off a chain of events that led to Alcala's arrest. The camp's dean immediately contacted authorities, and soon, the FBI had him in custody. A call was placed to California investigators,
After years of searching, they finally had their man. Despite the breakthrough, prosecuting him for the brutal attack on Tali Shapiro proved difficult. Deeply traumatized, her family had relocated to Mexico. They refused to let their daughter testify in court, making it challenging to move forward with the case. Without their primary witness, prosecutors couldn't charge him with rape or attempted murder.
Instead, Alcala was convicted of the lesser charge of child molestation and sentenced to just three years in prison. He was paroled in 1974 after only 34 months. It wasn't punishment enough. Less than two months after his parole, Alcala was arrested again, this time for assaulting another 13-year-old girl, who had believed she was accepting a ride to school.
After serving another two years in prison, Alcala was paroled once again in 1977 and registered as a sex offender. Surprisingly, his Los Angeles parole officer allowed him to travel to New York City, despite his dangerous criminal history.
In the summer of 1977, Ellen Jane Hover, the 23-year-old daughter of a nightclub owner and goddaughter of famous entertainers Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., was found to have had an appointment with a man named John Berger. She was last seen on July 15th. Though Alcala admitted knowing Hover, police were unable to arrest him as her body had not yet been found.
It wasn't until 1978 that her remains were discovered near the Hudson River, buried beneath heavy rocks. This location was eerily close to where a model later recalled being photographed by a man named Berger. In 1977, Alcala briefly worked as a typesetter at the Los Angeles Times. Again, his registered sex offender status raised no red flags with his employer.
During this time, however, he found himself under scrutiny at LAPD's Parker Center after the FBI linked him to the disappearance of Hover. Investigators had received a tip from the former drama camp counselor in New Hampshire who recalled a man named John Berger being arrested years earlier.
This revelation placed him back on law enforcement's radar. At Parker Center, Alcala admitted knowing Ellen Hover, but with no physical evidence or a body at the time, authorities had no grounds to detain him. Just months later, Hover's remains were discovered on the Rockefeller estate, confirming their worst suspicions. Despite growing concerns about his activities, Alcala continued to elude justice.
He even came under the scrutiny of the Hillside Strangler Task Force, which was investigating known sex offenders. In March of 1978, officers questioned him at his mother's home, ultimately ruling him out as a suspect in that case. However, a minor drug charge briefly landed him in jail.
During this period, Alcala managed to deceive countless young men and women into thinking he was a professional fashion photographer, using the guise of his portfolio to take photos that were part of his sinister secret collection, which he shared with victims and even some coworkers. Looking back, these coworkers realized how truly disturbing this was.
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Part 3: A Dark Dating Game In 1978, as Alcala's killings continued, he appeared on the popular game show The Dating Game. Host Jim Lang introduced him with zest.
Jed Mills, another contestant, remembered Alcala as a very strange guy with odd views. The veteran television and film actor said of the experience, "That's when I became part of a nightmare."
and I didn't realize it was a nightmare until 32 years later." Mills explains that something about Alcala made him instinctively want to keep his distance. He recalls subconsciously leaning away from Alcala, but was unsure if it was deliberate at the time. In hindsight, he realizes that his discomfort was so strong that he may have been trying to physically distance himself from Alcala without consciously knowing why.
Though he put on a show in front of the cameras, Mills said that back in the green room, Alcala was quiet, yet disruptive when he felt the need to interject. His behavior grew increasingly obnoxious and unsettling, to the point that he became rude, imposing, and intimidating. Mills felt a strong aversion to Alcala, finding him not only unlikable, but also creepier and more negative with each passing moment.
Mills notes that Alcala stood out as one of the most disturbing and unsettling individuals he had ever encountered. Crime profiler Pat Brown was asked by CNN to analyze Alcala's behavior during his appearance on The Dating Game. Brown noted that Alcala seemed to understand how to manipulate the situation, offering answers he knew would be seen as charming and funny, which won over the contestant.
However, she explained that his true nature as a psychopath eventually showed through when he interacted with the other bachelors backstage, where his hostility toward the other men was evident. For Alcala, winning the game was an ego-driven necessity, and his underlying disdain for the other contestants likely fueled his need to prove his superiority. On stage, however, he won over viewers and the female contestant, Cheryl Bradshaw.
Old footage from the show captured the unsettling exchanges between the two. In one instance, Bradshaw playfully asked Alcala, "I am serving you for dinner. What are you called and what do you look like?" Alcala responded with a bizarre and suggestive answer saying, "I'm called the Banana and I look really good." When pressed for more detail, he added,
"Peel me." The audience laughed, unaware that they were watching a serial predator hiding in plain sight. In another exchange, when asked what his best time was, Alcala creepily replied with a broad grin, "The best time is at night. Nighttime." Alcala and Bradshaw won a date together. But after meeting him, Bradshaw refused to go, calling him creepy.
She trusted her gut, and her gut likely saved her life. Crime profiler Brown suggested that such rejection could have had a lasting impact on Alcala. She pointed out that serial killers often struggle with rejection and may internalize it as a personal affront. They tend to blame the other person, viewing them as playing games or intentionally withholding affection, possibly further fueling violent tendencies.
Needless to say, Bradshaw's instinct was spot on. It was during this time that Alcala had launched his California crime spree. Part 4: A Murderous Rampage Several known murders happened within a year, the first unfolding on November 9th, 1977. It was then that 18-year-old Jill Barkham from Oneida, New York was murdered. Her body left on a dirt trail near Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles.
She had been beaten, sexually assaulted, bitten, and strangled with blue rope ties. Her lower half was naked, and she was positioned knee to chest. Initially, investigators suspected she was a victim of the hillside strangler. But after Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buona were apprehended without any connection to her case, authorities ruled it unrelated.
A little over a month later, on December 16th, 1977, 27-year-old nurse Georgia Marie Wickstead was found dead in her Malibu apartment. She had last been seen giving a ride home to a fellow nurse, Barbara Gale, after a night out, when Wickstead failed to appear for work the next day. Gale and other colleagues reported her missing. Police arrived at her residence to discover signs of forced entry.
Wickstead's nude body had been sexually assaulted, her genitals mutilated, her skull crushed, and she had been strangled with her nylons. She was posed on her bedroom floor. This was just days after investigators had questioned Alcala about the Hover murder case in New York. Investigators suspected Alcala was responsible, believing the crime to be a defiant act meant to demonstrate his ability to kill without consequence.
Six months later, on June 24, 1978, 31-year-old legal secretary Charlotte Lee Lamb was discovered strangled in the laundry room of her El Segundo apartment complex. Like the others, she'd been beaten, sexually assaulted, and posed. Alcala's violent spree might have ended in early 1979 when 15-year-old hitchhiker Monique Hoyt managed to escape and phone the police from a Riverside County motel.
reporting that she had been kidnapped and assaulted. Alcala had driven Hoyt to his apartment, where he raped her. He then drove to an isolated area near Joshua Tree, where he photographed her in her underwear and raped her again, taking photos of that as well. He continued to assault and rape her after binding and gagging her, after which he used a rock to bludgeon her over the head. But on the return drive, she slipped away when Alcala was in the gas station bathroom.
authorities swiftly arrested Alcala on charges of rape and kidnapping. But despite the serious allegations, a judge set bail at only $10,000, an amount his mother quickly paid. While out on bail, investigators believe Alcala struck again. Five months later, 21-year-old Jill Parenteau of Burbank was found dead in her apartment. She had left work early to attend a baseball game and didn't return the next morning.
When police made a welfare check, they discovered signs of forced entry, and inside, Parenteau's nude body was posed with pillows beneath her shoulders on the bathroom floor. Alcala had beaten, assaulted, and strangled her. Just six days after Parenteau's murder, 12-year-old Robin Samsoe vanished. Part 5: A Predator in Plain Sight
Not long after their first meeting, Alcala, then 36, invited 16-year-old Cynthia Libby for a drive, taking her deep into a remote canyon in Southern California. Without warning, he turned to her and said, "I could do anything I want to you, and no one would know." Libby dismissed the chilling remark, laughing it off. She had no reason to believe that the photographer was anything more than eccentric.
She even agreed to see him again, unaware of the sinister truth lurking behind his camera. But on the night they were supposed to meet again, Alcala never showed up. Days later, Libby's mother casually asked for his last name. The moment she heard it, she froze and dropped her newspaper. There, in bold print, was a shocking headline: "Alcala had been arrested for the murder of Robin Samsoe."
"I couldn't believe it," Libby later said. "I could have been one of the dead girls." In 1980, Alcala was sentenced to death for the brutal slayings of five people, including the young Samsoe who had been on her way to ballet class on her bicycle when Alcala kidnapped her, taking her to a canyon eerily close to the one where he had once driven Libby.
Her decomposed body, which had been beaten, raped and stabbed, was discovered nearly two weeks later on Santa Anita Canyon Road. Her mother, Mary Ann Connolly, recalled the discovery, telling 48 Hours: "I said, 'Let's go see her.' He said, 'We can't do that.' I said, 'That's my baby, of course. I'm going to see her. Why not?' He said, 'Because it took us three days to identify her.'
I said, "What's wrong with you people? How many little girls with long blonde hair disappear that it took you three days?" He shook my shoulders, and the tears were coming down his face too. He says, "There was no hair." Samsoe's friends assisted the police in the case, describing the stranger who had asked to take their photos on the beach. A police sketch artist produced his likeness from the children's description, and Alcala was then recognized by his parole officer.
After Alcala's sentencing, the California Supreme Court reversed the decision in 1984, ruling that the jury had not been properly informed of Alcala's past sexual crimes. However, another retrial in 1986 saw Alcala again convicted and sentenced to death.
Alcala then filed a federal habeas corpus petition, which led to the overturning of his conviction in 2001, citing a witness not being allowed to testify about the hypnosis of a park ranger involved in the case. In 2003, as a third trial loomed, investigators discovered DNA evidence connecting Alcala to the rape and murder of two other women.
This prompted additional charges for four more murders: Barkham, Wickstead, Lamb, and Parenteau. All the victims had been arranged in specific poses, and DNA from earrings found in Alcala's storage locker matched Lamb's DNA. While Alcala sat in jail, Huntington Beach detectives had received an unexpected break, courtesy of his own sister.
During a recorded visit, she listened as he gave her a critical task: to clear out a Seattle storage locker that, up to that point, the police knew nothing of. But Alcala was already a step behind. Detectives had come across the locker's receipt during a home search. They arrived before Alcala's sister did, and inside, found the motherlode. Orange County Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy described the disturbing discovery:
Hundreds, if not thousands of images. Dozens upon dozens of young women. Alcala had moved his possessions there a little over a week after Samsoe's remains were found. Buried beneath his things was a small bag of earrings that Alcala insisted were his. But when investigators had Robin's mother look at the jewelry, she immediately recognized the gold ball studs as earrings her daughter regularly borrowed.
In March of 2010, the Huntington Beach Police Department and the New York City Police Department released 120 photographs taken by Alcala, hoping to identify the women and children pictured and determine whether they were victims of his crimes. However, around 900 other images could not be released due to their explicit nature. "He is a predatory monster," Murphy remarked.
And when you see all these young women in positions of vulnerability with him, it makes you fear what happened to them. Part 6: Through the Lens of Death Within weeks, 21 women came forward to identify themselves. And at least six families believed they recognized their missing loved ones.
None of the photos were conclusively connected to a missing persons case or unsolved murders until 2013. Many of the original photos remain available online, with authorities still requesting the public's help to identify the individuals. Concerns remain that some of these unknown subjects could be additional victims. The majority of survivors have remained too shaken or fearful to speak publicly about their encounters with them.
However, two women revealed the calculated charm and manipulation tactics Alcala used to lure his victims. Among them, Libby. She recalled how easily he gained her trust. She appeared in three of his photos and remembered being deceived by his youthful appearance and smooth demeanor. "He looked really young, and he told me he was 24," she said. "He was so easy to trust. He had a way of talking to people that really put them at ease.
and he continued trying to deceive. While awaiting his third trial, Alcala wrote "You, the Jury," a book where he maintained his innocence in Samsoe's murder and suggested an alternate suspect. In 2005, after DNA evidence connected Alcala to the murder of Jill Barkham, her brother Bruce reached out to Alcala in his Orange County jail cell, sending letters and a book on sex addiction titled "Out of the Shadows."
Alcala was preparing his defense against charges of murdering Barcom and four other victims. Bruce hoped that Alcala would confess to other cold case murders linked to him and disclose any unsolved crimes. However, Alcala never responded and continued focusing on his defense. In the meantime, Alcala's photographs led to further investigations across several states.
In 2010, Seattle police named him a person of interest in several cold case murders in Washington state. After decades of unanswered questions, New York cold case detectives also finally linked Alcala to the murders of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover. Manhattan prosecutor Melissa Morges said a fingerprint was the major link.
A letter found beneath Crilly's body had a fingerprint that remained unmatched for years, until the FBI's database finally connected it to Alcala. But there was more. A bite mark on her breast matched his dental impression. It was also discovered Crilly had met Alcala when she moved in and had accepted his offer to help her with furniture.
In the Hover case, it was known that Alcala had changed his name to Berger, and a witness recalling seeing a man resembling him near where Hover's remains were found at the Rockefeller Estates. According to Manhattan prosecutor Martha Bashford, the man was carrying a camera bag, just like Alcala did. Despite the mounting evidence, New York prosecutors had to wait as California prepared for Alcala's third trial in the murder of Samsoe.
Then, DNA evidence changed everything, linking Alcala to the three murders in Los Angeles of Georgia Wickstead, Charlotte Lamb, and Jill Barkham. He had also been connected to the 1979 slaying of Jill Parenteau. "At that moment, we realized, he is the serial killer that we always suspected him to be," said Murphy. In an unusual move, California prosecutors tried all five cases together.
Relishing the spotlight, Alcala served as his own attorney, even cruelly calling Samsoe's mother, Mary Ann Connolly, to the stand. During questioning, she revealed that during his first trial, she had carried a gun to court. "I was going to shoot him right between the eyes," she admitted. But then, she said, she felt Robin's presence and couldn't remove her hand from her purse.
Alcala questioned himself on the stand, at one point playing the dating game footage to argue that the earrings found in his locker were his. He didn't contest the charges of the other victims, saying he couldn't recall committing the crimes. In another instance, he addressed the jurors, saying, "Let me put the death penalty in perspective for you."
If you desire to join in the killing of a human being, you and the families of the victims will have to wait at least 15 to 20 years while the case slowly churns through the appellate process. During closing arguments, he played Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant, the lyrics of which state: "I want to kill, I want to kill, I want to see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth."
"Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean, kill, kill, kill, kill." Somehow, this did not convince the jurors that he was innocent. The families of the victims also had their say. Bruce addressed the crowded Orange County courthouse saying, "There is murder and rape. And then there is the unequivocal carnage of a Rodney Alcala style murder." Of his 18 year old sister, he said,
I lost the person who gave me the strongest emotional comfort." Ann Michelena, the sister of nurse Georgia Wickstead, described the harrowing experience of having to clean her sister's bloody department after she had been brutally raped and beaten, stating, "She was robbed of her future." Didi Parenteau spoke about the devastation her sister Jill's murder caused to her family, saying, "I hope Rodney Alcala burns eternally. He is truly a devil.
Robert Samsoe, devastated by his sister Robin's death, expressed how her murder had crushed his hopes. "I hope you don't sleep at night," he said to Alcala. Marianne Connolly, Samsoe's mother, said that the world was denied a true potential gymnast, as her daughter had dreams of breaking Kathy Rigby's records. She said, "She was probably the most loving child a mother could have. Everything she did, she did to please me." "Of Alcala," she said,
"I'm waiting for the day he dies. I only wish I could be the one to administer the injection." The jury convicted him of all five murders within two days. In the penalty phase, a psychiatrist testified that Alcala's borderline personality disorder explained his lack of memory of the murders. The prosecutor called Alcala a sexual predator who knowingly committed his crimes. He was sentenced to death again in 2010.
After the conviction, New York authorities paused their investigation due to Alcala's death sentence. But in 2011, he was indicted for the 1971 and 1977 murders of Criley and Hover. Alcala was extradited to New York in 2012, where he changed his plea to guilty in December, stating he wanted to return to California for his death penalty appeals.
In January of 2013, Judge Bonnie Whitner struggled to hold back tears as she handed down a concurrent sentence of 25 years to life in prison, condemning Alcala's crimes as an act of unimaginable brutality. She described the case as the most horrific she had ever encountered in her 30 years on the bench, emphasizing the sheer cruelty and depravity of his actions.
Alcala passed away from a heart attack at a hospital in Kings County on July 24th, 2021, while serving time on California's death row. He was 77 years old. Part 7. The Unknown Victims Even after his death, unsolved murders and assaults are still being linked to Alcala.
68-year-old Morgan Rowan reached out to former investigator Steve Hodel, recounting a traumatic experience with Alcala in 1968. At the time, Rowan was a 16-year-old living in Hollywood. She was approached by Alcala at a teen nightclub and agreed to ride in his car, thinking they were heading to a restaurant.
Instead, Alcala drove her to his apartment, where he locked her in a room, assaulted her, and fled when friends broke in to rescue her. In 2011, the Marin County Sheriff's Office in California expressed confidence that Alcala was behind the 1977 murder of Pamela Jean Lamson. Lamson, a 19-year-old woman, had traveled to Fisherman's Wharf to meet a man who had promised to photograph her.
Her battered body was later found in Marin County. But without usable DNA evidence, charges were never filed. However, investigators were convinced Alcala was the perpetrator. In 2016, Alcala was formally charged with the 1977 murder of Christine Ruth Thornton. While Alcala was on the road, 29-year-old Thornton was traveling west with her boyfriend. A free spirit, she had big plans to head to Montana to pan for gold.
She also had exciting news that she shared with her mother: she was pregnant. After sharing the news, she vanished. Kathy, her sister, immediately feared the worst. Christine's relationship with her boyfriend had been abusive. "I always thought he had done something to her," she later said. For nearly 40 years, Kathy searched tirelessly, reaching out to police, federal agencies, and hospitals, keeping meticulous records of every letter and phone call.
At the time, Kathy had no idea who Rodney Alcala was, but she soon would. Thornton had disappeared while hitchhiking and was found dead in Wyoming in 1982. But her remains were not identified until 2015 through DNA analysis. Thornton was believed to have been six months pregnant when she died. One of the key pieces of evidence connecting Alcala to the crime was a photograph found among his personal belongings.
Alcala had admitted to taking a photograph of Thornton, but he denied having killed her. In 2013, a relative of Thornton, who had been searching for her since her disappearance, came across the released images and recognized her. Thornton's siblings then submitted DNA samples to a national database for missing persons, which led to the 2015 identification of her remains.
Further investigation confirmed that the photograph of Thornton and Alcala's possession had been taken not far from where her body was found. Additional evidence has since emerged linking him to her murder. Since then, cold cases in New York, California, Arizona, and New Hampshire have been reexamined. Among these cases, Cherry Ann Greenman, 20, was last seen in Waterville, Washington in 1976.
A photo from Alcala's locker was shown to Greenman's family, but they confirmed it was not her. In 1977, 13-year-old Antoinette Jean Whittaker was found stabbed to death in Seattle after walking off with an unidentified man. Additionally, 17-year-old Joyce Francine Gaunt was discovered in February 1978, sexually assaulted, beaten, and strangled.
All are believed to be possible victims of Alcala. Despite advances in forensic technology and the tireless work of investigators, there are still women in those haunting images who have never been identified. Tali Shapiro, Alcala's first known victim, told 48 Hours: "I'm one of Rodney Alcala's first, and one of his only living victims. It should have stopped with me. Why in the world are there so many other victims when it was a known fact what he did to me?
Senior Deputy D.A. Murphy may have the answer. He said, "There are lessons in this case that a lot of people forget. How naive people were about these sexual predators. Notice how many serial killers we had in the 70s or 80s? We don't have that many active today. Do you know why we don't have them now? Because of the three strikes law. They are going down on their first time. They aren't given chance after chance after chance." The full extent of Rodney Alcala's crimes may never be known.
While he was convicted of multiple murders, the photographs found in his possession suggest that there could be many more victims whose fates remain a mystery. With Alcala now deceased, the truth about how many lives he destroyed may remain buried with him.
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