Rodney James Alcala Rapist and serial killer Date of Birth: 23.08.1943 Country: USA

Biography of Rodney James Alcala

Rodney James Alcala, also known as "The Dating Game Killer," was a notorious rapist and serial killer. He was convicted and sentenced to death by the California court on March 31, 2010, for the rape and murder of five women between 1977 and 1979. Later, he confessed to other sexual assaults and murders. Alcala gained his nickname due to his appearance on the American television show "The Dating Game" in 1978. During the trial, it was revealed that he played a gruesome game with his victims, strangling them until they lost consciousness, and then reviving them before ultimately killing them. Alcala, who worked as a photographer, had a collection of hundreds of photographs of women and teenage boys, leading investigators to believe that he may have committed many more murders in California. He is also suspected of at least two unsolved murders in New York. Authorities compare him to infamous killers such as Ted Bundy and the Nylon Killer, fearing that Rodney Alcala may eventually become the most prolific rapist and murderer in American history.

Rodney Alcala was born in San Antonio, Texas. After his father left the family, Rodney and his mother and sisters moved to a suburb of Los Angeles, where he spent his childhood. Growing up, Alcala decided to pursue a military career and served in the United States Army for four years starting in 1960. In 1964, he was discharged due to a diagnosis of "antisocial behavior" and a "personality disorder" by an army psychiatrist. Alcala, who claimed to have an IQ of 170, attended the University of California, Los Angeles School of Fine Arts after his discharge. In 1968, a curious motorist noticed an adult man luring an eight-year-old girl into his Hollywood apartment and alerted the police. The girl, Tali Shapiro, was found in the apartment after being beaten with a steel bar, but she was saved. Rodney Alcala managed to escape and fled to the East Coast, enrolling at New York University under the new name of John Berger, where he studied film under the guidance of Roman Polanski. After completing his studies, Alcala found a job in a New Hampshire art camp for children under a slightly altered name. He became John Berdger. Three years later, in 1971, two campers saw an FBI wanted poster at a post office featuring Alcala and alerted the camp director. The criminal was arrested and sent back to California. By that time, the parents of Rodney Alcala's first victim, Tali Shapiro, had moved with their daughter to Mexico and prohibited her from testifying against him in court. Unable to charge him with rape and attempted murder without the key witness, prosecutors were forced to offer Alcala a plea deal for lesser offenses. After serving 34 months, he received parole with an "indeterminate sentence" under the prevailing social program of the time. Two months later, Alcala was arrested again for parole violations and attempting to lure a 13-year-old girl into marijuana use, which she later claimed was an abduction. He received a two-year sentence for this crime but was again released early through the same program as before. In 1978, he was arrested once more, this time for marijuana possession. By this point, Alcala had already convinced many young women that he was a professional fashion photographer, asking them to pose for his portfolio. Most of the photographs he took during this period remain unidentified, and police fear that these women may also be his victims. In the same year, Rodney Alcala managed to participate in the TV show "The Dating Game." With his extraordinary intelligence and charming appearance, he captivated all the women on the show with his witty answers. Although the show's main contestant chose him as the winner, she ultimately declined the date. Much later, during the trial, it would be said that the young woman was incredibly lucky, as her intuition saved her from potential harm. Just a few months after appearing on "The Dating Game," on June 20, 1979, a 12-year-old girl named Robin Samsoe went missing in Huntington Beach. Her partially decomposed body was found 12 days later in the Los Angeles foothills. Later, police discovered her earrings in a storage locker rented by Alcala in Seattle. Rodney was arrested, and in 1980, he was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Samsoe. However, the California Supreme Court rejected the charges. In 1986, Alcala was retried and again found guilty, receiving another death sentence. But luck was once again on the killer's side, as an appellate court group rejected the charges this time because they did not allow a witness to support Alcala's claim that the park ranger who found Samsoe's body was "hypnotized by police investigators." In 2003, Rodney Alcala faced renewed persecution from the authorities when Orange County investigators received new evidence. It turned out that the DNA evidence from the murder cases of two Los Angeles women matched Alcala's DNA profile. Further evidence was found, resulting in charges being filed against him for the murders of four additional women. All these crimes were committed by Alcala between 1977 and 1979. During the trial, Alcala chose to represent himself, and he defended himself quite successfully. However, in 2010, the court finally found him guilty of five counts of rape and murder, and on March 31, Alcala was sentenced to death for the third time. It remains unknown whether he will be able to avoid punishment once again. In April 2010, the Huntington Beach Police Department released 120 photographs taken by Alcala in an effort to identify any potential victims. Over the course of several weeks, approximately 20 women recognized themselves in the photos and came forward.