Rodney Alcala

Rodney Alcala

Alcala at San Quentin State Prison in 1997
Born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor
(1943-08-23) August 23, 1943
San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Other names The Dating Game Killer
John Berger
John Burger
Rod Alcala
Criminal penalty Death
Conviction(s) Battery, kidnapping, murder, probation violation, rape, providing cannabis to a minor
Killings
Victims 8–130[1][2][3]
Span of killings
 June 12, 1971–1979
Country United States
State(s) Washington (possibly)
California
New York
Date apprehended
 July 24, 1979[4]

Rodney James Alcala (born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor; August 23, 1943) is a convicted rapist and serial killer. He was sentenced to death in California in 2010 for five murders committed in that state between 1977 and 1979.[1] In 2013 he received an additional sentence of 25 years to life after pleading guilty to two homicides in New York in 1971 and 1977.[5] His true victim count remains unknown, and could be much higher.[6][7][8]

One police detective called Alcala "a killing machine"[9] and others have compared him with Ted Bundy.[10] A homicide investigator familiar with the evidence speculates that he could have murdered as many as 50 women,[7] while other estimates have run as high as 130.[3] Prosecutors say that Alcala "toyed" with his victims, strangling them until they lost consciousness, then waiting until they revived, sometimes repeating this process several times before finally killing them.[11][12] Police discovered a collection of more than 1,000 photographs taken by Alcala, mostly of women and teenaged boys, most of them in sexually explicit poses. They speculate that some of his photographic subjects could be additional victims.[11]

He is sometimes labeled the "Dating Game Killer" because of his 1978 appearance on the television show The Dating Game in the midst of his murder spree.[13]

Early life and education

Alcala was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor in San Antonio, Texas, to Raoul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez.[14] His father abandoned the family and his mother moved Rodney and his sisters to suburban Los Angeles when he was about 12 years old.[15]

He joined the U.S. Army in 1960, at age 17, where he served as a clerk. In 1964, after what was described as a "nervous breakdown", he was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder[16] by a military psychiatrist and discharged on medical grounds.[17] Other diagnoses later proposed by various psychiatric experts at his trials included narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder,[18] and (from homicide expert Vernon Geberth) malignant narcissistic personality disorder with psychopathy and sexual sadism comorbidities.[19]

After leaving the Army, Alcala graduated from the UCLA School of Fine Arts and later studied film under Roman Polanski at New York University.[11]

Early criminal history

Alcala committed his first known crime in 1968: A motorist in Los Angeles called police after watching him lure an eight-year-old girl named Tali Shapiro[20] into his Hollywood apartment. The girl was found raped and beaten with a steel bar, but Alcala had fled the scene.[21] To evade the resulting arrest warrant he left the state and enrolled in the NYU film school, using the name "John Berger". In 1971 he obtained a counseling job at a New Hampshire arts camp for children, using a slightly different alias, "John Burger".[11] In June 1971 Cornelia Michel Crilley, a 23-year-old Trans World Airlines flight attendant, was found raped and strangled in her Manhattan apartment. Her murder would remain unsolved for the next 40 years.[22]

Later that summer two children attending the arts camp noticed Alcala's FBI wanted poster at the post office and notified camp directors. He was arrested and extradited to California. By then Tali Shapiro's parents had relocated their entire family to Mexico and refused to allow her to testify at Alcala's trial.[20] Unable to convict him of rape and attempted murder without their primary witness, prosecutors were forced to permit Alcala to plead guilty to a lesser charge of assault.[23] He was paroled after 34 months, in 1974, under the "indeterminate sentencing" program popular at the time, which allowed parole boards to release offenders as soon as they demonstrated evidence of rehabilitation. Less than two months later he was arrested after assaulting a 13-year-old girl identified in court records as "Julie J.", who had accepted what she thought would be a ride to school. Once again he was paroled after serving two years of an "indeterminate sentence".[24]

In 1977, after his second release from prison, Alcala's Los Angeles parole officer took the unusual step of permitting a repeat offender—and known flight risk—to travel to New York City. NYPD cold-case investigators now believe that a week after arriving in Manhattan, Alcala killed Ellen Jane Hover, 23, daughter of the owner of Ciro’s, a popular Hollywood nightclub and goddaughter of Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr.[25] Her remains were found buried on the grounds of the Rockefeller Estate in Westchester County.[22]

In 1978 Alcala worked for a short time 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 Hillside Strangler, he was arrested and served a brief sentence for marijuana possession.[26]

During this period Alcala convinced hundreds of young men and women that he was a professional fashion photographer, and photographed them for his "portfolio." A Times co-worker later recalled that Alcala shared his photos with workmates. "I thought it was weird, but I was young, I didn’t know anything," she said. "When I asked why he took the photos, he said their moms asked him to. I remember the girls were naked.”[27] "He said he was a professional, so in my mind I was being a model for him," said one of the women, who permitted Alcala to photograph her in 1979. The portfolio also included "...spread after spread of [naked] teenage boys," she said.[11] Most of the photos are sexually explicit,[28] and most remain unidentified. Police fear that some of the subjects may be additional cold-case victims.[11]

Dating Game appearance

In 1978, despite his status as a convicted rapist and registered sex offender,[29] Alcala was accepted as a contestant on The Dating Game. By then he had already killed at least two women in California and two others in New York.[30] Host Jim Lange introduced him as a "successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed. Between takes you might find him skydiving or motorcycling".

Actor Jed Mills, who competed against Alcala as "Bachelor #2", later described him as a "very strange guy" with "bizarre opinions".[13] Alcala won the contest, and a date with "bachelorette" Cheryl Bradshaw, who subsequently refused to go out with him, according to published reports, because she found him "creepy".[11][13] Criminal profiler Pat Brown, noting that Alcala killed Robin Samsoe and at least two other women after his Dating Game appearance, speculated that Bradshaw's rejection might have been an exacerbating factor. "One wonders what that did in his mind", Brown said. "That is something he would not take too well. [Serial killers] don't understand the rejection. They think that something is wrong with that girl: 'She played me. She played hard to get.'"[13]

Samsoe murder and first two trials

Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl from Huntington Beach, California, disappeared somewhere between the beach and her ballet class on June 20, 1979. Her decomposing body was found 12 days later in the Los Angeles foothills.[31][32] Police subsequently found Samsoe's earrings in a Seattle locker rented by Alcala.[11]

In 1980 Alcala was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for Samsoe's murder, but the verdict was overturned by the California Supreme Court because jurors had been improperly informed of his prior sex crimes.[20] In 1986, after a second trial virtually identical to the first except for omission of the prior criminal record testimony, he was convicted again and sentenced to death, again. A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel nullified the second conviction, in part because a witness was not allowed to support Alcala's contention that the park ranger who found Samsoe's body had been "hypnotized by police investigators".[17][33]

Additional victims

While preparing their third prosecution in 2003, Orange County investigators learned that Alcala's DNA, sampled under a new state law[34] (over his objections), matched semen left at the rape-murder scenes of two women in Los Angeles. Another pair of earrings found in Alcala's storage locker matched the DNA of one of the two victims.[20] Additional evidence, including another cold-case DNA match in 2004, led to Alcala's indictment for the murders of four additional women: Jill Barcomb, 18, a New York runaway found "rolled up like a ball" in a Los Angeles ravine in 1977,[35] and originally thought to have been a victim of the Hillside Strangler; Georgia Wixted, 27, bludgeoned in her Malibu apartment in 1977; Charlotte Lamb, 31, raped and strangled in the laundry room of her El Segundo apartment complex in 1978; and Jill Parenteau, 21, killed in her Burbank apartment in 1979.[11] All of the bodies were found "posed...in carefully chosen positions".[35]

Third (joined) trial

In 2003 prosecutors entered a motion to join the Samsoe charges with those of the four newly discovered victims. Alcala's attorneys contested it; as one of them explained, "If you’re a juror and you hear one murder case, you may be able to have reasonable doubt. But it’s very hard to say you have reasonable doubt on all five, especially when four of the five aren’t alleged by eyewitnesses but are proven by DNA matches."[36] In 2006, the California Supreme Court ruled in the prosecution's favor,[20] and in February 2010 Alcala stood trial on the five joined charges.

For the third trial Alcala elected to act as his own attorney.[37] He took the stand in his own defense, and for five hours played the roles of both interrogator and witness, asking himself questions (addressing himself as "Mr. Alcala" in a deeper-than-normal voice), and then answering them.[36] During this bizarre self-questioning and answering session he told jurors, often in a rambling monotone, that he was at Knott's Berry Farm when Samsoe was kidnapped.[32] He showed the jury a portion of his 1978 appearance on The Dating Game in an attempt to prove that the earrings found in his Seattle locker were his, not Samsoe's.[38] Jed Mills, the actor who competed against him on the show, told a reporter that earrings were not yet a socially acceptable accoutrement for men in 1978. "I had never seen a man with an earring in his ear", he said. "I would have noticed them on him".[35]

Alcala made no significant effort to dispute the four added charges.[13] As part of his closing argument, he played the portion of the Arlo Guthrie song "Alice's Restaurant" in which the protagonist tells a psychiatrist that he wants to "kill".[39] After less than two days' deliberation the jury convicted him on all five counts of first-degree murder. A surprise witness during the penalty phase of the trial was Tali Shapiro, Alcala's first known victim.[20][23] In March 2010 he was sentenced to death for a third time.[40]

Appeal status and additional charges

Alcala has been incarcerated since his 1979 arrest for Samsoe's murder. During the period between his second and third trial he wrote and self-published You, the Jury, in which he claimed innocence in the Samsoe case and suggested a different suspect. He also filed two lawsuits against the California penal system, for a slip-and-fall incident and for refusing to provide him a low-fat diet.[17][41]

New York State

After his 2010 conviction, New York authorities announced that they would no longer pursue Alcala because of his status as a prisoner awaiting execution.[36] Nevertheless, in January 2011, a Manhattan grand jury indicted him for the murders of Cornelia Crilley, the TWA flight attendant, and Ellen Hover, the Ciro's heiress, in 1971 and 1977, respectively.[7][30] In June 2012 he was extradited to New York, where he initially entered not guilty pleas on both counts;[42] but in December he changed both pleas to guilty, citing a desire to return to California to pursue appeals of his death penalty conviction.[43] On January 7, 2013, a Manhattan judge sentenced Alcala to an additional 25 years to life.[5] (The death penalty has not been an option in New York State since 2007.[44])

San Francisco

In March 2011 investigators in Marin County, north of San Francisco, announced that they were "confident" that Alcala was responsible for the 1977 murder of 19-year-old Pamela Jean Lambson, who disappeared after making a trip to Fisherman's Wharf to meet a man who had offered to photograph her. Her battered, naked body was subsequently found in Marin County near a hiking trail. With no fingerprints or usable DNA, charges are unlikely to be filed, but police claimed that there is sufficient evidence to convince them that Alcala committed the crime.[8]

Washington State

An investigation is ongoing in Seattle regarding Alcala's possible connection with the murders of Antoinette Wittaker, 13, in July 1977, and Joyce Gaunt, 17, in February 1978. In 1979 Alcala rented the Seattle-area locker where investigators eventually found jewelry belonging to two of his California victims.[45][46]

Unidentified photographs

In March 2010, the Huntington Beach and New York City Police Departments released 120 of Alcala's photographs and sought the public's help in identifying them, in the hope of determining if any of the women and children he photographed were additional victims.[11][47] Approximately 900 additional photos could not be made public, police said, because they were too sexually explicit.[28] In the first few weeks, police reported that approximately 21 women had come forward to identify themselves,[48] and "at least 6 families" said they believed they recognized loved ones who "disappeared years ago and were never found".[49] However, according to one published account, as of November 2010 none of the photos had been unequivocally connected to a missing person case or an unsolved murder.[36]

As of November, 2014, 110 of the original photos remain posted online, and police continue to solicit the public's help with further identifications.[50]

Aliases

Timeline

year of event Event, victim name indicates date of crime Offense; offender status/location Alias/note
1961-64 U.S. Army
1968 Graduated from UCLA
1968 Tali Shapiro Rape, attempted murder; Pled guilty to assault, 1971/California
1968-71 Fugitive, student NYU Film School, camp counselor New York, New Hampshire John Berger, John Burger
1971 Cornelia Crilley Murder; Indicted, 2011/New York
1971–74 Incarcerated (Tali Shapiro conviction) California
1974 "Julie J." Parole violation, providing marijuana to minor; Convicted, 1974/California
1974-77 Incarcerated ("Julie J." conviction) California
1977 Ellen Hover Murder; Indicted, 2011/New York John Berger
1977 Worked as Los Angeles Times typesetter California
1977 Antoinette Wittaker Murder; Suspect, Washington
1977 Jill Barcomb Murder; Convicted, 2010/California
1977 Questioned by FBI regarding Hover California Rodney Alcala, John Berger
1977 Georgia Wixted Murder; Convicted, 2010/California
1977 Pamela Jean Lambson Murder; Accused, 2011/California
1978 Joyce Gaunt Murder; Suspect/Washington
1978 Interviewed by Hillside Strangler task force California
1978 Incarcerated (marijuana possession) California
1978 Contestant, The Dating Game California
1978 Charlotte Lamb Murder; Convicted, 2010/California
1979 Jill Parenteau Murder; Convicted, 2010/California
1979 Robin Samsoe Murder; Convicted, 1980, 1986, 2010/California
1979 Arrested on suspicion of Samsoe murder California
1980 Conviction #1, sentenced to death for Samsoe murder California
1984 Conviction #1 overturned by California Supreme Court California
1986 Conviction #2, sentenced to death for Samsoe murder California
1994 You, the Jury Self-published book asserting innocence in Samsoe case
2001 Conviction #2 overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit California
2003 DNA collected, 4 additional murders discovered California
2003 Motion to join Samsoe case with 4 others proposed; contested by Alcala California
2006 Case join granted by California Supreme Court California
2010 Conviction #3, sentenced to death for murders of Samsoe, Parenteau, Lamb, Wixted, and Barcomb California
2011 Indicted for murders of Hover, Crilley New York
2013 Pled guilty; sentenced to 25 years to life for murders of Hover, Crilley New York

See also

References

  1. 1 2 David Gardner (2010-04-01). "Rodney Alcala sentenced to death for murders of four women and girl, 12". London: The Daily Mail. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  2. ↑ "'100 victims' of serial killer Rodney Alcala". mirror.co.uk. 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  3. 1 2 Gardner, David (April 1, 2010). The 'most prolific' serial killer in U.S. history is sentenced to death as police fear he could be behind 130 murders. London Daily Mail archive Retrieved March 2, 2011.
  4. ↑ http://www.npr.org/blogs/talk/2010/03/serial_killer_rodney_alcalas_p.html
  5. 1 2 Rudegeair, Peter (January 7, 2013). "Dating Game" killer sentenced for 1970s murders. Reuters archive. Retrieved January 7, 2013
  6. ↑ "Hunt for girls in serial killer Rodney Alcala’s photos | The Sun |Features". London: The Sun. 2010-03-13. Retrieved 2010-03-19.
  7. 1 2 3 Hamilton, Brad (2009-01-04). "California 'Devil' May Be NYC's Top Serial Killer". NYPOST.com. Retrieved 2010-03-19.
  8. 1 2 Perelman, Marina (March 8, 2011). New Case Linked to Dating Game Killer. NBCbayarea.com Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  9. ↑ Baum, G. and Esquivel, P. "Serial killer Rodney Alcala faces charges in New York slayings". Los Angeles Times, 28 January 2011, Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  10. ↑ Allen, Nick (February 26, 2010). US serial killer Rodney Alcala could be 'new Ted Bundy'. Telegraph.co.uk Archive. Retrieved November 3, 2012.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Tresniowski A. and Breuer H., "The Eye of a Killer: Police Discover a Chilling Cache of Photos". People Magazine, April 19, 2010, pp. 86-90. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  12. ↑ Pelisek, C (March 20, 2010): Orange County Judge Sentences Serial Killer and Dating Game Winner Rodney Alcala to Death (UPDATED). LA Weekly archive Retrieved September 1, 2011
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 "Convicted serial killer won on 'Dating Game'". CNN.com. 2010-03-10. Retrieved 2010-03-19.
  14. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20090922194204/http://files.usgwarchives.net:80/tx/bexar/vitals/births/1943/bexab43a.txt. Archived from the original on September 22, 2009. Retrieved April 12, 2010. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ↑ Montaldo, Charles: Profile of Serial Killer Rodney Alcala. About.com Crime/Punishment archive Retrieved October 25, 2011
  16. ↑ Yahoo
  17. 1 2 3 Rodney Alcala: The Fine Art of Killing (January 21, 2010). laweekly.com Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  18. ↑ Psychiatrist testifies Alcala may have untreatable mental disorder (March 4, 2010). Orange County Local News Network archive Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  19. ↑ Sands, Stella The Dating Game Killer: The True Story of a TV Dating Show, a Violent Sociopath, and a Series of Brutal Murders p.367 (2011)
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 48 Hours Mystery (September 25, 2010): "The Killing Game". CBSNews.com Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  21. ↑ Finlay, Melissa (23 March 2010). "Rodney Alcala Case: Child rape, Tali S. and Corrine ‘Michael’ Crilley (photos, slideshow)". primewriter.com. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
  22. 1 2 Secret, Mosi (February 4, 2011). 40 Years On, Detective Sees Light Shed on a Killing. NY Times archive Retrieved March 1, 2011
  23. 1 2 Frere, Eileen (March 2, 2010). Victim speaks out at Alcala sentencing. KABC archive Retrieved March 2, 2011.
  24. ↑ Pelisek, Christine (January 21, 2010). Rodney Alcala's Murderous Romp through polite society brings him to an Orange County courtroom again. OC Weekly archive Retrieved March 19, 2010.
  25. ↑ "Serial Killer Rodney Alcala Implicated in New York Cold Case Murders", Inside Edition, January 27, 2011, Retrieved September 2, 2011
  26. ↑ Comments (44) Christine Pelisek Thursday, Jan 21 2010 (2010-01-21). "Rodney Alcala: The Fine Art of Killing". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2010-03-19.
  27. ↑ Pelisek, C (February 10, 2010): Rodney Alcala's Final Revenge. LA Weekly archive Retrieved September 1, 2011
  28. 1 2 Public Responds to Rodney Alcala's Photos, Police Hope For More Tips (March 12, 2010). CBS News 48 Hours Mystery Archive Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  29. ↑ "48 Hours Mystery:" Rodney Alcala's Killing Game (September 25, 2010). CBS News archive. Retrieved November 5, 2013.
  30. 1 2 New York Post (January 27, 2011. Manhattan DA indict cold-case 'killer' Rodney Alcala Retrieved 2011-01-27
  31. ↑ Carpio, AC (July 14, 2014). 35 years later, Huntington Beach may honor 12-year-old murder victim. Los Angeles Times archive. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  32. 1 2 Serial Killer Alcala Convicted on All Counts (February 25, 2010) abclocal.com Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  33. ↑ Mail Foreign Service (2010-03-11). "Serial killer Rodney Alcala sentenced to death in California". London: The Daily Mail. Retrieved 2010-03-19.
  34. ↑ Attorney General Bill Lockyer Announces that Death Row Inmates Must Provide DNA Samples for State Databank (August 22, 2002). California Office of Attorney General. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
  35. 1 2 3 Pelisek, C. (February 12, 2010). Seinfeld Actor Jed Mills met "creepy" alleged Dating Game Serial Killer Rodney Alcala in ABC's green room. LA Weekly archive Retrieved October 24, 2011
  36. 1 2 3 4 Noe, Denise (November 22, 2010). "The Dating Game" Killer Rodney Alcala. Crime Magazine Archive Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  37. ↑ Esquivel, Paloma (2010-02-24). "As Rodney Alcala's third murder trial winds to a close, victim's brothers wait for closure, justice". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-03-19.
  38. ↑ Pelisek, C. (February 10, 2010): Dating Game serial killer suspect Alcala cross-examines himself over his hair. LA Weekly archive Retrieved September 1, 2011
  39. ↑ Jury Recommends Death for Rodney Alcala (March 9, 2010) myfoxla.com Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  40. ↑ Martinez, Edecio (March 30, 2010). "Serial Killer Rodney Alcala Gets Death Sentence; Will it Stick This Time?". CBSNews.com. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
  41. ↑ "State of California Public Offender Locator." California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Retrieved on November 27, 2010. "Alcala, Rodney James C18300 67 06/25/1980 San Quentin".
  42. ↑ 'Dating Game Killer' Rodney Alcala Pleads Not Guilty in NY Murders (June 21, 2012). KTLA.com archive. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  43. ↑ Hays, Tom (December 14, 2012). Rodney Alcala, California Killer Sentenced To Death, Admits To Killing Two New York City Women. Huffington Post archive. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
  44. ↑ Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  45. ↑ "Murdered girl's sister in shock over serial killer probe | Local & Regional | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News". KOMO News. 2010-04-01. Retrieved 2012-06-01.
  46. ↑ Ruben Vives (2010-03-27). "Joyce Gaunt | Seattle police seek links between Alcala and two slain girls - Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. Retrieved 2012-06-01.
  47. ↑ Weichselbaum, Simone (April 21, 2010): NYPD releases serial killer Rodney Alcala's photos of women -- seeks public's help in ID'ing them. NY Daily News Archive Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  48. ↑ Serial Killer's Secret Photos: 21 Women Identified From Rodney Alcala's "Archives" (April 12, 2010). CBS News 48 Hours Mystery Archive Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  49. ↑ Police Identify More Women From Serial Killer's Photographs (March 12, 2010). KTLA News Archive Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  50. ↑ Rodney Alcala Photo Identification.NBC New York Web site Retrieved 2011-11-03.

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