Rodney Alcala

Rodney Alcala
Rodney Alcala

Alcala at San Quentin State Prison in 1997
Background information
Birth name Rodrigo Jacques Alcala-Buquor[1]
Also known as The Dating Game Killer
John Berger
John Burger
Rod Alcala
Born August 23, 1943 (1943-08-23) (age 68)
San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Conviction Battery, kidnapping, murder, probation violation, providing cannabis to a minor, rape
Sentence Death
Killings
Number of victims: 5–130[2][3][4]
Span of killings 1968–1979
Country United States
State(s) California, possibly New York
Date apprehended 1979

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,[2] and is currently under indictment for two additional homicides in New York.[5] His true victim total remains unknown, and could be much higher.[6][7][8] Alcala is also notable for exceptional demonstrations of cruelty: prosecutors say he "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.[9][10]

He is sometimes labeled the "Dating Game Killer" because of his 1978 appearance on the American television show The Dating Game in the very midst of his murder spree.[11] Police discovered a collection of more than one thousand 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.[9]

One police detective called him "a killing machine",[12] and criminalists have compared him to Ted Bundy.[13] A homicide investigator familiar with the evidence speculated that Alcala could have murdered as many as 50 women,[7] while other estimates have run as high as 130.[14]

Contents

Early life

Alcala was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor in San Antonio, Texas to Raoul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez.[1] His father abandoned the family; his mother moved Rodney and his sisters to suburban Los Angeles when he was about 12.[15]

He joined the United States 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 by a military psychiatrist and discharged on medical grounds.[16] (Other diagnoses later proposed by various psychiatric experts at his trials included narcissistic personality disorder and borderline personality disorder.[17])

Education

Alcala, who claims to have a "genius-level" IQ, graduated from the UCLA School of Fine Arts after his medical discharge from the Army, and later attended New York University using the alias "John Berger", where he studied film under Roman Polanski.[9]

Early criminal history

Alcala committed his first known crime in 1968: A motorist in Los Angeles witnessed him luring an eight-year-old girl named Tali Shapiro[18] into his Hollywood apartment and called police. The girl was found in the apartment raped and beaten with a steel bar, but Alcala escaped.[19] He fled to the east coast and enrolled in the NYU film school using the name "John Berger." During the summer months he also obtained a counseling job at a New Hampshire arts camp for children, using a slightly different alias, "John Burger."[9]

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.[20]

Later that summer, two children at the New Hampshire arts camp noticed Alcala's FBI wanted poster at the post office and notified camp directors. He was arrested and extradited back to California. By then, however, Tali Shapiro's parents had relocated her family to Mexico, and refused to allow her to testify at Alcala's trial.[18] 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.[21] 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 known 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."[22]

In 1977, after his second release from prison, Alcala's Los Angeles parole officer permitted him to travel to New York City. NYPD cold-case investigators now believe that one 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.[23] Her remains were found buried on the grounds of the Rockefeller Estate in Westchester County.[5]

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.[24]

During this period Alcala also 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.”[25] Most of the photos are sexually explicit,[26] and most remain unidentified. Police fear that some of the subjects may be additional cold-case victims.[9]

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 foothills of Los Angeles.[27] Police subsequently found her earrings in a Seattle locker rented by Alcala.[9]

In 1980 Alcala was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for Samsoe's murder, but his conviction was overturned by the California Supreme Court because jurors had been improperly informed of his prior sex crimes.[18] In 1986, after a second trial virtually identical to the first except for omission of the prior criminal record testimony, he was convicted once again, and again sentenced to death. However, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel overthrew 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."[16][28]

Additional victims discovered

While preparing their third prosecution in 2003, Orange County investigators learned that Alcala's DNA, sampled under a new state law (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.[18] 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,[29] 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.[9] All of the bodies were found "posed...in carefully chosen positions."[29]

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."[30] In 2006, the California Supreme Court ruled in the prosecution's favor,[18] and in February 2010 Alcala stood trial on the five joined charges.

For the third trial Alcala elected to act as his own attorney. 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.[30] 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.[27] He also claimed that the earrings found in his Seattle locker were his, not Samsoe's.[31] As "proof" he showed the jury a portion of his 1978 appearance on The Dating Game, during which his earrings — if he wore any — were obscured by his shoulder-length hair.[32] He made no significant effort to dispute the other four charges.[11] As part of his closing argument, he played the portion of Arlo Guthrie's song "Alice's Restaurant" in which the protagonist tells a psychiatrist he wants to "kill."[33]

After less than two days' deliberation the jury convicted Alcala 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.[18][21] In March 2010, he was sentenced to death for a third time.

Dating Game appearance

In 1978 Alcala, despite his status as a convicted rapist and registered sex offender, was accepted as a contestant on The Dating Game. By then he had already killed at least two women in California and probably two others in New York.[34] 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".[11] He added that Alcala did not wear earrings on the show, as he claimed during his 2010 trial; 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."[29] The third contestant, Armand Chiami, has not made any public comments.

Alcala won a date with "bachelorette" Cheryl Bradshaw, who subsequently refused to go out with him, according to published reports, because she found him "creepy".[9][11] 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.'"[11]

Current status

San Quentin State Prison, where Alcala has been incarcerated since 1979

Alcala has been incarcerated since his 1979 arrest for Samsoe's murder. In the period between his second and third trial he wrote You, the Jury, a self-published 1994 book in which he asserted his 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 claim, and for failing to provide him a low-fat diet.[16]

Alcala remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison, as a long series of appeals slowly wends its way through the California court system.[35]

New York

After his 2010 conviction, New York authorities announced that they would no longer pursue Alcala because of his status as a prisoner awaiting execution.[30] Nevertheless, in January 2011 a Manhattan grand jury indicted him for the murders of Ellen Hover, the Ciro's heiress,[5] and Cornelia Crilley, the TWA flight attendant.[7] Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance indicated that he intends to extradite Alcala and prosecute him for the two homicides in New York.[34] New York's death penalty statute was ruled unconstitutional by the state's supreme court in 2004.[36]

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 will not be filed, but police claim there is sufficient evidence to convince them that Alcala committed the crime.[8]

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.[9][37] Approximately 900 additional photos could not be made public, police said, because they were too sexually explicit.[26] In the first few weeks, police reported that approximately 21 women had come forward to identify themselves,[38] and "at least 6 families" said they believed they recognized loved ones who "disappeared years ago and were never found."[39] However, according to one published account, as of November 2010 none of the photos had been unequivocally connected to a missing person’s case or an unsolved murder.[30]

As of March 2011 the original 120 photos remain posted online, and police continue to solicit the public's help with further identifications.[40]

Aliases

  • Rodney Alcala (legal name)
  • Rod Alcala
  • John Berger
  • John Burger

Timeline

year of event Event, victim name indicates date of crime Offense; offender status/Location Alias/Note
1961-64 US 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
1974-78 Ted Bundy Colorado/Florida/Idaho/Oregon/Utah, etc. for time line comparison
1974-77 Incarcerated ("Julie J." conviction) California
1975-77 Son of Sam aka David Berkowitz New York City for time line comparison
1977 Ellen Hover Murder; Indicted, 2011/New York John Berger
1977 Worked as Los Angeles Times typesetter California
1977-78 Hillside Strangler California for time line comparison
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 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 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals 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

See also

References

  1. ^ a b http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/bexar/vitals/births/1943/bexab43a.txt
  2. ^ a b David Gardner (2010-04-01). "Rodney Alcala sentenced to death for murders of four women and girl, 12 | Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1262485/Rodney-Alcala-sentenced-death-murders-women-girl-12.html. Retrieved 2010-04-05. 
  3. ^ "'100 victims' of serial killer Rodney Alcala". mirror.co.uk. 2009-08-11. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/04/01/100-victims-of-serial-killer-rodney-alcala-115875-22153300/. Retrieved 2010-04-05. 
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ a b c Secret, Mosi (January 26, 2011). After Decades, Charges in 2 Manhattan Murders. NY Times archive Retrieved March 1, 2011
  6. ^ "Hunt for girls in serial killer Rodney Alcala’s photos | The Sun |Features". The Sun. 2010-03-13. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2890979/Hunt-for-girls-in-serial-killer-Rodney-Alcalas-photos.html. Retrieved 2010-03-19. 
  7. ^ a b c Hamilton, Brad (2009-01-04). "California 'Devil' May Be Nyc'S Top Serial Killer". NYPOST.com. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/regional/manhattan/california_devil_may_be_nyc_top_iiax664E9GkiFVNkzBcEkP. Retrieved 2010-03-19. 
  8. ^ a b Perelman, Marina (March 8, 2011). New Case Linked to Dating Game Killer. NBCbayarea.com Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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.
  10. '^ 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
  11. ^ a b c d e "Convicted serial killer won on 'Dating Game'". CNN.com. 2010-03-10. http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/08/dating.game.killer/index.html?hpt=T2. Retrieved 2010-03-19. 
  12. ^ Baum, G and Esquivel, P. Serial killer Rodney Alcala faces charges in New York slayings. LATimes.com Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  13. ^ "serial killer true crime library * serial killer news * list of serial killers * serial murder * female serial killers * crime scene investigation * tueur en serie * omicidi seriali *". Crimezzz.net. http://www.crimezzz.net/serialkiller_news/A/ALCALA_rodney_james.php. Retrieved 2010-03-19. 
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ Montaldo, Charles: Profile of Serial Killer Rodney Alcala. About.com Crime/Punishment archive Retrieved October 25, 2011
  16. ^ a b c Rodney Alcala: The Fine Art of Killing (January 21, 2010). laweekly.com Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  17. ^ Psychiatrist testifies Alcala may have untreatable mental disorder (March 4, 2010). Orange County Local News Network archive Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  18. ^ a b c d e f 48 Hours Mystery (September 25, 2010): "The Killing Game." CBSNews.com Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  19. ^ Finlay, Melissa (23 March 2010). "Rodney Alcala Case: Child rape, Tali S. and Corrine ‘Michael’ Crilley (photos, slideshow)". primewriter.com. http://primewriter.com/news-1246-headlines/?s=Rodney+Alcala. Retrieved 13 March 2010. 
  20. ^ Secret, Mosi (February 4, 2011). 40 Years On, Detective Sees Light Shed on a Killing. NY Times archive Retrieved March 1, 2011
  21. ^ a b Frere, Eileen (March 2, 2010). Victim speaks out at Alcala sentencing. KABC archive Retrieved March 2, 2011.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ SERIAL KILLER RODNEY ALCALA IMPLICATED IN NEW YORK COLD CASE MURDERS (January 27, 2011).Inside Edition archive Retrieved September 2, 2011
  24. ^ Comments (44) By Christine Pelisek Thursday, Jan 21 2010 (2010-01-21). "Rodney Alcala: The Fine Art of Killing - Page 4 - News - Los Angeles". LA Weekly. http://www.laweekly.com/2010-01-21/news/rodney-alcala-the-fine-art-of-killing/4. Retrieved 2010-03-19. 
  25. ^ Pelisek, C (February 10, 2010): Rodney Alcala's Final Revenge. LA Weekly archive Retrieved September 1, 2011
  26. ^ a b 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.
  27. ^ a b Serial Killer Alcala Convicted on All Counts (February 25, 2010) abclocal.com Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  28. ^ Mail Foreign Service (2010-03-11). "Serial killer Rodney Alcala sentenced to death in California | Mail Online". London: Dailymail.co.uk. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1256827/Serial-killer-Rodney-Alcala-sentenced-death-California.html. Retrieved 2010-03-19. 
  29. ^ a b c 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
  30. ^ a b c d Noe, Denise (November 22, 2010). "The Dating Game" Killer Rodney Alcala. Crime Magazine Archive Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  31. ^ Pelisek, C (February 10, 2010): Dating Game serial killer suspect Alcala cross-examines himself over his hair. LA Weekly archive Retrieved September 1, 2011
  32. ^ 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 - Page 4". Articles.latimes.com. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/24/local/la-me-alcala25-2010feb25?pg=4. Retrieved 2010-03-19. 
  33. ^ Jury Recommends Death for Rodney Alcala (March 9, 2010) myfoxla.com Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  34. ^ a b New York Post (January 27, 2011. Manhattan DA indict cold-case 'killer' Rodney Alcala Retrieved 2011-01-27
  35. ^ "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."
  36. ^ Death Penalty Information Center Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  37. ^ 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.
  38. ^ 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.
  39. ^ Police Identify More Women From Serial Killer's Photographs (March 12, 2010). KTLA News Archive Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  40. ^ Rodney Alcala Photo Identification.NBC New York Web site Retrieved 2011-11-03.

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