"He gets off on the infliction of pain on other people," said prosecutor Matt Murphy at Alcala's trial. Prosecutors said that Alcala's method of killing was to choke his victims with his bare hands until they were unconscious and then to allow them to regain consciousness. Her body was found 12 days later in the Angeles National Forest, where it had been mutilated by wild animals.Īlcala is charged with killing Jill Barcomb, 18, Georgia Wixted, 27, Charlotte Lamb, 32, and Jill Parenteau, 21. The young girl was kidnapped while riding her bicycle to ballet class in Huntington Beach.
In 1978, when he was 35, Alcala appeared as a contestant on the popular television series "The Dating Game," charming his date and winning the show.īut since his conviction, Alcala has more often been likened to the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy.ĭuring the trial in the Orange County Criminal Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., four witnesses recalled Alcala trying to get them to pose for him in their bikinis on the beach the day Samsoe disappeared. Steve Hodel, a retired detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, told ABC's Nightline that Alcala could have killed as many as 20 to 30 more victims between the East and West Coasts. Police say Alcala thought of himself as a skilled photographer and may have used the camera to lure his victims.Īlcala had traveled across the country several times when he was studying film at New York University in the 1970s, even working briefly with director Roman Polanski. Some show remote settings similar to the region where Samsoe's body was found. Rodney Alcala Was 'Dating Game' WinnerĪlcala, who had a fine arts degree from UCLA, took the photos before his first arrest in 1979. Police recovered the stash of photos in 1979 but were unable to release them until now because of legal proceedings. "Until we talk to the victims' families, get other photographs for comparison purposes and more details on where their bodies were recovered - if they were recovered at all - we can't really say at this point," Ellis said.
"Some people aren't positive, but they're pretty sure. was reported missing back then, and I think her photograph is on the Web site,' and they're providing us with information as far as the person's name, where they were last seen alive," he said. "Or, the calls saying, 'Hey, my sister, mother. I am alive and well,' and giving us details of Mr. "The calls are basically along two lines," Huntington Beach Police Detective Patrick Ellis told ABC's Seattle affiliate KOMO. They included dozens of subjects, most of them women and young girls in candid and posed shots, sometimes engaging in sexual acts. The photos were found more than 30 years ago in a storage locker in Seattle that had been rented under Alcala's name. Police released the photos March 10 to the Orange County Register in an effort to find out if there were more victims. 25 in the 1979 rape and murder of 12-year-old Huntington Beach ballet student Robin Samsoe, and the strangulation of four other women between 19. The photos - many sexually graphic - were part of a stash of images found in 1979 that may help police solve scores more unsolved murders committed by the so-called "Dating Game" killer.Īlcala was convicted Feb.