43 Facts About Rodney Alcala

Rodney Alcala pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 25 years to life for two further murders committed in New York.

Rodney Alcala was indicted for a murder in Wyoming, although the charges filed there were dropped.

Prosecutors have said that Rodney 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.

Rodney Alcala is often referred to as the Dating Game Killer, as he appeared on the television show The Dating Game in 1978 during his murder spree.

Rodney Alcala was born in San Antonio, Texas, the third of four children born to a Mexican American couple, Raul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez.

In 1951, Rodney Alcala's father moved the family to Mexico, then abandoned them three years later.

In 1954, when Rodney Alcala was aged 11, his mother moved him and his two sisters to suburban Los Angeles.

Rodney Alcala was an academically gifted student who was reasonably popular among his peers and was supported by his family.

Rodney Alcala attended various private schools during his youth before graduating from Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary High School.

Rodney Alcala was on the yearbook planning committee and on the track and cross-country teams.

In 1961, at the age of 17, Rodney Alcala joined the United States Army to become a paratrooper, and served as a clerk.

Rodney Alcala was disciplined on several occasions for assaulting young women.

Rodney Alcala was discharged from the army on medical grounds.

Rodney Alcala later studied film under Roman Polanski at New York University.

Rodney Alcala then took her to his apartment, where he told Shapiro he wanted to show her a picture.

Rodney Alcala had strangled her with her own nylon stockings, leaving her dead in her apartment at 427 East 83rd Street.

New York Police Department investigators now believe that a week after returning to Manhattan, Rodney Alcala killed Ellen Jane Hover, 23-year-old daughter of nightclub owner Herman Hover and goddaughter of Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

Rodney Alcala's datebook showed that she had an appointment to meet with one "John Berger" that same day.

Rodney Alcala admitted to knowing Hover under questioning, but investigators could not arrest him, since they had not found her body.

Rodney Alcala's remains were discovered in 1978 buried under heavy rocks on a hillside overlooking the Hudson River, near a location on the John D Rockefeller Estate where an aspiring model would later report that "Berger" had taken photos of her.

In 1978, in the midst of his killing spree, Rodney Alcala was a contestant on the popular game show The Dating Game.

Rodney Alcala won the competition, and a date with the episode's bachelorette, Cheryl Bradshaw, who subsequently refused to go out with him because she found him "creepy".

Rodney Alcala was arrested in July 1979 and held without bail.

Rodney Alcala went on trial for Samsoe's murder, was found guilty in May 1980 and sentenced to death in June.

In 1992, the California Supreme Court upheld the verdict, but Rodney Alcala filed a federal habeas corpus petition; and in 2001, a United States district court judge granted it, overturning Rodney Alcala's second conviction.

Rodney Alcala filed two lawsuits against the California penal system for a slip-and-fall incident and for refusing to provide him a low-fat diet.

Rodney Alcala took the stand in his own defense, and for five hours played the roles of both interrogator and witness, asking himself questions and addressing himself as "Mr Alcala" in a deeper-than-normal voice, followed by answering them.

Rodney Alcala 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.

Rodney Alcala made no significant attempt to dispute the four added charges, other than to assert that he could not remember killing any of the women.

The prosecutor argued that Rodney Alcala was a "sexual predator" who "knew what he was doing was wrong and didn't care".

In March 2010, Rodney Alcala was sentenced to death for a third time.

Rodney Alcala fled, and Rowan was pulled from the apartment by her friends.

In March 2011, investigators in Marin County, California, north of San Francisco, announced that they were "confident" that Rodney Alcala was responsible for the October 9,1977, murder of 19-year-old Pamela Jean "Pam" Lambson, who disappeared after making a trip to Fisherman's Wharf to meet a man who had offered to photograph her.

Rodney Alcala's battered, naked body was found in Marin County near a hiking trail.

In September 2016, Rodney Alcala was charged with the murder of 28-year-old Christine Ruth Thornton.

Rodney Alcala's body was found in 1982 near Granger, Wyoming, approximately 6 miles from Interstate 80, but was not identified until 2015 when DNA supplied by Thornton's relatives matched tissue samples from her remains.

Rodney Alcala admitted taking the photo, but not to killing the woman, who was approximately six months pregnant at the time of her death.

Thornton is the first alleged murder victim linked to the Rodney Alcala photos made public in 2010.

The 73-year-old Rodney Alcala was reportedly too ill to make the journey from California to Wyoming to stand trial on the new charges.

In 2010, the true crime series 48 Hours Mystery broadcast on CBS did an episode about Alcala called Rodney Alcala: The Killing Game.

In 2017, the true crime series Murder Made Me Famous broadcast on Reelz did an episode about Rodney Alcala called The Dating Game Killer.

In 2017, a biographical film about Rodney Alcala's life titled The Dating Game Killer was directed by Peter Medak and broadcast on the American television network Investigation Discovery.

In 2022, a three-part television documentary series about Rodney Alcala was released called Dating Death.