Convicted serial killer, Rodney Alcala, died early Saturday morning of natural causes.
Alcala was convicted in 2010 for killing five women and a 12-year-old girl between 1977 and 1979. Alcala was sentenced to the death penalty for his crimes in California. In 2012, Alcala was extradited to New York after he was indicted in two more murders that occurred in 1971 and 1977. Then in 2016, prosecutors in Wyoming charged him with the murder of a 28-year-old pregnant woman who disappeared in 1978 and whose body was found in 1982.
Alcala would tell his victims that he was a professional fashion photographer and would photograph them for his “portfolio” before raping and killing them. However, not all of the women Alcala photographed were murdered. There were also young men in his “portfolio”.
In 1978, Alcala was a contestant on the popular game show The Dating Game. The other male contestant described Alcala as a “very strange guy” with “bizarre opinions”. In the end, Alcala won the competition and a date with the bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw. However, Bradshaw refused to go on a date with Alcala because she found him “creepy” and he made her uncomfortable.
Alcala was apprehended after he murdered 12-year-old Robin Samsoe. Alcala met Samsoe and her friends at Huntington Beach where he offered to take photographs of them. The girls declined and Samsoe left for ballet class. Somewhere between the beach and ballet, Alcala took Samsoe, and 12 days later her body was found. The police questioned the girl’s friends and were able to produce a sketch of Alcala and his former parole officer recognized him from said sketch.
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