Rodney Alcala (March 2010)

A convicted serial killer who once appeared on the dating game in the 1970’s is now sitting on death row for the third time. Rodney Alcala represented himself in court last week for the rapes and murders of four women and one child, and police fear there may be even more victims. Alcala was found guilty of murdering 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in 1980 and again in1986 and was sentenced to death both times, but appeals overturned the cases, prolonging the pain for the victim’s family.  This case was prolonged much like police say Alcala prolonged the lives of his victims. As he would strangle them, and just before they would die, Alcala would bring them back to life by resuscitating them. 

The District Attorney’s office was finally able to link four adult cases with DNA to put Alcala on trial for the murders of child Robin Samsoe, 12 and adults  Jill Barcomb, 18, Jill Parenteau, 21, Georgia Wixted, 27, and Charlotte Lamb, 32.  The prosecutors say he raped one of the women with a claw hammer.  On March 9, 2010, Alcala was sentenced to death againor the rape and murder of Robin and the murders of the other four women.  Let’s just hope this time Alcala isn’t granted yet another appeal.

Investigators believe Alcala kept Robin’s earrings as a trophy and stored them in a Seattle storage unit in 1979 along with pictures of more than 100 other women, girls, young boys and even babies.  You can view all of the photo’s here at Nancy Grace’s blog. 

Police say Alcala would lure women in with his photography and get them to pose, but some photos were taken unbeknownst to the victims. Investigators do not know if he kept some of the photographs as trophies of other victims he had murdered, or if they are just generic snapshots.  I know firsthand from tracking murderers and covering cases like this over the last decade that these men and women do, in fact, take things to remind them of their work.  Sometimes the items they take are very unique, so can easily be traced back to the victim.   

Police need to know who each person is.  Maybe you have a missing loved one, or a cold case unsolved.  Take time to review each picture online. The Orange County Prosecutor’s office, along with the Huntington Police,are even offering a DVD of all 125 photos for pick up at their locations.  This is what they said in a recent press release:

Due to the number of photographs, CDs with the images are available for the media to pick up at the Huntington Beach Police Department located at 2000 Main Street, Huntington Beach, CA 92648. The CDs will also be available at the Orange County District Attorney’s Office at 401 Civic center Drive West, Santa Ana, CA 92701.

Anyone with information regarding the identities of the women and children in the photographs is asked to contact Sergeant Smith at (714) 536-5947 or Detective Ellis at (714) 536-5947 with the Huntington Beach Police Department or Supervising District Attorney Investigator Ed Berakovich at (714) 347-8492.

On a side note, when Alcala appeared on the dating gamein the late 1970’s, he had already been convicted and served time for raping an 8-year-old girl.  It’s a shame the Internet, along with the sexual offender registries, had not been invented back then. To top it all off, the woman on the show picked Alcala as the winner (although she never went on a date with him, reportedly because he was so creepy).  I wonder how the woman, the panel, and members of the staff feel now that they know a sexual predator who later turned out to be a serial killer was among the contestants on the gameshow?  I have a lot of friends in production who work for a lot of different shows; there is actually a background process now that takes place to allow people on their programs.  Sometimes, yes, people do slip through the cracks, but with the Internet and public demand for information, our chances are pretty high in knowing whether or not someone committed a sexual act with a child.