Rodney Alcala

Rodney Alcala, born on August 23, 1943, Texas, infamously known as “The Dating Game Killer,” ranks among America’s most chilling serial killers.

Alcala gained notoriety for both the savagery of his crimes and his unsettling appearance on The Dating Game in 1978—while actively committing murders.

Deceptively charming and intelligent, he used his good looks and charisma to lure victims, often posing as a photographer or modeling agent. Alcala’s crimes were marked by extreme brutality, with many victims being sexually assaulted and strangled.

He was linked to murders across multiple states, including California, New York, and Wyoming. Despite multiple arrests, he evaded justice for years due to legal technicalities and his ability to manipulate the system.

CRIMINAL PROFILE

NAME: Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor / Rodney James Alcala

ALIAS: The Dating Game Killer

DOB: August 23, 1943

DIED: July 24, 2021

COUNTRY: Texas, United States

VICTIMS: 8 confirmed

ARREST: July 24, 1979

SENTENCE: Death sentence – 1980 | Additional 25 years to life – 2012

IMPRISONED AT: Was imprisoned at California State Prison, Corcoran

Crimes Committed

Rodney Alcala, known as the Dating Game Killer, was convicted of multiple murders but is suspected of killing many more, with some suggestions of potentially up to 130 victims!

Rodney Alcala’s confirmed victims

Alcala’s confirmed victims include at least eight women and girls:

Tali Shapiro (survived) -1968

In 1968, Rodney Alcala committed his first documented violent crime in Hollywood. His victim was eight-year-old Tali Shapiro, whom he lured into his car as she walked to school. A concerned motorist witnessed the abduction and immediately alerted police.

Alcala took Tali to his apartment, where he brutally raped, beat, and attempted to strangle her with a 10-pound metal bar. When officers arrived and forced their way inside, they discovered Tali lying motionless in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. The severity of her injuries led them to believe she was dead, prompting them to search the apartment for Alcala.

Moments later, an officer noticed Tali gasping for breath. As police shifted focus to saving her life, Alcala seized the opportunity to escape through a back door.

During a search of the apartment, investigators uncovered disturbing photographs—many featuring young girls—along with evidence linking Alcala to UCLA. Despite these leads, it would take 3 years before he finally faced prosecution.

Cornelia Crilley – June 1971

After fleeing California, Alcala reinvented himself on the East Coast under the alias John Berger. For years, he evaded detection—even enrolling at NYU’s film school, where he studied under famed director Roman Polanski. But his dark impulses soon resurfaced.

In June 1971, Manhattan flight attendant Cornelia Crilley, just 23 years old, was found brutally murdered in her Upper East Side apartment. She had been raped and strangled with her own stockings. Despite an intensive investigation, police had no viable suspects, and the case turned cold for nearly four decades.

Then, in 2010, a breakthrough: forensic testing matched a fingerprint from Crilley’s crime scene to Rodney Alcala, finally linking him to the killing. The revelation exposed Alcala’s cross-country spree—proving he had been a predator long before his later, more infamous crimes.

Ellen Jane Hover – July 15, 1977

In 1977, Rodney Alcala claimed his second confirmed murder victim under the nose of authorities. Shockingly, with his parole officer’s approval, he traveled to New York City – the same week 23-year-old Ellen Jane Hover vanished without a trace. The case made headlines: as the daughter of Ciro’s nightclub owner and goddaughter to Rat Pack legends Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., Hover moved in glamorous circles that made her disappearance all the more sensational.

Despite the high-profile nature of the case, police hit dead ends. A year later, workers discovered Hover’s badly decomposed body buried in the woods, but the trail went cold. Justice would wait 35 years.

The breakthrough came in 2012 when advanced DNA analysis finally connected Alcala to the crime. Investigators made another crucial discovery: Hover’s personal calendar contained a damning final entry. On the day she vanished, she had written down an appointment with “John Berger” – the very alias Alcala had used during his time in New York. This chilling detail, combined with forensic evidence, sealed his guilt in Hover’s murder.

Jill Barcomb – November 1977

In a horrific November 1977 attack, Rodney Alcala preyed upon 18-year-old Jill Barcomb, a recent New York transplant to California. The aspiring young woman fell victim to Alcala’s signature brutality – she was raped, sodomized, and ultimately murdered in a shockingly violent manner. Investigators would later determine Alcala used a large rock to crush her face before fashioning a macabre garrote from her own clothing, twisting her belt and pant leg around her neck to strangle her.

The crime scene revealed Alcala’s disturbing penchant for posing victims. Barcomb’s body was discovered on November 10 in the Hollywood foothills, deliberately arranged in a degrading kneeling position with her face forced into the dirt.

Georgia Wixte – December 1977

In December 1977, Rodney Alcala claimed another innocent life—27-year-old Georgia Wixted, a compassionate nurse whose career was dedicated to helping others. Behind the closed doors of her Malibu apartment, Alcala subjected her to unspeakable cruelty. He raped and sodomized her before turning a common household tool into an instrument of torture—a hammer, which he used to violate her before bludgeoning her skull with its claw.

But his savagery didn’t end there. In a final act of domination, Alcala strangled Georgia to death with a nylon stocking, then left her lifeless body posed in her own home—a chilling signature of his crimes. When she was discovered on December 16, 1977, the scene bore all the hallmarks of a predator who took pleasure in both violence and desecration.

Christine Ruth Thornton – 1978

The 28-year-old Christine Thornton was six-months pregnant when she had been traveling cross-country with her boyfriend before their argument, prompting her to continue alone.

Tragically, her path soon crossed with Alcala’s. He dumped her body in the remote wilderness northeast of Granger, Wyoming. The discovery of her remains in this isolated southwest Wyoming location had long baffled investigators until Alcala’s trove of photographs offered the breakthrough clue.

Thanks to breakthroughs in DNA technology, her remains were finally identified in 2015—nearly four decades after the crime. By 2016, prosecutors had gathered enough evidence to charge Alcala, but his deteriorating health prevented extradition to Wyoming. He would never face trial for this particular murder.

Charlotte Lamb – June 1978

In June 1978, Rodney Alcala claimed another victim—33-year-old Charlotte Lamb, a legal secretary whose life ended in unimaginable horror. The attack bore his signature brutality: Lamb was raped, viciously beaten, and ultimately strangled with her own shoelace.

In a final act of degradation, he posed her lifeless body in the laundry room of an El Segundo apartment complex, where it was discovered on June 24, 1979.

Like so many of his crimes, Lamb’s murder went unsolved for years, another tragic example of how Alcala’s reign of terror continued unchecked. It wasn’t until advances in DNA technology and the rediscovery of his disturbing photo collection that justice finally caught up with him.

Monique Hoyt (survived) – February 1979

In February 1979, 15-year-old Monique Hoyt became one of the few to escape Rodney Alcala’s deadly grasp – but not before enduring unimaginable horror. What began as a hitchhiking ride turned into a nightmare when Alcala took her to his apartment and sexually assaulted her, then drove to a remote area near Banning, California to continue his attack. There, he struck her head with a rock, leaving her unconscious.

When Hoyt awoke, her survival instincts kicked in with remarkable clarity. Though traumatized and injured, she convinced her attacker she wasn’t angry – even pretending to want a relationship with him. This chilling performance of composure saved her life.

As they drove away, Hoyt seized her chance during a gas station stop, fleeing to alert authorities. While Alcala was briefly detained, his subsequent release on bail had deadly consequences – he murdered more women before being captured for good in July 1979.

Hoyt’s courageous testimony would later become crucial in securing Alcala’s eventual conviction, proving that even in his brutal wake, some light could prevail. Her story stands as a testament to human resilience in the face of pure evil.

Jill Parenteau – June 1979

In June 1979, Rodney Alcala broke into 21-year-old Jill Parenteau’s Burbank apartment, where he raped and brutally strangled the young woman to death with a cord. The crime scene yielded crucial evidence when Alcala cut himself while climbing through a window, leaving behind blood that would later become instrumental in connecting him to the murder.

Forensic analysis revealed the blood belonged to someone with a semi-rare blood type – a match that pointed directly to Alcala. Despite this compelling evidence, the case against him was mysteriously dismissed, allowing the serial killer to walk free and continue his deadly spree.

Parenteau’s murder represents one of the most frustrating near-misses in Alcala’s criminal history – a case where justice was within reach but ultimately denied. The dismissal meant Alcala would remain at large to claim more victims before finally being brought to justice years later.

Robin Samsoe – June 1979

On June 20 1979, 12-year-old Robin Samsoe’s innocence cost her life. While playing with her best friend Bridget Wilvert at Huntington Beach, the girls were approached by a charming stranger who asked to photograph them, this man was serial predator Rodney Alcala.

Though a vigilant neighbor’s intervention temporarily scared Alcala away, it came too late. After parting ways with Bridget, Robin set off on her bicycle toward ballet class – a journey she would never complete.

Twelve agonizing days later, hunters discovered Robin’s ravaged remains in the Sierra Madre foothills, just miles from Alcala’s home. The crime scene revealed unspeakable brutality – her front teeth violently knocked out, her small body left to the elements.

Bridget’s detailed description to police created a composite sketch that would prove pivotal. When Alcala’s own parole officer recognized him in the circulated image, it marked the beginning of the end for the killer who had evaded justice for too long.

Capture & Investigation

Alcala had been arrested three times before his final arrest in 1979, but essentially slipped through the cracks each time.

In 1971 he was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List;

In 1971 he was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List – he was caught after campers recognized his wanted poster. Extradited to California to face charges for the 1968 kidnapping and rape of 8-year-old Tali Shapiro, Alcala’s case collapsed when Shapiro’s family refused to let her testify. Striking a plea deal, he served just 34 months for assault—a shockingly light sentence for such a brutal crime.

Paroled, arrested, released

In 1974 he was paroled – he raped a 13-year-old girl within months. Released again in 1976, he was permitted to travel to New York, where he murdered Ellen Jane Hover (1977).

Just a year after his bizarre appearance on The Dating Game in 1978 Alcala abducted 15-year-old Monique Hoyt, posing as a photographer before assaulting her. Hoyt miraculously escaped when he stopped at a gas station. Alcala was arrested once again but his mother posted his bail, and he was released.

Final arrest in 1979

In 1979 he was Arrested for Robin Samsoe’s murder after his own parole officer recognized him from a police sketch connected to the disappearance of the 12-year-old. Samsoe’s friends provided descriptions of Alcala, who had approached them on the beach asking to take photos. This time Alcala was held without bail.

A search of Alcala’s mother’s home uncovered a receipt for a Seattle storage locker. Inside, police found earrings with DNA matching another victim, Charlotte Lamb.

Trial & Convictions

1972 – Tali Shapiro Trial:

Extradited to California to face charges for the 1968 kidnapping and rape of 8-year-old Tali Shapiro, Alcala’s case collapsed when Shapiro’s family refused to let her testify. Striking a plea deal, he served just 34 months for assault—a shockingly light sentence for such a brutal crime.

1980 Murder Trial #1:

Rodney Alcala’s first conviction for Robin Samsoe’s 1979 murder came in 1980, resulting in a death sentence. However, the verdict was overturned in 1984 due to improper admission of his criminal history.

1986 Murder Trial #2:

A second trial in 1986 again found him guilty, but this too was reversed in 2003 on technical grounds—leaving Samsoe’s family in agonizing limbo for over two decades.

2010 Murder Trial #3:

By the third trial in 2010, forensic advances had irrevocably tied Alcala to five murders through DNA evidence: Robin Samsoe (1979), Jill Barcomb (1977), Georgia Wixted (1977), Charlotte Lamb (1978) and Jill Parenteau (1979). Prosecutors demonstrated his signature brutality: strangling victims repeatedly until death, posing their bodies, and keeping trophies like the gold earrings found in his Seattle locker.

In his 60s, Alcala chose to represent himself—a decision that led to surreal courtroom theater. For five hours, he questioned himself in alternating voices. He callously cross-examined Samsoe’s mother and offered his only ever apology to Tali Shapiro, his first victim from 1968, who called the gesture “stomach-turning.” The 2010 jury saw through his act, convicting him on all counts and reinstating the death penalty.

2012 guilty plee to 1970s NY murders of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover

In 2012, he abruptly pled guilty to the 1970s New York murders of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover when denied unlimited legal resources for another trial. He was sentenced to 25 years to life, but never served that sentence due to being held in California.

Charged with Christine Thornton’s 1978 Wyoming murder

In 2016 he was charged with Christine Thornton’s 1978 Wyoming murder, but due to his declining health wasn’t extradited to Wyoming to face the trial.

Rodney Alcala’s execution was indefinitely delayed after California imposed a moratorium on capital punishment in 2019.

REFERENCES / CITATIONS:

1. CDCR: Condemned inmate Rodney Alcala dies of natural causes – July 24, 2021
2. JUSTIA: People v. Alcala (1992) – October 25, 2021
3. K2Radio: Serial Killer Charged With Murder In 30-Year-Old Sweetwater County Cold Case