Age, Biography, and Wiki
Rodney Alcala was born on August 23, 1943, as Rodrigo Jacques Alcala in San Antonio, Texas. He died on July 24, 2021, at the age of 77, while awaiting execution at Corcoran, California, due to natural causes. Alcala's life was marked by heinous crimes, notably being convicted of five murders in California and two in New York. He was sentenced to death in California and received concurrent prison terms of 25 years to life for the New York murders.
| Occupation | Serial Killers |
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| Date of Birth | 23 August 1943 |
| Age | 81 Years |
| Birth Place | San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Leo |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 24 July, 2021 |
| Died Place | Corcoran, California, U.S. |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Alcala was described as having a slender frame with a height of 5′ 10½″ (1.79 m). However, specific details about his weight are not readily available.
* On November 9, 1977, Alcala murdered Jill Terry Barcomb, an 18-year-old girl from Oneida, New York, and disposed of her body on a dirt path near Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. Barcomb was found in a knee-to-chest position and naked from the waist down. There were signs of sexual assault, and she had been strangled with a pair of blue rope ties and beaten. She also had three bite marks on her right breast. Initially, authorities believed Barcomb was a victim of the Hillside Strangler. However, after the arrests of Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono—neither of whom confessed to or were convicted of her murder — authorities determined that her case was unrelated.
| Height | 6 ft 0 in |
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Dating & Relationship Status
Alcala's personal relationship status is not well-documented, but his appearance on The Dating Game in 1978 during his murder spree is infamous. There is no information available on his romantic relationships or marital status.
Prosecutors have said that 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. One police detective described Alcala as "a killing machine", and others have compared him to Ted Bundy. 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.
In 1954, when Alcala was aged 11, his mother moved him and his two sisters to suburban Los Angeles. Alcala was an academically gifted student who was reasonably popular among his peers and was supported by his family. He attended various private schools during his youth before graduating from Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary High School. He was on the yearbook planning committee and on the track and cross-country teams.
In 1961, at the age of 17, Alcala joined the United States Army to become a paratrooper, and served as a clerk. During his service, he was noted by his commanding officer as being manipulative, vindictive, and insubordinate. Alcala was disciplined on several occasions for assaulting young women. In 1964, after what was described as a nervous breakdown—during which he went AWOL and hitchhiked from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to his mother's house in California—Alcala was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, and estimated to have an IQ of 135 by a military psychiatrist. He was subsequently discharged from the army on medical grounds. Other diagnoses later proposed by various psychiatric experts at his trials included: narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and malignant narcissism with psychopathy and sexual sadism comorbidities.
On September 25, 1968, a passing motorist named Donald Haines called police after witnessing Alcala lure Tali Shapiro, aged eight, into his Hollywood apartment. Shapiro, who was residing at the Chateau Marmont with her family, was approached by Alcala on her way to school when he pulled up beside her in his car and asked if she needed a ride. Shapiro initially refused, but when she heard him say that he knew her parents, she got into his car. Alcala then took her to his apartment, where he told Shapiro he wanted to show her a picture. When the police arrived, Shapiro was found alive in a pool of her own blood, having been raped and beaten with a steel bar; Alcala had fled. Shapiro was in a coma for 32 days, and spent months in recovery.
In 1971, Alcala obtained a job at a New Hampshire arts camp (Camp New Beginnings in the village of Georges Mills on Lake Sunapee ) as a counselor for children using a slightly different alias, "John Burger." The FBI added Alcala to its list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives in early 1971. A few months later, two campers at the arts camp noticed his photo on an FBI poster at the post office. That August, Alcala was arrested and extradited to California. By then, Tali Shapiro's parents had relocated their entire family to Mexico and refused to allow Shapiro to testify at the trial. Without their primary witness, prosecutors were unwilling to charge Alcala with rape and attempted murder; he was instead convicted of child molestation, then a lesser charge, and sentenced to three years. Alcala was paroled in 1974 after thirty-four months.
In 1978, in the midst of his killing spree, Alcala was a contestant on the popular game show The Dating Game. Host Jim Lange introduced him as a "successful photographer...between takes you might find him skydiving or motorcycling." Jed Mills, a fellow "bachelor" contestant on the episode, later described Alcala as a "very strange guy" with "bizarre opinions". 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".
* On February 14, 1979, Alcala picked up 15-year-old hitchhiker Monique Hoyt in Riverside County. He drove Hoyt to his apartment, where he raped her. They then traveled to a secluded mountainous area in Joshua Tree, California, where Alcala took photos of her in her underwear as well as photos of him raping her once again. He bound and gagged her and began a sustained assault, which included further rape and sodomy. Alcala bludgeoned Hoyt in the head with a rock, but Hoyt escaped when Alcala entered a gas station bathroom on the drive back to Riverside County. Hoyt filed a police report about her attack, and Alcala was arrested, but his mother posted his bail.
For the third trial, Alcala elected to act as his own attorney. He 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. During this self-questioning and answering session, he told jurors, often in a rambling monotone, that he was at Knott's Berry Farm applying for a job as a photographer at the time Samsoe was kidnapped. He 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. Jed Mills, the actor who competed against Alcala on the show, told a reporter that earrings were not yet a socially acceptable accoutrement for men in 1978. "I had never seen a man with an earring in his ear," he said. "I would have noticed them on him."
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 Alcala called The Dating Game Killer. In 2021, the series 20/20 broadcast on ABC did an episode about Alcala called The Dating Game Killer.
In 2017, a biographical film about Alcala's life titled The Dating Game Killer was directed by Peter Medak and broadcast on the American television network Investigation Discovery.
In 2024, Netflix released a biographical film, titled Woman of the Hour, directed by and starring Anna Kendrick. The film depicts several of Alcala's murders as well as his appearance on The Dating Game in the midst of his killing spree.
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Net Worth and Salary
As a convict, Rodney Alcala did not have a conventional career or income. His net worth is not reported, and given his imprisonment and lack of legitimate earnings, it is safe to assume he had little to no personal wealth.
Career, Business, and Investments
Alcala's career was marked by his crimes rather than any legitimate business or professional endeavors. He was a convicted serial killer and sex offender, which overshadowed any other aspects of his life. Notably, he graduated from the UCLA School of Fine Arts and briefly studied film at NYU under Roman Polanski. However, these educational achievements did not lead to a successful or legitimate career.
In 1977, Alcala worked briefly at the Los Angeles Times as a typesetter, and was interviewed by members of the Hillside Strangler task force as part of their investigation of known sex offenders. Although Alcala was ruled out as the Strangler, he was arrested and served a brief sentence for marijuana possession. During this period, Alcala convinced hundreds of young men and women that he was a professional fashion photographer and took pictures of them for his "portfolio".
A Times co-worker later recalled that Alcala shared his photos with workmates: "I thought it was weird, but I was young; I didn't know anything," she said. "When I asked why he took the photos, he said their moms asked him to. I remember the girls were naked." Liane Leedom, who was 17 when Alcala photographed her in 1979, reported that, "He said he was a professional, so in my mind I was being a model for him." Leedom further reported that the portfolio Alcala shared with her also included "spread after spread of [naked] teenage boys."
Social Network
Alcala did not have an active social network during his imprisonment. His interactions were limited to legal proceedings and the scrutiny of law enforcement and the media.
While preparing for their third prosecution in 2003, Orange County investigators learned that Alcala's DNA, sampled under a new state law over his objections, matched semen left at the rape-murder scenes of two women in Los Angeles. Additional evidence, including another cold case DNA match in 2004, led to Alcala's indictment for the murders of four additional women: Jill Barcomb, 18, a New York runaway found "rolled up like a ball" in a Los Angeles ravine in 1977, and originally thought to have been a victim of the Hillside Strangler; Georgia Wixted, 27, bludgeoned in her Malibu apartment in 1977; Charlotte Lamb, 31, raped, strangled and left in the laundry room of an El Segundo apartment complex in 1978; and Jill Parenteau, 21, killed in her Burbank apartment in 1979.
Education
Alcala had a notable educational background, having graduated from the UCLA School of Fine Arts. Additionally, he studied film at NYU under the renowned director Roman Polanski. Despite these educational achievements, his life was characterized by criminal activity rather than academic or professional success.
After being discharged from the army, Alcala graduated from the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. He later studied film under Roman Polanski at New York University (NYU).
Less than two months after his release, Alcala was re-arrested and convicted for assaulting a 13-year-old girl identified in court records as "Julie J.", who had accepted what she thought would be a ride to school. Alcala was again paroled after serving two years, and released in 1977 as a registered sex offender.
* On June 20, 1979, Robin Christine Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl from Huntington Beach, disappeared as she rode a borrowed bicycle from her Huntington Beach home to her ballet class. Her decomposing body was found 12 days later in the Los Angeles foothills, dumped off Santa Anita Canyon Road. She had been beaten, raped and stabbed with a knife. Samsoe's friends told police that a stranger had approached them on the beach asking to take their pictures. Detectives circulated a sketch of the photographer, and Alcala's parole officer recognized him.
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. As part of his closing argument, he played the Arlo Guthrie song "Alice's Restaurant", in which the protagonist tells a psychiatrist that he wants to "kill". After less than two days, the jury convicted him on all five counts of first-degree murder. A surprise witness during the penalty phase of the trial was Shapiro. Richard Rappaport, a psychiatrist paid by Alcala and the only defense witness, testified that borderline personality disorder could explain Alcala's claims that he had no memory of committing the murders. The prosecutor argued that Alcala was a "sexual predator" who "knew what he was doing was wrong and didn't care". In March 2010, Alcala was sentenced to death for a third time.
* Antoinette Jean Whitaker, 13, was a student who had been living in a foster home when she walked out with an unidentified man on the night of July 9, 1977. A week later, her body was found, fully clothed and propped up on her hands and knees, in a vacant lot in Lake City, Seattle. She had been stabbed to death; there was no evidence that she had been sexually assaulted.
Conclusion
Rodney Alcala's life is a tragic example of how intelligence and education can be overshadowed by destructive behavior. His notorious crimes have left enduring questions about the intersection of personality, psychology, and violent acts.
