Rodney Alcala is one of the most notable and twisted serial killers of the last fifty years. He is believed to have murdered somewhere between 7 and 130 women from 1971 to 1979. The details of each murder were similarly brutal.
His preferred method of killing was prolonged strangulation. Police believe Alcala would strangle his victims until they lost consciousness. He would then wait for them to revive, only to strangle them again. Authorities think he did this several time before finally killing them.
Aside from murders, Alcala is known for his extensive collection of photos of young women. When Alcala was finally caught and arrested, police found a storage locker filled with over 1,000 photographs of young women and teenage boys. Most of the people in the photos were never identified.
In 2010, Alcala was finally convicted and sentenced to death. Police in Huntington Beach, California then released the photos in hopes of identifying more of Alcala’s victims.
From 1971-1979, Alcala ran wild, leaving behind a trail of bodies on both the east and west coasts.
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The murder that finally put Alcala behind bars was the killing of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe. She was seen talking with Alcala shortly before her death. Police investigated Alcala after sensing a connection.
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They found the receipt to a storage locker in Seattle at his apartment. Inside the locker was a picture of Samsoe and one of her earrings. Police also found hundreds of similar photos of young women.
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Alcala was tried and sentenced to death in 1980. He managed to successfully appeal his conviction in 1984. Alcala received a second trial in 1986, which was also overturned. In 2010, he was again sentenced to death, and the conviction stuck. Throughout the time, he was incarcerated at San Quentin Prison in California, and is currently awaiting execution.
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Alcala’s criminal history began in 1968, when he was spotted luring an 8-year-old girl into his apartment in Hollywood. The person who spotted this called the police.
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When police arrived, they found the young girl was raped and badly beaten with a steel bar. She was alive, but Alcala fled the scene. To keep from being arrested, he changed his name, flew to New York, and enrolled at NYU film school.
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Acala used his training at NYU as an excuse to call himself a fashion photographer. This was how he managed to amass such a collection of photographs of young women. However, it was just the beginning of Alcala’s killing spree.
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In 1971, while in New York, he killed Cornelia Crilley, a 23-year-old flight attendant. In 1977, he killed three more women in New York: Ellen J. Hover, a 23-year-old, Jill Barcomb, only 18 years old, and Georgia Wixted, at 27 years old.
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1978 was a big year for Alcala. He appeared on the game show, The Dating Game, and won. Luckily the woman, Cheryl Bradshaw, thought Alcala was creepy and did not end up going on a date with him.
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In 1978, Alcala was responsible for the murder of 32-year-old Charlotte Lamb in Los Angeles. In 1979, he killed 21-year-old Jill Parenteau, also in L.A.
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That same year was when Alcala murdered Robin Samsoe. The subsequent investigation finally landed Alcala in prison, and gave police his locker full of photos.
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During Alcala’s latest trial in 2010, police said they believed he was responsible for more murders than just the 7 he was convicted for.
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It’s possible that Alcala may have murdered up to 130 people, according to those familiar with the evidence.
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In an effort to identify any additional victims of Alcala, the Huntington Beach Police department released 120 photos out of the hundreds found in his Seattle storage locker.
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There are an estimated 900 additional photos from the collection that police could not release because they were too sexually explicit. During the first weeks of the photos being released, several woman came forward to identify themselves or loved ones who went missing. However, none of the photos were connected to a missing persons case or an unsolved murder. All of the women in these photos have not yet been identified by police.
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The entire collection of 120 photographs is still online for the public to view and assist with identifying.
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H/T: Vice
These photos were taken before 1978. If you recognize any of the women in the photographs, please contact Huntington Beach police detective Patrick Ellis at: [email protected]. You can also view the entire collection of released photographs online here.
