"Dating Game Killer" Rodney Alcala dies in prison while awaiting execution
Corcoran, California - Convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala, who once appeared on the Dating Game TV show, died early Saturday of natural causes at Corcoran State Prison in California, officials said.
Alcala (77), a former photographer, died at 1:43 AM at a local hospital, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement.
Dubbed the Dating Game killer, he was convicted by an Orange County jury in 2010 of killing four women and a 12-year-old girl in California after his DNA matched evidence in each of the cases, according to the statement.
The slayings occurred between 1977 and 1979. His first victim was Jill Barcomb (†18), whom he sexually assaulted, bludgeoned, and strangled before dumping her body in the Hollywood Hills in November 1977. Alacala killed Georgia Wixted (†27) in the same way in her Malibu home a month later;
Charlotte Lamb (†32) who was found dead in her El Segundo laundry room after she was raped and strangled with a shoelace in June 1978, while Jill Parenteau (†21) was strangled to death and left in her Burbank apartment in June 1979.
Robin Samsoe (†12) disappeared near Huntington Beach Pier in June 1979, and his body was discovered days later in the Sierra Madre foothills.In 2012, Alcala was extradited to New York after he was indicted in the 1971 murder of Cornelia Crilley and the 1977 murder of Ellen Jane Hover.
He pleaded guilty and in 2013 was sentenced in New York to 25 years to life, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Alcala also suspected of other murders all over the US
"This kind of case is something I've never experienced, hope to never again," Judge Bonnie Wittner said during his sentencing. "I just want to say I hope these families find some peace and solace for these inexplicably brutal and horrific acts."
Then Wittner broke into tears, according to The Wall Street Journal.
"As I said, in 30 years I've never had a case like this," she said.
In 2016, prosecutors in Wyoming also charged Alcala with the murder of Christine Ruth Thornton (†28) who disappeared in 1978 and whose body was found in 1982, authorities said. She was six months pregnant.
Investigators have either suspected Alcala of or linked him to other murders in Los Angeles and Marin County in California as well as Seattle, New York, New Hampshire, and Arizona.
Cover photo: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire