Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder and assault. Reader discretion is advised.
The Dating Game serial killer Rodney Alcala died on July 24, 2021, while serving time on death row, per the California Department of Corrections. Alcala, who was 77, died at a Kings County hospital. He reportedly received the “Dating Game Killer” moniker because he had participated in the TV show of the same name in 1978.
Alcala had received a death sentence twice for the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe he committed in 1979. He received the death sentence first in 1980, but the California Supreme Court overturned the judgment four years later. He received a fresh trial, which again concluded with a death sentence in 1986. Then, in 2003, a federal court overturned his sentence, after which he received another new trial. This time, investigators linked his DNA to several other Orange County murders, and prosecutors indicted him for the same.
Rodney Alcala’s final conviction came in 2010 when a jury found him guilty of five counts of first-degree murder. These charges stem from the murders of Jill Barcomb, 18, Georgia Wixted, 27, Charlotte Lamb, 32, Jill Parenteau, 21, as well as Robin Samsoe. Three years later, the serial killer pleaded guilty to two more murders of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Jane Hover, receiving a sentence of 25 years to life. He had committed these crimes over several decades.
The crimes of Alcala, aka the Dating Game Killer, have previously featured in several movies and true-crime shows. CBS 48 Hours revisited his case in an episode titled “Rodney Alcala: The Killing Game.” A 2017 film named after his infamous moniker also details his crimes.
How did the Dating Game Killer Rodney Alcala die?
The Dating Game Killer Rodney Alcala died of natural causes at a hospital near the Corcoran state prison in California. According to The New York Times, over the years, investigators found DNA evidence that linked to several murders he committed between 1971 and 1979 in Orange County and New York. He sexually assaulted and strangled most of his victims.
Alcala later received the moniker for participating in The Dating Game show in 1978. Per IMDb, in the show, “three out-of-view contestants of the opposite sex are asked prepared questions, snappy answers for which will lead to the selection of one, with the prize being a chaperoned date.” He was a successful photographer at the time, per The New York Times.
In 1972, Alcala was working as a camp counselor in New Hampshire when Los Angeles police arrested him in connection with a sexual assault case. He brutally beat and sexually assaulted eight-year-old Tali Shapiro in 1968 in Palm Springs. The case resulted in his conviction in 1972, but he received parole after 34 months.
Then, in 1980, the Dating Game serial killer first received the death sentence for murdering Robin Samsoe. The outlet reported that Samsoe was a 12-year-old girl when he kidnapped and murdered her in California’s Orange County. However, the state’s Supreme Court reversed the judgment four years later, granting him a new trial. The second trial in 1986 resulted in a death sentence, which was again vacated by a federal court in 2003. He received an opportunity for another new trial.
Per the California Department of Corrections, in the following years, investigators used DNA evidence to link Rodney Alcala to other murders. The serial killer’s other victims were Jill Barcomb, 18, and Georgia Wixted, 27, whom he murdered in 1977. Charlotte Lamb, 32, was murdered the following year, and Jill Parenteau, 21, in 1979. A jury convicted him on five counts of first-degree murder for these four murders and the killing of Robin Samsoe in 2010. He got a death sentence.
Alcala had also committed crimes in New York. These included the murders of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Jane Hover in 1971 and 1977, respectively. He pleaded guilty to the charges from these killings in 2012 for a term of 25 years to life. The killer also faced charges for the murders of 28-year-old Christine Ruth Thornton in Wyoming. Thornton disappeared in 1978, but the prosecutors did not extradite him due to his failing health.
For years, investigators have suspected that the Dating Game Killer Rodney Alcala used his status as a photographer to prey on his victims. They believed he found women and girls on the street and promised to click their pictures, per ABC. These encounters would then end in tragedy when he attacked and murdered his unsuspecting victims. During the initial stages of the investigation into the killer, authorities found pictures of unidentified women, girls, and boys. He had stored these pictures, along with jewelry, in a storage locker in Seattle.
Alcala, who was on death row for many years, had faced a delay in his execution. This delay came after the state of California introduced the moratorium on the death penalty in 2019.
Investigation Discovery’s People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer recently revisited the Dating Game Killer case. The episode premiered on May 5, 2024. The first season will comprise six episodes, airing every Sunday on the network and HBO Max.
