Who was Rodney Alcala and what did he do? Details explored ahead of People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer

Rodney Alcala is the focus of the first episode of the upcoming series People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer on Investigation Discovery. The upcoming Investigation Discovery show covers true crime cases involving heinous serial killers.

The first episode titled Surviving the Dating Game Killer explores the case of Rodney Alcala. Rodney Alcala was a convicted serial killer who was active between 1977 and 1979. Alcala developed a history of assaulting young girls and eventually murdering them.

People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer episode 1 is scheduled to air on May 5, 2024, at 9.00 PM. The official synopsis of the episode reads:

"In 1965, Rodney Alcala attacks a teenage girl - only to brutalize and r*pe her again three years later; she feels guilty when she discovers he assaulted another girl soon after - but they are merely two of this man's countless victims."

This article explores all about the serial killer Rodney Alcala ahead of the premiere of People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer on ID.

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Who was Rodney Alcala?

A file picture of the serial killer (image via Huntington Beach Police Department)

Rodney Alcala was a serial killer from Texas who was active between 1968 and 1979. The Texas native committed murders and s*xual assaults across various states in the United States of America, with a majority of his crimes taking place in California.

Dubbed the "Dating Game Killer," Rodney was a very suave talker who could charm his way to people. He was a professional photographer who often lured people on the pretext of photographing them and s*xually assaulted them before killing them.

Rodney was born in San Antonio, Texas, and was one of four siblings. His father left the family when he was 11, after which his family moved to suburban Los Angeles. He joined the United States Army to become a paratrooper when he was 17. However, he was discharged from the army.

A military psychiatrist diagnosed Rodney with antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, and s*xual sadism comorbidities. He had already been disciplined in the army for assaulting young women.

Rodney Alcala later graduated from UCLA School of Fine Arts and even studied film under the famous Roman Polanski at the New York University. As a serial killer, his first crime dates back to 1968, when he s*xually assaulted an eight-year-old child named Tali Shapiro.

Alcala gained fame in 1978 after appearing in the popular game show The Dating Game. He won the game show and won a date with the bachelorette from the show named Cheryl Bradshaw. However, she rejected going out with him on the grounds of finding him strange.

He went on to commit a host of crimes before finally being convicted in 1980. He was sentenced to death but the judgement was overturned. He was sentenced to death again in 1986 but was once again overturned in 2003. Alcala was eventually sentenced to death and passed away in prison on July 24, 2021.

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Rodney Alcala's arrest and trials

As mentioned earlier, Alcala was initially convicted of his crimes in 1980. He was arrested without bail in 1979, on the charges of murdering Robin Christine Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl from Huntington Beach.

He was sentenced to death before the California Supreme Court overturned the trial in 1984, citing improper information on the part of the jurors. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the same crime again in 1986 and the California Supreme Court even upheld the verdict in 1992. Alcala escaped the sentence after filing a federal habeas corpus petition, upheld by a United States district court in 2001.

In 2003, investigators in Orange County matched Alcala's semen sample with that of two r*pe and murder cases in Los Angeles. Additional evidence surrounding the murder of four more women was uncovered. Investigators eventually joined a total of five charges of murder against Rodney Alcala, which led to his third death sentence.

Alcala could not escape his death sentence the third time and faced death row while being held at a prison in California. After his sentence, investigators linked more murder cases against him, which led to him facing 25 years to life in 2012. At the time of his death in 2021, Alcala was conclusively linked to eight murders however, authorities believe that he has more than 100 victims.

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The chilling story of Rodney Alcala is explored in-depth in the first episode of People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer, scheduled to premiere on ID on May 5, 2024.