A Disturbing History of Serial Killers You Probably Didn't Know About

Rodney James Alcala (born August 23rd, 1943) was a rapist and serial killer who currently sits on death row in California, for five murders committed between 1977 and 1979. Alcala also received an additional twenty five years after being tried and convicted of another two murders committed in New York City. When arrested, police found a collection of over one thousand photos of teenage boys and girls in provocative poses. In 2016, police discovered the body of a woman in one the photos, and Alcala received another 25 years for her murder. Alcala is often compared to Ted Bundy and other notorious serial killers. Now lets get into the whole story of this demon.

Up-Bringing:

Alcala was born in San Antonio, Texas where he lived for the first six years of his life. At the age of seven, his father moved the family to Mexico where he would later abandone them. In 1954, Alcala's mother moved the family to Los Angeles in hopes of providing her children with a fresh start.

At the age of 17, Alcala enlisted in the U.S. Army and served three years as an admin clerk before going AWOL in 1964 after he had a mental breakdown. Alcala was found at his mother's home in L.A. where he admitted that he hitch hiked from Ft. Bragg to L.A.. He was later diagnosed with a anti-social personality disorder and received a medical discharge from the Army.

After being discharged from the Army, Alcala attended and graduated from the UCLA School of Film, where he studied under Roman Polanski. Now lets talk about what brought you here, the murders.

Criminal History:

Alcala's first crime was committed in 1968 when he was spotted luring an eight year old by the name of Tali Shapiro into his apartment. When police arrived at the apartment, they kicked down the door and found Shapiro rapped and beaten with a crow bar. Alcala fled the scene and avoided the arrest warrant by moving to New York under the fake name "John Burger."

While living in Manhattan, Alcala was able to seduce a flight attendant (Cornilla Michel Crilley) where they went back to her apartment. A week after meeting Alcala, a friend of Crilley's went to her apartment and found here raped and murdered. At this point in time, Alcala had now been added to the F.B.I's Top Ten Most Wanted List.

In 1971, Alcala was at a local store where a few children recognized him off the F.B.I poster and called authorities. Alacala was then arrested and extradited to California a few days later.

When his intial trial took place, the Shapiro family had moved to Mexico. This meant that without the victim and only witness to his crime, that Alcala could not be convicted of rape and attempted murder of the eight year old. Instead, he was convicted of assault. After serving seventeen months in prison, Rodney was released on a good behavior program in 1974.

Not even two months later, Alcala was yet again arrested for assaulting a thirteen year old girl. And after serving only another two years in prison, Rodney was yet again paroled, and release early.

In 1977, Rodney's parole officer allowed him to take a flight to New York City. The NYPD suspects that while he was in New York for the second time, that he killed the granddaughter of Dean Martin.

Rodney moved back to L.A. in 1978 and began working as a typesetter for the L.A. Times. While working here, he was questioned by LAPD as a suspect in the Hillside Strangler cases, but he was later cleared. This is when Alcala began to collect photos of teens for his "portfolio." Rodney also made an apperance and even won a dating game show, but his date refused to go out with him because he was "creepy." Other contestants on the show noted that he was a very strange person and was not someone you feel comfortable around.

June 20th, 1979, Robin Samsoe was walking along Hunnington Beach and on her way to a music lesson, but tragically she would never make it there. After 12 days of searching, her decomposing body was found in the foothills of L.A.. Police interviewed other children that were with her at the time, and all the children gave the exact description of Rodney Alcala. Based off the sketches provided, LAPD was able to secure a search warrant for the house of Rodney’s mother.

While they searched the house, they discovered a receipt for a storage unit in Seattle and would later go up to investigate the unit. During the search of the storage unit, detectives found the earrings that Samsoe was wearing when she disappeared. Rodney would be arrested in July of 1979 for the kidnapping and murder of Robin Samsoe.

During the trial in 1980, Alcala was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of Samsoe. Alcala’s defense team appealed the charge to the California Supreme Court on the grounds that his previous crimes were misrepresented during the trial. Rodney’s death sentence would be overturned and he instead was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In 1986, a second trial took place that was almost exactly like the trial of 1980, but in this case, Alcala’s previous crimes were explained in the correct manner and the prosecution went after a death sentence again, but the trial would be dismissed as the jury hung.

In 2003, the prosecution team motioned to join four additional murders to the Samsoe trial, and in 2006, the motion would be approved. This third trial finally took place in 2010 and was an odd trial to say the least. First off, Rodney did not hire a defense team, but acted as his own attorney and questioned himself on the stand. He claimed that at the time Robin went missing he was applying for a job as a photographer in Northen California. When he was questioned (by himself) about the earrings, he claimed that they were his and he even wore them on the Dating Game. The prosecution brought in fellow contestants who quickly denied this claim. Throughout the trial, Alcala only tried to clear himself of the Samsoe murder, and did not even acknowledge the other four charges of murder that he was facing.

After two days of deliberation, the jury came back and found Alcala guilty on all 5 charges of murder. He was again sentenced to death, and still sits on death row today.