Episode 72 | REALITY TV CONTESTANT WAS A RUTHLESS SERIAL KILLER

In this podcast, we’re going to take a closer look at serial killer Rodney Alcala. Handsome, brilliant and twisted, (he had an IQ of 135), Alcala was once a winning contestant on the reality television show  'The Dating Game' and luckily for his date she got cold feet and stood him up. Sadly, others in this creepy true crime story weren't so lucky. Be sure and listen all the way to end of the podcast for a sound clip of Rodney Alcala on the Dating Game show. ★Enjoy!

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SOURCES for this podcast
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Alcala

https://allthatsinteresting.com/rodney-alcala-dating-game-killer

https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/rodney-alcala

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/us/rodney-alcala-dead-dating-game.html

https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Rodney_Alcala

#rodneyalcala #serialkiller #murder #truecrime #podcast #truestory #homicide #homicideinc #crime #investigative #killer  #horror #truecrimepodcast #truecrimecommunity 

Transcript

Rodney Alcala – The Dating Game Serial Killer 

Nowadays if you turn on the television and flip through the channels, you’ll find reality show after reality show of desperate people looking for love and a date. Let’s face it, the dating world can be brutal but throw in a serial killer and boy are you in for a whole heap of trouble.

Our killer today is non-other than Rodney Alcala, otherwise known as the “Dating Game Killer”. From the outset Alcala looked handsomely normal, if not a tad twisted. If you are a sensitive person, be warned, this guy puts the P in paedophile and the creep in creepy pasta.

 Alcala was born in Texas but moved to Mexico with the family as an infant.  When his father abandoned them, his mother took he and his siblings and relocated to Los Angeles. Life was pretty normal for Alcala and when he was seventeen, he enlisted in the military only to be discharged due to having a complete mental breakdown and was eventually diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. This bit will come as no surprise as we’ll soon find out. 

The diagnosis didn’t hamper his spirits as he went on to graduate from UCLA with a degree in Fine Arts. Turns out he was a pretty smart guy, with an IQ of 135. There was one thing however that did put a damper on his spirits during graduation. A couple days earlier he had lured 8-year-old Tali Shapiro into his car and took her straight back to his apartment where he sexually assaulted her and beat her bloody with a steel pipe. Thankfully A man who happened to be out in the street saw Tali enter Alcala’s car, was concerned, and followed them to Alcala’s apartment. He could see something wasn’t right and called the cops, probably saving her life. Fortunately for Tali, the police got to her in time, unfortunately for Alcala it meant he needed to get out of town and fast. 

To evade his warrant for arrest, Alcala cleverly fled the state and enrolled for film school at NYU, under a new name, John Berger. Now I don’t know about you, but most people who are wanted for arrest would lay low, keep out of the police’s radar. But not Alcala, he did the exact opposite. 

1971 began the first round of his killing spree. Starting with victim number one, Cornelia Michel Crilley. His first murder. Crilley, a 22-year-old flight attendant was found raped and dead in her Manhattan apartment, cause of death was strangulation. This act earned him a place on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, he made it into the top 10! The only wrench in the spokes was that they were looking for Rodney Alcala who was now using his new name, John Berger. 

Believing his streak of luck would never end, Alcala changed his name again, to Burger with a ‘U’ instead of Berger with an ‘E’, not that big a difference. But still big enough that this paedophile was able to get a job as a counsellor at a childrens art camp! Thinking he had fooled the FBI, Alcala was in for a nasty shock when a couple of girls from the camp recognised his face from a wanted poster hanging in the local post office. They immediately reported to the police and he was arrested shortly after where he was extradited to California. 

However, his arrest didn’t pan out how the police and state would have liked. The Shapiro’s had left the state of California and had relocated the entire family to Mexico, and to top it all off they refused to let young Tali testify during Alcala’s court case. This was a massive blow for the California judiciary system.  Because they didn’t have a primary witness, they could not charge Alcala with rape and attempted murder, instead he was convicted of child molestation and only handed a three-year sentence. Barely a slap on the wrist for beating a child with a pipe! As if this could not get any more unbelievable, Alcala was released on parole after 17 months.  He was only out of prison for less than two months before he was rearrested with another assault charge, giving drugs to a minor and violating his parole.  In 1974 he had somehow convinced 13-year-old Julie J that he would give her a lift to school, inside the car he had forced her to smoke marijuana and kissed her on the lips. Thankfully she managed to escape him. 

By now you would have thought that the police would have learned their lesson with Alcala, but apparently not. Because in 1977 he was released again “to visit relatives for a week”, his parole officers had let him travel on a flight, by himself, to New York City. Big Mistake! Police believed that he had murdered Ellen Hover within 7 days of arriving there. Hover, who was the granddaughter of singer Dean Martin, was reported missing by her friends on July 15th, 1977. When police searched her possessions, they found a calendar date marked with “John Berger”. Her remains were found a year later in 1978 buried in a shallow grave on the Rockefeller Estate.  Yes those Rockefellers. One can only assume that Ellen Hover had some friendly association with the Rockefellers due to her being ole Dean O’s grandkid. Perhaps that had attended a party there? Police at the time didn’t arrest him due to insufficient evidence. So as usual, he had gotten away with it…for now.

Deciding he needed to do something constructive with his time, besides uh murdering and being a general creep, he got a job at the LA Times as a typesetter. Thank GOD not a babysitter! This was perfect for him, as working at the LA Times gave him credibility for what he was about to do next.

It was during this period of 1978 and 1979 that his true creepiness came out. Alcala, who was now back to using his real name and had somehow managed to get a job with his criminal record, began pretending that he was a photographer for the LA Times. Using his handsome face and natural charm, he managed to convince at least a couple hundred young men and women to pose for his photos.  Some of Alcala’s victims said he would tell women he was a fashion photographer and show them his company card, another one of his favorite lies was to tell his victims that he was entering them in a contest. A large number of his models were never seen or heard from again after meeting with him.  

One of his co-workers at the time had explained that Alcala would bring these photographs into the office and show them off to his friends, the co-worker admitted she thought the subject matter was disturbing, as most were sexually explicit in nature. When she had asked him why many of the girls and boys were naked, he had replied, “Their mothers had asked him to.” Right like that’s not weird. But clearly, the co-worker found it an acceptable answer and dropped the subject, leaving Alcala to do as he pleased. 17-Year-old Liane Leedom was one of the lucky girls who had managed to leave Alcala’s photoshoot unharmed. Leedom explained that she arrived under the impression that Alcala was a fashion photographer from the LA Times and was quite excited to have some photos taken.  This illusion was shattered the moment she walked into the studio that evening. She quickly realised how weird he was. She became uncomfortable when he began to show his portfolio. Leedom described it as page after page of naked and explicit photos of women and young teenage boys, she left immediately. 

Monique Hoyt, who was 15 at the time, was not so lucky. During her photoshoot Alcala had knocked her unconscious and assaulted her. She escaped when she became conscious again. This added another victim to his sadistic scoreboard. 

But this still didn’t deter him, in fact in 1978, slap bang in the middle of his killing spree, Alcala enters as a contestant on the hugely popular television game show, The Dating Game. Luckily for him the show didn’t run a background check, or else they would have quickly discovered the guy was a convicted pedophile, felon, ex-con and well-rounded creep du jour. His narcissism simply prevented him from keeping a low profile! Similar to popular dating show, The Bachelor, the contestants are looking for the perfect partner, and Alcala felt he was the right guy for the job. And guess what, he was right. Alcala went on to win the show with his sexual innuendos, in fact when his potential date Cheryl Bradshaw had asked him what kind of meal he’d be, Alcala had answered, on live television, “I'm called 'The Banana' and I look really good... Peel me.” Ugh, really! 

Well Bradshaw obviously liked what she heard and Alcala beat out the other 2 contestants to win a date with her. There was just one small problem. Throughout the show, contestants interviewed each other unseen, the focus was on the persons personality, and gift to gab. So, when Cheryl did finally meet Alcala face-to-face she point blank refused to go out with him. She apparently found him creepy and disturbing. We don’t blame her!  Perhaps it was her rejection of him that pushed him to the breaking point, to the point where he murdered again. 12-year-old Robin Samsoe. 

On June 20th, 1979, Samsoe’s friends reported being approached by a strange man on the beach, asking if they were interested in participating in a photoshoot. They all felt that he was strange and declined his offer, Robin felt especially uncomfortable and asked to borrow her friend’s bicycle to ride to ballet. That was the last time she was seen alive.  Her remains were found by a park ranger 12 days later in the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range. Heartbroken, Samsoe’s friends were able to provide the police with a sketch of what the stranger on the beach looked like. Alcala’s former parole officer recognized him immediately. Taking a chance, they searched Alcala’s mother’s house and their visit paid off. They had found a receipt for a rental storage locker in Seattle. Bingo. In that locker they found Samsoe’s earrings as well as a ton of jewellery belonging to Alcala’s previous victims. They finally had their man. 

Or so they thought. 

Alcala was arrested in 1980 and sentenced to death for the murder of Robin Samsoe. BUT the case was overturned by the Supreme Court as the jury had been improperly informed about his previous sex crimes.   

In 1986 Alcala was again sentenced to death for Samsoe’s murder BUT the case was overturned again! 

Finally in 2010 he was brought back into the court room. In between the years of 1986 and 2010 investigators had been able to use Alcala’s DNA to link him to a number of homicides, he was eventually charged and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Jill Barcomb, and Georgia Wixted, in 1977; Charlotte Lamb, 32, in 1978; and Jill Parenteau, 21, in 1979, and then little Robin Samsoe later the same year. This time round Tali Shapiro had even testified in court, helping put him behind bars for good. 

This however is not the full list of his victims dead or alive, police now know he killed Ellen Hover and Cornelia Crilley. During the trial a number of Alcala’s photographs were released for victim identification and many women came forward claiming they had also had their photos taken by a ‘John Berger”. In fact, more than 100 of these photos are still online, as police are requesting the public’s help in identifying the victims. Authorities believe that his victim count is actually somewhere between 50 to 130 people. Although these numbers haven’t been confirmed.

If by now you’re still a tad confused about all his charges and what they are, here’s a quick recap. It’s almost like a warped version o f The Twelve Days of Christmas. 

• 1 count of battery
• 1 count of kidnapping
• Violation of probation
• 2 counts of rape
• 1 count of providing cannabis to a minor
• 5 counts of first-degree murder (at least)

Rodney Alcala died on July 24th, 2021, at the hospital wing of the California State Prison in Corcoran due to natural causes. His reign of terror is finally over and hopefully now his victims can breathe a sigh of relief that he really and truly is gone and accounted for. 

It always amazes me that many of these killers and criminals have egos far greater than common sense. Common sense tells us to lay low when you’re on a FBI most wanted list. But for many, the thrill of taunting the authorities or simply the compulsion to commit further atrocities is an untamable urge.