What we lose in the Shadows (A father and daughter True Crime Podcast)
What we lose in the Shadows (A father and daughter True Crime Podcast)
Bachelor Number One is a Serial Killer.
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The year was 1978 when Cheryl Bradshaw made what could have been a fatal mistake on national television. As the bachelorette on "The Dating Game," she chose bachelor number one – Rodney Alcala, a charming photographer with a winning smile. What she didn't know was that she had just selected a vicious serial killer in the midst of a murderous spree.
Trust your instincts when something feels wrong – it might just save your life. Subscribe and follow us on Instagram @whatweloseintheshadows to suggest cases and share your thoughts on this chilling story.
https://people.com/crime/how-a-serial-killer-and-rapist-ended-up-on-the-dating-game-and-was-chosen-by-the-girl/
https://nypost.com/2024/10/21/entertainment/how-serial-killer-rodney-alcala-ended-up-on-the-dating-game/
Contact us at: whatweloseintheshadows@gmail.com
Background music by Michael Shuller Music
Welcome & P Diddy Trial Update
Speaker 1Good morning and welcome to what we Lose in the Shadows a father-daughter true crime podcast. My name is Jameson Keys.
Speaker 2I'm Caroline.
Speaker 1Good morning Caroline. How are you?
Speaker 2Good, how are you?
Speaker 1Very good. It's a sunny B-E-A beautiful day.
Speaker 2You sound like a weatherman, I do.
Speaker 1You know, I almost was a weatherman. I'll tell you about that story sometime.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's hilarious, that would have been. Yeah, you should have been. That would have been really good.
Speaker 1That's certainly my personality type.
Speaker 2It is yeah be dancing.
Speaker 1Dancing, you'd have an umbrella.
Speaker 2You'd just be so extra with it. That'd be funny. I'd be doing show too. Yeah, you would.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's crazy that was crazy, you know but hey, listen, that was a miss big, big news, of course. Uh, we've been following and I think we even did an episode on on diddy.
Speaker 2Yeah, maybe we should do another episode yeah, or like a like, a summary of that one and then an addition, um, because, yeah, a lot has happened. Um he just a little recap about um, p diddy he, or what's his real name, sean combs, right? Sean combs um, he was accused of many things. What he's known for, um is, of course, the singing and whatever, but like also for sexually abusing women, and I think men too, actually, but I think only women came forward if.
Speaker 1Correct me if I'm wrong no one of his uh producers that he was on one of his albums um claimed that he organized, and I'm not sure if he directly raped this guy, yeah, or if it was someone I, oh, it was um. They accused um what's his name? That was in jerry mcguire um the actor. Um no, no but anyways, he accused this other people gooding.
Speaker 2Jr have no idea who that is.
Speaker 1Yeah so I'm young, yeah, uh, but yeah, there was accusations of all that kind of thing yep, so sexual abuse and also yep and uh freak offs which were drug induced, right, uh, where you know?
Speaker 2I think you have more knowledge on those, but I think it was just like what do you mean?
Speaker 1I haven't researched them, just because they're a little much for me like I haven't researched the freak offs, but I think it was like I've never experienced a freak off of course not.
Speaker 2No, that's not what I mean. I just mean you have more knowledge about what it entailed. Yeah, the depravity if you want to speak about it a little, just just on the surface so.
Speaker 1So he's accused of having these drug-fueled parties after parties, like some of his things, like they had white parties and a-list celebrities were there, like and white parties are common.
Speaker 2You know in many places and you know they have them in the Hamptons. They have them at it's just where you wear white, Sure.
Speaker 1But in this case he had these lavish parties and so on, and apparently a lot of, like I said, the A-list celebrities were there and so on, but there were parties after parties, and there were portions of the mansion or wherever he had rented out that were devoted to other, more disgusting aspects of it. So, yeah, they were different things entirely, but, yeah, all the things that came my gosh. He was charged with a RICO charge of racketeering and so on, but I was kind of disappointed with the outcome.
Speaker 2Exactly, yeah, kind of disappointed with the outcome. Exactly yeah. So he, um, he was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and of sex trafficking, which is crazy, because that's literally what the freak offs were. But are we surprised? No, he was found guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution. He was found guilty and he has not been sentenced yet. His sentencing date is October 3rd. At some point in September his defense will make a recommendation on what they feel is appropriate, and for that he's looking at two years, and then two years. And then they are saying the max of that sentence is 10 years.
Speaker 1So somewhere between two and ten years is what he's going to get as a sentence with his defense team, with all the people involved, with the money he's spending on this whole thing and with with the money that he has to bring to bear against it. No way does he do. 10 years. No, there's not a chance he won't do 10 years.
Speaker 2I hope they sentence him to 10 years. I hope I wish they would sentence him to more, but I hope they at least sentence him to 10 years.
Speaker 1Well, not only that, but but where? Where you do the two years, five years or 10 years is is also a big thing. Is he going to do it in like a country club style prison, I'm sure you know, or is he going to do it in some place that uh he's. He's put in there with people. He deserves to be put in there with. No, I doubt that.
Speaker 2I don't know, but um, during, after his, um, after they found him not guilty of uh the more um more intense charges and only guilty of the prostitution Right he fell to his knees in prayer, thanked the Lord and his family were clapping Unbelievable Clapping, I mean just so disrespectful for the victims, like I understand, you know, being there and supporting someone that you're a family with Okay, but like cheering in the victim's face, that's tough, yeah, so we'll see what happens on October 3rd. Also, there was one woman there named Stephanie Sue, and you guys probably have heard of her podcast. It's very big, it's another True Crime podcast. It's called Rotten Mango and she was there during the trials taking notes, bringing it back. So if you want a more in-depth explanation of the trials, you can look on Rotten Mango.
Speaker 2So that's a good, um good place to really get the nitty-gritty, okay, oh, and also, she mentioned on uh, on her tiktok. That did. He looked at her and said I know you, oh, terrifying, terrifying. So, um, you know, thank you to her for you know, being a journalist, right, and for telling us what happened in that room yeah, you know, it puts, puts you in mind, of, reminds me of, uh, what gail king did during the whole r kelly, r kelly.
Speaker 2Yeah, she was quite the journalist, my goodness.
Introduction to The Dating Game Killer
Speaker 1Yes, that was intense and that really that was a really damning kind of interview for him, yes so anyways. Well, moving from those monsters to a different monster, Yep, per usual Per usual.
Speaker 1You know we're talking about something a little different today. When I was young, you know, network television was in its infancy. You had only two or three channels and they had some really odd shows on. They had something like it was called Hollywood Squares, which basically was tic-tac-toe with celebrities answering questions and so on, which was kind of interesting. Sometimes they had the newlywed game, which was they'd have these different couples that had recently been married and they'd ask these embarrassing questions, you know, these couples, to see how well they knew each other.
Speaker 1And one that was super popular was kind of a matchmaking show on television called the Dating Game and it was something similar. The bachelor or bachelorette would be behind a wall and they'd ask blind these three other people questions to see which one she would like to go out on a date with or he would like to go out on the date with, and that's kind of the structure of the show For the most part, most people. September 13th 1978 was a pretty ordinary Wednesday, right, but Cheryl Bradshaw, who was the bachelorette, the lady who was trying to find someone to date on the show on the dating game. It was a turning point. From a lineup of eligible bachelors she chose a dark haired bachelor, number one, rodney Alcala. But at that very moment, Rodney Alcala was keeping a really deadly and terrifying secret, because Rodney Alcala was a vicious serial killer.
Speaker 2What the hell? Literally, I've heard of this case. I've seen the Anna Kendrick movie about this case.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2Which is cool. It's a cool watch if you're interested in learning more about the case, right, but just the arrogance of this serial killer to go and parade himself after killing women and being like looked for right by the police to go on a game show, I mean wow, you know like he just really like it's. It's always shocking to me, like how much trust in themselves these serial killers have like or trust that they won't get caught. That's crazy absolutely.
Speaker 1You know, carolyn, you always tell me, you always say that women should trust their intuitions yes, it is literally from from our.
Speaker 2I'm not, I'm not, uh, I'm not religious, but I do believe in like generations of women pushing us forward and I feel like it's from their lips to our ear. I feel like that is what women's intuition is. It's a developed skill.
Speaker 1Whatever divine, however it happens. However, women get that. If it wasn't for that woman's intuition, Bradshaw would most certainly be remembered today as one of Rodney Alcala's victims. After the show ended, she was conversing with Alcala backstage and he offered her a date that she'd never forget, but Bradshaw got a feeling that something was really wrong with this guy and I feel like every woman and probably a lot of men can feel, can recognize that feeling right.
Rodney Alcala's Background & Crimes
Speaker 2You know, when you're just like it's like a sinking feeling in your stomach and you're like this is a horrible idea and I don't know if I'm even going to make it out of this like I think a lot of women can relate to that for sure, can you? Well, I mean, I, yeah, I mean obviously have you been in that situation where, like it's like I'm nervous that I could get hurt because this person has bad intentions?
Speaker 1yeah, sure, I've gotten bad hits off people, yeah, but it's not I mean. Men you know, as man as a man, you're taught to treat it kind of differently.
Speaker 2Right, but yeah.
Speaker 1I've had different times I thought, oh, there's something right. I don't want to. Let's go out. We're going to party and run around and do some you know, some off the wall set. Something inside me was like not me, yep, exactly, yep.
Speaker 2It's like a violent aspect to it, right. Well, and not that there can't be for men, there definitely is. But I just there's something different, I feel.
Speaker 1Well, she said. Sherbrooke said I felt ill. Oh, she told the City Telegraph in 2012. He was actually really creepy. I turned down his offer and I didn't want to see him again. Another one of the episodes Bachelors. An actor by the name of Jed Mill recalls to LA Weekly that Rodney was kind of quiet. I remember him because I told my brother about this one guy who was kind of good looking but really creepy. He was always looking down and not making eye contact. Right, had the popular dating show performed a background check on his bachelors? No, they would have discovered that Rodney Alcala, the kind of good-looking, creepy guy, had spent three years in prison for raping and beating an eight-year-old child.
Speaker 2What the Okay? Okay, that's a lot to unpack here.
Speaker 1So let's start with why are they not doing background checks? Is it? It was a different time, right? And why they wouldn't do a background check on a dating game that you're you're, you're vouching for this person. I have no idea why they wouldn't do that honestly I would.
Speaker 2If I were her, I would have sued this dude.
Speaker 1That is crazy he had done the same thing to a 13 year old child, which 13 and eight and eight, yeah, which landed him on the fbi's 10 most wanted fugitive list so.
Speaker 2So when he did the the um assault on a 13 year old he was.
Speaker 1They didn't know it was him so yeah, some of it, I mean yeah, he was, he was suspected in these things, right, but?
Speaker 2but he was convicted of the eight-year-old.
Speaker 1Yes, but keep in mind that at that point in time there wasn't a huge database, so these guys would be convicted in Indiana, let's say of something and they moved to New Mexico and New Mexico wasn't talking with Indiana, right, and unless you got pulled over or caught or charged, then you know there's no linkage. Now it's much harder because there's a really unified, connected network, but that wasn't the case in the 1970s.
Speaker 2And how many lives were lost because of that. That is crazy. Also, how did he only get three years? For what was it? Raping an eight-year-old child? Yeah right, what the hell? Literally okay this is a very important thing to mention that we still don't have a minimum for rape. I'm not sure about child rape. I'm hoping we have a national, federal minimum, but I know for a sexual assault of someone who is old or older, 18 or above uh, there is no minimum.
Speaker 1It's state by state it is state by state that is scary right, we need a federal minimum? Well, unless you cross um borders from states that makes it federal. But guess what? The federal minimum? Well, unless you cross borders from states, that makes it federal.
Speaker 2But guess what the federal minimum is? Oh no, five years, oh jeez. Five years, that's how long we want to protect society from a monster. Just five years. Maybe he'll change what.
Speaker 1Yeah, so, during his grizzly string of motors that left at least eight dead. But sometimes a background check even a background check can't uncover a complete story, and in Rodney's case the complete story was comprised of at least four prior murders that he had been definitively linked to but hadn't been definitively linked to yet, but I think that is a good point, right?
Speaker 2Like, a background check can't check for everything, so when you see something violent on someone's background check, I think you should assume a lot worse has happened and this is just what they've been caught for, right, right, violence is different. I'm not talking about oh, they had a weed charge. Oh, they had a. You know, they stole something. Are those things great? I mean, weed is a separate conversation. Is stealing good? No, but it's not violent, right? Or at least it not always is violent.
Speaker 2It's not necessarily by, but a violent charge, right come on now.
Speaker 1as you can probably imagine, cheryl Bradshaw's rejection likely only fueled Alcala's fire Before and after the television show appearance. The sadistic dating game killer, as he's now called, claimed to have killed at least 50 to 100 people 50 to 100 people, people or women. Women.
Speaker 2I'm shocked. I actually didn't know that that's a high number.
Speaker 1So let's talk a little bit about this dude. Rodney Ocala was born in San Antonio, texas, in 1943. His father moved the family to Mexico, where Ocala was only eight years old, only to abandon them three years later there. His mother moved Ocala and his two sisters back to suburban Los Angeles. His mother moved Alcala and his two sisters back to suburban Los Angeles At age 17, he entered the Army as a clerk, but after a nervous breakdown he was medically discharged because of mental health issues.
Speaker 2And they didn't even care about mental health back then In the 70s, or that was before the 70s.
Speaker 1Right, that would have been before the 70s. Then you know he's an intelligent young guy. He had an IQ.
Speaker 2They tested at about 135 when he attended UCLA. Also, these, ok, my thing about the IQ test is that they leaned towards white men. So was he as high as they say? Probably not. So I'll just you know. I just I think there's this trope of like such smart serial killers and like blah blah, and I'm just like I don't believe that these serial killers are that smart, honestly.
Speaker 1Some are, some aren't, I'm sure, but I think they're like glam.
Speaker 2Yeah, I think it's glamorized in some weird way.
Speaker 1Well, so in that scenario, I think the fact that maybe he was tactically clever to lure, to lure people into this, I think, yeah, it really depends, uh, how they, you know, use those tests, but I don't know what the rigor is on the testing, at least one at that point and back then, and even still they are.
Speaker 2I think they're slowly fixing them, but like they're still, they lean towards a specific population. So it's's like was he that smart?
Cheryl Bradshaw's Lifesaving Intuition
Speaker 1Maybe, maybe not. Was he smart to kill people? No, that's, I would argue. That's not a you know, something a smart person would do. But like many serial killers, alcala had a style. His signatures were beating, biting, raping and strangling, often choking victims until they became unconscious and then bringing them back to life and starting the process all over again. On his first known attempted killing, tali Shapiro, an eight-year-old girl who he lured into his apartment in Hollywood Hills in 1968. Shapiro barely survived her rape and beating. Her life was saved by a passerby who reported a tip to the police about the abduction. Akilah fled the apartment and when the police arrived he moved to New York City.
Speaker 2So that was the one he got caught for.
Speaker 1That was the one he was. Yeah, not caught for Convicted.
Speaker 2Eventually he was caught for.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, they put a bolo out on him, but he had fled by that point from Los Angeles to New York.
Speaker 2That is so insane because he only did three years for that.
Speaker 1Right, right, right. And then he started using a different alias. He became John Berger to enrollment film school in New York University, where, ironically enough, he studied under Roman Polanski Now.
Speaker 2John Berger Berger. Right, this is. This is the guy who has the IQ of one 30. Right, Come on. Come on, Very nice, Come on, Like he's not. It kills me so.
Speaker 1Roman Polanski. Who was who? Who was studying under film production right? Roman Polanski was a very, very well regarded um film producer and director.
Speaker 2However, he liked young women also young women or little girls, little girls. He was convicted of.
Speaker 1He was convicted of um rape of uh like a 13 year old girl. He fled the united states and moved to europe because there was no extradition charge.
Speaker 2In Europe.
Speaker 1So that's who? Yeah, they didn't want to. They didn't want to, you know, extradite people back to the United States, because the United States at that point, for a lot of things, had a death penalty, and they were like no, no, no, no, no, you know.
Speaker 2Oh, because Europe feels that that's, that's not an acceptable. Okay, I understand, and that's a whole separate conversation For sure.
Speaker 1After being recognized thanks to an FBI poster, cal was finally identified as the perpetrator in the rape attempt of Tali Shapiro. He was arrested in 1971, but only sent to prison on the charges of sexual assault. Shapiro's family kept her from testifying, making a rape conviction unattainable. After spending three years behind bars, he soon spent another two years in prison for assaulting another 13-year-old girl.
Speaker 2What the? How many years did he spend again?
Speaker 1Three.
Speaker 2So three, and then how many?
Speaker 1And then he spent another two years for assaulting not raping, but assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
Speaker 2Okay, again, I think for some reason people don't, they don't think of like sexual violence as all that violent, and I don't understand it, because it's extremely violent and it often comes with a horrible beating to the edge of someone's life, like I mean, I just can't believe that people don't care about children enough to sentence these fuckers to this. Yeah, I agree, three and two years. Two years as a, as a follow-up right to to another one right of children.
Speaker 1Then authorities uh regrettably let akala travel to new york state to visit relatives why the fuck?
Speaker 1investigators now believe that within seven days of arriving there, he killed a college student named elaine hoover, who was the daughter of a popular ho popular Hollywood nightclub owner and the goddaughter of Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Morton Soon. After this, akala somehow got a job at the Los Angeles Times as a typesetter and in 1978, under his real name, which was now attached to substantial criminal charges a typist by day, he lured young girls back to take professionally organized photography of them His portfolio, some of them never to be heard from again.
Speaker 2The last thing a criminal needs is credentials. Right, why? How Was there no background? I don't understand.
Speaker 1No, it just wasn't unified, it wasn't homogenous from state to state. There was no. There's no Internet at this point. So, like I said, the only way they would know is if they called the local jurisdiction or police department.
Speaker 2That is insane and there's no way for them to know or call. You could call, but how would they know to call Exactly To each police department for every single candidate?
The Long Road to Justice
Speaker 1They couldn't so at that point in charge unless you were federal, like you were viewed as a federal, like FBI's most wanted. There was no big major list of that kind of thing. There was no CODIS at that point, right. Right there was no way to track the internet, right, right, there's no CODIS at that point, right.
Speaker 2Right, there was no way to track the internet.
Speaker 1Because there was no internet. Right right, there's no internet. So internet really has been the bane of a lot of criminals' existence, because it tied everything together, right?
Speaker 2I'm shocked that so many people lived honestly with this kind of lack of system for criminals. It's crazy.
Speaker 1So let's get into how the dating game killer was finally caught.
Speaker 2Yes, please.
Speaker 1The year after the dating game appearance, 17 year old Leanne Liedem was lucky enough to walk away unscathed from a photo shoot with Akala and she remarked how he showed her his portfolio which, besides a shot of a woman, included spreads after the spreads naked Also some teenage boys as well. So recently police have released parts of Akala's portfolio to the public to aid victims in identification. The photos are still available to be viewed. Photos are still available to be viewed and over the years a few have stepped forward and you know to revere their horrifying moments with him as a predator, robin Samso. She disappeared from a Huntington Beach on her way to a ballet class in June 20th 1979.
Speaker 1Horrible Samso's friends said that a stranger approached them on the beach and asked if they wanted a photo shoot. They declined and Samsoe left, borrowing her friend's bike to hurry back off to ballet Between the beach and the class. Samsoe disappeared Nearly 12 days later. A park ranger found her animal-ravaged bones in a forest near Pasadena's foothills of the Sierra Madre. Upon questioning Samso's friends, a police sketch artist drew a composite of Ocala. A former parole officer recognized him as the face and between the sketch and Ocala's criminal past, the discovery of Samso's remains. Really is what broke the case. But in the beginning of the trial in the 1980s, samson's family would have to follow a rather long and winding road to justice.
Speaker 2Yes, the victims always do.
Speaker 1The jury found Ocala guilty of first-degree murder and he received the death penalty. However, the California Supreme Court overturned that and because the jury was being prejudiced, they felt by learning about Ocala's past sex crimes, it took six years to put him back on trial.
Speaker 2So here's my thing. I understand that everyone needs to be, you know, unbiased and fairly judicated. However, when it's factual evidence, I don't. I don't think that that's prejudice right because he murdered someone, he has a history of sexual violence right I. I do not see that as prejudice at all. I think that gives a more informed opinion.
Speaker 1Sometimes it's something. For example, it could be something like if he was actually under 18 at the time. A lot of time the records are sealed and things like that, so it could be a lot of different reasons. Plus the connectivity thing. I mean it could be a number of reasons that they didn't come. It's much harder to get away with stuff like that today. At the second trial, another jury sentenced him to death. This one didn't stick either. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel overturned it in 2001. A witness to back up the defense's claim that the park ranger who found Robin Samsoe's animal ravaged body in the mountains had been hypnotized by police investigators to try to remember things about the killer.
Speaker 2Interesting.
Speaker 1Finally, in 2010, 31 years after the murder, a third trial was held. Just before the trial, Orange County Senior District Deputy Attorney, matt Murphy, told LA Weekly the 70s in California was insane as far as treatment of sexual predators. Rodney Ocala is the poster child for this. It's a total comedy and outrageously stupid.
Speaker 2Hell yeah Agreed.
Speaker 1Rodney Ocala was one of many California serial killers who ran rampant during the mid to late 20th century.
Speaker 2I don't know how anyone survived this Really and you know what? Holding space for those who didn't unfortunately Right. It's very, very, very tragic.
Speaker 1Ocala's long road towards facing justice really really started kicking off again, and during the years he spent incarcerated, okala self-published a book called you the Jury, in which he proclaimed to be innocent of Samsoe's murder. Oh, whatever, he hotly contested the DNA swabs done on a prisoner. He was a prisoner periodically throughout the jail, but the evidence was in the bank at that point, and now, with the advent of modern technology, he claimed that that somehow was prejudicial.
Speaker 2I can't Like no, you did it.
Speaker 1Acala announced, to much surprise, he would be his own lawyer in the third trial.
Speaker 2Oh my goodness, so many of these serial killers just think they're lawyers, that they can just defend themselves. Why?
Speaker 1Even now, he was 31 years after Samso's murder. Investigators also had concrete evidence against him in four different murders over the past decades. Thanks to the prison's DNA swabs, the prosecutor could combine these additional murder charges along with Robin Samson's murder in 2010. And in the end, that is what sent him to prison.
Speaker 2And he claims it's prejudice. It's like no, you did these crimes, like hello. I don't understand. I really don't.
Speaker 1So one of the things now, if you'll notice in the movie it starts out with a certain case yeah, I think it was in utah, yeah, of this girl modeling modeling and he was out in the you know countryside really desolate, and so on in the desert, and and he attacks her, he, he overpowers or he, you know, chokes her to, you know pass out, and then he starts the whole process over again yes, very, very scary, very sadistic.
Speaker 1Right. And so you know. In that case she disappeared. Her body was never found. So her sister, who they'd missed this girl for so many years? They just disappeared. No one knew exactly what happened to her.
Speaker 2So, like I just I know, like I feel like sometimes we being, you know, true crime podcasters, people who listen to them, we get desensitized to them and are trying to, you know, protect ourselves, trying to learn more about you know what not to do, right, right, but I want to commiserate yeah, I want to.
Speaker 2I want, I want to put everyone in the frame of mind, just just mildly, of you cannot find your person, whoever that may be, your mother, your sister, your brother, your partner, your child. You cannot find them for years. Your life is on hold, you have a sinking feeling every morning.
Speaker 2For sure, it is maybe one of the worst situations that I can think of and I just I feel so, so sorry and I hope that these people get peace, because they really, really deserve it. And it's just it's. It's tragic. These, these killers are monsters.
Speaker 1Well, so the sister of the lady that was portrayed in the movie um, for years, like I said, no idea. Now, when they released the portfolio of his photographs right, the sister saw it and there's a picture of her on a motorcycle and even though it had been so many years earlier, she recognized her sister as one of the people and from the photographs of her, police were able to recognize where it was. And that's eventually how they found the body. And Jeff Sherman, who was an investigator in the case when he was in jail just trying to solve other cold cases, he took a picture of this young woman into Rodney's cell and was talking to him. Rodney looked at the case, kind of circled the girl's face and kept tapping the picture and kind of sneered and like don't know anything about it. But they found the picture. They found the girl only a few hundred yards from where the picture was taken, buried in a shallow grave, and that finally was, you know, something that gave peace to that family.
Speaker 2Is it peace? It's closure anyway, it's closure. It's just so sad because it's like the whole time, for years and years and years, you're just like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. You must, like I need to be with her. Like it's like it's like the worst. It's I'm sure it's the worst feeling ever, for sure, like you can't help the person you love, you cannot save them.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 2And then you see their photo. I mean that must be even worse than knowing or not knowing where they are, because then you're like, oh, they definitely have died and I couldn't save them, right, and I don't know how they died, right, and I don't know where they are. It's just oh.
Speaker 1So, unfortunately, while still sitting on death row in California, rodney Ocala died of natural causes at age 77 on July 24th 2021.
Speaker 2I don't care, whatever that guy, goodbye.
Speaker 1No, but I mean, you know, I mean, in these cases where it's and I don't know, you know you could feel one way or another on the death penalty as a deterrent or also, as you know, actual justice, and I think it'd be, I think it should be left up to the families largely if that person receives that penalty or not. Maybe some of them are morally, you know, against that or not. I certainly would be in favor of it. I can tell you that. Um, but yeah, for have him to live out most of his life, a long life, for the most part it's 77, that's fairly, that's fairly long, right, and he's snatched the life of so many young women just like 50 to 100 well, that's how many pictures are in his portfolio.
Speaker 1so scary the vast of those folks. They don't know who they are and they haven't been found. So the investigator, jeff Shearman, said there could be hundreds, there could be a hundred or more cases. There's at least 150 photographs in that particular thing. So that is one sick bastard. Hell yeah, I am very, very happy that he was brought to justice.
Speaker 2Absolutely, Because many are not and they're just either have passed and no one knows, or you know. They just are out there terrorizing their communities, our communities.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2So I think it's really important that we stand up for people and, you know, like that one guy did with the eight old, you know, if you see something, call it in. Yeah for sure, Because he saved her life.
Speaker 1He saved her life.
Speaker 2He saved her life. And also, you know, pay attention to your intuition, because that saved that woman from the dating show.
Speaker 1It was Bradshaw that saved her life, for sure. So yeah, ladies, if you feel weird about it, there's probably a reason for it.
Speaker 2Absolutely so. It's your one gift. It's your one gift as a woman For sure, is your woman's intuition. And, men, you definitely should listen to your intuition too and don't run into things. If you feel like you need to get out of it, get out of it.
The Photographer's Deadly Portfolio
Speaker 1For sure, absolutely. So. Next time we're going to be looking into something that is I don't know if it's something or not to be honest with you. Um, there's a string of murders happening in new england oh right and from rhode island all the way up to, you know, to the boston area, and there have been dozens of bodies that have been found.
Speaker 2Now what demographic?
Speaker 1women, um, women, uh, of varying ages, but um, it can be things like a skull fragments found in a park off a highway, or a woman that's was found in the bay. Now people in new england, the authorities, are saying that, well, this is not related.
Speaker 2You know, this is, this is just. They don't want to panic the public until they have information.
Speaker 1And maybe there's no real connection. They're calling it the New England serial killer. This is now. This is now.
Speaker 2Oh, you know what I'm staying inside? You know what ladies Stay inside? Yeah, no kidding, don't go anywhere by by yourself in, you know, especially at night, and don't leave with anyone.
Speaker 1You don't know so, but but next time we're going to be investigating. Uh, is it is? Is it really happening or is it just a phenomenon, like it's a big internet phenomenon right now there are groups with hundreds of people in the nesk n-e-s-k in new england serial killer. But is it real or is it just, you know, some sort of a, you know, overreaction? But I have to bring up also the fact that that's exactly what they thought about the long island serial killer right, they're not related.
Next Episode Preview & Closing
Speaker 1Even that gilbert girl that was found buried in that same field with all the other, like she died of natural causes. No, I don't. I don't buy that, but we'll. We'll dig into the next time and see if it's something or not.
Speaker 2Follow the show on whatever streaming site you're listening on.
Speaker 1And remember. All of the source material will be available in the show notes.
Speaker 2And follow us on Instagram at whatweloseintheshadows, and let us know if you want to hear a specific case.
Speaker 1Or if you just want to give us some feedback.
Speaker 2Okay, join us in.
