Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

With a near-genius IQ of 135, Alcala has spent his time behind bars penning You, the Jury, a 1994 book in which he claims his innocence and points to a different suspect; suing the California prisons for a slip-and-fall claim and for failing to provide him a low-fat diet; and, according to prosecutors, complaining about a law that required he and other death-row inmates to submit DNA mouth swabs for comparison by police against unsolved crimes.

Alcala is still as cocky as ever — bold enough to represent himself in the trial for his life, now unfolding in Orange County. And why not? He has a talent for mining legal technicalities and has repeatedly enjoyed success with appellate judges. And, in the past at least, he had the support of women in his Monterey Park–based family. His mother provided Alcala $10,000 in bail after he was arrested for the rape of a teenager decades ago, and Huntington Beach detectives suspect another female family member of trying to hide a receipt to Alcala's secret locker in Seattle, where detectives found "trophy" earrings they say were taken from his alleged murder victims.

Using evidence such as those earrings and multiple DNA and blood matches, an unusual, dual-jurisdiction team of Los Angeles and Orange County prosecutors hopes to prove that Alcala not only murdered Samsoe but also killed four young Los Angeles–area women in the 1970s: Georgia Wixted, Jill Parenteau, Charlotte Lamb and Jill Barcomb. Their bodies were found in carefully arranged poses, and in a least one instance a lamp shade had been removed, increasing brightness. LAPD homicide Detective Cliff Shepard says the consensus among investigators is that fine-arts graduate Alcala, who preyed on attractive females ranging from stunningly beautiful career women to young and pretty teens, took their photos "to defile the victims as best he can in death."

Although the trial now under way gives Alcala one more chance to argue he did not kill the tiny ballerina Samsoe and dump her in the foothills above Sierra Madre, police contend that he has long been a vicious predator. His first known attack was in 1968, when he abducted a second-grade girl walking to school in Hollywood, using a pipe to badly bash her head and then raping her — only to be caught red-handed because a Good Samaritan spotted him luring the child and called police. When LAPD officers demanded he open the door of his Hollywood apartment on De Longpre Avenue, Alcala fled out the back. Inside, police found the barely-alive, raped little girl on Alcala's floor.

http://www.laweekly.com/2010-01-21/news/rodney-alcala-the-fine-art-of-killing/

This person has a pattern of behavior that is similar to the perp in the Tracy Ocasi and Jennifer Kasse cases.

I think we have another Ted Bundy in jail.

He WILL outsmart the system if Prosicuters are not aware of his mindset.

jmho

Lets not forghet this area has multiple cases of victims murdered by people who are serial and who have a higher then average IQ.

Gary Hilton.. We still have no idea HOW MANY people this man murdered for fun and enjoyment.. He had people who supported him and made money off his mind and never paid any price for there lack of thoughts and consideration that he was in fact a sycopathic murderer.

http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=3654.0


Ted Bundy .. He was handsome and of high intelligence and cold as a cucumber..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy

Patterns of these people behaviors are what athorities in the Casio and Kessee cases should be looking at for clues to where the bodies are hidden.

Closing arguments begin in CA serial murder trial

February 22, 2010 at 10:12 AM
SANTA ANA, Calif. —
Closing arguments have started in the trial of a man accused in five Southern California murders in the 1970s.

Prosecutor Matt Murphy on Monday told Orange County jurors to use their common sense in finding 66-year-old Rodney Alcala guilty.

The trial is winding down after more than a month of testimony.

Alcala has pleaded not guilty to five counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of four Los Angeles County women and 12-year-old Robin Samsoe.

Alcala has been representing himself in the potential death penalty case and spent several days on the witness stand testifying in his own defense.

He has been sentenced to death twice for Samsoe's murder but both convictions were overturned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - Rodney Alcala spent weeks making his case to jurors in a trial accusing him of five gruesome Southern California slayings. He will soon know if his risky bid to represent himself paid off.

Closing arguments begin Monday in the guilt phase of a potential death penalty case that has bordered on the surreal as Alcala cross-examined the mother of one of his alleged victims, questioned former prosecutors and police detectives and even quizzed himself when he took the stand in his own defense.

The 66-year-old amateur photographer and UCLA graduate has pleaded not guilty to five counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of four Los Angeles County women and Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old who was abducted while riding her friend's bike to ballet class in Huntington Beach in Orange County.

The murders all occurred between 1977 and 1979. Prosecutors say Alcala raped, tortured and robbed some of the women before killing them.

At the time, Alcala lived with his mother and was trying to build a freelance photography career while typing classified ads for the Los Angeles Times.

A key part of Alcala's defense centered on a clip of himself as the winning contestant on a 1978 episode of "The Dating Game." Alcala claims the video proves his innocence in the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe because it shows that nearly a year before her death, he owned a pair of earrings prosecutors used to tie him to her.

Prosecutors have said investigators found Samsoe's earrings in a Seattle storage locker that Alcala was renting when he was arrested in July 1979. They allege the earrings were in the same jewelry pouch with other earrings, including one that bore the DNA of alleged Alcala victim Charlotte Lamb.

Orange County Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy said during trial that Alcala took the earrings from his victims as trophies - a claim that Alcala denies.

Other witnesses included people who saw Alcala taking pictures of Samsoe and her friend on the beach shortly before she disappeared and a woman who said Alcala photographed her roller-skating near the beach the same day Samsoe disappeared.

Prosecutors also questioned Alcala about numerous photos of women and young girls in swimsuits found in the storage locker.

Samsoe's body was found in the Angeles National Forest 12 days after her June 20, 1979 abduction.

Investigators could never determine her cause of death or if she had been sexually assaulted because of the body's condition.

Alcala has been sentenced to death twice for Samsoe's slaying, but both convictions were overturned.

This case is the first to try Alcala in the deaths of four Los Angeles County women between 1977 and 1979. Prosecutors allege DNA testing and forensic evidence in 2005 linked him to those cases.

Also murdered were Jill Barcomb, 18, who had just moved to Los Angeles from Oneida, N.Y.; Georgia Wixted, 27, of Malibu; Charlotte Lamb, 32, of Santa Monica; and Jill Parenteau, 21, of Burbank.

During the trial, Alcala has focused almost entirely on Samsoe and did not testify about the other allegations when he took the stand.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011153287_apusseventiesslayingtrial.html

Prosecutor: Man stalked, killed 5 Calif. victims
02.22.10, 08:37 PM EST 

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- A man accused of five serial slayings in the late 1970s stalked women like prey, kept binoculars in his car and took earrings as trophies from some of his victims after they died, a prosecutor said Monday.

"You're talking about a guy who is hunting through Southern California looking for people to kill because he enjoys it," Orange County prosecutor Matt Murphy said about Rodney James Alcala during closing arguments at his trial.

"I don't think in your lifetime you will ever see cases with more brutality, and there is ample evidence that all of these women put up some resistance and they were punished for it."

Alcala, 66, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of first-degree murder in the killings of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe and four Los Angeles County women between 1977 and 1979.

Prosecutors also accuse Alcala of torturing, strangling and raping some of the victims and then taking earrings from at least two of them as trophies. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

In a courtroom packed with victims' relatives, Murphy told jurors two of the four women were posed nude and possibly photographed after their deaths; one was raped with a claw hammer; and all of them were repeatedly strangled and resuscitated during their deaths to prolong their agony.

Prosecutors know little about the death of Samsoe, who disappeared in 1979 while riding a friend's bike to a ballet class in Huntington Beach in Orange County. Her body was found 12 days later in Angeles National Forest, where it had been mutilated by wild animals.

Investigators were never able to determine her cause of death or if she had been molested.

Alcala, an amateur photographer and UCLA graduate, has been sentenced to death twice for Samsoe's killing, but both convictions were overturned. He has been in custody since his arrest in 1979, including stints on death row.

Prosecutors filed the case for a third time and added the four Los Angeles County cases in 2005 after DNA and forensic evidence surfaced. It's the first time Alcala is being tried in those four cases.

Murphy begged the jury to convict Alcala in the death of Samsoe, pointing out it was the only charge for which he offered a defense during the monthlong trial.

"The L.A. cases, he's going down on all four of those, and he knows it," Murphy said. "He wants to get away with this murder. He's living to get away with this murder. ... This is the one we need you on," Murphy said. "He turned this beautiful young girl into a rotting corpse eaten by animals."

In his closing argument, Alcala spent about an hour addressing "lies" that he found in the prosecution's case and accused prosecutors of lumping the four Los Angeles women in with Samsoe to inflame the jury.

He also said prosecutors were asking jurors to use "magic thinking" to get around inconsistencies.

Among them, he said, was the fact that one witness said he was dark-skinned and 175 pounds when he is light-skinned and weighed 150 pounds.

Alcala and Murphy both discussed a pair of gold ball earrings that prosecutors said belonged to Samsoe and were found in a jewelry pouch in a Seattle storage locker rented by Alcala after her disappearance.

Murphy said the jewelry is important because another earring found in the same pouch carried the DNA of victim Charlotte Lamb of Santa Monica, who was 32 when she was killed. DNA evidence tied Alcala to Lamb's slaying, he said.

That DNA evidence was introduced for the first time in the current trial and makes Lamb a silent witness linking Alcala to Samsoe, Murphy said.

"The law allows you to consider Charlotte Lamb and Robin Samsoe together, and they have been together," he said. "All these years, Charlotte Lamb was there. Charlotte Lamb is telling you all (that) what Rodney Alcala does is he murders women and steals their earrings. Listen to her."

Alcala, however, claims the earrings were his and that a video clip from his 1978 appearance on "The Dating Game" shows him wearing the studs nearly a year before Samsoe died.

Alcala also questioned the credibility of Samsoe's mother, who has testified three times over the years that the earrings belonged to her daughter. He said her description of the earrings changed and she never provided photos to prove Samsoe's ears were pierced.

"I'm not trying to make (her) a bad person. She deserves your sympathy and empathy because she lost her daughter under bad circumstances, you might say," Alcala said. "But that doesn't allow her to make up stories."

As his own attorney, Alcala had earlier cross-examined Samsoe's mother, questioned former prosecutors and police detectives, and even quizzed himself when he took the stand in his own defense.

Samsoe's older brother, Robert, said the trial has been hard for the family to bear.

"Most people only have to bury someone once," he said. "This is our fourth time."

Also murdered were Jill Barcomb, 18, who had just moved to Los Angeles from Oneida, N.Y.; Georgia Wixted, 27, of Malibu; and Jill Parenteau, 21, of Burbank.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/02/22/general-us-seventies-slaying-trial_7377235.html

As Rodney Alcala's third murder trial winds to a close, victim's brothers wait for closure, justice

A girl's murder tore her family asunder. Ensuing decades of trials and retrials gave their wounds little chance to heal.

Day after day, Robert and Tim Samsoe sit together in the third row of a Santa Ana courtroom, united in grief, reliving a nightmare.

The man they believe murdered their little sister in 1979 after a day at the beach sits a few feet away -- on trial for a third time. Over three decades, Rodney James Alcala, 66, has been convicted and sentenced to death twice in the murder of Robin Samsoe, 12. Both convictions were reversed on appeal and Alcala was ordered retried. He spent the intervening years in custody.

During the first trial, they were teenagers -- Robert, 14, Tim, 16. For the second they were young men, just starting to live their own lives. They are 44 and 46 now. Robert is married and has five children; they have never been allowed to go with friends to the beach. Tim married Teresa, who has been his constant companion in a seemingly endless replay of testimony and arguments.

There have been times, the brothers said, that they've imagined walking away. But the need to be present for Robin overwhelms them.

Over the years, they have followed the case from trial courts in Orange County to appeals courts in Los Angeles, Pasadena and San Francisco.

Since January, they've again heard the details of a case they know almost by heart. Again listened to the story of how Robin's small body was found decomposed and dismembered in the forest. Again watched the parade of witnesses, who like themselves have grown older, their memories faded.

But this trial is also different. This time Alcala is acting as his own attorney, cross-examining witnesses -- including their mother -- and discussing courtroom procedure with the judge and prosecutors.

And this time, they've heard about the four women Alcala also is accused of torturing and murdering.

As he watches the trial, Robert says, he can't help but wonder where it will go wrong this time. "Where are they making the mistake? Did I miss it? Will I catch it? Is this the part that's going to get it overturned?"

Marianne Connelly, then Marianne Frazier, her two daughters and two sons came to California from Wisconsin in 1977 to escape the cold and start a new life after her divorce. They settled in Buena Park and then Huntington Beach.

"At first we loved it," says Robert. "We didn't have to have 50 pairs of clothes just to go outside. We could feel our toes at night."

On June 20, 1979, Robin and her friend Bridgette Wilvert went to the beach. They were approached by a photographer who asked to take their picture for a contest. Soon after, Robin borrowed Bridgette's bike and headed to ballet class.

Her body was found two weeks later in the Angeles National Forest.

Rodney Alcala was a photographer with a history of violence against girls. In 1972, he had been convicted of kidnapping, raping and nearly beating to death an 8-year-old girl in Hollywood. He was paroled two years later. Soon after, he was caught smoking marijuana with a 13-year-old girl who said he kidnapped her. He was returned to prison and released again in 1977. A couple of years later, at the time of Robin's disappearance, he was awaiting trial in the beating and rape of a 15-year-old girl, for which he was later convicted.

His former probation officer saw an artist's sketch of the photographer who approached Robin and reported Alcala to police.

Prosecutors told the family the case was a slam dunk.

As the first trial got underway, Robert was starting his freshman year at Huntington Beach High School. For reasons the brothers still don't understand, their parents decided it would be best if Tim went to live with their father in Arizona. Their older sister was living on her own.

"We went from being a big giant family to just me and my mom," Robert says. The constant questions from teachers about the trial made school difficult, he says. He went to school 23 days that year.

The trial was swift. But it was also marred by problems. The evidence linking Alcala to Robin's murder was mostly circumstantial. Prosecutors relied on Robin's friend Bridgette and a handful of people who said they saw Alcala or a man who looked like him on the beach with a camera.

One witness, Dana Crappa, said she saw Alcala with Robin near where the girl's remains were found. But she revised her story repeatedly before trial.

Page 2 and 3 at the link
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-alcala25-2010feb25,0,2197053.story

 ::MonkeyGavel:: ::MonkeyGavel::
 ::MonkeyJustice:: ::MonkeyJustice::

Man Convicted in California Serial Killings From 1970's
Updated: 40 minutes ago

(Feb. 25) -- A California jury today found accused serial killer Rodney Alcala guilty of murdering four Los Angeles County women and a girl from Huntington Beach between 1977 and 1979.

Alcala could receive a death sentence when the penalty phase of the trial begins Tuesday.

The guilty verdict comes as a relief to family members of the victims -- especially those of Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl slain 31 years ago. Alcala had stood trial twice before in the girl's death, but each time his conviction was overturned because of a different technicality.

Undeterred, prosecutors again filed charges in Robin's case in 2005, along with charges in the cases of four other women whose deaths were linked to Alcala using DNA evidence, prosecutors said.

"DNA is one of the major investigative tools of our time," Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said in a 2005 press release. "The Alcala case shows that DNA evidence can stretch back into time to help prosecute murders such as these that go back nearly a quarter of a century."

Alcala, 66, is a former U.S. Army clerk, Los Angeles Times typesetter, amateur photographer and UCLA fine-arts grad who reportedly has a near-genius IQ of 135. In 1978, Alcala appeared in an episode of the ABC prime-time show "The Dating Game." In it, Alcala beat out two other bachelors to win a date with "bachelorette" Cheryl Bradshaw. The couple appeared to get along well on the show, but police said Bradshaw later decided against the date.

Alcala's reign of terror is believed to have begun in 1968, when he abducted an 8-year-old girl in Hollywood. Alcala might have gotten away with the crime, but a witness spotted him luring the child into his vehicle and followed him to his apartment before alerting police. When police arrived on the scene, Alcala ran out a back door. Inside, police found the girl, identified only in court documents as "Tali," lying on the floor. She had been raped and nearly beaten to death with a steel pipe.

It took investigators nearly three years to track Alcala to New Hampshire. A tipster had recognized him from the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. He was living under the assumed name, John Berger, and working as a teen counselor.

On Aug. 12, 1971, Alcala was arrested and extradited to Los Angeles to face rape and attempted murder charges.

Alcala was convicted, but he did not stay behind bars long. He was released in 1974 after a state prison psychiatrist ruled that he was ready to be released.

In 1974, just two months after he was paroled, Alcala was arrested after a 13-year-old girl known only in court records as "Julie J." told police he had kidnapped her in Huntington Beach. When the case later went to trial, Alcala was found guilty of violating parole and providing drugs to a minor. He served roughly two years before earning his release, at which time he traveled to New York for a brief period before returning to California.

Upon his return to the West Coast, Alcala was again arrested in early 1979, when a teen hitchhiker called police and reported that she had just escaped from a man who had kidnapped and raped her. Police identified Alcala as the suspect and took him into custody. He was released after his mother posted his $10,000 bond.

As Alcala was awaiting trial on the most recent case, authorities received a report on June 20, 1979, that 12-year-old Robin Samsoe had disappeared en route to ballet class. Less than two weeks later, a park ranger found her body dumped in a wooded area near Sierra Madre. Witnesses told police they had seen Robin talking to a photographer at a beach the day the girl went missing. A composite sketch of the suspect was released to the media, at which time Alcala's parole officer recognized him and notified police.

When police questioned Alcala, he denied involvement and claimed he was working at the time of the incident. Unconvinced, authorities conducted a search of his home, during which they found a receipt for a storage locker in Seattle. When detectives later opened the locker, they found several photos of young girls, as well as earrings that allegedly belonged to Robin.

Alcala was arrested on July 24, 1979, and charged with her murder.

In 1980, a jury found Alcala guilty of murdering Robin and sentenced him to death. Alcala quickly filed an appeal and this conviction was later overturned by the California Supreme Court, because the original trial judge had allowed the jury to hear about Alcala's child-rape and kidnapping incidents.

Prosecutors retried the murder case against Alcala in 1986 and once more won a conviction, but in 2001 that decision was again overturned when a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled that the second trial judge did not allow the testimony of a defense witness who claimed the park ranger who found Robin's body had been hypnotized by police.

Unwilling to give up on the case, Matt Murphy, an Orange County senior deputy district attorney, began putting together a new strategy when he learned that a recent DNA test conducted on Alcala allegedly matched DNA evidence in two unsolved homicides from the 1970s.

The victims, Georgia Wixted, 27, and Charlotte Lamb, 32, had been slain in 1977 and 1978, respectively. Both victims had been raped and killed and both had been posed by their killer. Semen was found at the scene, but detectives had been unable to match it to a possible suspect.

After receiving the DNA test results, prosecutors in both Orange and Los Angeles counties began to examine other cold cases. The following year, they linked another case to Alcala when they allegedly matched his DNA to Jill Barcomb, an 18-year-old woman killed in 1977. Like Wixted and Lamb, Barcomb had also been posed and semen was found on her body.

Not long after identifying Barcomb's case, prosecutors began to look at the unsolved murder of Jill Parenteau. The 21-year-old victim's body had been found inside her apartment in 1979. She had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled. The killer had also posed her body.

In Barcomb's case, a rape test had been performed, but the evidence was not preserved. Her killer did, however, cut himself while crawling through a broken window. Analysis of that blood found it matched roughly 3 percent of the population. As a result, authorities could not rule out or confirm Alcala was the perpetrator. Nevertheless, they did find a witness who could place Alcala with Parenteau at a bar prior to her death.

As a result of the investigation into the cold cases, Alcala was indicted for the murders of Barcomb, Wixted, Lamb and Parenteau. Besides the murders, the indictment alleged special circumstances of torture, multiple murder, robbery, rape, burglary and oral copulation.

Los Angeles and Orange County district attorneys decided that the best place to try the cases was in Orange County, where Alcala was already facing retrial for Robin's murder. They also decided to try the five murders in a single case.

Alcala pleaded not guilty to all charges and elected to represent himself.

Meanwhile, authorities in New York announced their belief that Alcala could be responsible for at least two unsolved killings that occurred there during the 1970s.

In 1971, TWA flight attendant Cornelia "Michael" Crilley was raped and strangled. At the time, authorities initially suspected Crilley's boyfriend was responsible, but now claim to have saliva evidence that links Alcala to the scene.

In 1977, someone killed Manhattan socialite Ellen Hover, 23. Her body was found on the Rockefeller Estate in suburban Westchester County. Investigators found a datebook inside Hover's apartment that showed she had an appointment with a "John Berger" on the day she was killed. John Berger is the alias Alcala was using when he was arrested in New Hampshire in 1971. Alcala has allegedly admitted to knowing Hover but denies killing her.

It remains unclear if charges will be filed in either of the New York cases.

Alcala's trial in the California cases began on Jan. 11. During the six-week trial, DNA and other evidence was presented in each of the cases, but much of the trial centered on Robin's murder.

Murphy presented witnesses who testified that they had seen Alcala attempting to take photos of the girl on the beach before she disappeared. Murphy also called Marianne Connelly, Robin's mother, to the stand. She testified that the gold-ball earrings recovered from Alcala's rented storage locker belonged to her daughter.

In defending himself, Alcala also focused on Robin's death and did not offer testimony in regard to the other cases. Alcala did not deny photographing girls on the beach where Robin was last seen, but claimed he did not photograph her. He also claimed he was interviewing for a job at the time she went missing. As evidence of this, he called several witnesses who he claimed could place him at the interview; however, none of them was able to pinpoint the exact day he came in.

In regard to the earrings found in his storage locker, Alcala claimed they belonged to him. As evidence, he entered a video clip into evidence, taken during the 1978 episode of "The Dating Game" in which he appeared. Alcala instructed the jury to pay close attention to one particular shot, in which they would be able to see that he was wearing gold-ball earrings.

"You'll see a flash of my hair going up and a flash of gold," he testified. "Two little specks, you'll see that."

When Alcala played the video, he never paused it or attempted to point out the frame in question. Despite his intent, the evidence appeared to be lost on the jury.

Closing arguments in the trial began Monday, with Murphy telling the jury that Alcala was a "hunter" with "no soul or feeling," who killed because he "enjoyed it."

"You will never see cases with more brutality," Murphy said. "All of these victims put up resistance and he punished them for it. ... He tortured his victims because he enjoyed it."

When it came time to present his own closing arguments, Alcala told the jury that the evidence against him in Robin's case was based on "gimmicks" and "lies." He attacked Connelly's testimony and said she made up the story about her daughter's earrings in order to implicate him in the murder.

"I'm not trying to make Mrs. Connelly into a bad person," Alcala said. "She deserves your empathy and your sympathy because she lost her daughter, ... but it does not give her the right to make up a story."

The jury began deliberating late Tuesday and continued to do so until this afternoon, when they found Alcala guilty of five counts of murder.
http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/california-jury-convicts-rodney-alcala-in-1970s-serial-killings/19374137

1978 episode of "The Dating Game" in which he appeared. ?

WOW.


Thanks for the update..


My point on this fellow is his Pattern of Behavior and how close it is to the fellow being held in the Tracy Casio case..
In that case detectives and friends need to take a close look at his posetions and items he has given as gifts looking for ?  anything that look suspecious.
He may even have some place he hides trophys of his murders.. earrings and such..
kessee and casio both are most likely his victims.

 ::MonkeyEek::   ::MonkeyShocked::

photo

(http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2010-01/51579485.jpg)
Court proceedings
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times / January 11, 2010)
Opening statements in the trial of accused serial killer Rodney Alcala, center, begin in Orange County Superior Court.

A photo of a child rapist and murderer who enjoys what he has done.
He has enjoyed himself in court too.
It has taken a long time and he WILL play the court system forever.
My bet is he will never be executed.

Edward, I would so much like to disagree with you, but I can't.  As most killers love to relive their crimes, every time he goes to court, he gets his thrills.  The misery he is causing is his oxygen.

Calif. jury: Death for serial killer Rodney Alcala  ::MonkeyGavel:: ::MonkeyJustice:: ::MonkeyJustice:: ::MonkeyJustice::
By GILLIAN FLACCUS (AP) – 30 minutes ago

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California jury has recommended death for convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala in the 1970s slayings of four women and a 12-year-old girl.

The jury in Orange County returned its decision Tuesday afternoon, only hours after the 66-year-old urged the panel to spare his life.

Alcala was convicted last month of murdering 12-year-old Robin Samsoe and four Los Angeles County women in the late 1970s. The penalty phase of the trial began last week.

Alcala gave his own closing arguments Tuesday. He told jurors that if they recommend death instead of life in prison without parole, his case would be on appeal for another 15 to 20 years.

Earlier, a prosecutor called Alcala an "evil monster" who knows he's done wrong and doesn't care.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala asked a California jury on Tuesday to spare his life, arguing that the long appeals process would cause more suffering to his victims' families.

Alcala represented himself during closing arguments in the penalty phase of his trial for murdering a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl and four Los Angeles County women in the late 1970s. He asked for life in prison without chance of parole and noted in a 10-minute argument that his two previous death sentences for killing Samsoe were thrown out on appeal.

The victims' families will have to wait 15 years for his execution, and there's a good chance that a death sentence would be overturned, Alcala said.

"But if you chose life in prison you will end the matter now," he told the Orange County jury. "The families of the victims will have closure after 30 years."

The 12-year-old, Robin Samsoe, was kidnapped while riding a bicycle to ballet class on June 20, 1979. Her body was found 12 days later in the Angeles National Forest.

Alcala was arrested a month after Samsoe's disappearance when his parole agent recognized him from a police sketch and called authorities. Alcala has been in custody ever since and is now 66.

He was first tried in Samsoe's murder in 1980. Prosecutors added the murders of four women in 2006 after investigators discovered forensic evidence linking him to those crimes, including DNA found on three of the women, a bloody handprint and marker testing done on blood Alcala left on a towel in the fourth victim's home.

The jury convicted Alcala of the murders on Feb. 25, and also found true special-circumstance allegations of rape, torture and kidnapping, making him eligible for the death penalty.

A defense psychiatrist testified during the trial penalty phase last week that Alcala suffers from a borderline personality disorder that could lead to psychotic episodes. Alcala has claimed he doesn't remember some of his actions.

Prosecutor Matt Murphy called the defense psychiatrist's diagnosis "garbage" and argued that Alcala, a one-time photographer and contestant on TV's "The Dating Game," was a remorseless predator who enjoyed killing and kept earrings and other trophies of his victims.

"He's an evil monster who knows what he's doing is wrong and doesn't care," Murphy told jurors Tuesday in asking them to recommend the death penalty.

Murphy also noted Alcala's previous convictions for raping a 15-year-old in 1979 and an 8-year-old girl in 1968.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hUFF0QRV6JoqN4edjHqQKTLgy8hQD9EBEBG81

NOW KILL the POS!! NOW! and that will be  ::MonkeyJustice::


Orange County jury orders death for Alcala for third time
March 9, 2010 |  4:18 pm

An Orange County jury needed just a few hours Tuesday to hand down the death penalty for Rodney James Alcala, convicted last week of murdering four Los Angeles County women and a 12-year-old girl from Huntington Beach in the late 1970s.

It was the third time Alcala, 66, has been convicted for the murder of Robin Samsoe, 12, last seen alive riding her bike to ballet class in June 1979. He had been condemned to death both times, but the convictions were overturned. He has been in custody since his 1979 arrest.

Before the third trial began in January, he was linked through DNA, blood and fingerprint evidence to the deaths of Jill Barcomb, 18, whose body was found in the Hollywood Hills; Georgia Wixted, 27, of Malibu; Charlotte Lamb, 32, of Santa Monica; and Jill Parenteau, 21, of Burbank.

During his closing arguments Tuesday, Alcala -- a onetime photographer and “Dating Game” contestant who acted as his own attorney in this trial -- asked jurors to spare him the death penalty, saying they would become killers themselves if they sent him to death row and arguing that the sentence would lead to decades of appeals.

By assigning the death penalty, “you become a wannabe killer in waiting,” Alcala told jurors before playing a portion of “Alice’s Restaurant,” a rambling 18-minute Vietnam War protest song by folk singer Arlo Guthrie. In the section played, a man being drafted for war tells a military psychiatrist:

“Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth...I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL.”

As the word reverberated through the Santa Ana courtroom, Robert Samsoe, Robin’s brother, stood up and walked out.

Alcala remained seated while speaking to the jury during his closing. He wore the same tan sports coat he’s worn since the trial started two months ago.

He told jurors the death penalty would lead to appeals that could last another 15 or 20 years with a high probability the conviction would be reversed. A sentence of life in prison without parole “would end this matter now,” he said.

“This is probably the most important decision you will ever make,” Alcala told the jury, made up of five women and seven men. “Choose wisely.”

Earlier in the day, Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy told jurors Alcala is “an evil monster” who knows how to follow the rules when he wants to and who raped and tortured his victims because he enjoyed it.

Alcala, Murphy said, is an intelligent man who grew up in a middle-class home, had a mother who loved him and had every opportunity in the world.

The prosecutor walked jurors through the defendant’s crimes, including two previous convictions for raping and beating two girls. Both victims testified during the sentencing phase.

Monique H., who was 15 when Alcala picked her up and took her to a mountainous area near Banning, told the jury last week that Alcala asked her to pose for pictures, then knocked her unconscious. He beat, raped and sodomized her, she said.

What she described is “a vignette of everything he did to the ones that did not survive,” Murphy said. “You speak for the conscience of this community. Hold Rodney Alcala responsible for what he did.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/03/orange-county-jury-recommends-death-for-alcala-for-third-time.html

SANTA ANA, Calif.  —  Prosecutors said convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala used his camera to gain the trust of young women and now they fear photographs he snapped decades ago could contain images of more potential victims.

Hundreds of Alcala's photographs, apparently taken before his first arrest in 1979, were released by Huntington Beach police Wednesday, featuring women and girls in candid and posed shots. Some show them naked and engaging in sex acts.

Most of the dozens of subjects in the photos have never been identified and now police are asking for the public's help in figuring out who the women are.

A jury recommended death Tuesday for Alcala, 66, in the murders of a 12-year-old girl and four women dating back to the seventies

Prosecutors said Alcala, an amateur photographer and UCLA graduate, used his camera to put his victims at ease.

"We'd like to locate the women in these pictures," prosecutor Matt Murphy told the Orange County Register. "Did they simply pose for a serial killer, or did they become victims of his sadistic, murderous pattern?"

Detectives recovered hundreds of photos during court-authorized searches of Alcala's Monterey Park home and a rented storage locker.

Some photos show women posing in remote settings similar to the locale where 12-year-old Robin Samsoe's body was found in 1979. A few are of young men in sexually suggestive poses.

Jurors took just an hour to return the death recommendation after a six-week trial in which Alcala represented himself and took the stand in his own defense.

Alcala was sentenced to death twice before in the 1979 murder of Robin Samsoe, but those verdicts were overturned on appeal.

Prosecutors refiled charges in that case and added the four other murders in 2006 after investigators linked them to Alcala using DNA samples and other forensic evidence. Those cases, which had gone unsolved for decades, went on trial for the first time this year.

Alcala focused his entire defense on the Samsoe case and ignored the murders of the four Los Angeles County women murdered between 1977 and 1979.

(http://www.foxnews.com/images/601371/0_61_031110_alcala01.jpg)

Several of the hundreds of photos recovered during court-authorized searches of serial killer's home and Seattle storage locker.




http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,588868,00.html?test=latestnews

This link has a photo gallery of the women

http://**/news/ci_14653173

Like with so many serial murders questions will probably remain forever on wh, where and who has been attacked or murdered by this man.

He will sit in his jail cell and smile at the guards because... He is criminal insane. He is very dangerous. He should be put to sleep for the safety of all in my humble opinion.

Updated: 6:06 p.m.
Alcala photos prompt tips from public

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Detectives who investigated the Rodney Alcala murders are receiving tips from the public after releasing a series of photographs apparently taken by Alcala in the 1970s.

"Unfortunately, shortly after the release was put out, our phones here at the PD went dead," Capt. Chuck Thomas, commander of Huntington Beach Police Department Investigation Division, wrote in an e-mail. "I am told a phone line was accidentally severed during some construction outside of the PD. Besides the 911 and emergency phone lines, we are working on our cell phones."

By the time the phones went dead, police had "only received a few calls from citizens, but approximately 45 calls from the media asking for copies of the photos," Thomas wrote.

On Tuesday, a jury recommended Alcala be sentenced to death for the murders of five females in the 1970s. The next day, the Huntington Beach Police Department released more than 100 photos taken by Alcala in the 1970s to help determine whether any of them depict people who went missing at the time.

Around noon Thursday, when the phones were still working, Det. Sgt. Aaron Smith described the early response.

"We've had some calls from people saying, 'Hey, that's me,'" he said, but nobody had called to identify anyone in the photos as a missing person.

Alcala was convicted Feb. 25 in the late-1970s murders of Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl, and of four women from Los Angeles. Before this trial, Alcala had been twice tried and convicted of murdering Samsoe. Twice, he was sentenced to death by Orange County judges, but twice his convictions were reversed on appeal.

Authorities have long suspected that Alcala killed other women. Alcala remains a suspect in two murders in New York in the 1970s.

Detectives recovered hundreds of photos of young women, as well as two young men, during court-authorized searches of Alcala's Monterey Park home and a rented storage locker in Seattle.

Matt Murphy, the Orange County prosecutor who helped win the most recent convictions against Alcala, said that he can't help but wonder if the young women are still alive.

"We know that he used his camera many times in the past to gain the trust of several of his victims," Murphy said in an interview. "And then we found dozens of photos of unidentified young women who posed for him.

"We'd like to locate the women in these pictures," Murphy said. "Did they simply pose for a serial killer, or did they become victims of his sadistic, murderous pattern?"

Many of Alcala's photos were sexually explicit and could not be published in a newspaper, so detectives have had to track those people down through other ways, said Smith, the Huntington Beach detective sergeant.

In addition, "there were photographs of girls at gymnastics practice, sporting events, roller skating along the beach," Smith said.

The photos taken at the gymnastics practice had addresses written on the back side, Smith said.

"Alcala had done a little research," Smith said.

Detectives found the families who were living at those addresses in the 1970s, and confirmed that the girls pictured were alive, Smith said.

After more than 100 photos were published on ocregister.com on Wednesday, they attracted widespread attention. News agencies across the country and overseas referred readers to the Register's Web site to read the story, which became one of the site's most-viewed stories ever. Click here to read that story.

The photo gallery had attracted more than 2.3 million page views by 4 p.m. Thursday, more than doubling the previous record for a Register photo gallery.

Readers pored over the photos, comparing them to the pictures of missing women found on the Web site of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, sending their suggestions to detectives, and posting their findings in the comments section.

Anyone who knows who the women in the photographs are may contact Huntington Beach Police Detective Patrick Ellis at 714-375-5066 or pellis@hbpd.org, or Supervising District Attorney Investigator Ed Berakovich at 714-347-8492.

Authorities said that they wrestled with concerns about the privacy of the people depicted in the photographs, but decided that the need to identify any other victims took precedence.

"Although we hope that the people depicted are not victims, we believe the release may help solve some cold cases and bring closure to victims' families," District Attorney Tony Rackauckas explained through a press release.

Alcala, now 66, was tried twice and convicted twice and sentenced to death twice – in 1980 and 1986 – for killing Samsoe on June 20, 1979.

Witnesses testified that he asked her to pose for photographs at the 14th Street beach in Huntington Beach a few minutes before he kidnapped her while she was riding a friend's bicycle to ballet practice. Her decomposing body was found near a remote turnout in the foothills of Los Angeles 12 days later.

Before he could be tried a third time, Alcala was linked by DNA evidence to the torture slayings of Jill Barcomb, 18, of Oneida, NY, whose body was found on a dirt path near Mulholland Drive in November, 1977; Georgia Wixted, 27, a nurse whose was found in her Malibu home, naked, battered and raped in December 1977; Charlotte Lamb, 32, a legal secretary whose body was found naked and dead in the laundry room of an apartment complex in El Segundo in June 1978, and Jill Parenteau, 21, a computer program keypunch operator, who was killed in her Burbank apartment in June 1979.

In the comments section of the ocregister.com story, readers wondered whether the photos would lead to any answers.

A reader posting under the name of dingogoo wrote, "I'm wondering if anyone has recognized themselves or anyone they know. Some guy took my picture near the HB pier back then, I don't know if it was him or not... I didn't see any of me."

A reader going by nbtrixie wrote, "These pictures need to be run on Americas Most Wanted ... who knows how many of these people have been missing all these years."

http://www.ocregister.com/news/alcala-238877-photos-beach.html

Authorities seek help identifying people in serial killer's photos
(CNN) -- Hoping to solve numerous cold cases, authorities on Thursday released more than a hundred photos of unidentified women and children found in a storage unit that belonged to a serial killer who appeared on "The Dating Game."

Investigators are trying to determine if some of the people in the pictures were victims of Rodney Alcala, 66, who was convicted in February of murdering a child and four women between November 1977 and June 1979.

A jury this week recommended a death sentence for Alcala, who appeared on the popular dating show in 1978 as Bachelor No. 1.

"We balanced the privacy concerns of those depicted in the decision to release these pictures," Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in a statement. "Although we hope that the people depicted are not victims, we believe the release may help solve some cold cases and bring closure to victims' families."

See all the photos
Video: Killer's game show past
RELATED TOPICS

    * Criminal Trials
    * Serial Killers
    * Orange County

A few pictures of men were also found among the portrait-style photos that were discovered in a storage unit that Alcala kept in Seattle, Washington, said Susan Kang Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. The locker also contained earrings that belonged to 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, who Alcala abducted and killed in 1979, Schroeder said.

The discovery of the earring in the locker has raised speculation that there may be other victims or that the photographs were trophies to Alcala, she said.

"The idea is to figure out if these are other victims that belong to other cold cases and if they are we can hopefully bring some closure to these victims' families," she said. "We know that Mr. Alcala used his photography as a ruse to get close to his victims."

Authorities already believe that Alcala may be responsible for deaths in New York, Schroeder said.

"It's very possible," Schroeder said. "Mr. Alcala is a predatory monster and we believe that he destroyed many lives everywhere he went."

According to the Orange County District Attorney, Alcala was convicted in 1972 of kidnapping and molesting a child in Los Angeles County in 1968. After serving a 34-month sentence, he was released.

In November 1977, Alcala raped, sodomized and murdered Jill Barcomb, an 18-year-old New Yorker who had recently moved to California, the district attorney said.

"The defendant used a large rock to smash in the victim's face, causing blunt force trauma, and strangled her to death by tying her belt and pant leg around her neck. He then left the victim's body in a mountainous area in the foothills near Hollywood."

The body was discovered soon after, and biological evidence was collected, but DNA technology was not yet available to find her killer.

The following month, Alcala raped, sodomized and murdered 27-year-old nurse Georgia Wixted, according to the district attorney. "The defendant used the claw end of a hammer to beat the victim and smash in her head. He strangled her to death using a nylon stocking and left her body in her Malibu apartment," according to the district attorney's Web site.

Again the body was discovered and biological evidence was collected, but no link was made to Alcala.

All this occurred before Alcala charmed "Dating Game" contestant Cheryl Bradshaw in 1988. Though Bradshaw chose Alcala as her date, she reportedly refused to go out with him.

Alcala may have appeared likable to viewers at home, but Bachelor No. 2, Jed Mills, said he was the complete opposite when they sat together in the green room before the show.

Mills said he had an almost immediate aversion to Alcala.

"Something about him, I could not be near him," Mills recalled. "He was very obnoxious and creepy -- he became very unlikable and rude and imposing as though he was trying to intimidate. I wound up not only not liking this guy ... not wanting to be near him ... he got creepier and more negative. He was a standout creepy guy in my life."

Mills said he still has a difficult time discussing Alcala.

"Just talking about it, I get a tightness in my stomach," he said, "It kind of sinks in slowly. What this guy did, it's hard to express. He kind of haunts me a bit."

Two more slayings followed the year after Alcala appeared on the show. In June 1979, he raped and killed 21-year-old Jill Parenteau in her Burbank apartment, the district attorney said.

"The defendant strangled the victim to death using a cord or nylon. Alcala's blood was collected from the scene after he cut himself crawling through a window. Based on a semi-rare blood match, Alcala was linked to the murder," the district attorney's Web site said.

Though he was charged with killing Parenteau, the case was dismissed after his first conviction in the Samsoe case.

In that case, Alcala approached a 12-year-old at the beach in Huntington Beach and asked her to pose for pictures, after which she rode off on her bicycle toward a dance class, the district attorney said.

She did not make it. "The defendant kidnapped and murdered Samsoe and dumped her body near Sierra Madre in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains," the district attorney's Web site said.

Alcala was convicted for Samsoe's murder in 1980 and sentenced to receive the death penalty, but the conviction was overturned by the California Supreme Court.

A second trial in 1986 resulted in a death sentence, but it was overturned by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

As he awaited a third trial, Alcala's DNA was linked to the murder scenes of Barcomb, Wixted and Lamb. He was charged with the four Los Angeles murders, including Parenteau's.

Anyone with information regarding the identities of the women and children in the photographs found in Alcala's storage locker is asked to contact the Orange County District Attorney's Office or the Huntington Beach Police Department.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/11/dating.game.killer/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

http://nancygrace.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/11/100-photos-found-in-serial-killers-locker/

March 11, 2010
100+ Photos Found in Serial Killer's Locker
Posted: 10:55 PM ET

Are They More of His Victims?                       
                                                                   

Could this woman and others be victims of a serial killer?

Police release photos California serial killer took of girls. Most of the dozens of young women & some men in the photos have never been identified and NOW police are asking for your help - take a look, do you know who the possible victims are?     
                                                                                

Very chilling.  Thank you for bringing this article and link, Blonde. 

We have this here:

http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=7172.0

Muffy....should they be merged??

I think they should be merged, Nut.    Go ahead and merge them if you are in agreement. 

Families report 3 missing women in killer's Seattle photo stash

Story Updated: Mar 13, 2010 at 10:43 AM PST
Three of the women whose photos were found in a convicted serial killer's Seattle-area storage locker have been linked so far to missing person cases by family members, a police detective said late Friday.
Now detectives are trying to confirm family members' initial identifications of the women, and trying to determine where and how they disappeared.

It's still unclear whether any of the three are from the Seattle area. All three disappeared long ago and haven't been seen since.

The three women's photos were among 2,000 images of young women, children and a few boys found in a Shoreline storage locker rented decades ago by convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala, 66, of California.

Most of the dozens of subjects in the photos have never been identified and now police are asking for the public's help in figuring out who the women are.

Police say there may be more potential victims beyond the three tentatively identified so far by family members.

The photos were recovered in July 1979 by detectives during searches of a storage locker in Shoreline that had been rented by Alcala. Also found was jewelry linked to two murder victims in California.

But police didn't release the photos publicly until Wednesday - the day after a California jury recommended a death sentence for Alcala for the murders of a 12-year-old girl and four women dating back to the 1970s.

The photos were apparently taken before Alcala's first arrest in 1979. They feature women and girls in candid and posed shots. Some show them naked and engaging in sex acts.

Prosecutors said Alcala, an amateur photographer, UCLA graduate and one-time contestant on "The Dating Game," used his camera to put his victims at ease.

"We'd like to locate the women in these pictures," prosecutor Matt Murphy told the Orange County Register. "Did they simply pose for a serial killer, or did they become victims of his sadistic, murderous pattern?"

Some photos show women posing in remote settings similar to the locale where 12-year-old Robin Samsoe's body was found in 1979. A few are of young men in sexually suggestive poses.

Police Detective Patrick Ellis of Huntington Beach, Calif., told KOMO News that the photos weren't released earlier due to the investigation and court proceedings.

Since their release on Wednesday, police have received dozens of calls from people who recognize the subjects in the photos.

"The calls are basically along two lines," Ellis said. "No. 1 - yes, that's my photograph - I am alive and well, and giving us details of Mr. Alcala way back when, 30 years ago.

"Or, the calls saying, 'Hey, my sister, mother ... was reported missing back then, and I think her photograph is on the Web site,' and they're providing us with information as far as the person's name, where they were last seen alive," Ellis added. "Some people aren't positive, but they're pretty sure."

Ellis said more investigation is needed before it can be confirmed whether the three women identified so far are victims of foul play.

"Until we talk to the victims' families, get other photographs for comparison purposes and more details on where their bodies were recovered - if they were recovered at all - we can't really say at this point," he said. "We just don't know."

Alcala was sentenced to death twice before in the 1979 murder of Robin Samsoe, but those verdicts were overturned on appeal.

Prosecutors refiled charges in that case and added the four other murders in 2006 after investigators linked them to Alcala using DNA samples and other forensic evidence. Those cases, which had gone unsolved for decades, went on trial for the first time this year.

Alcala, who acted as his own attorney, focused his entire defense on the Samsoe case and ignored the murders of the four Los Angeles County women murdered between 1977 and 1979.

The jury convicted Alcala of the murders on Feb. 25, and also found true special-circumstance allegations of rape, torture and kidnapping, making him eligible for the death penalty.

On Tuesday, jurors recommended the death penalty for Alcala. It marked the third time he was sentenced to death in the Samsoe case.

Relatives broke out in applause in the courtroom and Samsoe's brother shouted out, "Yes!" when the jury's recommendation was read.

Prosecutors relied on witnesses who saw a curly-haired photographer taking pictures of Samsoe, her friend and other teenagers on the beach minutes before she disappeared. Photos of one of the girls were later found in his possession.

Also key to the trial was a pair of gold ball earrings that Samsoe's mother said belonged to her daughter.

The earrings were found in a jewelry pouch in the Shoreline storage locker rented by Alcala.

You can see all of the photos on the Orange County Register Web site

Anyone with information about the women in the pictures is asked to call Huntington Beach Police Detective Patrick Ellis at 714-375-5066.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/87586647.html

Three of the women whose photos were found in serial killer Rodney James Alcala's Seattle-area storage locker have been linked to missing person cases, according to a Seattle TV station.

According to komonews.com, detectives are attempting to confirm family members' initial identifications of the women, and trying to determine where and how the women disappeared.

It's still unclear whether any of the three are from the Seattle area, KOMO reported Monday. All three disappeared long ago and haven't been seen since. The photos of the three women reported missing have not been released by authorities in Seattle.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/photos-239446-alcala-women.html

Possibly 6 missing may match photos

Convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala has been linked to two more people who disappeared or were killed in the 1970s, bringing the number of new leads in the case to six, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said Thursday.

"We're looking at about maybe six more cases that could possibly amount to actual cases," Rackauckas said on "Good Morning America."

The new leads have not been confirmed as positive matches, said Susan Kang Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office.


Hundreds of phone calls


Other women have called in to identify themselves as the subject of a photograph.

"We've received hundreds, literally hundreds and hundreds of phone calls from people all across the U.S. as well as several calls from Western Europe," Capt. Chuck Thomas of the Huntington Beach police said on "Good Morning America." "A number of them have provided us some very good leads that we are currently following up on."

The initial leads involved women who went missing from Alaska, Seattle, and Phoenix, Huntington Beach Det. Sgt. Aaron Smith said earlier this week. The New York Police Department has long considered Alcala the suspect in the deaths of two women in the 1970s.

Now, police in New Hampshire are looking at least three cases, and the Fullerton and Seattle police departments are re-examining other cold cases, Schroeder said.

Those reviews aren't necessarily based on new tips that came in, she cautioned.

Fullerton police are comparing one cold case against the recently released photographs, but it's too early to call it even a possible match, said Sgt. Andrew Goodrich.

"I believe there were three cases that were in that time frame and fit that general profile," Goodrich said. "I believe two of them would be eliminated by the time – he was in custody when two of them took place."

Investigators are comparing those photos with the victim in the third case, but not because they recognized one of the women in the photographs, Goodrich said.

"It's not, 'This looks like this might be so-and-so,'" Goodrich said.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/alcala-239922-police-women.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100319/ap_on_re_us/us_seventies_slayings

(http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100319/capt.d9b8090e7b804e499f38c4e643d5f39a-4b4e854467b6442385e25a73695d8790-0.jpg)

(http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100319/capt.f81b611111844312b96198736cd04b83-f81b611111844312b96198736cd04b83-0.jpg)

Cops seek more victims through killer's old photos
By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 19, 6:51 pm ET

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. – Police have been overwhelmed since they released more than 100 photos found in a serial killer's storage locker, more than 30-year-old pictures of unidentified girls and women in bell bottoms, bikinis and Farrah Fawcett hair.

They look like long-lost sisters, mothers and daughters to bereaved callers across the country and from as far away as Denmark. Police have gotten more than 400 phone calls in a little more than a week.

The photos had been in the possession of Rodney Alcala, who has been in custody since 1979 and was recently convicted of murdering four young women and a 12-year-old girl. Jurors recommended the death penalty this month.

Prosecutors say Alcala used his camera to lure his victims, and he was seen taking pictures of the girl before she disappeared. They fear some of the unidentified people in the photos released last week may have fallen victim to Alcala as well.

"The first thing is, 'Oh, my God, I hope these girls are OK,' and the next thing is, 'I wonder if any of them are victims.' Everyone has that question," prosecutor Matt Murphy said. "I can't imagine for a million years that we've got him for the only murders he's done."

Nine women have been identified through the photos so far, and all of them are alive. Huntington Beach police Capt. Chuck Thomas said one of them told authorities that Alcala molested her, but he added that the statute of limitations in that case has expired.

The photos, available on the Orange County District Attorney's Web site, are just a fraction of the more than 1,000 images investigators found in Alcala's storage locker when he was arrested for the 1979 murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in Huntington Beach.

They show leggy teenagers in bikinis and short-shorts on Southern California's sun-splashed beaches; young women in flowery blouses and hippie necklaces listening to music and smoking languidly; and girls wearing heavy makeup, apparently posing nude.

One photo shows a baby in a saggy diaper toddling near the shoreline, and another shows two young children in swimsuits washing off in an open-air shower on the beach.

Detectives have withheld about 900 pictures because they are too sexually explicit, while others have been cropped for release, Thomas said. He said he didn't know why his predecessors didn't release the photos years ago.

Releasing the pictures during Alcala's recent trial could have influenced the jury pool or could have jeopardized the verdict and death penalty recommendation on appeal.

Alcala was previously convicted and sentenced to death twice for the murder of Samsoe, but both convictions were overturned on appeal. In 2006, investigators refiled the case and linked Alcala to four previously unsolved murders from Los Angeles County using DNA technology and other forensic evidence.

During the latest trial, prosecutors outlined Alcala's penchant for torturing his victims: One had been raped with a claw-toothed hammer, another had her skull smashed in with a 7-inch rock and one was strangled so fiercely the pressure broke bones. Several of the victims were posed nude in sexual positions after their deaths.

A jury convicted Alcala, a 66-year-old UCLA graduate, of five counts of first-degree murder last month and took just an hour to return a recommendation of death after the penalty phase earlier this month.

Alcala, who represented himself at trial, did not respond to a request for a jailhouse interview about the newly released photos.

Police are now chasing leads from Seattle to Phoenix to Orange County, Calif. Even before the photos were released, Alcala was a suspect in several cases in New York City, where he lived from 1968 to 1971, and in New Hampshire, Murphy said. So far, they have not confirmed that any missing or murdered people are among those in the photos.

Dozens of police departments across the U.S. are also combing through cold cases, looking for similarities between their unsolved murders or missing persons reports and Alcala's victims.

Detectives are fielding heart-wrenching calls from mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers of women who disappeared years ago, never to have their killer found.

One woman who called told police she thought one of the photos may have been her daughter, who went missing in 1982. Police had to tell her that it wasn't possible: By that point, Alcala had been behind bars for nearly three years.

"It's horrible, it's absolutely horrible, and our thoughts and prayers go out to these people," said Thomas, the police captain. "These people are grasping for straws, they want to hold onto anything they can hold onto to bring them closure."

But while some calls are full of anguish, others bring relief. Every so often, a woman will call to say she recognizes herself in one of the pictures.

The nine women identified so far are in states including California, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Washington, Thomas said.

Liane Leedom, a 48-year-old psychology professor and author, is one of those women. She had insomnia earlier this week and was watching CNN at 2 a.m. when she saw herself at age 17 in Photo No. 123. In the picture, Leedom poses in a white, strapless summer dress with a gold cross around her neck, looking down and away from Alcala's camera with a faraway gaze.

Alcala lived down the street from Leedom with his mother and befriended her in June 1979 — the same month he killed Samsoe, who disappeared while riding a friend's bike to ballet class.

Leedom said Alcala gave her a ride to work once and invited her to his mother's home to look at dozens of pictures he'd taken of other teenagers before asking to photograph her at her parents' house.

"I was a 17-year-old girl and I said, 'Oh, a professional photographer wants to take my picture! Of course I'll do it,'" she recalled.

Alcala bragged about how he was a member of Mensa, the organization for people with a genius IQ, and always wore a medallion around his neck that he said signified his membership in the group, she said.

"I think he was grooming me. He showed me all these pictures he had taken. He showed me pictures of nude boys and some of them were so striking that they stick in my mind today," Leedom said.

A neighbor saw Leedom getting out of Alcala's car and told her parents, who ordered her not to see him again. The adults around the neighborhood knew he had already served prison time for an attack on an 8-year-old girl and was awaiting trial on charges of raping a 15-year-old.

"It was super lucky," Leedom said in a phone interview from her Connecticut home. "I'm determined to do good things with the life I've been blessed with."

Don't miss Dana Pretzer tonight at 9pm ET:

(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o100/klaasen3/Sub8/Pretzer032310.jpg)

California killer investigated in Seattle cold cases

Associated Press - March 26, 2010 12:45 PM ET

SEATTLE (AP) - California serial killer Rodney Alcala is being investigated in connection with two cold case homicides in Seattle.

The Seattle Times reports a detective is looking into similarities between Alcala's victims in the 1970s in California and the slayings of 2 girls - 13-year-old Tony Witaker and 17-year-old Joyce Gaunt.

Also, a King County sheriff's detective also is investigating whether Alcala could be responsible for the disappearance of 19-year-old Cherry Greenman from Waterville, Douglas County. She had been considered a possible victim of the Green River Killer.

Photos taken by Alcala were found in 1979 in a storage locker in Shoreline, north of Seattle, and police are trying to identify them to determine if they are more of his victims.

http://www.khq.com/Global/story.asp?S=12210245

Rodney Alcala Sentenced To Death
03/30/10 02:18 PM
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California judge has sentenced serial killer Rodney Alcala to death for killing four women and a girl in the 1970s.

The sentence on Tuesday comes three weeks after a jury recommended death for the 66-year-old amateur photographer.

The same jury convicted Alcala of five counts of first-degree murder last month for the slayings of four Los Angeles County women and a 12-year-old Orange County girl.

Alcala has been sentenced to death twice before in the 1979 murder of young Robin Samsoe, but those verdicts were overturned on appeal.

Prosecutors refiled charges in that case and added the four other murders in 2006 after investigators linked them to Alcala using DNA samples and other forensic evidence.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/30/rodney-alacala-sentence-s_n_518659.html

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1262485/Rodney-Alcala-sentenced-death-murders-women-girl-12.html#ixzz0jmUoH7YD (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1262485/Rodney-Alcala-sentenced-death-murders-women-girl-12.html#ixzz0jmUoH7YD)

I haven't heard of this guy before.  I wonder how many missing cases could be solved?

They have been able to identify 21 young women after they were inundated with phone calls, e-mails and other contacts, but none matched up to a missing persons case or an unsolved homicide from the 1970s.

Some of the females who posed for Alcala phoned in and identified themselves, said Huntington Beach Police Capt. Chuck Thomas. A few remembered the time they posed for a glib photographer. But detectives are still seeking the identity of more than 100 other females - and at least two young men - who posed for Alcala.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:1161408995&start=6

Originally published Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 5:19 PM

Serial killer ruled out in Washington case

King County sheriff's investigators have ruled out a condemned California serial killer in the disappearance of a woman who has been missing since September 1976.

King County sheriff's investigators have ruled out a condemned California serial killer in the disappearance of a Washington woman who has been missing since September 1976.

The family of the missing Douglas County woman, Cherry Greenman, recently told King County sheriff's investigators that a photo found in a Shoreline storage locker once rented by convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala was not that of the missing woman, said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart.

Sheriff's Detective Jake Pavlovich, who is on the department's cold-case squad, told The Seattle Times last month that a photo found inside the locker resembled Greenman.

The Sheriff's Office had looked into Greenman's disappearance during the investigation into Green River serial killer Gary L. Ridgway, but failed to find a link, Pavlovich said. Greenman has never been found.

"We got a good photo from Huntington Beach [police], and we showed it to [Greenman's] family," Urquhart said.

Urquhart said the Greenman case remains open.

Alcala was sentenced to death last month for strangling four women and a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl in California in the 1970s.

Alcala, amateur photographer, UCLA graduate and former contestant on TV's "The Dating Game," rented a storage locker in Shoreline in 1979 and filled it with photographs, photography equipment, jewelry and a motorcycle.

After police released more than 100 of the images found in Alcala's storage locker, Pavlovich said he saw blog commentary on The Orange County Register's Web site speculating that one of the photos looked like Greenman.

Seattle police are looking into Alcala in two cold cases from the 1970s.

Seattle cold-case Detective Mike Ciesynski is requesting a DNA comparison between Antionette "Toni" Witaker, 13, and Joyce Gaunt, 17, to determine whether he can be ruled out as the killer.

Authorities in California said Alcala sexually assaulted and tortured his victims and then posed their corpses, two of them outdoors. Witaker and Gaunt were slain within a few months of each other, their bodies found outdoors posed in awkward positions. One was sexually assaulted.

The timing and circumstances around the Seattle slayings give Ciesynski reason to believe Alcala may be involved.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011618843_serialkiller16m.html

April 20, 2010 11:10 AM
Rodney Alcala Case: NYPD Refuses to Release Photos of Serial Killer's Possible Victims

NEW YORK (CBS) Are New York police standing in the way of justice for a serial killer's possible  victims?

Hundreds of photographs allegedly taken by convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala were released by California investigators in March, following Alcala's third - and hopefully final - conviction for the murder of a young California woman and first conviction for three others.

If any of the women and young boys in those photos were missing or murdered, investigators hoped releasing the images would help find them.

At least 20 of the women in the photographs released by officials have been identified, some by the women themselves, and at least four families of missing women have said that their loved ones are in the photographs, although police have not been able to confirm those claims.

But hundreds more photos have yet to be released - because the New York Police Department refuses to make them public.

Former Huntington Beach detective Steve Mack is baffled by the NYPD's resistance to releasing the photos, according to the New York Daily News.

"They should be released. There are people who will identify their missing loved ones," Mack told the paper Monday.

Inspector Edward Mullen, an NYPD spokesman, confirmed that the department's cold case squad received the photos, but declined to say when - or even if - the agency will release the photos.

Alcala is reportedly a suspect in at least two cold cases in New York. One of those is the case of Ellen Jane Hover, 23, a restaurant heiress who disappeared in 1977 after leaving her Manhattan apartment. A year later, her bones were found in a shallow grave in a rugged section of the Rockefeller estate in Westchester County, about 100 feet from a spot where Alcala allegedly brought another young woman for a photo session, authorities told the Orange County Register.

Alcala has long been a suspect in the death of Hover because he was the last person to see her alive.

He is also a suspect in the June 12, 1971, rape and strangulation of Cornelia Crilley, a 23-year-old TWA flight attendant whose body was found in her Manhattan apartment on 83rd Street. Authorities say Alcala's DNA matches genetic material found at the crime scene.

Crilley's then-boyfriend, Leon Borstein, was a prosecutor in the Brooklyn district attorney's office when she was killed. Borstein said he was baffled that the NYPD won't release the pictures.

"I don't know why they are keeping it secret," Borstein told the Daily News.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20002909-504083.html

April 21, 2010 3:15 PM
Rodney Alcala New Serial Killer Photos Released by NYPD: Over 200 Photos Cops Want to I.D.

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) In a sudden about face from their stance Tuesday, the New York Police Department has decided to release nearly 300 photographs believed to have been shot by convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala.

Just yesterday, an NYPD spokesman said  the department's cold case squad had received the photos from police in Hungtington Beach, Calif., but declined to say when - or even if - the pictures would be made public. 

That position had baffled ex-Huntington Beach detective Steve Mack, who said, "They should be released. There are people who will identify their missing loved ones."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20003045-504083.html

There are several links at the site to view pix

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/28/local/la-me-alcala-20110128
Serial killer Rodney Alcala faces charges in New York slayings
A New York grand jury voted to indict Rodney Alcala in the deaths of two women in the 1970s. Last February he was convicted in the murders of four women and a 12-year-old girl in California.
January 28, 2011|By Geraldine Baum and Paloma Esquivel, Los Angeles Times



http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/notitas-de-noticias/details/dating-game-killer-charged-with-two-more-murders-sits-on-death-row/4835/
Dating Game Killer” Charged With Two More Murders, Sits on Death Row
Published at 12:02 pm, January 31, 2011

Trimm, this is one POS I hope lives long enough for all of his victims to be identified.  After that . . . whatever.

Sheriff’s Office Links Serial Killer to 1977 Slaying Despite considering Death Row inmate Rodney Alcala a “known suspect” in murder of woman found dead on a Mount Tam trail, department closes case, citing insufficient new evidence.

Thirty-four years ago, the naked, badly beaten body of a 19-year-old San Jose resident was found along the Boy Scout Trail about a quarter-mile from the Mountain Home Inn on Panoramic Highway.
Her murder has been considered a cold case ever since.
In the past week, however, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office has both identified a suspect in the case and closed its investigation due to insufficient new evidence, according to Sheriff’s Lt. Barry Heying.

Heying said Monday that detectives have identified serial killer Rodney James Alcala, who is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison, as a known suspect in the murder of Pamela Lambson, a computer assistant and aspiring actress and singer.

The detectives brought a sketch of the Lambson murder suspect from 1977, based on a description provided by store clerks who reported seeing Lambson and another man at Fisherman’s Wharf. Lampson’s co-workers and parents told police at the time that their daughter had met a photographer at an Oakland A’s game and made a date to meet him later at the Wharf to pose for a photo shoot.
snipped  more at link
http://millvalley.patch.com/articles/sheriffs-office-links-serial-killer-to-1977-slaying

http://www.lohud.com/viewart/20120622/NEWS05/306220044/Calif-serial-killer-Rodney-Alcala-arraigned-NYC-1-victim-s-body-found-Sleepy-Hollow


Calif. serial killer Rodney Alcala arraigned in NYC; 1 victim's body found in Sleepy Hollow
7:27 AM, Jun 22, 2012

NEW YORK — More than 30 years after their deaths, Rodney Alcala, the man accused of strangling two young women who were making their way in 1970s Manhattan, walked slowly into a courtroom Thursday to answer the charges.

His hands and feet shackled and his gray hair in a ponytail, a bespectacled and bemused-looking Alcala — former photographer, one-time dating-show contestant and convicted California serial killer — said only “not guilty” in a steady voice.
 ::snipping2:: ::snipping2::

While fighting a death sentence in California, he’s now being held in New York as prosecutors here pursue a cold case they reopened in the last two years.

He’s due back in court Oct. 30.

With an IQ said to top 160, Alcala has spent the last 33 years tangling with California authorities in a series of trials and overturned convictions. He eventually was found guilty in 2010 of killing four women and a 12-year-old girl in Southern California in the 1970s.

He was brought to New York on Wednesday after unsuccessfully fighting his extradition to New York.
 ::snipping2:: more

I just think he loves re-living all of his crimes.
His victims mean nothing . . .
(http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/oo242/Brandi-Monkey/WEATHER/Animation12.gif)

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Convicted-Calif-killer-admits-to-2-NYC-killings-4118836.php
Convicted Calif. killer admits to 2 NYC killings
December 14, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) — A serial killer who has already been sentenced to death in California has now admitted to murdering two other women in New York City in the 1970s.

Rodney Alcala pleaded guilty to two counts of murder Friday in a Manhattan courtroom.

Prosecutors identified his two New York victims as Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover.

Crilley was strangled with a stocking in her New York City apartment in 1971. Hoover disappeared in 1977. Her body was found hidden in the woods a year later.
 ::snipping2::

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/07/us-usa-crime-serialkiller-idUSBRE9060S020130107
"Dating Game" killer sentenced for 1970s murders
January 7, 2013

(Reuters) - Convicted California serial killer Rodney Alcala, a contestant on "The Dating Game" television show more than 30 years ago, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on Monday for murdering two New York women in the 1970s.

Alcala, 69, already on death row in California for killing four women and a 12-year-old girl in that state, was extradited to New York in June to face charges in the slayings of flight attendant Cornelia Crilley, 23, and Ellen Hover, 23, the daughter of a nightclub owner.

Known as "The Dating Game" killer because of his appearance on the show, Alcala pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional murder on December 14.

Judge Bonnie Wittner choked back tears as she sentenced Alcala to a concurrent 25 years to life in prison and described his crimes as "an inexplicably brutal, horrible act" and the most gruesome case she had dealt with in her three decades on the bench.

Authorities will transport Alcala back to death row in California, but should his murder convictions there be overturned on appeal, he would be returned to New York to serve out his sentence, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance told reporters on Monday.
More...

Life in prison is too good for this POS!

http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-504083_162-10006434.html
Serial killer's secret photos
Author: Edecio Martinez
Credit: Huntington Beach Police Dept.
Convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala was found guilty in 2010 of killing four women and a 12-year-old girl in Southern California in the 1970s. Alcala, 69, is a former photographer and a one-time dating-show contestant who has been behind bars since 1979. Police in California previously released dozens of photos, including the ones seen here, taken from a storage space rented to Alcala. Recognize the people in this photo? Please contact Huntington Beach, Calif., Police Det. Patrick Ellis at 714-375-5066 or pellis@hbpd.org.

(121 images)