"Dating Game" Contestant Rodney Alcala Is Convicted of Murdering a 12-Year-Old Girl and Four Women
It was Alcala's third conviction for killing Robin Samsoe, after two death sentences were overturned. DNA had since linked him to four Los Angeles County murders.
Published
Rodney Alcala was twice sent to death row for killing 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, and twice the convictions were overturned. On February 25, 2010, a jury convicted him again, and of four more murders.
The jury of seven men and five women took less than two days to find Alcala, 66, guilty of five counts of first-degree murder, and found special circumstances that made him eligible for the death penalty. Alcala, a former photographer who appeared on "The Dating Game" in 1978, represented himself. Robin was abducted on June 20, 1979, as she rode her bicycle to ballet class in Huntington Beach, and her body was found 12 days later in the Angeles National Forest. The other victims were Jill Barcomb, 18, and Georgia Wixted, 27, killed in 1977; Charlotte Lamb, 32, killed in 1978; and Jill Parenteau, 21, killed in 1979. Prosecutors added their cases in 2006 after forensic evidence, including DNA, linked Alcala to them; one had first been blamed on the Hillside Strangler.
"It's another victory for Robin," said her brother, Robert Samsoe. "Robin didn't die for nothing. Her death stopped a maniac." Alcala had earlier been convicted of raping an 8-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl. On March 9, 2010, the same jury recommended the death penalty.
The Los Angeles Times first described Jill Parenteau as a restaurant worker, then corrected its report to say she was a data entry supervisor.
Sources
- Condemned inmate Rodney Alcala dies of natural causes, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
- Man found guilty in deaths of O.C. girl, 4 L.A. County women, Los Angeles Times
- Calif. jury: Death for serial killer Rodney Alcala, Associated Press via San Diego Union-Tribune
Related News
- January 27, 2011: Manhattan Grand Jury Indicts Rodney Alcala in the 1970s Killings of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover
- December 14, 2012: Rodney Alcala, Condemned in California, Pleads Guilty in Manhattan to Two 1970s Murders of Young Women
- January 7, 2013: Manhattan Judge Sentences Rodney Alcala to 25 Years to Life for the 1970s Murders of Two New York Women
- September 20, 2016: Rodney Alcala Charged in Wyoming With the 1977 Murder of Christine Thornton
- July 24, 2021: Rodney Alcala, the Dating Game Killer, Dies on California's Death Row at 77
In the Archive
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