"Haunt Your Dreams": Victims' Families Address Rodney Alcala at His Sentencing, 2010
At Rodney Alcala's death sentencing in Santa Ana in March 2010, relatives of the women and girl he murdered, and a neighbor of one victim, spoke to him directly. The Orange County Register filmed their statements.
- Subject
- Rodney Alcala
- Recorded
- March 30, 2010
- Runtime
- 1:57
Content warning: Contains a graphic description, by a victim's sibling (01:14 to 01:29), of the injuries inflicted in the rape and murder of a young woman. The victims included a 12-year-old girl.
The Interview
This is a 1-minute-57-second Orange County Register video filmed at Rodney Alcala's formal sentencing in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana on March 30, 2010, and posted again on the Register's YouTube channel in 2015. After a 15-second narrated introduction, it presents excerpts of statements by relatives of the murdered women and girl and by a neighbor of one victim, several of them addressed to Alcala directly. Alcala, who represented himself, is not heard. On-screen captions name some of the speakers.
Historical Context
On February 25, 2010, an Orange County jury convicted Rodney Alcala of the first-degree murders of Jill Barcomb, 18 (1977), Georgia Wixted, 27 (1977), Charlotte Lamb, 32 (1978), Jill Parenteau, 21 (1979), and Robin Samsoe, 12 (1979). The jury returned a death verdict on March 9, 2010. This was his third death sentence for the Samsoe murder; the earlier convictions of 1980 and 1986 had been reversed.
Circumstances
Under California law, victims' next of kin may address the court at sentencing. Several relatives spoke before Judge Francisco P. Briseño pronounced the death sentence. Contemporary reports name among the speakers Robert Samsoe and Marianne Connelly (Robin Samsoe's brother and mother), Dedee Parenteau (Jill Parenteau's sister), Bruce Barcomb (Jill Barcomb's brother) and Anne Michelena (Georgia Wixted's sister). In the video, on-screen captions identify Bruce Barcomb, "brother of 18-year-old victim Jill Barcomb," and Leila Atery, "neighbor of 21-year-old victim Jill Parenteau"; the other speakers are not identified in the frames checked.
What the Interview Covers
The first relative tells Alcala, "I hope you have dreams of us coming after you," and that "if there is a heaven and a justice," haunting his dreams is what the speaker will do after death, the line behind the video's title. Another relative says lethal injection is "far too humane" and wishes to administer it. Another says, "If there is a hell, I hope Rodney Alcala burns eternally." Another speaker argues that Alcala "is a reason to use the death penalty." Bruce Barcomb describes, in graphic terms, the condition in which his sister was found, and speaks of "the unequivocal carnage of a Rodney Alcala-style murder and rape." The clip ends with Leila Atery, a neighbor of Jill Parenteau, telling Alcala that it is "a blessing" his mother did not live to see the day.
What Makes the Recording Significant
It records relatives of the Orange County victims, and a neighbor of one, confronting Alcala in court on the day he received his final death sentence, filmed by the newspaper that had covered the case for three decades.
Archival Importance
The court reporter's transcript of the sentencing would be the complete official record; this video is an edited excerpt.
Important Caveats
Alcala is not heard. The statements are the speakers' own words and views. The narration's "early 1970s" is wrong: the five Orange County murders were committed from 1977 to 1979. The YouTube description's "accused" is outdated; he had been convicted a month earlier. Bruce Barcomb and Leila Atery are identified by on-screen captions; the other speaker identifications in the transcript are inferences from news reports and are not verified against the picture. The graphic passage at 01:14 should not be quoted on the page.
Narrator: Rodney James Alcala was sentenced to death for the sex and torture killing spree of five females in the early 1970s. The families of the victims had harsh words for the serial killer.
Relative Of A Victim: Rodney, I hope you don't sleep at night. I hope you have dreams of us coming after you. Because if there is a heaven and a justice, that's what I'm gonna do when I die, is haunt your dreams.
Relative Of A Victim: And I hope and believe that he [unclear: "would, and he will" (captions) / "will" (Whisper)] rot in hell.
Relative Of A Victim: I just pray that I live long enough to watch him be executed. And actually, I think lethal injection is far too humane for anyone like him. Regardless, I'm [unclear: "awaiting for it, I'm" (captions) / omitted (Whisper)] waiting for the day for him to die. I only wish that I could be the one to administer the injection.
Speaker Not Identified: If there is a hell, I hope Rodney Alcala burns eternally. I wish he would experience the terror he put his victims through. He is truly a devil. He does not belong on this earth.
Relative Of A Victim: Most people who are opposed to the death penalty have never had a reason to use it. Rodney James Alcala is a reason to use the death penalty.
Bruce Barcomb: My sister died curled in a ball, beaten, breast brutally [unclear: "bitten" (Whisper) / "beaten" (captions)], raped, head bashed in with a rock, strangled, savagely sodomized [unclear: "with the flu" (captions; not in Whisper)], while a few of her fingers touched her privates, bleeding from her anus, [unclear: "and" (Whisper) / omitted (captions)] a few drops of blood dripping onto her hand.
Bruce Barcomb: There's murder, there's rape, there's murder and rape, and there's the unequivocal carnage of a Rodney Alcala-style murder and rape.
Leila Atery: Mr. Alcala, I suspect it's a blessing that your mother is not here today to witness this. I feel sure she died with a broken heart. [About 01:48 to 01:57: no further speech in the machine text or captions. Clip ends.] ---