Rodney James Alcala, the so-called “Dating Game Killer” who was on California’s death row from Orange County, died of natural causes at 1:43 a.m. on July 24, 2021 at a hospital in the community.
In 1968, Alcala was a contestant on the game show The Dating Game. Host Jim Lange introduced him as a “successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed. Between takes you might find him skydiving or motorcycling.”
He won the competition, but his “date” refused to go out with him because she found him “creepy.”
Alcala was sent to Death Row in Orange County in 1980 for the 1979 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe. But that conviction was reversed in 1984 by the California Supreme Court, and Alcala was granted a new trial.
In 1986, he was sentenced to death a second time for the Samsoe murder.
In 1968, Alcala was a contestant on the game show The Dating Game. Host Jim Lange introduced him as a “successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed. Between takes you might find him skydiving or motorcycling.”
He won the competition, but his “date” refused to go out with him because she found him “creepy.”
Alcala was sent to Death Row in Orange County in 1980 for the 1979 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe. But that conviction was reversed in 1984 by the California Supreme Court, and Alcala was granted a new trial.
In 1986, he was sentenced to death a second time for the Samsoe murder.
- 7/24/2021
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Convicted California serial killer Rodney Alcala was charged with murder Tuesday in the cold case slaying of a Wyoming woman nearly four decades ago. Alcala, a former photographer and typesetter for the Los Angeles Times, was previously convicted of the strangulation murder of a 12-year-old ballet student in Huntington Beach, California, as well as four Los Angeles-area women. He was nicknamed the "Dating Game Killer" because he was the winning contestant on the ABC prime-time game show in 1978 during his reign of terror. A smooth talker with a near-genius Iq, Alcala preyed on young attractive women, luring some of them...
- 9/21/2016
- by Christine Pelisek, @chrispelisek
- PEOPLE.com
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