Les MacDonald

 Los Angeles, California 1977: “Bachelor #1 is a successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of thirteen, fully developed. Between takes you might find him skydiving or motorcycling. Please welcome Rodney Alcala.” That is how Jim Lange, host of television’s popular The Dating Game, introduced Rodney Alcala to the world.

    Rodney Alcala was born in San Antonio Texas. When his father left for greener pastures Rodney’s mother packed up and moved the family to LA. When Rodney was seventeen years old he joined the army. He was later medically discharged when an army psychiatrist diagnosed him as having an “antisocial personality disorder.” After being discharged by Uncle Sam, Rodney graduated from the UCLA School of Fine Arts. The year was 1968 and Rodney now began to exhibit the type of behavior that had been predicted by the military psychiatrist four years earlier.

    In September 1968 Tali Shapiro was a regular eight year old girl in the second grade. She lived with her mother and father who was a well respected executive in the music industry. The family was living in the Chateau Marmont Hotel on Sunset Blvd. because their home had recently burned to the ground. On the morning of September 25 Tali was walking down Sunset Blvd on her way to school when Rodney Alcala drove up and asked her if she wanted a ride. Tali replied that she could not talk to strangers. Alcala said that he knew her family and eventually was able to convince Tali to get into his car. A passerby who witnessed the event became suspicious and called the police. When the police arrived at Alcala’s Hollywood apartment and knocked on the door he yelled out that he was in the shower. Police kicked the door in to find that Alcala had escaped through a back entrance. They also found something else. Little Tali Shapiro was unconscious on the floor. She had been raped and beaten with a steel bar that now lay across her neck. With Tali recovering from her injuries, the manhunt was on for Rodney Alcala. He left California and headed for New York City. In the Big Apple Rodney Alcala became John Berger and enrolled in film school at New York University and studied under Roman Polanski. During summer break he worked as a counselor at a New Hampshire arts camp for children. By this time the Shapiro family had left the US and moved to Mexico.

  We now fast forward to 1971. Two kids from the New Hampshire camp just happen to notice a FBI poster on the wall in the post office. Staring back at them is the face of none other than there camp counselor John Berger aka Rodney Alcala. He is promptly arrested and shipped back to California to stand trial for the rape of Tali Shapiro. There was just one problem. Tali and her family were now living in Mexico. Her parents had no intention of returning to the US and letting Tali testify. The district attorney felt that his hands were tied. He had originally intended to try Alcala for rape and attempted murder but for those charges to stick they needed Tali to testify. Alcala was allowed to plead guilty to simple assault. He was out in 1974 after serving less than three years. Two months later Alcala was arrested again. This time he had assaulted a thirteen year old girl who had accepted a ride. This time he was paroled after two years in prison.

   By 1977 Alcala had been tried and convicted twice for two very serious assaults. Twice he had served less than three years. Now he was free again. He headed back to New York City with the blessing of his parole officer. Soon after his arrival in New York, Ellen Hover went missing. Ellen was the daughter of Herman Hover, the owner of Ciro’s back in Hollywood. She was also the goddaughter of Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. Alcala has never been tried for this crime but investigators feel certain that Ellen met her death at his hands. Soon after the Hover murder Alcala headed back to Los Angeles. Not long after he arrived back in LA, the body of 18 year old Jill Barcomb was found in the Hollywood Hills near the home of Marlon Brando. Her death had long been thought to be a victim of the Hillside Stranglers who had been operating in the LA area at the time. A month later Georgia Wixted, a 27 year old nurse was found dead in her Malibu apartment. She had been raped, beaten with a hammer and strangled with her nylons. Georgia’s death came just a few days after Alcala had been questioned once again by the FBI regarding the Ellen Hover murder in New York. On June 24, 1978, 32 year old Charlotte Lamb, a legal secretary, was found dead in the laundry room of her apartment building. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with a shoelace.

   We move ahead to September 1978 when Rodney Alcala, convicted rapist and under suspicion in several homicides, was a contestant on television’s The Dating Game. The show was one of the more popular game shows of the 1960-70’s. The show featured three bachelors taking questions from a bachelorette without seeing each other. The bachelorette then picks the winner and goes out on a date arranged by the network. Bachelor #1 on the night of September 25, 1978 was none other than Rodney Alcala.

                            Alcala on The Dating Game: Sept.1978

   The bachelorette was Cheryl Bradshaw who, after questioning the three bachelors, chose bachelor #1. However, after meeting Alcala, Cheryl decided against going out with him. She has said that she sensed something “creepy” about him. We are left to wonder what kind of background checks the contestants had to submit to because clearly the producers dropped the ball on this one. Alcala’s appearance on the show is available on YouTube.

   In June of 1979, 21 year old keypunch operator Jill Parenteau was found dead in her apartment in Burbank. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. Exactly one week later Robin Samsoe, a 12 year old girl from Huntington Beach disappeared while on her way to ballet class. Her body was found twelve days later in the Hollywood Hills. A month later Alcala was arrested at his parent’s home in Monterey. Robin’s earrings were found in a locker in Seattle, Washington that was being rented by Alcala. One year later on June 20, 1980 Rodney Alcala was found guilty of the murder of Robin Samsoe. He was later sentenced to the death penalty. Now, you might think that might be the end of it. However, the odyssey was just getting underway. The appeals process was just beginning. Four years after being sentenced to death, Alcala would get a reprieve. The California State Supreme Court tossed out the conviction stating that the jury was improperly told about Alcala’s previous sex offences. The state district attorney promptly refiled the charges and trial number two would soon be underway. This time the jury was not told about Alcala’s previous sexual history. However, other than that the trial was almost a mirror image of the first trial and also ended with a guilty verdict. During the penalty phase Alcala was once again sentenced to death. This death sentence was announced exactly seven years to the day of the murder of Robin Samsoe.

   So, with Alcala under a sentence of death for a second time, it would be fair to ask if we are done yet. Sorry, but we are not even close. The appeals process in the United States can be a long and frustrating one. On December 31, 1992 the California State Supreme Court upheld the death penalty verdict from the second trial. You would think that the California justice system might be one step closer to carrying out the death sentence but Alcala’s appeals continued. On April 2, 2001, almost 22 years after Robin’s murder and more than 15 years since his second conviction, the unthinkable happened. This time it was the Federal Appeals Court that overturned the conviction citing that the judge prevented the defence from presenting evidence that was “material to significant issues.” A third trial would now take place but this one would be quite different. From the time of Robin’s murder in 1979 to the turn of the century, great gains had been made on the realm of forensic science. We are talking DNA here folks. The advances made in DNA testing now linked Mr. Alcala to four other murders. In 2003 Alcala was charged with the murder of Georgia Wixted. In 2004 DNA linked him to the murder of Jill Barcomb, the 18 year old who had been thought be a victim of the Hillside Stranglers. In 2005 he was also charged with the murders of Jill Parenteau, Charlotte Lamb and Jill Barcomb. Alcala fought the introduction of the DNA evidence as long as he could. The prosecution was successful in having the cases joined and now Alcala would face five murder charges in one trial. Each one carried the special circumstances tag which allowed the prosecution to seek the death penalty. This meant that Alcala could quite possibly receive five death sentences.

   This third trial began on January 11, 2010. Thirty-one years had passed since Robin Samsoe’s murder. In a bizarre turn, Alcala defended himself. He would ask himself a question and then take the stand and answer the question in a different voice. He also concentrated on the Samsoe murder and largely ignored the other four. He attempted to refute the evidence against him, in particular the earrings that belonged to Robin that were found in his locker. To that end he showed the jury a blurry VHS version of his appearance on The Dating Game. His idea was that if he was wearing those earrings on September 25, 1978 then he could not have taken them from Robin on June 20, 1979. Unfortunately for Alcala his long hair covered any earrings that he may have been wearing. No one remembers him wearing any earrings on the night in question. On February 25 Alcala was found guilty on all five counts of murder. During the penalty phase of the third trial, Tali Shapiro, the eight year old girl that Alcala had raped and beaten more than forty years ago, testified. She was now 50 years old and her testimony of how Alcala attacked her and stole her childhood moved the jury to tears. There was no doubt that he would once again be sentenced to death and on March 30, 2010 that is exactly what happened.

  So, now finally a sigh of relief? Not so fast! The state of California has had an interesting history when it comes to the death penalty. We could go all the way back to the nineteenth century but for our purposes here we’ll stick to modern times. We all remember Charles Manson and the murders that the “Family” committed in 1969. In a sensational trial in 1971 Manson and his followers received the death penalty. In April of 1972 the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty as “unconstitutional”. That year 107 death row inmates had their death sentences commuted to life in prison. Death Row prisoners such as Manson, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (RFK’s killer) and Robert Lee Massie all received new life sentences and all became eligible to apply for parole in 1978. Massie got out in 1978 and killed again less than eight months later. In August 1977 the death penalty was reinstated and California started executing again and then a federal court ordered a moratorium on executions in 2006 and the debate still rages on.

   Rodney Alcala continues to serve out his time on Death Row in San Quentin Prison with the hope that he can drag his appeals out long enough for the state of California to once again abolish the death penalty.

   We remember the victims: Robin Samsoe age 12, Jill Barcomb 18, Charlotte Lamb 33, Jill Parenteau 21, Ellen Hover, 23 and Georgia Wixted 27.

                        They Walk Among Us: Serial Killers can be seen at...

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                        UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HTOFBPE

                        Canada - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00HTOFBPE

                        Australia - https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00HTOFBPE

                      © Copyright 2014 by Les MacDonald and Tristan MacDonald