KTVZ
By Andy Rose, CNN
A convicted serial killer known as the “Dating Game Killer” died early Saturday morning at a hospital near Corcoran State Prison in central California, prison officials said.
Rodney James Alcala, 77, had been on the state’s death row since being condemned in 2010 for the murders of four women and a 12-year-old girl, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Alcala was first sentenced to death in 1980 for the 1979 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, but his conviction was reversed by the California Supreme Court and he was granted a new trial.
He was sentenced to death again in 1986 after a second trial, but that sentence was overturned by a federal appeals court in 2003 and a third trial was granted.
Rodney Alcala, the âDating Gameâ Serial Killer, Dies
A longhaired photographer who lured women by offering to take their picture, Mr. Alcala, 77, had been convicted of five murders in Orange County, Calif., and two in New York, all in the 1970s.
Rodney Alcala at Manhattan Supreme Court in 2012. Mr. Alcala, who appeared in a 1978 episode of âThe Dating Game,â was convicted in seven murders.Credit.Pool photo by Jefferson Siegel
July 24, 2021Updated 9:00 p.m. ET
Rodney Alcala, who was known as the âDating Game Killerâ and was convicted in the murders of six women and one girl in the 1970s, died on Saturday at a hospital in Kings County, Calif. He was 77.
Convicted mass murderer Dating Game Killer Rodney Alcala died of natural causes at 77 in a California hospital while on death row
Serial killer Rodney Alcala, 77, had died of natural causes in a California hospital on Saturday at 1:43 am
He infamously appeared on the The Dating Game in September 1978, when he was in the midst of a brutal killing spree
Two years after appearing on the show he was convicted of killing a 12-year-old girl in Los Angeles after abducting her on her way to ballet
In the years that followed he was connected to seven other murders
Police believe he could be connected up to 130 killings of women and children but the exact number of his victims is not known
Michael Goulding/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
(LOS ANGELES) Rodney Alcala, a convicted serial killer who was on California s death row, has died, authorities said Saturday.
Alcala, 77, died of natural causes at 1:43 a.m. Saturday at a hospital in the community near Corcoran State Prison, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement.
Alcala was known as The Dating Game killer for his appearance as a winning contestant on the television game show in 1978.
After representing himself in Orange County court, he was sentenced to death in 2010 for the 1979 murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe and the murders of four other women 18-year-old Jill Barcomb and 27-year-old Georgia Wixted, both in 1977; 32-year-old Charlotte Lamb in 1978; and 21-year-old Jill Parenteau in 1979.
In 1986, Alcala was sentenced to death a second time for Samsoe s murder; however, a federal appeals court in 2003 overturned the sentence and Alcala was given a new trial. His DNA matched evidence in other murders, and Orange County prosecutors indicted Alcala for the murders of four other women.
In 2010, an Orange County jury convicted Alcala of five counts of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to death for the killing of Samsoe as well as the 1977 deaths of 18-year-old Jill Barcomb and 27-year-old Georgia Wixted; the 1978 death of 32-year-old Charlotte Lamb, and the 1979 death of 21-year-old Jill Parenteau.
Five Victims: The u2018Dating Game Serial Killer Rodney Alcala Slayings