Rodney Alcala | |
|---|---|
 Alcala's mug shot taken on July 24, 1979 | |
| Born | Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor August 23, 1943 San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | July 24, 2021 (aged 77) Corcoran, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Dating Game Killer |
| Conviction(s) | Battery, kidnapping, murder, probation violation, rape, providing cannabis to a minor |
| Criminal charge | 1 count of battery 1 count of kidnapping Violation of probation 2 counts of rape 1 count of providing cannabis to a minor 5 counts of first-degree murder (2010) |
| Penalty | Death |
| Details | |
| Victims | 8 confirmed 130+ possible |
Span of crimes | 1968–1979 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | Washington California New York Wyoming |
Date apprehended | July 24, 1979[1] |
| Imprisoned at | California State Prison, Corcoran and San Quentin State Prison |
Rodney James Alcala (born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor; August 23, 1943 – July 24, 2021) was an American serial killer and sex offender who was sentenced to death in California for five murders committed between 1977 and 1979. He also pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 25 years to life for two further murders committed in New York and was also indicted for a murder in Wyoming, although charges were dropped due to a technicality.[2] While he has been conclusively linked to eight murders, Alcala's true number of victims remains unknown and could be much higher – the actual number could be as high as 130.[3]
Alcala compiled a collection of more than 1,000 photographs of women, teenage girls and boys, many in sexually explicit poses. In 2016 he was charged with the 1977 murder of a woman identified in one of his photos.[4] Alcala is known to have assaulted one other photographic subject, and police have speculated that others could be rape or murder victims as well.[5]
Prosecutors have said that Alcala "toyed" with his victims, strangling them until they lost consciousness, then waiting until they revived, sometimes repeating this process several times before finally killing them.[5][6] One police detective described Alcala as "a killing machine,"[7] and others have compared him to Ted Bundy.[8] Alcala is often referred to as the Dating Game Killer because of his 1978 appearance on the television show The Dating Game in the midst of his murder spree.[9] He died of unspecified natural causes in 2021.
- ^ Handel, Sarah (March 11, 2010). "Serial Killer Rodney Alcala's Photo Trove Found". Npr.org.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
DGKwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "'Dating Game Killer' Rodney James Alcala, accused of murdering 130 people, dies in US". July 26, 2021.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Wyomingwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Tresniowski, Alex; Breuer, Howard (April 19, 2010). "The Eye of a Killer: Police Discover a Chilling Cache of Photos". People. pp. 86–90. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
- ^ Pelisek, Christine (March 20, 2010). "Orange County Judge Sentences Serial Killer and Dating Game Winner Rodney Alcala to Deat". LA Weekly. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
- ^ Baum, Geraldine; Esquivel, Paloma (January 28, 2011). "Serial killer Rodney Alcala faces charges in New York slayings". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 14, 2011.
- ^ Allen, Nick (February 26, 2010). "US serial killer Rodney Alcala could be 'new Ted Bundy'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved November 3, 2012.
- ^ "Convicted serial killer won on 'Dating Game'". CNN. March 10, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2010.