All language subtitles for Very Scary People s03e07 Dating Game Killer 1.eng

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It was a feeding ground for him.

You see him walking in your
neighborhood.

You might think he's a nice guy.

He probably used the ruse of camera
work.

He was a very charming individual.

He was good looking, mild mannered.

Not the monster that I know those
victims saw.

Just dead eyes of evil.

Welcome to Very Scary People.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

On the outside, Rodney Alcala seemed to
have it all. Good looks, charisma,

intelligence. But on the inside, he was,
in fact, a psychotic killer.

His tools of choice to lure unsuspecting
prey, a camera, and his charm.

It was his personality and good looks
that landed him on one of the most

TV game shows in history, The Dating
Game.

As he dazzled the audience with his
smile and easy quips, No one could

the dark and terrifying plans he may
have had.

This is part one of The Dating Game
Killer.

From Hollywood, the dating capital of
the world, it's The Dating Game.

Well, let's see. Bachelor number one is
a successful photographer. Please

welcome Rodney Alcala.

Rod, welcome.

He had a terrible history, yet they
allowed him on the game show.

You have to wonder how this type of a
character was able to get on television.

We're going to have a great time
together, Cheryl.

It's 1968.

Tali Shapiro, an 8 -year -old girl, is
making her way down Sunset Boulevard in

West Hollywood to school.

As she was walking to school, this young
male, mid -20s, basically pulled up in

a car and said, Hello, can I give you a
ride?

And she said, I don't take a ride from
strangers.

And he said, well, I'm not a stranger. I
know your parents.

And she was kind of hesitant, but he was
smooth talking, charming, soft spoken.

She decided, okay, I guess if he knows
my parents, it must be okay.

A good Samaritan saw this happening. He
felt it was kind of suspicious.

So what he did was he watched them and
followed them.

And when he saw them park at the
apartment and go up into it, decided to

the police.

As I approached the house, I saw the car
was a Plymouth.

I'll never forget that. It had no
license plates.

And I thought, okay, that's cause for
suspicion.

When the police arrive on the doorstep,
they knock on the door.

The suspect appeared, moved the curtain
back.

I looked him in the face.

I said, I need to talk to you. Please
open the door.

He relayed to me, I just got out of the
shower. Give me a moment.

And I am looking at him. He's not wet,
doesn't have a towel, and he's nude.

There was a rage about him.

He wasn't calm.

His eyes were fixated and angry.

So that's when I told him, I said, you
need to open the door. I need to come in

and talk to you.

He was very, very agitated.

At that instant, I heard some moaning.

That's when I finally kicked the door in
and entered the residence.

The first thing I saw as I entered was
this little girl, blood all over the

place, with this bar across her neck.

Here's the little eight -year -old Tally
laying on the floor in a pool of blood.

We all thought she was dead. She wasn't
breathing.

There was no pulse.

They kick the door in.

He's out the back. He's in the wind.

And they could go after him and probably
catch him.

But they look over and see this little
girl, unconscious and profuse, bleeding

around the head.

So they make the choice to try and save
her life.

I just couldn't leave that little girl
with that bar across her neck.

And that was breaking all protocol
because the crime scene, you're supposed

contain it, not touch anything.

But I grabbed a towel and I took the bar
off her neck and set it on the side.

She was breathing but barely alive.

They call for a rescue unit, rush her to
the hospital.

We continued searching the residence. We
found a wallet.

We found photographs.

And they found one other thing, the
photo ID of a college student at UCLA,

Rodney Alcala.

I went to his professors at UCLA, and
right out of the bat, they said, hey,

detective, you got the wrong guy.

This guy wouldn't hurt a flea.

It's 1968, and eight -year -old Tally
Shapiro has been rescued after being

abducted, raped, and bludgeoned nearly
to death.

As the police are coming in the front
door to rescue Tally, the perpetrator

escaped out the back door.

But the police find his ID from UCLA,
and the name on the ID, Rodney

Alcala.

We're searching the apartment.

We found a lot of photographic
equipment, professional type.

There were hundreds and hundreds of
pictures of young girls.

We set up a command post, started going
around the neighborhood to see if we

could apprehend him.

Unfortunately, he was gone.

Basically, it was a...

Not whodunit. We'd had him identified,
so it was basically the process of

to locate him.

So I went to his professors at UCLA, and
right out of the bat, they said, hey,

detective, you got the wrong guy.

This guy wouldn't hurt a flea. He says
he's super nice, he's very charming,

great attitude.

There's no way he could commit an
attempt murder and rape of a child.

We had APBs, all -point bulletins out
across throughout California.

We had checked with his parents'
locations. We had done a lot of follow

we were coming up with nothing.

I spoke to the mother and the sister.

They were adamant that their son didn't
do this.

But I saw his face. I saw him. I knew
what he was capable of.

There was speculation that he had gone
to Mexico, other rumors that he had gone

to Europe.

But really, no clue.

I knew that we had not heard the last of
him. I knew he would resurface and it

would not be good.

At that point, my senior sergeant,
Audrey Fletcher, said, look, this guy's

to wind up killing somebody.

There's no doubt about it. So we've got
to get him into the FBI most wanted.

And initially they said, no, we're not
going to do it.

She was like a pit bull. She just
wouldn't quit. And I think she just wore

FBI agent down to the point where he
says, okay, okay, we'll do it.

I wanted to go to the hospital and check
up on her.

The doctor said to me, had you not taken
that bar off her neck, she probably

wouldn't be alive because you opened up
her airway.

It struck me profoundly.

It took months for Tali Shapiro to
recover, but eventually she did get to

home. And while she didn't remember most
of what happened to her, what she did

remember was chilling.

Rodney Acala asked me if I wanted to
ride to school.

He kept trying to engage me in
conversation, and I kept trying to walk

go on my way.

I really didn't want to talk to him.

When he said he was friends with my
parents, that he knew my parents, I

reluctantly got in.

I just took it like, well, it could be,
you know. I mean, I wasn't going to be

rude to the guy.

But as soon as he suggested we go see a
poster at his house, I really didn't

feel comfortable at that point.

I don't even remember getting out of the
car or going up to the apartment. Not

at all.

Nothing.

I have detached myself, you know. It's
just like, obviously it's something that

happened to me, but it's almost like
third person.

It was not an impulsive act. It's not
like you just saw an eight -year -old

walking down the street and said, oh, I
think I'm going to pull up and see if I

can get her into the car and take her
home.

He had been thinking about that for
years.

Rodney Alcala is the main suspect in the
rape and abduction of eight -year -old

Tally Shapiro.

Rodney escaped and he's on the run, so
police are interviewing family and

friends, trying to build a profile of
who this perpetrator is and what may

triggered such a monstrous act.

Rodney Alcala was born in San Antonio,
Texas, August 23, 1943.

He lived with his parents and his
maternal grandmother. He had three

an older brother and sister.

and then a younger sister.

Overall, he was a good student. He
seemed to be smarter than average.

He went to Catholic school and had a
pretty standard middle -class

And his father eventually abandoned the
family.

When Alcala was about 11 years old, his
mother moved the family to the Los

Angeles area.

Rodney went to high school. He
graduated.

Very good marks.

popular student, one of the most popular
students amongst the girls. And after

that, he decided he was going to join
the military.

And so he applied at Fort Bragg in North
Carolina, and that's where he headed.

Two years after Alcala joins the Army,
1963, and he goes AWOL.

He disappears.

and he shows up at his mother's house.

She was totally shocked, and she talked
him into turning himself in.

An army psychologist evaluated Alcala
and decided that he needed to be

hospitalized, that he was suffering from
some type of a nervous breakdown before

he left Fort Bragg and is suffering from
an antisocial personality disorder.

Because of that, He's discharged from
the Army.

After Rodney was discharged, he returned
back to his home and lived with his

mother.

He went back to school at the behest of
his mother. He enrolled at the

University of California, Los Angeles,
and he graduated from the College of

Arts.

Rodney O 'Connell's background is
fairly...

Unremarkable. He grew up in a middle
-class family. There's no history of any

sexual abuse or any physical abuse that
we're aware of. He self -reported some

experimental and periodic drug use. He
has a reported genius IQ.

So he has an unremarkable, in that
sense, background until...

You get to the point where he started
his acts of violence.

And then, of course, it becomes
extraordinarily remarkable.

Alcala, who's now on the run after what
he did to little eight -year -old Talia

Shapiro, has made it to New York City,
where he's now going by the name John

Berger.

He reinvented himself, was able to get
ID because you didn't need a picture.

once you got some sort of government ID,
you were able to get photo ID.

So he got ID with that name, driver's
license, work ID, library card, and

was able to get an apartment, lease an
apartment. In that name is John Berger

also.

He's living in Greenwich Village, that
kind of 60s, hippie, laid -back,

lifestyle. He makes friends.

He charms people, and he even enrolled
in NYU's film school.

Alcala was believed to go everywhere
with one of his cameras and tell people

that he was a photographer.

He was enjoying the freedom of the late
60s in New York City.

That's what he did.

Walking around.

and saying, hey, I'm John Berger. Want
to take a picture?

And once he fell into that groove, then
that's who he was.

Rodney Alcala was a very talented
photographer.

He had a camera every place, and I think
he used the camera to get close to

people.

Everything with him was the camera and
his smooth talk.

He is a trauma. With women, he probably
just kept cajoling them,

taking pictures, you know, while they're
saying, no, no, no, you know, no, I

don't want to do it, and he just kept
doing it.

He had the confidence he could go up and
talk to these ladies.

He had a funny side to him where he
could get them to laugh and relax and be

around them.

There was a connection he made with
people almost instantly.

You could call him the perfect predator
in the sense that he was so far ahead of

his prey.

In other words, an 8 -year -old, he
would react as he needed to to control

-year -old. A 28 -year -old, same thing.

So he was constantly bouncing at that
ability to perceive his victim and to

control the victim is what made him so
dangerous.

Rodney Alcala went to New York City and
was...

acting in a way of complete supreme
confidence and fearlessness, which is

aligned with his psychopathy.

He's confident he's not going to get
caught.

He's arrogant enough to think that he's
smarter than law enforcement.

And it's very high risk, but he doesn't
see it as high risk. He sees it as just,

I'm starting my life here. I'm going to
have a good time. There are more

potential victims here in New York.

And life goes on.

Rodney Alcala is on the run from police.

He's fled Los Angeles for New York City
and has a new identity.

He is now calling himself John Berger.

He gets into NYU film school and becomes
an aspiring photographer.

No one in New York knows about his dark
past, but Alcala is about to act on his

evil urges again.

Rodney the Predator.

And what that means is he walks around
and, you know, he meets people. He meets

far more people than he ever kills.

Cornelia Crilley was a TWA flight
attendant.

She was beautiful, smart, very popular
amongst her friends, and she had just

moved into a brand -new apartment on
83rd in Manhattan.

Neighbors in the building reportedly saw
Cornelia moving furniture and boxes

into an apartment on the second floor.

She was moving in that day, so chances
are that Cornelia was out on the

and maybe had been walking along, moving
things. He had spotted her and just

initiated a conversation with her.

Something that we've seen with other
serial killers, like Ted Bundy.

Where they say, can I help you move that
mattress into your apartment? Do you

need someone to help you with the other
side of the sofa?

Cornelia was excited to show her
boyfriend her new apartment later that

However, when he called her, when he
showed up, there was no answer.

Her boyfriend finally called the police
and when they came, there was no forced

entry and no forced exit.

A young officer came in through a
bedroom window and

found her gagged and she'd been sexually

assaulted.

She was terribly brutalized and she was
found on the floor and she had

suffered from severe blunt force trauma.

One of the injuries on Cornelia was a
bite mark on her breast.

When we look for signature behaviors in
a homicide, these are behaviors

offenders engage in because that's what
motivates them to commit the crime.

And we look for the continuation of
those same signature behaviors as they

forward with more victims.

What they were able to do on the bite
mark on her breast is they took a swab

that. And back in 1971, the only thing
they could do was ABO typing.

And they found that the person who had
left that saliva on the bite mark had

type A blood.

When she was found by the patrolman at
the time, she was found naked on the

floor.

And under her body.

is an envelope with a fingerprint that
would prove crucial down the line.

At the time, the fingerprint system was
different.

There was no DNA.

Whatever fingerprints were recovered had
to be done by hand and by eye. There

were no computers to run it through.

And unfortunately for them, he had no
criminal record in New York that we

compare to.

The investigation was a big challenge
for the New York police.

In the 70s, there was a lot of killings
going on.

They didn't have the forensic skills
that we have today. They didn't have the

investigation tools that they do now.

The detectives did a tremendous amount
of work. The case went cold.

In the summer of 1971, Alcala, he's
still going by John Berger at this

though, leaves New York City and heads
up to George's Mills, New Hampshire, on

the shores of Lake Sunapee, where he
works as a camp counselor teaching

photography.

He had been spending his summers working
there while still enrolled at NYU.

He was actually working at a teenage
girls' camp, and I had some information

about he was dating the owner of the
camps.

Teenage daughter?

Ronnie purposely put himself in an
environment where he could be around

girls. That was not an accident.

A couple of teenage girls on a rainy New
Hampshire day stop in the post office

near their summer camp.

While there, they were looking at the
board and came across the FBI most

list.

And as they looked at the pictures, one
of them looked strikingly like one of

their favorite camp counselors, Mr.
Berger.

But no, it couldn't be him, they
thought, because he was just the nicest

They report it. FBI goes out, grabs him
up, snatches him up, arrests him, makes

him on fingerprints, of course, as
Alcala.

And I get that telephone call from back
east saying, hey, we've got your guy in

custody. Come and get him.

We pick him up from a detention
facility.

We drive him to the airport.

My partner was sitting in the window
seat.

Alcala's in the middle, and I'm on the
aisle. And we're flying back.

He seems charming, relaxed, doesn't seem
to have many worries, despite the fact

that he's looking at 20, 30 years in
prison.

One of the things that I did sense in
him was that he was quite intelligent,

I could almost see him thinking almost
like a chess game, thinking two or three

moves ahead of us in anticipation.

You could see it in his eyes. You could
see him thinking, how should I react to

these guys?

What did he say? Did he admit to the
crime? His response is basically, well,

doesn't want to talk about it.

I said, he? Who are you talking about?

He says, well, Alcala.

I said, he's John Berger and Rodney
Alcala is somebody else.

Rodney Alcala has now been caught and
charged with the abduction, rape, and

attempted murder of 8 -year -old Tyler
Shapiro.

I wasn't concerned about... The
prosecution on this, it's what you call

dunk. You've got the witness
identification.

You've got his personal property and
stuff all there. His identification.

You've got the Good Samaritan citizen
who can identify him. So really, it was

slam dunk. There was no question about
it.

But things don't go as planned.

And that's mainly because Tally
Shapiro's family had moved to Mexico and

were not about to bring her back to Los
Angeles to re -traumatize her.

and have her testify in a trial.

So prosecutors decide to offer him a
plea deal for child molestation.

He took the deal, but the judge's
sentence stunned those who were working

case.

He gave Alcala one year to life in
prison.

At the time, the sentencing scheme was
an indeterminate sentence.

of one year to life. That meant that he
could be kept in prison for life or he

could be released any time after serving
the first year in prison.

It was up to the parole board to decide
how long Alcala would actually serve in

prison.

We got him off the streets and there'll
be no more problems.

That was kind of how I was looking at
it.

I would be proved wrong.

Alcala is sentenced to indeterminate
sentence of one to 99 years.

So basically, the sentence is actually
determined on the severity of the crime.

That meant that he could be kept in
prison for life or he could be released

time after serving the first year in
prison.

It left it up to the parole board to
decide how long Alcala would eventually

serve in this case.

My impression of what is going on with
Rodney once he was in prison is that he

became a model prisoner by design,
purposely, so he could get out as soon

possible. And by being a model prisoner,
you go to counseling, and you can

pretend like you're doing really well,
and you're really benefiting from the

counseling that takes place in prison.

You're manipulating everybody that you
have contact with and doing it quite

effectively.

He was evaluated by a psychologist in
prison who determined that he no

longer presented a risk to women or
children and was released in less than

years.

There was an emphasis in those years on
rehabilitation.

And I think that because he was as
smooth and slick as he was, I think he

his mental magic on the psychologist,
and that recommendation came out. He's

well now. He's cured.

He can go back into society.

How come just because I wasn't there to
be in the court when a call was finally

captured, why did he only get such
little time? Because I wasn't physically

there.

He did what he did to me.

There's no question about it. Why did I
have to be dragged into it?

for him to get a longer sentence.

He should have been put away for life.

Kidnapping, crimes against a child,
attempted murder, fleeing the

I was just stunned.

I'm absolutely sure that he went to
school off the Talley Shapiro crime.

In other words, the next time I ain't
leaving my victim alive.

Two months.

After Ocala has been paroled, he's
arrested again.

He picked up a 13 -year -old girl in
Huntington Beach on Beach Boulevard and

offered her a ride to school.

Convinced her that it was, I'll just
give you a ride to school, get in the

And of course, when they passed her
school, she knew something was wrong.

He ends up holding onto her and taking
her into the bluff above Huntington

Beach. He's trying to ply her with
marijuana.

She's very afraid. She does not want to
be there.

when the two were discovered by the park
ranger.

He ended up getting charged with
supplying a minor with drugs, the

and, of course, breaching his parole.

So he was put back in prison.

And somehow, even though he's a
convicted child molester, they just pin

a parole violation, and that's the end
of it.

He told his parole agent he wanted to
visit his brother in New York. His

was a colonel at West Point, an
instructor.

So he gave her an itinerary, said, this
is my plan, this is where I expect to

be. The parole agent agreed, said, okay.

So despite being a violent sex offender,
despite being a known flight risk,

Alcala's parole officer agrees to allow
him to travel to New York City.

1977 was just really a terrible,
terrible year in New York City.

Son of Sam's year and a half reign of
terror put fear in the hearts of New

Yorkers. Nobody, not even police, knew
anything about him. Son of Sam was

running around causing all kinds of
chaos.

and fear in lovers' lanes.

And the police department was just
stretched in, and they had the blackout.

was a night of terror that lasted for 25
hours.

What happened to this blinded city? How
did it happen? And most important, what

can be done to prevent it from happening
again?

23 -year -old Ellen Hover was living in
Manhattan.

She was living near the Empire State
Building.

Ellen was just the sweetest girl. I kind
of appointed myself as her big sister,

even though I was her cousin.

Just so wonderful and loving and giving
and talented.

She wanted to become a doctor. She was a
biology major, moved to New York.

She was very musical. There was a great
sweetness and generosity to her.

Ellen Hoover's father was the owner of
the popular Hollywood club Cirrus.

Her godfathers were Sammy Davis Jr.

and Dean Martin.

Ellen Hover ran across Rodney Alcala
sometime in July of 1977.

She had a date with him the day after
the big blackout.

Rodney Alcala came to her building. A
neighbor saw him and directed him to Ms.

Hover's apartment.

When her parents didn't get her nightly
call, they began to get suspicious.

And the next day, they called the police
to do a welfare check.

Nothing seemed out of sort.

She wasn't there. Nothing was missing.
However, her calendar was open. And on

July 15th, written right there,

John Berger, photographer.

Six years earlier... Alcala had been
arrested using the exact same alias,

Berger.

The NYPD investigated the name but
didn't make the connection to Alcala at

time.

My mother called me and said she did not
come home.

And then it was all over the papers.

It's now the summer of 1977, and in New
York City, 23 -year -old Ellen Hover is

missing.

When Ellen Hover went missing, there
were so many police that were assigned

Son of Sam, over 200 officers.

So her missing report was not really on
the top of their priority list.

Remember, 1977, missing persons cases
weren't.

done the way they are done now, and
especially for an adult.

Being an adult, we're not going to start
blowing whistles and ringing bells for

someone who could just walk away anytime
they want.

As the New York Police Department worked
to try to figure out what had happened

to Ellen Hover, her family's high
-profile status made it front -page

They called her heiress, you know, was
missing.

It was right after the son of Sam was
right after the blackout. It was a very

dark summer.

Darkness in the city.

You do what you do as a detective.

You hit the ground.

You reach out to as many people that you
can reach out to.

Her father decided to put up a $100 ,000
reward to find her.

And at the same time, he hired a private
investigator.

There was a concerted effort to get her
disappearance on the minds of everyone

who may have known anything about it.

There were posters put up throughout the
city.

The reward was offered, and so then you
have to deal with the tips that come in.

It's just a tough thing, a missing
person, especially when you don't see

crime having been committed.

There were a lot of people.

connected to her, and they hired private
detectives to no avail. She just

vanished.

After his trip to New York City, Alcala
took a meandering road trip back to Los

Angeles.

Rodney Alcala is a dangerous predator,
and he was purposely moving around Los

Angeles.

New York and places in between looking
for people to target, specifically

looking for women that he can approach,
he can talk to,

can take pictures of them, and then
maybe decide that that one will become

victim.

Jill Barkham was a young 18 -year -old
girl.

who left on an adventure from New York
to come to the West Coast and just to be

able to explore California.

My sister Jill was a very beautiful
person.

Growing up, she was always there for me.
She was a middle child. I have 11 kids.

I'm number six. She's number five.

She was very loving and nurturing for
everybody.

She was a candy striper and was
considering nursing.

Los Angeles was the place to go to if
you were young.

It was just a wild and crazy time for
young people.

I called home, and I could hear crying
in the background on the phone. One of

younger siblings had answered the phone
and said, Bruce, you need to come home.

You need to come home.

Jill Barkham was discovered on Franklin
Canyon Drive, south of Mulholland.

Her body had been posed in the middle of
a dirt road.

I came through the house that Friday
night, and my mother came up to me

and put her arms around me and told me,
your sister's dead. And I was in shock.

I go, what sister? Who?

She had been strangled and bludgeoned to
death and then posed in a kneeling

position, semi -nude, with some of the
clothing draped over her and blood all

over. There was also a bloody rock, a
large pointed bloody rock.

We believe how brutally she was beaten
that she must have fought back terribly

against him. And she had had her breath
bitten as well.

I had no idea who had murdered Jill. I
just knew that the carnage visited upon

her was brutal.

Rodney Alcala liked to strangle people
to the point of unconsciousness.

then allow them to come back to life, to
watch life go out of the person, and

then to strangle them again over and
over. And that level of strangulation in

and out of consciousness is the monster
in Rodney Alcala of showing those

victims, demeaning them to the point of,
I hold your life in my hand and I can

give it and I can take it away.

Your body.

was flown from Los Angeles and landed in
Syracuse, New York. And I had my first

night terror that night. I woke up in
hot sweats, tears filling down my face.

And my sister Jill, in my dreams, very
damaged brutally, telling me it's okay,

I'm okay.

Originally, investigators thought that
Jill Barkholm could have been killed by

the hillside strangler because there
were some similarities.

to how they found her body and that of
other victims, mainly that the fact that

she was dumped in the hills of Los
Angeles.

There was no jewelry found on her at
all. Detectives thought there could be a

possibility that whoever was doing the
killing maybe took her jewelry as some

sort of trophy or memorial of the
killings.

Back in the 70s, we weren't as
technologically advanced as we are

wasn't even considered.

Best we could do was ABO blood typing.
They did, at the coroner's office,

collect the sexual assault kit.

Somebody with some foresight believed
that we were going to be able to do

something in the future.

Her murder was pretty quickly dismissed
after investigation that she was likely

not one of the Hillside Stranglers'
victims.

But at that point, they had no idea who
was responsible.

Jill's funeral was attended by all my
family members, relatives, Central New

York, Northern New York, friends. I
remember my Boy Scout troop coming to

She was loved.

Alcala was a predator. He went out in
search of victims.

Guys like him, they elevate.

It keeps getting worse and worse and
worse.

And killing becomes a necessity.

It's cooling off, period.

has now become six days. Not months, not
weeks, but days.

He had a record. He had been on parole.

He had a terrible history.

But yet, they allowed him on the game
show. The best time is at night.

Nighttime is when it really gets good.

I think he thought it was an
opportunity, thinking like a predator,

could meet another woman.

And the more the applause goes, the more
everyone just oohs and aahs like, oh,

isn't he clever? Isn't he just amazing?
She better pick him.

This feeds his psychopathy.

Will that date be bachelor number one,
bachelor number two, or bachelor number

three? Who gets the date?

Psychotic serial killer Rodney Alcala
has been released from jail on the

that he is reformed.

He is back on the West Coast where the
killing continues.

Then, in a stunning twist, he is booked
as an eligible bachelor on the dating

game. Will his charm work to win him a
date with the unsuspecting bachelorette?

In part two of The Dating Game Killer.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg. Thanks for
watching. Good night.

You're watching HLN On Demand.

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