Original subtitles

♪♪

Jordan: He posed his victim.

She is posed on the floor, with her arms behind her back,

displayed like a subject of a photo shoot.

And this is the killer's way of objectifying her as worthless.

It's for shock value on those who discover her, of course,

but it's more telling of what he thinks about his victims.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome to "Very Scary People".

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Serial killer Rodney Alcala was a charming monster.

His good looks and winning smile hid his true nature.

He was a psychopath.

He selected his victims carefully --

beautiful, vulnerable young women and girls.

Even children were not safe.

An aspiring photographer, he sometimes posed

his dead victims after torturing and raping them.

In a chilling testament to his charisma,

Alcala was chosen to be a contestant

on the popular TV show "The Dating Game",

where he would compete against other eligible bachelors

for the affections of a pretty bachelorette.

Will he be the winner who gets to take her on a dream date?

This is part two of "'The Dating Game' killer".

♪♪

Elam: 1977 was just really a terrible, terrible year

in New York City.

Stradford: Son of Sam was running around,

and they had the blackout.

Elam: 23-year-Old Ellen Hover was living in Manhattan.

She had a date with Rodney Alcala

the day after the big blackout.

When her parents didn't get her nightly call,

they call the police to do a welfare check.

She wasn't there.

However, her calendar was open, and on July 15th,

written right there -- "John Berger -- photographer".

John Berger was an alias for Rodney Alcala.

Elam: The FBI did interview him in connection with Ellen Hover.

He said he had been on a date with her, but brought her back,

and that was all he knew.

That was it. They had to drop it at that point.

Elam: They hired private detectives.

She just vanished.

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

Warren: Cornelia Crilley was a TWA flight attendant.

She was quite beautiful, smart,

very popular amongst her friends.

Jordan: She was murdered.

And under her body is an envelope with a fingerprint.

One of the injuries was a bite Mark on her breast.

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.

Jordan: Rodney Alcala is the main suspect

in the rape and abduction of 8-year-old Tali Shapiro.

Rodney escaped, and he's on the run.

Warren: I knew that we had not heard the last of him.

♪♪

Jordan: Rodney Alcala has gone from New York

across the United States back to L.A.,

where he's comfortable, when he finds his next victim.

♪♪

Georgia Wixted was a 27-year-Old nurse.

She had recently moved out of her house

and on her own in Malibu.

She was supposed to pick up a friend on her way to work,

and she never showed up.

Law enforcement did a welfare check and found

that there was evidence of forced entry into her apartment.

The screen had been removed from her window,

and a box had been moved over so that somebody could step up.

Her apartment was in complete disarray.

Blood everywhere, on her bed, the walls,

the floor, the bed sheets.

She was completely naked.

She had been brutally assaulted.

Georgia was found in this posed position.

She was also strangled and had bite marks.

Posing is very rare in homicides.

I think that's about 1% or 2% of all murders are posing,

which is the worst of the worst, the most evil.

After two brutal murders just four weeks apart,

Alcala doesn't strike again for six months.

♪♪

Satriano: Charlotte Lamb was a legal secretary,

very beautiful woman.

She lived in Santa Monica and called up some friends

to go out to a bar.

Her friends were not able to go with her,

but her car was parked in a location

she had intended on visiting.

♪♪

Elam: 32-year-old Charlotte Lamb was discovered

in the laundry room

of a large apartment complex in El Segundo.

She was found naked with her arms bent

and propped up behind her back, again,

to protrude her chest area,

we believe for him taking his death pictures after the crime.

Jordan: She didn't have her earrings,

and she had gone to the club

the night before with earrings in her ear,

so they were removed and missing,

presumably by the person who killed her.

O'Toole: Her body is found in a building

where she has no contact.

Even people that resided in that building did not know Charlotte.

Rodney Alcala had to move her into that apartment.

It really goes to his sense of confidence

and to the fact that that kind of risk-taking

does not bother him whatsoever.

In fact, it probably makes the crime

even that much more interesting

and that much more erotic for him.

♪♪

My mother called and said, "The worst has happened."

McCreary: This is Bill McCreary in North Tarrytown

with a story about the discovery of the body

of a millionaire's daughter missing for the past 11 months.

Elam: Almost a year passed before Ellen Hover's body

was discovered,

and it happened after detectives got a tip

that Rodney Alcala liked to watch the sunsets in the cliffs

up by the Rockefeller Estate in Westchester.

Then, they found her skeletal remains,

and it was through dental records

that they were able to identify that it was indeed Ellen Hover.

McCreary: Police say they do have the identity

of a possible suspect in this case.

Right now, the body of Miss Hover

is in the medical examiner's office up here,

where they're trying to determine if foul play

was involved in her death.

Because the remains were all skeletalized,

we didn't really have a cause of death.

All we know is that because they were buried, it was homicidal.

People don't die and bury themselves.

♪♪

Weller: It's just a horrible, random, tragic thing

that happened.

What if she hadn't been where she was when she met him?

What if it'd have been a different day?

It was such a chance encounter,

and he pursued her and pushed for the date,

and she was kind and sweet, and she agreed to go on it.

What if that had not happened?

It was horrible and an incredible tragedy.

♪♪

[ Sirens wail ]

Warren: During the 1970s, there were so many serial killers.

Everyone was running around scared of serial killers.

There seemed to be an endless amount of them --

Green River Killer and the Hillside Strangler

and Son of Sam.

There seemed to be no end.

To top it off, none of these were being resolved quickly.

People just kept on getting killed,

and it didn't seem to end.

Jordan: In an age before Internet,

before the police were coordinated,

before we could actually trace and track similar homicides

and realize there was a serial killer in our midst,

Rodney Alcala capitalized on all of that.

♪♪

Satriano: Shortly after Charlotte Lamb's murder,

Rodney Alcala was filmed as a contestant

on "The Dating Game".

Announcer: From Hollywood, the dating capital of the world,

it's "The Dating Game".

[ Applause ]

Here's the star of our show.

"The Dating Game" was, back in the '70s,

a popular game show.

You had three single guys behind this partition,

and the eligible bachelorette would ask questions

without seeing them, and after a series of questions,

she would decide which bachelor she would go out with.

[ Applause ] Thank you very much.

Thank you, thank you.

Michael: In 1978, on a Saturday afternoon, Rodney came in.

You know, he was one of several bachelors

that came in to apply for the show,

and the way that worked was mostly by referral.

Somebody that would come in for the show

would give us a sheet of other people

that they knew that were single

that they thought might enjoy being on the show.

Ellen: We really didn't vet people in those days.

I don't think any television shows of any kind really did.

It was a different era, and even if we wanted to,

we wouldn't have the same kind of access.

I mean, we didn't have Google,

so you couldn't just look someone up.

I do recall that he seemed strange to me.

I picked up on something about him

that I absolutely didn't like.

He was -- I hate to use the word "spooky",

but there was something devilishly spooky about the guy,

and I just said, "I'm not gonna put him on the show."

Ellen: Michael and I did not agree on this particular person.

It was very rare to disagree.

And me and my assistant, we're like, "Uh, what?

No, no. You don't understand."

He was really smart, and he went to UCLA,

and he was a photographer, and he was, like, so happening.

He had the long, black hair, and he was attractive.

Very attractive.

And they said, "You got to use him", you know?

So, I did. [ Applause ]

Well, let's see. Bachelor number one

is a successful photographer

who got his start when his father found him

in the dark room at the age of 13 fully developed.

[ Laughter ] Between takes,

you might find him skydiving or motorcycling.

Please welcome Rodney Alcala.

Rod, welcome.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Elam: He's wearing this brown leisure suit.

He has his hair feathered out and back.

He's a handsome man.

Number one, would you say hello to Cheryl, please?

We're gonna have a great time together, Cheryl.

And he comes in with the attitude

like he's going to win this contest,

and he makes it very clear

to the other two bachelors that are there with him.

I remember that he was very strange and obnoxious in posing

and trying to be smiley and friendly, at the same time,

not giving you a chance to speak when he was speaking.

He convinced a lot of women that he was harmless

and that he was approachable, and he had a beaming smile.

Bachelor number one. Alcala: Yes?

What's your best time?

The best time is at night.

Nighttime's when it really gets good.

During that show, Rodney seemed to be the most playful

and certainly the one she got on best with.

Bachelor number one, I am serving you for dinner.

Oh.

What are you called, and what do you look like?

I'm called the banana, and I look really good.

[ Laughter ]

Can you be a little more descriptive?

Peel me.

[ Laughter, applause ]

Elam: The crowd is eating it up.

Everyone's loving this banter back and forth.

[ Applause ]

Later, bachelor one.

Later. [ Chuckles ]

We know that "The Dating Game" of the '70s was very contrived,

and the whole point was to use a lot of sexual innuendo,

tremendous, over-the-top flirtation,

because that's what the crowd wanted,

and Alcala played the part perfectly.

Lange: Number one, would you say hello to Cheryl, please?

We're gonna have a great time together, Cheryl.

Jordan: Alcala is a master manipulator,

and he does this by role playing,

and by going on "The Dating Game",

remember the cat and mouse that he does with the cops?

He's now doing it with the audience.

I'm a drama teacher,

and I'm going to audition each of you for my private class.

Bachelor number one

[Impersonating elderly woman] you're a dirty old man.

[ Normal voice ] Take it. [ Laughter ]

[ Grunts ] Come on over here.

[ Grunts ] [ Laughter ]

[Impersonating elderly woman] Oh, honey, we got to go out

and boogie. [ Applause ]

Rodney James Alcala is one of the most dangerous types

of serial killers you can come across in the sense

that he's good-looking, he's articulate, charming,

high-IQ, intelligent,

able to manipulate almost anybody about anything.

I'm called the banana, and I look really good.

[ Laughter, applause ]

And then the moment of truth.

Would he get picked for the date?

You heard from the bachelors, you got some great,

dramatic presentations, some good answers,

but now, I'm gonna ask you a question --

will that date be bachelor number one,

bachelor number two,

or bachelor number three?

Who gets the date?

[ Normal voice ] Well, I like bananas, so I'll take one.

Number one. Bachelor number one.

[ Cheers and applause ] All right.

♪♪

No one would ever dream that a serial killer

is winning the girl on "The Dating Game".

Say hello to Rodney Alcala.

Rodney, come on and say hello.

[ Applause ]

♪♪

Warren: But during the commercial break,

when they were together,

she got, she said, very creepy vibes from him.

She felt very uncomfortable.

She called me at the office and she was like,

"Ellen, I can't go out with this guy.

I mean, he is a creep.

I'm not going. I can't."

And I went, "Well, God, no.

Don't go. I mean, you don't have to go."

And she was [Laughs] extremely relieved.

So, she didn't go on the date.

I think it may have saved her life, for sure.

O'Toole: My sense is Rodney would have been very, very angry

that she would have the nerve to reject him,

and afterwards, he may have made the decision

that he was going to get back into following women, predating,

and ultimately committing more murders.

♪♪

In February of 1979, Alcala picked up

a 15-year-Old hitchhiker, Monique Hoyt.

He ended up taking her about 75 miles outside of Los Angeles

and took her out to a wooded area.

♪♪

He asked her to pose for some photographs.

She agreed.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

♪♪

Satriano: As they were taking the photographs,

he bashed her over the head with a rock.

She woke up with her hands and feet bound.

He beat her.

He sexually assaulted her, raped her,

and strangled her.

She went unconscious, but eventually, she woke up.

When she awoke, she was tied up, but she started talking to him,

apologizing to him, telling him, "This is my fault.

I'm sorry.

I put you in this position."

With that, he started talking to her more.

And Rodney Alcala broke down crying for some reason.

He took off the clothing that was binding her,

and she asked, "Okay, can I go clean up?"

Satriano: She asked him if she could stop at a gas station

to use the restroom.

Elam: And that is when Monique Hoyt saw her moment,

and she ran to safety and called authorities.

♪♪

Shepard: Rodney is arrested.

He is charged with kidnapping and sexual assault.

And what's particularly interesting is that

when he was arrested,

he was only $10,000 bail assigned to him,

and his mother paid that, and so he was free

and in the public while he was waiting his trial.

♪♪

After Monique Hoyt, his cooling off period

is four months before the murder of Jill Parenteau.

She was found naked, strangled, sexually assaulted.

Police learn that prior to her murder,

she had actually been in a pub,

where she and a friend had met up with Rodney Alcala.

He definitely wanted Jill, and so,

he's willing to take the extra risk of going to her home.

When you see an offender do that, that tells me,

as a profiler, that that is the victim that he wants,

he's taking the extra risk to get that victim.

No other victim is going to satisfy him at that point.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome back to "Very Scary People".

Rodney Alcala has left a trail of dead bodies

in New York and California,

and successfully alluded the police,

but he is losing control.

It's not a matter of if he will kill again,

it's a matter of when.

Mack: In the late '70s,

Huntington Beach is a surf capital.

Everybody allowed their kids to go to the beach.

They could ride their bicycles, they could take the bus,

ride their skateboards.

♪♪

Robin Samsoe was a 12-year-old girl.

She was a typical, young, precocious pre-teen girl.

She loved to dance.

She loved her friends.

She loved her brothers and sisters.

She just loved life, as any 12-year-old should,

without a care in the world.

On June 20th, 1979, Robin and her friend, Bridget,

went down to the beach in the afternoon

to play in the sand

and have a cartwheel competition.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Shepard: While at the beach, they were approached by a man

with curly hair who had a camera

and wanted to take their pictures.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Mack: They were a little bit reluctant.

He was saying that he was a photographer,

and he wanted to take their photographs...

[ Camera shutter clicks ] ...and enter into

a photo contest,

and if they won, he could get some money,

and he would be willing to share it.

Warren: He was taking their pictures, and all of a sudden,

out of the blue, a neighbor approached them

to see if everything was okay.

Mack: When she approached,

the photographer turned his face away from them,

and then walked off in a quick fashion.

He approached two 12-year-old girls.

Who does that?

It's just as creepy in 1979 as it would be today.

Mack: Shortly after that,

Robin was supposed to be at her ballet class at 4:00,

so Bridget suggested Robin take her bicycle

to get to the ballet class quicker,

and then Robin left and went on her way.

Warren: A few hours later,

the ballet studio called Robin's mother and said,

"Why didn't she show up?"

And of course, then right away,

they knew there was something wrong and called the police.

Robin was missing.

Shepard: Huntington Beach did an extraordinary job

on the investigation.

They tracked down the people on the beach.

They tracked down the woman who had seen this photographer

approaching these two girls.

Her friend, Bridget, met with a sketch artist

and had a composite drawn of the person that she talked to.

That composite was put out, and a parole officer

called the Huntington Beach Police Department

and said that looked a former parolee of his --

Rodney Alcala.

At that time, detectives found out who Alcala was,

obtained his photograph,

which bore a striking resemblance to the composite.

Shortly after the investigator in the case goes home

and is watching TV

and "The Dating Game" episode from the summer before

is now airing on his television.

[ Cheers and applause ] Lange: Good luck, gentlemen.

Jim Lange from "The Dating Game" introduces bachelor number one.

Please welcome Rodney Alcala.

Rod, welcome. [ Cheers and applause ]

The detective immediately started calling

the police department, trying to get ahold

of the sergeants and supervisors

to let them know that he had just seen

Rodney Alcala on TV.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Then the FBI called me, us -- Chuck Barris Productions --

and wanted to know all about him.

So, they came to the office,

and that's really when we found out

what we were even dealing with.

And we sat down with them and gave them a copy of the form

that he had filled out.

The show was instrumental in having identified him

to the police.

The best time is at night.

After that, the detective obtained a copy of the program,

and that program was shown to Bridget,

and she positively identified Rodney Alcala

as the one that was taking her photograph.

Nighttime's when it really gets good.

After getting him identified,

they located him living at his mother's house

in Monterey park, California,

and they began round-the-clock surveillance,

trying to find out his habits and patterns.

They started digging more and more,

finding out about background, finding out about his conviction

for kidnapping the 8-year-old in Hollywood in 1968,

finding about another girl he kidnapped in Huntington Beach

in 1975.

They started developing more and more information on him.

They canvassed the neighborhood.

They find a business that was a bike shop

that somebody left a bike

that appears to have been the bike that Robin borrowed.

They believe sold.

A lot of circumstantial stuff is being developed

that's tying Rodney to Robin Samsoe's kidnapping.

♪♪

♪♪

Shepard: 12 days after her disappearance,

Robin's body is found up in the area of Sierra Madre.

It had been a lot of animal activity and decomposition.

Warren: There wasn't much left. She was pretty skeletal.

There was some hair.

It was to the point where they could only

identify her through her dental records.

♪♪

On July 24th, 1979, police show up to Alcala's mother's house

to arrest him in the death of Robin Samsoe.

Shepard: He was arrested and taken to Huntington Beach

Police Department for an interview.

There's been a gross miscarriage of justice

for being found guilty of something that I didn't do.

Shepard: At Rodney's house, they find photographs,

photographs of kids in various stages of dress,

but nothing that ties him to Robin Samsoe's disappearance.

Mack: During the course of the search warrant,

one of the sergeants at the house saw a receipt

for a storage locker out of King County, Washington,

in Alcala's name.

The receipt wasn't on the search warrant,

so he didn't take it.

However, he did write down all of the information on it

in his notebook.

Later, at the Huntington Beach Police Department,

during the course of his interview, Alcala asked

if he could speak with his sister,

who was at the police department.

Detectives allowed them to converse with each other,

them not knowing that it was still being

recorded and monitored.

Rodney said to his sister,

"At least they don't know about the storage locker,"

at which time, bells went off in the sergeant's head,

and he pulled out his notebook

and gave the information to the investigation team.

Then they discovered that Rodney drove to Seattle

and rented that storage locker a couple days after the murder.

The very next day, two detectives were on a plane

to the state of Washington to obtain a search warrant

and go through that storage locker.

♪♪

Shepard: They conduct a search on the storage facility

with the assistance of Seattle

and recover many rolls of undeveloped film

and many photographs of potential victims

that Rodney may have targeted.

They found over 1,000 pictures of young girls and boys

that were in explicit and sexually provocative poses,

and a lot of them were naked.

Shepard: They found a new other items,

including a pouch that had jewelry in it.

That jewelry included earrings,

which became extremely important.

And remember, he had taken mostly earrings

from his victims' bodies or from their jewelry boxes.

The jewelry seemed to be, if we could prove it,

trophies that would remind Rodney of a particular victim.

Robin Samsoe's mother was able to identify

two gold ball earrings as earrings that were hers

that little 12-year-old Robin had borrowed from her mother

and was wearing the day she disappeared.

O'Toole: Trophies are often taken so that the offender

can relive the homicide, relive the sexual assault,

and it's a reminder to them what happened.

Just believe that if you want, but Rodney wanted to remember.

Those earrings were never recovered

until they were recovered in that storage locker

in that pouch.

Those became very significant piece of evidence.

♪♪

Elam: Nearly a year after Robin Samsoe was found murdered,

Rodney Alcala went on trial,

and every seat in the courthouse was taken.

Jordan: Two mothers in the gallery,

one of whom is Rodney Alcala's mother,

holding her rosary beads.

The other mother is Marianne Frasier.

She's Robin's mother,

and she's holding her handbag on her lap with her hand inside,

and that hand is clutching a gun.

She is ready to pull that gun out, point it at Rodney Alcala,

and pull the trigger so that he can never do this

to another child ever again.

At one point, she began to reach in her purse,

and she felt Robin's hand touch hers

and could smell Robin's shampoo

and knew that it wasn't right and that Robin wouldn't want it.

Elam: The trial lasted two and a half months,

and on April 30th, the jury reached a decision.

They came with the verdict of guilty,

and in the penalty phase, they sentence him to death.

I think that his strategy

has been the classic witch hunt strategy,

and I think the case will be reversed on appeal.

Will Rodney Alcala ever be put to death, in your estimation?

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Not if I can have anything to do with it.

♪♪

But shortly after that,

that case was reversed on appeal.

In 1984, the California Supreme Court

overturned the conviction in Alcala's case

because they argued that the trial judge

should not have allowed for the jury

to hear about his previous child rape and kidnapping convictions.

Just can't believe that we have to be punished for what he did.

He's got nothing to do but gain,

and all we have to do is be destroyed

and be pulled down a little bit further.

I don't know if we can, really.

Satriano: They had to retry the case in front of a new jury.

A new jury convicted him again

and sentenced him to death again.

Rodney Alcala sat on death row for 23 years,

going through numerous appeals, and again,

his case was overturned on appeal for the second time.

Elam: This time, it was because of evidence

that the judge ruled Alcala

should have been allowed to present.

Every time this happens, it's like losing Robin

all over again, you know?

I don't know if you've ever lost a child,

but there's nothing that hurts like that.

Nothing.

Now, we had to come back after 30 years

and present the evidence anew

for the third time in the Robin Samsoe case.

♪♪

♪♪

Elam: While Rodney Alcala was awaiting his third trial

in the Robin Samsoe case,

forensic science began gaining on him.

Police in California and New York

were looking into cold cases

during the time that Alcala was active in the 1970s.

When we were looking at the Hover and Crilley homicides

and we were going through the boxes,

John Berger's name popped up in there,

and we were like, "Who's this guy?

Why would they talk to him?"

And then, we looked into him,

and we knew his name was really Rodney Alcala.

What we had that was the most probative

was the fingerprint for Miss Crilley's murder

on that letter.

We also had the bite mark evidence from her breast.

Detectives actually visited Rodney Alcala in prison

just so that they could obtain

his dental impression for comparison.

The dentist, he was able to match up her bite marks

to that imprint exactly.

We also had gotten a fingerprint card

from them of his prints,

and a very good late print exam of the detective told us,

"Hey, that's your guy.

That's his print that's on that envelope."

With Miss Hover, we really had no evidence

other than what was in her apartment.

Elam: They knew that in her calendar, she had written down

"John Berger -- photographer".

At this point, they also now know

that John Berger was Rodney Alcala.

There were other people that were interviewed

that put him in place --

even in '77, that put him with Miss Hover,

so we're just connecting the dots, connecting the dots.

♪♪

While authorities in New York were building their case,

the third trial for Robin Samsoe's murder

was ramping up in California,

and prosecutors were about to have their own breakthrough.

Satriano: When Matt Murphy and I were preparing to try

the Robin Samsoe case for the third time,

DNA technology caught up with Rodney Alcala's crimes.

Thanks to the DNA forensic technology advancements,

Rodney Alcala was attached to four other murders.

We started, one by one,

analyzing each of those murder cases

and showing that Rodney Alcala's semen

was found inside the bodies of each of the L.A. victims

of Georgia Wixted, Jill Barcomb,

and Charlotte Lamb.

Jill Parenteau, we had his connection

to the basic serology blood,

so we believed that Rodney Alcala was a serial killer.

Rodney Alcala ended up being indicted

and tried to all five murders at the same time.

♪♪

Shepard: I was able to attend the trial in Orange County,

and Gina Satriano and Matt Murphy

were the district attorneys representing the victims.

Representing the defendant was Rodney Alcala.

Police searched my house, and at my house,

they didn't find anything that connected me with Robin Samsoe.

They say a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client.

That's the way it went.

So, you think about that, you know?

What I said, and if I was willfully trying

to mislead somebody -- you all or anybody.

I don't think you'll be able to do that.

Satriano: Rodney Alcala hardly cross-examined anybody

with respect to the evidence in the L.A. case

and ignored those victims,

as if they weren't even important.

He focused on the Robin Samsoe murder.

So, these are the facts in the Samsoe case.

We felt very strong about the evidence in our case,

being able to present the jury

with the full picture of Rodney Alcala's crimes.

He got her into his car, and he drove her into those mountains,

and Rodney Alcala smashed her face in,

and she was still alive.

He brutalized her.

♪♪

Elam: In closing arguments, District Attorney Murphy

painted a picture of a man with no soul,

and he asked the jury to do the right thing.

Murphy: Robin Samsoe's day in court is today.

You make sure that he is held responsible

for what happened to that little girl.

♪♪

We the jury, in the above and titled action,

find the defendant, Rodney James Alcala,

guilty of murder in the first degree.

[ Applause ]

Warren: The jury found Alcala guilty of all five murders.

Satriano: You know that those families in that moment

have a peace of justice

that's handed to them after such a long wait

of 30 years for their loved ones.

♪♪

In the penalty phase, the jury returned a verdict of death.

Connelly: And I have prayed about this,

and I have given my hatred all to God,

because [Sniffles]

I've let this feeling consume me for 31 years,

and I'm not gonna give him no more power over me.

If anybody deserves the death penalty,

Rodney Alcala is screaming for it.

The terror he's left behind -- he's destroyed families.

He shouldn't have gotten out for what he did to me,

much less the next person or the next person.

That's the shame of it.

♪♪

♪♪

Bashford: When he offered to plead guilty

at 25 to life on both cases, we were thrilled,

and no matter what happened in California,

this plea would stand forever.

Shocking photos from "The Dating Game" killer's

picture book.

They were discovered in a storage facility he had.

These are some of them.

The question is do they point the way

to more of his victims.

Mack: Shortly after the trial concluded,

the Huntington Beach Police Department

released 110 photographs

that were taken out of the thousands that Alcala

had in his storage locker.

Bashford: They decided to release them

because there was hope that family members

might see somebody who had gone missing

and never seen again that might lead to more homicide cases.

Shapiro: Making those photos public is huge.

If anyone can put something together

and have closure for a family, that would be amazing.

I come out on the other side of it, and I was blessed,

but there were so many other people suffering.

Stradford: On the cold case squad,

we feel the dead person should not be forgotten.

Their families should not be forgotten.

I'm like, "We got him, and you can rest now."

♪♪

Lack of evidence allowed Alcala

to elude prosecution on several cases,

but detectives refused to give up.

Finally, with the advances in DNA forensics,

they got their man, and they're still closing cases.

In 2016, Rodney Alcala was charged

with the 1977 murder of Christine Thornton.

She was one of the women identified

in his photo collection.

He's also been named a suspect

in unsolved murders in several states.

Investigators believe Alcala may have murdered

more than 100 victims across the United States.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Thanks for watching.

Goodnight.