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Rodney Alcala： The Killing Game - Serial Killer Documentary · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Forty eight hours presents offer Kevin Land.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: I was doing my patrols. We just started our shift
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: that day and I was driving down Sunset Boulevard and
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: I had received a call a beige color car with
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: no license plates following this little girl.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: In Los Angeles in nineteen sixty eight, eight year old
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Tally Shapiro was walking to school when a car pulled
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: up alongside her.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: A good Samara and a witness sees the little girl.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: A little eight year old Tally get in the car,
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: thinks it's suspicious, follows him and puts a call into LAPD.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Former Los Angeles police officer Chris Camacho reached the location
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: and knocked on the door.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: And I said, police officer, open the door. I need
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: to talk to you. This male appeared at the door.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: I will always remember that face at that door, very
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: evil face. And then he says, I'm in the shower.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I gotta get dressed. And I told him, okay, you
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: got ten seconds. Finally I kicked the door. In the
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: image will be with me forever. We could see in
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: the kitchen that there was a body on the floor,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: a lot of blood.
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: They say, A picture says a thousand words in that
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: image of those little white Mary Janes on that floor
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: with that metal bar that he used to strangle her with,
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: and that puddle of blood. It just looks like too
• 1:55
  Speaker 5: much blood to come out of a tiny, little light
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: year old like that.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: There was no breathing. We all thought she was dead.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Camacho began frantically searching the house for her attacker. Moments later,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: he walked back into the kitchen and witnessed a miracle.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: She was gagging and trying to breathe, and I thought,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: one for the good guys, she's going to make.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: It, clinging to life. Tally was rushed to the hospital.
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: It had not been for that police officer, Tali Shapiro
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: would have died on RODNEYL call his kitchen floor.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: We started searching the residence. There was a lot of
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: photograph equipment, and all of us were amazed at the
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: amount of photographs that he had there of young girls,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: very young girls. We found a lot of ida picture
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: idea of a Rodney A. Calla. He was a student
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: at UCLA.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: The suspect, twenty five year old Rodney Acalla, had slipped
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: through the office's.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Fingers when I kicked in the front door, suspect went on.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: The back door with Alcala in the wind. Former detective
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Steve Hodell was grasping at thin air, but.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: We kept coming up empty. Back then, you know, we
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: didn't have a lot of the forensics you have today.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: He was a snake charmer. I went and talked to
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: his professor at UCLA. He says, rod Alkala wouldn't hurt anybody.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: He's a great guy. He truly believed that, you know,
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: and a lot.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Of people did.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Rodney Alcala was born in San Antonio, Texas, in nineteen
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: forty three. His father abandoned the family when he was young.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: At seventeen, al Calla enlisted in the army, but there
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: were problems, allegations of sexual misconduct, a nervous breakdown, the
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: army discharged him.
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: The military realized in nineteen sixty three that they had him,
• 4:16
  Speaker 6: that he was a sexual deviate.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: In nineteen sixty nine, the FBI put Rodney Alcala on
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: its most wanted list, but finding Alcala was going to
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: be no simple matter. Rodney, I'll call.
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: After raping and almost killing Tally Shapiro, he fled to
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: New York. He made friends, He charmed people, he got
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: into NYU Film School.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: None of his fellow students suspected that their popular classmate
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: had a double life, which had the makings of a
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: film itself, a horror film. Three years after his attack
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: on Tali Shapiro, his dark side once again emerged.
• 5:08
  Speaker 7: Had a beautiful face. She carried herself extremely sophisticatedly.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: His next victim, Cornelia Michael Crilly, a twenty three year
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: old flight attendant for twa I.
• 5:21
  Speaker 7: Was living with her temporarily while she was getting her
• 5:25
  Speaker 7: own apartment ready around the corner to share with another stewardess.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: Crilly had spent the day moving in. When Borstein came
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: home from work, he was surprised to find her door
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: locked and no one answered the phone.
• 5:41
  Speaker 8: When her boyfriend was trying to reach her and was unable,
• 5:45
  Speaker 8: the police came in a horrible scene.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Prosecutor Melissa Morchus was struck by the ferocious nature of
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: the killing.
• 5:53
  Speaker 8: She had been strip naked, She was strangled with a
• 5:57
  Speaker 8: nylon stocking, and there was a bitemark.
• 6:01
  Speaker 9: On her breast.
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: Well obviously the cause of death of strangulation. She's bound,
• 6:06
  Speaker 6: she's held, there's something stuffed in her mouth, obviously keep
• 6:10
  Speaker 6: it from screaming.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: The police focused in on Cornelia's murder, but with almost
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: two thousand killings in New York in nineteen seventy one,
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: investigators could not close the case.
• 6:21
  Speaker 9: They had no real leads. We didn't have the forensic
• 6:25
  Speaker 9: tools that we have today. So they did what they could,
• 6:29
  Speaker 9: but it never went any place in the case just
• 6:31
  Speaker 9: went cold, and it stayed cold for forty years.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: Rodney Alcala wasn't even a suspect. After the murder, he
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: changed his name to John Berger and moved to New Hampshire.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: He landed a job as a counselor at an arts
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: and drama camp for girls. There he made a lasting
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: impression on the campers.
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: Two girls went to their local post officing and they
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: look and there was Rodney. I'll call his photo on
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: the FBI ten most Wanted list. They looked up and said,
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: oh my gosh, that's mister Burger.
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: They reported to the dean. He calls the authorities. They
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: arrest him, take him into custody. I get a phone
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: call from the FBI saying we've got your man in custody.
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: He's ready to be picked up.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: Police in California were eager to charge him for Tally
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Shapiro's brutal assault, but her family had left the country.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: With no main witness, prosecutors had no choice but to
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: offer al Kala a deal plead guilty to a lesser
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: charge of child molestation and register as a sex offender.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: He took the deal, but the judge's sentence stunned those
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: working the case.
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: He received one year to life, and the pro board
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: let him go after thirty four months after what he
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: did to tell his Shapiro.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: So less than three years later, Rodney Alcala was a
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: freeman again.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I was flabbergasted at the say Elisa. It just amazed me.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: And Alcohola had no trouble charming his way back into
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: the swing of things.
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: He was hired by the Los Angeles Times to work
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: as a type setter. He took photos at weddings, and
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: he was a registered sex offender during all of that,
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: and nobody ever checked.
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: Even worse, he was chosen to be a contestant on
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: the Dating Game, A dating game the Bachelor of its day.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: What no one knew was that Rodney Alcala was already
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: a serial killer.
• 8:35
  Speaker 6: Please welcome Rodney Alcohala.
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: From all outward appearances. Riding al Calla was a handsome.
• 8:43
  Speaker 6: I'm called the Banana and I looked really good, charming,
• 8:48
  Speaker 6: smart young man.
• 8:50
  Speaker 8: Well, I like bananas, so I'll take one number one.
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: I heard number one that wouldn't hurt a fly.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: The woman who won a date with him ended up
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: backing out, saying she found him creepy.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Come on over here.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: Her intuition probably saved her life. Others would not be
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: so fortunate.
• 9:15
  Speaker 6: She will never know how many women are lucky, because
• 9:18
  Speaker 6: every woman that crossed that guy's path was a potential victim.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: It was nineteen seventy seven. Rodney Alcala was out of
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: prison and living in New York. Bad news for the
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: New York cops, who already had their hands full. A
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: homegrown serial killer known as Son of Sam was terrorizing
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: the city.
• 9:56
  Speaker 6: He struck again over the weekend, the killer sixth victim Polis.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: They are nowhere near solving the case. By this time,
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: the Cornelia Krilly case had been called for six years
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: with no suspects. Rodney Alcala was only in the city
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: a week before, adding to the New York crime wave.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: His next victim, a twenty three year old musician and
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: artist named Ellen Hoover.
• 10:23
  Speaker 10: Ellen was a sweet, gentle soul.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: Anita Feinberg and Ellen Hover met as teenagers.
• 10:33
  Speaker 10: Ellen was a very dear college friend. We roomed together
• 10:36
  Speaker 10: for some time. She never confused what she had with
• 10:43
  Speaker 10: who she was.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: Ellen Hoover came from a prominent show business family. Her
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: father owned the famed Hollywood nightclub Zeros. Her godfathers were
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: Sammy Davis Junior and Dean Martin.
• 10:56
  Speaker 10: Her mom called me and said, have you heard from Ellen?
• 11:03
  Speaker 10: And I said no. She said think hard. Nobody can
• 11:07
  Speaker 10: find Ellen. And I didn't think anything of it until
• 11:10
  Speaker 10: it hit the newspapers.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: Her family's high profile made the story front page news
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: as the NYPD kept up the hunt for her.
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: That detective did a great job for missing person's case.
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: It was a lot of cohal's. He did a lot
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: of work, a lot of legwork.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Detectives thought they were onto something when they found an
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: important clue in her apartment.
• 11:35
  Speaker 8: Ellen Hover had marked on her calendar that she was
• 11:39
  Speaker 8: going to see someone named John Berger on the date
• 11:43
  Speaker 8: that she disappeared.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: Remember, al Kala had been using the name John Berger,
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: but at the time the connection was never made.
• 11:53
  Speaker 8: Her body wasn't found until a year later, buried on
• 11:59
  Speaker 8: the grounds of the Phelips Memorial Hospital in Westchester near
• 12:03
  Speaker 8: the Rockefeller estate.
• 12:08
  Speaker 10: Until they actually found her, there was always a glimmer
• 12:12
  Speaker 10: of hope once they found her body.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: That was it.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: Ellen's body was so decomposed police had to use dental
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: records to identify her.
• 12:26
  Speaker 6: Based on the autopsy, they declared it a homicide. There
• 12:29
  Speaker 6: was a suspect in the murder, a fellow that they
• 12:33
  Speaker 6: believe was the last person that she was seeing with.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: Could that fellow have been Alcala? Ellen had written his
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: alias John Berger in her calendar. Alcala, meanwhile, had left
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: New York and was on his meandering road trip back
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: to California.
• 12:52
  Speaker 11: He was constantly in predatory mode. That is behavior that
• 12:56
  Speaker 11: involves hunting human beings, and that's part of a serial
• 13:00
  Speaker 11: sexual killer that is often as exciting as the actual
• 13:07
  Speaker 11: homicide and sexual assault.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: At the same time Rodney Alcala was on the road,
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: a twenty nine year old woman from Texas, Christine Ruth Thornton,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: was traveling through the West with her boyfriend. Her sister,
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: Kathy was eleven years younger.
• 13:28
  Speaker 12: Chris was a free spirit kind of gal, so she
• 13:31
  Speaker 12: always was up for anything.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: In the spring of nineteen seventy seven, Christine was heading
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: to Montana with her boyfriend to pan for gold and
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: she had big news.
• 13:47
  Speaker 12: She let my mom know that she was going to
• 13:50
  Speaker 12: be having a baby, and then nothing more was heard.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: Kathy immediately feared the worst. Christine and her boyfriend had
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: a stormy relationship.
• 14:02
  Speaker 12: She had been abused by him. We knew that always
• 14:05
  Speaker 12: thought that he had done something to her.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: Soon after Christine disappeared, Kathy began searching for answers. She
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: undertook a systematic effort to track Christine and her boyfriend's
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: whereabouts that would last almost forty years through marriage, motherhood, divorce,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: and a career. Kathy contacted police departments, federal agencies, hospitals,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: and kept copies of every phone call and letter.
• 14:35
  Speaker 12: This was a letter I sent to the FBI. I
• 14:39
  Speaker 12: contacted the Department of Health and Human Services. They say
• 14:43
  Speaker 12: a check at this address failed to reveal any contact
• 14:46
  Speaker 12: with Christine. Ruth Thornton the Social Security Administration contacted them
• 14:52
  Speaker 12: asking if there was any employment record, and there has
• 14:55
  Speaker 12: never been any employment history, you know. I think the
• 15:02
  Speaker 12: message was kind of clear. Everything was no we don't know,
• 15:06
  Speaker 12: we have nothing. Looking back through this, it's like, yeah,
• 15:10
  Speaker 12: it was staring me in the face. She was not alive.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: Kathy didn't know the name Rodney Alcala, but one day
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: she would. It was the spring of nineteen seventy nine.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: Rodney Alcala had been back in California for almost two years,
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: and a twelve year old Robin Samso was enjoying the
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: southern California beach life.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: We just lived to.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: Have fun. Bridget Wilvert was Robin's best friend.
• 15:53
  Speaker 13: Everybody could be complaining about being bored, and me and
• 15:56
  Speaker 13: Robin would find ourselves doing cartwills and backwater govers.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: The other love of Robin's life was her mom, Mary Anne.
• 16:07
  Speaker 14: She was probably the most loving child a mother could have.
• 16:12
  Speaker 14: Everything she did she did to please me.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: On June twentieth, nineteen seventy nine, Robin was going to
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: start her first day of work answering phones at the
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: Ballet Studio in exchange for lessons, but first she planned
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: to play on the beach for a few hours with Bridget.
• 16:32
  Speaker 13: I could definitely see a gentleman with dark care. I
• 16:38
  Speaker 13: mean he he honed in on us, like really, like
• 16:43
  Speaker 13: a shark in the water, honing in on a seal,
• 16:46
  Speaker 13: and he goes, can I take your girl's pictures? And
• 16:48
  Speaker 13: Robin goes sure, and all of a sudden, out of
• 16:55
  Speaker 13: nowhere pops up Jackie Young, my neighbor, you know. She goes,
• 17:01
  Speaker 13: Bridget is everything okay? Are you girls all right? And man,
• 17:05
  Speaker 13: he he took that camera, turned his head down and
• 17:11
  Speaker 13: you could almost see like smoke coming off his dress, shoes.
• 17:14
  Speaker 12: He just he was gone.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: Robin and Bridget turned to go back home.
• 17:24
  Speaker 13: And Robin had thrown her beach town everything into her bag,
• 17:27
  Speaker 13: and she's like, well, I'm gonna get going and will
• 17:33
  Speaker 13: take my bike and don't stop.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: That was the last time anyone saw Robin alive. Robin's
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: ballet teacher called when she did not arrive for her
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: lesson later that day. Her family immediately called nine one one.
• 17:53
  Speaker 14: It was a fably horrifying time of all and not.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: Knowing police continually question the one person they thought might
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: know where Robin could have gone, her best friend, Bridget.
• 18:08
  Speaker 13: And I said, I go it was the man, that
• 18:12
  Speaker 13: man that took our picture.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: On July second, twelve days after Robin last said goodbye
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: to her friend and rode off on her bike. Detectives
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: found the body of a child.
• 18:26
  Speaker 14: Said let's go here. He said, we can't do that.
• 18:29
  Speaker 14: I said, that's my baby. Of course I can see her.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Why not, he.
• 18:33
  Speaker 14: Said, because it took us three days to identify her.
• 18:37
  Speaker 15: So what's wrong with you people?
• 18:39
  Speaker 14: How many little girls with long blonde hair disappeared that
• 18:41
  Speaker 14: it took you three days? He shook my shoulders and
• 18:46
  Speaker 14: tears were coming down his face to resist there was
• 18:49
  Speaker 14: no hair.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: A fire crew conducting routine fire prevention maintenance found Robin's
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: remains in a remote location more than forty miles from
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: where she was last seen.
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: There were twelve days from the animals to scavenge Robin's remains.
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: By the time the fire crew actually found her body,
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: she was just bones.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: The pressure was on to find the killer. Bridget's description
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: resulted in this composite sketch, which was released to the
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: media all over southern California.
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: His prole officer saw that and called the detectives and said, look,
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: there's a guy that used to be on my caseload.
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: You really need to take a look at him. His
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: name is Rodney Alcala.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: It had been nearly eleven years since Alcala had left
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: eight year old Tali Shapiro for dead. But Alcala was
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: easy to find this time. He lived with his mother
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: in Monterey Park, a stone's throw from the mountains where
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: Robin's remains were located.
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: They learned that he had no alibi, that nobody could
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: have care offers whereabouts at the time.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: He was the perfect suspect. Rodney Alcohola was arrested on
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: July twenty fourth and charged with the kidnap and murder
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: of Robin Samso. Detective Pat Ellis said, Huntington Beach police
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: got an unexpected tip when Alcolla's sister came to visit
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: her brother in jail. The conversation was being recorded one pohen.
• 20:26
  Speaker 6: He mentions him having a story's locker in Seattle, Washington.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: The cops don't know about sitting me a favor.
• 20:33
  Speaker 9: Get stuff out of there, get it cleared out.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: But what I'll calla didn't know was that police had
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: found a receipt for the locker during a search of
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: his home at the time of his arrest.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: They beat it there, okay, and then get inside. There's
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: the mother load.
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: Hundreds, if not thousands, of these different images and there
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: are dozens upon dozens of these young women that in
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: the pictures clearly are in positions of supreme vulnerability. With
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: Rodney Alcola.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: Police learned Alcala had rented the storage facility and moved
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: his belongings there nine days after Robin SAMSO's remains were discovered.
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: Buried under all this stuff was this tiny little silk
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: bag filled with earings.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: Al Calla claimed those were his earrings, but when police
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: showed the jewelry to Robin's mother, she recognized a pair
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: of gold ball studs that she said Robin often borrowed.
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: So at that point, those are all the nuts and
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: bolts that you need for a successful prosecution.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: Nearly one year after Robin SAMSO's murder, prosecutors were ready.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: It was February nineteen eighty Rodney Alcala went on trial.
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: Over the course of two and a half months, there
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: were almost fifty witnesses that testified.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: It was a very long, very difficult case.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: The jury convicted Alcolla and sentenced him to death.
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: It's a poor exchange for.
• 21:59
  Speaker 14: My daughter's life, but maybe it'll save someone else's by
• 22:02
  Speaker 14: him being gone.
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: But the relief would be short lived. Today In a
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: five to one decision, the California State Supreme Court ruled
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: that Rodney Alkala did not receive a fair trial. The
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: jury had been improperly told about Alcala's prior sex crimes,
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: including the attack on Tally. The decision would devastate Robin's mother,
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: But the ordeal was just beginning, you know.
• 22:27
  Speaker 14: It is only one perpetrator, the little stone. But the
• 22:32
  Speaker 14: ripples keep going, and there's victims and victims and victims
• 22:35
  Speaker 14: and victims.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: The Samsu family was steadfast in the face of a
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: second trial for the murder of Robin. They demanded justice
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: and he killed my child, my job.
• 23:00
  Speaker 9: You know.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: Six years after the first verdict, a clean cut Rodney
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: Alcala was convicted a second time, and again the sentence
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: was death.
• 23:12
  Speaker 13: We the jerry find the defendant, Rodney James Alcala, gilty
• 23:16
  Speaker 13: at the crime affair.
• 23:20
  Speaker 14: Death.
• 23:20
  Speaker 8: Let's the only penalty should ever be rendered in.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: Case this is this. Alcala had been on San Quentin's
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: death row since nineteen eighty. Now, with a second conviction
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: and a second death sentence, he was prepared to appeal
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: all over again.
• 23:40
  Speaker 12: It was.
• 23:42
  Speaker 14: Never really feeling safe that he was locked up because
• 23:45
  Speaker 14: you always thought there was a chance to go free.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: In two thousand and one, twenty two years after he
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: killed Robin Samso, a federal appeals court overturned Rodney Alcohala's
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: sentence for a second time, based on evidence he didn't
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: get to present. There would be a new trial for Alcala,
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: now in his sixties. For Robin SAMSO's family, it was unbearable.
• 24:11
  Speaker 14: We've gone through a lot of hell because of that animal,
• 24:14
  Speaker 14: a lot of hell hell.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: The path to justice for Robin Samso would take almost
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: a decade more. In New York City, thirty nine years
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: since the murder of Cornelia Krilly and thirty three years
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: since Ellen Hover was killed, cold case detectives were finally
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: able to identify Rodney Alcala as the killer of both women.
• 24:44
  Speaker 8: The strongest link was the fingerprint. There was a letter
• 24:50
  Speaker 8: that was lodged underneath Cornelia Crilly's body, and there was
• 24:55
  Speaker 8: a fingerprint developed from the outside of that envelope which
• 25:00
  Speaker 8: unmatched for many years, and finally through the FBI's database
• 25:05
  Speaker 8: there was a match.
• 25:06
  Speaker 9: It was a significant piece of evidence, but not enough
• 25:09
  Speaker 9: standing alone.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: Equally incriminating was the evidence left on her body.
• 25:14
  Speaker 9: There was bitemark evidence where he had bitten her breast.
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: It's his dental impression is the one that's on her body.
• 25:21
  Speaker 9: And of course we looked at all of his other
• 25:23
  Speaker 9: cases to see similarities in sexual murders he had committed
• 25:28
  Speaker 9: and decided we had enough evidence.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: In Ellen Hover's case, investigators now knew John Berger was
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: Rodney Alcala, and he had been seen near the Rockefeller
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: Estates where her body was found.
• 25:42
  Speaker 6: I think she was abducted here in Manhattan and ultimately
• 25:46
  Speaker 6: killed up there.
• 25:47
  Speaker 9: We had a witness who saw somebody who looked like
• 25:49
  Speaker 9: Rodney Alcala at that time period with a woman who
• 25:53
  Speaker 9: looked like Ellen Hover. The man was carrying a camera bag,
• 25:57
  Speaker 9: just like al Kala did.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: But the Manhattan prosecutors would have to wait for California's
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: third trial for Robin SAMSO's murder in Orange County. Assistant
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: DA Matt Murphy was ready to go to court when
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: there was a stunning development. DNA linked Alcala to three
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: Los Angeles murders, Jill Barcom, Georgia Wixted, and Charlotte Lamb.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: The killing of a fourth LA woman, Jill Parento, was
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: also tied to him.
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: Right At that moment, we realized that not only is
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: Rodney i'll call a vicious murderer in our case, but
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: in fact he is the serial killer that we always
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: suspected him to be.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: In a highly unusual maneuver, that California prosecutors decide to
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: try all five cases together, a bizarre looking Rodney Alcala
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: would serve as his own attorney.
• 26:54
  Speaker 16: June the twentieth, nineteen seventy nine, Robin Samso left Bridget.
• 26:59
  Speaker 11: Wilvers's There is no better forum than to be center
• 27:04
  Speaker 11: stage in court as your own attorney, and you cross
• 27:07
  Speaker 11: examine the witnesses. You're like God in that.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: Courtroom, i'll call it. Even called Robin SAMSO's mother to
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: the stand.
• 27:16
  Speaker 14: That was one of the hardest things I've ever had
• 27:17
  Speaker 14: do in my life, having him ask me questions.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Desperate to impeach mary Anne's character, I'll call it. Confronted
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: her about how during the first trial she had reportedly
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: brought a gun to court. She didn't deny it.
• 27:31
  Speaker 14: I was gonna shoot the right between the eyes if
• 27:33
  Speaker 14: I could have gotten a shot at.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: But then she felt Robin's presence.
• 27:39
  Speaker 14: All of a sudden, I smelt her shampoo and I
• 27:44
  Speaker 14: felt this formth on my hand, and I couldn't get
• 27:46
  Speaker 14: my hand out of my purpose.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: For the third time, Robin SAMSO's family waited as a
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: jury decided Rodney I'll call his fate. This time, there
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: were four other families waiting with them.
• 28:01
  Speaker 12: One of the many things that hurts me is that
• 28:03
  Speaker 12: that was the last face she saw, and that bothers
• 28:06
  Speaker 12: me because he's so ugly and he's so evil.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: When the jury reached a verdict, it was a relief
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: to the families who had been waiting for justice for
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: so long. The Samsos hoped that this would finally be
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: the end way.
• 28:23
  Speaker 10: The jury find the defendant, Rodney James Alcala, guilty of
• 28:28
  Speaker 10: the crime of murder in the first degree victim, Robin C.
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: Samso, Rodney called absolutely one percent deserves to die for
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: what he did.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: In a separate penalty phase, the prosecution called to the
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: stand a ghost from his past.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: My name is Tali Shapiro.
• 28:50
  Speaker 13: I'm one of rodney Calls first victims and one of
• 28:55
  Speaker 13: the only living victims.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: I should have stopped with me.
• 28:59
  Speaker 11: Why the world are there so many other victims?
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: When it was a known fact of what he did
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: to me.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: Rodney, I'll kulla, addressing the same jury that convicted him
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: of murder, makes an unusual plea for clemency.
• 29:14
  Speaker 16: Let me put the death penalty in perspective for you,
• 29:17
  Speaker 16: if you desire to join in the killing of a
• 29:19
  Speaker 16: human being, you and the families of the victims will
• 29:22
  Speaker 16: have to wait at least fifteen to twenty years while
• 29:25
  Speaker 16: the k slowly turns through the appellate process.
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: He wanted to plan Arlo Guthrie's song Alice's Restaurant, and
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: there's a part in that song where he talks about
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: wanting to kill people, and he played that incredibly for
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: the jury.
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: I will for fated kill kill kill kill, I'll call
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: his perverse closing argument did not sway the jury.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Will.
• 29:58
  Speaker 7: The jury determined that the penalty to be imposed upon
• 30:02
  Speaker 7: defendant Rodney James Alcala to be death.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: Rodney Alcala had been on death row for more than
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: thirty years. Now convicted of five murders, it was unlikely
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: he could win another appeal. With the California cases settled,
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: The New York prosecutors were ready for it, but they
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: were not expecting what would happen next.
• 30:31
  Speaker 9: He came back to New York in June of twenty twelve,
• 30:35
  Speaker 9: and by December he pled guilty.
• 30:38
  Speaker 8: It was a surprise. It was a surprise that he
• 30:41
  Speaker 8: pled guilty because he had denied every crime he was
• 30:47
  Speaker 8: ever accused of.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Junior announced Alcohola's sentence two
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: concurrent prison terms of twenty five years to life for
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: both families who.
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: Had lost all hope that these cases would ever be solved.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: The poleas by.
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: Rodney Alcala, and today's sentencing brings closure to painful chapters
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: in their lives.
• 31:14
  Speaker 8: The judge cried during the sentencing, and Martha and I
• 31:17
  Speaker 8: have been in this business for over thirty five years each,
• 31:21
  Speaker 8: and I've never seen a judge cry during a sentencing.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: As was agreed upon, Alcala was returned to San Quentin's
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: death Row.
• 31:32
  Speaker 8: I got a telephone call from Robin SAMSO's mother and
• 31:35
  Speaker 8: she said she was so grateful that we were doing this.
• 31:40
  Speaker 8: It's such a comfort to know that, regardless of what
• 31:44
  Speaker 8: might happen to the California cases, if for some reason
• 31:47
  Speaker 8: he should get out, he's coming back to New York
• 31:50
  Speaker 8: and he's going to serve twenty five to life.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: Both the New York and California prosecutors are haunted by
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: the question are there other victim out there?
• 32:01
  Speaker 9: He crisscrossed the country west coast, east coast, east coast,
• 32:04
  Speaker 9: west coast, crossed through a lot of states, and I'm
• 32:08
  Speaker 9: sure there are victims in those states.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: They just have to be found.
• 32:13
  Speaker 12: How Come she hasn't contacted us? That's not like her.
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: Rodney Alcala had been convicted of seven murders and was
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: facing five separate death penalties. Kathy Thornton, who had spent
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: the last thirty nine years trying to track down her
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: missing sister Christine, had never heard of Alcohola, but her
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: son did. It would change Kathy's quest forever.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: The killing game Tonight's forty eight Hours Mystery.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: In twenty thirteen, Happy's son had watched a forty eight
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: hour story on Alcolla that led him to its website
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: and a series of photos taken by Alcala of unidentified women.
• 33:08
  Speaker 12: I got an email from my son that said, I
• 33:10
  Speaker 12: saw these pictures, take a look if you'd like.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: Kathy scrolled through the images. She kept stopping at one
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: of them, a picture of a beautiful woman on the
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: back of a motorcycle.
• 33:22
  Speaker 12: I said, yeah, that sure looks like Chris. And then
• 33:25
  Speaker 12: I saw her little toe, her baby toe, And that's
• 33:29
  Speaker 12: one thing I always remembered about Chris was her little
• 33:32
  Speaker 12: baby toe was different.
• 33:35
  Speaker 9: It hooked.
• 33:37
  Speaker 12: I just saw that toe and I said, oh, yeah,
• 33:38
  Speaker 12: that's Chris.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: Googling the name Rodney Alcala, Kathy's heart almost stopped. Kathy
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: now believed her sister had been traveling with a notorious
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: serial killer. Fearing the worst, but still wanting answers, Kathy
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: submitted her own DNA to a national database of missing persons.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: If her sister's DNA was ever submitted, they could be matched.
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: Hundreds of miles away. Jeff Sheeman, a Wyoming detective, was
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: working on a very tough cold case.
• 34:17
  Speaker 17: They referred to my case as Granger Greta because it
• 34:19
  Speaker 17: was an unidentified female that was found in Granger, Wyoming,
• 34:23
  Speaker 17: back in nineteen eighty two. There were a lot of
• 34:27
  Speaker 17: aerial photos and photos from the scene when the body
• 34:30
  Speaker 17: was found.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: It was a desolate area. County Prosecutor Daniel Aramospi recalled
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: his predecessors had tried everything to help identify the victim.
• 34:41
  Speaker 15: The skull was intact and so the Wyoming State Crime
• 34:45
  Speaker 15: Lab was able to have an artist come in and
• 34:48
  Speaker 15: use the skull as a form of recreating what this
• 34:52
  Speaker 15: victim looked like.
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: More than thirty years had passed without a lead. All
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: Sheman could do was study the old files with a
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: new set of eyes.
• 35:09
  Speaker 17: The bones were found next to clothing. The bones had
• 35:13
  Speaker 17: been pulled apart, presumably by scavengers animals.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: She'd been out there about five to six years.
• 35:20
  Speaker 17: It was the body of a twenty five to thirty
• 35:23
  Speaker 17: five year old female. They also told investigators at that
• 35:26
  Speaker 17: time that she was also approximately six months pregnant.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: Sheman was blown away when he found the Wyoming Crime
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: Lab had saved skin, tissue and bone fragments.
• 35:39
  Speaker 17: And all we gotta do is, I'll get the ball
• 35:41
  Speaker 17: rolling with send it to the proper authorities to start
• 35:44
  Speaker 17: processing it for any DNA, specifically mitochondrial DNA.
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: That's DNA from the mother's side of the family. Siblings
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: would be revealed as a match.
• 35:54
  Speaker 17: I honestly thought I would be ten twenty years retired
• 35:57
  Speaker 17: before I'd even receive a phone call saying they had
• 35:59
  Speaker 17: identified her.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: Less than a year later, Jeff got the miraculous news
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: there was a match between Kathy Thornton and the unidentified bones.
• 36:09
  Speaker 17: I believe there was a lot of luck that went
• 36:11
  Speaker 17: into it, that went into this whole case.
• 36:12
  Speaker 15: I believe that's what solved. It is a lot of luck.
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: After thirty nine years of searching, Kathy found Christine. Her
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: hunt was finally over, and the story of what happened
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: to her sister began to unravel. During the summer of
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: nineteen seventy seven, Christine split with her boyfriend and had
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: the tragic misfortune of meeting Rodney Alcala. Their trip through
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: the Lonely Granger Prairie would be Christine's last ride.
• 36:42
  Speaker 12: When you see that photo, there's no doubt that she
• 36:46
  Speaker 12: was having fun. I think she just had no clue
• 36:49
  Speaker 12: what he was thinking, what he was capable of doing.
• 36:56
  Speaker 12: So I think you're happy until the point where you're not,
• 37:02
  Speaker 12: and at that point there was no escape. Where would
• 37:06
  Speaker 12: she go.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: The location where the photo was taken to the location
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: where Christine's remains were found were within probably just a
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: few yards of each other.
• 37:21
  Speaker 17: I believe that Rodney Alcala killed Christine Thornton shortly after
• 37:27
  Speaker 17: that photograph was taken.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: But before he would indict i'l calla where Chris Thornton's
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: murder prosecutor, Ara Maspi wanted to interview him. In September
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: twenty sixteen, he flew with the two detectives to California,
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: frail and in ill health. Rodney Alcala had been moved
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: from San Quentin to the medical unit of Corcoran Prison
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: outside of Fresno.
• 37:56
  Speaker 17: When we first arrived at Corkoran, we talked to some
• 37:59
  Speaker 17: of the secure staff. They said that he was borderline dementia.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: Whatever his condition, he was still being treated like the
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: dangerous serial killer that he was.
• 38:11
  Speaker 17: We went through numerous doors, numerous gates to this peach
• 38:15
  Speaker 17: colored prison cell that looked like something off of a
• 38:20
  Speaker 17: horror movie. Paints coming off the walls, flies buzzing around.
• 38:24
  Speaker 15: Alcohol is on a bed facing a wall. His feet
• 38:28
  Speaker 15: were sticking out from underneath the sheets, and you know,
• 38:30
  Speaker 15: we had long toenails.
• 38:32
  Speaker 17: We started pulling off photographs of the crime scene. He
• 38:37
  Speaker 17: took two seconds to look at that photo and he said,
• 38:40
  Speaker 17: I know that area, that's my area.
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: How our color reacted to Christine's photograph was something the
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: detectives will never forget.
• 38:49
  Speaker 15: It almost clicked like that with him, and you could
• 38:52
  Speaker 15: almost tell that he was reliving that day.
• 38:58
  Speaker 17: Eventually, he took the photograph, set it on his lap,
• 39:01
  Speaker 17: and he used his index finger and just started tracing
• 39:04
  Speaker 17: her body, tracing her body for probably five minutes, and
• 39:11
  Speaker 17: eventually he set the paper down flat and he started tapping,
• 39:16
  Speaker 17: tapping on the photograph of Christine, right over Christine's body.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: Just tapping the photograph.
• 39:22
  Speaker 17: And eventually the tapping got louder.
• 39:25
  Speaker 15: I got louder.
• 39:26
  Speaker 17: He eventually looked at me as he kept tapping on
• 39:28
  Speaker 17: the photograph, and at that point I honestly thought he
• 39:31
  Speaker 17: would provide us more information about Christine.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: But it was a game. Despite his age, his infirmity,
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: his close to forty years behind bars, Alcola was still
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: the master manipulator he'd always been.
• 39:46
  Speaker 15: He was very, even, keel, very The only time he
• 39:50
  Speaker 15: would show any type of fervor in his voice would
• 39:53
  Speaker 15: be when we would point blank ask him did you
• 39:57
  Speaker 15: kill her? And he would say no, no, you're crazy,
• 40:00
  Speaker 15: you're stupid. And then when I asked him, was she
• 40:07
  Speaker 15: alive when you left her? And he said, yes, she
• 40:11
  Speaker 15: was alive when I left.
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: That's all the prosecutor really needed to hear.
• 40:16
  Speaker 15: The fact that he admitted he was there just sensed
• 40:19
  Speaker 15: it for me. If he could deny killing her all
• 40:22
  Speaker 15: he wants, but the fact that he admitted is as
• 40:25
  Speaker 15: far as I'm concerned, as a confession. I decided to
• 40:27
  Speaker 15: charge him with first degree murder.
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: There would be no extradition to Wyoming.
• 40:34
  Speaker 15: He's been in prison since nineteen seventy nine. Why should
• 40:37
  Speaker 15: we give him a trip. A good place for mister
• 40:40
  Speaker 15: Alcola is in the bed we left him in.
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: So al Kulla was never tried for Christine's murder, but
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: Kathy Thornton has finally learned what happened to her sister.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: Along with seven other families, she has the answer to
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: the question none of them ever wanted to ask, how.
• 41:03
  Speaker 12: Many others are there that you know did the same
• 41:08
  Speaker 12: thing Chris did.
• 41:10
  Speaker 17: I honestly believe in my mind, in my heart that
• 41:12
  Speaker 17: there's going to be other victims. Seeing how arrogant he is,
• 41:18
  Speaker 17: knowing how charming he apparently was back in the day,
• 41:23
  Speaker 17: and knowing how smart he is, I wouldn't doubt if
• 41:27
  Speaker 17: there's one hundred hundred and fifty, maybe even two hundred.
• 41:29
  Speaker 5: Victims out there.
• 41:31
  Speaker 12: I'm hoping that with this being back in the news
• 41:36
  Speaker 12: that someone might recognize someone in one of those photos
• 41:40
  Speaker 12: like we did it.
• 42:04
  Speaker 13: BA