Latest / The conspiracy / The Disturbing Dating Game Serial Killer _ Rodney Alcala

Transcript

The Disturbing Dating Game Serial Killer _ Rodney Alcala · The conspiracy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The lights of late nineteen seventies Los Angeles promised glamour, possibility,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and fame. But in the shadow of those palm line
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: streets moved a man whose term was as dangerous as
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: it was disarming. A man who could smile for a
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: camera even as he carried the weight of unspeakable secrets.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: And on a summer afternoon, he'd be the stranger offering
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to take your picture, and that evening he might be
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: a contestant on a cheerful TV game show, and somewhere
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: between the flash of the lens and the applause of
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the audience, lives would be changed forever. This is the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: story of Rodney Alcola, the predator who hid in plain sight,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and the trail of shattered lives he left behind. Crime, conspiracy, cults,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: serial killers, and murder, all things that I love to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: consume and I know you do, Doo. You sick, twisted, beautiful,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: intellectually minded re that was good. Today we are covering
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: an insane one that quite literally just sounds like a movie,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and of course was made into one, and we'll talk
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: about that a little later. But it is terrifying to
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: think that a human being like this could be out
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: there while being so charismatic, not unlike Ted Bundy, and
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: so easily steal the lives from innocent human beings. So
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: without further Ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go mock five
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: down the highway, slam on the breaks, and buster through
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: this windshield into this disturbing serial killer together. Rodney James
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Alcala was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala on August twenty third,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, in San Antonio, Texas, and he was
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the third of four children in what appeared to be
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a normal Mexican American family. In nineteen fifty one, when
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Rodney was about eight years old, his father moved the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: family to Mexico, only to abandon them three years later.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Shit dad, So he just abruptly walked out on Rodney,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: his siblings, and their mother, Anna Maria in nineteen fifty four.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: And this betrayal would deeply affect the family. I mean,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of course, and Rodney's mother was left to raise these
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: children alone, but she would soon relocate the family to
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a suburban in Los Angeles for a fresh start. And
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Rodney was eleven years old at this point when he
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: arrived in La effectively growing up without a father's presence.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: But despite the early upheaval, young Rodney Alcala initially showed
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: few outward signs of trouble, which is uncommon for serial
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: killers as we know, and he was actually considered a
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: bright and gifted student. He attended private schools in the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles area and excelled academically, and classmates remembered him
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: as reasonably popular as well, and he served on his
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: high school's yearbook committee and competed in track and cross
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: country teams. Guy was like the guy, the popular guy
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: in school. So by all appearances, he was a typical teenager.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: He was smart, sociable, even well liked, so there was
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: little to foreshadow the darkness that would later overtake him. Yet,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: as we often learn in hindsight, appearances can be deceiving.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Maybe he was just really good at acting, which I'm
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: gonna assume because I don't know. We're always talking about
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: nature and nurture, and I feel like he just might
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: have been one of those people, those psychopathic people who
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: are really able to blend into society and trick everyone.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: And those who study Alcohola's life often point to his
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: father's abandonment as an early turning point, because being suddenly
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: deserted by a parent at a formative age can inflict
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: deep emotional wounds. Of course, but we can't exactly know
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: what impact it had on Rodney's psyche, but it's clear
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: his family life was fractured from a very early age.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: So after moving to Los Angeles, his mother did her
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: best to provide stability, but still the absence of his father,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: who had uprooted the family only to lead them, hung
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: over Rodney's childhood because the young boy who had once
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: lived in a secure two parent household was now adapting
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: to life with a single mother. But as we discussed,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: there was no documented incidents of violence or criminal behavior. However,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the emotional turmoil of his father's rejection and the subsequent
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: relocation might have planted seeds of at least anger or resentment,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: and psychiatrists later noted that Alcala exhibited traits of narcissism
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: and antisocial personality disorder. And as we know with narcissists,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: they think more of themselves than others, and they often
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: go hand in hand with psychopaths, especially in the serial
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: killer realm. So again, it just kind of bodes to
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: my theory of him just being really capable of blending
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: into society. So the boy who seemed to be thriving
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: academically was also a child who had learned that people
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: he depended on could vanish without warning. So by his
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: late teens, Rodney Kala's life took another term, and in
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty, at the age of seventeen, he graduated from
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary High School, and, showing his
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: independent streak, decided to join the US Army in nineteen
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: sixty one, and he enlisted as a paratrooper and was
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: assigned to clerical duties. So here was a new chapter.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: This high achieving student now was serving his country, just
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the ultimate patriot. But it was during his army stint
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: that the first serious red flags about his behavior appeared,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: because military records and later reports describe Alcala in the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: army as manipulative, vindictive, and insubordinate. Now now we're starting
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: to understand who this guy is. He was able to
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: trick people in high school and all that kind of stuff,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: but you know, you get into the army and these
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: people do not round and far more disturbing, he was
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: disciplined multiple times for attacking young women will in the service,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: and there aren't many details of these, but the mere
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: fact that a teenager in the army was asking women
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: is a glaring early indicator of the predatory behavior he
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: had been hiding. It's as if the dark secrets inside
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: him began to surface once he was away from home.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: He finally felt like maybe he could be himself. I
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: guess quote unquote. So in nineteen sixty four, al Calla's
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: military career came to an abrupt end after what was
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: described as a nervous breakdown, and he went absent without leave,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: which is a wall fleeing from Fort Bragg, North Carolina
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and hitching all the way back to his mother's house
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: in California. So when the Army finally detained him, because
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: you're not allowed to just leave, the army military psychiatrist
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: would evaluate the twenty year old soldier and diagnose him
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: with antisocial personality disorder, essentially labeling him as someone with
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: no regard for right and wrong or the rights of others,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: just none give a fuck about anybody else, throwing narcissism
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: in there as well, because he was prone to deceit
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: manipulation and had just had no remorse, which are again
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: classic traits of a psychopath. That's right, and we're in
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the sixties, guys, there's not a lot for people with
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: mental health, so you can bet your bottom dollar he
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: didn't get the help that he definitely should have gotten.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: And later in life, court psychiatrists would add other diagnoses
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: like narcissistic personality disorder and sensual sadism, and we will
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: see that further on. And they would also measure his
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: IQ at around one hundred and thirty five, indicating he
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: was exceptionally intelligent. So just the worst of both worlds. Basically,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: he's narcissistic, psychopathic, has no remorse, doesn't give a shit
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: about others, is a sadist, and is extremely smart to boot.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: So just the makings of a quote unquote perfect serial
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: killer are near perfect. Obviously not in bi perfect. I mean,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: you know, the worst case scenario, but you know what
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, very Ted Bundy esque, very Ed Kemper esque.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: So in other words, al Kella was a high IQ
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: individual with a dangerous lack of empathy, just a potent
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: commodation for wrongdoing. I have to tell you about something
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: that's been a total game changer for me. You know
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: how much time I spend under these harsh studio lights
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: researching and filming. My skin was really starting to show
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: the stress of late nights and screen time, to say
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the least. And that's when I discovered One Skin, and honestly,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I wish I'd found them sooner. And I've personally been
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: using their os one face and os one eye products
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: for a few months now and the difference is incredible.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: My skin feels smoother and looks more radiant. There you
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: guys think so, I think it looks more radiant personal
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: like even Caleb has noticed, and that is saying a lot.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: And what I love most is how simple it is
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: to use. I just cleanse, pat dry, and apply twice daily.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: I like simple skin care, and it is quite literally
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: as simple as you can get. But it has essentially
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: become my routine that I genuinely can't live without. And
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: what sets One Skin apart is their science first approach
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: because they've developed this patented os one peptide and when
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I say os one, that's exactly how you pronounce it.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: And that's the first ingredient proven to target sinescent cells,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: which are basically the root cause of wrinkles and loss
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: of elasticity, and I am trying my best to age
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: gracefully over here, so this helps a lot. And they
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: have five published clinical studies backing this up, which, as
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: someone who values research and evidence, really impressed me. And
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: the results just keep getting better over time too, and
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: customers including myself consistently say their skin is smoother, firmer,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and healthier looking. And with over ten thousand and five
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: star reviews, people are raving about improvements in skin texture
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: and tightness. Plus it's certified safe for sensitive skin, which
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I have, and free from over fifteen hundred harsh ingredients.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: So one Skin is the world's first skin longevity company
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: targeting cellular aging to keep your skin looking and acting
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: younger for longer. And for a limited time, you can
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: try one Skin with fifteen percent off using code CCCM
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: at oneskin dot Co. That's fifteen percent off one skin
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: dot Co with code CCCM and after you purchase, they'll
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: ask where you heard about them, and please support our
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: show and tell them I sent you. So try one
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Skin today and your future self well. Thank you. Thank
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: you so much to one Skin for supporting this channel
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and let's get back to it. So the army discharged
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: him on medical grounds in nineteen sixty four, concluding his
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: short and troubled military service. And it's just haunting to
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: think that while Alcala's former classmates likely saw him as
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: just a brilliant student and his army superiors noted his intellect,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: behind closed doors, he was already revealing himself to be
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: the ultimate predator. So he returned to civilian life in
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four with an honorable discharge, which I don't understand.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Guy was a psychopath that hurt women, but okay, America,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: And there was no criminal record from those incidences in
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: the army either. It just makes me think how many
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: people just got away with doing that in the army.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: That's a whole other thing, I guess, But whatever, let's
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: keep going. So Alcala would try to resume a normal
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: path in life, and he would enroll at UCLA and
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: earned a fine arts degree by nineteen sixty eight. And
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: he was even said incorrectly as it turns out, to
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: have studied under film director Roman Polanski at NYU. So
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: he seemed by all accounts to be moving on, leaving
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: the military stigma behind get those early red flags like
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: you know theseus in the mental health warning loomed in
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: the background, and tragically there were precursors that society failed
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: to adequately heed. So by the late nineteen sixties, Rodney
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Alcala was an educated, charming young man with a dangerously
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: disordered psyche, free to walk the streets of Los Angeles,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: and it wouldn't be long before he acted on his
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: darkest impulses outside the confines of the army, with devastating consequences.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: So the true beginnings of Rodney Alcalo's criminal saga came
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: on September twenty fifth, nineteen sixty eight, in Lafe, Los Angeles,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: and that morning, an eight year old girl named Tali
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Shapiro was walking to school along Sunset Boulevard, not far
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: from the famous Chateau Marmount hotel where her family was staying.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: So al Calla, then twenty five years old, pulled up
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: in his car and offered Tally a ride. Initially, she
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: refused as she didn't know the stranger, but Alcalla was
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: smooth and persistent, and he lied, telling her he knew
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: her parents, which gave the little girl a false sense
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: of safety. Which is so scary, and just the sixties
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: were a different time. There wasn't stranger danger, or there
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: wasn't all the things we know now. It's like, don't
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: trust people that we don't know. But it's just heartbreaking.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: And unfortunately Tally would get into his car and a
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: good Samaritan would happen to witness this interaction. And his
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: name was Donald Haynes, and he was just a salesman
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: that was passing by and he would notice a man
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: with long, curly hair talking intently to a young girl
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and felt that something was wrong. And when he saw
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Alcala actually lure Tally into the car, Haines later said,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: quote all the warning signs were there, unquote, and trusting
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: his gut, Haines followed Alcala's car as it drove to
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: an La residence and he watched the man coax the
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: girl inside, and then Haines rushed to find a payphone
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: to call nine one one, thank God, Like it's all
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: it takes is just just trust in your gut, and
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: his call fake goodness likely saved Tally Shapiro's life. In
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles, police officer Chris Camacho responded to the scene
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: and arrived at Alcala's door within minutes, and sensing something terrible,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Camacho kicked in the door and was greeted by a
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: nightmare because Tally Shapiro was sprawled out on the floor
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: covered in blood, but she was still alive, thank goodness.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: But a steel bar would be found across her neck
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: and she was unconscious, just barely clinging to life. But
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: give it a scene and later findings, police would find
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: out that al Kala had done unspeakable things to the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: little girl as in As and obviously had used that
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: bar found on her neck to her, but was unsuccessful.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Thank goodness, Thank god she survived the whole ordeal. But
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: like the I can't even imagine the PTSD, all the
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: things that she went through after the fact, Like just
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: the type of person it takes to do something like
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: this to a child is I can't. I can never
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: compute it. I can never compute it. And I genuinely
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: think that whatever these people do to these innocent people
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: should be done to them, and then some I think
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: they deserve to suffer. Is that a hot take? I
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: don't think so. I think that's I think that that
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: should be the case. But am I allowed to say
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: that I don't really care. I'm going to say that.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: So Officer Kamancho would go in lift the bar off
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: of Tally and she would gasp for air, which of
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: course was a sign of life and it meant that
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Tally was alive. But before Camacho could apprehend the attacker,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Acala would slip out the back exit and vanish. So
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: he had the choice to pursue Alcala or save Shapiro,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: and he chose to save Shapiro, which, of course I'm
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: grateful for that, and I'm sure her and her family
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: were as well. All Right, I think this is a
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: good time to pause, take a moment, take a breather,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and I will tell you about another wonderful sponsor of today,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: somebody that supports the Channel and something I have been
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: genuinely obsessed with even before they asked to work with me,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: and that is Lola Blankets. I am obsessed with soft blankets.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: So I am absolutely a blanket person, especially when I'm
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: diving deep and researching into these cases, because it goes
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: without saying that these are extremely uncomfortable topics. So to
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: take a breather at the end of the day, and
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: when I start my wind down ritual after researching all day.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I love curling up under this particular blanket, usually while
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: watching movies or playing video games. But when I got
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: my first love of blanket, I literally could not I
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: could not believe how soft it was. I had never
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: felt something more soft in my life. And I have
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: a main coon cat okay, and I chose the caramel
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: and cream at large blanket and the Rhubarb Ombree large blanket,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: and I do not use any other blanket, but Caleb
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: stole one of mine, so I feel like I need
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to get another one. But it instantly elevated my entire
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: setup and just overall comfortableness. But I personally owned so
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: many blankets over the years, but this has completely ruined
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: me for all others. And I'm not even kidding. I'm
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: thinking about replacing every blanket in my house with these
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: blankets and pillows. They have really soft pillows too, and
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: they're fantastic. And the first time I touched it, I
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: was like, there's no way that they stay this soft
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: after washing. They literally do. I feel like it got
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: softer somehow. And what makes Lola special is that it's
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the world's number one blanket crafted with ultra soft, luxury
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: vegan faux fur and this signature four way stretch that
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: just feels incredible. And I personally discover them through Instagram
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: and now I just see them everywhere and it's well deserved.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: And plus they have over ten thousand five star reviews
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: for a reason. So this isn't just a blanket. It
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: makes your entire space feel cozy and curated. Whether I'm
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: researching a case late into the night or just trying
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: to decompress after covering some really heavy content, Wrapping up
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: in this blanket is an instant comfort and it's also
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: become my go to gift to give people because who
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: doesn't love a soft blanket. So for a limited time,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: our listeners are getting a huge thirty five percent off
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: their entire order at Lola Blankets dot com by using
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: my code CCCM at checkout. So just head to Lola
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Blankets dot com and use code CCCM for thirty five
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: percent off. And if you use that code, they'll know
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: I sent you and you'll be cuddling up cozy in
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: a lovely Lola blanket. Wrap yourself in luxury with Lola Blankets,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: and thank you to Lola Blankets for supporting this channel,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and let's get back to the video. So Tali Shapiro
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: would be rushed to the hospital at that point, and
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: she had severe head injuries and was in a coma
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: for thirty two days after the attack. Because it was
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: absolutely brutal, and I do not want to go into
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: all the details because I don't think it's prevalent. It's
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: just a monster that did something horrible to an innocent child.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: And thankfully she survived and she would eventually recover after
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: months of care, but the trauma she had endured is
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: absolutely unimaginable. And the Shapiro attack was the first known
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: crime of Rodney Alcala, or first reported crime, I guess
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: because he never was held accountable for the stuff he
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: did in the army. It was just a shocking explosion
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: of violence that revealed the depth of his depravity. And
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: what's even more chilling is that decades later, another survivor
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: came forward indicating Tally might have not been al Calla's
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: first victim after all. And this was a woman named
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Morgan Rowan who revealed that that as a sixteen year
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: old in the summer of nineteen sixty eight, it just
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: weeks before her Tally's assault, she too had been attacked
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: by al Calla and barely survived, and Rowan recounted meeting
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Alkella at a Los Angeles party and accepting a ride,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: only for him to suddenly detour to his house and
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: offer the group marijuana, and once alone with Rowan, al
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Calla turned violent and he would proceed to beat her
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: up and do other unspeakable things to her, and she
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: would say, quote, I remember thinking I'm going to die unquote,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: and that's what she would recount of those terrifying moments
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: because al Kalla was preparing to kill her, when miraculously,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Rowan's friends became concerned and broke into the locked room
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: and rescued her, which again, thank goodness the guardian angel
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: around these girls and Morgan. Rowan would never report these
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: to the police at the time, but she was traumatized
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and left California immediately after the assault, but she would
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: carry Survivor's guilds for decades, and a friend would send
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: her newspaper clippings about Shapiro's attack and attempted murder, and
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Rowan blamed herself for not reporting her own incident, but
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: these early attacks underscore Calla's pattern of predatory behavior. He
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: targeted the vulnerable and used deception or social situations to
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: trap them. And it's so unfortunate that she felt that way,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: that it was her fault, but she could have never
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: known that he would go and do that to another child.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: But I can't imagine how that feels just seeing that.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Atali Shapiro's case generated an arrest warrant for Alkella in
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight, but by the time the authorities identified
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: him as the assailant, he had already fled California. So
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Rodney Alkalla was now a fugitive and he was just
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: getting started. So after fleeing La, al Calla reinvented himself
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: in New York City under an alias using the name
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: John Berger, and al Calla enrolled in film classes at
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: New York University, and in the meantime, al Calla's violent
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: evolution just took it to the next step, and now
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: he would begin to kill her. First known murder victim
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: was Cornelia or Corey Kreiley, a twenty three year old
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: TWA flight attendant living in Manhattan. So on June twelfth,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one, Corey was found essayed and strepped with
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: her own nylon stockings in her Upper east Side apartment,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: and she was found deceased, But she had recently moved
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: into that apartment, excited to be building an independent life
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: in the city. An investigators believed she met a seemingly
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: helpful man who offered to assist her with moving furniture,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: but tragically, this good Samaritan act was a russ again
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: very similar to Ted Bundy, because once inside her apartment,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: al Kala attacked her and the young flight attendant. Streams
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: of travel and independence were cut brutally short, and her
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: body was left on the floor and the killer vanished
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: without a trace. So with no immediate suspect, the case
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: went cold and haunted New York detectives for decades, and
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: it wasn't until twenty eleven, forty years later, that da
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and the evidence finally linked Rodney Alkella to Cornelia's murder,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: bringing belated justice for her family. So Akala was still
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: at large in nineteen seventy one, but not for much
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: longer because a stroke of luck led to his initial
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: capture that year, and in June of nineteen seventy one,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: to two children attending a New Hampshire Arts Camp just
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: happened to recognize their camp counselor, John Berger from an
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: FBI Most Wanted poster at the Post Office. Amazing skills
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: from these kids to actually recognize that. Well, all these
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: adults don't see shit because the counselor was none other
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: than Rodney Alkella in disguise, which is horrifying to think
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: that he was a camp counselor for kids. I know
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: it's a different time, but how are you not looking
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: into people that are looking after your kids. It's just
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: insane to me. But camp staff alerted authorities, and in
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: August of nineteen seventy one, Alcala was arrested in New
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Hampshire and extradited back to California to face charges for
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the Tally shapirost However, the wheels of justice turned frustratingly slow.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: By nineteen seventy one, Tally's family had moved to Mexico
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: and refused to have their little girl testify after the
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: trauma that she had endured, which is completely understandable. But
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: without Tally's testimony, prosecutors felt they could not pursue charges
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: for as and attempted murder, so instead al Calla struck
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: a deal and he would plead guilty to child man,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: which is a lesser offense, and for the brutal attack
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: on Tally Shapiro. Rodney Alkella received a sentence of just
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: one to three years, of which she served thirty four months.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: I don't even who are the people who put him
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: in jail? Needs to go to jail. That doesn't even
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: make sense in my head. That's terrible. So ol Calla
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: was out on parole by nineteen seventy four. Guy basically
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: just went to the corner for a few minutes. Basically,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: so a convicted defender who had essentially gotten away with
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: attempted child murder was just walking free on the streets,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: and within weeks of release he proved he was still
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: a menace. Shocking, shocking. Sorry, I just I get worked
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: up about anything to do with kids, dude. I just
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: just all of this, all of this our justice system
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: here in Canada as well. It's just like, in terms
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: of these crimes specifically, it doesn't make sense to me.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: It's always like the least amount of time and I
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: don't understand it. I think this is a good spot
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: to take a pause, a breather. We're getting into very,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: very heavy stuff, and during this pause, I would like
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: to share something personal with you. For years, I have
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: suffered with severe jaw pain and it's because of my
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: teat and over the past few years, I started noticing
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: I was waking up more and more often with jaw tension,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: and my dentist actually pointed out some wear on my molars.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: And it turns out all that stress and anxiety had
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: me clenching my job without even realizing it. So the
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: stressors of life were literally affecting my sleep and my
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: teeth and I didn't even know it. And that is
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: when I literally discovered Remy. And if you're part of
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: the thirty percent of Americans who grind their teeth like me,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: then your smile needs protection because we only get one
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: set of teeth, and there's no better solution than Remy's
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: custom fit nightguard. Both dentists and teeth grinders recommend Remy
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: because a custom fit nightguard is the best way to
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: protect your teeth and Remy is eighty percent less than
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: the dentist and way easier. And here's how it works.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: They send you an impression kit straight to your door
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: with a step by step instructions to get your perfect impression,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: and then Remy ships you your custom fit nightguard made
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: right here in the US in Las Vegas. And I
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: honestly was very skeptical about doing dental impressions at home,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: but the instructions were really clear and the process was
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: actually kind of satisfying, and when my night guard arrived,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the fit was absolutely perfect and way more comfortable than
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: I ever expected. And the best part is that Remy
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: is so confident you'll get a perfect fit that they
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: offer a forty five night perfect fit guarantee or your
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: money back. So no waiting rooms, no overpriced bills, just
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: a better way to protect your teeth while you sleep.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: So try Remy risk Free at shop Remy dot com,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: forward slash CCCM and use code CCCM to get up
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: to fifty percent off your night guard at checkout. That's
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: fifty percent off at shop r e Mi dot com
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: slash CCCM with code CCCM. Thank you again to Remy
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: for sponsoring this episode and supporting the channel, and let's
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: get back to it. So, as I was saying, he
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: just continued to be a menace to society, and in
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, he lured a thirteen year old girl
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: identified in records as Julie Jay into his car, allegedly
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: to give her a ride to school, and this was
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: a disturbingly similar setup to Tally Shapiro's case, but luckily
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: the girl managed to escape before it escalated to murder,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: but Alcala was arrested for her at least, so again,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the system dealt with him light handedly, and he would
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: serve just two more years and was paroled in nineteen
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: seventy seven. He repeated crimes like immediately after weeks after
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: getting out of jail, and he did the same thing,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: tried to try to do horrible things to a child
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: and kill them. And they're like, ah, I guess we'll
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: put them in the corner for a couple more minutes.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: He's just not getting it. No, you're not getting it again.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: I know this is a different time. I just get
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: worked up. I'm gonna calm down a little bit. Okay,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: let's get back to it. So, like I said, he
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: was in jail for two more years and then was
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: paroled in nineteen seventy seven, but each time he would
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: walk out of prison with predatory urges completely unchecked, and
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: now It was nineteen seventy seven, and Rodney Alcalla was
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: thirty four years old and a free man to say
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the least, but he was labeled at least as a
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: twice convicted defender and a twice paroled dangerous felon. Yet astonishingly,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: he was allowed to roam once more, and this time
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: his crimes would escalate to serial murder. So upon his
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: second release, a parole officer in Los Angeles made the
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: fateful decision to permot al Kella to travel to New
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: York City for a visit, you know, the place where
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: he got extradited from what the fuck. So it was
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: an unusual and in hindsight, a catastrophic approval considering he
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: was a known flight risk, and within about a week
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: of arriving in Manhattan in the summer of nineteen seventy seven,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Alkella would strike again. And on July fifteenth, nineteen seventy seven,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Ellen Jane Hover, who was just twenty three years old,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: disappeared from her Manhattan apartment. And Ellen was an accomplished
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: young woman and the daughter of a well known nightclub owner,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: and her father's name was Hermann Hover of the Ciros
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: in Hollywood. Club and the goddaughter of entertainers Dean Martin
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: and Sammy Davis Junior. But she was a gifted pianist
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: with big musical aspirations, so by all accounts, Ellen had
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: a very bright future ahead, and her last diary entry
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: on Toly fifteenth noted a lunch meeting with someone named
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: John Berger and again that was al Calla's alias, and
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: he was still using the same alias, which is just
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: such a slap in the face to all victims and
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: the police everyone. He was just like, I can get
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: away with it. So the head on this guy was
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: massive as an ego. So he had arranged to meet
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: her under the pretense of a photography session or perhaps
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: a date. But after that day, Ellen Hover was never
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: seen alive again, and her disappearance prompted a massive search,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: and Alcalla was questioned by NYPD detectives since they knew
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: John Berger was his alias, and admitted to meeting with Ellen,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: but without a body or evidence, they couldn't hold him
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: at the time. But nearly a year later, in nineteen
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: seventy eight, Ellen's remains were discovered in an area on
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the grounds of Rockefeller's estate just outside of New York City,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: and she had been murdered and buried under rocks on
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: a hillside overlooking the Hudson River, and the spot was
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: eerily close to where another aspiring model recalled al Kella
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: as Berger taking her photographs around that same time. So
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Allen's Hoover's promising life, her plans and music and kindness
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: to friends, ended in a shallow grave, just yet another
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: vibrant young woman stolen by Alkella's hands. And in the
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: span of six years from nineteen seventy one to nineteen
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: seventy seven, Alkella had gone from attempted child killer to
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: cross country murderer, and he had claimed at least two
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: lives at this point, Cornelia, which he had not been
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: caught for yet, and Allen Hover and possibly others not
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: yet discovered. An investigator suspect he may have killed additional
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: victims during his time on the East Coast, but at
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: the time, however, neither murder was conclusively tied to Alkella.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Cryley's case was unsolved, and Hover's case remained open with
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: him as a prime suspect but no arrest because I
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: had no evidence. So Alkella is obviously feeling completely untouchable
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: at this point, and he would just return back to
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles in late nineteen seventy seven, and after returning,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: he would immediately continue his killing spray, this time leaving
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: a trail of bodies across southern California. So by fall
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy seven, Alcala had secured a job as
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: a type setter at the Los Angeles Times, ironically working
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: in the heart of the city's new industry, and he
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: was even interviewed and cleared by police as part of
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: the Hillside Strangler serial killer investigation that year, since he
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: was a known defender in the area and no one
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: realized that the string of unsolved murders about to occur
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: in Los Angeles were not the work of the strangler
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: at all, but the quiet type setter in their midst
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: and the spray began almost immediately. He had zero zero
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: cool down period because he again just felt untouchable. So
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: on November ninth, nineteen seventy seven, the body of Jill
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Barcomb was discovered in the Hollywood Hills. And Jill was
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: just eighteen years old, and she had come from Los
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Angeles from Onita, New York, seeking adventure and hoping to
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: break into Hollywood as an actress, and she had only
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: been in California for a short time when she crossed
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: pass with the piece of shit Alcala, and unfortunately, her
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: body was found posed on a dirt path near Mulholland Drive,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: curled into a knee to chest position as if discarded
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: like trash. She just didn't care about any anyone else
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: but himself. He thought everyone else, especially women, were just
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: trash compared to him, and Jill had unfortunately been sy
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: and beat as well, and similar to his emo with
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: all of the other girls, she was also strep and
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: the ligature marks were from blue rope ties and he
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: had been her so badly that her face was near
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: completely unrecognizable, just absolutely horrifying, and investigators initially thought Jill
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: might have been a victim of the then active Hillside
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Strangler duo due to location and brutality, but that case
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: would later be solved separately, and Jill's murder remained unclaimed
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: by the stranglers and unbeknownst to authorities, she was the
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: first California victim of Rodney Alkella quote. She had aspirations
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: to become a Hollywood actress, prosecutor Matt Murphy later said
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: of Jill, highlighting the poignant fact that this woman came
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: to la with big dreams only to meet a nightmare.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: And Jill Barcomb's life, along with her youth and hopes
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: of stardom, ended in violence on that lonely hillside, and
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: less than five weeks later, al Kella struck again, and
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: on the night of December sixteenth, nineteen seventy seven, twenty
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: seven year old Georgia Wixted, a registered nurse, gave a
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: friend a ride home from bar and then return to
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: her own apartment in Malibu. And when Georgia didn't show
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: up for work at the hospital the next day, concerned
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: coworkers called police, and officers arrived at her small house
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: and found signs of forced entry because they would find
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: a broken window latch and items in disarray all over
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: her home, and as they got further inside, they would
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: make a horrific discovery and they would find Georgia deceased
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: on her bedroom floor, and she would not have clothes on,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: and she would also be beat and stripped, and like
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: the others, she had also been essay and the tool
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: used to kill her were her own nylon stockings, similar
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: to Cornelia's case years before, and similar to the last
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: murder as well. It was unspeakably brutal. He had made
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: her near unrecognizable as well with what he did to her,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: and then he would do other things to her private
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: area that were also unspeakable. And I don't really want
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: to get into it. You can look into it yourself.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Absolute just sadist, sick, psychopathic human being this man was.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: Because the violence done to Georgia was extreme even by
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: standards of s homicide, which is saying a lot. It
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: was as if the perpetrator, al Kella, took perverse pleasure
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: in just complete overkill, which he obviously did, and investigators
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: painstakingly collected evidence, and decades later these clues, including a
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: handprint and other DNA collected from the scene, would conclusively
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: tie Alkella to Georgia. So by now al Kella had
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: killed at least four women Cryley, hover barcom and Wixted
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: and left one child for debt and was still roaming
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: free and then would roll in the year nineteen seventy
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: eight and he would just continue the carnage because on
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: June twenty fourth, nineteen seventy eight, the body of Charlotte
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Lee Lamb was found in El Segundo, California, and Charlotte
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: was thirty two years old and working as a legal secretary.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: But she, like Jill Barcom, had artistic dreams, and she
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: had moved to California with aspirations of making it into
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: the entertainment industry, and she was described as strikingly beautiful,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: someone who lit up the room when she walked in.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: But on the night of June twenty third, Charlotte had
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: gone out dancing at a Santa Monica nightclub and it's
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: believed that's where she encountered Rodney Alcala. But the next day,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: her unclothed body was discovered in the laundry room of
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: the apartment complex where she was temporarily staying. And Charlotte,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: like the others, had been espd and striped with a shoelace,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: and the killer had also tied her hands behind her back.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: And at the scene, detectives were covered foreign DNA and
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: noticed bitemarks on Charlotte's upper half. If you know what
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, just y, it sends chills down my spine.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: And this was a signature that matched the bite marks
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: found on Jill Barcombe as well, suggesting a serial offender
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: was at work, and decades later our Jna on a
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: pair of earrings and Alkella storagelocker would match Charlotte Lamb's
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: genetic profile, confirming he was her murderer. But in nineteen
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: seventy eight, Charlotte's case also went cold, and she was
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: remembered by friends and family as kind, ambitious, and just
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: overall extremely likable young woman with big dreams of becoming
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: a star. And even as Alkella was murdering women in
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven and nineteen seventy eight, he kept up
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: a facade of normalcy, which is just horrifying to think about,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: because at Los Angeles Times, colleagues just saw an odd
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: but affable photographer who even showed off some of his
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: portraits at work, and many of those portraits were of
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: young women and teenage boys, and some unclothed or in
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: suggestive poses. Just no red flags times, okay, but I
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: guess at the time it just seemed eccentric, though in
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: hindsight it was just another massive red flag warning sign.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: So Alkala would troll the streets and beaches, approaching hundreds
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: of people with the line that he was a professional
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: photographer building his portfolio, and this predatory hobby would later
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: provide crucial evidence and also hint at many more possible victims.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: And by the fall of nineteen seventy eight, Rodney Alcalla
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: had already killed five women that we know of, and
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: he was far from finished yet. Incredibly, and for the
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: story most notably and most known for, in the midst
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: of this spree, Alkala would step onto the stage of
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: a nationally televised game show. The ego on this guy
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: was absolutely insane. The fact that his face had been
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: plastered he had been a wanted fugitive in America and
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: he was caught and he went to jail for almost
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: four years and they just let him on this game
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: show is beyond me. Let's get into it. So the
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: very month after murdering Charlotte Lamb, al Kella donned a
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: leisurely suit and flashed a charming smile on the dating
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: game and none of the viewers had any idea that
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: bachelor number one was a serial killer who had literally
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: just strangled a woman a few weeks before. Please welcome
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Rodney Alcala. Just the audacity of this guy is absolutely
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: mind boggling. It just shows to how compartmentalized and arrogant
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: al Kella was because he could literally kill someone one
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: day and just laugh on TV the next, just confident
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't get caught. So you have to ask this question,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: how does a serial killer, or at this point, a
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: serial offender, serial convict, a person that was on FBI's
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: radar end up as a contestant on a primetime TV show. Well,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: the answer lies partly in the era because in the
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventies there was no quick background checks or computerized
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: criminal databases that show producers could easily access. Fine, sure, whatever,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: I'll give you that. So when Rodney Alkala auditioned for
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: The Dating Game, he was able to hide his criminal
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: record simply by using his real name, and at the time,
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: his prior convictions were known only to law enforcement in California,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: and the show's staff had no idea they were interviewing
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: a registered sensual offender who'd twice been to prison. So again,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: we know he's smart. He obviously found a way around this.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: It's not on the show, but it's just crazy to
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: think how this happens. So they would basically see what
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: was just in front of them, a relatively I guess
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: good looking thirty five year old with a charismatic presence
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: and a bit of a mysterious vibe, and according to
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Ellen Metzger, the show's coordinator at the time, al Kala
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: impressed her in the casting process, saying, quote, he was
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: attractive and all the women were going to love him.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: It's so eerie thinking and watching it over. I strongly
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: encourage you. I think it's like a ten minute video
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: on YouTube, and we'll put some clips in here. How
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: so incredibly disturbing it is to watch it knowing what
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: he's done already, and even his answers number one, would
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: you say hello to Cheryl? Please? We're going to have
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: a great time together, Cherylay. Not knowing anything about him
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: seem so red flaggy and weird. But you know, I
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: know too much information. I'm not going to judge anyone
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: who was on the show or who put him on.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: You know he is a psychopathic genius. But it's incredibly
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: iero and Ellen Metzger's future husband Mike Metzger, who was
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: the Dating Games executive producer, was less sure, and he
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: later said al Kala gave him an uncomfortable feeling quote
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: a mistique that I found uncomfortable. Yeahner shit again, just
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: follow your gun. But ultimately they decided to put him
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: on because at this point producers were chasing ratings and
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: wanted a lively testines and al Kaala, with his confident
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: answers and easy laugh just fit the bill. So nobody
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: imagined their contestant pool needed vetting against criminal records. As
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: one producer noted, many people audition just for a chance
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: to be on TV, not necessarily for true love. It's
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: just like any dating show today basically, and Rodney was
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: one of those people, except his motivations were far more
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: sinister than fame. It's worth noting the narcissism at play here, obviously,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: because al Calla certainly didn't audition for a dating game
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: show because he needed help meeting women. He had no
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: trouble luring victims on his own. Rather, appearing on television
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: just fed his giant ego, basically, and prosecutor Matt Murphy,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: who later put Alcala on trial, commented that this episode
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: quote reflects the narcissism and the ego and the arrogance
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: of a serial killer unquote, which puts it exactly exactly
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: how I'd say it, like, it's actually incredible. And I
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: keep saying he's smart, He's so stupid. He's a dumb,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: little stupid piece of shit. Man. I just want to
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: make that clear. I keep saying he's smart, and I'm
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: just talking about IQ. But how incredibly dumb for him
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: to go on national TV. He looks like such a
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: fool now, which brings me, brings me some sort of
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: semblance of I guess peace. I don't know, I don't know.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: I just it's just crazy to me anyway, Because as
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: we know, Kella likely just got a thrill from out
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: smarting everyone and being admired on screen, all while carrying
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: the dark secrets of his crimes. Probably just got off
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: on it. So it was obviously a risky move exposing
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: himself to millions, but he was confident in his ability
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: to term and remain above suspicion. So the episode featuring
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: Rodney al Kella was taped and aired on September thirteenth,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, and on stage three, Batler sat side
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: by side, hidden from the bachelorette by a partition, and
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: al Calla was bachelor number one and a bachelorette, a
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: young woman named Cheryl Bradshaw began asking her suitors a
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: series of cheeky, double on tendra laden questions and typically
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: fair for the show, which by the late seventies had
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: grown more suggestive to keep up with the times, and
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: it is like incredibly suggestive, it's like uncomfortable to watch.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: For example, when asked, for an example, to describe what
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: kind of meal he would be called if she were
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: serving him, I am serving you for dinner? What are
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: you called? And what do you look like? This is
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: just such a weird question. Al Calla didn't miss a
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: beat and said, I'm called the Banana and I look
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: really good. And the audience obviously chuckled at the obvious sinuendo,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: just playing along, and Bradshaw probed, can you be a
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: little more in descript and al Calla leaned into the joke, saying,
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: so gross, but the crowd just loved him and I'm
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: sure he just he just ate that shit up. And
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Bradshaw would also ask to your best time, and al
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Kella smoothly turned it into another sensual innuendo. The best
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: time is at night at nighttime. Why do you say that?
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Because that's the only time there is, which is horrifying
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: that since we know all the the information about him,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: So this flirtatious banter was exactly what the producers wanted,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: a bit raunchy, funny and provocative for the TV audience
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: of that era. And Jed Mills, the actor who sat
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: as Bachelor number two next to al Calla, later recalled
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: that while on camera al Kella seemed normal enough, behind
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: the scenes he found him quote unquote really creepy, and
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: Mills remembered that in the green room before going on stage,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: Alkella had quietly, yet boastfully told him quote I always
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: get my girl unquote chills dude, absolutely just chills up
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: my spine. At the time at Mills just thought he
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: was bragging about his dating game. Only later did those
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: words take a far more sinister meaning when he learned
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: what this guy was. But the show rolled on and
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: by the end of the segment, Chryl Bradshaw had chose
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: the winner, and she picked Bachelor number one, Rodney Alcala,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: and the prize was a date with tennis lessons and
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: a trip to Magic Mountain Amusement Park, and all paid
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: for by the show and on stage. When the partition
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: was finally removed, Bradshaw met Alcala face to face for
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: the first time, and he gave her a polite kiss
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: as the audience plotted and the host Jim beamed and
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: signed off. So at everyone watching at home, it was
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: a cute ending to a kitchy game show, and the
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: bachelorette had gotten herself a tall, dark and handsome date
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: who described himself as a photographer and skydiver. What could
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: be more thrilling, right, But of course the viewers didn't
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: and couldn't know that the man on their screen had
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: literally just killed someone Charlotte just a short while earlier
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: and left her in a laundry room, or that he'd
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: kill again very soon, and all Cala's performance was an
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Oscar worthy act of normalcy and charm, a mask he
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: wore expertly. Although I watched that and I'm just like
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: creeped out fully, but all in all, it's just deeply
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: unsettling in retrospect. So after the camera stopped rolling, the
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: winning couple met briefly in person, and that's when Bradshaw's
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: gut instinct kicked in. Thank God, always follow your gut,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: because almost immediately she felt creeped out by him. Quote
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: I started to feel ill unquote. Bradshaw remembered of the encounter,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: sensing that there was something very off about her date.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't anything he explicitly said or did at
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: the moment. It was just a vibe, a wave of discomfort.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Ellen Metzger, the show's coordinator, recalled that when Alcala and
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Bradshaw were introduced on stage, the energy was surprisingly flat
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: and the spark you might expect after a winning pick
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: just wasn't there, and Bradshaw's excitement visibly turned into what
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Metzger called a quote pretty lukewarm togetherness and once she
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: laid eyes on him, but still they went along with
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: the post show congratulations, and by the next day, Cheryl
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: Bradshaw made up her mind and she phoned Ellen Metzger
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: at the show's office and backed out of the date altogether,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: thank god, And in a candid conversation she confessed, quote Ellen,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: I can't go out with this guy. There's weird vibes
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: that are coming off of him. He's very strange. I
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: am not comfortable. Unquote. Yes, love it, love it when
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: someone follows their gut. Oh my gosh and Bradshaw asked
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: if canceling would be a problem, and Metzger assured her
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: it was fine, and contestants were not obligated to actually
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: go on the dates if they didn't want to. Also,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: thank god, thank god, there wasn't like some sort of
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: contract or something that she had to follow. In fact,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: it was not uncommon on the dating game for the
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: pairs to never follow through because at the end of
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: the day, they're not seeing that date, so it doesn't
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: matter to the program. So her decision raised no flags
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: with the producers, and for Cheryl Bradshaw it was obviously
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: a relief because her intuition screaming that she'd be unsafe
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: with him arguably saved her life. And we can only
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: imagine what might have happened on that fantasy date if
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: a serial killer had gotten his prize alone with his
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: chosen target. And the best part of this is the
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: ego bruising that al Kala god by being rejected by Bradshaw.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: Obviously he would outwardly take it instride. He'd be like, oh,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: that's fine, whatever, But I'm sure this just absolutely crushed
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: him and that's awesome. But all in all, this makes
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: Bradshaw one of the incredibly lucky ones in this case.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: She literally picked a serial killer out of a lineup
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: of bachelor's on live TV, yet lived to tell the
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: tale by trusting her gut feeling of danger. But it
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: also just outlines the ego of this serial killer. I
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: mean he toyed not only with his victims, but with
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: society at large, confident enough to put himself on TV
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: as if daring the world to catch him. Quote. I
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: can't imagine anybody that would commit a crime and then
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: purposely go on television. And this was a producer later
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: saying in disbelief after finding out who el Hella actually was.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: And in hindsight, some claim, including myself, that they can
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: see the evil behind the smile in those moments on
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: the TV show, though in truth he was just acting
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: the part expertly. But the show forever earned the moniker
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: the Dating Game killer, underscoring the irony that a cold
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: blooded murderer could hide in such a harmless setting, and
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: for the investigators she would later prosecute him. The dating
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: game footage became one or piece of the puzzle. But
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: this whole dating game show just kind of shows the
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: systemic failures of the time. I mean that there was
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: no way for the TV show people to know that
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: he was a convicted criminal at the time, and that
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: is no fault of theirs, but the fault of the system.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: And it's just kind of horrifying to consider that Alkella
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: could have been stopped earlier if information had flowed faster,
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: or if parole had been stricter, because the fact that
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: he sat on a TV stage in nineteen seventy eight
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: with a smile is a direct consequence of those lapses,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: and it would just take another victim to finally bring
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: him down. And lastly, that creepy game show moment had
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: an impact on popular culture's understanding of predators because it
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: forced people to realize that a murderer doesn't always look
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: like a scary outsider. In decades later, when Netflix announced
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: a film about al Kella's titled Woman of the Hour,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: directed by Anna Kendrick and released in twenty twenty four,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: the focus was squarely on this juxtaposition the serial killer
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: back on the dating game. And it's a story so
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: unnerving and sensational that Hollywood couldn't resist. Yet it's all
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: basically true and the significant ultimately is that al Calla's
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: TV appearance crystallizes the core theme of his story, and
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: that is that the way a predator can blend into
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: every day and even become entertainment, all while victims remained
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: hidden and silenced in the shadows. And one of my
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: only equips about that show is why did Anna Kendrick's
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: hair look like that? It didn't even look like she
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: was from the seventies. I will I will forever be
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: confused about that. But other than that, they did a
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: pretty good job, especially given that it's Hollywood and they
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: just love to romanticize and fantasize and make up stuff,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: which of course they did. It was a pretty pretty
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: okay watch. But Rodney Alcalla would walk off the dating
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: game stage still a free man, but his time was
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: luckily running out. So after the spectacle of his Dating
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: show appearance, Rodney Alkalla wasted no time resuming his predator ways,
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: and in February of nineteen seventy nine, al Calla hunted
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: another victim, but this time she would escape. Monique Hoyt,
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: only fifteen years old, was hitchhiking in Riverside County when
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Alkella picked her up on Valentine's Day, and Monique was
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: a vulnerable teen who didn't know any better, and it
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: was a different time when hitchhiking was an okay thing,
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: and perhaps she was just looking for a ride or
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: an adventure, but instead she found herself in a living nightmare.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: So al Calla would pick up Monique and drive her
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: to his place, where he would immediately ask her in
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: his apartment, and then he would bizarrely do something he's
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: ever done before and take her on a road trip
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: to the mountains near Joshua Tree and Joshua Tree is
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: a national park, likely as just a twisted prelude to murder.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: But when they were in the desert, he took photographs
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: of Monique wearing only her underwear and then proceeded to
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: again as her and I can't even fathom or imagine
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: how incredibly terrified she would have been in this moment,
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: like I during this whole ordeal. By acting this out
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: and also taking photographs, he was documenting some of the
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: on camera. And as if all of this wasn't enough,
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: al Calla wasn't finished, and he would tie Monique up,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: make it so she couldn't make any sound with her mouth,
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: and then began to prolong the es and on top
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: of that, he would take a rock and try to
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: kill her with it. But Monique Hoyt proved incredibly resilient
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: and also lucky, and at some point during the return drive,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: Alkella stopped at a gas station restroom and despite her injuries,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Monique seized the chance to escape and she managed to
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: slip away, perhaps while he was momentarily distracted and fled
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: to safety. Think God. And Monique went to the police
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: and filed a report detailing a calla's brutal attack. And
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: this was a major break because a living victim who
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: could identify her assailant was in the police station, and
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: al Kalla thankfully was arrested shortly thereafter for s of
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: Monique cult and I don't know why there wasn't attempted
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: murder in there as well, but okay. However, once again
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: the system staggeringly failed to neutralize the threat, and Alcala's
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: mother paid his bail horrible mother, by the way, and
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: he was released pending trial. So despite facing charges for
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: as a minor, Alcala was allowed back on the streets,
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: and this decision had dire consequences as he would claim
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: two more lives before authorities truly closed in on him,
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: which is incomprehensible. So a few months later, on June thirteenth,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, Alcala committed what would be his final
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: adult murder. Victim and Jill Parento, who was twenty one
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: years old, was a college student and computer key punch
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: operator living in Burbank, California, and she was a friendly,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: outgoing young woman with the tight knits circle of friends.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: And on that June evening, a Jill left work excited
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: to go to a baseball game, but when she didn't
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: show up for work the next morning and missed an
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: important shift, her worried colleagues and friends contacted police, and
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: officers arrived at Jill's small apartment and discovered signs of
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: a break in, and they would see a window screen
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: had been cut and a window was a jar, and
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: inside they would find Jill dead on her bathroom floor,
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: unclothed and posed with pillows propped beneath her shoulders, and
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: she too had died extremely similar to the other victims.
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: But one crucial piece of evidence that Jill's crime scene
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: was the perpetrator's blood and it appeared that al Kella
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: cut himself while crawling through Jill's window, leaving spots of
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: blood behind, and in nineteen seventy nine, DNA profiling didn't exist,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: but investigators preserved that blood sample, thank goodness, and it
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: would later directly implicate al Kella when DNA technology advanced
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: and another clue emerged from Jill's social life. It was
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: one of her friends, Catherine Bryant, informed Place that she
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: and Jill had met al Kella at the Los Angeles
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: nightclub a few times in the weeks before Jill's death.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: So this connection, made after al Kella was already a
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: suspect for other reasons, helped build the case that Jill
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: knew her killer casually at the point of her death,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: so he wasn't a random intruder, but someone who had
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: gained her trust and trust enough to approach or follow
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: her home. But just heartbreaking altogether. And finally we come
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: to the crime that truly brought Rodney Alkella down, and
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: that was the murder of Robin Christine samso So on
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: June twentieth, nineteen seventy nine, just one week after Jill
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: Parento's body was found twelve year old Robin Samso disappeared
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: in Huntington Beach, California. And Robin was a blonde, blue
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: eyed girl who loved ballet and the beach and she
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: was adored by her family and the babysitter in her household.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: And that summer day, Robin had gone to the beach
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: with a friend, enjoying the start of a vacation, and
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: she was later seen hurriedly biking toward her ballet class,
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: afraid she might be late, but she would never arrive,
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: and Robin's disappearance was treated with utmost urgency, and her
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: friends told police the story that earlier that day at
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: the beach, a strange man with a camera had approached
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: Robin and her friend asking if he could take their pictures,
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: and he was persistent until a neighbor intervened and asked
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: the man what he was doing and caused him to retreat. So,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: after Robin went missing, an artist worked with eyewitnesses to
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: create a composite sketch of the photographer, and that composite
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: drawing was circulated widely around southern California, and a parole
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: officer in Los Angeles saw the sketch and instantly felt
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: a jolt of recognition because it looked just like his
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: parole Rodney Elkella, so he contacted the police and informed
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: them that the suspect they were searching for might be
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: al Calla, who disturbingly was supposed to be a waiting
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: trial for the Monique Hoyt but was out on bail.
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: Just a complete failure of the system, but this was
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: a crucial tip investigators needed, and al Kella's name was
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: now at the top of the suspect list for the
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: missing Huntington Beach girl. But tragically, on July second in
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, Robin SAMSO's remains were found and park
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: rangers discovered her body dumped off a remote mountain road
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: in the foothills of San Gabriel Mountains, and it had
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: been twelve days since she had vanished, so animals and
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: exposure had badly decomposed the remains, but dental records confirmed
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: the identity and they would find that Robin had been
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: treated exactly like the other victims, but the only difference
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: was is that she had most likely been with a knife,
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: which again I just can't just my heart goes out
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: to the family and obviously the victim. I always say,
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: it's never easy to talk about death or these kinds
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: of things, but it's kids is They're just so innocent.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: I just can't I can't help but put myself in
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: that what the child was thinking, and how terrified they were,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: and all this kind of stuff, and it they hate
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: in me grows so much for people that do these things.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: But the placement of her body and the violence fit
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: the pattern of al Kella's other crimes, and for Robin's
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: family it was obviously the worst confirmation imaginable. But now
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: police were more determined than ever to catch the absolute
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: monster responsible for these crimes. So Robin's case became a
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: turning point, and both because of the speed and of
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: the response of the public outcry. But a child's abduction
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: ignited Southern California law enforcement like nothing before, and media
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: outlets broadcasted Robin's photo and the composite sketch of the
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: suspect all over the news. The community was completely on edge,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: and it did not take long for multiple people who
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: knew Rodney Alkella to call in and say the sketch
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: looked like him. And for Robin's mother, mary Anne Connolly,
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: those days were agony, and she later kept a shelf
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: of Robin's photographs in her home, just a permanent shrine
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: to her daughter's memory. And Robin had been a lively
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: girl who loved the beach in dancing, a twelve year
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: old with an infectious smile and just boundless energy, and
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: she was supposed to be safe riding her friend's bicycle
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: to ballet class on a summer afternoon, but instead the
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: completely unthinkable happened to her, and the heartbreak in the
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: community was palpable, and it added urgency to the investigation.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: And witnesses from the beach that day reported that a
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: strange man had approached Robin and her friend with unusual
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: interest in photographing them. In One of Robin's friends, thirteen
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: year old Bridget, recalled that the man asked, quote, can
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: I take your picture? It's for a contest unquote, So
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: they would pose for a couple of snapshots before a
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: neighbor sends danger and intervened. Like I said before, this
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: interaction was just burned into Bridget's memory for the rest
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: of her life. But meanwhile, investigators dug into Elcalla's background finally,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: and they learned he was a registered defender with a
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: history of violence, and Huntington Beach detectives rushed to get
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: a warrant to search Alkella's home in Monterey Park, Los Angeles,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: and on July twenty fourth, nineteen seventy nine, police arrested
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: Rodney al Kella and charged him with the kidnapping and
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: murder of Robin Samso and Okella would naturally deny everything,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: and he would coolly claim he was innocent, stating he
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: had been nowhere near Huntington Beach on June twentieth, and
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: publicly his arrest made headlines branding him the Dating Game Killer,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: emphasizing the sensational link to the TV show he'd had
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: just been on a year prior. But the case against
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: him still needed more physical evidence to secure a conviction
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: for Robin's murder, and that evidence would soon emerge from
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: a storage locker nearly twelve hundred miles away. So after
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: Rodney Alkella's arrest in July nineteen seventy nine, investigators dug
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: into his possessions and history to build the murder case,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: and one intriguing lead was a storage locker in Seattle, Washington,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: allegedly rented in his name, because in early nineteen eighty,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: as they prepared for the trial of Robin's murder, police
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: obtained a warrant and opened that locker, and what they
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: found was nothing short of a trove of trophies and
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: clues that would link Alkella to multiple crimes because inside
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: the storage unit were hundreds of photographs of women, teenage girls,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: and young boys, and many of the subjects were unclothed
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: and in suggestive poses. And this was Alkella's unsolicited portfolio
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: of strangers he had convinced to model for him over
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: the years. But the sheer volume of pictures was staggering,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: and police realized they could be looking at potential victims,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: or at least people who have encountered Alkella. So in essence,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: they stumbled upon the meticulously documented footprint of a serial predator.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: But that was not all, because also in the locker
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: were personal items belonging to various women, because al Kella
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: had a disgusting, weird habit of taking jewelry from his
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: victims as keepsakes, and among these, detectors found a small
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: pair of gold ball earrings that immediately raised alarms because
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: Robin's mother had described her daughter as wearing gold ball
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: ear rings when she disappeared, and at least one of
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: those earrings had been missing from Robin's body, presumably taken
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: by the killer, and now here in Alcala's locker lay
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: a pair of earrings matching that description perfectly. So it
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: was a potentially damning piece of physical evidence tying him
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: to Robin's murder. And there were traces of DNA found
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: as well, later identified as belonging to victims like Jill
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: Parento and Charlotte Lamb. For example, an earring with traces
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: of blood would match Charlotte's DNA, further cementing the link
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: between al Calla and the nineteen seventy eight Al Segundo murder.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: So the storage oker was just a monumental find and
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: it gave investigators leads on cold cases, which was incredible.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: So in March of twenty ten, long after al Calla's convictions,
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: police released one hundred and twenty of these photographs to
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: the public, hoping to identify the people in them, and
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: families recognized loved ones who had vanished, and some women
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: saw themselves in released images and came forward to say
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: that they had strange encounters with al Kella where he
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: took their picture, which is horrifying to think of. And
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: the photos potentially tie al Kella to unsolved cases in
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and elsewhere and suggest he
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: may have had many more victims than the known ones
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: and investigator's fear that some of those photographed individuals ended
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: up dead even if Alkella never confessed to them, And
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: to this day, most of the subjects remain unidentified, and
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: police continued to solicit the public's help in naming those faces.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to take this opportunity to put these
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: photos on screen. If you recognize anybody, contact your local
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: authorities before they made it needs of nineteen seventy nine.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty, though, the Seattle Locker evidence bolstered the prosecution,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: and it gave them tangible items to show a jury,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: and it just painted Alkella as someone who collected mementos
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: of his kills, a very common trait of serial killers
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: who liked to relive their crimes. And the Seattle Locker
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: became a key word of horror associated with al Kella's
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: story because it was essentially his treasure chest of evil
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: and without it, some of his murders, like those of
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: Jill Barcom and Georgia Wixted and Charlotte Lamb and Jill Parento,
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: might have remained unsolved for much much longer, if maybe
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: never solved. But with it, detectives were able years later
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: to match DNA and indict him for those crimes as well.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: But one can only imagine the scene of officers combing
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: through this locker and the growing realization as photo after
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: photo emerged of unknown faces, just the chill of recognizing
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: a victim's jewelry, but it ultimately helped solve murders and
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: provided evidence to keep him behind bars permanently. Finally so,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: by capturing Alkella in nineteen seventy nine, law enforcement halted
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: his killing spree, obviously, but the journey to fully account
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: for his crimes was far from over because initially Alkella
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: was tried and convicted in nineteen eighty for Robin's murder
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: based largely on witness testimonies, also the sketch identification and
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: the recovered earrings, and by the early two thousands, prosecutors
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: were gearing up for his third trial and his other
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: trials will be detailed shortly so stayed with me. And
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: during this third trial they had an invaluable new tool
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: that hadn't been available in the nineteen eighties, which was
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: DNA profiling. But in the interim years, California had passed
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: laws allowing the collection of DNA samples from inmates. So
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and three, while o Kella was sitting
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: in prison awaiting his third trial, investigators obtained a court
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: order to take a sample of his DNA, which he
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: bohemitally fought but lost. And once they had his profile,
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: they ran against evidence from cold cases and the results
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: were explosive because Olkella's DNA matched seamen left at several
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: unsolved murder scenes from the late nineteen seventies. Specifically, it
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: matched evidence from the murders of Jill Georgia Charlotte and
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: the other Jill Jill Parento. And these were the very
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: cases that had been lingering for decades because the victims
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: were known, but the killer was unidentified until now. And additionally,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: forensic work tied things together. For example, a handprint at
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: Georgia Wixted scene was matched to Alkella, and the blood
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: from Jill Parentone scene was matched to his DNA profile.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: So just armed with this new DNA evidence, Orange County
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: prosecutors in two thousand and six got permissioned to consolidate
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: all five murder charges, which are robins, plus the four
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: newly solved murders into one mega trial. And this was
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: significant because it was presenting a pattern of multiple murders
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: to one jury would make it extremely hard for all
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: Kella to assert reasonable doubt. As one of his own
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: attorneys pointed out, so essentially had achieved what earlier investigations
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: could not, and it definitively linked al Kella to the
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: crime scenes of women who had been killed while he
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: was active, and DNA technology even connected Alcala to a
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: murder victim in Wyoming, and a photograph from his trove
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: showing a young woman on a motorcycle led to the
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: identification of Christine Ruth Thornton, who had disappeared in nineteen
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: seventy seven. Her remains found in nineteen eighty two were
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: unidentified until her family provided DNA samples in twenty fifteen
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: and matched to the remains. And it just turns out
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: Christine was about six months pregnant when she was killed,
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: and al Kella later admitted to taking her photograph, though
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: he denied killing her, but we know he's a lying
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: piece of shit, and in twenty sixteen, Wyoming authorities charged
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: al Calla with Christine Thornton's murder based on the photo
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: and circumstantial evidence, though they did not extradite him due
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: to his failing health on death row, which we'll get into,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: but it just goes to show that he quite literally
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: could have been the most prolific serial killer in American history,
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: because we really don't know how many victims he has,
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: like a lot of other serial killers, but the amount
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: of murders that happened that had the same, if not
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: very similar mo is incomprehensible, and the fact that he
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: got away was so much, even though he was a
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: convicted fella, And it's just it's very scary to think about.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: So bringing Rodney al Kala to justice was a long
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: and convoluted journey that stretched across three decades because it
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: wasn't enough to just catch him. The legal system had
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: to contend with appeals, overturn convictions and retrials, and all
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: the families the victims just waited for finality. So first
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: we had Alkella's first trial, which began in early nineteen
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: eighty in Orange County, California, and this was for the
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: murder of twelve year old Robin, and the prosecution's case
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: leaned on the eyewitness testimony of Robin's friends who had
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: seen Alkella approach them at the beach, and the composite
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: sketch identification and the discovery of Robin's earrings in Alkelli's
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: storage locker. Now, Kella was found guilty of first agreement
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: in May of nineteen eighty, and the jury sentenced him
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: to death in California in June of nineteen eighty Nana
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: Nana Boo boo, and for the families it was a
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: moment of relief, a feeling that the monster was going
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: to pay with his life. However, the case was far
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: from closed because in nineteen eighty four, the California Supreme
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: Court overturned the nineteen eighty conviction and death sentence on
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: a technicality because the jury at the first trial had
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: been improperly informed of Alcala's prior sus crimes, which was
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: the Tally Shapiro attack and the of Julie j So, essentially,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: the High court ruled that the inconclusion of his criminal
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: history had pre prejudiced the jury in the Robin Samso case.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: And it's just an excruciating example of how a prosecutorial overstep,
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: even when done in good faith to show character evidence,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: allowed a convicted killer another chance, Like you have his
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: res he finally kills kids, but they're like, oh, they
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: might think he's a bad guy because he tried to
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: kill this kid, And that's not really fair. What the
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: fuck is the system? Dude? That brings us to trial
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: number two, which was in California, and this was for
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: the retrial of Robin's murder, leaving out the prior crimes evidence.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: So the trial was very similar from a legal standpoint,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: with witnesses and the physical evidence, et cetera, but without
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: telling the jury quote, by the way, he's a twice
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: convicted rest and attempted murderer. They had to leave that out.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: So in May of nineteen eighty six, al Kella was
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: again convicted of Robin's murder, and in the penalty phase,
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: the jury once more returned a death sentence. Of course,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: it's going to be the same he killed a child.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: It just doesn't even make sense, Like what a waste
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: of time, I mean, he's a waste of oxygen and
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: just being of this earth. But what a waste of time.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: And you might think that be the end of it,
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: but no, because indeed, in nineteen ninety two, the California
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court upheld this second conviction on direct appeal. Yet
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: Alkella was nothing if not persistent, and he filed a
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: federal habbyist corpus petition, which is essentially another appeal in
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: the federal court system. Why is that even allowed? So
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and one, a federal judge granted him relief,
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: overturning the second conviction. What So, in two thousand and three,
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with that decision,
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: thus vacating Alkella's conviction again. And the reasons this time
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: were complex, but included that o'kella claimed the park ranger
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: that found Robin's body was quote hypnotized by police investigators
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: and a witness was prevented from potentially supporting that claim.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: So the appellate court decided that this was a violation
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: of Alkella's right to fair defense. So it was a
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: bitter pill for law enforcement and Robin's family because twice
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: they had seen him sentenced to die, and twice those
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: verdicts were erased on appeal. So by this point Rodney
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: Alkella had been sitting on death row technically under sentence
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: of death, but with his case in limbo. So now
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: it was clear they would have to try him for
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: a third time. And this was in twenty ten. And
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: in twenty ten landscape was a bit different, to say
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: the least, because, as we discussed in the DNA section,
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: Alcala was now linked to four additional murders besides Robin's,
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: and Orange County prosecutors moved to consolidate all five murders
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: Robin Samso, Jel Barcomb, Georgia Wixted, Charlotte Lamb, Jill Parento
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: into one trial, and Alcala's defense fought this, knowing that
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: one case might be defensible, but five would look like
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: a pattern of a serial killer. Oh, that might make
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: him look bad, That might make him actually have to
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: be held accountable for his actions. Z. What is this
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: world we live in? This wasn't that long ago. So
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: the California Supreme Court in two thousand and six ruled
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: in favor of the prosecution they could join these cases.
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: Think God. Thus, in February of twenty ten, Rodney Alkalla
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: went on trial for five counts a first degree murder simultaneously,
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: and in a stunning move, al Kala chose to act
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: as his own attorney in twenty ten trial. Where have
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: we seen this before? He's a Ted Bundy carbon copy.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: He can't even like come up with his own stuff.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: What an idiot. It's like the show all over again.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: He had to be on television to show how smart
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: he was and how cunning he was, but that got
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: him caught because he's an idiot. And now he's acting
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: as his own attorney when he has no background in
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: that at all, which just shows he's an idiot because
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: he's not actually that smart. He just has a giant
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: ego stupid brain. Anyway, this all in all which is
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: set the stage for some bizarre courtroom scenes, to say
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: the least, because over the course of the trial, Alcala,
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: who had no formal legal training, personally cross examined witnesses
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: and gave opening and closing arguments on his own behalf
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: like a you know, psychopath, And at one point he
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: adopted a deep voice and proceeded to question himself on
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: the witness stand, you know, like a psychopath with a
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: personality disorder. How is it that someone who has been
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: diagnosed with personality disorder, narcissism and psychopathy is allowed to
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: stand in trial in his own defense? How is that possible?
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: And he would even address himself as mister Alcala in
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: a deep tone and then answer in his normal voice.
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: And this strange tactic did him zero favors because he
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: looks insane, because he is, and it likely just alienated
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: the jury, who saw it as either a stunt or
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: evidence of how disturbed he was and how narcissistic he
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: was into thinking that this would actually work. And during
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: the trial, the prosecution laid out the full scope of
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: Alcello's brutality, backed by the hard forensic evidence now available
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: and DNA and physical evidence tied him irrefutably to each
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: of the four Los Angeles murders, and gruesome details including bitemarks,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: posing of bodies, etc. Just demonstrated a signature pattern. And
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: in Robin's case, although DNA was not the key because
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: her remains were skeletal, the earrings and eyewitness testimonies were powerful,
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: as was the narrative of how Alkella lured the girl,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: so Alcala's defense was pointless and useless and dumb, and
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: he would just claim that he couldn't remember killing the women,
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: which is a rather weak non denial, sir. And he
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: tried to dispute Robin's case by showing a portion of
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: his Dating Game episode to argue that the gold earring
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: he wore or in the clip if they were visible,
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: which they weren't, were his own, not Robin's, which doesn't
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: make any sense. He's just so dumb, Like he's actually
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: so dumb one thirty five IQ aside, But this just
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: implied that the earrings in his locker were his, not
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: a trophy. So he actually wasn't wearing his victim's earrings
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: on that show because was before he met Robin. They
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: were actually Robin's earrings, but they were in his locker,
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: and the earrings he was wearing on the show were
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: just his own earrings, I guess, but they looked similar
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: to Robin's. So that was his really depth defense, as
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: if that would do anything. And a rebuttal witness, Jed Mills,
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: who was the fellow Dating Game contestant, testified that men
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: simply did not wear earrings in nineteen seventy eight, and
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: he would have noticed if Alkella had an ear pierced.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: And this just undercut Alkella's odd argument, and he would
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: make no real attempt to explain away the other four murders.
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: There was just too much evidence. And in a dramatic
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: moment during the penalty phase of the trial, Tali Shapiro,
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: the girl who survived in the nineteen sixty eight vault,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: came into the courtroom to testify because she's brave as hell,
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: oh my goodness, and Tally had been a secret weapon
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: who was held back until the sentencing portion just to
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: give a face to his prior crimes and ensure he
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: received the maximum penalty, and by then a grown woman,
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: Tally told the jury about the day al Kella lured
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: Sside and almost killed her, and how she fought for justice,
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: and her mere presence was a powerful reminder of al
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: Kella's lifelong predation, and unsurprisingly, in March of twenty ten,
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: the jury convicted Alkella on all five counts of murder,
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: and they heard from one of Alkella's few witnesses, a psychiatrist,
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: who claimed Alkella's supposed borderline personality disorder could explain his
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: professed memory lapses about the killings. I strive asshole, and
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: the prosecutor countered that Alkella was a calculating, quote well
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: predator who knew exactly what he was doing, which, of
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: course he and it took the jury only about two
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: days to decide, and they recommended the death penalty for
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: the third time, and the judge formerly sentenced Rodney Alkella
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: to death in California in March of twenty ten. And
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: for the families of Jill, Georgia, Charlotte, Jill Parento, and
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: Robin this was an enormous victory and a long awaited
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: catharsis because many of them had attended the trial day
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: after day, hearing the seconding details of how their loved
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: ones died. So at last they saw the man responsible
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: held to account in a court of law, convicted by
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: overwhelming evidence. So even as the California trial concluded, there
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: remained the matter of the murders in New York, Cornelia
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: Criiley and Ellen Hover. As for decades these cases had
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: lingered unsolved, though NYPD always suspected Alkella after he was
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: caught in California, but back in nineteen seventy one, when
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: Akella was arrested in New Hampshire, NYPD detectives had traveled
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: to question him about Cornelia's murder, but Alkella had feigned
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: innocence and they lacked the proof to indict him at
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: the time, And similarly, in nineteen seventy nine, a task
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: force reinvestigated cold cases eyed al Kella for Ellen Hover's disappearance,
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: but again lacked a body until it was found in
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, and then the evidence was still circumstantial.
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: So after Alkella's twenty ten conviction, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: Vance Junior decided that even though Alkella was on California's
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: death row, the New York victims deserved their day in court, which,
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: of course, and a Manhattan grand jury indicted Alkella in
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: January of twenty eleven for the murders of Cornelia Creiley
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: and Ellen Hover, and in June of twenty twelve, al
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: Kella was extradited to New York to face these charges,
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: and he initially pled not guilty and indicted he would
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: fight the case, but facing the mountain of evidence, he
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: changed strategy and in December of twenty twelve, Alkella changed
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: his plea to guilty for both murders. Wow, smartest thing
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: he's ever done in his entire life. Actually own up
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: to what he did, and he stated he wished to
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: return to California to continue appealing his death sentence. There,
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: he essentially concealed the New York cases to avoid a
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: lengthy trial, and on January seventh, twenty thirteen, a New
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: York judge sentence Alkella to twenty five years to life
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: on each count to run concurrently. And at the sentencing,
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: Da Vance spoke a closure in remembrance for the victims' families,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: and he noted that both women were just twenty three
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: years old. Quote, two families were robbed of daughters who
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: never had a chance to have families of their own,
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: grow old and see the city change and become safer unquote.
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: And family members of Ellen and Cornelia were present, some
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: wearing stickers with the victim's photos, and it was an
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: emotionally charged hearing. A Alcala, for his part, made no
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: statement of remorse, and because New York had abolished the
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: death penalty in two thousand and seven, life in prison
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: was the maximum sentence he could get there, but two
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: more families had it officially affirmed rodneyil Kella killed their
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: loved ones. So following the twenty ten California conviction, Rodney
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: al Kella was returned to death row at San Quentin
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: State Prison in California, and at some point after the
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: trial he was transferred to Corcoran State Prison, which was
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: another facility, likely for health and custody reasons, and death
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: sentences in California at the time were in limbo in
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen and California's governor declared a moratorium on executions,
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: so even if all appeals failed, Alkella was not at
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: imminent risk of being executed, and in his final years
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: behind bars, Alkella continued to occupy himself with legal maneuverings,
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: and incredibly, during the gap between his second and third
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: trials in the nineteen nineties and two thousands, Alkella had
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: written a self published book titled You the Jury, where
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: he protested his innocence in Robin's case and even pointed
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: fingers at another suspect which is psychotic, which we know
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: he is. And he also filed a couple of frivolous
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: lawsuits from prison as well, one claiming the prison had
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: caused him a slip and fall injury boooo, and another
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: complaining that the prison cafeteria failed to provide him a
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: low fat diet. But these bizarre lawsuits demonstrate Alkello's continued
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: narcissism and just fully lack of remorse, because even on
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: death row he was concerned with his own comfort and figure,
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: I guess. But by the late twenty tens, Alkella's health
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: was deteriorating, and in March of twenty twenty one, reports
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: emerged that he was too ill to stand trial in
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: Wyoming for Christine Thornton's murder charge, and on July twenty fourth,
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, Rodney James Alcala died of natural causes
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: at the age of seventy seven in a hospital in
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: King's County, California. So he had spent forty two years
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: in custody since his nineteen seventy nine arrest, and at
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: the time of his death, Alkella was still technically under
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: a death sentence, though with the moratorium it was effectively
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: a life term, so for the families of victims there
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: were mixed emotions. Some like Taly Shapiro expressed relief, quote,
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: the planet is a better place without him, she would
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: tell reporters, and others noted that he had essentially lived
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: out his natural life, something many of his victims were
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: cruelly denied, and Rodney el Kelli's final years were without freedom,
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: but also without the execution that some had hoped for,
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: which I completely understand. In California's death row meant years
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: of isolated incarceration, appeal paperwork, and reflection, which I don't
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: think he was capable of, and he reportedly didn't grant
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: interviews or show any contrition publicly, and in the end
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: he died as he lived, just removed from normal society,
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: a subject of morbid fascination, and carrying secrets to the
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: grave about how many lives he actually truly took. He
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: was a monster, and it was horrible what was done
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: to those girls. And at the end of the day,
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: I choose to remember them. And I will also put
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: those photos back on screen of the unidentified victims, and
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: if you recognize any of them, make sure to contact
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: your local authorities. But with that, this is the end
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: of the episode. And if you have any other says
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: you want me to deep dive into let me know
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: down in the comments. I always heard the comments. And
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: stay safe, Okay bye