ROBIN SAMSOE - 12 yo (1979) - Huntington Beach CA

SANTA ANA -- A 66-year-old former photographer was convicted Thursday
of killing a Huntington Beach girl and four other women more than 30
years ago.

Rodney Alcala had already been convicted and sentenced to death twice for the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe.

Both convictions were overturned on appeal due to technicalities.

This is Alcala's first conviction for the four additional murders.

The trial will now enter a penalty phase in which jurors will decide if
Alcala should be sentenced to death or life in prison without the
possibility of parole.

Jurors reached the verdict on their second full day of deliberations.

They received the case late Tuesday.

Alcala was convicted of five counts of first degree murder, along with a count of kidnapping Samsoe.

In addition to killing Samsoe, Alcala was convicted of murdering Jill
Barcomb, an 18 year old runaway who was killed in a remote area of the
Hollywood Hills on November 10, 1977; Georgia Wixted, a 27 year old
registerd nurse who was killed on December 16, 1978; Charlotte Lamb,
32, murdered on June 24, 1978; and Hill Paretneau, 21, who was killed
June 14th, 1979.

Prosecutors alleged Alcala took earrings from at least two of the women
as trophies and carried Jill Barcomb victim to a remote canyon road
where he raped and killed her.

Alcala, who is represented himself during the trial, said in his
closing argument that authorities were engaging in "magical thinking"
as they prepared the case against him.

Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy urged jurors to overlook the
defendant's charm and to use their common sense and convict him.

He rebutted Alcala's insistence that he did not abduct and kill 12-year-old Robin Samsoe of Huntington Beach on June 20, 1979.

"Rodney Alcala's either guilty or the victim of the worst bad luck in
the history of bad luck," Murphy said, referring to Alcala's claim that
another curly haired photographer about his height and weight was
snapping photos of the girl and her friend, Bridgette Wilvert, near the
Huntington Beach pier the day Robin disappeared.

"He's not without his charm," Murphy said of Alcala, adding the
defendant used that charm to talk Robin Samsoe into getting into his
car.

"He's asking you folks to get in the car with him," Murphy told the jury.

"He wants so badly to get away with it. He wants a free murder. ... I'm
asking you, I plead with you, use your common sense and convict Rodney
Alcala."

Prosecutors presented DNA or other forensic evidence that they claimed
ties Alcala to the Los Angeles County slayings, but their case against
Alcala in the Samsoe slaying was built on witness testimony.

Hoping to solve numerous cold cases, authorities on Thursday released
hundreds of photos of unidentified women and children found in a
storage unit that belonged to a serial killer who appeared on "The
Dating Game." Investigators are trying to determine if some of
the people in the pictures were victims of Rodney Alcala, 66, who was
convicted in February of murdering a child and four women between
November 1977 and June 1979. A jury this week recommended a death
sentence for Alcala, who appeared on the popular dating show in 1978 as
Bachelor No. 1. "We balanced the privacy concerns of those
depicted in the decision to release these pictures," Orange County
District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in a statement. "Although we hope
that the people depicted are not victims, we believe the release may
help solve some cold cases and bring closure to victims' families."A few pictures of men were also found among the portrait-style photos
that were discovered in a storage unit that Alcala kept in Seattle,
Washington, said Susan Kang Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the district
attorney's office. The locker also contained earrings that belonged to
12-year-old Robin Samsoe, who Alcala abducted and killed in 1979,
Schroeder said. The discovery of the earring in the locker has
raised speculation that there may be other victims or that the
photographs were trophies to Alcala, she said. "The idea is to
figure out if these are other victims that belong to other cold cases
and if they are we can hopefully bring some closure to these victims'
families," she said. "We know that Mr. Alcala used his photography as a
ruse to get close to his victims." Authorities already believe
that Alcala may be responsible for deaths in New York, Schroeder said.
"It's very possible," Schroeder said. "Mr. Alcala is a predatory
monster and we believe that he destroyed many lives everywhere he went."
According to the Orange County District Attorney, Alcala was
convicted in 1972 of kidnapping and molesting a child in Los Angeles
County in 1968. After serving a 34-month sentence, he was released. In
November 1977, Alcala raped, sodomized and murdered Jill Barcomb, an
18-year-old New Yorker who had recently moved to California, the
district attorney said. "The defendant used a large rock to
smash in the victim's face, causing blunt force trauma, and strangled
her to death by tying her belt and pant leg around her neck. He then
left the victim's body in a mountainous area in the foothills near
Hollywood." The body was discovered soon after, and biological
evidence was collected, but DNA technology was not yet available to find
her killer. The following month, Alcala raped, sodomized and
murdered 27-year-old nurse Georgia Wixted, according to the district
attorney. "The defendant used the claw end of a hammer to beat the
victim and smash in her head. He strangled her to death using a nylon
stocking and left her body in her Malibu apartment," according to the
district attorney's Web site. Again the body was discovered and
biological evidence was collected, but no link was made to Alcala. All
this occurred before Alcala charmed "Dating Game" contestant Cheryl
Bradshaw in 1988. Though Bradshaw chose Alcala as her date, she
reportedly refused to go out with him. Alcala may have appeared
likable to viewers at home, but Bachelor No. 2, Jed Mills, said he was
the complete opposite when they sat together in the green room before
the show. Mills said he had an almost immediate aversion to
Alcala. "Something about him, I could not be near him," Mills
recalled. "He was very obnoxious and creepy -- he became very unlikable
and rude and imposing as though he was trying to intimidate. I wound up
not only not liking this guy ... not wanting to be near him ... he got
creepier and more negative. He was a standout creepy guy in my life."
Mills said he still has a difficult time discussing Alcala. "Just
talking about it, I get a tightness in my stomach," he said, "It kind
of sinks in slowly. What this guy did, it's hard to express. He kind of
haunts me a bit." Two more slayings followed the year after
Alcala appeared on the show. In June 1979, he raped and killed
21-year-old Jill Parenteau in her Burbank apartment, the district
attorney said. "The defendant strangled the victim to death using
a cord or nylon. Alcala's blood was collected from the scene after he
cut himself crawling through a window. Based on a semi-rare blood match,
Alcala was linked to the murder," the district attorney's Web site
said. Though he was charged with killing Parenteau, the case was
dismissed after his first conviction in the Samsoe case. In that
case, Alcala approached a 12-year-old at the beach in Huntington Beach
and asked her to pose for pictures, after which she rode off on her
bicycle toward a dance class, the district attorney said. She did
not make it. "The defendant kidnapped and murdered Samsoe and dumped
her body near Sierra Madre in the foothills of the San Gabriel
Mountains," the district attorney's Web site said. Alcala was
convicted for Samsoe's murder in 1980 and sentenced to receive the death
penalty, but the conviction was overturned by the California Supreme
Court. A second trial in 1986 resulted in a death sentence, but
it was overturned by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. As he
awaited a third trial, Alcala's DNA was linked to the murder scenes of
Barcomb, Wixted and Lamb. He was charged with the four Los Angeles
murders, including Parenteau's.
Anyone with
information regarding the identities of the women and children in the
photographs found in Alcala's storage locker is asked to contact the
Orange County District Attorney's Office or the Huntington Beach Police
Department.

Dozens of tips have poured in after California authorities released
more than 100 photos of women and children on Thursday that are believed
to have been taken by a serial killer who appeared on the "Dating
Game." Police determined Friday that two female minors in the
pictures, taken in the 1970s, are alive and well. They have received
tips on a handful of other women who could be dead or missing, according
to Patrick Ellis, a detective with the Huntington Beach Police
Department. "We've received several calls saying that someone in a
photo could be so-and-so who's been missing or found dead," Ellis said
Friday. "The response has been overwhelming, and that's what we were
looking for." Investigators are trying to determine whether any
of the people in the photos were victims of Rodney Alcala, 66, who was
convicted in February of kidnapping and murdering a 12-year-old girl and
raping and murdering four Los Angeles County women in the 1970s. A jury
this week recommended he be sentenced to death. Ellis said
police received tips on as many as four dead or missing women who were
identified by other people calling and e-mailing about the photos.
"People are saying that they recognize someone from their past, from
school or college or the neighborhood beach," he said. The two
women who identified themselves from the photos on Friday were minors at
the time the pictures were taken and are now in their 40s, Ellis said.
Police are not releasing their identities, though Ellis said they live
in California.Huntington Beach Police are contacting law enforcement authorities
across the country with information about dead or missing women who were
identified by people calling or e-mailing on Friday, Ellis said. He
stressed that police have not confirmed that any of the women or
children in the photos are dead or missing. The portrait-style
photographs were discovered in a storage unit Alcala kept in Seattle,
Washington, said Orange County district attorney spokeswoman Susan Kang
Schroeder. The locker also contained earrings that belonged to Robin
Samsoe, the 12-year-old girl whom Alcala abducted and killed in 1979.
The discovery of the earring in the locker has raised speculation
that there may be other victims or that the photographs were trophies to
Alcala, she said. "We know that Mr. Alcala used his photography
as a ruse to get close to his victims," she said. Authorities
already believe that Alcala may be responsible for deaths in New York,
Schroeder said. "It's very possible," Schroeder said. "Mr.
Alcala is a predatory monster and we believe that he destroyed many
lives everywhere he went." Alcala was convicted in 1972 of
kidnapping and molesting a child in Los Angeles County in 1968,
according to the Orange County District Attorney's office. After serving
a 34-month sentence, he was released. In 1978, Alcala appeared
as a "Bachelor No. 1" on "The Dating Game." Jed Mills, who played
"Bachelor No. 2," said he had an almost immediate aversion to Alcala.
"Something about him, I could not be near him," Mills recalled. "I
am kind of bending toward the other guy to get away from him, and I
don't know if I did that consciously. But thinking back on that, I
probably did." But Alcala succeeded in charming Bachelorette
Cheryl Bradshaw from the other side of the "Dating Game" wall. But she
declined her date with Alcala.
Anyone with
information regarding the identities of the women and children in the
photographs found in Alcala's storage locker is asked to contact the
Orange County District Attorney's Office or the Huntington Beach Police
Department.

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The families of at least four women, missing since
the 1970s, say they recognize their loved ones in photos belonging to
convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala.

Huntington Beach police released more than 100 photographs last week
apparently taken by Alcala in the 1970s that were found in his Seattle
storage locker.

Alcala, 66, was convicted last month of murdering four women and a
12-year-old girl in the 1970s. Police believe he may have killed other
women who posed for him. Authorities believe the photos may have been
trophies for Alcala, who worked as a freelance photographer and used
photography to get close to his victims.

Huntington Beach Sgt. Aaron Smith says none of the connections have been
confirmed yet, but ten detectives are comparing family photos of the
missing women to ones found in Alcala's locker.

Investigators found the photos along with earrings they say belonged to
Robin Samsoe, the 12-year-old girl Acala was convicted of kidnapping and
murdering in 1979.

Many of the photos released by the Huntington Beach Police Department
show women or young girls in the nude or engaging in sex acts, many of
them appearing to be unconscious.

Most of the subjects in the photos have never been identified.

Police determined Friday that two female minors in the pictures, taken
in the 1970s, are alive and well.

The two women who identified themselves from the photos were children
when they were taken, but are now in their 40s. Police are not releasing
their identities, thought they did say the women live in California.

Alcala was sentenced to death last week for the murder of Robin Samsoe
and the sexual assault, torture and murder of four Los Angeles County
women between 1977 and 1980.

But prosecutor Matt Murphy expressed concern that those crimes may only
be a faction of the terror Alcala is responsible for in Southern
California.

In his final argument to the jury, Murphy called Alcala a "hunter" and
"a predatory monster" who sought out females to torture and kill
"because he enjoyed it."

Alcala was convicted in1972 of kidnapping and molesting a child in Los
Angeles County in 1968. He served a 34-month jail sentence and was
released.

And authorities believe that Alcala may be responsible for deaths in New
York.

In 1978, Alcala appeared as a "Bachelor No. 1" on the reality show "The
Dating Game." The "bachelorette" ultimately declined her date with
Alcala.

If you know who these women are, contact Huntington Beach Police
Detective Patrick Ellis, at 714-375-5066, or email him at pellis@hbpd.org.

Serial killer Rodney Alcala will be formally sentenced by a judge
Tuesday, three weeks after a jury recommended the death penalty.
The same jury convicted 66-year-old Alcala of five
counts of first-degree murder last month for the 1970s slayings of four
Los Angeles County women and a 12-year-old Orange County girl.
Alcala has been sentenced to death twice before in the
1979 murder of young Robin Samsoe, but those verdicts were overturned on
appeal.
Prosecutors refiled charges in that case and added the
four other murders in 2006 after investigators linked them to Alcala
using DNA samples and other forensic evidence.
Those cases, which had gone unsolved for decades, went
on trial for the first time this year.

A onetime contestant on "The Dating Game" was sentenced to die
Tuesday for murdering four women and a child, Orange County, California,
officials said. Rodney Alcala, 66, was convicted in February of
kidnapping and murdering a 12-year-old girl and raping and murdering
four Los Angeles County women in the 1970s. "Losing Robin, we
lost so many things," said Marianne Connelly, the mother of Robin
Samsoe, 12, whom authorities said Alcala murdered in 1979. "We
didn't get to watch her grow up. We didn't get to see her graduate high
school or college, see her have a dance career, get married and/or have
children," Connelly told the court Tuesday. "He took her life, her
future and our joy." Deidreann Parenteau, Jill Parenteau's
sister, said she never understood why her sister had to die at Alcala's
hands. "If there is a hell, I hope Rodney Alcala burns
eternally," she told the court. "I wish he would experience the terror
that he put his victims through." The crimes took place between
November 1977 and June 1979, and covered a wide swath of suburban Los
Angeles, California, from Burbank to El Segundo, authorities said. A
jury recommended this month that Alcala receive the death penalty. He
was found guilty February 25 of murder,
kidnapping and an array of sexual offenses. He acted as his own attorney
during the penalty phase of the trial.In 1978, Alcala was a winning bachelor on the television show "The
Dating Game." At the time, he had been convicted in the 1968 rape of an
8-year-old girl, authorities said. He served a 34-month sentence. A
year earlier, according to the Orange County district attorney, Alcala
had raped, sodomized and killed two women: Jill Barcomb, an 18-year-old
New Yorker who had recently moved to California, and Georgia Wixted, a
27-year-old nurse. The district attorney said Alcala used a
large rock to smash in Barcomb's face and then "strangled her to death
by tying a belt and pant leg around her neck." Her body was left in a
mountainous area in the foothills near Hollywood. Wixted was
beaten with the claw end of a hammer, the district attorney said. Alcala
"strangled her to death using a nylon stocking and left her body in her
Malibu apartment," according to the district attorney's Web site. On
"The Dating Game," Alcala -- who was introduced as a "successful
photographer" who might also be found sky diving or motorcycling --
succeeded in charming bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw from behind a wall.
"Who will it be?" the host asked Bradshaw at the end. "I'll
take One," she said, and Alcala strode out. Three more murders
followed Alcala's appearance on the show, the district attorney said.
In June 1979, he beat, raped and strangled Charlotte Lamb, a
33-year-old legal secretary, with her shoelace in the laundry room of
her El Segundo apartment complex, according to the district attorney's
office. The case was investigated but went cold. The same month,
according to the district attorney's office, Alcala raped and murdered
21-year-old Parenteau in her Burbank apartment. She was also strangled
with a cord or nylon. Alcala's blood was collected from the scene
after he cut himself crawling out a window, the district attorney said.
"Based on a semi-rare blood match, Alcala was linked to the murder,"
the district attorney said. Though he was charged with murdering
Parenteau, the case was dismissed after his first conviction in the
Samsoe case. In that 1979 case, Alcala approached the 12-year-old
at the beach in Huntington Beach and asked her to pose for pictures,
the district attorney said. She did and then rode off on her bicycle to
dance class. She never made it. "The defendant kidnapped and
murdered Samsoe and dumped her body near Sierra Madre in the foothills
of the San Gabriel Mountains," the district attorney said. Alcala
was convicted in 1980 of Samsoe's murder and was sentenced to death,
but the conviction was overturned by the California State Supreme Court.
A second trial in 1986 also resulted in a conviction and death
sentence, but it was overturned by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
As he awaited a third trial, Alcala's DNA was linked to the crime
scenes in the Barcomb, Wixted and Lamb cases. He was charged with the
four Los Angeles murders, including Parenteau's. Police
investigating Alcala discovered dozens of photographs of women and
children in a storage unit he kept in Seattle, Washington. The locker
also contained earrings belonging to Samsoe, according to the Orange
County district attorney's office.
Police have
asked for the public's help in determining whether any of the people in
the photographs are victims of Alcala's.

Huntington Beach police have identified 21 women who appear in
photos found in a convicted serial killer's storage locker.
But detectives are still seeking the identity of more
than 100 other females — and at least two young men — who posed for
Rodney Alcala during the 1970s.
Police say none of the 21 women matched up to a missing
persons case or an unsolved homicide.
Detectives were inundated with more than 500 phone
calls and hundreds of e-mails after the photos were posted on the Orange
County Register's Web site. Huntington Beach police released the photos
to the newspaper last month after Alcala was sentenced to death for the
murders of four women and a 12-year-old girl.
The photos were found in Alcala's Seattle storage
locker in 1979.

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