Rodney Alcala has died at the age of 77

faithx

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Condemned Inmate Rodney Alcala Dies of Natural Causes - News Releases

CORCORAN – Condemned inmate Rodney James Alcala, 77, who was on California’s death row from Orange County, died of natural causes at 1:43 a.m. on July 24, 2021 at a hospital in the community.

Alcala was sentenced to death in Orange County in 1980 for the 1979 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe. That judgment was reversed in 1984 by the California Supreme Court and Alcala was granted a new trial.

In 1986, Alcala was sentenced to death a second time for Samsoe’s murder; however, a federal appeals court in 2003 overturned the sentence and Alcala was given a new trial. His DNA matched evidence in other murders and Orange County prosecutors indicted Alcala for the murders of four other women.

In 2010, an Orange County jury convicted Alcala of five counts of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to death for the killing of Samsoe as well as the 1977 deaths of 18-year-old Jill Barcomb and 27-year-old Georgia Wixted; the 1978 death of 32-year-old Charlotte Lamb, and the 1979 death of 21-year-old Jill Parenteau.

Alcala was known as the “Dating Game Killer” because he was a contestant on the television show “The Dating Game” in 1978.

In 2012, Alcala was extradited to New York after he was indicted for the 1971 murder of Cornelia Crilley and the 1977 murder of Ellen Jane Hover. He pleaded guilty and in 2013 was sentenced in New York to 25 years to life.

In 2016, prosecutors in Wyoming charged Alcala with the murder of Christine Ruth Thornton, 28, who disappeared in 1978 and whose body was found in 1982. She was six months pregnant.

Investigators have either suspected Alcala of or linked him to other murders in Los Angeles and Marin County in California; Seattle, Washington; New York; New Hampshire and Arizona.

Rodney-Alcala-1-240x300.jpg
 
I hope the pained stare in that picture of Alcala in a hospital bed is due to him seeing all his victims surrounding his bed, waiting to escort him to hell for good.
 
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When the locker pictures started appearing on news and crime websites around the country in 2010, people were sucked in to this story. It brought out the sleuth in a lot of people. It brought me to this site. We pounded the WS servers to overheating in 2010 and 2011. No theory was unexplored. No pixel of any photo was overlooked.

For the most part, no resolution--no "correct answers"--ever came. One exception: Christine Ruth Thornton, RIP, was the girl on the motorcycle in the Sweetwater Valley. No thanks to Rodney.

I think we all hoped he would crack at some point and give us the answers, something the way Ted Bundy did when he was about to be executed. But California told all the Death Row inmates to stop worrying; they dismantled the Death Chamber.

Again, rot in Hell, Rod!
 
What a nightmare this man was. Did anyone ever figure out what made him such a monster? I realize we truly never know for certain what molds such people, but it seemed like there had to be some set of circumstances that steered him into such a demented, violent lifestyle.

I can't imagine it grew out of rejection. If he was ever normal at any stage of his life, he would likely have had no trouble attracting women.

From Wikipedia

Rodney Alcala was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor in San Antonio, Texas, to a Mexican-American couple,[11] Raoul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez.[12] In 1951, Alcala's father moved the family to Mexico, then abandoned them three years later. In 1954, when Alcala was about 11 years old, his mother moved him and his two sisters to suburban Los Angeles.[13][14]

In 1961, at the age of 17, Alcala joined the United States Army and served as a clerk. In 1964, after what was described as a nervous breakdown—during which he went AWOL and hitchhiked from Fort Bragg to his mother's house—he was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder[15] by a military psychiatrist and discharged on medical grounds.[16] Other diagnoses later proposed by various psychiatric experts at his trials included narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and malignant narcissism with psychopathy and sexual sadism comorbidities.[17]

After leaving the army, Alcala graduated from the UCLA School of Fine Arts and later studied film under Roman Polanski at New York University.

Rodney Alcala - Wikipedia
Those diagnoses are all personality disorders, sounding like learned behaviors as well as a disorder based on physiological issues. He had a high IQ, maybe he was on the autism spectrum, possibly like Aspergers? How else does someone have such extreme anti-social behavior by the age of 19 or 20 that they get a medical discharge from the military? Back in the 1960's the military didn't give those kinds of discharges unless someone had severe problems.

The guy had no conscience at all. He wanted to do what he wanted to do, regardless of how it affected others. But he cared enough to put on a good appearance, to get an education and appear sociable and friendly. A monster of the highest order.
 
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Good riddance Rodney! Time to burn!

IMO, some people are just born truly evil and sick - Rodney Alcala, Ted Bundy, and so forth. Soulless.

Rodney Alcala was the first serial killer I ever heard about, so this was interesting news to me.
 

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