Woman of the Hour: Who was serial killer Rodney Alcala and what was The Dating Game?

Rodney Alcala was a serial killer and sex offender who was found guilty of eight murders across New York, California, and Wyoming between 1971 and 1979.

However, he is suspected of killing more than 100 women and girls., external

Posing as a fashion photographer, Alcala often targeted women by complimenting them and then asking to take pictures of them.

In 1980, Alcala was sentenced to death in California for the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe.

His sentence was later overturned by the California Supreme Court and he was granted a new trial. He received the same penalty in the second trial in 1986, but that too was overturned in 2003.

In subsequent years, investigators discovered forensic evidence linking Alcala to other California murders.

At a new trial in 2010, he was found guilty of killing Samsoe as well as four other women aged between 18 and 32 in the years between 1977 and 1979.

In 1994, while in custody, Alcala wrote a book titled You, the Jury (1994), in which he argued he was innocent.

In 2012, Alcala was extradited to New York after he was charged over two further murders from 1971 and 1977. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in New York to 25 years to life.

In 2016 he was charged with the 1977 murder of Christine Ruth Thornton, a woman who investigators had identified in one of his photos.

Alcala died of natural causes in 2021 aged 77 at a hospital near the Corcoran state prison in California.