Thaindian News

March 31, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): Rodney Alcala, a former “Dating Game” contestant, murdered at least five women. Alcala, considered to be the most vicious serial killer, appeared on the 1970s television game show, will be sent to death on the charge of culpable homicide.

His victims include 12-year-old Robin Samsoe along with Charlotte Lamb, 32, Jill Barcomb, 18, Georgia Wixted, 27, and Jill Parenteau, 21. Police are hoping that more families of the loved ones come forward so they can link more killings to Alcala.

Alcala was convicted on Feb. 25 in the 1979 rape and murder of Samsoe, a Huntington Beach ballet student, and the strangulation of four other women between 1970 and 1979. The photos were found in 1979, in a Seattle storage locker that had been rented by Alcala, but not released until recently because of legal concerns.

The jury consisting of seven men and five women denied Alcala’s request for a new trial before giving the final verdict.

Its speculated that police might never know about exactly how many women Alcala might have killed as there are nearly two thousand photos of possible victims and a few of them are of men.

Police said that Alcala might have used camera to trap his victims. He had studied films at New York University in 1970s and even worked with director Roman Polanski for sometime.