Alleged Huntington Beach serial killer's trial to take strange turn with "Dating Game" evidence

A murder trial in which a suspected serial killer was defending himself could become even more unusual Monday when jurors are likely to see a video of the defendant as the victorious Bachelor No. 1 on "The Dating Game'' in 1978.

The nearly 10-minute video of Rodney Alcala on the game show surfaced Thursday on YouTube, and Alcala plans to show it to jurors Monday, according to Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno was skeptical about showing the video to the jury, but when Murphy did not object, he agreed to let Alcala have his way.

Alcala wants to show the video to bolster his claim that he was wearing gold ball earrings, contradicting the mother of one of his alleged victims who says earrings found in Alcala's possession were worn by her daughter.

Alcala is on trial for a third time for the 1979 slaying of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in Huntington Beach. The prior convictions and death sentences were thrown out on appeal.

This time he is also defending himself against charges of killing four women in the late 1970s in Los Angeles County.

Alcala, who is said to have a genius-level IQ, successfully petitioned the court to be allowed to defend himself in his third trial.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, were allowed to present the five murder cases during one trial, which has been held in a Santa Ana courtroom since last month and could go to a jury this week. Alcala may testify Monday or Tuesday, Murphy said.

Alcala, who was a photographer, has been trying to prove an alibi that he was at Knott's Berry Farm photographing a disco contest when Samsoe was abducted.

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Gina Satriano, who is prosecuting Alcala with Murphy, told jurors in January that Alcala killed four women prior to the Orange County girl's June 20, 1979, slaying, beginning with 18-year-old Jill Barcomb, who was slain in a remote area of the Hollywood Hills on Nov. 10, 1977.

In her opening statement, Satriano alleged that Alcala smashed a 7-inch rock into her skull, beat her, raped her and strangled her with her pant leg and a belt before leaving her battered and bloody body on Franklin Canyon Road.

Alcala is also accused of killing Georgia Wixted, a 27-year-old registered nurse slain on Dec. 16, 1978; Charlotte Lamb, 32, who was killed on June 24, 1978; and Jill Parenteau, 21, who was murdered on June 14, 1979.

DNA analysis not available to investigators in the 1970s will connect the defendant to several crime scenes, Satriano said.

Much of the physical evidence in the Samsoe slaying was lost when wild animals devoured her body.

In the case of Wixted, the killer's weapons were a blue, metal claw hammer and a pair of nylons he used to strangle her so savagely the blood vessels in her eyes burst, Satriano said.

Wixted's attacker cut through a screen in a window and crawled into her Malibu home, leaving behind a battered corpse soaked in blood, with blood splattered all over the walls, Satriano said.

The case went cold until Alcala was linked through DNA evidence to the crime scene in 2003, Satriano said.

Lamb, who lived in Santa Monica, was found dead on the laundry room floor of a building in El Segundo, Satriano said. As with the other victims, her body was found with her arms bent backward and one breast exposed, she added.

Lamb was strangled with a shoe lace still attached to a sandal, Satriano said. As with the other victims, her earrings were taken, Satriano said. Her killer so viciously choked her that the thyroid cartilage in her neck poked through the skin and the veins in her eyes popped, Satriano said.

DNA tests in 2003 showed Alcala's sperm in Lamb, Satriano said. Parenteau's killer also snuck in through a screened window and sexually assaulted, beat and strangled her in her bedroom, leaving behind blood stains and a pair of nylons knotted around the victim's neck, Satriano said.

In addition to the rare blood type linking Alcala to that slaying, one of Parenteau's friends told investigators she saw the victim dancing with Alcala a month before the killing, Satriano said.

The Samsoe slaying touched off a media frenzy six days later, Satriano said.

On that day in 1979, Alcala grabbed his camera and left his mother's house in Monterey Park, where he was living, to take pictures of teenage girls in bikinis roller-skating on the Huntington Beach pier, according to Satriano.

Alcala managed to talk four girls into posing for photos, Satriano said.

The mother of a friend of Samsoe's saw Alcala taking pictures of the girls, "and, ladies and gentlemen, that looked no better ... in 1979 than it does today,'' Satriano told the jury.

The woman went to ask Alcala what he was doing, Satriano said, but he walked away.

Samsoe's mother had arranged for her daughter to pay for ballet lessons by answering phones at a dance studio for a couple of hours before the lessons. On the day she was killed, the girl borrowed her friend's bicycle so she could get there on time and was never seen again, Satriano said.

Samsoe's body was found on July 2, 1978, on Santa Anita Canyon Road, and "by that time only her bones remained,'' Satriano said.

Alcala was arrested on July 24, 1979, in Seattle, where investigators found photos of the girls taken on the Huntington Beach pier in a storage locker, Satriano said. They also found a silk pouch containing women's jewelry, including gold ball earrings that Robin's mother recognized as hers and which her daughter had borrowed, Satriano said.

Alcala was first convicted of the Samsoe slaying in 1980 and has been in custody for 30 years.

His rap sheet dates back to a 1972 conviction for raping and beating an 8-year-old girl.