This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Rodney Alcala, the one-time "Dating Game" contestant back in the late 1970s, was convicted today in the killings of an Orange County girl and four Los Angeles area women, according the LA Times.
Alcala, who represented himself during the trial, has twice been convicted and sentenced to death for the slaying of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, but both cases--in 1980 and 1986--were overturned because of different technicalities. Unlike the previous trials, the third one added murder charges of four women in Los Angeles County, thanks to DNA, blood and fingerprint evidence that came to light.
"Investigators said they linked Alcala to the torture and murder of Jill Barcomb, 18; Georgia Wixted, 27; Charlotte Lamb, 32; and Jill Parenteau, 21, with DNA, blood and fingerprint evidence," said the Times. Samso "disappeared on her way to ballet class riding a yellow Schwinn bicycle" in Huntington Beach, noted the LA Weekly. The girl's body was later found in the foothills of Sierra Madre.
