Rodney James Alcala, a serial murderer in the United States infamous for torture slayings in the 1970s, died in California on Saturday while awaiting his execution. According to authorities, Alcala was 77 years old and he died of natural causes at San Joaquin Valley Hospital.
Alcala, nicknamed ‘The Dating Game Killer,’ was condemned to death in 2010 for five murders committed in California between 1977 and 1979, one of which included a 12-year-old girl. Authorities, on the other hand, believe he may have killed up to 130 people across the country.
Alcala’s strategy was to entice women by promising to photograph them. After sexually abusing many of his victims, he later strangled or beat them to death.
‘There is murder and rape and then there is the unequivocal carnage of a Rodney Alcala-style murder,’ Shortly after Alcala was condemned to death, the brother of an 18-year-old victim of the serial murderer said the Associated Press.
His real victim count, according to investigators, may never be discovered. After pleading guilty to two killings in New York, Alcala was sentenced to an extra 25 years to life in prison in 2013. Following DNA evidence linked him to the 1977 killing of a 28-year-old woman whose bones were found in a remote location of southwest Wyoming, he was charged again in 2016.
After appearing in 1978 as ‘Bachelor No 1’ on an episode of ‘The Dating Game,’ an American television show in which a ‘bachelorette’ was invited to accompany potential ‘bachelors’ on a date, with the roles being reversed on occasion, Alcala gained the title ‘The Dating Game Killer.’
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Despite winning the competition, the lady portraying the bachelorette subsequently opted not to go on a date with him because she found him ‘disturbing,’ according to several news sources.
Authorities claim Alcala continued to murder even after appearing on the show. Prosecutors said he pursued women like prey and stole jewellery as souvenirs from several of his victims during his case presentation in court.
During his trial, Orange County, California prosecutor Matt Murphy said, ‘You’re talking about a guy who is hunting through Southern California looking for people to kill because he enjoys it.’ Prosecutors also stated that two of his victims were posed naked after their deaths, one was raped with a claw hammer and all were strangled and resuscitated again to prolong their misery.
Authorities published more than 100 pictures of young women and girls found in Alcala’s possession after the conviction with the aim of connecting him to other unsolved deaths around the country.
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