Serial killer escaped two death sentences before police discovered disturbing evidence linking him to several murders
Warning: This article contains discussion of rape, sexual assault and child abuse which some readers may find distressing
A serial killer connected to more than 100 murders managed to evade authorities twice before he was finally caught for his horrific crimes.
Rodney Alcala died at the age of 77 while waiting for a death sentence. At the time of his death in 2021, he had been connected to around 130 assaults against women and children.
However, he had gotten away with his crimes for decades.
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Nicknamed 'The Dating Game Killer' after appearing on the iconic show in 1978, the photographer had a disturbed secret life.
By the time he appeared on the show, he'd already killed two women and raped an eight-year-old girl.
Aged 17, Alcala had joined the army but was discharged after allegations of sexual misconduct.
Going on to study film under Roman Polanski at NYU using the pseudonym 'John Berger', he then started working as a professional fashion photographer.
In this line of work, he convinced hundreds of young men and women to pose nude for him.
This tactic was also adopted for his victims, who he would lure in and strangle until they passed out.
Once he was finished with them, he would kill them and rearrange their limbs into explicit poses for one last photoshoot.
Alcala was convicted of killing seven women in the 1970s - five in California and two in New York.
One of his victims, who survived an attack, spoke out about the ordeal in a documentary.
Morgan Rowan, who was attacked in 1968 at the age of 16, was lured into Alcala's LA apartment.
Once inside, Alcala locked her inside a bedroom and began his attack.
Rowan recalled: "He took his belt off and wrapped it around his fist. I tried to be brave and I said, 'You know, you can't keep me here,' and he just punched me between my eyes as hard as he could."
Alcala raped Morgan, who only managed to escape when her friends broke a window in the bedroom.
Months later, Alcala was caught raping an eight-year-old girl in the same apartment.
When he was finally brought to trial, the girl's parents refused to let her testify.
So ultimately, he got charged with the lesser offence of assault and was out of prison by 1974.
But his stint is prison didn't deter him, and his spree continued, until he was detained in 1979 for the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe.
The girl's body was found in the hills of Los Angeles, with a knife laying beside her.
Horrifyingly, police found hundreds of pictures of young boys and girls at a storage locker he rented, as well as so-called 'trophies' including earrings which matched the description for what Robin was wearing the day she went missing.
A police issued sketch helped identify Alcala, who was arrested at his mother's house and later convicted of the crime.
However, astonishingly Alcala appealed the verdict and was granted new trial. He was tried and convicted again, handed the death penalty once again.
However, in 2001 Alcala launched a second appeal which was also successful and saw him head to trial for a third time.
He was ultimately convicted on five counts of first-degree murder, and sentenced to death again.
It is believed that he could have killed up to 130 people, primarily women and children.
Ben Thompson