ClueTrail
Uncovering forgotten cases, chilling mysteries, and overlooked truths from around the world. From hidden histories to modern investigations and unsettling disappearances, each episode follows the clues...wherever they lead.
ClueTrail
Rodney Alcala: The Dating Game Killer
The camera flash was just a distraction. Behind the lens stood one of America's most prolific serial killers - Rodney Alcala, a man whose charm and seemingly legitimate profession as a photographer allowed him to approach women in broad daylight and lure them to their deaths.
We trace Alcala's disturbing evolution from troubled military serviceman to calculated predator. Discharged from the Army after a psychiatric diagnosis, Alcala's first known attack came in 1968 when he lured eight-year-old Tali Shapiro to his apartment, nearly killing her before escaping justice. After assuming a new identity as "John Berger," he continued his reign of terror across both coasts, leaving a trail of victims while developing his signature approach - approaching women with the promise of modeling opportunities.
Perhaps most chillingly, at the height of his killing spree in 1978, Alcala appeared as a contestant on national television. Competing on "The Dating Game," he won the affection of bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw with his witty responses and charismatic presence. Fortunately, Bradshaw's instincts warned her something was off, and she declined their date - a decision that likely saved her life. Just one year later, Alcala would be arrested for the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, leading investigators to a storage locker containing over 1,000 photographs of unidentified women and girls, many in vulnerable positions.
Though convicted of five murders, authorities believe Alcala's true victim count may exceed 130. His case exemplifies how predators can hide behind legitimate occupations and charming personalities, moving through society undetected for years. Follow along as we unravel how this monster in plain sight was finally brought to justice after decades of legal battles.
Welcome to Clue Trail, where true stories unravel one step at a time, from crimes and colds to survival stories and the downright strange. We follow the twists that lead to the truth. If you're enjoying the show, check out Patreon for bonus episodes and early access. Just search Clue Trail or hit the link in the show notes. And don't forget to follow, rate or review the podcast. It helps more curious minds find us. Now let's dive into today's case.
Speaker 1:It was 1978 when a woman named Cheryl Bradshaw appeared on the Dating Game, a popular show where women would choose a mystery suitor based on their answers alone. Bachelor number one introduced himself as a successful photographer. Bachelor no 1 introduced himself as a successful photographer. He appeared confident, quick-witted, charming in that smug, cocky kind of way, and very flirty. He won the date. But what Cheryl didn't know in fact what no one in that studio knew knew was that she had just picked a predator.
Speaker 1:Bachelor number one's real name was Rodney Alcala and by the time he appeared on that show 1943, in San Antonio, texas, he was the third of four children in a Mexican-American family. His early childhood took a sharp turn when his father moved the family to Mexico in 1951, only to abandon them three years later, in 1945, alcala's mother brought him and his sisters to suburban Los Angeles, where he seemed to fit in well. He attended the Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary High School, where he joined the track and cross-country teams and even helped plan the school yearbook. By all accounts, rodney Alcala appeared like a bright and sociable teen with a promising future, but as we have seen over and over again, sometimes appearances are deceiving. At 17, he joined the US Army and trained as a paratrooper. His service record, however, was far from spotless. He was repeatedly disciplined for insubordination, and not only Allegations emerged of him assaulting young women. In 1964, after going AWOL and hitchhiking more than 2,500 miles from Fort Bragg back to California, alcala suffered what was described as a nervous breakdown. A military psychiatrist diagnosed him with antisocial personality disorder. Later examinations would paint a darker picture, with experts diagnosing him with narcissistic personality disorder, borderline traits, psychopathy and sexual sadism. After being discharged from the army, alcala enrolled at UCLA's Schools of Arts and Architecture, and later he attended New York University. He attended New York University. His growing interest in film and photography would soon become the bait he'd use to lure his victims.
Speaker 1:It was a quiet morning in September 1968. An eight-year-old, tali Shapiro was walking to school. Nothing felt particularly special about that day. Just another day, another short walk to school. But then, through the noise of the city stirring back to life, tali heard something. It was a beige car pulling beside her. The driver then proceeded to speak to her. He said he knew her parents, that he wanted to show her some photographs. He was calm and softly spoken, even reassuring After a moment. She got in. Luckily, a witness saw the interaction and something about it felt wrong. The car didn't even have license plates. So he trusted his instinct and followed the car and quickly called the police.
Speaker 1:When officers arrived at the apartment and they knocked after some time, a man answered the door and claimed he was in the shower. The officer warned him, gave him ten seconds to come back. When no one returned, he kicked the door and what he saw inside would stay with him for the rest of his life. Lying on the kitchen floor was a child's body, blood pooled all around her and a metal bar lay nearby. The scene was so brutal officers assumed she was already gone, but then they heard the sound. She was breathing. Tali was rushed to the hospital, still clinging to life, and, against the odds, she survived.
Speaker 1:As officers searched the apartment, they uncovered something deeply unsettling Dozens of photographs of young girls, some clearly underage, and amongst the scattered belongings they also found a student ID for a man named Rodney Alcala, enrolled at UCLA. But Alcala was gone While police entered through the front door. He had slipped out the back. A man who had nearly killed the child just vanished, and the trail he left behind was just the beginning. After escaping out the back door of his Los Angeles apartment in 1968, rodney Alcala vanished. He fled the state, changed his name and enrolled in film school at NYU using the alias John Berger. Under this new identity he blended in effortlessly, but in reality he was simply hiding in plain sight, and it wouldn't take long before he struck again.
Speaker 1:In June 1971, the body of 23-year-old Cornelia Creeley was discovered in her Manhattan apartment. That evening, when her boyfriend couldn't reach her and the door went unanswered, police were called to check on her. Inside, they found a horrifying scene. Cornelia had been strangled with a nylon stocking. Her body was found naked, her hands bound and a cloth stuffed into her mouth. A deep bite mark had been left on her chest, a brutal signature that would become hauntingly familiar. Hauntingly familiar. The case shook investigators, but with close to 2,000 murders in New York that year alone and no immediate leads, it went cold. There were no fingerprints, no DNA tools, no suspects. Ronnie Alcala wasn't even on their radar.
Speaker 1:After the murder, alcala quietly left New York and took a job at an arts and drama camp for girls in New Hampshire. Still going by the name John Berger, he kept a low profile and tried to blend in, until one day when everything unraveled. Two young girls spotted his face on a most wanted poster at their local post office. It was unmistakable their camp counselor, mr Berger, was actually Rodney Alcala. The girls alerted the staff, who then called the authorities and Alcala was arrested and returned to California, where police were eager to finally charge him for the brutal assault of Tally Shapiro. But by then her family had left the country and without their testimony the case fell apart. With no main witnesses, prosecutors were forced to offer Alcala a plea deal. He pled guilty to a lesser charge of child molestation, registered as a sex offender, and then was sentenced to one year to life. Shockingly, alcala was released on parole after serving just 34 months.
Speaker 1:Less than three years after nearly killing a child, rodney Alcala was free and no one seemed to be watching. He quickly reintegrated into society and even got a job at the Los Angeles Times as a typesetter. And in 1978, he did something unthinkable. He went on national television. Alcala appeared as a contestant on the Dating Game, a light-hearted TV show where three bachelors compete for a date. On stage he delivered witty one-liners and woos the charm, and in the end he won. But as soon as the stage lights turned off, the woman who chose him said something felt off. Luckily, she backed out before they even went out, a decision that may have very well saved her life, because what no one in that filming studio knew by that point was that Rodney Alcala was already a serial killer. Between 1974, when he was released from prison, and 1979, when he was finally caught again, rodney Alcala committed some of the most horrifying murders in California and New York.
Speaker 1:Alcala approached his victims in broad daylight, in public spaces, on the beach, even at coffee shops. His method was deception. He'd pose as a photographer, claim he worked with magazines and offer young women the opportunity to model. He'd flash his camera and ask do you want to be a model? But this wasn't by no means casual. It was very calculated. He didn't just wander around with a camera slung around his neck. He carried himself like a professional and had a demeanour that made people trust him. Sometimes he even produced fake references to back it up. Many of the women he approached were aspiring dancers, actresses or students. They were drawn by the promise of art, maybe of opportunity, but they had no idea they were stepping into a trap.
Speaker 1:One of his early known victims was Jill Barcon. She was just 18 years old, found in Los Angeles in 1977, raped and strangled. Then came Georgia Wickstead, 27, a nurse from Malibu, found in her apartment the same year. Charlotte Lamb, 32, was discovered in 1978. Her body was posed in a laundry room in El Segundo. And Jill Parenteau, 21, was murdered just weeks later in her Burbank apartment. Each case bore the same disturbing pattern strangulation, sexual assault and a disturbing level of control over the crime scene. Investigators later believed he prolonged his victims' suffering intentionally. In some cases they suspected he revived his victims after strangulation only to torture them again. He wasn't just killing. Across all these years he was experimenting, testing the boundaries to see how far he could go, and then in 1979, once more, he targeted a child. This was the final murder that would finally lead police back to Rodney Alcala and bring this monster out of the shadows.
Speaker 1:It was June 20th 1979. A bright golden afternoon in the Huntington Beach area, the kind of day made for bike rides, ocean air and lingering summer plans. Twelve-year-old Robin Samsoe was riding her bike to ballet class. This was a routine trip on the familiar streets of her neighbourhood, just another summer day. But Robin never arrived at the ballet.
Speaker 1:Later, robin's friend would recall a man who approached them earlier that day. They'd been enjoying the afternoon just two girls spending time at the beach. When he appeared, he had long dark hair and carried a camera. But what stood out wasn't just the equipment, it was him His clothes, his shoes. He looked out of place, like he didn't belong there. He wasn't dressed for the beach or even the heat. Still, they brushed it off. When he asked if he could take their picture, both girls hesitated. Then, reluctantly, agreed. He told them it's for a photography contest. It's for a photography contest, smiling softly, with a calm voice and very friendly. But something about the moment felt off. It felt rehearsed and just as the camera started clicking, a neighbor who had been watching from nearby Stepped outside and shouted towards them. The man didn't say a single word, he just turned and took off by that evening.
Speaker 1:Robin was gone For 12 days her family waited for her return. They never lost hope whilst the search was ongoing, but tragically her body was found in the foothills near Los Angeles, badly decomposed, almost unrecognizable. Robin was just 12 years old when she tragically died. She was bright, sweet and full of energy, the kind of child who'd lit up a room without trying. She loved ballet and was known for being a good sister, determined, focused and kind. She had her whole life ahead of her, a life cut short in the most senseless, brutal way.
Speaker 1:Robin's disappearance shook the Huntington Beach community and the discovery of her remains shifted the case into high gear. Detectives retraced every moment of her day, speaking to friends, neighbours and anyone who might have seen something. Finally, a composite sketch was drawn up based on their description, which showed a man with long, dark hair and an unnerving presence. That sketch soon led police to someone already in the system, rodney Alcala, a registered sex offender with a violent past. When detectives looked into Alcala's record, they were stunned. He had already served time for assaulting a child, talia Shapiro, and had somehow been released. The arrest warrant was issued and Alcala was arrested, but the nightmare wasn't over.
Speaker 1:During a search of a storage unit rented in Rodney Alcala's name, investigators found something they didn't expect A conspicuous-looking box sat tucked away in the corner, and inside the box they found photographs of young women, hundreds of them. The investigators found over 1,000 photographs, most of them of women and teenage girls. Some of these looked like headshots, some were more candid and there were a fair few which had clearly been taken without the subject's knowledge. And then there were the extremely disturbing ones, photographs of girls who appeared afraid, confused and even posed in unnatural positions. Some looked eerily similar to Robin. But the photographs weren't the only thing they found in that storage unit. Tucked away, there was something else small personal items like jewelry. They found earrings, rings and necklaces.
Speaker 1:Some of them looked like trinkets a child might wear, others looked like keepsakes detectives knew what they were looking at Trophies, and at the center of it all was Rodney Alcala. Rodney Alcala was finally behind bars and in 1980, he stood trial for the murder of Robin Samson. The prosecution's case was strong. They had eyewitnesses sketched that matched a disturbing criminal history and the damning evidence found in Alcala's storage unit. The defense pushed back hard, challenging every survivor's testimony, questioning the credibility of witnesses, trying to cast doubt whatever they could. But it wasn't enough, as Rodney Alcala was found guilty and sentenced to death. But justice, like everything else in this case, was far from straightforward. That conviction was later overturned and then overturned again, all because of legal technicalities, procedural errors, issues with the evidence presentation presentation, and each time the case was retried, the families of the victims had to sit through it all over again. For 30 years Alcala stayed in the system, filing appeals and exploiting loopholes, and it wasn't until 2010 when he finally stood trial for good, this time not just for Robin's murder, but for four additional victims Jill Barcom, georgia Wickstead, charlotte Lamb and Jill Parenteau. Fortunately, by that point forensics had caught up and DNA from those old crime scenes finally mashed Alcala and, in a final twist, he chose to represent himself. He stood before the jury, questioning witnesses and even speaking to the grieving families of the women he was accused of murdering. He even played a bizarre self-narrated video titled I, rodney Alcala. For over five hours he rambled, asked himself questions in two different voices and delivered a chilling monologue. This wasn't defense, it was just a performance.
Speaker 1:By the time the trial ended, there was no doubt left. Rodney Alcala was convicted of all five murders and sentenced to death again, and this time it would stick. But even as the courtroom doors closed, many questions remained, because what investigators had uncovered in that storage unit was far bigger than five murders and far from over. Rony Alcala may have been sentenced, but justice didn't bring closure. For many families of his victims, the wounds never truly healed. Robin Samsoe's mother, marianne, spent decades haunted by his face. She once said he stole more than a child. He stole time. He stole peace. Another family member described sitting through the trials as a second punishment, and Alcala's calm, cold and manipulative presence in the courtroom was a reminder that this nightmare had never ended. It had just changed form. After his conviction in California. Form After his conviction in California, alcala faced additional charges in New York for the 1970s murders of Cornelia Creeley and Ellen Hover. He was found guilty once again and sentenced to 25 years to life. He would never face execution In 2021,.
Speaker 1:Rodney Alcala died of natural causes in prison. He never disclosed the identities of the women in the photographs or the owners of the jewelry and trophies he kept. To this day, dozens of faces in those images remain nameless and the true number of his victims may never be known. Some stories stay with us, not because of what we know, but because of everything we still don't. This was the case of Ronnie Alcala, a man who used charm as a weapon and a camera as a trap. Thanks for listening to Clue Trail. We'll be back soon with another story, another path to follow and another truth to uncover. Until next time, stay curious and stay safe.
Speaker 2:Thank you.