There were two more murders 15 miles away arrived. They found by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird dating shows have been popular for decades audiences. Love to watch two strangers meet and fall in love from the comfort of their living rooms on September 13th, 1978. A man appeared on the popular dating show at the time the dating game what the audience and the poor girl who picked this bachelor didn't know was that this attractive man was in the midst of a murder spree. So if you like your coffee hot, but your bones chilled sit back and start your day with a morning cup of murder. Rodney Alcala from the early age of 17 after having a nervous breakdown and going AWOL from the Army was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. This diagnosis would during his trial be expanded upon to include narcissistic personality disorder borderline personality disorder and malignant narcissistic personality. Disorder was psychopathy and sexual sadism. With all this in mind the story of The Dating Game Killer unfolds as such after his discharge from the Army Rodney graduated from the UCLA School of Fine Arts and went on to study under Roman Polanski at NYU. It was in 1968 when he was in his mid-20s when Rodney Alcala committed his first known crime. He was caught trying to lure eight-year-old Tali Shapiro into his apartment. When they found the girl she was alive, but had been raped and beaten with a steel bar. Alcala was already gone. He changed his name to John Berger and in 1971 even worked as a counselor at a New Hampshire Arts camp for children that same year flight attendant Cornelia. Crilley was found raped and strangled in her Manhattan apartment while we now know that this was another victim of Rodney's her case remained unsolved until 2011 the FBI added Rodney to their 10 most wanted list an attempt to locate him and charge him for the attack. Tali Shapiro a few months after his addition to the list two of his campers noticed his photo on the FBI poster in the post office thanks to them. He was arrested and extradited back to California to stand trial. Unfortunately tallies parents had since relocated and refused to allow their daughter to testify and relive her attack without her as a witness Rodney. Alcala was only charged with assault and was paroled after just 17. Nine months in 1974 less than two months later. He was re-arrested for assaulting a 13 year old girl and was paroled yet again after only two years despite being on parole in 1977. He was permitted to travel to New York where cold-case investigators believe that during his visit. He killed Ellen Jane hover are so a Hollywood nightclub as his victim count started to rise his Mo took shape. He was known to toy with his victims by strangling them letting them lose Consciousness waiting until they came to and repeating until he decided to kill them around 1978. He added another element to his crimes. He convinced hundreds of men and women that he was a professional fashion photographer. He would then with their permission take photos most sexual for his portfolio. Most of these photos have never had their subjects. Identified and many believe that they can be connected to numerous other Cold Case victims. Because in 1979 while photographing 15 year-old Monique Hoyt. He knocked her unconscious and raped her during all of this. He somehow found time to go on a popular dating show The Dating Game which would end up giving him his nickname during this episode which aired on September 13th 1978. He won a date with Cheryl Bradshaw who refused to go on a date with him because she rightfully so so found him creepy criminal profilers believe that this refusal became exasperated factor and Alcala went on to kill at least three more women after this appearance on June 20th, 1979 a twelve-year-old Robin samso disappear before her ballet class in Huntington Beach her friends told a story of a stranger approaching the girl and asking her to take photos 12 Days Later her decomposing body was Found a sketch was released and Rodney Alcala has parole officer immediately recognized him and called the police. While searching his apartment, they found a receipt for a storage locker in Seattle upon searching it they found a pair of robins earrings. He was arrested in late 1979 and in 1980 was tried convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Robin Sam. So the verdict was an overturned by California Supreme Court because jurors had been improperly informed of his prior sex crimes. He was tried again in 1986 with identical results. And once again the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel nullified this conviction. It was while they were preparing for her third trial in 2003 when under a new law. I'll call his DNA was sampled and match to the semen left at a rape murder scene of two women in Los Angeles. He was connected to another Cold Case in 2004 and led to his indictment for For additional women and 2010 Rodney Alcala has stood trial for not just the murder of Robin samso, but an additional four victims he acted as his own attorney and would question himself on the stand for five hours. He would address himself as mr. Alcala and a deeper voice ask his questions and then answer in his normal voice. It was like a circus in the courtroom. He of course. Started his innocence but two days later was convicted of all five accounts of first-degree murder during the sentencing phase Tali Shapiro came forward to testify about being his first victim when she was just eight years old. He was sentenced to death of third time. But this is not where his story ends because in 2010 New York and Huntington Beach Police released a hundred and twenty of his photos from his portfolio in hopes to identify its subjects 900 photos could not be made public because they were too sexually explicit in just a few weeks. Approximately 21 women came forward and at least six families said they recognize loved ones who disappeared our never found in 2013. A family member recognized Christine Thornton who's body had been found in the 80s. She was six months pregnant at the time of her death. He was also charged in 2011 with the murder of Cordelia, Crilly and Ellen Hoover. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 more years. He is a person of interest in a number of unsolved murders. Thank you for joining me in my morning cup of murder. Please join me again tomorrow to hear what terrible thing happened on September 14th. Don't forget to rate and subscribe and let me know how you like it. If you want to help support the podcast there's always patreon or just sharing it with your true crime obsessed friends and remember stay safe. Guys, I want to talk to you today about Spotify because not only can you listen to all your favorite artists, but you can also listen to all your favorite podcasts in one place for free Spotify has a huge catalogue of podcasts on every topic including morning cup of murder and on Spotify. You can follow your favorite podcast. So you never miss an episode premium users can download the episodes and listen offline wherever you are, so it's perfect for travel and you can easily share what you're listening to. With your friends on Instagram. So you guys can chat about your similar interests and what you like if you haven't done so already be sure to download the Spotify app search for morning cup of murder on Spotify or browse podcasts in the your library tab. Also, make sure to follow me. So you never miss an episode of Morning cup of murder. Thank you for listening to morning cup of murder. This is a daily podcast that tells you what happened on this day in True Crime history in short easy to listen to episode. Acids that you can finish on your commute or while you enjoy your morning coffee. So make sure you check back every morning. My name is Karina. I am the Creator and host you can find morning cup of murder on Twitter Instagram and Facebook. I have also set up a patreon where you can donate a small monthly contribution to the podcast. All those links are in the episode description. Thank you again and have a wonderful day.
Dating shows have been popular for decades. Audiences love to watch two strangers meet and fall in love from the comfort of their living rooms. On September 13th 1978 a man appeared on the popular dating show at the time, The Dating Game. What the audience, and the poor girl who picked this bachelor, didn’t know was that this attractive man was in the midst of a murder spree. Rodney Alcala’s Dating Game Episode (1978) Become a supporter of this podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/morningcupofmurder Follow Morning Cup of Murder on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cupofmurder @cupofmurder Follow MCOM on Instagram: @morningcupofmurder Have a Murder or strange true crime story you want to share, email the show here: morningcupofmurder@gmail.com Morning Cup of Murder is researched, written and performed by Korina Biemesderfer. Follow Korina on Instagram: @kbiemesderfer * ** *** Information for this podcast was collected from the following source(s) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Alcala --- This episode is sponsored by · Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet Podcast: Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet is a comedy podcast featuring brother and sister duo Alex and Christine as they recap dramatic readings of one-star reviews, written by real people with not-so-real problems. 