Going West: True Crime - Rodney Alcala // 21

Episode Date: April 22, 2019

In the late 1960's, a Los Angeles-native with multiple mental health diagnoses is caught in the midst of murdering a young girl. When he vanishes without a trace, the FBI adds him to their 10 Most Wanted List. After a few years of actively searching, he is finally caught. But due to some unforeseen challenges, he is once again a free man. Young girls and women continue to die and he goes on a well-known dating show, but no one is quite able to pin any new crimes on him... for years. This is the case of The Dating Game Killer, Rodney Alcala. **GOING WEST DOES NOT OWN ANY OF THE NEWS CLIPS PRESENTED** ABC News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1haiiz_qwQ CBS2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQUf6KADFfo  CNN LIVE with Anderson Cooper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=755SVhkTMVY  Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's going on, true crime fans? I'm your host Heath, and I'm your other host Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. And today we're talking about a man who looks like Richard Ramirez and Ted Bundy had a baby. Absolutely. I think you could throw a little trullsman instead of there too. He's got that Ted Bundy charm too if you will. Not that Ted Bundy's very charming. I never understood that. Yeah, I never thought that Ted Bundy was very charming either. Before we get into the case, we have a shout out to give. We got some other really nice reviews this week, but we didn't have a name for them. So thank you guys for giving us those. And that shout out goes to Mike from New Jersey. And just

remember guys, if you leave a review, leave your name and location so we can give you a shout out on the show. Thanks Mike. This is episode 21 of Going West, so let's get into it. [♪ Music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing And finally, they targeted a brilliant and charismatic photographer in Rodney Alcala. But now officials believe he might be one of the worst serial killers in history. The prosecution called Rodney Alcala, quote, a monster, a monster who loves to kill women. This is a clip from the dating game back in the 1970s. Bachelor number one was just convicted of five murders. Bachelor number one is a serial killer turns out, and he had already had a violent record

with this episode air. Please welcome Rodney Alcalon. Rod love it. Cross your best time. The best time is at night, nighttime. I'm called the banana. And I look really good. Hey. Can you be a little more in the scripting?

Peel me. We're gonna have a great time together, Cheryl. Rodney James Alcala was born in San Antonio, Texas on August 23, 1943, to Raul and Anna Maria Alcala. In 1951, his father moved the family to Mexico where they lived for three years until Raul abandoned them. Anna Maria, Rodney's mother, then moved her children to suburban Los Angeles to start a new life with them. At this point, Rodney was 11 years old.

In 1960, at the age of 17, Rodney joined the US Army and served as a clerk where he did typing and administrative work. He stayed with the army for four years, but in 1964, he actually received a medical discharge after having a major nervous breakdown. And he was diagnosed with severe anti-social personality disorder by a military psychiatrist. Other diagnoses from a homicide expert included narcissistic personality disorder, borderline He had got a wall and actually hitchhiked from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to his mother's home in Los Angeles. At this point, he was 21 years old and enrolled in UCLA.

Four years later, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Rodney committed his very first crime just after graduating from UCLA in the spring of 1968. An unknown witness was driving down sunset boulevard in Hollywood and noticed a beige-colored car with no license plates, slowly driving alongside a young girl. The girl then got into this car and the driver was incredibly suspicious. It didn't look like it was her dad or brother or someone that she knew. The whole scenario just struck the witness's odd. As the witness followed the car, it had eventually stopped at a Hollywood apartment building where the man and the girl got out of the car and walked inside.

The witness then phoned the Los Angeles Police Department. When the police reached the apartment, Chris Camacho, the officer on duty, stated, police officer, open the door, I need to talk to you. Rodney then replied, I'm in the shower, I gotta get dressed. The police officer told him he had 10 seconds before kicking the door down. They immediately noticed a body laying in the kitchen surrounded by blood. The girl was 8-year-old Tally Shapiro and Rodney had raped her before using a metal bar to strangle and beat her. She wasn't breathing, so police quickly assumed that she had passed. Police officers scattered throughout the apartment

looking for the man responsible, but he was gone. To Officer Camacho's surprise, Tally started gagging and trying to breathe. She was immediately rushed to the hospital where her life was miraculously saved. This is just a really crazy scenario. This police officer walks into the apartment and sees this little girl on the kitchen floor of Rodney's apartment and she's basically one of the police officers said I couldn't believe that there was so much blood that came out of a little girl like that. And by some miracle, she was gurgling and trying to breathe and thank God for that witness who had seen Rodney's car beforehand because if he had never seen that and had never followed

Rodney's car and called police, Tally Shapiro would have been dead today. Yeah, it's one of those situations where, you know, this happens a lot when children are abducted and you're just like, how did no one see that? But this is one of those situations where somebody saw it and they actually did something about it. Exactly. And, you know, our lives get really busy every day and things are moving

really fast in our everyday lives, so it's so easy to miss something like this, but for some reason, this Good Samaritan had a hunch, saw something bad going down, and decided to follow Rodney's car all the way back to his apartment, and then called police from that point. So I mean, he went like the extra mile to make sure that this child was safe. So props to this person. And something that really stuck with Officer Camacho was that when he walked into the apartment, he saw two white Mary Jane shoes, like sprawled across the kitchen, not on Tally's feet. And that just really struck him because this is just a little girl's shoes and it's just so incredible that she actually survived this horrific incident and was able to go on

and live her life after that. And in this show we rarely talk about these victims who make it out alive so it is really cool to see that she was able to survive this attack. As police searched the house they noticed photography equipment and photos of young girls everywhere, from about the age of 7 to 30. They quickly identified the man as 25-year-old Rodney Alcala. They immediately began interviews and even talked to some of his professors at UCLA who described him as a great guy who would never harm anyone. After searching far and wide for Rodney and discovering his mental health history, he

was added to the FBI's most wanted list. Little did the police know, Rodney had fled to New York where he used the alias John Burger to enroll at NYU where he studied film under Roman Polanski. And for those of you who don't know who Roman Polanski is, he's a very well-known director, producer and writer. He was also married to Sharon Tate when she was murdered by the Manson family in 1969, which oddly enough happened the following year.

That's such a crazy part of this case because little did he know that there was a serial killer studying beneath him, and then his wife would be murdered the next year by somebody else, and then, to top it all off, we actually will discuss two other serial killers throughout the story who were killing in the same areas at the same time as Rodney Alcala. In the summer of 1971, Rodney obtained a job as a counselor at a children's art camp

in New Hampshire, while still using the alias John Berger. But this time for whatever reason instead of B-E-R-G-E-R, he did B-U-R-G-E-R. So technically a different alias. That same summer, a trans-world airline's flight attendant, who was 23-year-old Cornelia Crilly, was found raped and strangled in her Manhattan apartment. Her murder had gone unsolved until it was actually connected to Rodney Alcala, but this wouldn't be discovered until 2011.

That same year in 1971, the FBI added Rodney to their 10 most wanted fugitive's list. Because think about it, this is a few years later he still hasn't been caught. While two children who attended the art camp he worked at were in the post office one day, they saw the most wanted poster and recognized Rodney's photo. They notified the camp directors of this and from there they called police. Law enforcement arrived at the camp and arrested Rodney Alcala for rape and attempted murder of Tally Shapiro and extradited him back to California. The 70s were wild. You could apply to a job and enroll in college and nobody

checks out your shit. Like they just believe what you say. Yeah and he must have been kind of savvy in order to enroll in NYU. I mean that's a pretty hard school to get into and I would imagine he probably would have had to show them some sort of paperwork. So I don't know if he forged a social security card or I don't know how John Berger is actually connected to him. If maybe he found John Berger's ID or if he had stolen John Berers or if John Burgers not actually even a person. We don't really know but we do know that Rodneo Cola is savvy enough to create a false person to actually get him these jobs and get into college. So that blows my mind. That is a good point to make.

I wonder how he came up with the name John Burger or if he did indeed steal someone's identity and information but I couldn't find that online. I think the scariest part is literally that this fucking douchebag is working at a children's camp just three years after he tried to kill Tally Shapiro and eight year old girl. It's very telling. I mean, he obviously wanted to be around children. That's why he took that job. It's so scary though. I mean, he probably had a lot of opportunities where he could have killed some of those kids at that camp and either he didn't take those opportunities,

but just to think that a child killer would be involved in this kind of program, it really freaks me out. And I'm not even a parent, but to think about putting your child in a camp and you think, Oh, it's camp, it's fun, it's safe. And then one of the counselors is literally a child rapist like, Oh my God. 100% a wolf and a field full of sheep. Since this was three years after the crime, Tally's family had moved. The Shapiro's relocated to Mexico because of what Rodney had done. They were afraid

to remain in the country, especially since at the time he was nowhere to be found. When it came time to stand trial, the Shapiro's refused to be involved. This reflected on the case incredibly badly because without a testimony from the victim and primary witness, Rodney could not be convicted of the crime. Prosecutors were forced to have Rodney plead guilty to a lesser charge. After just 34 months, so less than three years, Rodney was paroled. In 1974, it was really popular to use the indeterminate sentencing program where offenders were released from prison when they showed evidence of rehabilitation. And it's unknown how they determined he was rehabilitated, but he was known to be incredibly

charming. Less than two months after Rodney was released from prison, he was arrested for violating parole after he gave marijuana to a 13-year-old girl who claimed she had been kidnapped. He was imprisoned again, but for just two years this time and was released under indeterminate sentencing once again. To me what is really messed up in this whole situation is that Rodney only gets 34 months for almost killing an eight year old girl, goes to prison, gets out of prison, violates his parole and literally tries to abduct another girl, and they only give him two more years for that

It's like come on man. It's like clearly he's a danger to society and it's frustrating that they don't see that enough to Like lock him up forever because if he offended once and then he offended again as soon as he got out like that is a clear message People yeah, and it's almost the same type of crime. I mean, he abducted one girl, he tries to abduct another girl. It just, it blows my mind to think that they were so focused on rehabilitating people that they couldn't see how evil this guy was. So, in 1977, Rodney was a free man and 34 years old. Somehow, despite his horrific criminal record and sex offender registration, the Los Angeles Times hired him as a type-setter, which he had experienced doing in the army.

Interestingly enough, much of the coverage at the time was revolving around the Hillside Stranglers, which is a case that we covered in Episode 9. While he was working for the LA Times, he redeveloped his passion for photography and actually told numerous young women that he was a professional fashion photographer in hopes of taking their photo for his portfolio. Some of these photos are taken in very vulnerable moments and locations, which only makes us think the worst about some of these women and girls' fates. In 1978, Rodney was accepted to be a contestant on a TV show called The Dating Game.

It was a popular show on ABC where four people would be on stage, one woman and three men who were described as bachelors. They would all be sitting in chairs in a line for the audience to see, and there was a wall between the one woman and the three men. The woman is allowed to ask any question about the man to get to know them better and determine who she's going to choose to be her bachelor, but she wasn't allowed to ask anything regarding their name, age, occupation, or income. So it's kind of like a blind matchmaking show. The host introduced Rodney to the audience as a successful

photographer who got his start with his father at age 13 and that he also enjoyed skydiving and motorcycling. And then he stated his name, Rodney Alcala. I think it's really interesting that he used his real name on the show since he had a criminal history. Even though at this point the police didn't know that he was murdering women, they just knew that he attempted to murder Tally Shapiro and rape her, but still he had that rape and attempted murder on his record. And first of all it's interesting that the show didn't catch that, and secondly it's just weird that since he had used an alias before that he didn't choose to use an alias again on national television. Yeah, that does seem pretty strange that they didn't choose to use an alias again on national television.

Yeah, that does seem pretty strange that they didn't look into his background. If anyone wants to watch this, just search serial killer Rodney Alcala TV game show appearance, and we'll actually put that on our Instagram as well if you guys to check out. He actually came across as pretty funny and charming and totally wins over the backslorette. The show actually gifted them with tennis lessons for their first date, which is probably the most 70s prize I could possibly imagine, as well as tickets to the theme park Magic Mountain. And after the show, the two were ushered backstage to talk and get to know each other a little bit better, and Cheryl later reported that while they were talking, she felt ill because he was so creepy.

She turned down his offer for the date because she didn't want to see him again. She never actually stated what he said that made her feel this way though. She probably just got like a really strong vibe. I mean, from what a lot of other people say he seems like charming but at the same time like a super weird guy. So I mean props to her for recognizing that. I think that's kind of his thing is he wants to appear to be charming on the surface, but clearly he's just a socially messed up person.

I mean in this game show though, again you guys should watch it, but we also put a little bit of that in the beginning of this episode. He does seem totally normal. I mean, he seems like a kind of funny dude. Like, I kind of understand why she toes him from what he was saying, because I kind of thought he was funny too, as much to have as that is to say. Well, I mean, if you're looking at the other bachelors that were on the show, they were a little less interesting, I think. But one of the other bachelors on the same episode

as Rodney actually described Rodney as very strange with bizarre opinions. And a criminal profiler later noted that with this rejection from Cheryl, it likely sent him into a rage, and the profiler wonders if that had anything to do with the murders he committed later since serial killers especially do not understand rejection. So just a year after the game show, on June 20, 1979, Robin Samso was a 12-year-old girl living in Huntington Beach, California. That spring day, Robin was starting her first day of work where she would answer calls at a ballet studio in exchange for lessons.

But in the beginning of the day, Robin and her friend Bridget wanted to play at the beach for a few hours. The two girls were just hanging out on the sand when a dark-haired man approached them asking if he could take their pictures. So this is kind of weird for any person to do. I mean, these are two 12-year-old girls by themselves at the beach. Even a professional photographer, that's a weird thing to do. I mean, these are two 12-year-old girls by themselves at the beach. Even a professional photographer, that's a weird thing to do. Yeah, no, that's absolutely weird. It's weird one, because these girls are 12 years old,

and they're in bathing suits on the beach. And two, it's just strange to take pictures of strangers on the beach. Yeah, I mean, and sometimes people do that, but not 12-year-old girls in their bathing suits hanging out and you're a man. Like, that's just, no. And also to note before you move on here, they weren't the first girls that he asked if he could take their pictures on the beach. He had been asking multiple different girls that day.

Well, it's funny, because if I was at the beach and some guy came up to me and was like, I'm a professional photographer, can I take your picture? I'd be like, no. Like, that's just weird, you know, because I feel like that's not really how it works. And a lot of these girls were told that they were going to be put in magazines. It would be more of a legit process, you would think, than just, I'm going to take your picture and put it in a magazine. He also stated that he wanted to take their pictures sometimes because he was entering in a

contest or something for his school to win this photography contest or something of the sort. I mean, you know, what can he really do with your picture at the same time if you're just at the beach? It's not the worst thing that someone could ask of you, but it's just still pretty strange. But a lot of them were clearly very willing. Of course, I mean, you have these young impressionable girls and they're thinking, oh my gosh, I'm going to be in this magazine, like he's a professional photographer. Obviously, he's using this as a manipulation tactic because he knows that these are young impressionable girls. Well, Robin actually said yes to letting him take their photo. And I don't know if Bridget said yes or no, but Robin was fine with it.

At that same time that she said yes, and he was about to take their photo. So Robin's best friend, her neighbor, popped up randomly and saw this situation happening. And asked the girls if everything was okay and if they were all right, and she probably saw them with this man and got that weird feeling that I think we all would have gotten, and as soon as she approached them, Rodney was gone, like he just vanished, and he was probably super spooked by the neighbor coming up to them because he was guilty. It's a great thing that she stepped in and she was able to like, shoe him off.

And I really don't blame Robin or any of these girls for accepting this invitation because he was a young guy, you know, he was kind of attractive and he probably came off as very innocent and they had no idea what he was capable of and what he wanted out of the deal. So, you know, we definitely can't blame them, especially, you know, this is California. Right, and photography to Rodney is basically his candy in the van, essentially. And after the run-in with Rodney, Robin put her beach towel into her bag and said that she better get going to the ballet studio. Bridget was still feeling a bit uneasy from the photographer,

so she told Robin to take her bike and not to stop. A bit later, Robin's ballet teacher called her parents, explaining that she hadn't shown up for her lesson. That's when Robin's mom called the police. Police immediately went to talk to Bridget since she had been the last person to see her. Bridget explained to police that a man had approached them at the beach and she described his appearance, where a composite

sketch was made of a man with curly hair to his shoulders. And we'll get more into the disappearance of Robin Samso after this short break. How many of you know the name Linda Goff or Sarah Marsland? I bet you will have heard of their murderers though, Fred West and Harold Shipman. Hi everybody this is Steve, the host of True Crime Fix, the podcast which gives the story whilst giving the victim the loudest voice of them all. So far we've covered cases such as Collette Aram, Kitty Genovese, Jackie Paul, JC Sawyer and Molly McLaren. I'll be releasing new episodes every other Friday via Apple podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify and all other available stations.

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You can follow the show on Twitter and Facebook at STScast. Available now wherever you get your podcast. And we're back. Twelve days after Robin went missing, a fire crew found a body in the Los Angeles foothills. The head was detached, the hands were missing, and the front teeth were cracked. It took three days to confirm that the body was Robin Samsoes. Police released the composite sketch that was created by Bridget and circulated around the area.

Rodney Alcala's parole officer recognized it and identified him as the potential suspect. At that time, Rodney was living with his mom in Monterey Park, which was located incredibly close to where Robyn's remains were found. So it's unknown if Rodney had removed Robyn's head in her hands, but police suspect that the animal life in the area may have gotten to her body, and that's why she was hard to identify. And to give you guys a visual of the area, Huntington Beach is about 40 minutes south of Monterey Park where Rodney's

mother lived. Police searched Rodney's mother's house and found a receipt for a storage unit in Seattle. After Rodney knew that he was caught, he phoned his sister and told her about the storage unit because he knew police were going to search it. He told her to do him a favor and get everything out of there. but police beat his sister Tisiatal and uncovered an incredible amount of evidence. There were thousands of images of different young women. This really frightened police because they knew Rodney had killed at least two girls at this point, and these photos led them to believe he could be responsible for many, many more deaths. Police also discovered that Rodney had rented that locker and put all his belongings in there just nine days after Robbins remains were found.

And I have to kind of wonder why he chose Seattle because for those of you who didn't live in different countries, I feel like everybody knows Seattle's in Washington, which is two states above California. And it is a very long drive. So I don't know if he drove up there or flew or what, but it just seems kind of odd that he chose a location that far. Yeah, that definitely seems pretty odd.

He could have definitely chosen a place in California, even if it was Northern California or in San Diego or something. I think he obviously was taking precautions to not get caught, which was smart on his part, I guess, but in the end, it didn't really do any good for him. Well, it's funny then that he had that receipt at all because he was being that careful that he got a storage unit in a completely different state, and then he kept a receipt lying around.

Like, it's just kind of funny that juxtaposition of very careful and then very, very sloppy. Amongst all of the evidence, police found a small silk bag filled with earrings which Rodney claimed were his. Regardless, police showed the earrings to Robyn's mother to see if she recognized any of them, and she immediately identified a pair of gold ball studs to be hers, which Robyn often borrowed. Other than the photos, all those earrings seemed to be Rodney's trophies. The even more frightening fact was there were multiple pairs. And it's pretty crazy because they probably wouldn't have been able to convict Rodney of Robin's murder, had it not been for that receipt, because then they wouldn't have found the earrings and all the other evidence, and since there wasn't any

evidence or DNA on Robbins' remains when they were found, it's very likely that her death would have gone unsolved. Even though the sketch matched up to him, if there's no evidence pointing him to the crime saying that he was the one who committed it, then obviously they wouldn't have been able to convict him, but now they have these earrings, which you know, it's all because of that receipt. It's also important to note that they did find Robyn's DNA on the earrings. Yeah, and oftentimes we see this in a lot of different serial killer cases where police will say, oh yeah, we know that he has killed at least this many people, but he could have killed up to this many people.

And the number is always so high. It's just one of those things where Robin could have become one of those unknown victims in the end. Rodney was arrested for the murder of Robin's Samso and was held without bail. In February of 1980, Rodney went to trial, which lasted two and a half months. Over 50 witnesses testified. It seemed like a fairly cut and dry case, though, and the SAMSO family was very confident that he would be put away for life. But they were definitely afraid that he would walk away a free man, despite all the seemingly

clear evidence. The jury came back with a decision after a couple days of deliberating. They convicted Rodney Alcala and sentenced him to death. Robbins' mother actually reported later that she brought a gun to court because she had planned to shoot Rodney between the eyes for murdering her daughter and she said that when she was about to pull the gun out of her purse, that she smelled Robbins' shampoo and there was a warm presence on her hand and she could not pull the gun out of her purse and she didn't end up going through with it.

And I feel like it's so hard for any of us to be able to understand what Robin's mother was going through at that time. But to be honest with you, if I was put in that position, I would have probably done the same thing. I mean, this person, you're staring at this person who killed your child. I can't even imagine how frustrating that is to be a parent or a family member in a trial and the murderer is just right there in the same room as you and you have to look at them and you have to hear them talk. I've seen, I've actually seen a couple of videos of parents or family members jumping over the stands in a courtroom to get to the killer, and I totally fucking get that.

Especially because it goes on for so many days, it's not just like, oh, you have to see them once, like you have to see them again and again and again. Of course, and it brings up that heartache once again. And I also remember listening to an interview of Robyn's mom where they were saying that it took three days to identify her body and her mom was just crying, saying that she didn't understand why it took them so long because how many other young girls with long blonde hair went missing and they said that there wasn't any hair. And so to have to hear that as a mother and then hear the details of what he did to her

over and over again, like I just can't imagine. So most of the room's side with relief that such an evil man would be put behind bars where he could never hurt a little girl again. But that relief was incredibly short-lived when the California State Supreme Court ruled that Rodney did not receive a fair trial after he had appealed. Apparently, the jury had not been informed of Rodney's prior sex crimes, including the attack on Tally Shapiro. So it doesn't seem like the Supreme Court believed Rodney was innocent, but they still wanted a second trial to be set into motion, which means the SAMSO family would have to go through that pain all over again.

So this time, the Samso family was confident that they would give Robin the justice she deserved. Six years later, Rodney Alcala was convicted of Robin's murder once again. The Samso's were relieved all over again, but her mother would report how terrifying it was just to know that he was still alive because you never know if there's a chance he will be free again. Especially since Rodney had filed yet another appeal. In 2001, so 22 years after he killed Robin Samso, a federal appeals court overturned Rodney Alcala's sentence for a second time

based on evidence he didn't get to present the first or second time around. Because of this, Rodney was granted a third trial. So this poor family has to go through now a third trial, and they were absolutely devastated by this. And this is over the course of 22 years. So this family basically isn't granted the ability to move on from this horrible act, because they continue to be forced into reliving it. Just like we learned from Tally Shapiro's family opting out of the trial, the Samso's needed to be there in order to make sure that Rodney would go away for her murder or risk him potentially going free. So it's hard to imagine how difficult

a situation they were put in, because obviously they don't want to keep going through these trials and reliving it, but if they don't, there will be consequences. Exactly, and this whole time over all of these years in Rodney, Alcala's cases, he's really been extremely lucky in all of this. I mean, he could have been put away for life in 1968 with Tally Shapiro, and by some dumb luck he gets off, and he gets off again and again and again, and it feels to me like the court system was kind of inept at that point in time. I don't really know how it was in the 70s, but if he's able to continue to get away with these murders and rapes and sexual assaults, then there's

clearly something wrong with that justice system. Rodney actually then started representing himself, and crazy enough, Tally Shapiro showed up to court to testify as a witness and tell her truth and her story, and Rodney apologized to her. If I was Tally Shapiro, I would have spittin' his face. In 2010, police were able to identify that Rodney Alcala murdered Cornelia Crilly, the 23-year-old flight attendant from Manhattan, who we mentioned earlier, along with Ellen Hover and Rodney pleaded guilty to their murders.

Ellen was a 23-year-old artist and musician and living in New York City at the time. Her father owned a famed Hollywood nightclub and her godfathers were well-known actors. In July of 1977, she met a photographer and jotted his name down in her date book, John Berger. Ellen told a close friend that he had approached her asking to take her photo and was pressuring her for lunch. Ellen was too nice to say no and was potentially a bit charmed by this. She went on a lunch date with him and was never heard from again. The newspapers read, Nightclub Ares goes missing. Her murder actually occurred at the same time as the son of Sam killings, so her headliner was

amongst those murders. Missing posters were posted all over Manhattan and Ellen's family hired private detectives to help search for her. Eleven months after she went missing, they found Ellen's bones at the old Rockefeller estate in Westchester County, New York. It was one of Rodney's favorite photo shoot locations. It was actually around this time that police discovered that John Berger was the alias used by Rodney Alcala, but with the lack of evidence, they weren't able to pin the murder on him.

After murdering Ellen, Rodney fled back to California. At the same time, he was on the road, a 29-year-old woman named Christine Thornton was traveling to Montana from Texas with her boyfriend. Christine was known as a free spirit and she was actually going to Montana to pan for gold. Before she left for her trip, she called her mom and told her the big news. She was pregnant. After that call, her mom never heard from Christine again. Her mother initially worried that something had happened with her boyfriend. Christine had previously been abused by him, so her entire family thought that he had done

something to her. Christine sister Kathy searched tirelessly for her for almost 40 years. She tried to track the couple's whereabouts and contacted police departments, federal agencies, hospitals, you name it. She kept a record of every call and letter she sent. There weren't any employment records for Christine and her bank account hadn't been touched. Not that her family suspected she had run away and started a new life anyway, especially since she was going to have a baby just three months after she disappeared and expressed that excitement to her family, it seemed

incredibly unlikely that that was the case. In 2013, Kathy Thornton's son, so Christine's nephew, was watching a 48-hour story on Rodney Alcala, which then led him to CBSNews.com where he looked at a series of photos of different women taken by Rodney that were unidentified. He sent it to his mom, Christine's sister, and told her to have a look if she wanted. As she was scrolling through the photos, she found this one of a brunette woman sitting on a motorcycle. She thought it looked like her sister, but it wasn't until she noticed a small detail

that she was sure it was Christine. Christine had a very small pinkie toe that kind of hooked, and it looked very different. In the photo, the woman was barefoot, and she could see her pinkie toe, which looked small and hooked. After seeing that, she knew. Kathy immediately began looking up Rodney Alcala on Google.

She came up with a conclusion that her sister likely met Rodney at a stop, and they traveled for a bit together before he killed her. Kathy then submitted her own DNA to a national database of missing persons, hoping that a match will come up if her sister's body is ever found and tested. Jill Barkhome was an 18-year-old girl who Rodney sexually assaulted, sexually assaulted, bludgeoned and strangled to death before dumping her body in the Hollywood Hills in November 1977. Georgia Wicks' dead was 27 years old and she was also sexually assaulted, strangled, and beaten to death in her Malibu home a month after Jill. Another was Charlotte Lamb, a 32-year-old who was found dead in her laundry room in El Segundo after she was raped and strangled with a shoelace in June 1978.

And Jill Parentel, age 21, was strangled to death in her burbing apartment in 1979. A lot more victims were discovered over the years just by photo identification alone. Because of the thousands of photos Rodney had in his possession, 120 of them were posted online for people to see. And police urged that the public look through them to determine if any could have potentially fallen victim to Rodney. Apparently 900 photos weren't made public

because they were too sexually explicit. In the first few weeks, 21 women came forward to identify themselves and at least six families said that they believed they recognized loved ones who disappeared around the time and had never been found. None of those families have ever gotten real justice because the bodies were never discovered, but it's obviously very likely that they fell victim to Rodney. So going back to the 2011 convictions, Rodney was indicted for the murders of Cornelia Crilly and Ellen in January.

Then in June 2012, he was extra-dited to New York where he initially pleaded not guilty to both counts. But six months later, in December, he changed both pleas to guilty. He then cited that he wanted to return to California to pursue an appeal for his death penalty conviction. The following month, in January 2013, a Manhattan judge sentenced Rodney to an additional 25 years to life as the death penalty was not an option since it was not legal in the state of New York since 2007. In September 2016, Rodney was charged with the murder of Christine Thornton. So about three years after her sister had discovered the photo of Christine on the motorcycle.

Turns out her body had been found in Wyoming in 1982, but no DNA match came up in the system until her sister, Kathy, entered her DNA into the database we mentioned before. The match came from a tissue sample taken from Christine's remains. Rodney admitted to taking the photo but not murdering her. At the time of this conviction, Rodney was 73 years old and apparently too ill to travel from California to Wyoming to stand trial. To this day, he remains in the California State Prison in Corcoran. We really encourage you guys to go look at these photos of these potential victims to possibly help identify them. And you can do that by just googling Rodney Alcala photos and they will come up.

And if anyone knows anything about any of the photos, please call 1-800-577-TIPS. Again, that's 1-800-577-TIPS. Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yeah, thanks so much, everybody, and next week we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into. If you want to tell us what you thought about this case, go check us out on Instagram at Going West Podcast. And also go check us out on Twitter at Going West Pod. Also make sure to check out our Facebook group going West True Crime. And also don't forget to check out our website goingwestpodcast.com. And if you want bonus episodes, hit up our Patreon, patreon.com slash going west podcast, all the plugs. So until next time gang,

keep it real, stay weird. Cheerio! Thank you. you