Unseen - Taking Down The Dating Game Killer | The Case Of Tali Shapiro | UNSEEN

Episode Date: September 14, 2024

This video is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/UNSEEN and get on your way to being your best self.-- "I hope you don’t sleep at night. I hope you have dreams of us coming after you."-- It's 1978, and Ron Jenkins, a detective with the Huntington police department, suddenly straightens up on his couch at home, unable to look away from the TV. The popular "Dating Game" is on, where a young bachelorette is blind dating 3 men, and Bachelor no. 1 is terrifyingly familiar to Detective Jenkins. That same afternoon, a parole officer called him to identify a suspected serial killer from a sketch, giving him a name: Rodney Alcala—that man is the same one who's on TV now, winning the show. However, the Dating Game Killer has no idea that his 8 year old victim from years ago is actually alive, and that she will be the one to ultimately take him down.  - - - Credits: Directing, writing & editing by Justin Chalifoux Research & script revision by Manon Lafosse & Tanvi Rajvanshi Produced by Alexandra Salois & Salim Sader Voiceover by William Akana - - - Sources: ABC 20/20 Discovery+ / Surviving a Serial Killer Australian Broadcasting Corporation  True Crime Central  Peninsula Television Production Woodcut Media Production  Sky CBS / 48 Hours A&E Television Network ABC News Reelz Channel Investigation Discovery  Make Believe Media HLN Prime News CNN Orange County Register Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1979, two young girls encounter a disturbing man on Huntington Beach before one of them disappears. Twelve days later, only her skull is found. This sketch is then shared with every newspaper before the detective himself sees his suspect winning the dating game and kissing his next victim. But no one could have imagined that Rodney Alcala is a serial killer, suspected of killing 130 people, until one eight-year-old girl who survived will come back to take him down. Pay attention to contestant number one, as he is not what he seems. The vaccine number one is a successful photographer and his father found him in the dark room at the age of 13 fully developed. Please welcome Rodney Alkalaw.

Rod welcome. The woman asking questions is Cheryl Bradshaw. She has to choose which of the three contestants she'll go on a date with. Would you say hello to Cheryl, please? We're going to have a great time together, Cheryl. Notice how number one will answer each question. At first, his responses seem innocent, playful. Bachelor number one.

Yes. What's your best time? The best time is at night. Nighttime. Night times when it really gets good. As the show progresses, the audience loves the playful banter between Cheryl and number one. A bachelor number one. I am serving you.

for dinner. What are you called and what do you look like? I'm called the banana and I look really good. But what she doesn't know is that contestant number one is a serial killer and he has chosen her as his next victim. Will that date be bachelor number one, bachelor number two or bachelor number three who gets the date? Well I like bananas, so I'll take one. Number one, that's the number one. All right. Say hello to Rodney Alcelon.

Rodney, come on to say hello. The year is 1965. 13 years before the episode of the dating game is recorded, 13-year-old Morgan Rowan has just moved to North Hollywood with her family. The shy young girl goes to Catholic school and is enjoying the free-spirited life of California. On this particular night, she's hanging out with a friend at her favorite spot. the Hullabaloo Club, a famous nightclub that attracts even the biggest celebrities. As they're standing in the parking lot, waiting to watch the bands come in,

Morgan sees two older guys staring at them and smiling. Her friend tells Morgan, hey, that's Rod. He was tall, attractive. He was very charismatic. He really drew people to him. Young girls loved him. They just loved him. He kept looking over at us, smiling, winking.

playful, and eventually you kind of waved us over. After a few minutes, Morgan's friend takes off to go meet someone, leaving her alone with the two guys, with Rod. But Morgan doesn't mind, as she finds him interesting. She even likes the extra attention he gives her. I wanted his attention, and he put his arm around me, hugged me tight, smile and laugh. But while Morgan thinks Rod is simply flirting with her,

she has no idea what his real intentions are. He grabbed my arm and dragged me into an alley at the back of the club. I think he slammed my head against the wall because I was unconscious. When I woke up, I had something pressing hard against my chest. As she comes to, she's standing up straight, pinned against the wall. Morgan realizes Rod has pushed a dumpster against her. She was badly beaten while she was unconscious. But Rod is nowhere in sight, so she's able to,

free herself. And I'm pounded on the door and the owner of the club called his wife. She helped me. After that, I would make sure I stayed away from him. For the next three years, Morgan makes sure she doesn't come into contact with Rod. Her spirit is shaken, but with time, she begins to go out with her friends again, until late August of 1968. When I'm 16 years old, I found out that we were moving back to New York.

I was so upset by it. I didn't want to leave my friends. Four days before she set to move back to New York, Morgan and her friends decide to go celebrate one last time on the sunset strip. There were hundreds of people walking around on the street, singing or dancing or whatever. You would just talk to anybody. Roger suddenly appeared in the crowd, and I was absolutely creeped out. Morgan tries to ignore it, and move on with her night.

She doesn't want to ruin her life. last time going out with her friends. Maybe an hour or so later, my two friends came up and said, come on, we're all going to IHOP, you want to go? So we got a car. My friend Mike was on one side. My friend Evie was on the other. I was in the middle.

Then suddenly Rod got into the driver's seat and just took off. Morgan is terrified. She hasn't told her friends about the incident with the dumpster. And as they're driving to the restaurant, Morgan isn't sure if she should run or pretends like nothing happened. We went to the restaurant and he pretty much ignored me. I got up and I went to go to the bathroom and I passed a pay phone and my dad always taped a dime inside all of my shoes so I'd be able to call for help if I was in trouble. So I took the dime and I just kind of stood there thinking about it. I have four days with my friends and I wanted to be with my friends and I didn't call my dad.

If I could go back, I would have called my dad. As she returns to the booth, Rod is telling everyone he'll drive them back. Morgan doesn't say a word, hoping this would be the end of it, and she gets in the car once more. But as they're driving back towards the strip, Rod suddenly makes a turn and stops at a house. He tells Morgan and her friends, come in, guys. I'm having a party. My friends thought that was great. It was loud, loud music, people talking.

I was anxious to leave, and I didn't want to sit down, so I just pace. At one point, I walked away from my friends just for a moment, and he just kind of appeared out of nowhere and grabbed me and threw me into his bedroom. As Morgan staggers in the bedroom floor, Rod grabs hold of a metal bar and drops it into some brackets on each side of the door, preventing anyone from opening it. I didn't know I was in trouble, and I kept backing up until I was against the wall. 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. Rod then takes out a knife and cuts the tie off her neck.

I could feel blood start to flow, and I remember thinking, he cut my neck, I'm going to die. With the knife in hand, Rod cuts off the rest of her clothes, leaving her naked. As he gets up to take off his own pants, he puts the knife down onto the floor, just out of reach from Morgan. I could see it next to me, and I kind of fixated on it, and I kept thinking if I can move to where I can get on top of the knife. He can't pick it up and kill me with it. And he raped me. I thought really hard.

I was a virgin. This was devastating. I started to feel like I was falling down a well. This is a really long, dark well. I was praying for it to be over. Praying because I knew that I was going to die. But suddenly there was a whole lot of commotion. Although the loud music has prevented anyone in the house from hearing what is going on in Rod's bedroom,

Morgan's friends have noticed she is missing. As they're banging on the door, Rod gets furious and takes it out on Morgan violently. The young girl is losing track of reality, barely clinging to consciousness, when suddenly the window beside her shatters. My friend, my cat, broke into the window. I could feel air, cool air. Everybody ran into the room, and he was just standing there naked from the waist down with my blood all over his shirt and he said, take her. If my friend Mike hadn't broken the window,

I would definitely not be here today. Morgan runs out into the streets with nothing but a ripped blouse on her. Her friend Mike catches up to her and begs her to get help, but Morgan is adamant. She doesn't want her parents to know what happened. I just knew I could never ever tell my mom.

or my mother. I could never do this to my mother, ever. My mother was fragile. My mother would not have been able to handle it. She agrees to go to Mike's house so she can be taken care of. A police officer appeared, I'm not sure who would call. I really didn't want to talk to him because I didn't want my parents to know. I wasn't cooperative at all and he left. Regardless of whether she wanted to pursue it or not, The officer had plenty of information, and it should have been reported, and it wasn't. When I got to New York, the person I had been was gone. I was morose and quiet and troubled.

My parents just thought, you know, that I was sad from leaving California, and I was upset. It's October 1968. Morgan has been living in New York for the past few weeks, doing everything she can to forget the attack on her life, when she's She gets a letter in the mail from one of the girls who was there that night. When I opened the letter, a newspaper clipping fell out on the floor. And it said that Rod Alcala had raped and almost killed an eight-year-old girl. I was overwhelmed. It was my fault.

I hadn't done anything. I could have stopped it. I should have told my parents, I should have done something. I should have gone back to that house and killed him myself. So I tried to call back to LA, tried to get a hold of somebody. But I had no name to track. I didn't even know if she lived. It broke me.

I dreamt about her all the time. She had no name, no face. She was just kind of a ghost. I would go to the library and look up LA Times on microfilm and look for anything. had told me whether she lived or not. Rodney Alcala, the man Morgan knows only as Rod, is in every newspaper she finds,

and yet there is no news of his arrest. The man, it seems, has vanished. What she doesn't know is that Rodney Alcala has also traveled to New York. This is Bill McCrary in North Tarrytown with a story about the discovery of the body of a millionaire's daughter missing for the past 11 months. Right now,

the body of Ms. Hover is in the medical examiner's office up here, where they're trying to determine if foul play was involved in her death. The year is 1971. Three years after the attack on Morgan, two young girls walk into the post office in New Hampshire, less than 300 miles from where Morgan lives. The girls notice a picture up on the wall behind the counter that says FBI is most wanted.

On it is a picture of their summer camp counselor, a man they know as John Berger, but the paper says, Rodney Alcala. I get a phone call and it's the FBI in New Hampshire. Say, hey, we've got your guy in custody. Rodney James Alcal. I said, you've got him in custody.

Fantastic. It seems too good to be true, but Alcala has in fact been arrested after moving to the other side of the country and changing his name to John Berger. He was actually working at a teenage girls camp and I had some information about he was dating the owner of the camp's teenage daughter. As it turns out, Alcala had purposely found a job

as a photography teacher in a summer camp exclusively for girls. Police can only imagine he was planning for his next victim. On the 12th of August, 1971, I picked him up, took him to the airport, school him back. We got our guy, you know, he's going to prison for at least 20, 30 years. Detective Steve Hoddle is convinced this is an open and shut that he's removed Rodney Alcala from the streets for good, but this couldn't be farther from the truth. Alcala is brought on charges of kidnapping, rape, and attempted murder. With the physical

evidence found in his home, with multiple eyewitnesses, and with the victim's identification of Rodney Alcala, the case against him falls apart because one key witness is missing. Around that time, I went down to the library and looked it up, and it said that the eight-year-old girl had been unable to testify. That broke my heart. I thought that she was badly brain damaged. I didn't think she would have a life. I was really, really hurt. When the prosecution learned that this eight-year-old girl would not be availed to testify,

they decided to give him what is known as a plea deal. Alcala accepts the charge of child molestation in exchange for a reduced sentence, but the sentence the judge decides to give him shocks everyone. One year to life, which means Rodney Alcala could be released to any time after 12 months if he can convince the parole board that he's rehabilitated. In August of 1974, after only 34 months in state prison, the parole board released this man into the wild, into society. I think that because he was as smooth and slick as he was, I think he worked his mental magic on the psychologist, and that recommendation came out.

He's all well now. He's cured. He can go back into society. But Rodney James Alcala has yet to show the world what kind of monster he really is. But before we continue the story, this video is brought to you by BetterHelp. What's something you'd love to learn? Growing up, we learn about science, biology, and chemistry. But now as adults, we don't often take the time to learn about ourselves and how to take care of our minds. That's why BetterHelp can help you reconnect with your back-to-school mindset, but for your own well-being. Therapy can help you develop positive coping skills.

teach you how to set healthy boundaries, and can empower you to take care of yourself and your mind. It's helpful for everyone, whether you've been through adversity or you just wish to make a positive change in your life. BetterHelp is the world's largest therapy service, and it's entirely online. You can talk by video call, by phone, or simply chat at your own pace. BetterHelp is designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited for your schedule with over 30,000 licensed therapists available. They even partner with nonprofit organizations to donate free therapy to under-resourced communities. Rediscover your curiosity with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com-unseen today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash unseen. Now, back to the story. It's June 20th,

1979, five years after Alcala was released from prison. Twelve-year-old Robin Sampso and her friend Bridget are doing cartwheels down at Huntington Beach when a man walks up to them. He says he's a professional photographer and asks if he can take their picture. This is the type of thing that Rodhya Kolo would do. He would seek out girls and convince them that he was a legitimate photographer and he was going to do a magazine layout. As the man is taking their picture, a neighbor comes up to the girls and asks if they're okay,

worried about this strange man talking to them. As soon as she arrives, the photographer turns his face away from her and sprints away. He approached two 12-year-old girls. Who does that? It's just as creepy in 1979 as it would be today. Shortly after, Robin leaves her friend Bridget so she can be at her ballet class at 4 o'clock. Bridget lends Robin her bike, so she won't be late. One hour later, Robin's mother gets a phone call from the ballet studio. Her daughter never showed up. Right away, Robin's mother Marianne calls Bridget's house, the friend she was last seen with. This is when she learns about the strange man who approached her.

Police are called, and Bridget meets with a sketch artist, providing authorities with this drawing. The sketch is shared with every media outlet. Everyone is on the lookout, searching for this man, and for 12-year-old Robin, to no avail. It was probably the most horrifying time of all, you know, not knowing. Robin Samso was a 12-year-old, blonde, blue-eyed poster child for healthy lifestyle. She always had a spirit about her. I mean, everybody that met her fell in love with her. She was probably the most loving child the mother could have. Everything she did, she did to please me. July 2nd, 12 days after she went missing, Robin's boss.

is found in the foothills of Sierra Madre more than 40 miles from where she was last seen. I said, let's go see her. He said, we can't do that. I said, that's my baby. Of course I can see her. Why not? He said, because it took us three days to identify her. I said, what's wrong with you people? How many little girls with long blonde hair disappeared that it took you three days? He shook my shoulders and the tears were coming down his face too.

He says, there was no hair. Mary Ann, Robin's mother, is shattered. The loss of her daughter has forever changed her. Los Angeles is troubled by the murder of Robin Samso, as police struggled to find a single suspect. Detective Jenkins with the Huntington People's Police Department gets a phone call in the late afternoon from a parole officer who says, hey, I've got a parolee who looks awfully similar to that composite sketch.

You need to look at him, his name is Rodney Alcala. So this is towards the end of the day, these police are working 18-hour days, if not longer, and Jenkins needs a break. Detective Jenkins plans to take a look at this man named Rodney Alcala, first thing in the morning. But for now, he's headed home for the night. But he can't shake the idea that his suspect might have been identified. The name Rodney Alcala lingers on his mind, even as he sits down at home in front of the television

and stumbles upon a rerun of the dating game. Well, let's see. Vance number one is a successful photographer. His father found him in the dark room at the age of 13, fully developed. Please welcome Rodney Alcala. There is Rodney Alcala on TV winning the dating game. Number one, would you say hello to Cheryl, please? We're going to have a great time together, Cheryl.

In retrospect, it has got to be one of the creepiest moments on TV. Bachelor number one. Yes. What's your best time? The best time is at night. Nighttime. Night times when it really gets good. The arrogance to actually go on television in front of the whole country looking for more women.

Detective Jenkins cannot believe that Robin Samso's killer is on TV. He finally confirms, this is the man from the drawing. He immediately starts calling the police department to tell the sergeant he's identified Rodney Alcala. but he can't help but worry for the contestant on the show. It was recorded one year earlier. The woman contestant is Cheryl Bradshaw, and if she chooses him, will she become his next murder victim? Will that date be, bachelor number one, bachelor number two, or bachelor number three? Who gets the date? Well, I like bananas, so I'll take one. Number one, bachelor number one, all right. But backstage, once the cameras are off,

Cheryl's instinct tells her something's not right. So she calls the producer of the show. She called me at the office. And she was like, Ellen, I can't go out with this guy. I mean, he is a creep. I'm not going. I can't. She got, as she said, very creepy vibes from him. She felt very uncomfortable. I went, well, God, no, don't go. I mean, you don't have to go. I think it may have saved your life. It's July 24, 1979, when police arrest Rodney Alcala for the murder of Robin Samsoe. All this time, he had been hiding in plain sight, living at his mother's house, just a few feet away from where Robin's body was found. They obtained a search warrant for his mother's residence where he was living.

They don't find any forensic evidence linking Rodney Okala to the murder Robin Samsoe, but they do find a receipt for a storage unit. it in Seattle. They get up to Seattle, they open it up, and it was a bonanza of evidence. They found over a thousand pictures of young girls and boys that weren't explicit and sexually provocative poses, and a lot of them were naked. And many photographs of potential victims that Rodney may have targeted and recover many roles of undeveloped film. They also find various forms of jewelry, a bunch of different earrings.

Two of the earrings found were gold ball earrings. Robin was described as wearing those earrings on the day that she disappeared. Now we have something that links Rodney Alcala to Robin Samsoe. February 1980, Rodney Alcala goes on trial. Every seat in the courthouse is taken. Robin Samso's mother, Marianne, is there. As she's sitting behind her daughter's killer, she has a clear view of him, and her hand is inside her purse, clutching a gun. No one in the courthouse knows that she's about to shoot Rodney Alcala, not even Robin's oldest sister, Tarana, sitting next to her. My mom just, she was never the same. It's like her wife just had this big empty hole and everybody else was just on the outside looking in. She really didn't

I didn't care about anything else at that point. She wanted to avenge her daughter. I was going to shoot right between the eyes if I could have gotten a shot at him. I do remember she was very calm. She just kept saying everything's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay. But then, she felt Robin's presence. All of a sudden, I smelled her shampoo, and I felt it's warm with my hand,

and I couldn't get my hand out of my purse. I remember her telling me that she heard Robin's. Robin's voice and told her not to do it. April 30th, 1980, the jury has reached a verdict. Rodney Alcala is found guilty and is sentenced to death. It's a poor exchange for my daughter's life, but maybe it'll save someone else as by him being gone. But to the horror of Robin's family, the unthinkable happens. His sentence is overturned just four years later.

Today, in a five to one decision, the California State Supreme Court ruled that Rodney Alcala did not receive a fair trial. There's been a growth miscarriage of justice for being found guilty as something that I didn't do. And I think the case will be reversed on appeal. Will Rodney O'Kala ever be put to death in your estimation? Not if I can have anything to do with her. Just can't believe that we have to be punished.

But what he did? He's got nothing to do by gain. All we have to do is be destroyed and be... Go down a little bit further. I don't know if we can, really. We, the jury, find the defendant, Rodney James Alcala, guilty of the crime affair. Death, that's the only penalty in case that was this. The second time he was found guilty and he got the death penalty again, and we were extremely happy.

But in 2001, in the most unlikely turn of events, Rodney's death penalty is again overturned, dragging the family back into the horrors of another trial and risking his liberation. My mom really kind of lost it then. We've gone through a lot of hell because of that animal. A lot of hell. A lot of hell. Every time this happens, it's like losing Robin all over again, you know? I don't know if you've ever lost a child, but there's nothing.

Nothing that hurts like that. Nothing. This case was assigned to me back in 2003 when my boss came in and essentially gave me the rundown on it, said that it was going to be a tough one. That's when Matt Murphy decided to go back to the evidence, and he had that pouch of jewelry that was recovered in the Seattle Storage Locker, reanalyzed for DNA. After successfully petitioning for his conviction to be overturned, Rodney Alcala is awaiting his third trial. What he doesn't know is that forensic science is catching up.

After entering Alkala's DNA into the database, District Attorney Matt Murphy, along with police in California and New York, are trying to find matches in cases that were never solved. What they discover is far more shocking than what they expected. DNA links Alcala to four Los Angeles murders. Jill Barcombe and Georgia Wixsted in 1977, Charlotte Lamb in 1978, and Jill Peranto in 1979. Investigators in New York will later link him to the murders of Cornelia Crilly in 1971 and Ellen Haver in 1977. Six women. Four of which were murdered before, his appearance on the dating game. Right at that moment, we realized that not only is Rodney Alcala a vicious murderer,

and in fact he is the serial killer that we always suspected him to be. The year is 2010, nine years since Rodney Alcala's conviction has been overturned, when finally his third trial reaches its end. This time, he will not only be charged with the murder of Robin Samso, but with a total of five murder charges in the California State Court. However, there's one witness who will shock the courtroom. the eight-year-old girl who in 1968 survived the serial killer. It was the first time I ever had a name for her.

First time I'd ever seen her face. And it was pretty overwhelming. I was just so happy to see her alive. My name is Tally Shapiro. I'm one of Rodney O'Cullas' first victims and one of the only living victims. I remember the morning was nice and warm because I wore the dress that my nanny had crocheted for me. And I was supposed to take the public bus to school

because it was only blocks away. But I didn't like taking the public bus by myself. Car approaches me and I guess asked if I needed a ride to school. So he had his window down. I'm on the sidewalk and I'm talking him through the passenger window. And she says, my parents told me never to accept rides from strangers. And he says, I'm not a stranger. I'm not a stranger. I know your parents.

Which is totally possible. There were so many people in and out of my house. My father was in the music business, so we had a lot of colorful characters in and out of our house. I just took it like, well, it could be, you know? I mean, I wasn't going to be rude to the guy. I didn't know to fear people. I got in the car.

That's when he asked what time my school started, and then that's when he realized we had plenty of time, and he was going to swing by and show me a poster. I really didn't feel comfortable at that point. And we hit it off to his house. I followed him in. And that's all I remember. He obviously hit me over the head right after that.

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I remember walking into my classroom and everyone looking at me like I was supposed to be dead. After her ordeal, Talley's parents moved to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. They want to start a new life for her. In 1971, when Rodney Alkalist's trial for her attempted murder takes place, they refused to let her testify and traumatize her further. I'm so grateful my parents did not have me testify. None of this was my knowledge.

and I didn't need to know about those things. It would have totally messed up my childhood. But she has no idea how she survived the attack, only that she had two guardian angels watching out for her. One is a cop, the other, a simple Good Samaritan. In 1968, I was a sales representative, and I drove a lot. That day, I drove up to Hollywood,

and I was going along Wilshire Boulevard. I wanted to turn around, but there was a car in the crosswalk. Inside was a man, and he was talking to a young girl, evidently on her way to school, and he was smiling and talking to her. She was fixated on this little girl. That disturbed me. All the warning signs were there. Donald Haynes is at the right place, at the right time.

He sees Tully get into the man's back seat. He can tell something's not right, so he decides to follow the car. Right away, he notices the car has no license plate. His mind is racing, not knowing what will happen to the little girl and unsure of what his next action should be, until the car stops in front of a house. He watches as Tully walks out of the car and into the man's house. I thought, what the hell do I do now? You may have a gun, who knows?

And so I thought, well, I'll go find the pay phone, and I'll find. voting the police. And I received a call to see the man about a possible kidnapping at Lespalmus and Sunset. There's a gentleman right on this corner waving me down. Donald Haynes tells Officer Chris Camacho exactly what he saw, shows him the house they got into. Camacho immediately calls for backup. I went to the front door and started knocking. I could hear someone running around.

running around. The suspect appeared, moved the curtain back. I looked him in the face. I said, I need to talk to you. Please open the door. He relayed to me, I just got out of the shower, give me a moment. And I am looking at him. He's not wet, doesn't have a towel, and he's nude.

There was a rage about him. He wasn't calm. His eyes were fixated and angry. So that's what I told him. I said, you need to open the door. I need to kind of. to have it to talk to you. I put my ear to the door and I'm hearing moaning.

Within seconds, I kicked in the door. To the right was a dining room, to the left was a living room, and straight ahead was a kitchen. And here was this little girl. Blood all over the place with this bar across her neck. That kind of violence, it still haunts me. We all thought she was dead. She wasn't breathing.

There was no pulse. As Officer Camacho checks the rest of the house for the suspect, he sees him escaping through the back door. There's a chance he can catch him, but he has to make the choice. Run after the killer, or stay with the little girl who appears to be dead. I wanted to catch him. I desperately wanted to catch him. I just couldn't leave that little girl with that bar across her neck.

And that was breaking all protocol because the crime scene. You're supposed to contain it and not touch anything. But I grabbed a towel and I took the bar off her neck and set it on the side. And that's what we heard, the little girl starting to gag for breath. Oh my God, she's alive. Right away, an ambulance is called, and Talley is rushed to the hospital as she's barely clinging to life. As we're searching the house, I found a wallet on an end table, and I picked it up, I opened it. I found ID belonging to a Rodiacoa.

I saw his face. I saw him. I knew what he was capable of. I wanted to go to the hospital and check up on her. The doctor said to me, had you not taking that bar off her neck, she probably wouldn't be alive because you opened up her airway. And it struck me profoundly. Back in the courtroom, everyone is stunned. Tally Shapiro's testimony has left everyone speechless. As she leaves her seat, she sees someone she's been waiting her whole life to meet. I was with a group of people, and she came running up to me and said,

Mr. Haynes, Mr. Haynes, and I said, who are you? She says, I'm Tally Shapiro. And I said, oh, I'm so glad to see you. She said, you're the only reason I am here. That was really, really something that got to me. I had some guardian angels around me, the Good Samaritan, and I had the policemen. Without those two people, I would not be here today. As she exits the courtroom, reporters all ask Talley for a statement.

He should be put down. I don't think he should read another day, honestly. She doesn't know it yet, but there's one person watching who has been a person. been following the trial more closely than most. Morgan is at home looking at the brave young eight-year-old who survived. Seeing Tully's courage brings Morgan to tears. I blamed myself for so long. I wanted to contact her, but I felt so much guilt. I thought she'd hate me. I spent a couple days trying to write the perfect thing to just apologize to her, you know. And I sent her the letter. I said there was nothing to forgive.

I don't hope you responsible for anything that happened to me. Tally saying she forgave me changed everything. It was definitely a huge step to my recovery. When I went to see her, I told her, you know, I said for years I've wanted to hold you. Are you okay with that? And she said yes. And I just tugged her. I couldn't let go.

It was just wonderful. It's March 9th, 2010, when the trial for the five murders, committed by Rodney Alcala in California, including 12-year-old Robin Samso, comes to an end. Finally, the jury has reached a verdict. We the jury find the defendant, Rodney James Alcala, guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree. The jury found Alcala guilty of all five murders. You know that those families in that moment have a piece of justice. after such a long wait of 30 years.

We, the jury, determined that the penalty to be imposed upon defendant Rodney James Alcala to be death. I have prayed about this and I've given my hatred all to God because I've let this feeling consume me for 31 years and I'm not going to give them no more power over me. But the story doesn't end there. Following the conviction, authorities have released 120 photographs taken from Alcalas long, in the hopes of identifying possible victims and solving missing people's cases. In 2015, Kathy Thornton stumbles upon those pictures and identifies her sister Christine,

39 years after her disappearance. After spending her entire life looking for answers, Kathy can finally put her sister to rest. All right, here's a look at some other top stories this morning. Convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala died in prison. The so-called dating game killer died early this morning while still awaiting his execution. I feel like Robin's life meant something even in 12 years. She stopped him from killing anybody else. And I believe that if you would have told her that God was going to use her for this purpose,

she would have been okay with it. It took me a long time to realize that when evil touches you, it changes you. But it doesn't own you. Evil will never own you. You can also take a look at the 120 pictures with the link in the description. We hope more victims can be identified to bring peace to their families.