#The dating game serial killer trial

Murder of Charlotte Lamb, Los Angeles County In June 1979, Alcala raped, beat, and murdered 33-year-old legal secretary Charlotte Lamb.

He strangled her to death using a nylon stocking and left her body posed in her Malibu apartment.

Alcala used a hammer to sexually abuse Georgia, then used the claw end of the hammer to beat and smash in her head. Murder of Georgia Wixted, Los Angeles County In December 1977, Alcala raped, sodomized, and murdered 27-year-old nurse Georgia Wixted.10, 1977, posed on her knees with her face in the dirt. Alcala then left her body in a mountainous area in the foothills near Hollywood, where she was discovered Nov. Alcala used a large rock to smash in her face and strangle her to death by tying her belt and pant leg around her neck. The Murder of Jill Barcomb, Los Angeles County In November 1977, Alcala raped, sodomized, and murdered 18-year-old Jill Barcomb, a New York native who had recently moved to California.More than two decades later he was also charged over the killings of the four adult women, based on new DNA and other forensic evidence.Īfter the verdict, authorities released more than 100 photos of young women and girls found in Alcala’s possession, aiming to link him to unsolved murders around the US. He was sentenced to death twice before in Samsoe’s murder but both convictions were overturned. Investigators said one victim’s DNA was found on a rose-shaped earring in Alcala’s possession, and his DNA was found in her body. All were repeatedly strangled and resuscitated, they said. He denied the murders and cited inconsistencies in witness accounts.Ĭalifornia prosecutors said Alcala took earrings from at least two of his adult victims as trophies.

#The dating game serial killer trial

The mother of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe testified at Alcala’s murder trial that a pair of gold ball earrings found in his storage locker belonged to her daughter.Īlcala claimed the earrings were his and that a clip from his 1978 appearance on The Dating Game showed him wearing the studs nearly a year before Samsoe died. “You’re talking about a guy who is hunting through southern California looking for people to kill because he enjoys it,” the Orange county prosecutor Matt Murphy said during Alcala’s trial. Prosecutors said Alcala stalked women and took earrings as trophies from some. Governor Gavin Newsom has imposed a moratorium on executions while he is governor. A prosecutor said Alcala was too ill to face trial in the death of the woman, who was six months pregnant.Ĭalifornia’s death row is in San Quentin state prison near San Francisco, but for years Alcala was housed more than 200 miles away at a prison in Corcoran where he could receive medical care round the clock. He was charged again in 2016 after DNA evidence connected him to the 1977 death of a 28-year-old woman whose remains were found in a remote area of Wyoming.

He received an additional 25 years to life in 2013 after pleading guilty to two homicides in New York.

Authorities estimate he may have killed up to 130 people across the US. He died of natural causes at a hospital in San Joaquin Valley, California, prison officials said.Īlcala was sentenced to death in 2010 for five murders in California between 19, including that of a 12-year-old girl.