. rodney alcala. >> i'll take one. >> bachelor number one. >> it was one of the most famous dating shows ever. >> looking back, this show would

unknowingly feature a remorseless killer. >> the horror story begins. >> i remember wanting to jump out of the car. >> the so-called dating game killer is one of the countries after most notorious criminals, but one most people have never heard of. >> we have a sociopathic personality traits. he had no shame. ♪ you can't hide if you run away ♪ >> he walks up and down the streets, asks people if he can take their picture. >> what better place than to go to a feeding frenzy like new york. >> she had been strangled with nylon stockings. rodney alcala has murdered at least phi women. the fbi put him on the ten most wanted list. >> will he get away with it? >> the body count is piling up. he goes on the hunt for more

victims and there's absolutely nothing to stop him. >> five, four, three, two, one. ♪ i'll come and find you ♪ ♪ sometimes i think chris was probably hitchhiking, probably looking to get away somewhere, and he just probably stopped for her. >> she's by herself. she could have met him at a gas station when he is filling up. "can you give me a lift?" somewhere along the lines, i think that he was giving her a ride some place. i don't think she had any indication what was about to happen to her.

>> chris was very trusting, so you know, that was her downfall. my sister christine was born christine ruth thornton, but we always called her chris. she was 11 years older than me. chris was tall. she was 5'10". dark hair, dark eyes. just, you know, a beautiful peon inside and out. in the summer of '77, chris was just 27 years old. chris was in san antonio. she was pregnant at the time.

>> christine was a free spirit. she kind of went where the wind blew her. >> she met up with her boyfriend and, you know, had this crazy idea of going to montana to pan for gold. >> and my understanding is that they were in southwest wyoming, an argument ensued between the two of them, and he left her pregnant and alone, and i believe that's the last time anybody had ever seen her. >> in the summer of '78, i decided to go down to san antonio and do some investigating of my own. i actually tried to find her boyfriend but did not have a good address for him. the san antonio police refused to take a missing person's report on chris because she was an adult. >> i believe throughout all the years that christine was missing, i think kathy was always looking for a way to open up that door of where she is. in '82, this herder out in the

middle of nowhere comes across a pile of bones, obviously human remains. >> what they found was it was the body of a 25 to 35-year-old female. along with her bones were also bones of an infant. there wasn't any identification, and so it remained cold for many years. imagined those bones would lead them to a notorious serial killer, a man i would later be called upon to prosecute. and this photograph discovered by police would lead a heartbroken family to their loved one missing for almost 40 years. it's a smile shared by a tragic list of innocent young women and girls who trusted a charming stranger only to discover a dark secret that began back in the fall of 1968. >>o, '68 wasumtuous.

it was sort of flower power, free living. it was quite an era and quite a year. >> reporter: martin luther king, robert f. kennedy had been assassinated. andy warhol is shot that year, and there have been urban uprisings tlougts the -- throughout the '60s. >> being a police officer in los angeles, or anywhere in the country for that matter at that time, everything was anti-war, anti-establishment. >> and it's commented on by some of the leading vocalists of the day. you had barry mcguire in 1965 doing "eve of destruction." ♪ eastern world it is exploding ♪ >> you had bob dylan of cour doing "a hard rain is going to fall." ♪ hard rains are going tfa ♪ >> so what wre seeing is the influence of the new freedoms

represented by the counterculture be appropriated by mainstream culture, and that includes daytime television. that even includes game shows like "the dating game." >> "the dating game" began with chuck barris back in, i believe, it was 1965. he had dealings with abc and he just came up with the idea and he pitched it to a couple of people. it caught on right away. >> the premise was a female asking questions of three bachelors who sat on the other side of a partition. she wasn't able to see them, of course. and she picked one for a date. and then she met the guy that she had picked, and they were awarded a date. >> looking back it is chilling to realize this iconic show, celebrating love and romance, would unknowingly feature a remorseless killer. >> thank you, and welcome once again to the dating game.

>> reporter: and from the mid-'60s onwards, southern california is a mecca for anyone looking to reinvent him or herself and have a fantastic time. they were all partying at some of the hotels on the strip, like the chateau marmont. >> tali shapiro was an 8-year-old little girl who lived at chateau marmont, which is a famous hotel in california. >> her father was a music industry executive. she had a mother and a sister and a brother, and they were living there because their house had gone on fire and they were staying there temporarily. and a car pulls up alongside of her. >> and it's this man who says, it's okay, i'm not a stranger. i know your parents. i'm friends with your parents. >> and she thought, hmm. well, maybe i'll get in the car. >> well, fortunately, a good citizen looks at this and says, "i don't like the looks of this." ♪ i have type 2 diabetes, ♪ ♪ but i manage it well. ♪ ♪ it's a little pill with a big story to tell. ♪ ♪ i take once-daily jardiance, ♪

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tali shapiro was 8 years old, and it was a beautiful, sunny day in september. >> and this adorable little girl would skip to school each morning, carefree, loving, wearing her little white mary janes, and then, the horror story of tali begins. >> i remember the morning was nice and warm because i wore the dress that my nanny had crocheted for me. >> and a car pulls up alongside of her, and the man leans out

and says, "hmm, i have a beautiful picture i'd like to show you." >> and i guess asked if i needed a ride to school, and i told him i didn't talk to strangers. >> and he pulled up alongside of her a little farther, kept trolling her. >> and that's when he told me he knew my parents. and i really didn't want to get in the car, but i was raised to respect my elders. i got in the car. that's when he asked what time my school started, and that's when he realized we had plenty of time and he was going to show me a poster. i didn't know to fear people. >> well, fortunately, a good citizen looks at this and says, i don't like the looks of this. and he takes off and he actually follows them to his apartment. >> the moment i felt danger was when he wanted to go by his place. and i remember wanting to jump out of the car.

>> so, the good samaritan actually followed the car to a residence where the man took the little girl out of the car and walked her inside. and that didn't look right. >> and he calls the police, says, you know, this is real hinky looking. i don't like it. there's this little girl. you know, i think you ought to check it out. >> i don't remember going up to the apartment, and i don't remember anything after that. >> i was driving down sunset heading toward west hollywood when i received a call to go see a man about a possible kidnapping. i followed him over to the location. >> at that time, i thought, okay, i better call in for backup. so i went and called in and requested a backup unit. i went to the front door and started knocking. i could hear someone running around. >> so, the man came and he opened up the curtains a little bit and peered out, and said, oh, sorry, i was in the shower. i'll be right there. >> i see this male person on the

other side, no clothes, not dripping with water, no towel. and i said, okay, you need to open the door right now. i need to come in. and he said, wait, let me put my pants on. i said, okay, you got three seconds. i probably waited five seconds and i kicked the door in. 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. clothes, shoes and a dress thrown to one side. there was coins on the floor. she had this steel bar across her neck, which probably weighed two pounds. >> and there's an image that i will never forget. it's an image of this pipe used

to strangle her with, essentially. pressed it against her throat. and more blood than should ever be able to come out of a little 8-year-old girl next to these mary jane shoes on the floor of this kitchen. >> i looked at her. i thought she was dead. she wasn't breathing. the other officers came around. we were looking for the suspect. i went back to check on tali, and i just couldn't leave her there like that. >> the officer had -- had a sort of a life-or-death decision to make -- chase this man out the back and catch him or render lifesaving aid to the little girl and save her life. and he chose -- he chose the little girl. >> as i went back in the kitchen, she started gagging, tali, so then that put everything into high gear. but when i was yelling, the

officer that was covering the back door thought i was asking for help, so he ran to the front to help me. we later found out the suspect escaped through the back door. >> tali was bleeding out, fortunately there was already an ambulance racing to the scene. >> tali arrived in the emergency room, and the doctor said there was no chance of saving her. and after she had been taken by the ambulance, they started looking around the apartment to see if there were any clues as to who the person was. >> i found his i.d. we determined he was a student at ucla in the photography department. >> and the name of the man who attended ucla was rodney alcala. >> they searched that house. and there are references in reports of hundreds and hundreds of photographs of young women and boys in various stages of

dress, in various stages of vulnerability that were in rodney alcala's possession. >> we had to find this rodney alcala. we had to get him off the street. because if he would do that to a little 8-year-old girl, there's no telling what he would do. >> you know, it was just by, you know, sheer luck that tali didn't die. she should've died but she didn't. >> she's in a coma for 32 days. nobody thought that she would survive, and miraculously, she pulled through. >> she was able to get back on her feet after several months in the hospital. >> my parents mentioned nothing. it was never brought up. it was never spoken about. i remember walking into my classroom and everyone looking at me like i was supposed to be dead. >> and her parents had just had enough. they could not stay in california another minute. >> they moved out of the country shortly after that.

they moved to mexico. the father wanted to give her a better, safer environment to live in. >> and that's where they stayed for the next many years. >> rodney alcala has gotten away. and now he's fled, and nobody knows where he's gone. >> i was a police officer with lapd. this was one of my very first cases, actually. and it was four, five months old at that time. and he was in the wind. i went out and interviewed a number of his professors at ucla. and e of the things th told me, they said, you know, you got the wrong guy. you know, rod alcala is a super guy. he wouldn't hurt a flea. really nice guy. >> the question police wanted to know, who is rodney alcala? and why would this well-liked 25-year-old college student so viciously attack an 8-year-old little girl?

>> this is san antonio, texas, home of the alamo. >> rodney alcala was born rodrigo jacques alcala buquor on august 23rd, 1943 in san antonio, texas. he had an older brother, raul. he had an older sister, and then he had a younger sister. >> his family lived in mexico for a while. >> the grandma passed away and the father left the family. >> they ended up moving to los angeles area to monterey park, he had everything he wanted, alcala. he went to catholic schools. he went to private schools. >> everyone who knew him said he was a kind boy, a respectful boy, and highly intelligent. >> rodney alcala had every advantage that somebody could have in life. he had a mother who loved him, which is a big deal psychologically. he had friends. he had brothers and sisters who all turned out to be very successful. >> his older brother was already at west point, so this is a pretty, you know, patriotic

family. >> and then he joined the army in the early '60s, and that's where the trouble really began for rodney alcala. >> so alcala didn't fare well in the army. he went awol a few times, got in some trouble. >> as it turns out, this bright, handsome young man with the promising future had nightmarish urges that he refused to ignore. >> so 1963, he gets a pass in the military. he ultimately goes to new york. while in new york, he assaults a girl. he hits her over the head with a coke bottle. that girl was able to run away. >> he had sociopathic personality traits. he had no shame, and he didn't feel guilty about anything that he did. >> the military felt that he had a nervous breakdown. that was their analysis of it. the psychiatrist at the hospital felt it was a lot more serious than that, but he was discharged honorably and not a blemish on his record. >> so he ends up coming back to

california, where he enrolls in the ucla fine arts program as a photography major. >> so, rodney alcala is actually attending ucla and living less than a mile away from chateau marmont when he attacks tali shapiro in 1968 and then seems to vanish. >> i was pretty much convinced he'd gone to mexico, because he had relatives in mexico. >> so, it's been three years now since the rape of tali shapiro. the fbi eventually became interested in the case and put rodney alcala on the ten most wanted list. >> so, i get a phone call and it's the fbi in new hampshire. they say, hey, we've got your guy in custody, rodney james alcala. >> it seemed like an open-and-shut-case, but it was just the beginning of what would become a pattern of catch-and-release that would continue for more than a decade.

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while the fbi is on the hunt for rodney alcala, he's actually living on the east coast under an assumed name, john berger. >> so, in 1968, john berger

walks into nyu and applies to their school of the arts. so, there he was in new york, a fugitive now for three years. >> what better place than to be a sexual predator than go to a feeding frenzy like new york. >> so, new york in the early '70s is certainly from the civic standpoint rather challenged. it's mayor lindsay's second term. he's having a hard time delivering services to people -- snow removal, garbage. police feel like they're under siege. crime is certainly up, violent crime. >> and it's during this crime wave in new york city that alcala is able to fly under the radar, and he strikes again. >> cornelia crilley grew up in queens. she had two sisters and two brothers, a catholic family, very well-respected in the neighborhood, had a very happy childhood. >> she was beautiful. she had long, beautiful irish

hair and irish eyes, big smile, very friendly and funny. >> a few years after high school, cornelia met dream man, leon borstein, and they began dating. >> i was 29 or 30. she was probably 23 at the time. >> she wanted to become a twa stewardess. at that time, they were known as ambassadors to the world and had a lot of prestige. and once she was accepted, she got an apartment with a couple of her stewardess friends on east 83rd street. >> in fact, in the east side of manhattan, an area becomes known as the girl belt, because for the first time, young women are living on their own and experiencing their careers as they never had in the past. >> i had gotten a job in a brooklyn d.a.'s office, so in the middle of the day, i got a call from her mother saying she couldn't find her. i said, okay, when i leave, i'll go find her. i'm sure she's at the apartment.

>> mrs. crilley was trying to get in touch with her daughter, and she didn't answer the phone. >> she was living in a building where i could go into the building without a key. i knocked on the door, and there was no response. that's when i called the cops, and they came over. i was at the front door when they broke in the back window. they opened the door. they told me that she had been killed. >> she was down on the floor of her new york apartment. she had been strangled with nylon stockings and also had bite marks on her breast. she'd been raped and brutally murdered. >> we got a call from the police department that somebody still had to identify the body. so i went over to the morgue. >> the crilley case, it's very unique because she just moved in the apartment. she's a new girl. no one knew her. so that was a drawback for the detectives in the beginning. >> new york pd has this brutal crime scene and no suspects. >> we had almost 2,000 murders that year. it wasn't peace, love and joy. detectives hit a lot of dead

ends with this case. they had nothing, unfortunately, and the case went cold. >> while still enrolled as a student at nyu, rodney alcala, aka john berger, actually spent his summers as a counselor at an arts camp in new hampshire. >> so, in august of 1971, two campers take the little dirt road down to the post office. and all of a sudden, it starts pouring. they run inside the post office to get cover, and they start looking around to see what is in the post office. >> and there's the good old fbi ten most wanted list. >> they go from one, to the next, to the next. each one looks more horrible than the preceding one. >> they look at this, and they're like, hey, that's mr. berger. >> so, they go back to the camp and they tell the head counselor, "we saw this ten most wanted poster of somebody who looks like our john berger." so, he said, "don't say anything to anyone, and i'll go down to

the post office and take a look." so, he comes back, he calls the fbi, and he says, "i think we have your man." >> i get a phone call, and it's the fbi in new hampshire. they say, hey, we've got your guy in custody, rodney james alcala. i said, you've got him in custody? fantastic. >> this has been three years that alcala has been on the lam and that hodel has been looking for him. >> so, on the 12th of august, 1971, i, with a partner, picked him up, took him to the airport, flew him back. we got our guy. you know, he's going to prison for at least 20 to 30 years. the parents didn't want tali to testify. they said it would be too traumatic. >> so, i think the big fear was, oh, many my, god, will alcala get away with it? >> and what's dangerous in the case of a sociopath is they're very persuasive. imagine this...

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in 1971, rodney alcala is arrested in new hampshire and brought back to l.a. to finally face charges, for the rape and attempted murder of tali shapiro. >> he was very low-key. kind of came off a bit introverted, but i could see his mind functioning. and that's what made this guy so

dangerous. he was able to read people very well and stay a step or two or three aheadf them. forim it was all a kind of a chess game. >> rodney alcala is charged with all the crimes against tali shapiro, which included kidnapping, rape, child molestation, and torture. >> it turns out that because tali and her family were in mexico, the only charge they could put on him was a plea deal for child molestation. no brutality, no bashing, no raping, no almost-killing. >> and they wound up giving rodney alcala a plea deal where he plead to what's known as an indeterminate sentence. he had one year to life in california state prison. >> with an indeterminate sentence, it's sliding. it's not determined, and then the parole board has more flexibility in determining whether someone's been rehabilitated or whether they're a danger to the community. this meant that rodney alcala would have yearly parole reviews. and what's dangerous in the case

of a sociopath is they're very persuasive. >> and he's getting therapy in prison, and they believe that he 3monthsthlifoia progress that paroleoard released rodney alcala back into the world. >> not even three years. good behavior, they said. model prisoner, they said. and he was out on the streets again. >> the heartbreaking part about this is they could have kept him, but in those days, that was an era where they believed so strongly in the power of therapy. but when it comes to fixing psychopaths, it doesn't work. >> so, alcala is the luckiest man in the world. he's out on parole, and he's having the best time. he's photoaphing people and he one day decides to take a ride and he starts trolling again. >> true to form, two months later, rodney alcala is caught smoking marijuana on the cliffs of sunset beach in huntington beach with a 13-year-old girl. and he was caught by park rangers. >> so he gets arrested yet again, and this time, he gets

two and a half years, and he's taken to prison. >> in june 1977, rodney alcala is released again from california state prison, and he goes in, different parole officer this time, and he asked for permission to go on some vacations. >> and the parole office miraculously says sure, go ahead. so, rodney heads off to new york. july 1977 in new york was a difficult time for everyone. was h. it was steamy. the garbage wasn't being collected. >> when you used to read the "daily news" or "the post," the first 20 pages are just violence, violence, violence, every day. >> there were a lot of murders going on, including son of sam. >> during the time son of sam in 1977, the city was afraid. look, you had a lunatic running around shooting men and women in cars. >> police in new york are on special alert tonight for a psychopathic killer who calls himself "son of sam."

>> his favorite targets? young white women with long dark hair. >> and during that time, alcala is taking a lot of photographs. he walks up and down the streets and asks people if he can take their picture. young boys, older boys, young girls, older women. doesn't matter. he just wants to take photographs. and a young woman says, sure, you can take my photograph. and they start talking and they get along. it's very nice. her name is ellen hover. >> ellen was strikingly beautiful. she had long dark hair and long slender arms and legs and carried herself like a dancer. >> her father was the owner of ciro's in hollywood, a well-known nightclub where sammy davis jr. and dean martin and other people appeared. >> ellen was very trusting of other people. she came from a hollywood family, grew up in beverly hills and then great neck and then manhattan. ellen loved people.

>> on july 13th and 14th was the famous new york city blackout. >> this is an abc news special report. >> new york city went totally dark last night, and tonight large parts of the city still are without power. >> it was lawlessness. people loot, crime goes through the roof, you know, people are afraid. >> there's no refrigeration, no water, no lights on one of the hottest, steamiest nights of the year in new york city. >> it was a very unsettling, hard time for most people. >> on july 15th, ellen hover goes missing. >> that evening, friends tried to get in touch with ellen. nobody could. >> the phone rang. it was ellen's mother, yvonne schwartz. mrs. schwartz asked me if i had heard from ellen since the weekend, and i said no. the next thing i knew, i was watching the 11:00 news and there was ellen's picture, "new york heiress missing."

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new york city went totally dark last night. and tonight large parts of the city still are without power. >> ellen hover's disappearance was a huge mystery. this was a very big deal that this socialite, this young woman, was just gone, missing. >> there was nothing in her background that suggested that she would have run away. >> it's in "the new york times." it's on posters. it's on the news. it's the talk of the town. >> when the police showed up at

her door, they looked inside. >> nothing looks like an attack happened there, but they collect evidence and mail, notes, things like that. and one of the things they take is her calendar. >> there was an entry that said she was meeting john berger. >> they research back and they try to i.d. who john burger is. >> you're talking about a woman who goes missing in new york city pre-computer. and so, rodney alcala/john berger was never really on the radar of the new york city police department. >> so, alcala goes back to l.a., and he's there, actually, trying to find a job. rodney alcala gets a job with "the los angeles times" working as a typesetter. >> you have to put this into perspective. on the lam for three years, ten most wanted, two stints in jail, felony. he applies under his own name,

rodney alcala, and he gets the job. >> he actually would bring in photographs to show some of the people at his work. a lot of the photos were of nude girls. and i think it was the time when people didn't really question it. you weren't like, oh, my god, you're a pedophile. instead, they were like, oh, he's just kind of strange. you know, very artsy. >> five months after alcala is returned to l.a., the fbi is actually able to connect the dots between rodney alcala, the name john berger, and the notes found in ellen hover's calendar. so, rodney alcala was eventually questioned by the fbi in relation to the disappearance of ellen hover, and he admitted being with her. >> where did you meet ellen on the 15th? >> he said he had taken her up to westchester to take her picture. they had a lovely time, and that was it. never saw her again. >> i vaguely recall dropping her off, and that was it. >> at that point, they still had not found a body.

>> other than him admitting to the crime, saying "i killed her," there wasn't enough to arrest him. >> this is bill mccarry in north tarrytown, with a story about the discovery of a body of a millionaire's daughter, missing for the past 11 months. >> ultimately, she's found. it's almost a year later. she's found in an area up by the rockefeller estates. >> they found clothing of hers nearby. they went back to the same site, and they discovered her remains. >> but it's all skeletal. she's identified through dental comparison. >> while police are able to positively identify the remains of ellen hover, there's no forensic evidence that leads them to her killer. >> 1970s was considered serial killer central. >> you have the hillside strangler, the night stalker, two freeway killers. you have the bedroom basher.

elsewhere, you have ted bundy and john wayne gacy killing people in chicago. >> recently there's been a rash of mass murders. >> 1977 through 1978, many women were murdered. >> police in this era are lacking a lot of the investigative tools they have today. there's no dna. there's no surveillance camera around every corner. people aren't walking around with a gps in their pocket. >> all of these things lead to this sort of perfect storm for rodney alcala where he's able to remain one step ahead of police and he goes on the hunt for more victims, and there's absolutely nothing to stop him. >> jill barcomb was a 19-year-old girl in new york who was adventuresome and wanted to take a trip with a friend of hers. and so she left new york for los angeles. >> jill and i were very close as children growing up. we were often mistaken as twins. jill had a very free spirit about her.

>> bruce was very sad when she left new york, was very scared for her being so young at 19 years old. >> so, november 10th, 1977, i called home and there was crying in the background. they said, you need to come home. you need to come home. and that's all they would say. >> jill barcomb was found off of franklin canyon road, and it was down the street from marlon brando's home at the time. she was found bent over, half naked. her head was facing the dirt. >> she has multiple ligatures on her neck. it was a brutal crime scene. >> i came into a house of siblings distraught, righteously so, and heard it from my mother directly that my sister was dead. >> her face was unrecognizable. her brother said at the funeral that he couldn't even recognize his sister. it was so mutilated.

>> i had night terrors the day that jill's body arrived. it wasn't just murder. it wasn't just rape. it was brutal. it was sadistic. and nobody could understand why the things happened to her. >> they thought perhaps this could be the work of the hillside strangler because that's what the hillside strangler did, strangled women and left them on the side of the road. >> and it complicated this investigation, because jill barcomb had a friend when she got out to l.a. that was actually abducted and murdered by the hillside strangler. >> in the end, the police were unable to link the murder of jill barcomb to the hillside strangler, and the case just went cold. that meant the string of murders of young girls and women continued. >> georgia wixted was 27 years old. she was absolutely gorgeous. she was a nurse that worked for cardiac care. >> she was from los angeles. she worked out of the centinela

hospital and just recently moved to malibu. >> every morning, she would pick up another nurse, and they would drive to the hospital together to do their shift. and one morning, she didn't show up. >> so the police were called to do a welfare check of her in her home. it was discovered that her window was open and the screen was removed. when the police entered her home, there was blood everywhere. her body was completely naked and strewn on the floor, kind of posed open. >> the viciousness and the sadism involved in her murder is so disturbing and so profound. >> there was a handprint that was found on the brass bedding, but there was no one to match the palmprint to. and again that case went cold. >> the third person who was found dead in the same way as the other two was charlotte lamb. >> charlotte lamb, in 1978, was a legal secretary living in the santa monica area.

>> she had called some friends one night to go out and go dancing in santa monica. her friends decided not to go. her body was later found in el segundo, miles away in an apartment complex she had no connection to. >> she had been strangled and she had been brutally raped and murdered. her arms had been folded behind her back, which made her back arch to expose her breasts. she had been posed. it's just very disturbing and incredibly sad. >> i met with rodney five or six times. i administered assessments with regard to his sexual interests. many times the rapist, killer, antisocial person will pose dead bodies. and they do want law enforcement and other people to see this. and there's a message in that.

the message for rodney is that "i am here, you will remember me ♪ >> so instead of hiding in the shadows, rodney alcala is almost fearless, and he puts himself out there in perhaps the most public way possible. >> rodney going on "the dating game" is a great example of him being predatory, him being confident, narcissistic. and, of course, he wouldn't go on unless he would win. >> and five, four, three -- >> he always wins. >> bachelor number 1 is a successful photographer. you might find him skydiving or motorcycling. please welcome rodney alcala.

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please welcome rodney alcala. >> bachelor number one. >> yes? >> what's your best time. >> nighttime for me really gets good. >> in retrospect it has got to

be one of the creepiest moment on tv. >> he says, i always get my girl. >> the so-called dating game killer one of era's most notorious criminals. >> they told us they had found robin. it was devastating. >> there's nothing that hurts like that, nothing. >> her plan was to shoot alcala. she wanted to avenge her daughter. >> he was a sadistic killer who deserved death. >> model prisoner, they said, and he was out on the streets again. >> the pattern o catch and release that would continue for more than a decade. ♪ you can't hide ♪ >> all these pictures that the police have from a serial killer. his victims are still out there.

♪ i'll come and find you ♪ so by 1978, the body count is piling up. rodney alcala has murdered at least five women on two coasts and almost murdered a little girl, and he's just about to make his primetime debut. >> in the '70s, i was the executive producer, and ellen was the contestant coordinator the show that rodney alcala appeared on aired in september 1978. >> "the dating game" appearance is just a bizarre part about this case, and i think that what it reflects is the narcissism, and the ego, and the arrogance of a serial killer. so, he actually tries out for chuck barris productions and becomes a bachelor for "the dating game." >> he was very striking. i don't know, there was a

boldness about him, and he had the long black hair. he was just a striking-looking person. >> in terms of putting him on as a contestant, i think on the form i wrote "nw," which was my symbol for no way. no darn way is this guy going to be on the show, because i noticed that he had a very strange personality. >> it's like, are you kidding? he's so attractive. everyone's going to love him. all the women are going to love him. >> and i said, all right, we'll put him on a show, but we've got to surround him with two guys that have personalities and that are respectable and decent and fun. >> my name is jed mills. when i got the job on "the dating game," they said, "you are going to be bachelor number two, so you'll be sitting in the center. bachelor number one was a little creepy. i noticed that right away. in the green room, he jumps in

and says, i always get my girl! >> number one, would you say hello to cheryl, please? >> we're gonna have a great time together, cheryl. >> immediately did not like this guy. >> and here we go! >> bachelor number one. >> yes? >> what's your best time? >> one of our edicts was to make the show much sexier and much more provocative than the show in the '60s. everything was sexy in the '70s some we pushed the envelope. >> the best time is at night. nighttime's when it really gets good. >> the sexual innuendo intrigued the audience. they loved it, and they starting clapping. yeah, they loved the guy. >> oddly enough, 42 years later, i still remember cheryl bradshaw. she did voices. >> she says, suppose i was auditioning you for a private class, and you're a dirty old man. >> you're a dirty old man! take it. >> come on over here.

grr! >> in retrospect it has got to be one of the creepiest moment on tv. >> the audience is beside themselves. they love this. >> cheryl bradshaw asked about what kind of food would i be if she was going to serve him for dinner? >> i'm called the banana, and i look really good. >> can you be a little more descriptive? >> peel me. >> in retrospect, it sounds horrible. but at the time, we were looking for raunchy, sexy answers, and that was one. taken in context now, oh, my god. >> rodney's motives for going on "the dating game" are, in my opinion, part of his personality disorder. he wants a lot of attention, and he believes he should have it.

he's quite bright, and he wants the world to know who he is. >> when it became time for the bachelorette to choose number one, number two, or number three, she said -- >> well, i like bananas, so i'll take one. >> number one! bachelor number one. this is your date, rodney alcala. rodney, come on and say hello! >> she seemed very excited about seeing him, and when he came around, i would say it was a pretty lukewarm togetherness. >> she called the office the next day and spoke to ellen. >> she said, ellen, i can't go out with this guy. there's weird vibes that are coming off of him. he's very strange. i am not comfortable. is that going to be a problem? and of course i said no. >> i would be very interested in knowing what happened in the days after when the person who chose him would not date him.

>> jill parenteau was a 21-year-old college student and data entry worker. she lived in an apartment by herself. >> on june 13th, she went to a dodger game and came home and was never heard from again. >> the next day, she never showed up at work. >> when law enforcement entered her home, she was found in her bedr bedroom. her body was lying next to the bed, very similar to charlotte lamb's where she was laid on her back fully naked. she had a pillow up behind her back that propped her breasts up. >> so, this is, again, another avoidable set of killings by this guy that should have stayed in prison, bute didn't even break stride on the continued crimes that he kept committing.

>> my mom's plan was to shoot alcala. >> in those days, they didn't have metal detectors, so she got into the courtroom. >> she really didn't care about anything else at that point. she wanted to avenge her daughter. ♪ i have type 2 diabetes, ♪ ♪ but i manage it well. ♪ ♪ it's a little pill with a big story to tell. ♪ ♪ i take once-daily jardiance, ♪ ♪ at each day's staaart. ♪ ♪ as time went on it was easy to seee ♪ ♪ i'm lowering my a1c. ♪ jardiance works 24/7 in your body to flush out some sugar! and for adults with type 2 diabetes and known heart disease, jardiance can lower the risk of cardiovascular death, too. jardiance may cause serious side effects including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function, and genital yeast or urinary tract infections. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, ketoacidosis,

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in 1979 rodney was living at his mother's house where he had a separate entrance, and perhaps he lived there because he didn't have to pay any rent. >> he had taken a lot of nude photos, and he would send these photos to new york and get paid for them. and they would go into pornography magazines. that's what he did. >> not only was rodney on the lamb for three years, ten most wanted, 34 months in prison for tali, two and a half years in prison for a felony of giving drugs to a minor. he's out. he's free. he's on the prowl again.

>> on june 20th, 1979, rodney alcala leaves his mother's house and drives to huntington beach. and he starts in a place called sunset beach, which is a little bit north on the pacific coast highway, and he runs into a 17-year-old girl on roller skates named lori wertz. >> i was with my friend, patty, and we decided to go to sunset beach. we were approached by alcala. >> and he says, "i'm a if you could just, you know, skate this way, i'll take some photos. >> i said, oh, that's okay. i'll just help him out. >> and there's a series a these photographs that are taken by rodney alcala. he was a formally trained photographer, which really played into his method of luring these women vulnerable positions.

>> it's my opinion with regard to rodney deviant behavior is always preceded by deviant fantasy. the taking the pictures, going around looking for little girls, sizing people up. >> it's a part of the constellation of the rodney alcala killing machine. the encounter with lori wertz is important for two different reasons. number one, it shows he's actually down in huntington beach that day, which he later denies. and it also shows that he's actively hunting for his next victim. >> he was asking me all kinds of questions like where i'm from, my name, my age. he tried really hard to get me in the car. he tried to get me in the car and leave my friend on the beach. >> she doesn't bite, won't get in his car. >> he started to drive away, and i did see that he was driving toward huntington beach. >> huntington beach in 1979 in june was chockfull of kids and sunbathers and rollerbladers and people walking on the boardwalks and just having fun.

>> the vibe in huntington beach back in the '70s was pretty easygoing. you felt safe. >> robin samsoe was a 12-year-old blonde, blue-eyed poster child for athleticism and healthy lifestyle. >> i am robin's oldest sister. we are two of four children, two boys and two girls. >> robin was the baby of the family. her brothers, sisters, mother all doted over robin. >> always had a spirit about her. i mean, everybody that met her fell in love with her. >> rodney alcala winds up on the beach talking to bridget wilvert and robin samsoe. >> when robin and i crossed 14th street is when i believe he

spotted us. >> and what he's doing is saying, hey, i'm a photographer. you're beautiful. bucke you could be a model. how about you let me take pictures? >> and i was having none of it, i was like, "no, no." and he reached out and put his hand on robin's leg. that's when i grabbed her and i said like, "no, this isn't good." >> so, one of the mom's comes over, and was, like, "who are you? why are you talking to them?" and he scurries off like a cockroach. >> robin had to be at a dance class at 4:00, so she and bridget went back to bridget's house. >> it was time for robin to be going, because she needed to be in the ballet studio to answer phones. that was how she paid for her ballet. >> robin was running late, so bridget let her use her bike. >> go get my bike." i said, and don't stop. it's very important to me to say that. >> he's in his car. he had maps to southern california. he had blacked-out windows.

he had this rolling trap try to get people in it. >> then my house phone rang, and it was one of robin's brothers and he said, "is robin still with you? has she left? because she hasn't shown up to ballet." >> and there's not a sign of anything, no bike, no person on the side of the road, nothing. >> mom began to worry and still an hour or so later when robin still hadn't returned, she called the police to file a missing person's report. >> that was my mom's baby, and she -- my mom cried every day. >> bridget was later introduced to a sketch artist to compile a composite of the individual they'd been talking to on the beach. >> and when i was done, i was like, that's him. that is him. >> it's rodney alcala. i mean, you look at that, and it's rodney alcala. >> approximately 12 days after robiwent missing, a park

ranger in the sierra madres at a location called chantry flats located some human remains. >> but she's been scavenged. and what that means is animals have eaten her. >> during their search of the area they also found a shoe that was identified as belonging to robin and a beach towel. >> and that's how they found this beautiful 12-year-old, girl. >> i remember i was laying on the couch and the doorbell rang, and i answered the door. and it was the police. they came in and they told us that they had found robin. and my mom broke down, as well as everybody else. my brothers and i. it was devastating. >> her mother, you know, wanted to see her daughter's body. and they had to explain to her

that there is no body, there's a skull, and there's bones. >> my mom just -- she was never the same. it's like her life just had this big empty hole and everybody else was just on the outside looking in. >> they arrest rodney alcala at his mother's house in monterey park. >> after that, they obtained a search warrant for his mother's residence where he was living. >> they get inside rodney alcala's residence. and they see a receipt for a self-storage facility in the city of seattle. so in really good, heads-up police work, paperwork is not a part of the search warrant, so they cannot collect it. but it's in plain sight, so they write down the information. >> one of his sisters went to visit alcala in jail, and they started talking about the storage locker.

>> and rodney alcala is overheard saying words to the effect of, "well, it's good that they don't know about the storage locker." >> the cops actually overheard the conversation. >> and they get inside. and they find a treasure trove of evidence. and it breaks the case. ar. this is a search bar. let's know the difference, okay? social media, it can be overwhelming for a young homeowner turning into their parents. what does it mean to slide into someone's dms? -mm. -it sounds like a lot of fun. okay, we're not ready for that. as a team, we'll get there. it might be a fruit emoji, but that doesn't mean they're talking about fruit. -oh. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. do you really think we need 47 photos of fun dinner at pam's? -yes. -no. sometimes jonah wrestles with falling asleep... ...so he takes zzzquil. the world's #1 sleep aid brand for a better night sleep. so now, he wakes up feeling like himself. the reigning family room middle-weight champion. better days start with zzzquil nights. ♪ ♪

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they arrest rodney alcala. they bring him to huntington beach, and they interview him. >> did you kill robin, rod? >> i told you i never did any homicides, ever. >> after the police interview him, and he's very savvy, and he gives up very little information, and he essentially denies all wrongdoing, they get up to this storage locker in the city of seattle. >> they find thousands of pictures of young people, older people, all kinds of people, nude, in compromised positions. >> they also find various forms of jewelry, a bunch of different earrings and little keepsakes.

those are trophies. >> for rodney, it's his vehicle for power and control, and that's why he keeps things. >> i remember them asking my mom to the police department to come and identify some things that they found at a locker in washington. >> two of the earrings found were gold ball earrings. robin was described as wearing those earrings on the day that she disappeared. >> in 1980, rodney alcala was tried for the murder of robin samsoe. >> one of the stories that marianne connelly, robin's mom, told was that during the 1980 case she actually showed up with a gun. >> her plan was to shoot alcala. she really didn't care about anything else at that point. she wanted to avenge her daughter. >> in those days, they didn't have metal detectors, or they didn't use them, so she got into

the courtroom. >> i remember she was very calm. she just kept saying, everything's going to be okay. everything's going to be okay. >> the trial began, and she had her hand on her purse. and she was ready to kill the man who had murdered her daughter. >> i do remember her telling me that she heard robin's voice and told her not to do it. so she had changed her mind. >> on may 8th, 1980, the jury on the robin samsoe case deliberated less than five hours. >> rodney alcala was convicted and sentenced to death. he was taken to san quentin where he was put on death row. several years later, an appeal came up, and to everyone's shock and sorrow and horror, the case

was repealed. >> the verdict was overturned by the california supreme court because the justices determined that the jurors in the trial had been improperly informed of alcala's prior sex crimes. >> i think that there has been a gross miscarriage of justice for being found guilty for something that i didn't do. >> in 1984, we learned that alcala was getting a new trial. once again, my mother was completely destroyed. >> i just can't believe that we have to be punished for what he did, and that's really what it amounts to. we're the ones that are being punished. it means nothing to him. >> in the 1986 retrial of rodney alcala, a new prosecutor was assigned. he was very confident in his ability to be able to get a conviction on that. >> seven years to the day of robin samsoe's disappearance, the second jury convicted rodney alcala and also recommended that he be sentenced to die.

>> the second time he was found guilty and he got the death penalty again, and we were extremely happy. >> one would think that's the end. he's now going to spend the rest of his life on death row until he gets executed. well, that wasn't the case. in 2001, rodney's death penalty was again overturned. >> at this point, it's important to remember that rodney alcala has been in custody ever since being accused of murdering robin samsoe in '79. he's now 58 years old. and life behind bars has taken its toll, not only on rodney alcala, but also on the victims' families who've been trying to achieve justice. >> twice alcala has been convicted and sentenced to death. twice the convictions were reversed on appeal. >> the main reason was an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, meaning that

rodney's attorney had not put forth a strong enough defense on his behalf. >> my mom really kind of lost it then. >> every time this happens, it's like losing robin all over again. i don't know if you've ever lost a child, but there's nothing nothing that hurts like that. nothing. >> amazingly, at this point rodney alcala has escaped the death penalty two times, and now these victims and these families are going to be turning to me and my team to ensure that he's punished for this once and for all.

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this case was assigned to me back in 2003, when my boss came in, essentially gave me the rundown on it and said 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, re-analyzed for dna. >> which meant that rodney's dna could be put up against the dna that had been taken decades

earlier from the people whom we all believed he had murdered. the dna matched charlotte lamb, jill parenteau, georgia wixted and jill barcomb. >> at that point, rodney alcala is clearly now known as a serial killer. >> when you get a case like this, the first thing you do is you meet with the family members. and it really -- it drives you. they say you see the reflection of your victim in the eyes of the people who love them. >> i forget a lot of things, except the most important thing i can't forget, and that's her and how she died. >> i was at the same exact age as robin samsoe. we were both 12 years old in 1979, and you connect with your victim. >> matt murphy was a young, talented, brilliant prosecutor, and the alcala case would be his 107th homicide. >> and now we're going to be in

one of my courts in front of one of my judges, and i was going to do everything i could to make sure that he faced justice for what he did. >> the third death penalty trial was set for 2010. >> matt murphy and i ended up being co-counsel on the case, once we brought our l.a. cases down to orange county. >> so we had all these really good professionals that came together. >> i came to know rodney alcala by being on the orange county panel of expert witnesses. i met with rodney. we met a total of 18 hours over a number of days. >> and this third time around, 66-year-old rodney alcala decides he'll represent himself. >> he is a narcissist. he has a genius iq measured by some, so he's very brilliant and thinks that that translates into being able to be a good lawyer for himself in the case.

>> alcala's choice to represent himself was a message to mr. murphy that he is equal to him. mr. alcala's perceptions about his own superiority should never, ever be underestimated. >> she'd been gagged with a t-shirt shoved down her mouth. i wanted the jury to see the level of violence, because one of the things that we needed to prove was torture, so that we needed to prove he intended to inflict pain on these victims. >> alcala would strangle the women into unconsciousness, wait till they wake up and, then strangle them again. he knew exactly what he's doing, and he enjoyed what he was doing. >> so these are the facts of the samsoe case. >> because rodney alcala was representing himself, he got to cross-examine the witnesses.

and then of course, questioned robin samsoe's mom. >> this is what they looked like. >> he was questioning my mother about the earrings, trying to create doubt. alcala tried to argue with my mother. >> all the jury sees is the man who murdered this poor woman's daughter cross-examining her. >> it was so hard watching her that i think the three of us just sat there and sobbed. >> robin samsoe's day in court is today. you make sure that he is held responsible for what happened to that little girl. >> murphy, in his closing arguments, i mean, they were fantastic. >> he got her into his car and he drove her up to those mountains and rodney alcala smashed her face in when she was still alive. he brutalized her. he was rattled after my closing

argument, because that's when he first learned, you know, he wasn't as smart as he thought he was. >> the day the verdict was read, the courtroom was very still and very quiet. >> we, the jury, further find and affixed a degree thereof murder in the first degree. >> the verdict was guilty on all charges across the board, all five murders. the evidence that we put in for the penalty phase of the trial focused largely on his prior sexual assaults of tali shapiro. >> when matt reached out to me in 2010, he was pretty adamant that he really needed me to come forth and help put alcala away. >> so now we've come full circle from '68 to '79, so bringing

lived, as the one who got away is very important for a jury to see what a monster rodney alcala is. >> i was there for the mostly for the samsoe family. i've never been the victim. i've always been the survivor. >> if you decide that the death penalty is appropriate punishment, you shouldn't feel too good about it. >> after hearing all the evidence, the jury went back to deliberate one more time. and they came back with a verdict in little less than two hours. >> we, the jury, in the above entitled action, determine that the penalty to be imposed upon defendant, rodney james alcala, to be death. [ applause ] >> i feel like robin's life meant something, even at 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. >> i just pray that i live long enough to watch him be executed. i only wish that i could be the one to administer the injection.

>> in 2019, the state of california placed a moratorium on the death penalty. so that meant that all prisoners on death row, and this included rodney alcala, received a stay of execution. this did mean, though, that robin samsoe's mother would not see rodney alcala executed. >> july 23rd, 2019, my mom passed away. she wanted to see that day that alcala leaves this earth, that he just does not breathe anymore. and it's unfair. it's unfair. somebody so cruel and evil. >> cold case investigators tonight saying they have solved two of new york city's most notorious murders.

>> new york had been investigating cases involving rodney alcala, a murder in 1971 and a murder in 1977. >> although alcala is already on death row in california, he will be extradited here to go on trial for killing the two new york women. >> they decided to charge rodney with the two new york murders. >> he conceded that he did kill the two women in question. >> i was surprised that he pled guilty. i think ultimately he knew he was going to be convicted. >> mr. alcala got 25 years to life, which is the highest sentence under the law. >> after the trial, the huntington beach police department released hundreds of the photos that they found in that seattle locker to the general public. police don't know if any of the people in these pictures were victims of alcala but hope the public might be able to help identify them. >> after the huntington beach police department released those photographs, the decades-old mystery of christine thornton was about to come full circle. >> my son sent this email to me

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i think, you know, having christine being gone for so long it was difficult because we all knew that something bad had happened to her. >> for nearly 40 years, christine thornton's family assumed she was dead. she just vanished out of their lives. >> in '82, this herder out in the middle of nowhere comes across a pile of bones, obviously human remains. >> several initial deputies

responded along with detectives, and what they found was it was the body of a 25 to 35-year-old female. they also found the bones of an unborn child mixed in, largely all intact. the clothing was still there, even some jewelry were all located. >> they couldn't determine a cause of death. what they believed was that it was possibly strangulation, because one of the pant legs was tied in a ligature. >> the detectives at that time used the skull and sent it off to the crime lab in order to give a reconstruction of what they felt this person looked like. they determined who was a young female, brunette. they unfortunately weren't able to identify her, and the case went cold. in 2013, several of the detectives, including myself, were assigned specific cold cases.

so, this box was almost falling apart when i initially was assigned this case. there was still bone fragment and skin tissue saved at the crime lab after all those years. >> if you have dna, you run it, and then you try to find out by sending it down through codis and missing persons to find out. if you can get a match. >> codis refers to the combined dna index system. it was created in 1998. dna is entered into a national database, and this helps the authority's find missing people and also solve crimes. >> i was basically told it was now a waiting game. i honestly thought i'd be 10, 20 years retired before i'd get a phone call saying they identified her. >> so, in 2013, my son sent an email to me, knowing that he had an aunt that he had never met,

he knew the story, that she went missing, and he came across this article with all these pictures in it that the police had from a serial killer. >> her son found the website that had the all the pictures that they found in alcala's locker up in seattle. >> she looked through all these photographs and kept stopping at that one photograph of a beautiful brunette seated on the back of a motorcycle. >> and i'm like, i think that's chris. and sure enough, i looked at her little pinky toe, which i remember -- it just was very distinctive. it curled up on her other toes. and i kind of knew that was her. that was definitely her. >> at that point is when she

decided to submit her dna sample as a reference to hopefully identify christine. >> detective sheaman came into my office to tell me that they had a match and an identification. >> just shy of two years later is when i was off duty, i decided to check my email. the email i received identified my victim from granger as christine ruth thornton. so, this is the copy of the photo that was found in rodney alcala's possession. trying to match this photo out in the granger prairie seems almost impossible. but we were able to match this photograph up just based off of two different ridges.

you can actually hold this picture up and actually show that this is almost the exact area that this photograph potentially was taken back 1977, and here we are in 2020. it was pretty shocking to find this area and to know what transpired here all those years ago. we spoke to detectives with the huntington beach police department and put a timeline together. >> so, in july of 1977, with the permission of his parole officer, he's allowed to travel back to new york. and rodney alcala wasn't flying. rodney alcala was driving. so, rodney alcala leaves -- leaves new york, comes back to los angeles. >> and we determined around the time that christine was killed, he had been traveling across the nation. the motorcycle was actually

owned by rodney alcala, and they were able to find that motorcycle in his possession. >> there is no rhyme or reason of how these two people, one so good and one not, crossed paths and end up there. >> i thought we had enough evidence to possibly charge him, but before we did that, i wanted to speak with him. >> i've done hundreds and hundreds of interviews in my career, but i told myself, how the hell do you interview a serial killer?

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and the other women. he's 73 years old, and his health is failing. he's confined to a bed at corcoran state prison, and that's where wyoming officials come to confront him for the murder of christine thornton. >> as we got in there, it was dingy colored, pink, peach in alcala's medical cell. it was like something off a horror movie. paint peeling off the walls, flies buzzing around the room. it's something that i'll never forget, seeing him lying in this bed. and i just remember looking at him going, this is him? i identified myself, read him his rights, and we started pulling out photographs of the original crime scene. >> now he knew why we were there. >> does this area look familiar? >> it's part of my area. >> and what do you mean by part of your area? >> that means that i've been to this area.

>> i couldn't believe it. >> it's almost like it's his killing field. >> we also showed rodney alcala the picture of christine seated on the back of his motorcycle, and it gives me chills even today to remember his reaction. >> talk to me about the picture. >> what picture? >> the picture that you're pointing at. what's on your mind? talk to me, rod. rod, talk to me. tell me about that girl. >> he took his finger and he started tracing her body on the photograph, and then he started tapping on the photograph and kept doing that for a couple more minutes. >> that's a guy who wants to relive it again. it empowers him, right? he would relive that. >> you could see his eyes moving in his eyelids, almost like he had relived that moment, that entire moment for however long it lasted with christine out in the desert.

>> do you know her? yes or no? >> yes. >> do you remember taking this picture? >> yes. >> okay. now the question is, mr. alcala, how did she end up dead? did you kill her? yes or no, sir. >> are you crazy? >> when it comes to the big question, he's not going to give it to you. but we got him to admit that he was there, and we got him to admit that he knew christine, and that's all we needed. >> so, rodney alcala was first-degree murder in sweetwater county, wyoming. >> they informed me that he was not able to travel without great expense, and so i made the decision that i was not going to try to bring alcala back to stand trial in wyoming. >> the best place for rodney alcala is exactly where we left him.

seeing that jail cell and that setup that he's in, he's where he needs to be. >> it was disappointing that we weren't going to get a conviction on her murder, but the good thing about all of this is that this man has been brought to light as being a serial killer. his victims are still out there. >> over the years, rodney alcala was given multiple opportunities to disclose those victims as part of plea deals, to avoid the death penalty. but he continuously refused to give up that information. >> he has memories that he has kept from everyone. >> that power gives him gratification, and him having the information on victims and us not knowing it, that's something he wants to take to his grave. and that is exactly what he did. rodney alcala, aka the dating

game killer died in prison two years ago, never giving up those secrets. that is our program for tonight. thanks for watching. i'm david muir, and from all of us here at "20/20" and abc news, good night. >> now from abc 7, live breaking news. >> a nightmare for drivers across the bay area. an incident shutting down the bridge for hours. people trying to get around the closure found themselves sitting in gridlock in san francisco as well as the north bay. reports of a man running on the bridge having a mental health crisis. all lanes are closed and the eastbound d