Rodney Alcala
Rodney Alcala | |
|---|---|
July 1979 mugshot of Alcala | |
| Born | Rodrigo Jacques Alcala August 23, 1943 San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | July 24, 2021 (aged 77) Corcoran, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Dating Game Killer John Berger John Burger |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (183 cm) |
| Convictions | Battery, kidnapping, murder, probation violation, rape, providing cannabis to a minor |
| Criminal charge | Violation of probation 1 count of kidnapping 1 count of battery 1 count of providing cannabis to a minor 2 counts of rape 5 counts of first-degree murder (2010) |
| Penalty | Death |
| Details | |
| Victims | 8 confirmed Up to 130 possible |
Span of crimes | 1968–1979 |
| Country | United States |
| States | Washington California New York Wyoming |
Date apprehended | July 24, 1979 |
| Imprisoned at | California State Prison, Corcoran and San Quentin State Prison |
Rodney James Alcala (born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala; August 23, 1943 – July 24, 2021), also known as John Berger and John Burger, was an American serial killer and convicted sex offender who was sentenced to death in California for five murders committed between 1977 and 1979. He pleaded guilty and received a sentence of twenty-five years to life for two further murders committed in New York State. He was also indicted for one murder in Wyoming, although the charges filed there were dropped. While Alcala has been conclusively linked to nine murders, the true number of victims remains unknown and could be as high as 130.
Alcala compiled a collection of more than 1,000 photographs of women, teenage girls and boys, many in sexually explicit poses. In 2016 he was charged with the 1977 murder of a woman identified in one of his photos. Alcala is known to have assaulted one other photo subject and police have speculated that others could be rape or murder victims as well.
Prosecutors have said that Alcala "toyed" with his victims, strangling them until they lost consciousness then waiting until they revived, sometimes repeating this process several times before finally killing them. One police detective described Alcala as "a killing machine," and others have compared him to Ted Bundy. He is often referred to as the Dating Game Killer, as he appeared as a contestant on the television show The Dating Game in 1978, during his murder spree.