Rodney Alcala, notoriously dubbed the “Dating Game Killer,” got this grim nickname after he participated as a contestant on the 1978 game show The Dating Game. Notably, his appearance was during his murderous spree.
Decades later, the spine-chilling case continues to be of immense public interest; what happened and how the killer was put behind bars! Detective Craig Robison, the man who arrested Alcala, in his first-ever public interview, has opened up about the same!
Alcala, who had a disturbingly high IQ, looked very charming and intelligent. Robison revealed to Fox News Digital, “Most of his IQ wasn’t focused on personal relationships… it’s all focused on my next victim and how to exploit women and girls.”
Robison first began investigating Alcala in June 1979, following the disappearance of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe. She was last seen riding her bicycle to a dance class. Before her disappearance, Samsoe and her friend had been approached by a man with an Afro-style hairdo and a camera at the beach. The subsequent police sketch led to a tip from a parole officer and Rodney Alcala was identified as the suspect.
In 1968, he was arrested for the brutal assault of an 8-year-old girl, only to escape a harsher sentence by pleading guilty to child molestation. He served just 34 months and came out again to resume his predatory behavior. His brutal activities resulted in multiple arrests, including for the rape of a hitchhiking teenager in 1979.
Robison and his team got the clue to catch Rodney Alcala regarding Samsoe’s murder through eyewitness identification and an unexpected hint: a televised episode of The Dating Game. A detective recognized Alcala as “Bachelor No. 1.” His on-screen charisma was so awesome that it easily confused people that there was such a sinister hiding behind the mask.
The episode had a major role to play in confirming his identity including Samsoe’s friend.“When she saw his picture… it was like her blood ran cold,” Robison recalled.
The case inspired the recent Netflix movie Woman of the Hour. The film narrates Alcala’s ruthlessly chilling story. Anna Kendrick, who plays bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw in the film, consulted Detective Robison during production to understand the killer’s psyche.
During the investigation, authorities discovered a Seattle storage locker linked to Rodney Alcala. Inside there were photographs of women and a bag of jewelry. That included earrings and were identified as belonging to Samsoe. Years later, advancements in DNA testing connected another pair of earrings to Charlotte Lamb, a victim who was murdered in 1978.
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Rodney Alcala was sentenced to death for Samsoe’s murder in 1980 and again in 1986, but both convictions were overturned.
In 2010, Alcala was convicted of five murders in California, including 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, 18-year-old Jill Barcomb, 21-year-old Jill Parenteau, 27-year-old Georgia Wixted, and 32-year-old Charlotte Lamb. The third trial secured convictions, thanks to the DNA evidence found in the locker. Additional charges for murders in New York and Wyoming followed as well.
“I’ll be convinced to the day I die that we had enough evidence in all three trials to convict him,” Robison said. Rodney Alcala died of natural causes in 2021 and was awaiting execution at the time. However, his conviction in 1979 was the stepping stone towards his end. “That’s what started his complete undoing,” Robison stated.
