Rodney Alcala: The Fine Art of Killing

Soon after his release from jail, on June 24, 1978, the body of Santa Monica legal secretary Lamb was discovered in El Segundo. Her nude corpse was posed, with her arms arranged behind her back. Investigators say the Lamb murder tripped up Alcala, who had begun taking trophies from his victims — mostly earrings, which play a key role in the current murder trial. Says Mack, the retired Huntington Beach detective, "I believe all the jewelry had significant meaning to him as a remembrance of a particular attack."

Incredibly, this registered sex offender, fresh out of jail in the summer of 1978, became a contestant on The Dating Game just weeks later. Female contestant Cheryl Bradshaw picked Alcala as her "date" after host Jim Lange described Bachelor Number One as a "successful photographer."

In 1997, Rodney Alcala got a new mug shot. He has sued the prisons for slip-and-fall, and for failing to provide him a low-fat diet.

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• Rodney Alcala
• Ellen Hover
• Robert Samsoe
• Parole
• New York Crime

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The exchanges between Bradshaw and Alcala can be clearly heard on old footage of The Dating Game, with Bradshaw asking Alcala to give his best impression of a dirty old man. Then she asks, "I am serving you for dinner. What would you be like?" Alcala answers, "I am called the Banana and I look pretty good." She asks him to be more descriptive and he responds, "Peel me." (Go to laweekly.com to view the game show footage.)

Alcala's alleged reign of terror might have been halted in early 1979, when a 15-year-old hitchhiker called police from a motel in Riverside County to report she had just escaped from a kidnapper and rapist. Although Riverside police quickly charged Alcala with kidnapping and rape, a judge set his bail at just $10,000, paid by his mother. While free, police say, Alcala killed 21-year-old computer keypunch operator Parenteau five months later in her Burbank apartment. The killer cut himself climbing through her window, and prosecutors now say Alcala's rare blood type has been matched to the blood remnants.

Six days after Parenteau's slaying, Robin Samsoe disappeared, a child-snatching that sent fear rippling through safe, quiet Southern California communities. Samsoe's friend Bridget told police the two swimsuit-clad girls were approached that day by a photographer who asked if he could take their pictures. The man was scared off by a suspicious neighbor, but shortly after that, Bridget lent Samsoe her yellow bicycle so that Samsoe could make it to ballet class. Samsoe was never seen again.

Detectives circulated a sketch of the mysterious photographer to the media, and a parole officer recognized his parolee Alcala. Twelve days after she vanished, on July 2, 1979, Samsoe's skeletal remains were found by U.S. Forestry Service rangers. Alcala was arrested on July 24 at his mother's house in Monterey Park.

Alcala claimed that at the time of Samsoe's disappearance he had been at Knott's Berry Farm applying for a job as a photographer for a disco contest.

But his story fell apart. Cops had already found, in a search of Alcala's house, a receipt for a locker in Seattle. Quickly traveling there, police found photos in which Alcala appears to have been stalking young girls and snapping photos of them. Also found was a picture of Lorraine Werts, a girl who posed for him in the Huntington Beach neighborhood where Samsoe and Bridget were approached. Police also found gold ball earrings allegedly worn by Samsoe, and tiny rose earrings verified much later through DNA as belonging to victim Lamb.

"There are lessons in this case that a lot of people forget," Senior Deputy D.A. Murphy said, shortly before this, Alcala's third trial, got under way. "How naive people were about these sexual predators. Notice how many serial killers we had in the '70s or '80s? We don't have that many active today. Do you know why we don't have them now? Because of the Three Strikes law. They are going down on their first time. ... They aren't given chance after chance after chance."

Jill Barcomb's brother Bruce remembers the day in 2005, when he learned that the semen of his sister's murderer was matched to a man named Rodney Alcala. "I got the call as my birthday present," he says darkly. "I was living in Costa Mesa as a senior financial analyst for a mortgage company. I got a postcard in the mail by the Los Angeles Police Department asking me to call. He didn't say what for." When Barcomb reached Detective Cliff Shepard, the veteran homicide cop told him, "We believe we found your sister's killer." Bruce Barcomb was so shocked, after more than 30 years, that he simply cried.