Teenage survivor of Dating Game killer Rodney Alcala - who was linked to the MURDERS of more than 120 women and children - speaks out about the horrific night she narrowly escaped death

An upcoming documentary is set to share chilling testimony from a former teenage survivor of Dating Game killer Rodney Alcala who was linked to the murders of more than 120 women and children.

Morgan Rowan was just 16 years old when she was brutally beaten and raped by Alcala during a party at his Hollywood home in 1968 - before he tried to strangle her to death. 

She was able to narrowly escape his clutches but Alcala, who got his haunting moniker after appearing on the game show in 1978, would later be convicted of killing seven women in the 1970s - with five murders in California and two in New York.

Here, FEMAIL has laid bare the sordid details of his crimes with an exclusive look at People Magazine's upcoming Surviving A Serial Killer.

Morgan Rowan was just 16 years old when she was brutally beaten and raped by Alcala during a party at his Hollywood home in 1968 - before he tried to strangle her to death

She has given chilling testimony after surviving an attack by Dating Game killer Rodney Alcala who was linked to the murders of more than 120 women and children

Alcala, who got his haunting moniker after appearing on the game show in 1978, would later be convicted of killing seven women in the 1970s - with five murders in California and two in New York 

In the latest documentary, Morgan began by candidly opening up about her conservative childhood.

Her family moved from Rochester, New York, to North Hollywood, California, in 1965 when she was just 13 years old.

She had attended a Catholic girls' school and always been 'timid and shy' until she began venturing out in her new neighborhood.

Morgan explained that as a teen Hollywood became 'the place to be' - as she and her friends started regularly hitchhiking across to the bustling hub. 

'I think going into Hollywood was kind of a way to convince myself that I am not a Catholic schoolgirl. It was really a pretty innocent time and it just got in my blood,' she dished.

'It took me 50 years to finally tell this story. It was a tough decision but it is important to me.'

Fighting back the tears, Morgan detailed how she first met Alcala in 1965.

'I was 13 when I first met Rod. That day we went down to the Hullabaloo Club to watch the bands come in. We were standing in the parking lot and there were two older guys there,' she recalled.

Morgan had attended a Catholic girls' school and always been 'timid and shy' until she began venturing out in Hollywood

Morgan (pictured as a kid in a popular music venue) explained that as a teen Hollywood became 'the place to be' - as she and her friends started regularly hitchhiking across to the hub

'My friend said "hey, that's Rod." He was very charismatic. He really drew people to him. He was tall, attractive, laughed easily, told stories. Young girls loved him - I never saw that as dangerous but actually it was.

'He kept looking over at us - smiling, winking, playful. Eventually he kind of waved us over and after a few minutes my girlfriend saw somebody that she liked and took off but said she would be back.'

She continued: 'I wanted his attention so I kind of lightly scratched his arm with my fingernails and he put his arm around me, hugged me tight, smiled and laughed.

'So a couple of minutes later I did it again and then it didn't go as cute that time. He kind of hugged me harder like stop, don't do that again.

'But I was 13 and stupid so I did it again and he grabbed my arm and dragged me into an alley at the back of the club.

'I think he slammed my head against the wall because I was unconscious. When I woke up, I had something pressing hard against my chest. What it was was a big industrial dumpster. He had put me behind it and pushed it against me.

'I ran and pounded on the door and the owner of the club called his wife. He helped me and put ice on my head and cleaned me up a little bit.

'After that I would make sure I stayed away from [Alcala].'

Morgan was able to avoid the abuser for three years until their paths crossed again in August 1968.

'When I was 16 years old, I find out that we were moving back to New York. My father's job was done and we would be transferring back,' she said.

'I was so upset by it. I didn't want to leave my friends. I thought moving from Los Angeles to New York was like moving back 20 years.'

But just a few days before the intended move Morgan and her pals decided to go out one final time on Sunset Strip.

In a bizarre twist, in 1978, Alcala appeared on hit game show The Dating Game with his trademark long hair cascading onto his oversized disco shirt collar and his answers charming, funny and steeped in cheeky innuendo 

She shared: 'There was a huge crowd of people and Rod just suddenly appeared in the crowd and I was absolutely creeped out.

'Maybe an hour or so later, my two friends came up and said "Come on, we are all going to IHOP, do you want to go?"

'We got in the car... and then suddenly Rod got into the driver's seat and just took off. He kept looking up in the rearview mirror just with this weird look on his face which was disturbing.

'We went in the restaurant and he pretty much ignored me. I got up and I went to go to the bathroom and I passed a pay phone. My dad always taped a dime inside all of my shoes so I would be able to call for help if I was in trouble.

'So I took the dime and I just stood there kind of thinking about it - I've only got four days left with my friends [before the move] and I wanted to be with my friends and I didn't call my dad.

'If I could go back, I would have called my dad.

'When I turned around, Rod was just standing there watching me and he said, "You know we are ready to go, I'll take you back."'

She continued: 'I got back in the car. We were driving back towards the Strip and he suddenly made a turn and drove a couple of blocks, stopped in front of a house and he said, "Come in guys, I've got pot."

'My friends thought that was great. Everybody was sitting around. Loud music. People talking.

'I was anxious to leave and I didn't want to sit down so I just paced. As I walked into the other room, Rod grabbed my arm and drew me into a bedroom and when I turned around he was holding a metal bar.

'He had brackets on both sides of his door. He dropped the bar down into the bracket so you couldn't open it.

'I started to know I was in trouble and I just kept backing up until I was against the wall.'

During a search, officers found a receipt for a Seattle storage locker rented by Alcala where investigators ultimately found hundreds of pictures of young boys and girls

Delving further into the disturbing details of the attack, Morgan recalled: 'He took his belt off and wrapped it around his fist. I tried to be brave and I said, "You know, you can't keep me here," and he just punched me between my eyes as hard as he could.

'My head hit the wall and sparks just flew. I dropped to my knees and I was seeing stars.

'He had a knife and he cut the tie off of my neck. I could feel blood start to flow down my chest and I remember thinking, "He cut my neck, I'm going to die."'

'His face was red and swollen and his eyes were glassy. He was just out of control. He just looked like an animal. 

'He took the belt and he folded it and he pushed it in my mouth and it blocked my airway and I was fighting for breath.

'He started punching me in the stomach until I could feel my ribs breaking. Then he took the knife and cut the rest of my clothes off.

'He stood up to take his pants off and put the knife down. I could see it next to me and I kind of fixated on it. I kept thinking, "If I can move to where I can get on top of the knife, he can't pick it up and kill me with it."'

She continued: 'He raped me. I fought really hard. I was a virgin. This was devastating. I couldn't get up. I couldn't move. I couldn't even find reality any more.

'I started to feel like I was falling down a well - just a really long, dark well.'

But her friends soon started trying to get through to the bedroom after noticing both Morgan and Alcala were absent from the party.

'He was on me and then there was a lot of commotion and my friends were pounding on the door but it kept slamming up against the metal bar,' she explained.

'Suddenly, there was a feeling of cool air and glass breaking and noise and my friend had broken through the window.

'Alcala got off of me then, he went to the door, took the metal bar off the door and he stood there - with my blood all over his shirt - and he just said: "Take her."'

The teenage survivor reflected: 'If my friend hadn't broken the window, I would definitely not be here today. [Alcala] was definitely going to kill me. There is no doubt in my mind that he was going to kill me. 

'I ran out of the house. I had just a ripped blouse on - nothing else. I just couldn't take it anymore. I just walked out into the middle of the street and walked in front of a moving car.'

Alcala (pictured during his third trial in the early 2000s) appealed his murder charge in the death of 12-year-old Robin

The vehicle, which was being driven by a couple, stopped before Morgan and her friends clambered inside.

'I really don't know where we went. The woman just held me and I think she was praying. I looked up at her face and just the pain in her eyes... I could just see my mother,' she said.

'At that moment, I just knew I could never, ever tell my mother and my father. I could never do this to my mother - ever. My mother was fragile. My mother would not be able to handle it.

'My friend took me to his apartment out at the beach. I called my parents and told them that I would be home in time to leave, but I wasn't coming home. I didn't tell them why.

'My friend's neighbor was a male nurse. He helped me cough the blood out of my lungs and wrapped my ribs in tape and butterfly closed all the open wounds.'

Her friend took care of her for four days as she declared: 'He really saved my life.'

Morgan and her parents drove back to New York - in a journey that took the best part of seven days - but she continued to keep the assault secret. 

'When I got to New York, the person I had been was gone. I was morose and quiet and troubled. I couldn't sleep at night and I would sleep next to my parents bed... my parents just thought that I was sad from leaving California and I was upset,' she shared.

Just months later Alcala was caught committing another depraved crime when an eyewitness called police after seeing him lure an eight-year-old girl named Tali Shapiro into the same Hollywood apartment where Morgan had been attacked.

When police arrived, they found Tali alive but she had been raped, brutally beaten with a steel bar and was laying in a pool of her own blood.

Alcala had fled the scene - and later left the state - but when Morgan read about the attack in the newspaper she was 'overwhelmed.'

'It was my fault. I hadn't done anything. I could have stopped it. I should have told my parents. I should have done something. I should have gone back to that house and killed him myself,' she said.

'I just fell to my knees and begged god to forgive me. It was my fault. I fully felt that it was my fault. That I should have done something.'

Morgan phoned across to Los Angeles to try and check on the youngster but said, due to privacy reasons, 'nobody could even tell me if she was alive.'

'It broke me. I had a real hard time after that,' she said.

Alcala went on to enroll in NYU to study film under Roman Polanski using the pseudonym 'John Berger.'

In June 1971, 23-year-old TWA flight attendant Cornelia Michel Crilley was found raped and strangled in her Manhattan apartment. Her death would go unsolved until 2011 when DNA evidence linked Alcala to the killing.

In the meantime, Alcala was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list that same year.

The truth quickly caught up with him as Alcala was eventually detained for the final time in 1979 after murdering 12-year-old Robin Samsoe (pictured)

Alcala was also found to have murdered 27-year-old nurse Georgia Wixted who was found naked an brutalized in Malibu in 1977 

He was arrested within months after children at a New Hampshire arts camp where he was working as a counselor recognized his image on a wanted poster.

Alcala was extradited back to California to face trial for attempted murder, but Tali's parents refused to let the girl testify at trial and he later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of assault, securing parole after just 17 months in 1974.

But his spree would not stop and he continued following his release. 

Billing himself as a professional fashion photographer, Alcala, who is said to have an IQ above 160, convinced hundreds of young men and women to pose naked for him for his 'portfolio.'

He would also often lure in his murder victims the same way, before strangling them until they passed out. When they would reawaken, he would begin torturing them by raping and beating them within an inch of their lives.

Alcala would then kill them, often by strangulation, then rearrange their limbs into explicit positions and photograph their naked bodies as well as biting at their flesh.

In a bizarre twist, in 1978, he appeared on hit game show The Dating Game with his trademark long hair cascading onto his oversized disco shirt collar and his answers charming, funny and steeped in cheeky innuendo.

The handsome then 35-year-old made light work of convincing his fellow contestant behind the screen to pick him as a potential romantic partner.

But unbeknown to her, the show's producers and the millions of viewers tuned in at home, the smiling photographer had already murdered two women, and would go on to rape and mutilate four more as well as a 12-year-old girl. 

In a moment of spine-chilling foreboding, Alcala clinches the show by telling her: 'We're going to have a great time together, Cheryl.' 

Other of Alcala's victims included 19-year-old Jill Barcomb (left) whose body was found at the side of a road in Los Angeles in 1977 and Charlotte Lamb (right) whose body was found strangled and raped in an apartment complex miles away from her home in June 1978

However, the truth quickly caught up with him as Alcala was eventually detained for the final time in 1979 after murdering 12-year-old Robin Samsoe.

Alcala reportedly encountered blonde-haired Samsoe on the beach in Los Angeles with her friend, Bridget Wilvurt, and approached them.

Bridget later explained: 'He honed in on us, like a shark in the water... and he goes, "Can I take your girls' pictures?"… And Robin goes, "Sure."'

Alcala initially left the girls alone but Robin later rode off on her bike to a ballet studio where she was due for practice.

She never turned up and no one ever saw her alive again. Just 12 days after she was abducted her 'animal-ravaged' body was found in the foothills of Sierra Madre with a knife laying next to her.

Police issued a sketch which helped to identify Alcala as the perpetrator before he was arrested at his mother's house.

During a search, officers found a receipt for a Seattle storage locker rented by Alcala where investigators ultimately found hundreds of pictures of young boys and girls.

Some were released by the Huntington Beach Police Department in 2010 amid fears those depicted may have been additional cold case victims from unsolved disappearances or murders.

Among the photographs were also a series of trophies from some of his victims, such as jewelry, including a pair of gold earrings that matched the description of those worn by Robin on the day she disappeared.

Police soon realized that Alcala could have had up to 120 victims.

In 1980, Alcala was tried and convicted for kidnapping, raping and murdering Robin - before being sentenced to death.

He appealed his case and won a new trial. He was later tried and convicted again, receiving the death sentence for a second time.

Alcala launched a second successful appeal in 2001 and went for trial a third time.

When prosecutor Matt Murphy took up the case in 2003, he reexamined the evidence found at Alcala's storage locker for DNA.

Some of the DNA unearthed matched that of four other women who were either found dead or disappeared during the 1970s, confirming Alcala to be a serial killer.

One of the victims was 19-year-old Jill Barcomb, whose body was found at the side of a road in Los Angeles in 1977, having had her face mutilated and with ligatures around her neck.

Alcala was also found to have murdered 27-year-old nurse Georgia Wixted who was found naked an brutalized in Malibu in 1977; Charlotte Lamb, whose body was found strangled and raped in an apartment complex miles away from her home in June 1978; and Jill Parenteau, a 21-year-old college student who was found raped and murdered in her bedroom in June 1979.

As a result, he was convicted of all five murders in 2010, then 66, and sentenced to death.

He later pleaded guilty to two more murders in New York City in 1977 and 1978, and then later charged in 2016 with the murder of Christine Thornton in the summer of 1977. But he denied murdering Thornton.

In June 2021, Alcala died of natural causes aged 77 in a California hospital. He was awaiting a death sentence at Corcoran State Prison.