Who were the Dating Game Killer's confirmed victims? Remembering the women brutally murdered by Rodney Alcala - and the ones that got away

Serial killer Rodney Alcala had been linked to over 130 murders and assaults by the time he died in 2021.

Alcala, who was dubbed the Dating Game Killer, was known for biting his dead victims' naked bodies before photographing them in sexually explicit poses. 

He was given the moniker after appearing as Bachelor Number One on the popular TV show winning the affections of contestant Cheryl Bradshaw in 1978.

Alcala was convicted of killing seven women in the 1970s - with five murders in California and two in New York. 

His youngest murder victim was just 12-years-old whom he abducted as she made her way to ballet practice in Los Angeles in 1979. 

Serial killer Rodney Alcala had been linked to over 130 murders and assaults by the time he died in 2021

Alcala, who was dubbed the Dating Game Killer, was known for biting his dead victims' naked bodies before photographing them in sexually explicit poses 

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.

Alcala was convicted of killing seven women in the 1970s - with five murders in California and two in New York 

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.

Below are Alcala's confirmed victims, with hundreds of possible others still unidentified.  

Morgan Rowan 

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 kept the horrific attack a secret from her family, opening up about it in upcoming documentary Surviving A Serial Killer.

'It took me 50 years to finally tell this story. It was a tough decision but it is important to me,' she said of her traumatic ordeal.

Luckily, Morgan's friends realized she and Alcala were missing from the party and came to check on her.

Morgan Rowan (pictured as a kid in a popular music venue) was just 16 years old when she was brutally beaten and raped by Alcala during a party at his Hollywood home in 1968

She kept the horrific attack a secret from her family, opening up about it in upcoming documentary Surviving A Serial Killer 

'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."

'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.'

Tali Shapiro

Alcala's first reported crime occurred in 1968, when a witness called police after seeing him lure an eight-year-old girl named Tali Shapiro into that same Hollywood apartment. 

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

After his attack on Tali, Alcala fled and traveled across to the East Coast. 

Cornelia Michel Crilley  

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. 

Ellen Jane Hover 

On July 15, 1977, Alcala killed Ellen Jane Hover.

She was a 23-year-old aspiring music conductor who disappeared after leaving her Manhattan apartment.

Jill Barcomb 

Also in 1977, Alcala murdered 18-year-old aspiring actress Jill Barcomb in her Los Angeles bedroom.

Prosecutor Murphy said she had been found 'brutally assaulted with multiple ligatures' and 'her face had been smashed in with a rock.'

In 1977, Alcala savagely murdered 18-year-old aspiring actress Jill Barcomb in her Los Angeles bedroom 

Georgia Wixted

Almost a month after murdering Jill, Alcala sexually assaulted, tortured and strangled to death Georgia Wixted.

She was a 27-year-old pediatric cancer nurse who had just moved into her own apartment in Los Angeles.

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

Christine Ruth Thornton 

Christine was 28 years old and pregnant when she went missing from her ranch in 1977.

Her murder almost went unsolved until her remains were discovered four years later. However, Alcala had denied murdering Christine.

Charlotte Lamb

Charlotte Lamb's body was found strangled and raped in an apartment complex miles away from her home in June 1978.

Charlotte Lamb's body was found strangled and raped in an apartment complex miles away from her home in June 1978 

Robin Samsoe

Robin Samsoe was just 12 years old when she was abducted by Alcala on her way to ballet class - 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. 

Robin Samsoe was just 12 years old when she was abducted by Alcala on her way to ballet class - and no one ever saw her alive again 

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.