Did Rodney Alcala really have 130 victims?

Warning! This post contains spoilers for Woman of the Hour.

Before his credits start rolling, Woman of the hour reveals that Rodney Alcala may have had as many as 130 victims, raising questions about the extent of his real-life crimes. Directed by Anna Kendrick, Woman of the hour Goes through a harrowing segment of Rodney Alcala’s timeline, primarily focusing on how he ended up on The dating game show and managed to win it. Apart from portraying his time as a Dating game Concurrently, the film also depicts some of​​​​his most harrowing murders before featuring the events that led to his February 1979 arrest.

Since the film primarily follows the appearance of Rodney Alcala in 1978 The dating game And his crimes around this time, it avoids going too deep into his past criminal record or the offenses he committed after winning the game show. However, after finally discovering how one of his victims escaped and reporting him to the police in 1979, Woman of the hours ending features a textual epilogue that reveals that Rodney Alcala may have had close to 130 victims. Since Woman of the hour Barring some real-life facts, it’s hard not to be curious if the victim count is accurate.

Many of Rodney Alcala’s victims are unconfirmed, but the 130 number may be accurate

The total number could be even higher than 130

For several reasons, the true extent of Rodney Alcala’s crimes remained hidden for several years, and he let him get away with his violent book. Even later, when law enforcers finally started investigating his history of murders and criminal offenses, they could only make a rough estimate of the number of people who were his victims. Many of Rodney Alcala’s victims remain unknownBut it is believed that his crimes can be tied to at least 130 victims.

While investigating the case of Rodney Alcala in 1979, Law enforcement found hundreds of pictures of Rodney Alcala’s supposed victims in a Seattle storage locker Alcala has previously rented. In hopes of identifying some of the victims and understanding the full scope of Alcala’s crimes, the Huntington Beach Police Department publicly released some of the images in its third trial in March 2010. Retired Los Angeles Police Detective Steve Hodel, who investigated one of Alcala’s crimes, even calling him (by LA Times)”a killing machine,“believing”He needs to be good for a lot of crimes.“

How many victims Rodney Alcala is confirmed to have killed

Only 8 of his victims have been confirmed

Even though Rodney Alcala’s victim count is believed to be as high as 130, Only eight of his victims have been confirmed. The beginning of the timeline of his crimes can be traced back to 1968. After Alcala died in 2021, 68-year-old Morgan Rowan reached out to investigator Steve Hodel and told him how Alcala had attacked and sexually assaulted her in July 1968 when she was 16 years old. Her friends saved her after breaking into Alcala’s apartment through a window.

Alcala’s last known victim was a 12-year-old girl, Robin Christine Samsoe, who disappeared on her way home from a ballet class. Less than two weeks later, her body was discovered in the Los Angeles foothills. Several leads from Samsoe’s case eventually led investigators to find solid evidence against Alcala, eventually leading to his 1979 arrest. After the scale of Rodney Alcala’s crimes gradually came to light, He was convicted on a total of eight counts:

• 1 count of battery

• 1 count of kidnapping

• Violation of probation

• 2 counts of rape

• 1 count of furnishing cannabis to a minor

• 5 counts of first-degree murder

Did Rodney Alcala Kill Anyone Before He Appeared On The Dating Game?

Rodney Alcala surprisingly had a criminal record before his dating game appearance

As confirmed in Anna Kendrick’s true-story thriller, Woman of the hourRodney Alcala did not have a clean sheet before he appeared on The dating game. His criminal history suggests He murdered at least two women before becoming a contestant on the show in 1978. One of the victims was a 23-year-old Trans World Airlines flight attendant, Cornelia Creeley, who was found dead in her apartment on June 12, 1971. The events leading up to her murder are briefly featured in Woman of the hour.

The other was Ellen Jane Hover, an aspiring orchestra conductor, whose remains were found on the Rockefeller estate in Westchester County a year after she disappeared in 1977 (via NY Times). A decade before his appearance in The dating gameAlcala also sexually assaulted and physically abused 8-year-old Tali Shapiro. His name was even added to the FBI’s list of ten most wanted fugitives in early 1971. However, as shown in Woman of the hourHe landed a part The dating game Because, at the time, the show’s creators lacked the technology to run background checks on participants.