Survivors Detail Courageous, Shocking Escapes From Serial Killers inPeople Magazine Investigates'New Series

Mar. 15, 2025

Rodney Alcala.Photo:Michael Goulding/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty

Michael Goulding/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty

People Magazine Investigatespresents a new series that focuses on the survivors of serial killer attacks.

Rowan was racked with guilt because she didn’t immediately report to police that Alcala assaulted her during a party at his Hollywood home. She wanted to offer support to Shapiro, who was victimized months later. Since then, the two women have forged a deep, and unique, bond, and they discuss their friendship on camera in the new series.

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Alcala was nicknamed the “Dating Game Killer” because he was the winning contestant on the ABC prime-time game show of the same name in 1978 during his killing spree. All told, he has been conclusively linked to eight murders, though authorities believe he may have killed up to 130 people.

His campaign of violence ended in 1979 when he was charged with the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, who disappeared on her way to ballet class riding a yellow bicycle. In 1980, the former photographer and typesetter for theLos Angeles Timeswas sentenced to death for the murder.

But his conviction was overturned twice on different technicalities before he was finally sentenced to death for Samsoe’s murder and the 1970s rapes and murders of four Los Angeles-area women:  Georgia Wixted, Jill Parenteau, Charlotte Lamb, and Jill Barcomb.

While on California’s death row, Alcala pleaded guilty in New York State in 2012 to the rapes and murder of Cornelia Crilley and Manhattan socialite Ellen Jane Hover.

Crilley, a TWA flight attendant, was found strangled with her own pantyhose in her apartment on New York City’s Upper East Side on June 24, 1971.

Hover’s remains were found in 1978 on the Rockefeller estate in Westchester County, N.Y.

Rodney Alcala as the penalty phase of the People vs. Alcala trial begins at a Santa Ana, CA courtroom.Ted Soqui/Corbis/Getty

Ted Soqui/Corbis/Getty

Alcala died in prison of natural causes at the age of 77 in 2021.

source: people.com