“Stella Sands true-crime THE DATING GAME KILLER recounts in detail the horrific torture-murders of Rodney James Alcala, one of our nation’s most coldblooded serial killers. Ms. Sands presents the crimes and evidence with professional skill and objectivity, using the actual prosecutors and courtroom testimony to “make the case.” But it is the real life voices of the victims’ many family members and their untold story [until now] of how they were forced to experience Justice delayed and Justice denied that truly chills us to the bone. A must read!” —Steve Hodel, New York Times bestselling true-crime author, Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder, Detective Supervisor, LAPD Hollywood Homicide Division (ret.)
He appeared to be a desirable bachelor.
In 1978, Rodney Alcala was a contestant on the “The Dating Game,” one of America’s most popular television shows at the time. Handsome, successful, and romantic, he was embraced by the audience—and chosen as the winner by the beautiful bachelorette. To viewers across the country, Rodney seemed like the answer to every woman’s dreams. Until they learned the truth about his once and future crimes...
Only his victims knew what kind of man he really was…
Ten years before his TV appearance, Rodney was charged with the sexual assault and attempted murder of an eight-year-old girl. In the decades that followed, he would be accused of seven murders—and, as new DNA evidence continues to be uncovered, the list may grow. The case is so disturbing that it’s been documented in several news outlets, from People magazine and USA Today to 48 Hours Mystery and Dr. Phil. This is the shocking true story about the dark and twisted man known as THE DATING GAME KILLER.
About the Author
Stella Sands is Executive Editor of Kids Discover, an award-winning magazine with over 400,000 subscribers. She is the author of many crime books, including The Good Son, Murder at Yale, Behind the Mask, and Baby-faced Butchers, as well as other works, including Odyssea and Natural Disasters.
Charles Constant is an actor whose professional storytelling career began at the age of thirteen, when he became an Actors' Equity Association apprentice. An accomplished audiobook narrator, he has recorded many popular titles, including How to Win at the Sport of Business by Mark Cuban.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Dating Game Killer
PART IChapter OneNineteen sixty-eight was one hell of a year.Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.Nearly seventeen thousand U.S. armed forces died fighting in the Vietnam War.In the face of such real-life violence, dark currents began to flow through American culture. The horror movie Rosemary's Baby, directed by Roman Polanski, was a surprise success in Hollywood--both with critics and at the box office. It was about a group of Satanists who trick a young newlywed into carrying and giving birth to the devil's spawn. (In a disturbing real-life twist the following year, the sociopathic cult leader Charles Manson ordered the brutal slaying of Polanski's pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, and four others in the Los Angeles hills. Charles "Tex" Watson, who was the Manson Family disciple in charge of committing the murders, told one of the victims, "I'm the devil, and I'm here to do the devil's business.")As images of carpet bombings and body bags from Vietnam dominated the airwaves, young Americans increasingly began to challenge authority and "the Man." As cars cruised up and down Hollywood Boulevard and the Sunset Strip, radios blared edgier, angrier rock and roll: "Masters of War" by Bob Dylan, "What's Going On?" by Marvin Gaye,"Eve of Destruction," by Barry McGuire. Musicians from bands like the Doors, the Byrds, Cream, and the Animals played the Whiskey-a-Go-Go on the Sunset Strip--and partied with abandon at the Chateau Marmont Hotel up the street. Los Angeles became a mecca for the most hedonistic aspects of this emerging counterculture: psychedelic drug use, sexual freedom and experimentation, smoking grass.Amidst all this turmoil and social upheaval in 1968, an event occurred that is not well documented by the era's historians: "Tali S.," age eight, was abducted on her way to school.Copyright © 2011 by Stella Sands.
