'Dating Game' Killer Found Guilty of Murdering 2 New York Girls
Rodney Alcala, a convicted killer who once became the winning bachelor on "The Dating Game," has been sentenced to two additional 25 year prison sentences.
Alcala appeared on the "Dating Game" after serving a 34-month sentence for the 1968 rape of an 8-year-old girl. He was later convicted of strangling four women and a 12-year-old girl in California between 1977 and 1979.
On Monday, Alcala was sentenced to two additional, 25-year sentences after pleading guilty to the murder of two, 23-year-old girls in New York.
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"This kind of case, I have never experienced, and I hope to never again," Judge Bonnie Wittner said Monday in a Manhattan Criminal Court, according to CNN.
Family members to Cornelia Crilley, who was found raped and strangled in her Upper East side apartment on June 1971, and Ellen Hover, whose body was found in Westchester County in 1977, packed the court room.
"To think that smile of hers, that you were the last to see it," Katie Stigell, a sister to one of the victims, said.
Hover's sister, Charlotte Rosenberg, said that her sister was someone who "chose to see the good in everyone she met because she had such a huge and open heart."
"She was a talented painter and pianist and dreamed of going to medical school," Rosenberg said of her sister.
Alcala confessed to the murder of both girls in December of last year. He is already on death row following the four previous convictions.
Alcala appeared on and won an episode of "The Dating Game" in 1978. He was described as a photographer with a penchant for outdoor activities.
"Bachelor No. 1 is a successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the dark room at the age of 13, fully developed," host Jim Lange said during the show. "Between takes you might find him skydiving or motor-cycling. Please welcome Rodney Alcala."
Photographs he took were later posted publicly in hopes of identifying the subjects in the photos.
