Korean Job Discussion Forums

[madoka]

How the hell do you sentence a guy who kidnaps and rapes a 8 year old to only one year in prison!?!?!!? I wonder how the parole board feels about letting out a monster who goes on to kill so many innocent women.

http://www.sgvtribune.com/rss/ci_16172896

Rodney Alcala seemed charming and bright, and he used those traits to his advantage.

He managed to convince women and girls to pose for pictures. Alcala also appeared on television's "Dating Game," where a young woman picked him, naturally, over the other bachelors to be her date.

He boasted a near-genius level IQ of 135, grew up in a middle class home in Monterey Park, went to Cantwell High School in Montebello and earned a bachelor's degree from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 1968.

But Alcala, now 67, is also a child molester, rapist and serial killer.

Authorities suspect he left a trail of bodies in his wake.

Alcala was sentenced in March to death for five murders in the 1970s. His victims were Robin Samsoe, 12, of Huntington Beach; Jill Barcomb, 18, of New York; Georgia Wixted, 27, of Malibu; Charlotte Lamb, 32, of Santa Monica; and Jill Parenteau, 21, of Burbank. Officials fear he may have killed others as well.

The one-time "Dating Game" contestant was featured on television again Saturday night, this time on the season premier of NBC's "48 Hours Mystery."

Titled "The Killing Game," its program was the final report done by correspondent Harold Dow, who died last month. According to the show's promotional piece, Dow had been working for more than a year on Alcala's story.

Orange County Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy prosecuted Alcala in his third trial. Murphy likened Alcala to another serial killer, Ted Bundy.
"He's a lot like Ted Bundy, a good-looking guy who could be engaging. He could be very charming if it suits him or he gets something," Murphy said.

Murphy said there was nothing in Alcala's background that could explain what caused him to become a serial killer.

"Nobody was mean to him. He wasn't abused. He had food. There was nothing wrong in that house. He didn't want for anything," Murphy said.

"The answer is that he has no soul. He was born without a soul."

Alcala's prey included children.

Court records show he was convicted in 1972 of child molestation stemming from the Sept. 25, 1968 assault of an 8-year-old girl. Tali S. was walking to school in Hollywood when Alcala offered her a ride and said he knew her parents.

He told the girl he would take her to school but instead drove her to a house. A witness followed them and called police.

The responding officer saw a naked Alcala peering out the front window. When he knocked on the door, Alcala told the officer to wait and that he would be right back. When he didn't return, the officer kicked in the door. He found Tali. S lying on the floor naked. There was a steel bar on her neck and she had sustained a head wound and other injuries.

Alcala escaped and went on the run. He was arrested in New Hampshire under the name John Berger three years later.

He received a sentence of one year to life, according to Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Gina Satriano, who with Murphy prosecuted Alcala at his third trial.

"That's the way a lot cases were sentenced back then. The parole board had the discretion to release him after he served his minimum of one year," she said.

Alcala was paroled in August 1974.

Dennis McNaught said he was Alcala's parole agent for a year at the most. Alcala violated parole when he picked up a 13-year-old girl in Huntington Beach and took her to Bolsa Chica State Beach. A ranger who saw the smoke from marijuana they were smoking arrested both, according to McNaught.

He was surprised when he met the girl.

"I expected to see a very voluptous girl. When I met her she looked too young for her age. And he gave me this long song and dance, that he apparently met her in a restaurant," McNaught said.

Alcala was convicted twice for the June 20, 1979, murder of Samsoe, whose remains were found in a ravine in the Angeles National Forest above Sierra Madre. Those convictions were overturned on appeal.

McNaught said the defense called him as a character witness in the second trial.

He said the defense asked if Alcala was a nice guy and if he gave him any trouble.

"Yeah he was a nice guy. Gave me any trouble? No. But they never asked me if he was a killer," McNaught said.

In 1979, Huntington Beach police circulated a composite of the man seen taking photos of Samsoe on the day she disappeared. McNaught recognized his former charge and called police.

He thinks Alcala is a sociopath.

"Look at what he's done ... I'm glad with DNA today they charged him with the other (murders)."

By the time of Alcala's third trial, DNA, blood and other evidence tied him to the other four murders in Los Angeles County.

Blood found at the apartment where Parenteau was killed matched Alcala's rare blood type, Satriano said. Murphy said the three other cases had DNA.

The cases were consolidated with the Samsoe case. Alcala was tried again in an Orange County courtroom and chose to be his own attorney.

He was convicted of the murders on Feb. 25, and the jury also found true special-circumstance allegations of rape, torture and kidnapping. Alcala was sentenced to death in March and is now on death row.

[Big_Bird]

Isn't this old news? He was let out on parole back in the seventies. It's my understanding that, in the US at that time, there was a pervasive Christian ethic among those making decisions on parole that offenders should be forgiven and given a second chance. A very naive sentiment when it somes to violent sexual offenders... I understand that the the guy that abducted Jaycee Dugard benefitted from this same attitude.

Anyway, the Christians in authority now seem to be of the very right-wing kind...at least from outside looking in...and things have gone to the other extreme.

[guava]

Maybe his attorney employed the Twinkie Defense...

During Supreme Court arguments in United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez in 2006, Justice Scalia referred to the Twinkie defense in discussion of a defendant's right to counsel of choice:
"If I am a defendant, I don't want a competent lawyer. I want a lawyer who's going to get me off. I want a lawyer who will invent the Twinkie Defense ... I would not consider the Twinkie Defense an invention of a competent lawyer ... but I want a lawyer who's going to win for me."

[rollo]

Big bird you are partially right about the Christians in these cases, but most of these early releases of these types were by those on the left. The popular flavor of the week was that these people could be changed through therapy. There were many programs set up to save these predators. The problem of course the predator saw the programs as not a way to change( they saw nothing wrong with their behavior) but as a way to game the system. But yeah there were a lot of these misguided early relases in the 1970's many which ended in tradgedy. Well meaning liberals with out experience or training deciding it is not the poor molester fault it is societies.

[bucheon bum]

[Steelrails]