ROBIN Samsoe was the final victim of serial killer Rodney Alcala, whose crime spree was brought to an end after he was arrested for Robin’s murder.
His murder rampage was dramatized in Netflix’s Woman of the Hour, though the film ends just before he kidnapped Robin.
Tragic Murder
Robin was just 12-years-old when she was murdered by the serial murderer known as The Dating Game Killer.
She was leaving her home in Huntingdon Beach to head to her ballet class on June 20, 1979, when she disappeared.
Tragically, her body was found 12 days later in the Los Angeles foothills and showed signs of a violent encounter.
Her friends told the police that a man had approached them on the beach and had offered to take pictures of them, which was Rodney Alcala’s calling card as a serial killer.
Rodney often lured victims to remote places by posing as a photographer who was adding their picture to his portfolio.
Then, he would kill his victim and keep their picture of his collection.
The police circulated a sketch of the man that Robin’s friends had seen, which was recognized as Rodney by his former parole officer.
A search of his mother, Anna Maria Gutierrez’s, home led to the discovery of a receipt for a storage container in Seattle, which held a pair of earrings belonging to a cold case murder victim named Charlotte Lee Lamb.
This was enough for the police to arrest Rodney in 1979 and the killer was sentenced to death just a year later.
However, the sentence was overturned and he lived out the rest of his days behind bars, before passing away in 2021.
Dating Game Killer
Rodney’s crime spree began in 1968, when he attacked a 16-year-old girl named Morgan Rowan.
Luckily, Morgan was rescued by her friends but Rodney struck again when he attacked an 8-year-old girl named Tali Shapiro just a month later.
Tali was saved when a passerby named Donald Haines spotted her getting into Rodney’s car, allowing the police to locate the killer’s home before he could kill Tali.
She was left in a coma for 32 days, because of the experience, as Rodney continued his crime spree under the name John Berger, sometimes “Burger”, in New York.
He murdered 23-year-old flight attendant Cornelia Crilley, before being jailed for child molestation which he had committed when he attacked Tali.
After his release, he appeared on The Dating Game in 1978, where he earned his serial killer nickname.
On the show, he tried to charm a teacher named Cheryl Bradshaw into picking him as her match but she decided against going on a date with him.
Cheryl felt that his sinister sense of humor, which included references to being “ready” for nighttime, made him seem creepy.
Unbeknownst to her, her intuition had just saved her life.
After Cheryl rejected him, Rodney’s crime spree intensified and he kidnapped a 15-year-old girl named Monique Holt who was hitchhiking by herself.
Monique managed to escape while Rodney was using a gas station bathroom, although he had just hit her in the head with a rock.
She filed a police report, but Rodney’s mother posted his bail which allowed him to go on killing until his arrest in 1979.
Woman of the Hour
Rodney’s horrifying murder spree was dramatized in Netflix’s Woman of the Hour, which is directed by Pitch Perfect’s Anna Kendrick.
Much of the film is focused on Rodney’s appearance on the Dating Game, with Anna starring in the film as Cheryl Bradshaw.
Woman of the Hour made its Netflix debut on October 16, 2024, and is available for streaming.
