'Most prolific' serial killer in US history sentenced to death as police fear he could be behind 130 murders
Police have released more than 100 photographs of unidentified women and girls amid fears they could be the victims of America's worst ever serial killer.
The pictures were taken by Rodney Alcala, who was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the savage murders of a 12-year-old girl and four women.
However, the 66-year-old has admitted killing another 30 women in the 1970s and police believe there could be many more victims.
They have already linked him to the deaths of two Seattle teenagers aged 13 and 17, and a 19-year-old who vanished from the same area, as well as two women in New York and several more in Los Angeles.
The photos were discovered hidden in a storage locker in Seattle, Washington, where Alcala, an amateur photographer, kept his possessions before his arrest.
Although many of the 1,000 pictures were innocent poses in a park or on the beach, some women had stripped off for the camera.
Police believe that Alcala - who is known in the U.S. as the Dating Game Killer because he once appeared on America's version of Blind Date - kept the photographs as sick souvenirs of his victims.
The women in the photos range in age from schoolgirls to women in their 20s and 30s, and are believed to come from across the U.S. Two of the pictures may have been taken after the women were murdered.
Prosecutor Matt Murphy said: 'We'd like to locate the women in these pictures. Did they simply pose for a serial killer or did they become victims of his sadistic, murderous pattern?
'He committed unspeakable acts of horror. He gets off on the infliction of pain on other people. He's an evil monster who knows what he is doing is wrong and doesn't care.'
Detective Claiff Shepard said: 'He's right up somewhere below Hitler and right around Ted Bundy. It is not humane what he does to these victims. It is tortuous.'
Alcala - who defended himself during his trial - preyed on women and girls by offering to take their photographs.
He then raped his victims, strangled them until they were unconscious before reviving them and killing them.
The photographer, who is said to have a genius IQ of 160, often boasted of his winning an episode of the American version of Blind Date.
However, the woman who chose him later cancelled their date because she found him 'too creepy'.
Alcala appeared unconcerned about his fate on Tuesday, when he was given the death sentence for kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, who disappeared after leaving home for ballet class on her bicycle in 1979.
He laughed and talked throughout the trial at Orange County Superior Court, even after also being convicted of murdering four Los Angeles women - Georgia Wixted, 27, Jill Barcomb, 18, Charlotte Lamb, 32, and Jill Parenteau, 21 - between 1977 and 1979.
It took nearly 30 years for the law to catch up with him. He was previously convicted twice of killing Robin, but the verdicts were overturned. An earring that belonged to the little girl was also found with the photo cache.
America's most prolific serial killer is often considered to be Henry Lee Lucas, who was convicted of four murders in the late 1970s although police believe he may have been responsible for more than 200.
After his imprisonment, Lucas confessed to 600 killings although he later claimed he had lied to become famous.
Ted Bundy is believed to have raped and murdered 35 women between 1973 and 1978, although police believe there are many more victims. He was executed in 1989 by electric chair for his last murder in Florida.
[
link to www.dailymail.co.uk]
United States
Canada
