Rodney Alcala, Southern California Serial Killer, Gets 25 Years to Life for New York Slayings

Serial killer Rodney Alcala, who was sentenced to death in an Orange County courtroom in 2010, was sentenced today to 25 years to life for two murders in New York during the 1970s. Alcala pleaded guilty in the Big Apple last month, explaining to the judge that would allow him to be returned to California's Death Row, where he is working up an appeal to his conviction for killing a Huntington Beach 12-year-old and four young Los Angeles County women, also in the 1970s.

It is the 69-year-old's third appeal of the California convictions, having twice before won appeals on technicalities after being found guilty in previous trials.

Rodney Alcala, Serial Killer Convicted in Orange County, Pleads Guilty to 2 Murders in New York

The two New York women, airline stewardess Cornelia Crilley and student Ellen Hover, were both 23. Alcala has been in custody since July 1979, when he was arrested for the June 20, 1979, kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe of Huntington Beach.
Click here for Christine Pelisek's excellent deconstruction of the Rodney Alcala case

Besides those three and the four LA County women, Alcala may have at least one other victim: an aspiring model who was raped and murdered in the Bay Area.

Click here for OC Weekly's Rodney Alcala archives

The Associated Press reported the judge fought back tears as he sentenced Alcala in New York.

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