Rodney James Alcala As An American Convicted Rapist And Serial Murder

Abstract

Serial killers in United States are responsible for about 800 murders per year. For the public are scary and fascinating at the same time, but for the psychology serial killers are unlimited resources for study’s. The researches were trying for years to determine what makes a person a serial killer? The bigger question was is it biological or other factors that create a killer. Today scientists agreed that is not only one factor that plays a role in development in a serial killer. The studies shows that all factors and circumstances need to lay in perfect match, then we have a serial killer. Psychological illness, childhood trauma , sexual abuse in early age, absent father, dominated mother, alcohol abuse…even if all those are present that don’t mean the person will became a serial killer usually has some brain anomaly or malfunction of some areas of the brain. Rodney Alcala is one of America’s worst serial killers. He raped, beat and killed young girls, boys and women. What made him a killer? A mental illness, broken home, combination of all or he is just born evil?

Over the years, scientists have studied serial killers and tried to explain the causes that originate it. Despite the studies about the types of serial killers, the dynamics and psychological mechanisms which lead a person to became a serial killer. Mental illnesses have been found in some of the U.S.’s most loathsome killers throughout history, but it’s important to note that most people suffering from these illnesses do not commit any violent offenses. These instances of mental disorders represent only a small fraction of people diagnosed and the majority of people afflicted do not engage in criminal activity, especially if given proper treatment and social support. One of the most common mental illness in serial killers is antisocial personality disorder. Ted Bundy- serial killer and necrophile, confessed to 30 murders in the 1970s.

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John Wayne Gacy, known as the “Killer Clown,” raped and killed 33 boys and young men in the 1970s. Charles Manson, leader of the “Manson Family” cult and mastermind behind the 1969 murders at the home of Sharon Tate, Rodney Alcala also known as “Dating Game Killer” is a serial rapist and serial killer, they all were diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. People with antisocial personality disorder have: aggression, antisocial behavior, deceitfulness, hostility, impulsivity, irresponsibility, irritability, lack of restraint, manipulativeness, or risk taking behaviors.They also: Disregard for right and wrong.Persistent lying or deceit to exploit others.Being callous, cynical and disrespectful of others.Using charm or wit to manipulate others for personal gain or personal pleasure. Ted Bundy, an infamous sociopath, committed crimes ranging from rape and homicide to burglary and sexual acts on corpses.Born to an unwed mother, Ted Bundy lacked positive male role models. Intelligent, handsome and superficially charming, he graduated from college and won admission to law school. One of the most common and disturbing fac- tors found in many serial killers’ histories is their unusual or unnatural relationships with their mothers, which often included sexual and sadistic elements. Gary Ridgeway stated that his mother ‘‘dressed like a whore’’ when she went out (Court TV’s crime library, n.d.). Other historical factors common in serial killers are abuse, trauma, insecure attachment, loss or abandonment of a parent or caretaker, antisocial behavior, head injury, and low arousal levels. John Wayne Gacy, Gary Ridgeway, and Ed Gein were all physically and verbally abused by a parent and most likely endured some type of trauma. The concept of the psychopathic personality however originated in the early nineteenth century with the research of J. C. Prichard, who formulated the notion of “moral insanity” to refer to a number of mental deficiencies that led to violent or undesired behaviors.

According to Prichard’s findings “certain individuals lacked the “natural feelings” of respect and responsibility and therefore lacked the ability to restrain themselves from socially unacceptable behavior” (Genter, 2010). In looking at serial killers in general, they, as a group can be broken into two basic groups—the psychotics—those who are genuinely insane and are the minority among serial killers. They often hear voices or see visions and have difficulty perceiving reality from fiction and murder is a symptom of their illness (Wittington-Egan, 2008). There is currently little known about what actually causes psychopathology and antisocial personality disorder. There has been however, a lot of attention paid to possible biological, social, psychological and environmental factors that may lead to psychopathy, but there are no definitive results to link their causation (Ogloff, 2006). Personality disorders have been found to be central in determining violent recidivism in an offender. With a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, it is found that reconviction rates for attempted or completed murder, manslaughter, assault, robbery or rape were 3.7 times higher for people with this diagnosis than those without. Psychopthy has also been found to have strong correlation to violent recidivism (Gilbert & Daffern, 2011). The General Aggression Model, GAM, draws on current theoretical approaches such as cognitive neoassociation and social learning and unifies them. The model then argues that aggressive acts rarely happen without the convergence of multiple sudden situational factors and predisposing personal characteristics and identifies the various constructs that operate in the current situation to initiate the aggression alongside those who exert an influence over a longer period of time (Gilbert & Daffern, 2011). There have been two kinds of aggression-related schematic content proposed based on the GAM. The first, aggressive behavioral scripts, are acquired through observation of others, and serve to define situations and guide behavior. The process of using, and positive reinforcement of the aggressive scripts cause them to become firmly established as structures and as a consequence they become well-rehearsed and highly accessible to the individual. The second kind of schematic structure influencing aggression is the normative beliefs. These consist of cognitions about the perceived appropriateness of the behavior. These beliefs serve to guide the evaluation of social behavior and help to search out appropriate behavioral scripts in a given situation and filtering out aggression. The GAM was developed in order help explain the differences in aggressiveness and then may help to clarify the relationship between personality disorders and violence (Gilbert & Daffern, 2011). The FBI estimates that at any given time there is between 200 and 500 serial killers at large and they kill 3,500 people a year. Why are people so fascinated by serial killers? A theory posed by Robert I. Simon, is that he has a hunch that people are fascinated by serial killers because of their perceived resemblance to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Most serial killers tend to appear normal on the outside; they can be your neighbor, may hold down a job and pay taxes. From this false outward appearance of “Dr. Jekyll,” comes the dark side of humanity in the form of Mr. Hyde, the murderer (Simon, 2000).

An example of this outward normalcy that people talk about when it comes to serial killers was John Wayne Gacy. He was a building construction contractor, twice married and an active member in the community and joined the Jolly Joker Club where he created the character, Pogo the clown. Gacy himself even once said “A clown can get away with murder,” and he did so, by raping, sodomizing, torturing and strangling thirty- three young men over the course of ten years (Simon, 2000). Empathy is essential in development of relationships. Psychopaths may be able to sense what someone is thinking or feeling, but they do so in order to use it to their advantage. They do not care whether their actions are causing pain or harm to the other person—they are only interested in getting what they want from their victim and will not think twice about taking the other person’s life in order to get what they want or feel they deserve from them. Temporarily suspending empathy for another is essential for someone to intentionally harm others and is usually accomplished by dehumanization and devaluating the other person (Simon, 2000). The abusive and neglectful experiences that the serial killer experienced while growing up contributes to their need to control their victim and their sadistic association between sex and violence. The serial killer has not reached emotional maturity and cannot deal with violent and sadistic fantasies in an appropriate way. “Through the course of his formative psychosexual development, the individual comes to be sexually gratified by deviant means,” states Simon (p. 6).

Rodney Alcala

Rodney Alcala also known as “Dating Game Killer” is a serial rapist and serial killer, who terrorized California from 1977 to 1979. He was sentenced to death in 2010 for committing 7 murders, the investigators believe Alcala is responsible for more murders. Rodney James Alcala is born August 23,1943, he got the nick name “Dating Game Killer” for his appearance in American dating TV show. He was charming, handsome with very nice manners- real gentleman, but deep inside was a monster. Investigators compared him to Ted Buddy, as Buddy Alcala liked to torcher his victims, rape them and strangle them to death. During the investigation the autorotate found hundreds of photos of young girls and boys in Alcala’s possession, they also believe the number of his victims is a lot larger. Alcala’s first victim was 8 years old Tali Shapiro, she was raped and beaten with a steel bar, but miraculously she survived. Alcala left the state and joined NYU film school, he also worked at New Hampshire arts camp for children using a fake name -John Berger. A 23 year-old Cornelia Michel Crilley, was found raped and strangled in her Manhattan apartment. On June 20, 1979, Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl disappeared after she left the beach to go to ballet class. Her remains were found 12 days later in Los Angeles . Robin’s friend told police that a man had approached them on the beach, asking to take their pictures. Investigators got a sketch of the man, and Alcala's parole officer recognized him. After search of Alcala’s house the detectives found pictures and Samsoe’s earrings. Alcala was arrested and churched for Samsoe’s murder, but the verdict was overturned due not proper presentation of Alcala’s previous sex crimes. With DNA coming more in use the police linked Alcala to other four murders form cold cases. Jill Barcomb, 18 yers-old found raped and killed in Los Angeles , Charlotte Lamb, 31 years old , raped, strangled, and left in the laundry room of an El Segundo, and Jill Parenteau, 21years old, killed in her Burbank apartment. All of the body’s were found staged positions- that suggest Alcala was an organized killer, he also was collecting trophies such as earnings from his victims. In 2003, prosecutors requested to combine Samsoe charges with those of the four newly-discovered victims. California Supreme Court allowed the charges to be combine and in 2006 third trial begin. In this trial Alcala acted as his own attorney, he was asking himself questions and answered to them with different voice. Witnesses on the trial stated that he was acting very bizarre. Currently Alcala is on death row in San Quentin State prison.

What make Rodney Alcala a murder? He was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala-Buquor in San Antonio, Texas. His father abandoned him when he was very young. The psychology’s believe he had Antisocial Personality Disorder, which made him feel unwanted, untrusting and with difficulty to create relationships with others. Because he can’t connect with others , he feel he can violate their rights. The time spent in the military from 1960 to 1964 made him more organized and precise , but at the same time the discharge made him feel unwanted again. He was discharged by the medical unit, who described him as “Nervous breakdown” and was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. After the army Alcala when to UCLA School of Fine Arts in New York. When Alcala appears in the TV dating show his partner from the show rejected him publicly, that brought back the feelings of anger and pain and feeling unwanted. For him killing is a final act, but most satisfaction was the process of killing and full control over the victims. Alcala was strangled his victims, let them come around and strangle them again, the prosecutor stated that Alcala was playing with his victims. All that process gives him power and god feeling – he hold his victims life in his hands. Lack of remorse is in coronation with antisocial personality disorder. In deference with most serial killers Alcala didn’t had specific type victim, he was killing young girls, boys and middle age women. Some sources claimed that the number of his victims is over 130.

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