Rodney James Alcala was born on August 23, 1943, in San Antonio, Texas, to Mexican-American parents Raul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez. He was the third of four children. In 1951, his father moved the family to Mexico but abandoned them three years later. Alcala's mother relocated with her children to suburban Los Angeles in 1954, when Rodney was 11.

Described as intelligent and socially capable, Alcala attended several private schools and was part of his high school yearbook committee and track team. At 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper, but his military career ended in 1964 following a psychiatric breakdown. Diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and later linked to other severe personality disorders, he was medically discharged.

After his discharge, Alcala studied fine arts at UCLA and later claimed to have attended NYU under Roman Polanski—though no evidence confirms he met Polanski. Alcala had a reputation for being manipulative, vindictive, and increasingly dangerous toward women. His early offenses included physical assaults and troubling behavior, but law enforcement was slow to connect him to more serious crimes.

Rodney Alcala's violent crimes began with the 1968 abduction and near-fatal assault of eight-year-old Tali Shapiro. A witness saw her being lured into his Hollywood apartment. Police arrived in time to save her, but Alcala had fled. Shapiro spent over a month in a coma and required extensive recovery. Afterward, Alcala fled California, using the alias "John Berger" to enroll at NYU. While living in New York, he murdered Cornelia Crilley in June 1971, a case that remained unsolved until 2011.

In 1971, Alcala was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list and eventually arrested in New Hampshire, where he had been working under another fake name. He was extradited to California but could only be charged with child molestation because Shapiro’s family refused to testify. He was sentenced to three years and paroled in 1974. Two months later, he was re-arrested for assaulting a 13-year-old girl, served two years, and was again released in 1977.

Alcala resumed killing almost immediately. On July 15, 1977, Ellen Hover disappeared after a scheduled meeting with "John Berger." Her remains were discovered the following year. That same year, he murdered Jill Barcomb and Georgia Wixted, both in California. In 1978, he killed Charlotte Lamb and raped other women, including a surviving teen victim, Monique Hoyt. In 1979, he murdered Jill Parenteau and, most notoriously, 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, whose case finally led to his capture.

A sketch based on witness descriptions of Samsoe’s abductor led to Alcala’s arrest in July 1979. He was tried and sentenced to death in 1980, but the conviction was overturned. He was retried in 1986 and convicted again, but that verdict too was overturned in 2001. In preparation for his third trial, DNA from cold cases linked him to the murders of Barcomb, Wixted, Lamb, and Parenteau. Prosecutors combined all five charges for a joint trial.

In 2010, Alcala represented himself in court. He bizarrely cross-examined himself and attempted to argue that the earrings found in his locker belonged to him—not Samsoe. Despite his antics, the jury convicted him on all five counts. He was sentenced to death for a third time in March 2010.

In 2011, Alcala was indicted in New York for the murders of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover. He was extradited, pleaded guilty in 2012, and received an additional 25 years to life. While in prison, he was linked to other unsolved murders through photos and DNA, including the suspected murder of Christine Thornton in Wyoming. Alcala was also named a suspect in additional cold cases in multiple states.

Alcala died on July 24, 2021, at the age of 77 while on death row in California. The exact number of his victims remains unknown. He left behind over 1,000 photographs, some of which may depict additional victims. Many remain unidentified.