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brother is a retired Army general. Alcala per- Avenue and Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach. Alcala sat DEATH ROW formed well in Catholic schools and joined the on the curb with her and talked awhile before offering to drive Army after his high school graduation in 1961. her to school. After his discharge in 1964, he eaned a bachelor's She declined at first. then accepted his offer. degree in fiim at UCLA. "He was always on the honor roll," But Alcala didn't stop at her school. Instead, he told her he German told the court. wanted to check out an apartment nearby. When she told him 3ut Goethals painted a different picture of AIcala, whom he She wanted out of the car, he told her to be quiet. characterized as a vile man with no social conscience. Alcala drove to the cliffs area off Pacific Coast Highway in In 1963, Alcala had gone absent withoui leave from the Huntington Beach, near the area where Robin Samsoe would Army. He surned up at his mother's home, where he exposed meet up with him five years later. There he forced Julie to himself to his youngest sister, who became hysterical. Alcala smoke marijuana with him, she testified. 1old the court he wasn't sure whether he. When she tried to leave, he grabbed her wanted to have sex with his sister at the Alcala is a by the leg. Alcala put his arm around her time. and kissed-her forcefully. There apparently was no single. pivotal "sexual carnivore ... Park rangers discovered the pair then moment or incident that drove Alcala to a and arrested them for smoking pot. The life of crime.That issue was never brought arrest sent Alcala back to prison for a three- up at the trials. and the prey is our year stint for violating parole. It was a At the second penalty phase of trial, familiar pattern for him. Alcala's character witnesses included children, the most A month after his June 1977 release. guards from San Quentin. who said he gave Aicala was questioned by New York police them no trouble. innocent members in the disappearance of a 24-year-old Aicala also did graduate work in photog- woman. Her body was found nearly a year raphy at New York University, but didn'1 of our society." Iater in a grave near the Rockefelier estate finish before another murder turmed up and in Tarrytown, N.Y. he was named a suspect. The woman's friends told police she was --Tom Goethals, seeing a photographer named John Burger, a name Alcala allegedly gave authorities It wasn't the first time Alcala had been Deputy District Attorney when he was arrested in 1971 in connection in trouble with the law, and it wouldn't be with the Hollywood attack. The case was the iast. One of his earliest encounters with dropped for lack of evidence. authorities was one of the most telling Alcala also was questioned in connec- about his perveried urges, prosecutors said. tion with the June 14,1979,slaying of a 21 In 1968, Tali Shapiro was walking io year-old Burbank woman who was stran- school along Sunset Boulevard in Holly- gled in her apartment. Authorities said wood when Alcala pulled up. He lured her Alcala met the woman at a bar and danced into his car by claiming to be a friend of Tali's parents. with her. but she rejected his advances. She ended up at a Hollywood home and was looking at a Blood stains at the scene matched Alcala's to a degree that poster he wanted her to see when everything went black. would eliminate 90 percent of all other humans. A suspicious bystander had seen Alcala pick the girl up on That case also was dropped because,of the unreliability of the street and followed them to the house before calling police. the prosecution's key witness, a jailhouse informant.. When officers arrived, Alcala, who was nude, parted a curtain Then Robin Samsoe disappeared and the cycle began again and peered out. Instead of opening the door, he backed away for Alcala. Only this time it was for good. and disappeared. There was little sympathy for this articulate. audacious Police kicked in the front door. Tali was on the kitchen killer. Not from the judge, who called his claims of innocence floor, lying in a pool of blood. The girl had a round, metal bar "hogwash," and not from Robin's mother, who called him across her neck that Alcala apparently had used to restrain her. ruthless. She eventuaily recovered, but Alcala had disappeared. "When he dies, justice will be done," Marianne Frazier He was arrested three years later after a Concord, N.H., sobbed after the hollow victory of his second conviction. *"He postal employee recognized his picture on an FBI wanted begged for his life, but I'm sure my daughter did too. He poster. didn't spare her. There's no good reason to spare him. Alcala pleaded guilty to the attack in 1972 and was given "It's time to die." an indeterminate sentence. He was paroled two years later. But he didn't stay out of trouble for long. Janet Zimmerman is currently a reponer with the San Bemardino (Calif.) Two months after his release, Alcala found 13-year-old Sun. In 1990, she was granted an interview with Aicala at San Quentin Julie Johnson waiting to catch a school bus near Warner Prison, when she was a reporter with the Orange Coast Daily Pilot in Costa Mesa, Calif. 64 POLICE OCTOBeR 1993