Public reacts to photos as police seek info

The public has responded en masse to serial killer Rodney James Alcala’s stash of photographs, which officials released in hopes of finding other victims.

The Huntington Beach Police Department has received an outpouring of calls from the public in response to more than 100 photographs of women and children Alcala photographed over the years.

“We’re getting a lot of information coming in from the public,” said Lt. Russell Reinhart, a spokesman for the department.

“If we can solve a murder, the family members of the victims have a right to know,” Orange County prosecutor Matt Murphy said.

Reinhart said they have received several leads, but none have been confirmed.

Alcala, 66, was sentenced to death March 9 for the murder and kidnapping of 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl Robin Samsoe in 1979 and the murder of four Los Angeles women, also in the 1970s.

He has been convicted and sentenced to death twice before for Robin’s death, but twice the convictions were overturned on appeal.

It wasn’t until after the second conviction was overturned that officials uncovered DNA evidence linking Alcala to the Los Angeles murders.

The photographs were found in a Seattle storage locker that Alcala was trying to hide from authorities.

The pictures show different women, as well as girls and boys. Some of the subjects were apparently posing, while others appear unsuspecting that they are being photographed. Some of the women appear to be nude, while others are clothed.

Anyone with information should contact Sgt. Aaron Smith at (714) 536-5947 or Orange County Supervising Dist. Atty. Investigator Ed Berakovich at (714) 347-8492.

To look through all the pictures, click here.